Question

I’m a pretty competent programmer, finishing my second year in university.
I am well versed in C and Java, and know a little Python as well.

However I’ve always wanted to create games. I don’t know if thats the job I will end up having, but its definitely a hobby I want to be able to pursue.

When i look at the task of creating a 3d game (a non-trivial one), I believe I could create the ‘engine’ for the game. That is, the underlying code which controls the function of the game.

However, I have no idea how to create the graphics.

So my question to the community is what would be an appropriate place to start learning this?

Are there any good tutorials or sites to visit which assume I’m working with little previous knowledge?

Also, suggestions for perhaps a quicker method of creating the graphics would be appreciated. For example, i understand opengl has quite the learning curve (correct me if I’m wrong), and as a hobbyist, I’d like to see results sooner rather then later. However if there is a really thorough opengl tutorial, then that would be great too.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you want to learn OpenGL, go straight to the source:

http://www.opengl.org/documentation/red_book/

Decide what you want in your engine, and a quick search in the red book will tell you what you need to do and how to do it. It’s an amazing reference that EVERY OpenGL programmer should have.

And if you don’t want to buy it, they have older (but still useful!) versions on the web (at the link I posted.)

I actually have two copies of it because (when I was doing OpenGL) I used it that much I needed at work and home.