Question

I’m planning on learning 3d game development for the iphone using a 3d engine, but because of lack of tutorials for the iphone I was planning on using C++ game tutorials and making the necessary changes.

The problem is that I’ve had limited success when searching for things such as ‘c++ 3d fps tutorial ‘ I dont really get anything useful.

Are there any 3d c++ tutorials you can recommend?

Answer 1

There are no tutorials on writing a MS Word killer either.

That’s because tutorials are for explaining specifics. There are tutorials for “how to implement bump-mapping in your game”, but not for “how to make a complete AAA game from scratch”.

If you feel you need a tutorial for that kind of thing, you’re not ready to make it.

All programming is about splitting up complex tasks into tiny simple ones. You need to do the same.

Instead of wondering “how do I write a FPS game on iPhone”, you need to ask:

• how do I write any app at all
• how do I initialize and use OpenGL on iPhone in the first place
• how do I do 3D rendering in general (not API specific, but how does the math work, how does it work, what do I need to do)

…

and so on. There are a million steps on the way that can be solved individually. And at the end of the road, you’ll have your game.

But there is no tutorial in how to make a FPS game on iPhone for the same reason that there are no tutorials in “how to make a fighter jet” or “how to achieve world peace”. People who need to tutorials for it won’t be able to do it, and a tutorial would be so big and complex, it’d be pointless.

You’ll have to learn the hard way: by picking up a book on 3D graphics, learning how to program the iPhone, learning how to use OpenGL, learning how to do everything along the way. By looking up resources explaining that speciifc problem, rather than simply reading the next paragraph of your uber-tutorial.