CO1301 - Games Concepts Week 24 Preparation for next year

1. CO1301 - Games ConceptsWeek 24Preparation for next year • Gareth Bellaby

2. Advice • Jobs are available. • Industry recruits the best. • The course meets the requirements of industry. • The course is a good indication of your suitability as a programmer for the games industry. • If you have less than 50% in this final assignment I would strongly suggest moving onto another degree. • Alternative degrees: Multimedia, Games Design.

3. Preparation • You do not have an exam for this module. • It is a fact that those people who do work over the summer period in preparation for the second year will do better. • You need to keep C++ and programming fresh in your mind. • The more preparation you do the better your learning experience. • You should be seeking to extend your understanding of games development.

4. The Second Year • Students report that there is a big jump between the first year and the second year. • You will forget things if you do not practice. • You cannot afford to wait until September.

5. Summer break • You are expected to work over the summer break. • I have prepared summer work for you. This work goes through various programming concepts using both the console window and the TL-Engine. • At the top of the Games Concepts module page. • "Summer2008.zip" • It will be updated over the summer so be prepared to check it again.

6. Summer break • Ensure that you have a copy of Visual Studio (preferably Visual Studio 2010). • Ensure that you have the latest TL-Engine. • Ensure that you have the DirectX SDK.

7. Graphics • Prepare for the graphics module. • The graphics you are doing is: • DirectX 9 • Using shaders (the "programmable pipeline"). • Programming the graphics card using vertex shaders and pixel shaders.

8. Graphics • Use Laurent's notes for CO2408: Computer Graphics. • Recommended text: • Frank Luna, Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c: A Shader Approach • Frank Luna, Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10 (latest version)

9. Extending your knowledge • Program! The more you do the better you will become. • Have a look at the some of the Indie games. These are often of a type that you can implement in the TL-Engine. • Demos can be found on • Steam • Play This Thing. http://playthisthing.com/ • Impulse • http://www.moonpod.com/ • http://pocketwatchgames.com/ • http://www.rampantgames.com/

10. Some suggestions • Start with something small. • Break your project down into small chunks. • It is surprisingly easy to extend a small program into something much, much larger. It is more efficient approach. • Look at other games. Simply implement your own version of the game, or part of it. • I would suggest implementing at least one small game.

11. Some suggestions • Build a basic space invaders game. • Use placeholder graphics. • Suggestions: • Harvest - Massive Encounter • Empires and Dungeons • Hinterland • Zork • Tower Defence

12. Extending your knowledge • Game Programming Gems series • AI Game Programming Wisdom series • GPU Gems series • Shader X series • GDC presentations

13. Microsoft • DirectX home - lots of presentations • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/directx/default.aspx • MSDN documentation

14. NVidia • NVidia developer site • GPU Gems online versions • Download their SDK - samples, videos, tutorials: • FX Composer (includes Mental Mill). A tool for shaders. • NVIDIA Shader Library has more shaders • TransmogrifyingTextures: free high-res texture maps • NVIDIA Shader Library • You will use HLSL shaders on this course.

15. ATI • ATI developer site. Need to register • RenderMonkey • Samples: • http://developer.amd.com/samples/Pages/default.aspx • Tools: • http://developer.amd.com/GPU/Pages/default.aspx • Some articles from the Shader X series can be found here: • http://developer.amd.com/documentation/reading/Pages/default.aspx

16. Game logic and mechanics • Reinforce your knowledge. • Look at the second year material- CO2301: Games Development 1. • Go through books such as van Verth & Bishop, Essential Mathematics For Games & Interactive Applications • Steve Rabin, Introduction to Game Development. • Wendy Stahler, Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers

17. C++ • It is apparent that you need to look at move advanced c++ material. • I'll make the module notes from Advanced C++ available. • Do the summer work. • Read around the subject.

18. C++ • Stanley B Lippman, Josee Lajoie, Barbara E Moo, (2005), C++ Primer, 4th Ed, Addison Wesley. ISBN-13: 978-0201721485 • Bradley L Jones, Jesse Liberty, (2005), Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, Sams. ISBN-13: 978-0672327117 • Francis Glassborow, (2006), You Can Program in C++, John Wiley and Sons. ISBN-13: 978-0470014684 • Harvey Deitel, Paul Deitel, (2007), C++ How to Program, 6 edition, Prentice Hall. ISBN-13: 978-0136152507 • Walter Savitch, (2008), Problem Solving with C++, 7th edition, Pearson Education, ISBN-13: 978-0321549402 • Walter Savitch, (2007), Absolute C++, 3rd edition, Pearson Education. ISBN-13: 978-0321494382.

19. C++ for games • Advanced - but worth looking at. • Brownlow, Martin, Game Programming Golden Rules (2004), Charles River Media, ISBN-10: 1584503068, ISBN-13: 978-1584503064. • Noel Llopis, (2003), C++ for Game Programmers, Charles River Media. ISBN-13: 978-1584502272

20. Bjarne Stroustrup • Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language, (1997 or 2000), Third Edition or Special Edition, Addison Wesley. ISBN-13: 978-0201889543 • Bjarne Stroustrup, (1994), The Design and Evolution of C++, Addison Wesley. ISBN-13: 978-0201543308. • His web site is here: http://www.research.att.com/~bs/C++.html • I would strongly recommend looking at his material.