Thread: Game Engine, please guide me!

Hello.

I'm thinking about making a game engine, for the experience, knowledge of "what lies under the hood" and to use for game development later on.
Now I wanted to use OpenGL, 'cause I wanted cross-platform, but then I got told that it was C, and that was a big no no to me xP
So I decided to go with DirectX, DirectX 9 more specificly, and would like to be pointed to some nice tutorials, references, anything you think will help me
Thanks in advance!

Never noticed that topic xD
Anyways, I can use it with OpenGL... That doesn't sound promising at all!
If OpenGL is in C, doesn't it have to remove some features included in C++ ?

Write Games, Not Engines

Further Reading...

I highly recommend learning game engines top-down, not bottom-up.

Originally Posted by Akkernight

Never noticed that topic xD
Anyways, I can use it with OpenGL... That doesn't sound promising at all!
If OpenGL is in C, doesn't it have to remove some features included in C++ ?

No, C++ doesn't include any features that would improve OpenGL aside from aesthetics. There are C++ wrappers for OpenGL and pretty much every other C library however.

Originally Posted by Akkernight

Now I wanted to use OpenGL, 'cause I wanted cross-platform, but then I got told that it was C, and that was a big no no to me

OpenGL is an API, not a language...if you go to the official openGL forum, you will notice most of the people there are using C++. Most of the reference material is in C tho.

If you use DirectX:
1) more people will probably be willing to try it but
2) there will be more alternatives (wow! a C++ DirectX game engine?!) for them to choose between and just ignore yours.

I would investigate that last one, because you could be doing a near unique thing by using OpenGL (or does that quake guy have a public engine?)

Originally Posted by MK27

that quake guy

Referring to John Carmack in such a manner is blasphemous.

To answer the question, I believe the source for Quake 1-3 is under GPL these days.

I have been using HGE, but I really want to make a new engine
I like DirectX way better, but I want cross-platform xP
AND the name Liquid Engine, has it been taken? Like, I found some site on google using it, but can't I use it for a game engine?

Liquid Engine Copyright 2009 Aeres Entertainment™

Just incase someone of you wants to steal that name from me xP

Originally Posted by Akkernight

I like DirectX way better, but I want cross-platform xP

Liquid Engine Copyright 2009 Aeres Entertainment™

I thot I saw the word team being used around here somewhere. Do the rest of them know that DirectX will make you an MS slave? Maybe you should write in the new F# (if that ain't too funny: F# is real MS endevour)

Yeah, we're a team, with at least one who is on the MS side xP I ain't gonna name names...
But I think I'll be going with OpenGL for this one

Originally Posted by Akkernight

Yeah, we're a team, with at least one who is on the MS side xP I ain't gonna name names...
But I think I'll be going with OpenGL for this one

Yay Akkernight! Yay!

Oh and I want a license that lets the engine be free for non-commercial use, which one do you peeps suggest?
And the reason I want this is, if you're gonna make money of it, you can also be giving the makers of it some
Hope you don't think I'm a money mongrel :O

Originally Posted by Akkernight

Oh and I want a license that lets the engine be free for non-commercial use, which one do you peeps suggest?
And the reason I want this is, if you're gonna make money of it, you can also be giving the makers of it some
Hope you don't think I'm a money mongrel :O

On the other hand, if you just use the GPL, it is probably much more likely to actually get picked up and used by people who distribute software "commercially" (whether or not they are making money directly from the distribution). Then, once everyone is using it because it's so great, you can be the authority that writes the books and does the consulting -- which most of the API' s you use, and the C and C++ language, are free for commercial use.

Kind of a ridiculous example, but a few years ago Redhat gave Linus Torvalds $20 million in stock as a gift! because he developed the open source linux kernel. I wonder what his chances of making this money would have been if at every step he had demanded a percentage and a commercial contract from everybody.

oh well... I'll think about the license later xP