Thread: a directx question

  1. #1
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    a directx question

    hi gang ,
    i am wondering if it is possible to import a picture to a directx project and attach it to a Device oject to create a texture in a scene ?

    i want to manipulate various points of the picture and let them to be in variuos height .
    cos i'm fairly new in directx please clear out for me .

    many many thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    You are talking about texturing a mesh if you want to manipulate the points. I could tell you how to create a mesh...load a texture...etc., but it would be too long to post here and it wouldn't help you.

    Best bet is to buy a book on DirectX. I know this seems like my only answer nowadays....but books are a very good resource in that you always have them on hand and they explain it far better than I ever could.

    www.amazon.com -> books -> computers and internet -> DirectX -> <tons of books>
    www.gamedev.net -> books -> <hundreds of suggestions>

    A couple of days ago I looked at all the books I've read and actually was proud of myself. Fact is, I read so many of em I really lost count of how many I have read - once you start researching a topic and buy books on it....you'll be amazed at how quickly they mount up.

    I have at least 2 or 3 books about every topic in DirectX and in assembly language programming as it relates to OS development.

    Amazon is a great place to get your books. Just make sure the seller has a very high rating. I've never had any problem getting books from them. I've got another book on the way entitled Real Time Rendering and I just finished 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development.

    Trust me....you need lots of books and yes they are not free.....but they won't bankrupt you either. Just budget in a couple of books every month or every 2 months. In 1 year you would have 6 to 12 new books which is a very good pace. Once you become familiar with the topics and can do a lot on your own...your rate of book buying will decrease because you will know pretty much what you are doing.

    But research never stops. Google is your best friend.
    Last edited by VirtualAce; 05-13-2004 at 05:16 PM.

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    thanks bubba,
    now that i can see i'm facing with a pro game programmer ,i have a more serious question !

    look bubba i'm not going to tell you how much i know about security and network programming and nor gonna tell you i have a good place at my work which i'm responsible for developing a firewall / ids system etc etc ...
    but the fact is that at a corner of my mind i like to have a job which involve me to the world of art .and i might it in the world of game programming .i know it's not a work of a few year even if i know programming and os a lot !
    i wrote the previuos post because i wanted to get rid of someone else question ! and u r write u'r answer could be a 1000 page book about only mesh and texture .

    story enough ,

    i want to know if game programmign worht ? (if i think about profession security and wages and ...)
    i want to know how much does it take to me to grasp directx and game programming algorothms and ai and start to make money ?
    i want to know what is the future of game development?
    and i want to know if u were successful and if u are fulfilled ?


    please shed me a light ,
    all u'r comments are appreciated .

  4. #4
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Quite simply being a good programmer does NOT make you a good video game programmer. The problem in video game programming is that we must make everything fast enough for real-timer rendering at over 100 FPS or at the very least 30...but most of us here would cringe if we saw a max of 30 FPS on our engine.

    There is a lot to game programming and its not always easy but it is very fulfilling....if you like to create and if you have the patience for it. DirectX is not that hard to grasp and I don't think OpenGL would be either but you absolutely must understand the math behind it to be good or you are simply just making random API calls willy nilly with no idea of what is really taking place.

    I'm am a simple hobbyist game programmer and though I would like for it to be more....that opportunity has not been given to me.
    Everything I know about games, engines, programming, etc.. all comes from personal research (ie: playing video games) and reading books....lots of em.

    Also I've got several folders chocked full of research and snippets from the Internet. The best way to get started is to simply buy a book about DirectX or OpenGL and just dive in.

    After all, whether it's DirectX or OpenGL...in the end it's all still just C/C++ code. In reality once you learn how to get along with DirectX...most of your code is the preparation for drawing it via DirectX. For instance, if I create a class to texture a flat plane....I must do all the prep work, call the correct API functions to load the texture, create the quad or 2 triangles that make up the plane, position it and rotate it correctly in my world, and then I hand it all over to Direct3D to let it render it.

    But how you do all the prep work is extremely important. Direct3D is a state machine and as such it is extremely easy to abuse it and set states far to often. Basically you want to have a block of states that apply to all objects that need those states and render them. Then set your next block of states and render all objects that need to be rendered using these states.

    But....I'm delving into areas here that are not going to help you as of yet. Here are some good books to start with.

    http://www.gamedev.net/columns/books...?CategoryID=21

  5. #5
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    thank u man ,
    i must read more about em.

    it is really amazing to be paid for what u enjoy !
    i start gaming with atari 2600 . i was really ashamed at the night of final exams since all the time i was playing atari .now if i can make money from game i can say i wasn't wrong ! to my mom.

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