How is game programming? (by the way i mean PC games) Would making a small or large mod for an online multiplayer game or any game be hard? Is game programming in general hard? What are most video games programmed in? Im new to programming in general(know nothing about it but hoping to learn C) and just wondering about random things....and also day dreaming during school hours about wicked game mods for online games...heheh. Thanks all replyers
Game modding is pretty tough. It all depends on which game you modding, but in general your going to need a solid programming foundation to work on. If you want to mod something, you must first understand it, inside and out, otherwise you are doomed to failure and frustration.
Your better off starting even smaller than modding...a few baby steps at a time. Read through the tutorials on this site for free and post questions when your confused.
yeah i wasnt planning on game modding or making anytime soon...just had those few questions about it
In that regard...
All depends on the game your modding. Some of them give plenty of documentation, tools and source code which might even be commented.Originally Posted by jcw122
Depends on who you ask...I'm a novice game programmer but a competent app and embedded programmer. Game programming is a real challenge for me only because of the sheer number of things that have to be handled (input, output that looks nice, ai, file mgt, all that stuff). Of course, I could set my sights lower and program tetris, but I wouldn't get the same satisfaction. Plus there is lots and lots of math in the big 3d games, and thats a pain if you havent done real math in years
C is really big because its fast. C++ is becoming more popular because the compilers for it are getting better all the time and it really does make it easier to develop large software projects with a large team.
If you don't know something about C then your mod will be limited to what the tools let you do. Not all tools support everything the engine can do.
Modding is a great way to get into the industry but you will need quite a few people to help and you will also need some idea of how the engine works.
Not true. He never said what type of modding he would like to do. For instance, modding maps in something like Halo, involves no C++, but "Halo Map Offsets" (googleable), and a hex editor. Granted, professional modding requires programming knowledge, but like how people reconmend VB for beginners, I'd reconmend map modding for starter.
BTW, I think game programming can be hard if you like detail. It's harder to make than most apps (like M$ word, etc) because more graphics and optimizing is involved. But I'd much rather play Doom III than Excel
Good luck!
**********EDIT***********
Bolded part of quote to emphasize what I thought was not completely true.
Last edited by Stan100; 10-08-2004 at 09:58 AM.
Stan The Man. Beatles fan
When I was a child,
I spoke as a child,
I thought as a child,
I reasoned as a child.
When I became a man,
I put childish ways behind me"
(the holy bible, Paul, in his first letter to the Cor. 13:11)
But this does require knowledge of the engine which you won't get unless you know C. Putting objects in willy nilly with no thought as to how the engine uses them or might interact with them is ludicrous. You gotta know how it textures, what textures it might use, size of textures, bump map or no bump maps, light maps, radiosity maps, etc. And that's just for the textures. If you want to do modeling you need to know the upper limit of the triangles allowed and then divide that by the number of objects you want on screen, etc., etc. You must know how it culls or why it culls and when it culls. You must know something about the physics engine because your characters and objects will most likely be integrated into the physics engine. You need to know something about scripting as well as 3D mathematics and/or 3D concepts in order to accurately rotate, translate, and move your object and/or set a path for it.Not true. He never said what type of modding he would like to do. For instance, modding maps in something like Halo, involves no C++, but "Halo Map Offsets" (googleable ), and a hex editor.
I checked out some mod sites for Freelancer and realized that most of them had no business modding anything. The description of the ini files was sparse at best or...I don't know what this does so just don't touch it...and then they wonder why there mod brings the thing to its knees. They couldn't figure out why certain textures were being cutoff (obviously exceeded the size) and/or how to accurately blend in textures, etc., etc.
We don't need more mods like that. It is quite amazing that the most successful mods/makers have been either hired by the respective companies or they have been contracted to add to the sequel to the game. Separating modding and game programming is a serious mistake. You cannot have one without the other. No engine, no mod. Bad mod=bad game no matter how good the engine.
I agree that we don't need mods like that, but they're still possible, and from personal expierience, I can attest to the fact that you need no knowledge of the engine to make map mods.
I agree that doing it COMPLETELY knowledgeless will produce crap, but doing it with errors, and finding them yourself is one of the best ways (IMHO) to learn.
Stan The Man. Beatles fan
When I was a child,
I spoke as a child,
I thought as a child,
I reasoned as a child.
When I became a man,
I put childish ways behind me"
(the holy bible, Paul, in his first letter to the Cor. 13:11)
