W00T! I got a job

I just got a job as a graphics developer here in Portland. I asked what qualified me to get the position, and he said that rarely do they get a graphics programmer who is innovated enough to learn how it happens beneath "and" how someone can get it running without any hardware acceleration. Of course the company uses Direct3D with hardware acceleration, but it was just that "edge" I have been talking about for so long to complainers and whiners all over on certain boards saying how Andre' LaMothe (book author) "wasted my money." I learned Direct3D before I got into LaMothe's books such as the Tricks series, but what amazed him was I was able to demostrate much more than a typical hardware-dependent 3D programmer these days. Anyway, I just had to boast! All I can say now is cha-ching!! Thanks to everyone who encouraged me up to this point! :)

Congrats man!

Congrats dude.

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I have been talking about for so long to complainers and whiners all over on certain boards saying how Andre' LaMothe (book author) "wasted my money." I learned Direct3D before I got into LaMothe's books such as the Tricks series, but what amazed him was I was able to demostrate much more than a typical hardware-dependent 3D programmer these days.

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You calling me a complainer and a whiner eh? What company? And I still wouldn't recommend those books.
But congrats all the same.

But just because A got you B does not mean it applies in all cases so please do not become a 2D rasterization evangelist on the game programming forum.

you wasted your money.

Bubba's a whiner. He also knows that this +1 is getting me closer to his untimely demise! <laughter=evil villan>HAHAHAHHAH!!!</laughter*>


Quzah.

Wouldn't it be </laughter> and to be more specific, shouldn't it be <laughter type="evil villan">.

Anyway...Grats Dxfoo, what company, I only know a couple from Portland (born and raised here). I have the Tricks of the 3D Programming Guru's book and have gone through it a bit, but never really got into graphics programming.

I would tell but I feel that Bubba would call them up and start throwing rants with nothing to back them up on :) But thanks for the cheers. I really appreciate it. What's funny is I'm on my second year of computer science and all the other applicants seemed to have degrees. What are the odds of that? I'm making $5k more than what they initially suggested as the salary. I guess it's just one lucky day, and it ends now with a beer.

>What's funny is I'm on my second year of computer science and all the other applicants seemed to have degrees. What are the odds of that?

High.

I would assume high since they would typically pay me less than someone who does have a degree, but they're paying me more than what they first said. At any rate, I'm happy with the salary :)

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Originally Posted by Wraithan

Wouldn't it be </laughter> and to be more specific, shouldn't it be <laughter type="evil villan">.

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I really need to get better henchmen. They keep correcting me today. Hm, I think there's a drago...er...could you go over into that dark cave and get my lunch for me?


Quzah.

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Originally Posted by dxfoo

I would assume high since they would typically pay me less than someone who does have a degree, but they're paying me more than what they first said. At any rate, I'm happy with the salary :)

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There's another reason... some companies like fresh wet clay still smelling to milk... I mean... earth, they can mold to their liking. This usually involves teaching you "their way" of doing things which very rarely is the good way of doing things.

So... congratulations. But also... good luck.

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Bubba's a whiner. He also knows that this +1 is getting me closer to his untimely demise! <laughter=evil villan>HAHAHAHHAH!!!</laughter*>

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Nice. I so wish we still had red candy. ...taking aim at Quzah. Or did you already get destroyed by Salem? :D

And I do have something to back my claims up, namely the books, a thread with a very detailed explanation of certain parts of your post I disagreed with, the www.gamedev.net job section, and the www.gamasutra.com job section.

After a bit of browsing you can determine what the big dev companies want and what they don't want. If I were a up and coming graphics programmer I would probably concentrate on the things they mention in their job postings more than the things I feel I should know.

Anyways it does not matter and this little rant between you and I is over. Nothing more to say on the issue so good luck in your job and congrats.

Cool, I'm glad we can get over this topic. It's really nothing more than education study on the software side, like if you want to know how graphics work beneath. Just the ability to draw those things in software and make them work is really cool to me. When I played Wolf3D back in the day, I was wondering how the hell can that work if the hardware doesn't know crap about 3D? The interest persued on, and as a result I'm pretty interested in improving hardware in the future too. The job I was looking for had Direct3D and obviously hardware acceleration. I know that's what we use in the real world, and I know how to do it, and I do meet today's technology. I enjoy it all, it's just pure interest, Bubba! :)

Which is fine. But I think directing new people to it will only serve to confuse them. Let them start drawing stuff and see what's going on and then if they want to know how it all works, then good. Trying to study the nuts and bolts at first might deter them from ever using the tools they have available to them.

I had a big post here and was listing good sites but lost it when I went to the site in this window. Arghhh.

Anyways some good books:

Game Code Complete, 2nd ed.
Intro to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0
DirectX9 Audio Exposed
Any ShaderX<#> book.
Any Gems series book.

Where I would start:

• Books on C/C++ - know the language inside and out
• Books about design patterns and design do's and don'ts - extremely important books - Design is everything
• Tech books about my CPU of choice - know the CPU enough to understand whats going on
• 2D and 3D math books with a focus on game programming
• A book or two on assembly language programming. This will give you a very good understanding of how the computer actually works and IMO will make you a better programmer. Don't go coding entire apps in asm, but understanding it definitely will not hurt.
• Books on vertex and pixel shaders. This is very important because the good old DirectX9 fixed function pipeline is going by by. I have written shaders that I will release to the board when DX10 hits so that people can get lighting to at least work in DX10 even if they don't understand shaders. Vertex-based shading is a thing of the past.
• Books on image processing. This is becoming more important as shaders gain popularity. These books have a host of techniques like blooms, glares, flares, anti-aliasing, cartoon shading, etc, etc.
• Books on digital audio and DirectMusic.
• Books on network programming.

And that's not a complete list. In short, the more you read on various topics, the more well-rounded you are.

I'm not that biased :) I love those books. Good post. I know in my experience, I helped a person learn 2D gaming before. I gave him a library of mine and he got his game up in no time. He looked at my engine and was very suprised how abstract I made it. The problem was he was use to my abstracted methods and wanted to stay there. I think that's fine, but I thought if he learned it from the bottom up with a few months of patience, he would have been 3x the graphics programmer he was at that time. He would have been somewhat more knowledgable right from the beginning, but now he's scared to learn it because it looks like jibberish to his eyes. It's something to think about :) I started like him but ventured out more easily, so maybe it's just what we want to do and where we feel comfortable at. I guess by default, I recommend low level material to start out with like learning C before C++ - it doesn't mean you have to stay there, but you have a better understanding of why we are the way we are today. It makes sense to me, but I am just one person. I do enjoy those books you mentioned, though. I can't wait til Intro to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 Edition 2 is released, although I'm sure it already has.

Learning is allways easier when doing trough interesting and comfortable things. Interests are very unique to each individual and shouldnt be represented as "guides" to other people on where to focus on.

Beginner is the one who is learning. Like for kids in school, they try to make school books look interesting to make it easier for kids to learn from them. That's for all the pictures. Ever noticed how university books usually look like very boring? Why? Theyre HC nutcases studying that far off but they know their scheibe.


I might be all wrong about this, though. I would tell everyone to learn every bit and trick about particles and particle engines if I would tell them do the learning curve I did. For some reason particles were about the first thing I programmed in C64 Basic language once I figured out there is variables and ever since particles been close to my heart... they still are and that's my magic tool of learning out new things, just make new sort of particle application with the new point of interest and I am up with the task learning like never before :D

Oh and btw, dxfoo. Gratz and good luck with your new job.

I would say without a doubt resource management and design patterns are probably the number one topics you should study if you are serious about game programming.

I see your point, and I take full advantage of that with my team. I can't say I'm a "game programmer" though because they focus on implementing gameplay features into the game. I'm sure he would need less knowledge than a specialtist in their area, but enough to work with them. I know what musicians do, I know what graphics programmers (me) do, AI specialtists, physics specialists, etc. but a game programmer to me sounds eithor like an internet person who specializes in all of this because he is his own team, or he is one who's task is to implement gameplay features into the game world. I can't say I fall into "game programmer," but regardless of position, their top priority is definitely to keep resource management, design patterns and code reusability in mind. I don't know why any company wouldn't. To be fair though, I have seen folks doing game features but took on the whole nine yards with graphics too. But I have seen it both ways. At any rate, game programmers need to learn graphics and graphics programmers need to know about gameplay. They can be quite interchangeable. I know with my job they keep us seperate but we still work together. Which reminds me, I gotta go. Caio :) I liked this discussion.