Using time.h in an F1 manager game.

Hi there all,

My friend and I, we're gonna do a game with C++.
It is a Formula 1 Manager Game.

First off, we both know C++ and OOP pretty well.
However, since we don't know Direct X or OpenGL, we were thinking of doing the game console based. ( No graphics )
It would be advanced with loads of features.
What do you think of this?

Would it be more worth it if we learnt Windows Programming & Direct X in order to create graphics?

Also, lets say there's a race in the game. Obviously, this race must be timed. The position of the cars must be updated real time. How would this be done? Every second, the results are updated? Also, I'd use time.h for that. However, to be honest, I never used it before. What might be the code in its basic structure to start a race and finish it 20 minutes later?

Thanks for everything,
Marc :)

About the graphics, if you decide to do them, OpenGL is much easier to use than Direct3D (Part of DirectX). It's worth learning.

I can't help you with the time.h (just started using cpp...:p )

But I would like to comment on the graphix part. It's not really the matter whether it be more worth it, its just worth it for you I think. Learning new stuff is good and when you have a project your enthousiastic about, that's probably the best way and opportunity to learn it.

And besides that, graphix make a game look good! (jeez that's rather obvious...:))

So if I were you, I'd dive into windows graphix programming and make a blast of a game while really learning from it...

@Mbrio: About the graphics, its a good idea but if you have just started with your project, you first do the basic work, right? ;)

Yeah, you should start your game small, and later expand it, and eventually have a graphics monsterhit game :) I myself am making a simple program to save my comic collection in console, but I want to finish it in Windows with a lot of features and stuff (I said I want to, never said I will ;)) But I start small to get to know the basics of it.

Hey..
Just got home from school :)
Btw, Habi is my friend - We will be doing the game together.

Regarding the graphics, well I'm not sure whether we should implement graphics at such an early stage. The thing is, we both don't know OpenGL and therefore, learning Windows Programming and OpenGL will make the development of the game last much longer.
Yet, if we create the game engine with C++ code, would it be possible to keep it once we implement graphics?

I agree with Mbrio about learning and making the graphics for the game at the same time. However, this game would require pretty complicated graphics. Not 3D, but a 2D view of the track from above. We'd need to create the cars and program them to go around the track. Since we both don't know any OpenGL or Direct X, that would be pretty hard to do...wouldn't it?

Regarding time.h, may anybody help?

Thanks and regards,
Marc :)

Quote:

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Yeah, you should start your game small, and later expand it, and eventually have a graphics monsterhit game I myself am making a simple program to save my comic collection in console, but I want to finish it in Windows with a lot of features and stuff (I said I want to, never said I will ) But I start small to get to know the basics of it.

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I totally agree with Ramon. We started the same way, first we're planning a dos-console application, later we will (ok would :p ) move to windows & graphics ;)

As for the graphics, we really only need 2D. That's good enough for managing sim :rolleyes:

Habi

You are more likely to get it finished if you start with a console then try playing with some graphics later. Many games projects start out with rather ambitious goals and then get bogged down in the fine details of how things look - we've seen enough of these projects on this board.

Yep, I totally agree adrianxw and I'm sure Habi does too.
For now, we will concentrate on making the game engine in C++ Code. Once that's done, we can think about adding graphics.

Thanks,
Marc

Sure, i agree :)
And, managing sims are mostly judged by performance, not graphics. So it doesn't matter for now ;)

Habi