General Steps a game should have

I've just begun programming in C++ to make actual games, and I was wondering what the general steps should be?

This will be openGL. I know I have to include commands for moving, commands for outputting, commands for loading, etc. I'm not sure exactly what order things should be done. Should I put everything in one big loop inside the main loop? HELP!

First things first. You say you have just started learning C++ right?? I suggest you do some more C++ before venturing into games. Games are among the hardest things you can program because of the complexity of it all.

I reccomend that you dont venture into games yet. Program more and learn more about the logic and problem-solving.

I've just begun programming in C++ to make actual games

That doesn't mean I'm just starting c++ programming. Also, not to be rude, but i'm not asking if you think I can do it... i'm asking how i should begin. Thanks.

Well, that can be interpreted in different ways.

All loading should be done before the main loop. As for the rest...there are many ways you can do things. One way is messagebased approach (something similar to Win32). In the mainloop everything else will be done...one way or another. It is here the problem come; how will it be done? I cant answer you on that though.

I would advice you to think strongly on the layout of things. What classes do you need. What should those classes do and so on. Think strongly on this since if you dont have a good layout the game will soon become unstructed to the point where you cant implement the things you want. Possibly read a book on the topic aswell.

One possible approach might be using "modules" as jverkoey describes in this article. And make sure you read the discussion as well.

Thanks guys. Also, sorry about how I worded it up there ^^, didn't mean to offend if I did.

Any other help is welcome!

It's a good idea to use GLUT for windowing and other tasks; it makes your code highly portable, and simplifies things such as creating and displaying the game window.

In C++, can you run multiple loops at a time?

Or would I have to order the steps to they all change before the loop continues? This is the main problem i'm seeing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Atolar

I've just begun programming in C++ to make actual games

That doesn't mean I'm just starting c++ programming.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Atolar

In C++, can you run multiple loops at a time?

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You can do things like this

Code:

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for (int i=0;i<10;i++)
{
  for (int j=0;j<20;j++)
  {
      //Do something
  }
}

---

Or if you are talking about having two loops running independently at the same time then you'd need to using multi-threading. Multi-threading isn't part of c++ and is OS specific.

A basic game loop is like this

Code:

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while (GameRunning)
{
  GetInput();
  UpdateGameworld();
  Render();
}

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This would all be done once each frame so it would apear to happen at the same time.

Ok, thanks quantum, that's what i was looking for.


Although what's the difference between UpdateGameworld() and Render()?

Updating the gameworld includes moving objects based on the players input and doing pysics calculations etc.
Rendering is the process displaying your gameworld.