Things you need to know George Georgiev Telerik Corporation

 Understanding Game programming  What is it?  Specifics  Tools and languages  C++ - The industry standard language  C++ & Game programming  Why not C# ? 2

Elements, Specifics, Tools

 Game programming handles:  Loading game resources  User input  Game events  Scripting  Game objects interaction  AI characters  Game sounds and visualization  Results, such as winning or losing 4

 Game programming consists of:  “Game logic” programming  Graphics programming  AI programming (not necessarily)  Audio programming (not necessarily)  Physics programming (not necessarily) 5

 Game programming IS NOT Game Development  It is only a part of it  Game programming is cool!  You can play your game and pretend you’re debugging it 6

 Game programming specifics  The “Game loop”  Starting from scratch  Usage of many programming concepts  System requirements 7

 A basic “Game loop” in pseudocode while( user doesn't exit ) check for user input check for user input run AI run AI move enemies move enemies resolve collisions resolve collisions draw graphics play sounds play sounds end while 8

 What else is special about game programming?  No strict requirements  No one expects complete accuracy  Need to balance “challenges” with “rewards”  Being fail-safe is not a priority  Small optimizations count  Greedy optimizations count 9

 Programming languages  C / C++  C#  Java  Scripting languages  Custom-made languages (very common)  Lua  Python 10

 Libraries and APIs  Single-purpose  Graphics – Direct3D, OpenGL, OGRE  Physics – Bullet Physics Library, ODE  Multi-purpose  DirectX  XNA  Irrlicht Engine  Unreal Engine 11

 Benchmarking tools  Mainly framerate tracking software  Fraps  Alternative development approaches  Game development software  Game maker  3D modeling software with scripting capabilities  The Internet… 12

The industry standard language

 The most widely used and popular programming language  Object-oriented  Mid-level  Compiles to binary  Fast  Low memory usage 14

 The industry standard language  Most popular games are written in C++  A lot of APIs are written in and for C / C++  Runs almost on everything  The C++ community is huge  Not a dying language 15

 Too young as a language  Can’t compare to C++’s community  Not designed to be as fast as C++  10% faster counts in game programming  Too high-level and style-demanding  Game programming requires freedom  C# without.NET is like C++ without the “++”  The lower you go, the more you know  We (you) are here to learn 16

Questions?