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As underdog, hippo and happypenguin were already listed i though i'd anyway give a list of w32 freeware games links:

Gamedev.net -- good ressources for game developers and lists current projects... some good free games.
Download Net -- a great source for freeware and classic pc games (mostly windows)
MegaGames -- A good freeware section here.
RareWare -- This site is dedicated to all kind of games that have two things in common: they are small in size (max. 10mb) and are great to play.

have fun!

Another entry into programming is creating web pages, by tweaking them with JavaScript, and eventually CGI scripts. Really anything that allows tweaking is good, such as tweaking Mozilla or the computer desktop. Programming is about tweaking the world.

Once they feel ready to transition to a full programming language (Java, C++, etc.), there are ways to ramp up to that too. JavaScript is a great way to learn object-oriented concepts. Learning game programming really motivates kids and they learn about 3D graphics too (Nehe and GameTutorials). For building real desktop applications, NetBeans and the free JBuilder edition let you visually design java user interfaces, but something like Thinlets simplifies java development greatly (and introduces you to XML, see also other XUL-based development tools). Of course there are thousands of resources out there for learning java, see Sun's New to Java center.

Lastly, I think kids should keep a blog or a journal somewhere. If you have webspace, set them up a MovableType blog and let them tweak everything they want (adding commenting, shoutboxes, javascript goodies, etc.).

It seems to me this game is simply crying out for a cel shading 3D engine. It's a fairly simple technique to create "cartoony" graphics in a true 3D environment. I've always felt that the artwork in the original Sam & Max Hit The Road was almost as important as the characters, plot and dialouge in establishing the unique "feel" of the game; I hope Lucasarts can bring that artwork into 3D without losing its wacky charm.

there's also nehe's site which is pretty nice. Tends towards windows, but a lot of things have been re-written in SDL, and should therefore work in linux.

If your interested in games or not, both FlipCode.com and GameDev.net have alot of reference material for common algorithms.
They aren't exactly repositories as such, but there is alot of code snippets deposited in various sections throughout both sites.

- Gef

To be honest, I have no idea if this is true, but I see no reason why it should be. Just go back to gameplay. Make the games cheap and good fun. They may not last for as long as a fully cinematic, bump-mapped, Radeon-stretching, blah, blah, blah, but they'll pass the time.

Just look at the quality of work turned out by amateur game developers in their spare time on GameDev and Flipcode and the like. The coders are there. A simple game doesn't need much in the way of level designers or artists. So where are the big costs?

Whatever. Feel free to flame me - I know shit about the industry - and I am probably missing something big.

In my experience, almost none of the formal math training that a typical CS undergrad learns is ever going to come in handy for computer programming. 90% of all software effort is bug fixing, where you don't design a system to implement business rules, you don't in fact design anything. In the remaining 10%, the design is usually handed to you. In the 1% case where you have any kind of designing to do, most of the time it's a simple problem in worst case complexity analysis (Big O).

Anything more is a waste of time for most programmers, at the very least since if they can't learn it as needed then they won't be able to remember it from their college years either.

For example, look at Seumas McNally!

He died in March 21, 2000! He's a geek and he's dead! The man was great, yet being a geek obviously hurts your immune system and he died of Hodgekin's lymphoma!

I'm talking to all of you, more-so the trolls that spend all their time spamming slashdot!

Get outside, peel and eat a fresh orange, ride a bicycle! DO SOMTHING! DON"T LET YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM TAKE A SHIT ON YOU!

I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to look at this topic sooner!

Here at the University of Illinois, I'm a project leader for our game programming club Gamebuilders, so I'm pretty well versed in the rudiments of game design.

Yes, the best thing that I can recommend for anyone starting with game programming is to go the OpenGL route. For better or worse, graphics programming is a major component of game design, and OpenGL is general enough so your skills might apply to any number of systems if you choose to pursue a career in game developlent.

That said, the best way to get started with OpenGL is to use GLUT, the OpenGL Utility Toolkit. It's a great way to learn OpenGL without having to get bogged down in the specifics of the OS you're dealing with.

Also, there are numerous tutorials available on the subject of OpenGL and game programming in general on NeHe's site. If I had to point beginning to intermediate game programmers to one site and one site only, it would be there.

If you have any specific questions about OpenGL or GLUT, feel free to send me an email, as well!

Let me also add Gamedev.net. A little outdated (DX6 stuff, mostly), but covers a TON of issues of Isometric/3D/OpenGL programming. Very good reference.

--trb

True, but the wealth of information available out there is astounding. A simple google search yeilds amazing results.

Then there are demo specific sites:
OJuice
Scene
CFWweb

General game programming sites help aswell:
Flipcode
GameDev
GameTutorials

The information about karman filters isnt what you should learn first. That type of information will come later, once you develop specific skills, different techniques will come to light.

The first thing you'll need to to is learn a programming language and get familiar with it's development tools on your platform of choice, be it Linux, Windows or MacOS. You don't need to master the language as demos do not always need the most advanced features that some languages offer (such as multiple inheritance, etc). At first, writing 'hello world' -programs and such may be quite boring and frustrating but have patience - eventually you'll see that the skills you've learned will prove useful. A final word regarding the language; In the old days all demos were written in pure assembly language but these days C++ is the one most coders use and would be smart choice to learn. A good book on C++ is a way to get started.

Once you're comfortable with the language and it's tools, the next step is to learn more about your computer works. You'll need to know how to control the hardware; graphics card, sound card, timers and such. In modern operating systems this means studying the application programming interfaces (APIs) that the operating system provides. Fortunately, there are plenty of good tutorials that teach how to, for example, display graphics using OpenGL or DirectX. There are also many good libraries (Bass, FMOD, etc) for playing different audio files and you'll find them to be quite useful when adding music to your demo productions. Most people use their own timing system but there are some timeline editors such as Demopaja which may ease the work.

Now that you know the language and how to control your computer, you'll need to know how to code effects. Learning the math behind 3D graphics is quite useful, as is knowing how to manipulate bitmaps with convolution matrices and filters. Don't be afraid of math - it's a very useful tool and a key to understanding how effects really work. The internet is full of information on how to code different effects and functional examples to experiment with. Watch a lot of demos and try to figure out what effects they use and how they are are made. Read magazines, look at pictures in them and try to imagine how they would look animated. Look around when walking in a city or in nature - think of ways how to model things in the real world. Experiment with your code - quite many effects have been found by accident when experimenting. Chat with other demosceners on the net, maybe even meet them in real life at parties. Friendship is an important part of demoscene and discussing ideas with other people will often spring new ones. Code alone doesn't make a demo and you'll need find friends who can make music, paint pictures or create 3d models.

Don't feel overwhelmed by everything that you need to learn and do. If you can find the right frame of mind, you'll endure through the tedious basics of programming - see it as a challenge. After a lot of work, seeing your own effect work is a very gratifying experience. Once you know the basics, the possibilities are endless. Above all, the most important thing is to have fun.

Some links:
NeHe's OpenGL tutorials
Andy Pike's DX8 tutorials
Bass
FMOD
M0ppi Demopaja

I'll utilize this topic to drum up support for an Open Source game I'm helping to push forward. It's Open Source Zelda and can be found here.

This project was started by Nehe (of famed OpenGL tutorials) and he maintains posting the stable milestone check-ins. Even if you aren't interested in OSZ, check out his site...his tutorials are the best on the web, IMHO.

The idea is to re-create the original 8-bit Zelda which Nintendo released in the mid-80's, but for it to have an open architecture so that other developers may reuse the engine for similar games. The code is also highly OO, and well documented in the hopes that those interested in knowing how to create a game (or apply OO design) can glen some knowledge from other developers' work.

It's Win32 now, but we have had interest from a developer in the BaltoLUG who may begin a Linux port. Anyone is welcome to attempt this, branch it, or do whatever they want with the code (under the GPL). =)

link

Of course. You are absolutely right. But I thought it deserved a mention.

As for the availability of examples and advanced stuff out there, check out NeHe's website, which shows you what neat stuff is possible with just the "standard" OpenGL 1.2. Very clear examples, and very portable code. Easy to understand as well. If someone ever wants to get started with OpenGL, that is one place to start.

SDL is great for Linux and has an added plus, if you believe it is a plus, that it works well on Windows, too, so your games will be cross-platform. More specifically, you can develop for Linux even if, for some mortifying reason, you don't have a Linux box at home.

In addition to being fully cross-platform, it supports events, audio, basic thread-creation, and has wrapper libraries around it for C++.

One of the best SDL tutorials I've seen (for Windows) is here, but there's great Linux stuff available too, and it also runs on BeOS, MacOS & MacOS X.

If you'd like to get up to speed on Linux (and other platforms') games programming quickly and you've got C or C++ skills, do yourself a favor and check this out!

Take a look at this website.
It has plenty of tutorials and downloads on OpenGL.
There's also a large message forum.
http://nehe.gamedev.net/

This one is a reference to the OpenGL Commands
http://www.eecs.tulane.edu/www/graphics/doc/OpenGL -Man-Pages/index.html

The .pdf didn't indicate (it's a PR/marketing piece,) so I'm assuming that the new extensions will be contributed to the OpenGL folks for inclusion. Is this correct? If so, a very nice contribution by the Apple folks!

Most of these are extensions already existing for Windows and other OpenGL ports. NVidia example. ATI example. What they're basically saying is that the Mac drivers are caught up, and/or use of the extension is new to Jaguar's version of the Quartz engine.

There are a few Apple-specific extensions in there, but they're very specially purposed to Quartz' preferred data formats. Essentially, they're just a way to reduce the portability of the system (restricted pixel formats) in favor of some speed boosts, which is a pretty fair tradeoff if you're a company like Apple who only deals with a pocketful of vendors who make special concessions. You wouldn't want these back in OpenGL main.

There's some damned fine engineering going on at Apple, as always. But there's also the familiar nice spin, though. I wish they'd keep that much out of the technical presentations, or at least would more clearly mark it as such.

flipcode
gametutorials
gamedev

As well as NeHe, the guys over at Game Tutorials have quite a few OpenGL tutorials (which nicely complements NeHe's). Their site is at http://www.gametutorials.com/. They also have tutorials on how to program in C++, C, DirectX, Win32, and using Visual C++ (if you are into that kind of thing 8).

You also might want to read some of the good articles at Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) as they have good game related news and articles. The registration is free and gives you access to all of their articles and web lectures.

You can also read some of the articles at http://www.gamedev.net, http://www.flipcode.com and there is a good resource for stuff like this at http://www.angelcode.com. These are just some of the best sites I have found. Hope that helps.

You should first look at NeHe OpenGL tutorials. It will teach you a long way into 3d programming. It's very well written and covers a lot of subjects. Check it out at http://nehe.gamedev.net/. There are a lot of tutorials, and most of them is written in more than one language, so you can learn about using OpenGL even tough C++ is not your favorite language. The are tutorials in C++, PowerBasic... And code for Mac, Windows, Linux, everything! A true gem. This is the best beginners ressource you can find.

I am pretty sure the above post is just rubbish someone made up to make a couple of moderators look stupid.

AFAIK Cg is a C like language designed to make writing vertex and pixel shaders easier. Real time shaders for nvidia's and ati's are currently done in assembly. It is not supposed to be a new language like C or Python or insert-language-here. All it has to do are transforms on 3d vertex or pixel information.

A vertex shader takes as input position, normal, colour, lighting and other relevent information for a single vertex. It performs calculations with access to some constant and temporary registers, then outputs a single vertex (this is what the chip is built for). It does this for every vertex in the object being shaded. Pixel shaders are a little more complex but similar.

Points 1-7 have nothing to do with Cg.

There is a very good article on vertex and pixel shaders here

DevZone

The DevZone has a very large collection of free compilers, books, and SDKs available for download.

If you're leaning more towards game development, GameDev.net is an excellent resource. It's more a game development community but you can find help for anything programming related in the forums.

Ben

I have found it incredibly useful, and searching for functions a breeze. If you need to find out a function to perform a particular task, then do a quick google search or go onto irc.openprojects.net or some other server and join a channel and ask for a function - then look that function up on php.net.

If you don't know programming, then a resource I have found useful for web based programming (mysql & php specifically) is www.devshed.com, with tutorials on a few different topics.

For game related programming and a number of topics related to that (opengl, directx, ai, etc) then www.gamedev.net is excellent. For opengl you can't go past NeHe Productions.

I have found it incredibly useful, and searching for functions a breeze. If you need to find out a function to perform a particular task, then do a quick google search or go onto irc.openprojects.net or some other server and join a channel and ask for a function - then look that function up on php.net.

If you don't know programming, then a resource I have found useful for web based programming (mysql & php specifically) is www.devshed.com, with tutorials on a few different topics.

For game related programming and a number of topics related to that (opengl, directx, ai, etc) then www.gamedev.net is excellent. For opengl you can't go past NeHe Productions.

I'm only replying because by some miraculous wonder, you did not get modded down.

There is absolutely no legal reason to own a modified console.
I'll repeat the obvious, Import games that are regionally encoded with no plans to ship to your region.
"Well, my modified Dreamcast lets me make my own games and play them!" No, it lets you play burned games that you download from the Internet.
There are people that do write their own DC games. Just because the majority of people use it to steal games that aren't being produced, or sold right now does not make everyone who modifies thier machine a pirate (and the people who do steal games are not right just because they aren't available anymore, either).

as soon as you put a burned game into that machine, you've committed a felony
This is not always true. You are allowed to make backup copies of software you legally own. I only bring copies of my music CD's to work, does that mean I'm a felon whenever I listen to "3 Doors Down"?

Why do you think Microsoft included an ethernet adapter? It's because when "Xbox Live" goes live, they can see your machine. They could see your saved games, they could see how often you play, and nobody would be the wiser. Why? Because the entire operating system is proprietary, and there's no way to disassemble it. You couldn't even install a piece of software on the Xbox to trap packets coming out of it, because it would have to be approved by Microsoft.
And you AREN'T bothered by them watching what you do on your home entertainment system? Remember that they are adding a PVR to this machine, they will watch that as well. (My only hope is that they use information about what people REALLY watch on TV to keep from cancelling the good shows. Of course, I know I'm going to be sadly disappointed by finding out what people really watch). What happens if someone watches an adult movie on their X-box one night when the kids aren't home, only to have "adult entertainment" ads invade their home for the next few weeks when the kids are home. This should bother everyone.

No legit user would ever want or need to open up their console to play games
I agree and disagree with this statement. This IS why people buy console machines. You have a black box, toss in a game, flip a switch, and you're playing. That's all it's supposed to be, no more, no less.
I disagree with it because many legit users open their machines for fun. Who didn't open up their nintendo or atari at some point (usually near the end of it's life) just to see what it was like on the inside? Saying no legit user should ever have to open it up for any reason is akin to saying no driver should ever look at their engine: They don't know what is happening, and could only either break it, or be doing it for an illegal purpose.

The amount of "good" games is controlled by the console manufacturers already. Sony releases fewer games in the U.S. as it does in Japan, Nintendo is not much better. I'm sure that Microsoft will do the opposite (release more games in America than Japan), at least I hope so. Modern games being copied hurt game developers severely. Older games aren't the same way. The people who put the blood and sweat to work on them usually aren't with the same company 15 years later. There are Three different games that are freeware for MAME even.

As for your last argument, THAT should have earned you flaimbait -1 right away.


Mod chips don't make felons - copied games make felons.
TDY

Look at Paul Rajlich's VR model of his home for his CAVE here.

In fact, it's not very tough designing something like that. Anybody who's tried designing games or game levels, even simple ones would know how easy this is.

For example, look at NeHe's simple 3d engine demo - you could easily build any structure you want for one of these, with sufficient skill modeling your house wouldn't be any more difficult than mapping a few co-ordinates. It'd be cooler still if you could import some format like DXF or VRML or the like into a suitable map.

Look at Paul Rajlich's VR model of his home for his CAVE here.

In fact, it's not very tough designing something like that. Anybody who's tried designing games or game levels, even simple ones would know how easy this is.

For example, look at NeHe's simple 3d engine demo - you could easily build any structure you want for one of these, with sufficient skill modeling your house wouldn't be any more difficult than mapping a few co-ordinates. It'd be cooler still if you could import some format like DXF or VRML or the like into a suitable map.

One of best design books on the planet, but it deals more with micro-design. With this book, and a good amount of coding you should be well on the way.

Large-Scale C++ Software Design
Author: John Lakos
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0201633620

Haven't read this one, but it comes highly recomended. You might also try GameDev.net. If you look enough, you might be able to find something.

I think the Salon article didn't go far enough in crediting the role of DirectX in boosting NVidia's fortunes. NVidia's early adoption of DirectX gave it the insurmountable advantage in the market.

DirectX is so much more than simply a 3d rendering protocol, but you don't get that sense from the article. Because DirectX is so ubiquitous, when push comes to shove I want my 3d card to jive with DirectX. Result? Another sale for NVidia!

I agree with most of your post, but I think there is a way for Quake X to be written in java. Using NMI and OpenGL, I think anyone could get acceptable results considering that my computer spends more time waiting on the video card than the code to execute. However, Sun will probably fix their shoddy, broken implementation to actually work right just for this purpose. Don't let anyone convince you that Java is slow at math! I forsee much better 3D support in Java's very near future. This is the second story in the past week or so about this kind of thing.
Anyone serious about doing OpenGL (which is anyone serious about cross-platform 3D graphics) should visit NeHe Productions. They have examples for C, ASM, Java, C++, and even Python. They use a cross-platform NMI mapping that works on Unix, Windows, and Mac. You'll have to play with them to get them working though (classpath and security settings). Would be cool to set up a Java Webstart for them :)

Fortunately, the GameCube seems to be cracking this stigma a little. Too bad I can't get it on the net yet.

It's not so much the Gamecube that's "cracking the stigma", as Sega. Chu Chu Rocket, Jet Set Radio, Super Monkey Ball, etc. All Sega games. I'm assuming that you're referring to Super Monkey Ball, and possibly Pikmin, when referring to the GameCube breaking the trend, but look at Rogue Leader (hey, it's a sequel to Rogue Squadron!), Wave Race: whatever it's called (look! sequel to Wave Race on the N64), and Super Smash Bros. Melee (look! sequel to Super Smash Bros.!). The Gamecube is just as "me-too" as any other platform. It's the game developers that have to make the difference. Thankfully, Sega is playing all the consoles (Super Monkey Ball on the GameCube, Chu Chu Rocket and Sonic on the GameBoy Advanced, Shemue II and Jet Set Radio: Grind on the XBox, and I don't remember what they're bringing to the PS2, besides things like the Crazy Taxi series (was that Sega?)).

I miss the days of 'Garage Developers' creating shareware games on BBS's.

Check out Garage Games. If the next John Carmack (mmm ... Commander Keen) is going to be found anywhere, it's highly likely it'll be there. Sure, you can license the Tribes 2 engine (or V12, now the "Torque Game Engine", as it's not completely the T2 engine) for cheap, but there are plenty of other engines, or you can write your own. Also, check out places like FlipCode, GameDev, and GamaSutra (probably need a free registration to read most of the interesting things) to see what's going on in the world of amatuer graphics and games development (the first two more than the third, as gamasutra seems aimed more towards the game development professional). There's some crazy stuff going on, and lots of great little games that you'll never see elsewhere (the games, that is, not always the concepts. You'll see a lot of tetris clones, defender clones, whatever. but every now and then a completely off-the-wall concept shows up).

To answer your question, PS2 Linux is first booted from the PS2 DVD-Rom. It is then set up on the PS2 HDD, and the last step is to copy the PS2 boot files to a PS2 memory card to make a bootable memory card. For more info, visit this thread at Gamedev.net that I had with someone. Gamedev Also, visit this for detailed PS2 Linux info. You will want to translate it, unless you understand japanese. Japanese PS2 Linux

I use Kylix and Delphi 5 to code games under Linux and Windows, using the SDL code. Same code for 2 different OS (OpenGL to boot)

Jedi code

For a great reference and good tutorials check out The great nehe site!

It's impossible for a university to teach you everything you need to know to handle some particular business situation. The amount of specialization that would have to exist in a degree such as computer science would be enormous. A staggering number of similar degrees would have to exist as a result. What's more important, is the value of that specialization in states of the economy such as the one we are experiencing now.

My brother has gone the IT route. He has taken all the numerous certifications (A+, Novell, MSCE, etc) and in todays economy they are pretty much worthless. He has attended about four job fairs in the past month and has learned the harsh truth. Industry pumped out more specialized IT works then the industry can support. Every single company he talked to just threw his resume on the mountain of similar "IT professionals".

I, on the other hand, obtained a computer science degree at PSU. I also ended up with a job that doesn't use *anything* from computer science. I teach Cisco Networking at a local high school and perform IT work (maintaining parts of the computer network). The CS degree got me into the door for this job, which affords me enough free time to work on my own software development company. This is probably one of the better examples of a non-specialized degree enabling you to function in occuptions not directly related with the degree.

I can't say the same for the more specialized education my brother received. The truth is, that you obtain a degree at a university because you need to learn how to *learn*. A computer science degree, for example, adequately enables you to adapt to more situations than a specialized degree. Futhermore, you end up with a deeper understanding of how to better solve problems.

That is something that will help you throughout your entire life.

---
Michael Tanczos
Gamedev.net
http://www.gamedev.net

Take a look at this article on gamedev.net. It might contain what you're after.

Free, but not entirely legal, IIRC... Check the GameDev.net news archives, I'm pretty sure I saw something there a while back.

I think you can't have 3D audio library without advanced sound device drivers. And AFAIR emu10k1 driver supports effects like delay/flanger/gain, but do not support 3D sound. Main problem is - nobody need advanced sound drivers.
Most of people just need to listen mp3 (it's similiar to word processors - most people need only .doc import/export). The only way to fix that is to create more 3D games for Linux.
So download SDL then get some info from OpenGL site and gamedev then start coding! :-)

As a graphics programming enthusiast, I really couldn't have asked for more. Kudos to Sam!

If you want to learn OpenGL, your next stop should be NeHe's tutorials on Gamedev.Net.

http://nehe.gamedev.net/

GameDev itself is helpful...

http://www.gamedev.net/

As is Flipcode...

http://www.flipcode.com/

If you're interested in writing a good game, you should learn from those that came before you. Check them out using emulators from Zophar's Domain...

http://www.zophar.net/

Also, no game developer worth his salt can ignore the virtual treasure trove of information archived at GamaSutra...

http://www.gamasutra.com/

And finally, you'll want some cool free video game tunes to listen to while you code. The two best sites for video game remixes are Bart Klepka's remixes and Remix at Overclocked.org:

http://bart.overclocked.org/
http://remix.overclocked.org/

Go to it. I hope to play your games soon.

If you want to learn OpenGL, your next stop should be NeHe's tutorials on Gamedev.Net.

http://nehe.gamedev.net/

GameDev itself is helpful...

http://www.gamedev.net/

As is Flipcode...

http://www.flipcode.com/

If you're interested in writing a good game, you should learn from those that came before you. Check them out using emulators from Zophar's Domain...

http://www.zophar.net/

Also, no game developer worth his salt can ignore the virtual treasure trove of information archived at GamaSutra...

http://www.gamasutra.com/

And finally, you'll want some cool free video game tunes to listen to while you code. The two best sites for video game remixes are Bart Klepka's remixes and Remix at Overclocked.org:

http://bart.overclocked.org/
http://remix.overclocked.org/

Go to it. I hope to play your games soon.

Here's the SDL doc project.

Here's an article comparing X-based programming to SDL-based programming.

You can use OpenGL techniques in SDL, so here's some OpenGL stuff for you...

This NeHe page comes complete with a version of the infamous Gears ported to SDL.

Finally, if you really want to start getting the best out of it, you'd better get on hardware acceleration. Either switch to one of the latest commercial distributions (RH 7.1 and Mandrake 8.0 do 3d out of the box), or use the source, luke.

It always amazes me how supposedly qualified and skilled people can ask questions before making any effort to do background research. Not only does it show an inability to solve problems, but also prevents the questioner from supplying all the relevant information.

I asked Google a couple of questions and came up with GameDev.net and GameDeveloper.net, and especially the game design category at dmoz.org. Needless to say these link to a wealth of information on the topic.

I could be mistaken, but you seem to be referring to Isometric Mapping, which is a 2D, not a 3D technique. A little Googlification of that keyword should produce more interesting stuff. this article discusses formats for a map file, and this one considers data structures and memory.

Of course, the most important question is: how are you going to USE the data? Your choice of a data structure must be based on data use, especially in a real-time game where effeciency is important. Memory requirements will become a third factor for consideration.

In general when dealing with isometric maps, you model a flyweight multilayer grid. This means the basic map is broken into a 2D grid of tiles (rectangular or hexagonal), each tile is split into several ordered layers, and the information about each tile is for the most part shared with all other tiles of the same nature (the flyweight design pattern).

The most common question about data structures is whether to use a 3-dimensional array (tile-x, tile-y, layer) or to a 2-dimensional array (tile-x, tile-y) with the tile itself holding an array of layer information.

When working with very few layers, or in a situation where the information in a particular layer must be accessessed in an iterative fashion, the 3-d array tends to be better. For many layers, or a case where the information for a particular layer does not need to be filtered out as a separate grid, a 2-d map with dynamic data structures for the layer information will keep memory requirements down, and follow good design principles (don't keep multiple data structures in sync - split the data into objects).

Good luck ... now go and do your own work before asking more questions.

Twylite

It always amazes me how supposedly qualified and skilled people can ask questions before making any effort to do background research. Not only does it show an inability to solve problems, but also prevents the questioner from supplying all the relevant information.

I asked Google a couple of questions and came up with GameDev.net and GameDeveloper.net, and especially the game design category at dmoz.org. Needless to say these link to a wealth of information on the topic.

I could be mistaken, but you seem to be referring to Isometric Mapping, which is a 2D, not a 3D technique. A little Googlification of that keyword should produce more interesting stuff. this article discusses formats for a map file, and this one considers data structures and memory.

Of course, the most important question is: how are you going to USE the data? Your choice of a data structure must be based on data use, especially in a real-time game where effeciency is important. Memory requirements will become a third factor for consideration.

In general when dealing with isometric maps, you model a flyweight multilayer grid. This means the basic map is broken into a 2D grid of tiles (rectangular or hexagonal), each tile is split into several ordered layers, and the information about each tile is for the most part shared with all other tiles of the same nature (the flyweight design pattern).

The most common question about data structures is whether to use a 3-dimensional array (tile-x, tile-y, layer) or to a 2-dimensional array (tile-x, tile-y) with the tile itself holding an array of layer information.

When working with very few layers, or in a situation where the information in a particular layer must be accessessed in an iterative fashion, the 3-d array tends to be better. For many layers, or a case where the information for a particular layer does not need to be filtered out as a separate grid, a 2-d map with dynamic data structures for the layer information will keep memory requirements down, and follow good design principles (don't keep multiple data structures in sync - split the data into objects).

Good luck ... now go and do your own work before asking more questions.

Twylite

It always amazes me how supposedly qualified and skilled people can ask questions before making any effort to do background research. Not only does it show an inability to solve problems, but also prevents the questioner from supplying all the relevant information.

I asked Google a couple of questions and came up with GameDev.net and GameDeveloper.net, and especially the game design category at dmoz.org. Needless to say these link to a wealth of information on the topic.

I could be mistaken, but you seem to be referring to Isometric Mapping, which is a 2D, not a 3D technique. A little Googlification of that keyword should produce more interesting stuff. this article discusses formats for a map file, and this one considers data structures and memory.

Of course, the most important question is: how are you going to USE the data? Your choice of a data structure must be based on data use, especially in a real-time game where effeciency is important. Memory requirements will become a third factor for consideration.

In general when dealing with isometric maps, you model a flyweight multilayer grid. This means the basic map is broken into a 2D grid of tiles (rectangular or hexagonal), each tile is split into several ordered layers, and the information about each tile is for the most part shared with all other tiles of the same nature (the flyweight design pattern).

The most common question about data structures is whether to use a 3-dimensional array (tile-x, tile-y, layer) or to a 2-dimensional array (tile-x, tile-y) with the tile itself holding an array of layer information.

When working with very few layers, or in a situation where the information in a particular layer must be accessessed in an iterative fashion, the 3-d array tends to be better. For many layers, or a case where the information for a particular layer does not need to be filtered out as a separate grid, a 2-d map with dynamic data structures for the layer information will keep memory requirements down, and follow good design principles (don't keep multiple data structures in sync - split the data into objects).

Good luck ... now go and do your own work before asking more questions.

Twylite

Why wait for Sega? This is all you need (an easy-to-build cable and a cross-compiling version of gcc).

I haven't actually tried this myself (I don't own a Dreamcast), but it looks like fun.

Ryan T. Sammartino

Yes

http://www.gamedev.net/info/news/FullStory.asp?Sto ryID=3041

here on gamedev.net. It is an interesting overview of the special characteristics and constraints of developing games for the PocketPC, making the case that PocketPCs are one of the best handheld game platforms currently extant.

Personally I think licensing debates are just about the most boring possible topics of discussion. Still, I think that in some cases they're warranted. In the article (on the last page), the author says something to the effect of the quake and doom engines are available for free under the GPL, so you can use them in your games. True, but he doesn't mention the source-release clause(s) of said license, which I doubt many game developers will want to abide by. OTOH, the author does provide a link to id's technology licensing page (interesting reading in of its own right), where it states that for $10,000 you can use a non-GPL (i.e. normal, closed-source) license. I'm not exactly sure from reading their page if you could use the engine unmodified along with your own non-engine code and content (maps, characters, et al.) and be abiding by the GPL while releasing a closed-source, commercial game (maybe if you said it uses the engine and where to get the source?). Maybe they mean the LGPL? Either way, $10,000 is a pittance compared to some other costs a (commercial) game developer faces.

head over to http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/ and check out to the Game DIsgn area. Many topics are discussed, including such gems as Goblin Genocide in RPG's