Epilogue: Not the End

Although this is the end of the book, it's the beginning for you. You still have many skills to acquire as you grow into a professional game programmer. Now before I start into describing what those skills are, I want you to know that I've provided a list of books for recommended reading on the CD. Just put the CD into your CD/DVDROM drive and an HTML page pops up. On that page is a list of items. One of them discusses how to move forward by getting more information. If you click that link, it will take you to the list of suggested reading.

Note

If the HTML page does not pop up when you insert the CD into your CD/DVDROM drive, click your Start button. Next, select Run and then type in <d>:\ AutorunPro.EXE, where <d> is the letter of your CD/DVDROM drive.

First, you need to get a book on advanced C++ programming. You've received a good introduction to it in this book. However, there's always more to learn. C++ is your primary tool for developing games. A lot of your success as a game programmer is based on how well you know C++.

Next, learn more about Windows programming. Specifically, I strongly advise you to study both DirectX and OpenGL. Some game companies use DirectX and others use OpenGL. If you really want to be a pro, learn both.

Another skill you might want to study is the details of sound programming. Many professional game programmers know far more about graphics programming than sound programming. As a result, it's something of a soughtafter specialty in the game programming world. Advanced sound programmers can blend and alter sounds in ways that boggle the mind.

In addition, you need to know about other methods of collision detection. It is possible to use bounding circles or ellipses instead of bounding rectangles. This is not a common technique. However, when you get to 3D programming, you'll have to learn how to use bounding cylinders. So if you start with bounding circles, you'll make things easier on yourself.

Also, you should examine the way that LlamaWorks2D blends bitmaps into the background image while eliminating the transparent color. The formal name for this is texture blending. The code that performs LlamaWorks2D's texture blending is in the files LW2DTexture.h and LW2DTexture.cpp.

There are many good books that talk about texture blending, some of which are in the list of suggested reading. Texture blending is a vital technique for game programmers. You use it to do sprite animation. It's also necessary for adding light areas and shadows to scenery. For example, if your character is walking through a dark area of a level and he turns on a light, you lighten that area with texture blending. Likewise, you can use texture blending to add darkness and shadows where appropriate. Texture blending accounts for a huge amount of the work involved in making the graphics in games look real.

As you're studying these topics, you can also study 3D programming. Programming in 3D is a huge and complex task. There are many, many books written about it. Virtually all of them assume that you're already a good C++ and Windows programmer. However, after reading this book, you have the skills you need to read one of those books and do well with it.

On a personal note, I hope you've enjoyed reading this book. Although it may sound corny, my goal in writing it was to help bright and enthusiastic minds get into a creative profession that they might not otherwise enter. Let's face it: the challenges to learning game programming are tough when you're just starting out. I hope you feel that game programming is something you can do for fun, and maybe for a career. I also hope you see that, for you, this is not...

...THE END