Initialization 101

Initializing games involves performing setup tasks in a particular order, especially on Windows platforms. Initialization tasks for Windows games are a superset of console games. Consoles, due to their predictable architecture, have no need of determining how much VRAM is installed and many other things that are user configurable on a Wintel platform. There are some tasks you must perform before creating your window, and others that must have a valid window handle or HWND, and therefore happen after you create your window. Initialization tasks for a Windows game should happen in this order:

• Check system resources: hard drive space, memory, input and output devices

• Check the CPU speed

• Estimate available VRAM

• Initialize your random number generator (this was covered in Chapter 3)

• Load programmer's options for debugging purposes

• Initialize your memory cache

• Create your window

• Initialize the audio system

• Load the player's game options and saved game files

• Create your drawing surface

• Perform initialization for game systems: physics, AI, and so on