Official Introduction

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Official Introduction

      I always like to introduce myself, so here you go. If you don't care, you can exit this post now :P

      I started programming when I was 9 on an Atari 800XL. Anyone else out there remember how much fun it was to save on an audio cassette? :P I've been mainly an experimenter since then, trying various combinations and languages just to see what they can do.

      In college, I was a theater arts major, but continued to tinker to the current day. I'm now employed as a 911 Communications Officer in the state of Washington, and looking to start my first real project. Now I just have to decide which idea to use! :P

      Unfortunately, work is as a relief, so I have an 80-hour a month maximum. I do some house cleaning to finish paying the bills, and still have waaaaaay too much free time on my claws ;) So, I've lately gone full-tilt into programming-mode.

      Finding Mike's book was a Godsend :) I've spent hundreds of dollars on books, only to find them out of date, irrelevant, or, in the case of one of the two books I ordered at the same time as Mike's, so full of errors as to be annoying :P Finally, there's a book I can use to fill in the gaps left by those "basic" books on languages. Ever notice how hard it is to find the books you need to teach yourself advanced programming? Either that or I need to quit relying on Amazon :P

      In addition to those mentioned above, I'm also serving as one of the Admins for an online gaming clan known as The Mature Gaming Association. Currently over 100 members strong, so it takes a little more of my time, while still leaving me waaaaaaay too much free time. On the plus side, there's a graphical artist and sound engineer in the clan, so I have a few more resources than I might otherwise have access to for making a game ;)

      As long as I'm here, here's a question to start out with that I've always been curious about--a friend of mine who's VERY knowledgeable about computer says that Python is the main language used for AI. Is it, and why? I've been thinking of either using Perl, or something else depending on the responses. I'm easy ;) All I care is that it works, and works well :)

      And that's me in a nutshell :) So wake up and get back to programming :P
      My name is "Todd." Drop the "T" and it explains soooooooo much :P

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Charabis ().

    • I don't know which is the "main language for programming AI," but I do know that there are many languages out there that fit the scripting role nicely.

      Lua is very powerful and has an extremely small footprint.

      Ruby is popular.

      Python is also powerful and popular.

      UnrealScript is "homebrewed" by Epic and is very Java-like, as an example of a "do-it-yourselfer."

      You could also embed Java itself in your game, but I hear that it's large and has "too many extras," whatever they meant by that.

      So, start your engines and do some research. You could also roll your own - a simple procedural language similar to the old BASIC languages wouldn't be terribly difficult. Check out "Constructing Language Processors for Little Languages" and/or "Game Scripting Mastery" for getting this ball rolling. And don't forget to preview the topic by reading Chapter 11 in Mike's book!

      Personally, I've fiddled with Lua and it is a pretty nice language. I haven't played with Python but I hear it's very C++-like - a bonus in my book if it carries the object-oriented features with it. I have been thinking a little on how to implement this in my own scripting language - the whole v-table, etc. bit...

      BTW - I'm just a hobbyist too, so my word shouldn't carry too much weight. I'm just popping off here.
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Nebuchadnezzar ().

    • I went the "rolling my own" route. Then I switched to Lua. Lua is pretty much as good a scripting language as you can get.

      In theory, you can write your AI in C, but I assume you want a scripting language so you don't need to rebuild the executable to tweak it. If that's the case, why stop at AI? Lua can handle anything you throw at all...and its easily thread-safe, so you can throw everything at it at once.

      I should probably point out that I might be biased, cuz I love Lua.

      Avoid Java, it's ass-slow, it takes up ridiculous amounts of memory (the footprint for Hello World is like 7 or 8 MEGS), and its owned by a corporation. By comparison, Python and Lua are much smaller and easier to work with, and Lua is the smaller of the two.

      Pretty much every Blizzard game has used Lua.

      ---

      Choosing your idea is very important. Pick the one you think will be the quickest to make, and the cheapest to launch, even if it isn't your best idea.
      -Larrik Jaerico

      www.LarrikJ.com

    • That'd be the one :) We're also present in a number of other games, including WoW, Diablo, and Warcraft. We even have some modders who were playing with NWN. You can check it out more at maturegaming.com.

      I'm not sure how many people have XBox live, but I know there is a small sect of us who play Animal Crossing for Gamecube. You'll also find we discuss most things, and make fun of the rest :P We like to think of ourselves as more of a family than a group. Unlike normal families though, we're all the crazy uncle/aunt in the attic :P

      I'll definitely take a peek at Lua, among other things. I recently found SDL, so I've been examining it to determine if it's comparable to OpenGL. For video anyway. Since OpenGL doesn't do sound, SDL obviously wins there :P Especially for those of us who are "independants", and thus can't afford a license for Miles, ESPECIALLY when developing on more than one platform :P
      My name is "Todd." Drop the "T" and it explains soooooooo much :P

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Charabis ().

    • The beauty of SDL is that under Linux it uses OpenGL and under Windows it can use either OpenGL or DirectX (I think - maybe it just uses OpenGL for Windows, too). Anyway, SDL is cross-platform so it will ease the journey if you decide to go that route.

      Rich
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."

    • I do like to target cross-platform development. I see little reason to limit my target customers to one OS. One thing I have bumped into though is this question--where does the SDL.dll normally live?

      I'm using Dev-c++ (it's free :D ), but it doesn't seem to put everything quite where it belongs. Programs compile, but then can't find the .dll.

      Yes, I know I can use SDL_SetLibraryPath(my/path/here);, but if there's other apps that use it, I'd rather avoid putting it in an arbitrary place, thus running the risk of having multiple copies on the same machine. That would be a nightmare to update!
      My name is "Todd." Drop the "T" and it explains soooooooo much :P