A Bunch of techie know-how

Ok, i'm a gamer by title and by heart, and i'm good with electronics, but my #1 strive is to become a video game designer. So here's a few questions to see if you techies know how much i want to know... About video game related technologies... how is a graphics engine set up, then how does it work? A movement system? Light and shadow generators? Scenery movement? Ect., you get my point... So, can anyone explain to me how these all are set up and how they work? I'd be grateful if you can tell me about any of them.

It will all depend on what kind of engine do you use, basically what is know as an engine (Unreal engine, quacke 3 engine ....) its a group of libraries that handle the visuals, movement, sound, networking, user interaction, AI, .... The way to set them up varies alot depending on the product you use, but there is one thing for sure it is not as easy as you think... You must have a great knowledge of C++ as most of the engines are writen in that languaje, there is no serious universal engine that will allow you to create a game by just creating a level map.

Ok, i understand what you're saying. So there's a separate program for everything, i knew that much.. but know... what's C++ language? I was just starting to get html and know there's C++, could you explain C++ language for me?

HTML and C++, two totally different things... HTML is a markup language that will define how to display information inside a web browser, C++ on the other hand will interact directly with your computer to basically order it to do a determined set of tasks. C++ has several sets of funcions, commands, and libraries that will perform a determined action. Meaning a lot more complex than HTML...

Hmm, ok, this is exactly what i expected to hear, and i'm glad to hear it. Since i plan on being a video game designer i'm always glad to learn anything i can! Are there any tutorials you know of that you have a link to?

Grumble Grumble Grumble

There are two different issues here... Do you just want to use an existing game graphics engine, or do you want to understand how a game graphics engine works???

If it's the second question, I can tell you that I have just enough upper division college math & number theory courses to understand the basic matrices concepts, and these concepts get hairy very quickly.

Matrix math is a concept where you treat arrays of numbers as a mathematical units (like X and Y in algebra), but the rules of matrices (though mathematically valid) are not like normal numbers. Addition rules are normal (A+B=B+A), but multiplication is different (AxB=-BxA), and division result in a value that is not a matrix... (Sort of like dividing Speed by Speed, you get a integer, not a speed value...) It took well over a decade for University research to decide on the best way to do hidden surface removal, etc. etc.

Even just using a Graphics engine, you need to have excellent programming skills, which means you need to learn ANSI C, followed by C++ (which is based on ANSI C syntax). And both languages require some understanding on how the underlying hardware (memory and CPU registers) work and how they don't work. In either case, your talking about lower division computer college courses to understand how these things work...

Thank you, i can see how things can get confusing so easily, i'm only in 10th grade (starting this september) so i have a couple years 'till i need to learn this but i want to figure out as much as i can now for preparation purposes, that and plain ol' curiosity. :thumb: Everything you guys know about it that you feel like sharing please tell me!

Good US colleges to consider are MIT, Southern Cal, and Georgia Tech. As Len said upper level math is required (GT requires Calculus 3 and Physics 2). But programming and environment design are just aspects of game design. Other areas include music development, character design, story development/dialog and the list goes on. So if the math and programming aren't your thing then there are other areas to explore.