C# & OpenGL

lukin

I'm doing a C# game using OpenGL but I'm a complete newcomer to both.
There are lots of good tutorials on th web but can anyone recommend a good book on the subject?
Just a few basics on things like collision detection, AI, movement, texturing etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

satchmo

GameDev.net has a good section on books with reviews and such, would be a good place to start. I doubt you're gonna find many books on C# and OpenGL though, most people use it with C++ - you're better off going with the online tutorials for that.

lukin

Thanks satchmo, there are some good tutorials on that site here: http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=31#217
I can't d'load a hard copy of them and take them away though.
Pity.

aidan_walsh

lukin wrote:

Thanks satchmo, there are some good tutorials on that site here: http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=31#217
I can't d'load a hard copy of them and take them away though.
Pity.

Print them?

i_am_dogboy

How big is the game and how long have you got to work on it? Since you are using C# you could use managed direct 3d, it's nice and easy to learn and it's got loads of functionality built in, personally I prefer OpenGL but managed D3D is in my opinion a better opinion if you are just starting off. I haven't used OpenGL in C# yet but usually it's easy enough to follow tutorials in one language and apply it in another.

Did you look on the sharpgl web site? That's the only C# OpenGL binding I know of, surely they have at least some basic tutorials on their site.

As far as the collision detection, AI and mechanics are concerned you're not going to find many C# tutorials on them, but I'd say there's plenty of people with source willing to help out there. Have a look at the .net section in the gamedev forums.

www.gamasutra.com is a good site for general game related articles/tuorials etc. www.flipcode.com and www.thezbuffer.com both have a good amount of .net stuff on them.

lukin

i_am_dogboy wrote:

How big is the game and how long have you got to work on it? Since you are using C# you could use managed direct 3d, it's nice and easy to learn and it's got loads of functionality built in, personally I prefer OpenGL but managed D3D is in my opinion a better opinion if you are just starting off. I haven't used OpenGL in C# yet but usually it's easy enough to follow tutorials in one language and apply it in another.

Did you look on the sharpgl web site? That's the only C# OpenGL binding I know of, surely they have at least some basic tutorials on their site.

As far as the collision detection, AI and mechanics are concerned you're not going to find many C# tutorials on them, but I'd say there's plenty of people with source willing to help out there. Have a look at the .net section in the gamedev forums.

www.gamasutra.com is a good site for general game related articles/tuorials etc. www.flipcode.com and www.thezbuffer.com both have a good amount of .net stuff on them.

It's got to be done in OpenGL I'm afraid (college project).
I'll have a look at those links, thanks.

lukin

i_am_dogboy wrote:

www.gamasutra.com is a good site for general game related articles/tuorials etc. www.flipcode.com and www.thezbuffer.com both have a good amount of .net stuff on them.

Flipcode is shut down, thezbuffer is all DirectX stuff, gamasutra is mostly news on the game industry.

satchmo

The articles are still up on Flipcode, but they're not much use to a beginner. There's some good general GL tutorials here at Concordia university, and if you're using GLUT I reckon the lighthouse 3D tutorials are the best. (If you prefer SDL, check out SDL.NET).

Most of these will be aimed at C++, but it shouldn't be too much bother to port them to C# - at a guess I'd say the OpenGL stuff should be the same, just the windowing/interface stuff will be different.

lukin

satchmo wrote:

Most of these will be aimed at C++, but it shouldn't be too much bother to port them to C# - at a guess I'd say the OpenGL stuff should be the same, just the windowing/interface stuff will be different.

Is there a way you can change C++ code to C# in .NET? Some sort of command to convert it at the click of a mouse? Unlikely I suppose.

satchmo

Very unlikely. Some of the NeHe tutorials (as well as the bascode on the front page) have C# ports, you can probably work it out by comparing the two.

lukin

Thought so. I know you can convert java code to C#. I might try that.

i_am_dogboy

lukin wrote:

Flipcode is shut down, thezbuffer is all DirectX stuff, gamasutra is mostly news on the game industry.

Anything useful on gamasutra is in the features section, there are some really good articles on collision detection and AI, I think most of the are linked from the articles section on gamedev.net.

Most of the opengl code will be almost exactly the same in java as in C#, the only differences being GUI stuff and data structures in some cases. It'll be easier to convert from C++ than java I would think, seeing how C++ and C# support pointers directly and they pretty heavily in opengl, whereas in java you'll see loads of floatbuffers, intbuffers and other things that you won't necessarily have in C#.

You doing the games course in carlow by any chance?