Help on software development

Dboy85

RedXIV wrote: »

nothing major released yet, still in development for some projects, still in talks in others. lots to do still but has been very exciting

I'd imagine so! Be nice to be a couple of steps away from financial security:rolleyes:
If you release anything holla on the forums here...I'll BUY it out of support :P If your looking for a beta tester i'll kick the sh1t out of it for ya

red_river

Dboy85 wrote: »

I'd imagine so! Be nice to be a couple of steps away from financial security:rolleyes:
If you release anything holla on the forums here...I'll BUY it out of support :P If your looking for beta tester i'll kick the sh1t out of it for ya

....

Schism

red_river wrote: »

....

Nice contribution.

Dboy85

red_river wrote: »

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I think hes lost :pac:

Dboy85

Anybody got the c# for students book? I buy it from ye

YoungPayters

Dboy85 wrote: »

Anybody got the c# for students book? I buy it from ye

sure man, ill have it for ya monday, pm me.

Dboy85

Pm sent there! :pac:

Dboy85

What time of year and for how long is the work experence in 3rd year? Is it a summer placement or is it one day a week kind of thing?

Schism

Work experience starts in March and is for 4 to 6 months full time. They start to get you thinking about work experience after a few weeks. Interviews are going on now for placement in March.

If you can't get work / don't want to do placement there's a project that can be done between March and June, also full time.

Dboy85

Schism wrote: »

Interviews are going on now for placement in March.

Is there a set list of companies to pick from or can you choose yourself?
Can you head over seas if you wish

Schism

Dboy85 wrote: »

Is there a set list of companies to pick from or can you choose yourself?

If you can get a company to take you on in a role that's pertinent to the course then that's just fine, as far as I can gather.

Dboy85 wrote: »

Can you head over seas if you wish

Some of the placements the college is trying to arrange are in the US, another one is in Switzerland I believe.

RedXIV

Schism wrote: »

If you can get a company to take you on in a role that's pertinent to the course then that's just fine, as far as I can gather.

Just to clarify, they love when you do this off your own initiative

Dboy85

RedXIV wrote: »

Just to clarify, they love when you do this off your own initiative

I was thinkin of applyin to one of the big boys in the states and makin it a workin holiday. Plus Bioware or the like wouldnt look bad on the C.V.

I know its early days to be thinkin of it but if I got the nod from the college that it would count towards placement...i'd definatly go.

Where did ye do your placements?

RealistSpy

I think having a software development or computer science on your cv looks better than game development.

Dboy85

RealistSpy wrote: »

I think having a software development or computer science on your cv looks better than game development.

Its all subjective really. It depends on what position your applying for. I'd certainly hope i'll have an edge going for a games programming position.

RealistSpy

Games Development Seems so focused on purely games programming although I won't argue about how smarter you guys are.

On the other side Software Development opens the door for a Systems Analyst and a Programmer.

Dboy85

...your just jealous arent you? its ok studying business isnt that bad;)

RedXIV

awww you have so much to learn

They don't give a damn what your degree says, they care about your portfolio. Remember this

Dboy85

RedXIV wrote: »

awww you have so much to learn

They don't give a damn what your degree says, they care about your portfolio. Remember this

Im workin on the portfolio already but no harm havin a 2.1 or higher in games development now is there...if im lucky!

Dboy85

I wanna do some work experience this summer. Unpaid if necessary. Anyone got any ideas of places to apply to?

lil_lisa

Send me your email address and ill email you a list I used in third year which I got from Anita Kelly. After that if you want to go to the states look up craigslist.org for the city and you should be able to find unpaid and paid internships.

Dboy85

I appreciate the help but I'm wondering would companies take on a lowly 1st/2nd year for work experience?

RealistSpy

No!

Dboy85

RealistSpy wrote: »

No!

Haha alright! Is it from personal experience or opinion? It would be unpaid after all remember

lil_lisa

Yeah they would, I got a summer internship after 1st year!

Dboy85

lil_lisa wrote: »

Yeah they would, I got a summer internship after 1st year!

Deadly! Everyone else seems to think people wouldnt bother takin on 1st years. Cant wait to get an inside look at the industry and thanks for your help lisa.

RealistSpy

Try Havok in Dublin very nice place for intern you will only be shadowing someone though.

Dboy85

RealistSpy wrote: »

Try Havok in Dublin very nice place for intern you will only be shadowing someone though.

Its on my hit list dont worry! Thats all im expecting thb anythin at all looks better than a gap on a C.V. Would prefer to be dug into code instead of following someone round but im well aware what to expect.

Ive just realised this thread is like a blog of my education lol
Thanks all for helping so far!

RealistSpy

Sorry for Stealing this thread but no point starting a new one.

Can anyone here doing Java Programming give me a hand with java windows programming?
I am confused with the concept. (javax.swing and .awt) Grrrrrh! I just need to get the basics.

Dboy85

RealistSpy wrote: »

Sorry for Stealing this thread but no point starting a new one.

Can anyone here doing Java Programming give me a hand with java windows programming?
I am confused with the concept. (javax.swing and .awt) Grrrrrh! I just need to get the basics.

This looks relavent

RealistSpy

I will take a look at that when I get home thanks.

Dboy85

Does anyone disagree with changing from games to software dev will raise my chances of employment in ireland? I understand the games is more intense and I love that but its about career prospects at the end of the day. Will I have more prospects with a software qualification? Honest opinions from games graduates is what I seek...

RedXIV

All honesty? with the way the industry is at the moment, it's all about connections. don't underestimate how important contacts are when you're going to be looking for a job. I finished the games course and now am working for a software testing company that are just starting to get interested in games. It's not what i'd LIKE to be doing but I needed a job. I will say however that when I went for the interview/training for the job, I was with 11 other people, ten of which had IT degrees and none of them had the coding ability I did. And I'm not a great coder. The name of the degree may not be exactly what employers are looking for but from my experience of graduates of other IT courses, the games course will turn you into a proper coder. I know i'm biased but thats what i've seen. You may be more rounded and be able to focus on project management or software dev cycles if you do a different course but I still reckon you're better off doing games.

it depends what you want to end up doing. If you want to code for a living, stick with games, if you want to do general IT, then move

Dboy85

Sound advice there Red! I took the course knowing i'd have better coding ability at the end BUT...im getting nervous as i've a 2 year old and another on the way so te pressure is on big time to get going post grad :rolleyes:

RedXIV

know how you feel there, i've a 3 week old and when I heard she was coming I was panicking to get a job. On the bright side, the place I'm working in is hugely impressed by the quality of games grads so if you get stuck for work when you're finished let me know, i'll get you in with my crowd

Dboy85

Be carefull I might take you up on that offer Congratulations btw

Dave D

Hi guys, I was just looking at the course on the I.T's site Here and am going in to 3rd year. It says

Year 3: Mandatory Subjects
Advanced Programming
Operating Systems
Software Engineering
Work Placement/Project
Mathematics and Logic

plus two Elective
Data Structures & Algorithms
Digital Communications
Networks
Wide Area Networking

Do we get to individually pick our elective subjects or is it decided by the class as a whole or are the electives even offered anymore?

Elite_Etnisa

Hey guys,
Just browsing the thread ,
Im in 5 th yr right now and after picking my subjects im only wondering if not having physics would exclude me from doing games development in CIT because as far as i know its needed i dont know to what lvl tho.

Im doing hons maths and only biology as a science subjects and only thinking of software / game development i love programming but not sure of which yet. I also love whole database study .

Any special subjects needed ? . Would having hons maths in the leaving help me much in the college or would it be better to drop to ordinary and aim for better points as i do all honours any way.

Sorry for writing a letter

RealistSpy

Elite_Etnisa wrote: »

Hey guys,
Just browsing the thread ,
Im in 5 th yr right now and after picking my subjects im only wondering if not having physics would exclude me from doing games development in CIT because as far as i know its needed i dont know to what lvl tho.

Im doing hons maths and only biology as a science subjects and only thinking of software / game development i love programming but not sure of which yet. I also love whole database study .

Any special subjects needed ? . Would having hons maths in the leaving help me much in the college or would it be better to drop to ordinary and aim for better points as i do all honours any way.

Sorry for writing a letter

Physics at any level would be an advantage but since you have honors maths you are well set. As for programming and database, it would be best you go for software development course which you don't need physics for. Its really all about logical thinking.

RedXIV

As above, Honours maths is better to have than pass maths with Physics. Physics would be a slight advantage but I'd still recommend just concentrating on Honours maths, it'll help more in the long run.

As to Dave D's question, I honestly don't know but I doubt you'll be lost for long. they'll get started on that stuff very soon

Dave D

I'll just answer my own question encase anyone comes across this thread and wants to know too.
The electives are gone now that there is no 3rd year networking course. So the two subjects we do are Data Structures & Algorithms and Wide Area Networking.

Dboy85

Elite_Etnisa wrote: »

Hey guys,
Just browsing the thread ,
Im in 5 th yr right now and after picking my subjects im only wondering if not having physics would exclude me from doing games development in CIT because as far as i know its needed i dont know to what lvl tho.

Maths is all you need afaik. They teach you is as if you dont know anything so not having physics isnt gonna be the end of the world. Do what makes the work load easier on yourself.

Dboy85

C++ rules...

RealistSpy

Dboy85 wrote: »

C++ rules...

Yes it does

Dboy85

Pointers to objects and dynamic arrays are the new sex :cool:

Dboy85

Have any of you developed anything for android? I'm thinking of developing a small game for that platform during the summer but havent done any research so far. Any tips or is it straight forward enough?

Warez Dispenser

Use the eclipse compiler.
Know a bit of java.(see ebook)
Download The Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin for Eclipse

try this ebook to get you started...
http://hotfile.com/dl/69315000/ad4931f/androiddevelop.rar.html

Dboy85

For anyone thats following the tread the material for second year is:

Animation:
Blender is the software package they use in college for modelling. You'll be doing basic stuff like rigging and skinning aswel as keyframing. The software isnt industry standard but has everything you'll need to grasp the concepts. It also has its own game engine inbuilt. Its free to download legally too. Blender.org
Physics:
Craic starts here really, all about mechanics and newtons laws. The lectures can be a bit heavy but I didnt do physics at leaving cert level. Its still entirely doable. The labs put into practice the formulas and easier to learn this way through trial and error. Plus Dirmuid O Sea does tutorials so yer laughin.
Programming:
All c++ this year and is compared and contrasted with c# throughout so the step is gradual. The labs also help. It should come easy cos lets face it your trainning to be a programmer.
3D graphics and Audio:
Does what it says on the tin really. An introduction to opengl and rendering techniques. Projects keep you interested and help you learn.
Game Engineering:
Should be called software engineering, This subject teaches object oriented design and design process' such as the unified process. Also introduces Uml to help with design. Would of been useful in first year :rolleyes:
Human Computer Interaction:
Pete!! A lot about user interface and user interface design. Lab work is mostly to do with flash and consist of making a flash website for yourself to aid in finding employment.

The work load in first year was more intense for me as I had to learn programming from the start and re introduce myself to education. Once your in the learning mode with an open mind, espically in physics, you'll be grand.
Onwards and upwards eh!

Hope this helps.

Dboy85

I'm looking for industry work for the summer be it in a games development environment or a software house. Any of you out there already in employment that can do a fellow peer a turn by finding me placement, *cough RedXIV cough cough*? I would be eternally grateful m'lords.

RedXIV

Should have sent me a PM would have gotten here sooner

I can put you in contact with the HR reps of the companies I know? Can't guarantee work though?