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Author Topic: I'm here now where do I start?  (Read 3654 times)

Offline 7_down

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I'm here now where do I start?
« on: July 17, 2011, 12:09:35 pm »
Hello. I am a n00b and I always wanted to make computer games. I'm a computer science student. I've learned structured programming, c, and I'm halfway through learning object oriented programming, c++. I've also taken SQL but I don't think that's helpful unless you use it multiplayer somehow. So far my programming has been limited to the console. I'm also taking the first level of calculus. I intend to go all the way to linear algebra.

It is a personal goal in of mine to make computer games. I want to set down an idea or a story on paper and organize my friends into a semblance of a development team and make the games we have always wanted to play. To that effect I feel I need to understand everything about computer game development. I have come wanting to learn how to integrate various libraries such as a graphics engine, a network library, a physics library, and an AI library into the rest of the game code. I want to learn what I specifically need to plan for when I have an idea for a game. How is the user supposed to interact with the program? Is the game going to be deeply immersive or lightly coded and fast paced?

I come offering UFO:AI my potential. I want to learn and I believe UFO:AI could use my help. I have both a windows and linux machine. I bought every X-com game until Interceptor killed the franchise for me. I have coded using both Visual Studio 2008 and gcc. I would love to do some work for the graphics engine but without higher-level math skills that might be out of the question. The other thing I would personally enjoy is diagramming out the AI, coding it, and then play testing it. However, for the time being I will just be happy doing whatever tasks need to be done and gently integrating myself into the project. So where do I go from here? The bug lists?

Offline H-Hour

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Re: I'm here now where do I start?
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2011, 01:05:10 pm »
I recommend you get on the IRC channel and talk to mattn or geever. They are the two most active programmers, as far as I know.

As a non-programmer, I would say I am most eager to see you work on the AI.

Offline Mattn

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Re: I'm here now where do I start?
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2011, 08:24:49 pm »
you left too fast from irc ;)

we have a todo list for the 2.4 release - it would be great if you could help with it
see here

if you have questions - (re-)join the irc and ask them there, the channel is logged, so even if you don't an answer in a few minutes, we might answer later - see here

Offline 7_down

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Re: I'm here now where do I start?
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2011, 12:22:48 am »
I'm sorry about that Mattn. Anyway, I have downloaded git and I am currently downloading the source code and reading through the todo list. After I compile the code I'll see which problems I can recreate and go from there.

I have a couple of questions and forgive me if these get answered after I download the source code.

1. Are there any diagrams showing how the source files and functions are suppose to work together?

2. Is there a document on how to use the in-game console?

Offline Mattn

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Re: I'm here now where do I start?
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2011, 07:18:45 am »
we have some technical documentation here:

  http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Technical_Documentation

no, there is no docu for the in-game console yet.
* you open it with shift+esc and close it with esc
* you can use cvars and console commands there
** type cvarlist and cmdlist to get a list of them
* console commands are those that are registered via Cmd_AddCommand or confuncs from the ui scripts (base/ufos/ui)
* cvars are configuration variables that are created via Cvar_Get from the code side, you can also create them from the script or console side with the cvar commands registered in the ui code or in cvar.c (set, del, add, sub, ...)

Offline 7_down

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Re: I'm here now where do I start?
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2011, 10:55:27 pm »
Thank you