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My Programming Journey So Far.

Alex Gwartney on May 04, 2018

It has been about 5 months now. Since I started making the change to pursue graphics programming. I have done a ton of work in that time. Between s...
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Patrick Simoes

You should take a look at c++ primer plus (developer's library) it is really a great book for reference. Since you want to learn the graphical part of coding I suggest you go to udemy and buy some course it is really cheap like 10 to 12 dollars on unreal engine which uses c++. You will learn how to create games and graphics.

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Alex Gwartney

Thanks for the help. I will take a look. Also are there any specific videos you might recommend course wise?

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Patrick Simoes

I bought "the ultimate guide to Game Development with Unity" it focus on the engine unity which is in C#, that is almost like a c++ but made by Microsoft translating your skills from c++ to c# shouldn't be too hard. Like I did from Java to c++. The other one I bought was "The unreal engine developer course - Learn c++ & make games" that is based on unreal engine and the language used is c++. I haven't started either because I was taking some classes at my college and it would be too hard to do everything. But I am planning on starting them this summer to at least create two games. I saw the reviews of the courses and they are really good. I think one the them is sponsored by the engine company itself, so one of the instructor works directly to either unreal or unity engines.

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Patrick Simoes

Are you studying in college for graphics programming. Or are you going for computer science and then specializing in graphics programming?

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Alex Gwartney

Computer science and then specializing in graphics programming.

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Alex Gwartney

Also thanks for the resources I will
Check them out. Also when you get going on the courses you should post some of your stuff. Would be cool to see what you are working with.

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Patrick Simoes

Definitely, but I'm not a really good writer. lol. I'm about to get my associates degree in computer science then I'm transferring hoping to graduate within the next 3 years.

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Alex Gwartney

Nice iam currently getting my bachelors. I got my associates a couple of years ago. Also Iam not great at writing either lol.

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ohadpr • Edited

I highly recommend Michael Abrash's Black Book of Graphics Programming. It came out in 1997 so its not going to cover the more modern things. What it does well is give you foundations and some great stories on the earlier history of computer graphics and game programming.

Abrash worked with John Carmack on the original Quake engine and shares lots of great stories. I consider both of these folks demigods.

amazon.com/Michael-Abrashs-Graphic...
github.com/jagregory/abrash-black-...

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Scott Tadman

Game Engine Architecture and Real-Time Rendering are both fantastic books and highly recommended.

For the C++ side of things some of the Scott Meyers books on "Effective C++" provide a lot of good advice on how to apply C++ to solving problems.

With C++ it's especially important to stick to new material, as older books, especially from the 1990s, pre-date a lot of the huge improvements brought about in C++11/14/17 which have dramatically changed how people write production C++ code.

Hope you're enjoying all that so far, and best of luck on your journey.

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Alex Gwartney

Thanks for the recommendations. I will have to take a look. And yea I definitely had to make sure the books I was getting were at least c++11 or hire. I have like three different ones two I use more as a reference. One of them being C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition by Stroustrup, Bjarne. Also, thank you and yea I am defiantly enjoying every bit of it thus far.