"What is the scope of the projet?" is indeed an excellent question.
But there is a far more important question: "why are you starting this project?".
Let's take the game engine as example. To understand your motivations, answer questions like:
Do you want to create features that don't exist in existing game engines?
Do you want to just to learn how a game engine works?
Is it just a way to improve your skills in C++ / Git / CMake / OpenGL / etc?
Is it just a way to implement complex algorithms?
Do you really want people to use your game engine?
Do you want to create the next Unreal or Unity?
Answering questions like these help you understand what is your level of expectations.
Sometimes, the project is just a pretext to learn something. Sometimes, you need something that doesn't exist. Sometimes, you want to create something better that what exists.
For both you @miguelmj
and @Beau, as students, I guess your real goal was simply to improve your skills. And probably you multiple attempts were successful: you did learn a lot!
If I look at it from a perspective of learning something, I've learned so much over the course of these projects. My understanding of OpenGL is at a point far beyond what I ever even hoped for, and my C++ skills have improved as well, especially with knowing more about modern features of the language. CMake is also less awkward for me now.
I think I my motivation in many ways was trying to make something better than what currently exists. Doing graphics in C++ felt like it had two options--either bare metal or something really high level like Unity--and looking back at it that's not really true. I'm still working on my project, but I think dialing back my expectations and focusing on why I actually want to do it is helping a lot.
Exactly! I never intended anyone to use my engine/s, but I thought of my future self (and my potential projects) as a "client"... not sure if that make sense 😅
The last time I left that project unfinished I didn't feel bad or defeated, because I had learn a lot about different tools, software architectures, etc.
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Hey!
"What is the scope of the projet?" is indeed an excellent question.
But there is a far more important question: "why are you starting this project?".
Let's take the game engine as example. To understand your motivations, answer questions like:
Answering questions like these help you understand what is your level of expectations.
Sometimes, the project is just a pretext to learn something. Sometimes, you need something that doesn't exist. Sometimes, you want to create something better that what exists.
For both you @miguelmj and @Beau, as students, I guess your real goal was simply to improve your skills. And probably you multiple attempts were successful: you did learn a lot!
If I look at it from a perspective of learning something, I've learned so much over the course of these projects. My understanding of OpenGL is at a point far beyond what I ever even hoped for, and my C++ skills have improved as well, especially with knowing more about modern features of the language. CMake is also less awkward for me now.
I think I my motivation in many ways was trying to make something better than what currently exists. Doing graphics in C++ felt like it had two options--either bare metal or something really high level like Unity--and looking back at it that's not really true. I'm still working on my project, but I think dialing back my expectations and focusing on why I actually want to do it is helping a lot.
Exactly! I never intended anyone to use my engine/s, but I thought of my future self (and my potential projects) as a "client"... not sure if that make sense 😅
The last time I left that project unfinished I didn't feel bad or defeated, because I had learn a lot about different tools, software architectures, etc.