Game engine

This book should get you going in 3D engine programming.

Hope this helps!

.. (sorry I posted in the wrong topic, you can delete this post)

Hey,

I'd have to reccomend the great [unfortunately unfinished] Enginuity series. It's got some pretty handy tips and even a workable overall design... I think you can get it from the articles section of this website. Outside of that, there really aren't that many useful online references [in my opinion...].

Hope this helps

--CJM

Is a Game Engine built similarly for a 2D and 3D game?

I want to create one for a 2D game.

I have never made an game engine myself, but I imagine that they would be built fairly similarly. I can't see the structure being that different for the basic things (albeit usually more complicated for 3d).

You could really get starting doing the small things now. Some memory management, creating a window and setting it up for graphics.

Kudos to you, BlackThirteen, for not wanting to go 3D right away; I would definitely recommend starting with a 2D engine.

As it happens, I've not seen all that many resources to help you build a 2d game engine, so I can't help you here except to say, look at source code. There are a few 2d games that are open-source or source released (Worminator being the only one that springs immediately to mind -- but beware of some not-so-good coding practices); check them out.

Hope that helps,
Twilight Dragon

P.S. - You are ordered to forget this as soon as you have read it, but I am working on a tutorial/article series on building a 2d tile-based platformer engine. Unfortunately, it'll be quite a while before I finish it. That's why I don't advertise it. But, stay tuned...

I second the recommendation for Enginuity (That's part 1, you can find the others in articles->Game Programming->General)
It's not compleate but you'll pick up a lot of tricks and design ideas from it.

I second David Eberly's books Game Engine Design and Game Engine Architecture for engine design and development, as they are core material on the subject.

Also the Enginuity series is great for getting the ideas flowing and thinking about overall design and structure.