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Creating Games in C++: A Step-by-Step Guide
- By David Conger, Ron Little
- Published Feb 21, 2006 by New Riders.
Book
- Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
Description
- Copyright 2006
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-7357-1434-7
- ISBN-13: 978-0-7357-1434-2
Do you love video games? Ever wondered if you could create one of your own, with all the bells and whistles? It’s not as complicated as you’d think, and you don’t need to be a math whiz or a programming genius to do it. In fact, everything you need to create your first game, “Invasion of the Slugwroths,” is included in this book and CD-ROM.
Author David Conger starts at square one, introducing the tools of the trade and all the basic concepts for getting started programming with C++, the language that powers most current commercial games. Plus, he’s put a wealth of top-notch (and free) tools on the CD-ROM, including the Dev-C++ compiler, linker, and debugger--and his own LlamaWorks2D game engine. Step-by-step instructions and ample illustrations take you through game program structure, integrating sound and music into games, floating-point math, C++ arrays, and much more. Using the sample programs and the source code to run them, you can follow along as you learn.
Bio: David Conger has been programming professionally for over 23 years. Along with countless custom business applications, he has written several PC and online games. Conger also worked on graphics firmware for military aircraft, and taught computer science at the university level for four years. Conger has written numerous books on C, C++, and other computer-related topics. He lives in western Washington State and has also published a collection of Indian folk tales.
Downloads
Downloads
Months of effort by both author David Conger and his book team went into creating this book. However, despite all of our best efforts some errors made it through our editing and technical review process. Below are the 2 main problems readers may experience with the first printing of Creating Games with C++. Please read and follow these instructions supplied by the author. We hope this will enable you to better enjoy the book. Problem 1 - The installation instructions for OpenAL were accidentally omitted. You’ll recognize this problem when the compiler tells you it can’t find functions whose name starts with al. Example: alGenBuffers or alDeleteBuffers. Complete instructions can be found in the "openAL.zip" ZIP file. Problem 2 - The instructions for linking in Chapter 4 are not detailed enough. You’ll recognize this problem when the linker tells you it can’t find functions whose name starts with al. Example: alGenBuffers or alDeleteBuffers. Complete instructions can be found in the "openAL.zip" ZIP file.
Sample Content
Online Sample Chapters
An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming for C++ Game Developers
Introducing Object-Oriented Programming
Updates
Errata
Errata for ISBN 0735-71434-7 - 16 KB - download errata.pdf
1). You must be linked to all of the libraries needed. Not most, but all.
The libraries must be specified in the correct order.
- From the Dev-C++ main menu, choose "Project" and then click "Project
Options". - In the Project Options dialog box, click the "Parameters" tab.
- On the Parameters page, highlight and delete anything you find in the
list labeled “Linker”. - Click the "Add Library or Object" button.
- Navigate to the Dev-C++ library folder. The path is probably
C:\Dev-Cpp\lib. - In the Dev-C++ library folder, find the file ALut.a. Highlight it and
click the "Open" button. - Repeat steps 3-5 for each of the following files. They MUST be
specified in the order shown here. Any other order will cause linker
problems.
libOpenAL32.a
ALu.a
ALc.a
Libwinmm.a
Libopengl32.a
2). To Install OpenAL:
- 1. Start Dev-C++.
- From the main menu, choose Tools and then click Check for
Updates/Packages. - In the dialog box that appears, pull down the list labeled Select
devpack server and select devpack.org Community Devpacks. - Scroll the Available Updates list until you find OpenAL. The list
is in more or less random order, so you’ll just have to keep scrolling until
you find it. - Click the checkbox next to OpenAL so that a check mark appears. Now
click the Download Selected button. - A dialog box eventually appears notifying you that the download is
complete and that installation will begin. Click OK. - The Dev-C++ Package Installation Wizard starts. Accept all of the
default values. - After the Dev-C++ Package Installation Wizard finishes, open
Windows Explorer and navigate to your Dev-C++ directory. Your Dev-C++
directory is probably located at c:\Dev-Cpp. - In your Dev-C++ folder, you’ll find a folder for OpenAL called
OpenAL-0.099-mingw. It contains a folder called lib. The entire path to the
lib folder is probably c:\Dev-Cpp\OpenAL-0.099-mingw\lib. Copy the contents
of your c:\Dev-Cpp\OpenAL-0.099-mingw\lib to your Dev-C++ lib folder. Your
Dev-C++ lib folder is probably located at c:\Dev-Cpp\lib. So your copying
all of the files from c:\Dev-Cpp\OpenAL-0.099-mingw\lib to c:\Dev-Cpp\lib. - The c:\Dev-Cpp\OpenAL-0.099-mingw\lib folder contains a file called
OpenAL32.dll. Copy that file to your Windows system folder. It will either
be C:\Windows\System32 or C:\WinNT\System32, depending on the version of
Windows that you use.
OpenAL is now ready for your use.
Note: If you write a game and sell it, your installation program must
install OpenAL32.dll into your customers’ Windows system directory. If it
does not, your game will not work on their computers.
3). The book states the file structure for the LlamaWorks2D folder is
LlamaWorks2D\Source. This is incorrect.
For the book‚s first printing, they are in Tools\LlamaWorks2D.
For the second printing, they will be in the correct location:
Tools\LlamaWorks2D\Source