help me
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/help me
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| hey, i'm new to the world of programming. I'm really trying to get the hang of it but written tutorials don't help me too much. could someone gimme a hand? I'm trying to write a title screen right now but i can't even get the screen to transition from one intro page to another... please help tnx |
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| Go here: http://www.2dgamecreators.com/ The tutorials on that site are better than everything in the official documentation combined. SpaceAce |
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| Additionally: don't fall into the trap of trying to do a (big) game first.. a game is hard and requires all kinda skills. Start easy, build-up slowly. |
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| airborne- forget about even trying to write something that's your own for now. You need to learn a bit of language. The best way to learn really is to find a simple bit of code, study the instructions and play with it. |
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| got a sample of the code in question that you can post here? I personally find other peoples code harder to understand than stuff I write myself. |
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| I have been messing around with codes in the tutorials. I tried to start out with something simple for ex. "opening credits/title screen" my major problem is i'm just trying to make the program transition. For example I'll write an opening page that contains one sentance. From there I cant get the page/and/or the sentance to fade to transition to a new page/and/or sentence. (yes, for some reason i'm have trouble remembering how to spell the word sentance) plz bear with me. for example: music composer: blah blah billy bob ------unknown transition---------- special effects designer: blah blah billy rodney.... |
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| I think another big problem of mine is the fact i'm trying to transition from RPG maker to this. Which in fact you can safely assume from being use to that I expect blitz to to more work than it can. I've noticed that this is a more from "scratch" type of thing. Not that its a bad thing "gives you waaaaayyyyyyy more options" but it makes it more confusing for a noob to know where to start. plus all this varible stuff is killing me, in other words i'm limited to speaking english not greek. |
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| take a look here http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=42519 |
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| You're definitely trying to do too much too soon. At this point, if someone wrote the entire transition code for you, it would be no use to you. You really need to either read the tutorials through slowly and carefully or just find something simpler. I know this probably seems simple after using a program which did all the hard work for you, but it's not all that simple for a beginner. It requires an understanding of program flow and control that you likely won't have yet. If you *REALLY* don't want to read the tutorials Perturbatio just posted, then go simpler. I know I learn better with a task ahead of me, then I have specific requirements and I learn them. For instance, you're not learning boring variables because the tutorial says they're important, you're learning them because it lets you do what you're trying to do. There's probably a fancy name for it, but I just think of it as solution-oriented learning as opposed to feature-oriented learning. You can only try, you may find it motivates you to learn more, as it does with me. It's hard to say without knowing your skill level in more detail, but at this point, I'd say a good starting point would be to learn how to write a program that does this : 1) Opens a graphics window. 2) Loads a 32x32 Image ( can be anything. A square, a circle ) 3) Moves the image around the screen when you press the cursor keys. 4) Stops the image from going off the edge of the screen. 5) Closes when you press the escape key. This will give you a very basic understanding of variables, graphics and program flow, and because it's so basic, if you can't do one part of it, and someone shows you how, there's a good chance you'll learn from it. I honestly don't think the transitions thing is going to help you learn anything right now. |
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| Iīm afraid you gotta start with the programming basics before you dive into fancy graphics stuff. You are now working with a real programming language, not a one-purpose tool like that game creator that you mentioned. In other words: There wonīt be a way around the "boring" stuff like "whatīs a variable", "where are my things stored", "whatīs a #?!$$§ control structure", "whatīs a function", "whatīs a method", "whatīs a class" and "whatīs the logic behind all this". You have to be willing to learn how things work, and you wonīt get there in a few hours or days. This can be VERY frustrating, so better ask yourself if learning programming is really what you want to do. And one other general advice: People here (or in any other forum) will not write your code for you, and it will also not get you anywhere if others are doing the job for you. Think about an approach first, write some code, and when you get stuck and -REALLY- do not know how to go on, post the code you are fighting with and somebody will probably help you fix it. But donīt expect anybody to write something for you from scratch. |
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| I'm not saying i want anyone to do anything for me. That's not why i started blitz thats why I transitioned from rpg maker. because of the simple fact that i wanted to get as close to scratch as possible. this way i'd have a lot more options. Like i've said i've gone thru and learned a good deal of things. I'm kindof just stuggling to figure out where to find terrain origins (basically where i can load them from.) maybe i am running into this a little too fast but this is something i really do have a passion for. and i'm not about to let anyone do things for me. I just didn't know where to start. |
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| maybe i am running into this a little too fast but this is something i really do have a passion for Good! You'll need that passion to help you force through all the boring crap like reading tutorials and doing really simple stuff that you could do in your sleep with RPG Maker. There's no getting around it though. If you don't do the fundamentals, you simply won't understand the explanations and assistance given when you ask wider-ranging questions like the transitions thing. Believe me, I've seen people who have been at it for months, maybe a year or more, and they still don't have the basic grasp of variables and program flow, because they avoided the fundamentals and tried to get ahead of themselves, asking specific questions and then cobbling together programs from chunks of code given to them by helpful forum members. You don't wanna be that guy. It would kill your passion stone dead. |
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| Yes, i'm currently doing that. Yes it is taking time, reading things over and over trying to figure out what it's talking about. Although I do feel like an ass asking stupid questions but like i've said i am noob to this world. thinking ahead..... when i do grasp this concept would it be a good idea to buy a gaming engine to go with blitz or is that something (with time) i could design myself? |
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| That's something you'll figure out for yourself as you learn. Everyone finds their own level, if they stick at it long enough. For my part, I'm a very pragmatic person. If someone has already written something which ( essentially ) does what I want, then I'll likely use it rather than waste time writing my own. If the existing solutions to a problem are not to my taste, I'll write my own. Others will almost always write their own version of everything, as a matter of pride, or of having things exactly how they want, or whatever. Still others will almost always stick to existing solutions because they don't feel comfortable writing libraries or engines, and they like to rely on other people's solutions, believing them to be more reliable. When you've got to the stage where you're comfortable with many or most of BlitzMax's language features and all the commonly used BRL modules, you'll either find yourself feeling a bit more adventurous and keen to learn and develop your skills, or you'll find yourself keen to keep working at the level you're at. BlitzMax comes with a good selection of modules and there are many more good ones out there for free too. If you did want to write your own ( I assume RPG? ) engine, then an awful lot of the low level stuff has been done for you. You could plug XML-file functions, reading from and writing to Zip files, BlitzMax's OpenGL and DX7 2d engines, etc, etc into a game engine of your own design very easily, and you'd really be left with just the core game engine, without touching the lower level stuff. You may well find that a lot of fun. |
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| thank you all for your help, I hope to find myself giving the same advice to someone else someday... |
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| Iīm sorry that I came across too rude, airborne. Didn't mean that. By the way, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers - like mine. ;-) Again, sorry. |
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| don't worry no insult was taken. I just figured you guys thought i was trying to "mooch" codes off you or something else i probably haven't even figured out yet. so i was trying to cut this topic fast to prevent anyone being insulted. I'm not the type of person to go around and make enemies with people. I've been writing a story since I was in high school that ever since i've been dying to make a game out of. I guess I was being a little impatiet trying to get a "leg up" in the programming world so I could finnally see my creation born "frankenstien effect" but I realize now thats not the way to go about creating a game. I suppose I didn't take the time to think that the more time I spend on it the more time I'll develop better programming skills and language. Once again thank you all and no hard feelings.....^_^ |
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| Im actualy going to go against the flow here. I dont think you are trying to do too much. Maybe you aim is a little high, but you are doing exactly the right thing in that you havent come on and said "How do I get my men to do this". You have asked a straigt forward question about screen fading and intro. This means that you have to some extent brokendown the game idea into seperate bits, and that even if you abbandon your game idea tomorrow you will still have the code to fade in and out a screen. If you are going to take the advice given here, that is to start with a smaller game, then make sure that whatever you do as this small game that it can be put into the larger project. (a brilliant thing with oop is the ease of this). I do think that you should look at some tutorials, but as long as you have the basic programming skills to know what a loop is and stuff, then there is nothing wrong with takeing "baby steps" towards you long term goal. Make sure that at this point you have the game structrue written down, this is bound to change, but it means that you can continue to advance, as you know where you are going. Good luck. Ps. Look see in the code archieve if there is code that might help at each stage. |
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