Programmer Magician Wanted

[keek]

I want to make 3D games, why you may ask? Well the first reason is I want to make the assets inside the game rather than just copy from someone else. I'm a 3D artist I can Polygon Model in 3Ds Max and am learning to make texture maps for my models. I CANNOT DRAW I cnanot make sprites at all.
Now can PyGame do 3D?

Personally, I am hoping for panda3d to be ported. It has a fast C++ backend and gives you the comfort of python.

 

[calc84maniac]

http://panda3d.org

Unsure if it will work on Pandora, but others have shown hope that it will.

Edit:
Aw man, double ninja'd? I'm getting slow...

 

[1magus]

Panda3D looks solid but the source would need to written for PowerVR I would think?

 

[torpor]

On this topic, I've ported WakeBreaker to the Touchbook AI OS (similar to the Pandora, same hardware) .. WakeBreaker is a very nice, light, simple, C++ game demo that gives you all you need to get started - 3D graphics, user input, a basic game engine, and so on..

If you want to check out the sources, here they are:

http://w1xer.at/touchbook/tbWakeBreaker/index.html

These sources will build on the Pandora too, although I haven't tested it yet, for obvious reasons. But I'll be updating the code as soon as I have a real Pandora to test with, so that anyone who wants to get started with writing/hacking a 3D game with C++ *on their Pandoras* can do so, pretty easily.

There is nothing complicated in this game demo - its a very simple game, but it has everything you need to get started with understanding things. You can learn a little C++, learn a little OpenGL ES 1.1, gain an understanding of things like reflection, model transformations, user input, particles, elementary physics, and so on .. and once we all have Pandora's I'm sure this codebase will be used for many, many other things by those who just want to get started with a basic game themselves ..

EDIT: I'm an idiot .. I didn't see that this was for the Dingoo A320 .. sorry, got Pandora on my brain. Obviously, I'm talking about the Pandora here ..

 

[euleberlin]

Well first off there are wayyy too many programming languages I mean which one do u start with?

Pixilang! :lol:

 

[relliker]

I find the newbie programming thread idea quite enticing.

Should we start said thread in the development forum or will we be introducing too much noise for the "pros" in there? If not where? In here it will be lost if not bumped up continuously or pinned.
I have already started bashing around with Python but am still at the very-early-rookie stage. Having other people write about their woes in a dedicated Pandora thread (or forum) would help tremendously.

For what it's worth I am finding Python the best overall language for every aspect of Pandora and generic Linux (and windows) programming. It runs everywhere (it's even on my phone), is cross-platform(no compilation once the interpreter is running on your system) and good enough for games, graphics, sound, music, bluetooth, generic apps and any other thing you can think of without having to get to grips with the intricacies of C and/or C++. I thought that the strict whitespace-centric syntax would put me off it but instead I am finding it very helpful and easy to understand what parts of the programs belong to which routines etc. I spent a couple of months trying to learn perl (being a sysadmin) to help me get off 14 years of shell scripting but fell in love with Python on my first encounter with it (thanks to colleagues at work who are full-time Python developers) and made the switch without a second thought.

Don't let the "interpreted" magic word put you off (speed-wise). A routine I had written in bash (also interpreted) that took 5+ hours to finish executing took just 12 minutes when re-written in Python.

So, anyone willing to take this further?

 

[TrashyMG]

But how does learning Python or Basic help us program the Pandora? I mean aren't those languages resource intensive?

Both Languages are good starter languages to get into the groove of programming.. Basic isn't used so much any more... Python in my opinion is a very decent language, it's powerful and versatile.

As for programming on the Pandora.. Python may be a good place to start, but C, C++ and assembly may be the best. I think people are saying you have to start somewhere.

 

[XxionxX]

I would love a thread about beginning programming! I really like this community because of how friendly and responsive they are. Most communities tend to let questions fall to the wayside while this community picks up all the questions and runs with them.

I have done quite a bit of digging because I am just starting out myself, but the best resource for learning python I have come across is this tutorial on game making. I haven't found anything else even close to being similar. This guide walks you though several projects and explains everything they use. I also like the python IRC channel they answer all of my questions. What I really want to make are web applications, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

 

[rabidpoobear]

I'm a professional programmer and have been using Python for ALL my personal projects (except emulation and a few select cases where I need a bit of extra speed) for the last 8 years or so. I've also been one of the top respondents on the Python Tutor mailing list for the last 5 years or so.

If you guys need help, just start the thread and somebody PM me the link, and I'll try to answer all your questions.

For all those guys who eventually want to get into emulation programming, I'm writing a tutorial on emulator writing that starts out in Python with a Chip-8 emulator and progresses to C/C++ for Gameboy / NES / Genesis / SNES / etc. You'll need to be somewhat familiar with Python and OO first though. And eventually with C. But you need not know anything about emulators.

In the meantime, codeslinger's emulator tutorials are pretty okay. http://codeslinger.co.uk/

 

[XxionxX]

If you guys need help, just start the thread and somebody PM me the link, and I'll try to answer all your questions.

This is exactly what I was talking about. This forum is the best!

 

[yannv]

Yes, if you're looking for ultra-high performance number-crunching, Python may not be your best choice. But neither is the Pandora. If you're writing emulators that are pushing the edge of the Pandora's hardware, Python may not be your best choice. For most things you might dare to do without years of experience and education in programming, Python is an excellent choice.

If it's really number crunching, it'll do just fine - but you have to think in scale, as with Matlab. Python is actually quite popular for scientific computations precisely because it's so high level.
If you're interested: NumPy, PyOpenCL, MDP, MMTK and many more.

Of course, that is rather off topic, as you probably won't use that for games (unless you're making a Liqud Wars successor) or on a handheld like the Pandora. But you still could.