Member Avatar for kishjeff

Hi.
I know some java and a fair amount of c++.
I can get my hands on the free borland compiler at least.
I'll be happy to use something higher level if it makes the job alot simpler.

My goal/desire:
write a program that can build and display a 3 dimensional image of say, blocks.
It would be four sided and hollow like a square well.
The user can look at it and even move it around/zoom if they want to.
The program highlights briefly a sequence of bricks under the programs control, and
says an value/generates a word or sound bite that goes with it.
When the sequence is done the user attempts to identify with the mouse the blocks that have been identified by the program, via a mouse click.
The program decides how many were clicked successfully, and reports it.

The actual program would be a bit more compilicated than this, however this is the crux of it. The program is for personal use, at least at first.

So, what is a good environment for slapping something like this together to run on, say, Windows XP? logo, opengl, etc...? I'm looking for something that is quick to develop in, and free, as it is not a commercial venture, and like I said, for personal use.

I'd like to be able to read/write the file system as well to save levels etc.

thanks
Jeff

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rick22

Dani AI

Generated

A short, practical roadmap that fills gaps in the replies from , , , and — focused on getting a working prototype on Windows XP with minimal fuss.

For a fast prototype (few hours → few days): model the world as a simple 3D grid (voxel array). Render one cube primitive per filled cell; if the grid gets large, switch to instancing/VBOs or a simple frustum/occlusion test. Keep scene state separate from rendering so saving/loading is trivial.

Minimal on-disk format (human-readable, easy to implement):

# width height depth
10 6 10
# then depth slices, rows of cell IDs (0 = empty)
0 1 0 0 2 ...
...

Serializers: plain text for early work, move to JSON/binary only if needed.

Two simple pick strategies (both robust on XP):

  • Color picking (easiest): render to an offscreen buffer where each cube draws with a unique encoded RGB value, read the pixel at mouse coords, decode to index. Works with fixed-function or modern GL and avoids ray math.
  • Ray-AABB tests (more flexible): compute the view ray for the mouse and test against each cube's axis-aligned box; accelerate with a spatial grid if needed.

Example color-encode:

uint32_t id = index+1; // 0 reserved
uint8_t r = id & 0xFF;
uint8_t g = (id >> 8) & 0xFF;
uint8_t b = (id >> 16) & 0xFF;

Camera and interaction: implement an orbit camera (yaw/pitch around center) controlled by mouse drag and wheel zoom. Highlight sequence by toggling a per-cube state (flash color/material), play short sounds with a tiny audio library or the OS sound API, then collect clicks and compare indices.

Tooling notes (complements earlier replies): pick an environment that provides easy window/input and audio (small helpers like SDL/SFML or a lightweight engine) so time is spent on game logic not boilerplate. On XP, prefer simpler GL paths (fixed function or small shader set) to avoid driver incompatibilities.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for DangerDev

if u r looking for free dev envi go for linux c c++ java gtk++ etc.

commented: See forum rules on "text-speak". You should understand this after 125 posts. -1
Member Avatar for kishjeff

Thanks, but I'm 'stuck' with XP. I don't have linux installed, and don't want to invest the time in moving things around so I can dual boot for development on that platform. I know Linux is excellent, but I'd have more learning curve than I want to invest at this point in time.

Member Avatar for Ezzaral

Take a look at the NeHe OpenGL tutorials found here: http://nehe.gamedev.net/

It should get you up to speed pretty quickly on the basics.

You certainly don't need to use Linux unless you just happen to want to.

Member Avatar for kishjeff

Yeah, I looked at those and they are definitely an option. I'm just trying to get a handful of options to evaluate and choose from.

regards, and thanks again (much)
Jeff

Member Avatar for jwenting

Java3D is an option, or Visual C++ (the Express edition is free).
Borland/Codegear has Turbo C++ Explorer for free.

All can do OpenGL, Visual C++ (and Borland too with some work) can also do Direct3D.

Member Avatar for rick22

i think difference is between using it on either 16 or 32 bit operating systems,,,nd d ghi interface is also damm good

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