DirctX 9.0 SDK And Visual Basic

[ToyImp]

I am wanting to start getting into games programming with visual basic
and DX. What I need to know is what is the best version of VB to use. I
currently have 6.0 that I got from my college that I am going to school
at for VB programming. I also downloaded 2005 express edition but not
sure if its limited to certain things with DX.

Also I am wanting to know how easy, or hard, it is to use DX and VB to
create 3D games. I know its not going to be a walk in the park. Any
tips or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Michael C]

I am wanting to start getting into games programming with visual basic
and DX. What I need to know is what is the best version of VB to use. I
currently have 6.0 that I got from my college that I am going to school
at for VB programming. I also downloaded 2005 express edition but not
sure if its limited to certain things with DX.

Also I am wanting to know how easy, or hard, it is to use DX and VB to
create 3D games. I know its not going to be a walk in the park. Any
tips or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

VB6 is a poor choice for using DirectX. VB2005 would be a better choice as
it has DirectX libraries. Although if you are serious about creating games
then you would be better starting in C++.

Michael

 

[ToyImp]

Can I still make the games through 2005 Express though or should I
upgrade?

 

[Michael C]

Can I still make the games through 2005 Express though or should I
upgrade?

I haven't used express but I'd guess you could. If you have access to the
directX managed libraries then it should work.

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

ToyImp,

The DX team has not yet reached this milenium, they are only ready for C++.

The support a little bit more C# because that they can understand that a
little bit, VB.Net is to complex for them.

I hope that you understand what I want to say with this.

Cor

 

[Michael C]

ToyImp,

The DX team has not yet reached this milenium, they are only ready for
C++.

The support a little bit more C# because that they can understand that a
little bit, VB.Net is to complex for them.

I hope that you understand what I want to say with this.

What a load of rubbish. VB6 is simply not suited to a task such as directX
because it uses too many resources to create each object. It's just not
feasible to create the large number of objects required for directX.

Michael

 

[rowe_newsgroups]

I would have to agree that C++ is the language you should use for
creating serious games. But it all depends on how serious of a game
devoloper you want to be. If you want land a job with a top game
studio, go for C++, but if you just want a new hobby then go for C# or
vb. If you just want to check out the possibilities, I would recommend
learning C# (it's not too hard to go from vb to C# - it's mostly
syntax) and trying out microsoft's new XNA studio. Both downloads (C#
express and XNA game studio) are free, so you would at least figure out
if game programming is something you want to do without losing any
money or making serious language switches (vb to C++).

Thanks,

Seth Rowe

 

[Nip]

Hi TiyImp

DirectX and Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition work together, I have this
setup on my notebook.
Anyway, if you want to code a serious game for Windows you should learn C++
and DirectX. If you want to code serious games for Windows, Linux and MacOS
you should learn OpenGL and C.

Regards
Nip

 

[Patrice]

If you want to just "play" with DX, Managed Code is no doubt your best
option.

The current DX Managed libraries will be superseded. Try instead
http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/xna/gse/ (though the IDE is C#, you could
use the new Managed Assemblies from VB 2005 if you really prefer).

 

[ToyImp]

lol Now i am even more confused on what I should do. I am mainly just
doing this as a hobby. I know VB6 a lot but not for making games, so
this is the first time I'll be messing with the DX SDK. I used to use
DarkBasic for making games but it is just too restricted on the things
that you can do and its not really all that great. You can't even have
text input on anything. If 2k5 works well with DX then I am going to
start out with that for a bit and then if it seems that its not going
to work well then I'll switch to C#. I do know the basics of C# but
never really got into it that much. I just like the ease of use with
VB.

The whole thing of Cross platform isn't really an issue at the time
being. If I make a game that I think would do well as shareware or at
least one that people would actually play then I'll port it.

Any more ideas let me know. Thanks for the replies.