I'm impatient and was checking out the old tutorials on direct3d and wanted to know if they still hold up.
From what I've seen so far they are focused on Direct3D9 (and they're also super long), so is that whole scene still supported by Microsoft or would picking it up be a waste of time?
Also comparing the old tutorials to the new ones it's obvious a lot has changed, more specifically the reliance on the c std library over the c++ lib. As a C programmer I don't mind but I imagine many other things have changed as well.
So are the old tutorials still a good resource before god himself strikes us down with his direct3D11 knowledge?
Are the old tutorials chili approved?
-
albinopapa
- Posts: 4373
- Joined: February 28th, 2013, 3:23 am
- Location: Oklahoma, United States
Re: Are the old tutorials chili approved?
The old tutorials never made it to D3D.
The tutorials are still useful if you plan on learning programming in general, some C++ and some linear algebra ( matrix, vector stuff ), 2D box collision, alpha blending, bit twiddling, line clipping, circle/line collision ( HUGS series ) and so forth. Probably the most notable IMO of the old intermediate series was the finite state machine during his platformer tuts, which sadly were never finished. The old advanced series covered the math stuffs.
Basically, everything covered in the old series has now been refreshed in the new series ( Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced ) with the exception of finite state machines from what I can recall. Plus, the refreshed series has the 3D Fundamentals arc and his current Hardware 3D arc is going more in depth into the Win32 API than he ever did in the old series.
If you have completed the refresh of the beginner, intermediate and advanced series, you probably aren't going to pick up anything new from the old series.
-- Below is from memory, so you need to verify the validity on your own --
D3D 9 is still widely used, just check most games on Steam, they mostly support DX 9 hardware. Windows 7 was the first release of DX11 and is backward compatible with DX 9.1 up to DX 11.1 I believe. So if you plan on writing something that Windows XP users can use, you'll need to work with DX9 as well, since WinXP doesn't support DX11.
Windows Vista later on did support DX 11 I think, but I don't remember which update.
Basically, if you want to allow users of older video cards with newer operating systems or users with Windows XP to use your program, then you would need to make certain plans to accommodate those users.
The tutorials are still useful if you plan on learning programming in general, some C++ and some linear algebra ( matrix, vector stuff ), 2D box collision, alpha blending, bit twiddling, line clipping, circle/line collision ( HUGS series ) and so forth. Probably the most notable IMO of the old intermediate series was the finite state machine during his platformer tuts, which sadly were never finished. The old advanced series covered the math stuffs.
Basically, everything covered in the old series has now been refreshed in the new series ( Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced ) with the exception of finite state machines from what I can recall. Plus, the refreshed series has the 3D Fundamentals arc and his current Hardware 3D arc is going more in depth into the Win32 API than he ever did in the old series.
If you have completed the refresh of the beginner, intermediate and advanced series, you probably aren't going to pick up anything new from the old series.
-- Below is from memory, so you need to verify the validity on your own --
D3D 9 is still widely used, just check most games on Steam, they mostly support DX 9 hardware. Windows 7 was the first release of DX11 and is backward compatible with DX 9.1 up to DX 11.1 I believe. So if you plan on writing something that Windows XP users can use, you'll need to work with DX9 as well, since WinXP doesn't support DX11.
Windows Vista later on did support DX 11 I think, but I don't remember which update.
Basically, if you want to allow users of older video cards with newer operating systems or users with Windows XP to use your program, then you would need to make certain plans to accommodate those users.
If you think paging some data from disk into RAM is slow, try paging it into a simian cerebrum over a pair of optical nerves. - gameprogrammingpatterns.com
Re: Are the old tutorials chili approved?
Yeah, i'd just add that the version of D3D used in the framework doesn't matter, since all you're doing in the C++ tutorials is using putpixel.
There are many questionable practices shown in the old series, so I'd prefer if people learned from the new stuff. Plus they are long AF. As papa says, the platformer arc might be worthwhile. And although not technically part of the mainline, HUGS has quite a few juicy topics hidden in there (Direct Input, multithreading concepts, full screen bloom filter, scene/screen stack system, etc.)
There are many questionable practices shown in the old series, so I'd prefer if people learned from the new stuff. Plus they are long AF. As papa says, the platformer arc might be worthwhile. And although not technically part of the mainline, HUGS has quite a few juicy topics hidden in there (Direct Input, multithreading concepts, full screen bloom filter, scene/screen stack system, etc.)
Chili