   which program to use
  Hi,I have been looking into game development for a while. I now like to start with c++. I looked around and found several free IDE's such as codeblock and Dev-C++. I also installed Visual C++ Express 2005. I believe the latter uses the .Net Framework of which I am a bit reluctant because the end user will then also need to have the .Net framework installed. Or should I not be to worried about this? What would be the best option for game development (DirectX) in terms of speed and peformance? What are you guys using?Thanks,Safra   
  Best option for DirectX is Visual Studio, it be much easier to setup and start developing. You don't have to use the .net framework (not to my knowledge), its there as an 'extra'.I am currently using Code::Blocks nightly builds as I am using multiple cross compilers and the fact that it is much more lightweight then VC helps. However I will admit that VC does one of the best editors and debuggers around.   ;  If you are just starting out, you should most definitely use Visual C++ Express from Microsoft. Its free, easy to use, has an intuitive interface, standard compliant, many tutorials for it, and is extremely powerful. Visual C++ Express can use the .NET framework, but you do not have to. I would actually recommend against it, because if you want to use the .NET framework you are better off using Visual C# instead.DirectX and OpenGL are the major choices for game developement. There are millions of tutorials out there on how to use them, and they are fastest you can get without writing directly to the hardware. A few tutorial sites:UltimateGameProgramming (Both)NeHe (OpenGL)TripleBuffer (DirectX)And of course this site also has many tutorials on both DirectX and OpenGL. If you need more, [google] is your best friend.   ;  Thanks guys! If indeed you don't have to use .Net and you recommend Visual C++ Express would be my choice if only for the widely support of info and tutorials. I am using a directx game engine written in C++ (which I am already using with Delphi) so my main thing now is getting used with c++ in general (many tutorials out there) which is a lot more complex then Delphi at first sight. Can't believe though that Visual C++ Expres is completely free?? Are we allowed to distribute commercial applications made with it?   ;Quote:Original post by safraThanks guys! If indeed you don't have to use .Net and you recommend Visual C++ Express would be my choice if only for the widely support of info and tutorials. I am using a directx game engine written in C++ (which I am already using with Delphi) so my main thing now is getting used with c++ in general (many tutorials out there) which is a lot more complex then Delphi at first sight. Can't believe though that Visual C++ Expres is completely free?? Are we allowed to distribute commercial applications made with it?Yep, it's free and you're allowed to distribute commercial applications made with it.  If you want to develop native applications with it rather than using .NET you will have to perform the extra step of downloading and installing the Platform SDK (also free), but it's not particularly hard to do and is well worth the effort.  See the fourth step listed on the download page for instructions.Either Dev-C++ or Code::Blocks would also be perfectly fine to learn with, but they aren't as polished.   ;  I don't know about Express edition, but, if your worried about doing your project, you can select win32 application and it will not include the .Net architecture.  I was really frustrated and concerned when I started doing my coding in c++.  However, you can definitely avoid it.Frankly, it can save you a LOT of time if you do (which is ironic!).  .Net can be really hard to port to dev systems on other computers which are not updated.  I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for this, but, I just recently completed a grad school project, and it took me 3 hours to get .Net compatible (the solution was just repeated installing and uninstalling -  Frustrating!!!) -Jim   