   I have an interview with Rare (mircosoft game studios) openGl/directX?
  I just want to say thanks for the info on the other post, will delete it shortly if everyones finished with it.I need a quick answer to my question so i have create a new post , will delete this one when i find out what i need 2 know.I have an interview with rare(mircosoft game studios) in a few weeks and need to show some sample work. Whats project is best to create, demonstate my skills and what graphics library to use?need a really good little project because i only have 2 weeksish to do it in.   
  First, don't worry about deleting your posts. As long as they contain informative content its better if they stick around, so that other people with the same questions may stumble upon them and get answers.Second, I suspect it doesn't matter whether you elect to use OpenGL or D3D; interviewers (particularly those at Microsoft; please check your anti-Microsoft "they won't hire you unless you know their API" feelings at the door!) are going to be concerned more with your general 3D programming ability than with your knowledge of any particular API. It should be expected that a competent programmer can learn a new API for a knowledge domain he is already familiar with within a reasonable period of time.Third, a project built in haste over a two week period is likely to be brittle and less impressive than one built over a longer period of time. If you've got other projects that you have built, I would show them as well. If you've claimed a reasonable degree of ability in a particular subject area but have only one small project to show for it, that's going to shed doubt on your claims.Consequently you should select which 3D API you are already most familiar with and can or have produced the most impressive demos in. Your project should demonstrate YOUR knowledge, not the knowledge that somebody else on these forums (myself included) thinks you should know. You want to demonstrate the peak of your ability.   ;  More important than showing off a masterpiece of game is that you show maturity in your programming.This means choosing to use libraries where you don't want to invent the wheel again.Good and structured code (comments, good class separation etc.)Show your ability to solve problems (not only steal code)So create something small that is your view of how to implement code. Not necessarily the next world of warcraft.btw: Good luck!   ;  Rare are exclusively microsoft for the time being (in non-portable consoles at least) so they may well want to see some DirectX skills and possibly that you have taken an interest in what D3D10 will be like.However, on the Rare site they do say that they are happy to accept demos with either OpenGL or DirectX.If you have no prior experience with either and are going for a full-time, full paid job at Rare (not just an internship) then you might be better focusing your attention on some other aspect of game making. Have your c/c++ polished and be prepared to code at the interview. Maybe show examples of games you have written that don't have flashy 3d graphics (or even flashy graphics at all ..text based).My advice is play to your strengths and if you have gotten as far as the interview stage then there must be something on your CV they liked so don't try to go out of your way to learn piles of new stuff in a short period of time.For the intial question, with all the context removed, I would say go for DirectX. You will have to learn it in the long run and it was designed with games in mind. D3DX and the DXUT will help you get some simple demos off the ground quickly and you won't have to piece together a framework in a short period of time just to try out some shader effects or play with some imported meshes.Let us know how the interview turns out [grin]Best of Luck,ViLiO   ;  Going for the internship, are you? Cool. I went for the interview last year. If it's the same, you'll meet some of the Rare guys, have a chat with them, then do a test. The test was pretty easy (although, having said that, I was the only person at my uni to pass it, and a lot of the people who were interviewed with me failed, too). There were some questions on basic 3D and matrix math and conversions (dec to hex, dec to binary, etc.), along with some programming questions ("What's wrong with this piece of code?"), and some basic written answer questions ("Suggest reasons why Xbox Live! is only available over a broadband internet connection."). If you fail the test, you go home. If not, you do a video interview, and this gets sent to Rare. If they call you back, you'll go to Rare to have an interview, and they'll see your demos there. You probably have until after Christmas to put something together.This is all assuming that they haven't changed it much from last year.As others have said, make sure your C/C++ is at or near a professional level, and don't worry too much about the API you make your demo(s) in. Take a look at D3D10, have a look at the D3D demos in the DirectX SDK, and just generally familiarize yourself with it. You will probably end up using it.I haven't applied this year. Probably should have, but I'm kind of disillusioned at the moment, and the Rare interview last year has played some part in that.   ;  Uhm... well, what ARE your skills? How would you suggest a stranger how to show off his skills without knowing what he's good at? What platforms is the company developing for? When you say MS I would guess Windows and XBox, so obviously D3D and whatever passes as D3D on the boxes would be what they prefer (but knowing one it shouldn't be hard to learn the other, so that shouldn't make the difference between being "you're hired" and "don't call us, we won't call you"). But unless you have equally good knowledge of both the obvious answer would be: whichever you have more experience with, as you don't have time to waste on learning some API with only 2 weeks to go.But what kind of job are you applying for, anyway? What in terms of previous projects do you have lying around? Just to avoid the awkward moment of "uhm, oh.. okay.. that's.. uh.. nice.. so, what else do you have?"   ;  Trienco - to answer your question not alot, i wrote a program to solve a sudoku, is that any good?thanks ViLiO, will probs do D3D10 if i can.I have learnt the basics of SDL but didn't like it much."have a chat with them, then do a test" - yeah thats what there emailed me about, and said the test was compiled by rare.I guess I will have to do some learning in basic 3D and matrix math and conversions then, i was going to learn it anyway and learn some physics.I think my AI learning is going to be put on hold for a while.cheers iNsAn1tY will Let you know how I get on.   ;Quote:Original post by Ultimate_FusionTrienco - to answer your question not alot, i wrote a program to solve a sudoku, is that any good?Well, at least it means you know what sudoku is (while I first had to google it). But I would say it would demonstrate some problem solving skills and figuring out rules and mechanics behind a problem to develop a method to solve them. Unless the program was just brute force testing all combinations until one was valid. Though most AI problems are giving me head aches and someone else would be better suited to judge how good/smart/efficient your approach was. With all the crappy AI in most games one would hope that being good at it will get you easily hired. Or at least one should be, because that "but they are zombies, zombies are SUPPOSED to be complete 'tards" excuse is getting a bit old ,-)   