Comments on: Tools for Teaching http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/ Tracking the latest developments in interactive rendering techniques Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:17:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Herramientas para enseñar diseño de juegos | CG News http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-331 Herramientas para enseñar diseño de juegos | CG News Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:20:58 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-331 [...] Link [...] [...] Link [...]

]]> By: Real-Time Rendering · 7 Things for February 8 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-287 Real-Time Rendering · 7 Things for February 8 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:10:32 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-287 [...] resource I didn’t recall for my blog entry about tools for teaching about graphics and game creation: Kodu, from Microsoft. For grade [...] [...] resource I didn’t recall for my blog entry about tools for teaching about graphics and game creation: Kodu, from Microsoft. For grade [...]

]]> By: Reg http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-285 Reg Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:28:25 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-285 There is also AMD RenderMonkey - nice environment to play with shaders, more lightweight than FX Composer. As for programming, IMHO it's hard to learn basics while trying to make game. I mean, how can anyone manipulate actors or blocks if he doesn't know what is variable, loop or function call? And for someone who already knows programming a little and wants to code graphics (not only gamplay) starting from pure Direct3D or OpenGL is not so bad idea. There is also AMD RenderMonkey – nice environment to play with shaders, more lightweight than FX Composer.

As for programming, IMHO it’s hard to learn basics while trying to make game. I mean, how can anyone manipulate actors or blocks if he doesn’t know what is variable, loop or function call? And for someone who already knows programming a little and wants to code graphics (not only gamplay) starting from pure Direct3D or OpenGL is not so bad idea.

]]> By: Real-Time Rendering · 7 Things for February 8 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-280 Real-Time Rendering · 7 Things for February 8 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:38:11 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-280 [...] resource I didn’t recall for my blog entry about tools for teaching about graphics and game creation: Kodu, from Microsoft. For grade [...] [...] resource I didn’t recall for my blog entry about tools for teaching about graphics and game creation: Kodu, from Microsoft. For grade [...]

]]> By: Real-Time Rendering · 7 Things for February 6 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-279 Real-Time Rendering · 7 Things for February 6 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:19:29 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-279 [...] site is Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, from Fall 2008 (and I approve: they use Python!). There’s only one computer graphics course, from 2003, but it covers unchanging principles [...] [...] site is Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, from Fall 2008 (and I approve: they use Python!). There’s only one computer graphics course, from 2003, but it covers unchanging principles [...]

]]> By: bdb http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-270 bdb Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:54:38 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-270 I'll second the recommendation for Scratch. It's a great place to start with programming 2d graphics especially for K-8 students. I've had success making games with my kids (boys, 9 and 10 at the time). Scratch was inspired by Etoys (www.squeakland.com), and both are written in Squeak. I think Scratch is more accessible and has become more popular largely because of the ease of posting creations to the scratch.mit.edu website with a single click where anyone can then play them in the browser using a java runtime. I've also had success with Pygame with my nephew (high-school aged at the time). From there he moved on to Povray and gimp scripting to follow his graphics programming interests. I’ll second the recommendation for Scratch. It’s a great place to start with programming 2d graphics especially for K-8 students. I’ve had success making games with my kids (boys, 9 and 10 at the time).

Scratch was inspired by Etoys (www.squeakland.com), and both are written in Squeak. I think Scratch is more accessible and has become more popular largely because of the ease of posting creations to the scratch.mit.edu website with a single click where anyone can then play them in the browser using a java runtime.

I’ve also had success with Pygame with my nephew (high-school aged at the time). From there he moved on to Povray and gimp scripting to follow his graphics programming interests.

]]> By: Blind Renderer http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-269 Blind Renderer Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:58:11 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-269 I thought UDK has a royalty option, which is very affordable. It's $99 only upfront and 25% on revenue over $5000. I personally found this option is far better than Unity if you need full-featured game engine: Unity's free version lacks of certain things, like post-process effect. I thought UDK has a royalty option, which is very affordable. It’s $99 only upfront and 25% on revenue over $5000. I personally found this option is far better than Unity if you need full-featured game engine: Unity’s free version lacks of certain things, like post-process effect.

]]> By: tartley http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-268 tartley Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:56:47 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-268 If you're considering using Python, then pyglet is a viable alternative library to Pygame. http://pyglet.org/ It is smaller and not as popular, but is great if you want a leaner and more lightweight library. It requires no binary dependancies, unless you are playing sound or video. It works on Windows, Mac or Linux. It provides full OpenGL bindings, so full 3D (including shaders) is easy to do, and it provides some utility classes to help you batch up sprites (textured quads) or vertex drawing into as few openGL render calls as possible, separated by as few state changes as possible, with verts packed into contiguous arrays in VBOs. (Good for performance) Every six months or so is the 'PyWeek' challenge, to create a game in a week, written in Python. This sees lots of entries using both Pygame and pyglet. http://www.pyweek.org/ Last one was August, so I speculate that we may be due another sometime soon. If you’re considering using Python, then pyglet is a viable alternative library to Pygame.

http://pyglet.org/

It is smaller and not as popular, but is great if you want a leaner and more lightweight library. It requires no binary dependancies, unless you are playing sound or video. It works on Windows, Mac or Linux.

It provides full OpenGL bindings, so full 3D (including shaders) is easy to do, and it provides some utility classes to help you batch up sprites (textured quads) or vertex drawing into as few openGL render calls as possible, separated by as few state changes as possible, with verts packed into contiguous arrays in VBOs. (Good for performance)

Every six months or so is the ‘PyWeek’ challenge, to create a game in a week, written in Python. This sees lots of entries using both Pygame and pyglet.

http://www.pyweek.org/

Last one was August, so I speculate that we may be due another sometime soon.

]]> By: gilbazoid http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-267 gilbazoid Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:16:22 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-267 They use Alice for a summer camp for girls at UT Austin called <a href="http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~firstbytes/" rel="nofollow">first bytes</a>. From what my friend (who was a counselor for 3 years) tells me, it seemed to work reasonably in that setting. They have some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/FirstBytes#p/u/7/Rh86BdbaMmg" rel="nofollow">videos</a> that the campers made up on youtube. In a similar vein to Alice, MIT's <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/" rel="nofollow">Scratch</a> just got a cover story in CACM. They seem to have more community built up around that tool, and even some games that people have made in it. When I was in high school, the computer science class was taught in C++ with the CodeWarrior IDE. One amazingly useful library that came packaged with the educational distribution was <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cm-gfxpkg/about.html" rel="nofollow">Carnegie Mellon Graphics</a>. During my first year, I was able to cobble together a graphical battle screen for the RPG a friend of mine was making. I still have that program on a floppy somewhere... They use Alice for a summer camp for girls at UT Austin called first bytes. From what my friend (who was a counselor for 3 years) tells me, it seemed to work reasonably in that setting. They have some videos that the campers made up on youtube.

In a similar vein to Alice, MIT’s Scratch just got a cover story in CACM. They seem to have more community built up around that tool, and even some games that people have made in it.

When I was in high school, the computer science class was taught in C++ with the CodeWarrior IDE. One amazingly useful library that came packaged with the educational distribution was Carnegie Mellon Graphics. During my first year, I was able to cobble together a graphical battle screen for the RPG a friend of mine was making. I still have that program on a floppy somewhere…

]]> By: Eric http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/tools-for-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-266 Eric Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:10:42 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=818#comment-266 One I thought about but didn't pursue: Alice, http://www.alice.org/. It's more about storytelling and virtual world building, but is definitely in the graphics educational space. I've never tried it, so if you have comments, great. One I thought about but didn’t pursue: Alice, http://www.alice.org/. It’s more about storytelling and virtual world building, but is definitely in the graphics educational space. I’ve never tried it, so if you have comments, great.

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