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Geek Culture / Free full online education in video game programming....

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BoB Vila
21
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Joined: 27th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 16th May 2003 19:07 Edited at: 16th May 2003 19:08
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I thought I'd share this with my favorite community. Some of you may already know about this, but I wasn't sure. I ran into it by accident and it seems to be the coolest thing I've ever stumbled into on the internet (besides dark basic )..

www.gameprogramming.org Is doing a free course in game programming, seems to be like setup like any other regular online college, broken down into 12 week quarters. Its instructor led, and has tests and quizes, midterms, finals.. basically the whole 9 yards..
You've also gotta pass each course to go onto the next one, so no skipping around just doing the stuff that interests you, but you can test out of stuff apparently. Idunno, its well worth checking out.

Here is the course Outline.
Seems to Cover everything.. I figured that there might be a few people here that would be interested in this thing and it was just too good to keep to myself.

Quarter 1:

Course Title
VGP100 Introduction to C++ for Game Programming
VGP101 Basic Drawings
VGP102 Introduction to Photoshop 7
VGP103 Math for Game Programming

Quarter 2:

Course Title
VGP200 Multimedia
VGP201 Advanced Drawings
VGP202 Intermediate C++ Programming
VGP203 Physics for Game Programming

Quarter 3:

Course Title
VGP300 Advanced C++ Programming
VGP301 Programming for Graphic Dynamics
VGP302 Introduction to 2D Animation
VGP303 Game Design Documentation

Quarter 4:

Course Title
VGP400 3D Animation and Modeling
VGP401 Introduction to Windows Programming with DirectX
VGP402 Sound Creation
VGP403 Advanced Math for Game Programming

Quarter 5:

Course Title
VGP500 3D Character Animation
VGP501 3D Rendering
VGP502 Artificial Intelligence
VGP503 Advanced Windows Programming with DirectX

Quarter 6:

Course Title
VGP600 Motion and Lighting
VGP601 Multiplayer & Networking Programming
VGP602 Level Design
VGP603 Programming for Shading

** Projects: The following projects will be hand coded by you. You will code this game using C/C++ and DirextX language from what you've learned in the last 6 quarters.

Quarter 7:

Course Title
VGP700 Project 1: Designing and Cloning " *Tetris " Game

Quarter 8:

Course Title
VGP800 Project 2: Designing and Cloning " *Breakout " Game

Quarter 9:

Course Title
VGP900 Project 3: Designing and Cloning " *Pac-man " Game

Quarter 10:

Course Title
VGP1000 Project 4: Designing and Cloning " *Super Mario Bros " Game

Quarter 11:

Course Title
VGP1100 Project 5: Designing and Cloning " Tomb Raider " Game

Quarter 12:

Course Title
VGP1200 Project 6: Designing your own 2D/3D game.

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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Shadow Robert
22
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 16th May 2003 22:36
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interesting

Within the Epic battle of the fates the Shadow and the Angel will meet. With it will harbinger the very fight of good vs evil!
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AntonyW3
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Joined: 13th May 2003
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Posted: 16th May 2003 22:40
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I lost all faith when I saw one of the tasks to was to design/code a 'tomb raider'... Clearly a divine lack of inspiration...

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BoB Vila
21
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Joined: 27th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 16th May 2003 22:57
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It seems cool though, building from the ground up.. The learning process isn't 100% creativity. You gotta learn the aspects. I thought the projects sounded pretty good because they go from 2d to 3d and then the final one is create your own. But hey, I'd just to take my C++ skills to that level. As well as getting a better grasp on the Math.

I just find it hard to believe that anyone would pass this up. Its pretty neat, they got a chat forum for all the classmates and such. Idunno looks like fun anyways.

I was always curious if you could really learn something from an online university, now is my chance to find out for free.

Raven, maybe you could teach the modeling class, I'm sure you got a lot of experience that you could pass along.

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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hexGEAR
22
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Joined: 3rd Nov 2002
Location: Naytonia
Posted: 16th May 2003 23:44
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hmm, think i just might join this! does it have area restriction? or i'll just go and check it out

everyday of life is a new chapter that has already been fortold but is up to the soul to capture.
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BoB Vila
21
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Joined: 27th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 17th May 2003 01:09
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From what I've seen of the other classmates, they are from all over the world..

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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Solidz Snake
22
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Joined: 23rd Oct 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th May 2003 01:34
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holy fcuk .. free??

(heeeeeeeeeeeeey ... where's Designing and Cloning " Metal Bear Solid " Game??) LOL!

Snake? What happened? Snake? Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!! - Colonel Roy Campbell

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Kangaroo2
22
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Joined: 26th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th May 2003 11:07
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Thanks for pointing this out! Hmm could fill some gaps in my knowledge

I am little sceptical, but I signed up Guess I won't know till "fall" The schedual sounds ok, but skipping from Mario Bros to Tomb Raider is a bit of a jump!

Coming Soon! Kangaroo2 Studio... wait and quiver with anticipation! lol
samjones@kangaroo2.com - http://www.kangaroo2.com - If the apocalypse comes, email me
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Martyn Pittuck
22
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th May 2003 11:49
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i cant join up

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Shadow Robert
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 17th May 2003 12:04
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i think i'll enroll for this ... some might look at this as too basic for them or some crap, maybe your right.
at the end of the day though we all learn things but in a contextual mannor could be a good and fresh approach

way i see it knowlage is power, the more you have the more power you weld when you want to develop something and its always the stupid basic things that tend not to grasp well (^_^)
better than a college course, mainly cause it isn't a fulltime thing - just work to the schedual, which is good for those of us working full time again (well will be in a week at any rate)

Within the Epic battle of the fates the Shadow and the Angel will meet. With it will harbinger the very fight of good vs evil!
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Dave J
Retired Moderator
21
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Joined: 11th Feb 2003
Location: Secret Military Pub, Down Under
Posted: 17th May 2003 18:17
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Sounds good but how exactly does this work? Do we attend an online chat-like class? If so, then wouldn't different time zones be a major problem? And more importantly, how exactly are you supposed to sign up? lol.

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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BoB Vila
21
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Joined: 27th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 17th May 2003 18:45
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It looks like the instructor puts out lectures on a weekly or biweekly basis, and then tests are put out to be taken on specific days and such. It looks like the communication between classmates/teachers is handled via message boards and email.

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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ClearCoder
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th May 2003 18:53
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some of that some in the later quarters i can do now but stuff like C/C++ in the 1st quarter i can't.

Newbie Now; Expert Later
Current project:The Sorus
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Cras
22
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Joined: 15th Oct 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th May 2003 22:14
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well im signed up, only i enrolled myself for the two courses available game maker and the english composition and i dont know how to drop off them. i dont want to learn either of these

uk.geocities.com/maniacimagine check it out. ill soon be formally opening it.
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Martyn Pittuck
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th May 2003 22:56
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i cant sign up for some reason

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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BoB Vila
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Location: United States
Posted: 18th May 2003 01:41
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I think you just click on profile and you can remove yourself. I heard someone also say something about it automatically unenrolling after a certain amount of time.

Martyn, why can't you signup? Whats it do? You should send them an email..

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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the_winch
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Joined: 1st Feb 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 18th May 2003 04:01
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What programs do you need to do it?
It's not much use being free if you have to spend a lot of money on software to do it.
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indi
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 18th May 2003 06:03
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devc++ is free and that might work but yes porting the code to work on your compiler might be a black art in itself.

http://www.lunarpixel.com

http://www.lunarpixel.com/dt/
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BoB Vila
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Location: United States
Posted: 18th May 2003 11:50
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idunno, I thought I saw someone mention devc++ as the compiler. And the new MS Visual C++ 2003 is now ISO compliant and suppost to be really good. (standard now comes with all optimizers) You can standard on Amazon, with the step by step book for a little over 80$usd. It's probably worth having if you actually plan on ever using C++, even if its just for making DLLs and pluggins.

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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Martyn Pittuck
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 18th May 2003 18:25
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I keep getting a refreshing when i sign up.

ie i fill in details then click ok and the page refreshes and all the fields are blank again.

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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BoB Vila
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Location: United States
Posted: 18th May 2003 20:04
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hmm.. do you have another computer you can use to enroll?

Bobvila.com made me take off my avatar! (dunno how they found out)
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Martyn Pittuck
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Posted: 18th May 2003 22:25
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i wish

That one went ass over tits a few months ago, and does not have USB anyhowz so no internet connection for it.

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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the_winch
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Joined: 1st Feb 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 18th May 2003 22:50
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You are using internet explorer arn't you?
Some people like to make their pages only work in ie.
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Martyn Pittuck
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Posted: 18th May 2003 23:04
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yeah, i would use mozzial but it craps up IE email

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Shadow Robert
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Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 20th May 2003 18:01
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i've not enrolled in anything yet, it says July-Aug enrolling time - i've signed up to the forums though ... but you seem to need a pin number to actually enroll in classes right now.
you know really want classes on howto navigate sites like this

Within the Epic battle of the fates the Shadow and the Angel will meet. With it will harbinger the very fight of good vs evil!
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Kangaroo2
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Joined: 26th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 22nd May 2003 22:34
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lol yeah its pretty confusing

Coming Soon! Kangaroo2 Studio... wait and quiver with anticipation! lol
samjones@kangaroo2.com - http://www.kangaroo2.com - If the apocalypse comes, email me
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