Topic : How to begin writing games
Author : Christian Reimann
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version.
10.06.2001
  I'm writing a
  graphic mission
  editor for Tank 3,
  so users can design
  missions for the
  game.
11.06.2001
  Uploaded Tank 3 Beta 9
  with mission editor.
  If you design good
  missions, please mail
  them to me, so they
  are published with
  the game.
19.06.2001
  Tank 3 Beta 10 with
  lots of changes
  uploaded
23.06.2001
  Finally made the first
  "final" version of
  Tank 3.0. This doesn't
  mean that I stop working
  on it. Uploaded the
  new file with some
  changes.
01.07.2001
  I'm working on a 3D
  model editor for Tank 3.
  Next, I'll make the
  models more detailed.
05.07.2001
  Tank 3.1 will come soon!

Terrain resolution

05.07.2001
  Uploaded Tank 3.1
  Lots of changes again!
When I wrote version 3.1, I wanted to add a detail texture to the terrain. This
needed a lot of time, because I had to render the terrain twice. I managed to
increase the speed by rendering the terrain with less triangles. This made the
terrain a bit unsmoother, but it increased speed so that I could use the
detail texture.
You might also encounter some speed problems when you add more graphics detail.
So you have to find some kind of a balance between nice graphics and speed.
Write your game, so that most people can run it at an acceptable speed or (better)
use an options menu, where you can change the detail. An options menu is one
thing that is missing in Tank 3.

Difficulty

11.07.2001
  Made the first two
  missions easier.
  Uploaded a new
  version 3.11
At the beginning I made the mission so hard that the player needs several tries
to get it done. For game fun it is better to make at least the first missions
easy, so the player can learn how to play the game. I made the difficulty easier
in Tank 3 for several times.
11.07.2001
  Uploaded version 3.12
  with better mission
  orders, gameplay
  "bugfixes", and
  easier missions.

12.07.2001
  Fixed a speed bug
  and improved menu
  contrast. The new
  version is uploaded.
11.08.2001
  Finally found some time
  to fix the hardware
  detection bug. Now
  you can use software
  rendering when you have
  an old graphics card.
  However, software mode
  is VERY slow.
  The 3.12 version has
  the new hardware
  detection now.
  I've also updated the
  Tank3 source code page.

Source Compatibility (for open source projects)

16.09.2001
  I've made the complete
  source code of tank 3
  compilable with MS
  Visual C++.
  The new version 3.13
  is already uploaded
  and the source code
  is updated.
If you make an open source project, make sure that the source is compilable
with the most compilers out there. For Tank 3 it was important to make it
compatible with the most common compiler (at that time Microsoft Visual C++).

I hope the hints in this documentation help you a bit to write your own games.
And watch out for more tutorials on www.infinitecode.com!



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