low level api or graphics library? [closed]

Question

Well, I want to learn game development, I've already know a little bit about xna, ogre and DX but, I want to choose one of them and stick with it. I'm not trying to make a "directx vs xna, ogre vs opengl, etc." thread. Some people told me that it's better to learn an engine like Ogre because you can develop games directly and you don't have to worry about the low level details, I know that. Other people told me that it's better to learn a low level api before learning something like Ogre because you will able to understand how it works. Is it valuable to have experience with Ogre or another engine but don't know anything about a low level api? What do you recommend me?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In my view you always have to worry about low level details, the only difference is if you care or not.

Let me tell you this, there are many people and many bad coders that still pretends to achieve C++ performances with Java without knowing the internal mechanism of a language or a platform; i'm not saying that Java is bad, but if you want to code less and make a small simple game probably Java is even better than C++ for you, but you can do things in C++ that simply you can't do in Java, and viceversa, and many people still think that all the programming languages are on the same level and they are just different dialects of the same thing. Same concepts applies to low level vs high level most of the times.

You want to use Ogre, that's fine, but you are accepting a deal, it's always a deal no matter what, if you care about low level details your deal is that you are doing all the hard work but the code that you produce is yours, with Ogre the deal is that others will do a big part of what you should do but you are subject to their timeline and schedule, and you do not own any part of the code, so you are subject to the license that they choose too. I would also like to add the fact that what you learn with a third party tool is most likely useful only until that tool is around and in active development.

If you have serious intentions and you really want to learn the internals, you will code your own stuff, if the developement of game is just an optional thing in your career you will use thirdy part tools.

Consider what your intentions are and make your choice.

Answer 2

This is definitely a matter of personal preference; neither option is universally correct. A working knowledge of high-level engines like Ogre is necessary for low-level programmers, so they make intelligent decisions about designing their own engines. Likewise, a working knowledge of low-level APIs is necessary for high-level gameplay programmers, so they know what engine features are likely to be "expensive" when used at runtime.

Ideally, you want to study both topics, and then focus on whichever interests you more in the long term.