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My professor recommended using Swing for the GUI. I might check out that NetBeans thing, though. It looks promising. Has anyone else tried it?

There's this web site called SkillSoft that I have access to because I'm a student at my university, and there are lots of online books there. I searched and found some books on using Eclipse, and they listed some different options for creating forms. So I emailed my professor last night and asked which stuff I should download. When he replies, I'll let you know what he says. I seem to be getting closer to figuring this out, especially now that I have those books online to teach me how to use Eclipse and Java.

I emailed my professor, and he said that the best option was to use the Eclipse IDE, that I would pick up the differences between the two languages quickly, and that the real difference is not being able to use Visual Studio .NET. That's all I've got so far. I haven't figured out how to use Eclipse yet.

Hey, I was wondering if any of you know of a good web site or something where I can learn Java based on my knowledge of C#. My reason for doing this is because my class this semester is being taught in C#, but my classes next semester are being taught in Java. I want to learn the differences between the two languages over Christmas break so I will be more prepared to learn in next semester's classes without having to learn Java at the same time. It's pretty easy to find places to learn C# based on a knowledge of Java, but not the other way around. I guess if all else fails, I'll have to read backwards... or something like that.

Hmm, yes, I see... Maybe I'll end up getting that one, then. Any more opinions? Sorry, I guess I'm just frugal or something. :-) I want to be extra sure that I don't waste money on a book that won't help me. Edit: Hey, cool, I'm a Centurion now! :-)

I just looked up "Managed DirectX Kickstart" on Amazon, and it looks like it might not be the kind of thing that I'm looking for. It says that the code on CD is in VB, but the code in the book is only in C#. I think that might be a hindrance to my learning, since I don't know C#. Also according to the reviews, the book might not be exactly aimed toward beginning game programmers. And I forgot to mention this, but I don't really want to get into 3D programming too much. I think I'd rather stick with 2D. So if you still think this might be a good book for me, let me know. If anyone else has any opinions, too, I'd be happy to hear them. Or if anyone knows of any more books out there, please let me know. Thanks again. Also, should I definitely not buy ".NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0," even as a last resort? I mean, if there are no other books that fit my criteria, I just might have to consider buying it. I saw that ThePentiumGuy recommended it on his web site, so I guess some people think it's worthwhile.

Hey everybody, I'm looking for a book to learn DirectX game programming with VB.NET, and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I don't want a book that only teaches how to use DirectX, but one that also introduces the concepts of game programming. I've already made a couple of games with GDI+ (Bug Zappers and Little Robot Guy, downloadable on my web site ), but I pretty much made up my own method for the game engine. I want to learn how to do it correctly. The only book that I've found so far that meets the criteria is ".NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0," but there are a lot bad reviews on it. Some people say it's really good for beginners, but most people say that there are way too many errors in it. I'll probably just get that one if no one knows of a better one. I'd appreciate it if you could help me out. Thanks!

Okay, thanks for the advice.

Okay, so does that mean that if I don't have a web host that supports ASP.NET, I have no hope of uploading my scores? :) Because I don't think my web host supports it (I'm just using the space that my ISP provides for free), and I don't really want to pay to get web space. Thanks for the help, by the way.

No one has any advice?

Hey guys! I just made an arcade-style game, and I am interested in having it upload high scores to my web site. The problem is, I have no prior experience with ASP, no idea how it works, and no idea where to start. So needless to say, I think I'm gonna need some help here. Okay, there was my confusation (I know, not a real word... I think) in general question. Here's a specific one now. For me to use ASP.NET on my web site, does my web host have to allow it or something? Or is it possible to use it on any web site? If not, could I have my game compare the player's high score with the lowest high score on the Internet and send the new score to me by email if it is higher? I could then update it manually without too much work. Well, I'd appreciate your help here. Thanks. And by the way, you should check out my game. And go ahead and check out my other games and programs while you're there, too. :)

Is it possible to play more than one sound at a time using PlaySound? If so, how can I do that? Thanks.

Thanks for the explanation. I think I'll just go with one resolution for now, though. It looks like it would be more work than I would want to do. In addition to what you were talking about, I would have to figure out how many pixels per frame to move the objects so they go at the same speed for both resolutions, which probably wouldn't be fun to do. I don't know, I might try it sometime, but for now I won't worry about it. And while we're on the topic, you should go to my web site and download Bug Zappers, a game that I made. It only displays properly in 1024 x 768, though, so sorry if you have a different resolution. :) You should check out my other programs while you're there, too.

Just a 2D game using GDI+.

I was just wondering how I would go about programming a game that would work in both 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 resolutions. Would you just have the program determine what the computer's resulotion is and then set the measurements of the program accordingly? Is there an easy way of adjusting the game to run in another resolution, or do you have to put a lot of work into it? I don't really have a specific game that I'm working on that I'm asking about, but I was just wondering what you guys think about this so I can use it in the future. If it would take a lot of work, though, I may just stick with 1024 x 768 and apologize to people with other resolutions. :)

Thanks. The web site that you gave me wasn't in VB, so I did a Google search using "/p" as one of the keywords and found a web page that shows how to do it in VB. I think that I can figure it out from that, but I'll post again if I can't.

I'm making a screen saver in VB and I got it to work, but it has some problems in the "Screen Saver" tab of the Display Settings. Instead of showing the screen saver in the little computer monitor thingie inside the window, the program actually starts running. Also, when I click the "Preview" button, the screen saver starts, then when I move the mouse to stop it, it stops and starts again. I think I must be leaving out something that I need to put into the code. Help would be appreciated. Thanks.

If you click on the setup project in the solution explorer, there is a property called RemovePreviousVersions in the properties window. I haven't tried this out, but from reading its description, it looks like this is what will do what you want.

This happened to me in VB. When you use an OpenFileDialog, for some reason it switches the default folder to the folder that is picked in that. I fixed the problem by writing the path of the file to open as: Application.StartupPath & "\NameOfFile" Hope this helps.

I don't know C#, but I know VB. Once I learn more languages, I'll start programming in them. I'm just learning the basics of game programming right now anyway, so I don't think the language I use will matter too much.

Thanks. Now I just need to motivate myself to start programming a simple game, and hopefully I can figure it out. I suppose I can always ask questions on the forums.

Thanks, your site was helpful. It would be nice if you got the collision detection tutorial up, though ;).

Yea, this stuff does look pretty complex. Maybe I'll just stick with programming regular applications for now because I don't think I'm ready for this yet. Thanks for the help.

Does anyone know of a good web site that teaches how to make video games in VB.NET? I already know how to write applications, but I'm not sure how I should go about programming a game. I've done some searches on Google, but I can't find anything that will help me out. Anything that was close to what I needed was for versions of VB before .NET. Any input would be appreciated.

If I'm interpreting your question correctly, you want to show the controls and stuff in the form before the code in FormLoad executes. If this is the case, try putting Me.Show() at the beginning of the FormLoad sub procedure.