I am quite disappointed with my results of this project. This is partly due to
seeing the other projects in class. There were a few that were graphically superior, others
that were packaged together nicely.
I am also disappointed because I ended up very far from my original goal.
Looking back, I definitely spread myself out too thin, trying to accomplish too many
different things at once. I also created unreasonable expectations. While OpenGL offers
great potential, it still requires someone with good tastes and a feel for art to create
something spectacular.
However, as of this writing, I was the only one to incorporate DirectX and
joystick controls into my program. I was also one of a few to use sound to enhance the
program. It is in this sense that I feel some pride, as it is not a simple thing to understand.
If I could call my project “GLUT vs. DirectX: A Comparison of Two Distinct
Programming Tools”, I would feel that this project was a partial success.
The single biggest mistake I made was not prepare and design sufficiently. I had
not thought everything through, and if I had, would have likely decided to do a different
project. I also ended up spending too much time on features that ended up being too
difficult or unimportant.
As far as personal goals, this project was a step in the right direction. Besides
giving me more general programming experience with C++, it also exposed me to some
of the difficulties that computer programmers might experience. For example, one
problem that was made obvious during presentations was speed. Most people have
widely different computer configurations, and each part makes a difference.
Programmers must take this into account, and at the very least, offer the user a way to
reduce complexity for the sake of speed.
I plan to later further my work with OpenGL and DirectX. I still plan to fulfill my
childhood dream of making a game that I can be proud of. However, computers have
advanced so quickly, along with the standards. Whereas I would have been happy to
program a simple text RPG fifteen years ago, it now requires great graphics, sound,
speed, and user interaction.
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