Is a very good way to learn programming, yeah. I would agree that it's also much quicker to learn than java. But don't let it be PHP. 

I've been reading the beginners guide, and I like the part where it shows the Java and Python versions of the "Hello World!" exercise:

Java:

class Hello {

public static void main (String[] args) {
System.out.println ("Hello, world.");
}
}


Python:

print "Hello, World!"



This is reminding me very much of BBC Basic already ;) 

What language you choose isn't that important, you should probably learn a few actually just to make sure you don't get your mind locked into a too narrow way of thinking. Learn about common data structures and techniques that can be used in all(or most) languages.

Knowing a language is just s start though, another large part is getting familiar with the libraries/frameworks that goes with the platform and language of your choice. 

the important thing like any journey is that you get started.

Learn to cast your programming spells as we enter the age of magic. 

And start with C++

It might be a bit of a learning curve at first but you will thank yourself later. 

 

But I think that learning some of the theory on Python will give me an edge towards comprehending some of the C++ stuff. I tried to learn C++ once before and after the second chapter it got REALLY REALLY confusing for me.

This morning I have been reading (and trying in the Python Command Prompt) this ebook:

http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/index.html

And I'm actually 100% on what I have read so far! 

with a nice, easy-to-learn but powerful language in a managed environment, AND do some game dev to boot:

1) Get Visual C-Sharp Express (it's free)
2) Get XNA Game Studio (it's free)
3) Program XNA games using C-Sharp

It's super-awesome. I've been doing it for 2 years now. And you might even make some $$$

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/ 

Surprised it worked out, been playing through Travail with a friend and we completed the first episode so far. Been a while since I played the pack, so it's still somewhat fresh to me thankfully.

Only problem is the friendly fire. No matter what setting the host puts it on (fitzquake) we can still damage each other which isn't so fun to have a grenade accidentally shot to the face. ;_; 

I think you need to be on the same team or wear the same colours. 

set 'teamplay 1' then both set 'color x y' so y is the same for each player - x can be whatever (any number between 0-13 if you didn't know).. then you may have to restart the game (possibly)

q1 coop is awesome. not played it in ages :| 

just pants colour, iirc. 

If you want An Old Evil listed on Quaddiced, tell me the cheat codes ffs! What an asshole mod - incredibly hard AND regular cheats disabled. Nice shotgun though. 

shit I don't think I remember any of the mod stuff for that, it was a long time ago... on the other hand, most of my maps from that were remade and used in later projects (masque, coven, etc). I never got to see the other guy's maps (murderous martin) which is too bad. 

Thought you might as it contains fixes/enhancements by aguirRe from 2006 (sort of implying you were in contact). No idea what was changed in the maps, but most certainly it wasn't balancing - many or tough monsters and traps but hardly any health.

So I guess I'll be forced to use some lame-o screenshot and make something up for the file description... 

I think aguire just fixed it up to remove errors and released it as it was gameplay wise. 

That SOE4 and SOE5 map, coven, should be on quaddicted 

http://www.techpowerup.com/
http://fudzilla.com/ 

YOU ARE GROUNDED!!!!!! COWPAT FOR DINNER!!! 

Nah - he's 54 anyway 

You're not exactly 23, either. 

did anyone post about this: http://thenamelessmod.com/real/

haven't tried it yet, but i can't believe i never knew about it. seems quite awesome. 

any good or total crap?

Paper and pencil is probably by far still the best way to do some drawing. 

Bamboo is fine for casual digital drawing, just don't excpect it to feel like normal drawing right away, you'll need some time to get used to it.
Anything from Wacom is pretty solid anyways, I've had my Intuos1 for almost 10 years and it still works perfectly. 

Do you guys know a nice place to ask an advanced Direct3D question?

I'm running into behaviour that is quite unexpected and unexplainable to me here:

I'm calculating a depth map on the CPU and via rasterization on the GPU (as a reference), but when I let D3D write to the depth buffer automatically or write out the z component in the SV_POSITION input from the PixelShader, values are for some reason different to my CPU depth map. When I pass the depth from the VS to the PS in a non SV_POSITION variable, I can write out the correct depth value I get on the cpu. This is with either (x, y, depth * z, z) or (x/z, y/z, depth, 1), so the persp. divide should not matter.

I simply don't get what magic behind the scenes is fucking with my results.