Wow... where do I even start?

The first thing you've got to understand is that anything that starts with "MMO" is going to be a real challenge. I would never say "impossible", because if that...

Well geez... where has time gone?

I promised some better blogging than this on the game, and I apologize for not delivering... so, here's an update:

We've been working more on it lately than in...

C++ and OpenGL is really the way to go. Blender is a 3D design tool more than it is a game language. From what I understand, you can do some limited programming in it, but for flexibility's sake,...

FireNet is absolutely right. I don't know of any tool that can automatically take a 2D image, no matter how detailed, and turn it into a 3D render-able object. There's just not enough data in the...

Kudos on taking the leap. It's quite a learning experience building one of these monsters. It takes knowledge in just about every aspect of computing, from software development to distaster...

OGRE3D

Your question is unclear, so I'll answer all the questions I can discern from your post.....

1. What graphics API should you use?

OGRE3D. It is platform independant (basically) and awesome.
...

Wow... that's some... good advice there, beefy.

I agree with Phaelax... trying to fit the whole thing in your head at once will lead to nosebleeds and blindness. Take it from someone who knows:...

It seems to me that the only thing that prevents developers from doing just what you're describing more often is red-tape. From a purely technical point-of-view, there's nothing keeping programmers...

My point was that there is no magical "gamecoder" profession, per se. The reality of writing games is the same reality that "normal" software engineers live in. Game code is no different than any...

Yes... all these things are very true. C/C++ is the basis of EVERYTHING you're going to want to do. There might be some scripting languages along the way (LUA comes to mind), but the basics are...

Yes. Best place to start = OpenGL, C++, AI, and Modeling books from Barnes and Noble / Borders / Amazon. It will take a while to get something like that going... yes, even the simplest of engines...

That sounds pretty interesting... I might look into it for rapid prototyping.

I'm not sure of any sort of "libraries" of images like that, but if you're looking at having to make them yourself, perhaps Google Sketchup might help you to rapidly create the images. I dunno......

It would also depend on whether or not your ISP allows incoming connections. Some block ports, some don't.

Wow... I wouldn't have called that "advice" as much as "criticism", but perhaps that's just me...

To get to the heart of your question: Are there any free 3D engines and modeling programs...

DarkBasic and GameMaker are both foreign to me... never heard of them. As jwenting said, DirectX is the stuff when it comes to Visual C++ development and games. I'll always support OGRE, tho, for...

I've got a good friend who wrote a web-based MMO completely in PHP using MySQL as his data storage method. That's probably the route that I would take were I to give it a shot.

Yep... C++, Maya, 3DS are all GREAT to know if you want to make games. The only other thing(s) I might add would be OGRE/OpenGL/DirectX. By the way, what does the school's game engine do?

It's definately not for everyone... I understand that some people would want the fine control of coding DirectX and/or OpenGL by hand.

I'm surprised no-one mentioned OGRE as a graphics engine. I'm going to start sounding like a broken record around here, but it really is a very good product, and it's open-source and free to use.

Yes... definately time to move up in the world.

Might I suggest... perhaps OGRE 3D? I'm going to sound like I'm selling the thing (I'm not... not affiliated with it, except that I've used it),...

This is a more complicated question than just "what can I use to create my 3D objects?". You've got to keep the whole system in mind, and have a VERY good understand of how the content creation...

I disagree as well... From an language architecture standpoint, C and C++ are always going to be better than Java, simply because of Java's dependance on the Virtual Machine. While Java is always...

OGRE is a sexy little beastie. We're using it in the development of our MMORPG engine. It's got tons of features, and there are SDK's available to integrate it directly with Newton Game Dynamics...

My brother and I are actually in the midst of writing a "game engine", and I can tell you it is no small task. If you're looking to get a game put together in less than a couple of years (at least...

Absolutely, we are very fortunate that my brother D has the experience that he does. It's funny, when we were kids, he never showed any interest in programming. Now he's a full-ride Computer...

:cheesy: I truly appreciate your suggestions for making the coding process a little bit easier. It's really nice to be a part of an online community that, I feel, truly wants to see it's members...

Ok... a little bit about my background, and the breakdown of the project, so maybe it'll make a little more sense.

I've been programming for over 20 years. I know that's weird for a 27-year-old...

Call me old-skool, but I'm going to say that C++ is the only only only way to go. It completely compiled, doesn't rely on any middle-level interpretation software (no virtual machine). Visual Basic...

Hello, all!

I just wanted to announce to everybody who browses the game development section here that I, along with my three brothers, will be endeavoring to develop an MMORPG. I am announcing...

There's definately an argument for the potentcy of each. I'm a big fan of the very cut-down, tool-box type books. I guess I've been programming long enough to know the syntax of C++, so most of...

FireNet is completely right... learn the basics, because that's what it all comes down to in the end. You're focusing on game development, which is actually a good thing, because games often utilize...

:eek:

You need to learn to crawl first, my man. I don't think you ought to be concerned yet with writing a game as much as you should be learning how to read and write code. Don't worry about...