graphics in c++

[hesher]

hi y'all
i wanna start learning graphics in c++. im pretty good with c++ and object oriented programming but since i learned everything in my university on a gcc and g++ (c and c++) i never learned graphics.
i'd like to start. i thought start simple. maybe make a little pacman game as a "hello world" for graphics, or if you got better ideas il be happy to hear em
my question is , where should i start? any good tutorials ?
Tnx 'n' advance
me
:-)

[CyberCowboy]

A good place to find out about graphics is a game programming website. One of my favorite sites for information on game programming is GameDev.net. They have a page there just for starting out. Check it out here. That ought to give you a start.

[Sam Hobbs]

A good place to start is the Scribble tutorial provided with VC. Also try MS Windows Programming using C++ and MFC.

[jigen3]

Directx is a good API to learn for that. Windows programming is restricted to bitmap display mostly.

[Sam Hobbs]

Originally posted by jigen3
Directx is a good API to learn for that.

I disagree.

[jigen3]

Really?

[Sam Hobbs]

My DrawHello sample is a complete Windows "Hello" graphics program. Would an equivalent DirectX be less or more code?

[panayotisk]

I think that if the program does not heavily depend on performance then you might use the Windows GDI. I have tried to create a small application (chess program) with this and the performance was OK.
It is not very easy though and I haven't seen a very good book (using MFC too) on the subject, although I searched a lot. I had to make a lot of tests myself to manage to draw a bitmap on another bitmap transparently.
DirectX is good for any graphics application. Up to version 8.0 I found it a very-very difficult to understand and use API. If you are serious about game programming and are planning to use it, there are some good starting examples here. The link is not currently working , maybe in a few days...

[Sam Hobbs]

Note that hesher wants to start learning graphics. For a Windows environment it is important to understand the Windows GDI. If an operating system independent solution is prefered then OpenGL is (nearly) independent of the operating system. It does not make sense to me to learn DirectX without first learning at least the basics of the Windows GDI.