I want to program 3D with MSVC, but recommend me where to start, please

Hello there. I want to program 3D with MSVC (I don't have MSVC yet) but I am new to the 3D world and have done only minimal discoveries,
I want to program real 3D, OpenGL or DirectX, but I don't know where to start, and I want someone to tell me which is the easiest way
to start programming 3D, while I know a bit of programming, I am not a top guru yet. Anyone to recommend me where to start???

My e-mail is: [email protected]
ICQ #: 18971982

Thanks
:)
Chip

I have found OpenGL to be relatively quick to learn and easy to use to produce impressive results -- I have been using it for about two months for purely hobby purposes and have been having a lot of fun. The OpenGL libraries and header files come with MSVC and are also available via download from MS. I would definitely recommend picking up "The OpenGL Programming Guide" (the so-called "Red Book"), published by Addison-Wesley. Unfortunately, it costs about $46.95 (in book stores), which I realize is alot of money if you are a student or hobbiest, but it is well worth it as it will save you alot of time. There a numerous sources for OpenGL on the Web -- in fact Codeguru itself has some very helpful articles in its OpenGL section. By all means check out OpenGL.org, SGI's official site and comp.graphics.api.opengl. Also searching for "OpenGL and source" (or something similar) on a search engine will bring up numerous useful sites. I have found it useful to check out sites set up by college Computer Graphics courses.

As far as OpenGL v. DirectX, I haven't used DirectX, so I can't really comment. Many OpenGL people feel strongly that OpenGL is better than DirectX. Additionally, while I am not a raving MS-o-phobe, I think there are certain advantages to using a more "open" api -- for one thing, there are many more Web resources available from non-Windows sources (for instance, academic sources -- see above), which focus more on the api than on Windows-specific issues.

One thing to keep in mind with both OpenGL and DirectX, is that to do anything decent, you have to have a pretty good grounding in geometry and algebra -- some matrix math and a little calculus wouldn't hurt either. I think someone who enjoyed and did well in math in a decent high school would have enough of a background (my last math course was a calculus course in my freshman year in college many years ago and I am doing fine).

One note: Associated with OpenGL is the glut (gl utility toolkit) library, which provides window management routines that parallel/replace certain functions in MFC -- the purpose of this to enable platform-independent code to be written. While I am all in favor of platform independence, I have found it more convenient to not use these routines and instead make OpenGL work with MFC -- an example on the few things you have to do to accomplish this is contained in the Codeguru OpenGL section.

Good luck and have fun.

Some good stuff to start you off on using OpenGL with MFC can be found at:
http://devcentral.iftech.com/learnin...-win32/opengl/