3D Programming in Objective-C "Only"

In addition to what Justin Ardini said, I must say that 3D programming on an iPhone passes through OpenGl ES or a Graphic Engine like Irrlicht or SIO2.

Now, not knowing anything about C will make it almost impossible to accomplish: consider that OpenGL relies on C and Irrlicht and SIO2 on C++ (and C++ is derived to C even if it is not a strict superset of it like Objective-C is) as far as I know. Add to this that an array is the basic data structure (along with a struct) that C/C++ and Objective-C use.

Let me add two point on why to learn C.

Learning a language with supports the imperative programming paradigm is in some way useful in understanding one that supports OO. And the lowest code you can write, assembly, supports only it.
Objective-C as said before is a superset of C so everything written in C is legal in your obj-C code. You can understand it better and try to use it in some impressive ways (by calling the correspondent C functions sometimes for instance), and you may be able to make your code really efficient for some heavy duty tasks (and you'll find a lot in 3d programming)

+1 thanks, that helps a lot. So beyond the C issue... reading the best answer on that thread, it seems to kind of confirm my suspicion that an inexperienced 3D dev, working alone, would not be a very good bet for making a "3D Game" (no idea, let's say a driving game)...?

Yar 2010-08-18 14:25:22

Offhand, I'd certainly agree with that suspicion. I personally don't know what libraries are out there for 3D Objective-C development though, a nice library could make things a bit easier.

Justin Ardini 2010-08-18 14:35:28

here is a nice one http://dir.filewatcher.com/d/NetBSD/1.6.1/alpha/3DKit-0.3.1r2.tgz.143870.html but it is obviously based upon OpenGL : D

rano 2010-08-18 14:40:19

@Yar - Actually, OpenGL ES is not as hard as you might think. It is difficult, yes, but one person certainly can pick up the relevant information in a reasonable time. For example, I wrote this application (for which the source code is available) in three weeks of nights and weekends: http://www.sunsetlakesoftware.com/molecules . Before I started that project, I knew little about OpenGL, and there were far fewer resources available to learn about OpenGL ES development on iPhone.

Brad Larson 2010-08-20 02:56:33

@Yar - If I may plug another thing I've done, the video for the OpenGL ES class I taught as part of my advanced iPhone development course is available for free on iTunes U, along with links to my course notes on the subject: http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/matcmadison.edu.3989485784.03989485786 . You might find that helpful in coming up to speed on the topic.

Brad Larson 2010-08-20 02:59:42

Thanks @Brad Larson, while it's great to have your comments here, the initial question is, "How hard would OpenGL be without knowing C?"

Yar 2010-08-21 20:33:42

Thanks that helps +1. While this is all cool, it's a bit daunting. It would be a serious time investment to catch up with a skillset that I'd be a newbie in.

Yar 2010-08-18 15:16:57

@Yar: as one of my teachers would say: 'if you know a programming paradigm and how to design solutions in it then you can learn a language that supports it in three days'. If a day you will mind to learn an imperative language, I suggest C. If you will learn another one, learning C will take small time. If you will try to learn logical programming paradigm I suggest Prolog : D

rano 2010-08-18 16:24:10

@rano, true, but we're talking about 3D programming and the "language that supports it" all at once. That might be a few more days :)

Yar 2010-08-18 18:11:52

@Yar: of course 3D programming was not counted, I was meaning: 'if you already knew an imperative language, then you could learn C in a few days'. BTW have a look at the GNU library i listed on the other answer comment

rano 2010-08-18 18:21:16

@Rano, great stuff... .to hear Wikipedia tell it, just about every language I've worked in is imperative, including Ruby.

Yar 2010-08-21 20:35:40

@Yar, yeas many languages comply to more than one paradigm, Ruby as far as I know, for instance, supports both imperative and oo programming. Just to be more academic, imperative and object-oriented are two paradigms that fall in the same 'approach': the operational one. (the other two are definitional and demonstrational)

rano 2010-08-22 06:02:42

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

3D Programming in Objective-C "Only"

related questions