Reality Factory

I'm planning to study C++ programming language. Is it worthy to learn or should I learn something better?

IMHO, it's the ONLY language for true game development. Nothing else can come close in speed (except pure Assembly).

It's very worth it as most tutorials, demos, samples, etc.. will be written in it.

What about Java? I will be learning that this comming school year. Of course I also have a massive book on C++ I would like to read as well, but does Java have a future in game programming?

For mobile games...yes. You won't see a RealityFactory made with Java anytime soon. Besides that, Java was written using C++. It runs on a virtual machine. This means the code is interpreted. C++ code is native.

Oh, ok, thats interesting. Guess I better learn C++ then because I would like a job in the game industry as an artist, but being well rounded is very important. Will learning Java enable me to learn c++ faster?

Ok, so I'll learn C++. But I have a question: I downloaded Virtual C++ from Microsoft. Is this same thing as C++?

If you mean Visual C++ Express Edition, yes.

I don't know if learning Java makes learning C++ easier. But i think it's a good start. But it takes a time to 'switch' the languages because I used C++ before and then in school in informatics they wanted to use Delphi. Of course, it's easy, but it's VERY far from game development. I had some problems first becuase there were several things in the language, which i always tended to make wrong. I was so used to && intead of 'and',
|| instead of 'or' and the biggest of all, := instead of =.
However the most important stuff you learn in programming is the programming mechanics.

If you want to learn C++, then the best thing i think is to buy a book about C++ and maybe as extension, for C too, because everything that can be used in C can also be used the exact same way in C++. This is how i started. Or you search for tutorials in the internet. Either way, it wiill take some time until you can handle the important parts(like classes) of C++ with ease.


I also have something that interests me:
If Java in interpreted and needs special runtimes, is C# also interpreted becauese it needs special runtimes?

I don't use C#, i've always used C/C++, so i don't know.