How to use graphics

[pikeblodd]

Hi all, Ive been taking c++ classes in college for about a year now, and I trying to learn how to develop my own games. I know how to write the code, and compile it. However, Im terribly overwhelmed by the different programs for developing graphics.

Right now Im trying to just create a basic tetris clone, and Im at a loss as to what to use to draw the blocks and window Ill need for the game.

any suggestions?

[toojays]

Cairo is is really nice library for drawing graphics. The C++ library for it is called cairomm. You would use gtkmm to draw the window, and also to get a cairo context. See for install The Drawing Area Widget (http://www.gtkmm.org/docs/gtkmm-2.4/docs/tutorial/html/ch15.html) from the gtkmm tutorial.

Except . . . the version of gtkmm which is in Dapper does not support cairo directly. This email (http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/cairo/2006-March/006532.html) describes a workaround which allows you to get a cairo context with the 2.8 series of gtkmm.

[pikeblodd]

and here lies the problem, ive seen the bazillion programs out there, but what im looking for is some documentation of the code i will need to integrate any kind of graphics into my programs.

i can write all the code but i dont know how to connect the code to the graphics and control the graphics with the code.

[toojays]

I don't understand. Here are links to the gtkmm documentation (http://www.gtkmm.org/docs/gtkmm-2.4/docs/), the gtkmm tutorial (http://www.gtkmm.org/docs/gtkmm-2.4/docs/tutorial/html/index.html) and the cairomm API reference (http://cairographics.org/documentation/cairomm/reference/index.html).

Do you mean that you don't know how to use a library at all? For that, look at Chapter 3 of the gtkmm tutorial (http://www.gtkmm.org/docs/gtkmm-2.4/docs/tutorial/html/index.html), which shows how to write and build the most basic gtkmm example.