I'm in the planning stages for a large-scale game that I hope to finish by the time I graduate from MU and move on to graduate school. I need some help.

I have an idea for the game, but not how to implement it. I need resources about coding a graphics engine, combat system, and physics engine. Ideally, I would like to code all these things myself. Artwork will be entirely in-house, as will music and sound effects. Coding presents me with the largest challenge now.

Ideally, I need source code to an engine(s) so that I can learn the process of creating an engine and implementing it. I'm not sure if OpenGL or DirectX would be better. I kind of like OpenGL because I can then port to Linux or Mac with little issues. I'm not sure which standard provides better documentation or is easier to use. Also, do these standards do all the interfacing with graphics cards for me? Or is that something I need to take into account?

I don't want to spend a large amount of money on resources, but if you have suggestions for books or paid tutorials, I will gladly look into them.

I don't want to say too much about the game yet, but it will be a third person action-adventure game based around melee weapons. I'd like to implement a Tekken/Soul Caliber style fighting system, only less outlandish and more realistic. There may possible be RPG-borrowed elements, such as experience and skill with certain weapons increases with use. The combat system in Fable is probably closest to what I want, but its not quite what I envision.

I'm very serious about completing this project, as it may allow me to get a foot in the door of several job prospects. I just need somewhere to start.

I'm writing up a story and technical outline now, and will be doing concept art throughout the next 2-3 months. I'd also like to start learning how graphics, physics, and combat engines work. If you know of any resources that are worth looking at, I would be much obliged if you could share them.

Thanks,
Ric

On the simplest possible level a game engine consists of a tight loop which calls functions of time to update the game state. The rest is just a matter of algorithms and you can find countless resources for that on the internet.

There are some good engines out there specifically for development of various types of games.

3D RAD and 3D Game Studio are my top picks so far. 3D Game Studio demands quite a few more resources out of your pc, though. Won't run on my old system.

3D Rad, on the other hand, runs perfectly on my 500MHz machine, very smoothly. It's just not very user friendly, and requires a lot of 3rd party utilities for modelling. Has a nice texturing tool built in, though.

3D Game studio is far more relivent for anyone who's doing this seriously.

I'd suggest picking up blender3d, as it's basically a standalone engine, capable of game design.

If you have anything on the 3D graphics side, I'm almost sure I can answere those specific questions.

JediKirby

3d Games Studio has the look I want, but I want to code my own engines. Partly for the learning experience, partly because I can put in what I want. I'm just not sure where to get started. Maybe someone knows of an algorithm depository or similar resource?

You might want to drop by your school's library and check for books about video game programming. I know we have many at Polytechnique, because there are many OpenGL and game programming classes in my field of studies.