Intermediate Java?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rapiidz

How do I make Minecraft?!?

*On with the serious post*
I've been learning java and c++ for a while now and can make some simple programs, such as calculators, text based quiz's etc. All the basic command line type programs. I have purchased a textbook on java as well, although it is more of an intro course.

I'm wondering where I should go from here. Any tutorials I find online are either very basic or they are very advanced and don't explain what they are doing very well. I am looking for the step after java 101 essentially. Whether it's a book, youtube videos, well documented code, anything that I can actually learn from and not just copy would be much appreciated.

Edit: It doesn't have to be game development. More complex programs of any kind would be appreciated. I don't have some silly dream of building the next WoW from my bedroom by the end of the summer. My end goal would be to be able to program a solution for any given problem, whether that's an Auction House system in a game, Microsoft Word 2015, whatever. Java is just a starting point for me.

It's difficult to say where specifically you should go, because there are so many directions you can go in. Once you've mastered what Java has to offer, you now have a tool you can use to solve problems. It really depends on what you want to solve.

If you want to do game development, take a look at OpenGL. OpenGL is a standard describing a graphics library that will let you go a little more 'beyond the command-line'; i.e., it'll introduce you to the whole concept of writing programs that aren't just based on you typing something into a console, and getting back output. To be honest, though, I'm not too familiar with working with Java outside of a Web/Console context; I'm more of a C++ guy. That being said, it would seem to me that a good direction to go in would be this one: http://opengl.j3d.org/tutorials/helloworld.html. That should give you the basics of starting up with OGL.

Once you've got OGL up and running, you can incrementally expand your program to include things like audio, keyboard input, and everything really necessary to create a game; I find that once you have the graphical stuff down, the rest is easier (though by no means easy!).

If you want to do more web-related things, you should take a look into using Tomcat. Tomcat is the Java container for servlets, used by Apache (a major, free web server, that you can run on your computer). It'll basically let you use Java to display a webpage, meaning your website can react to people using it, changing content depending on what a user puts in, etc.... It's not too different from using a console, except you'll be doing it in a web browser, and be able to display images/fonts/etc.. You can see some examples here: http://courses.coreservlets.com/Cour...s/csajsp2.html

Please note that I'm just googling things that look somewhat reasonable; I don't know if they're actually good.

If you're interested in the C++ side, take a look at my post stickied on the top of the forums: http://www.onrpg.com/boards/190990.html; it might have some useful links for you.