Game programming basics under Windows
- by dreta
I've been trying to learn some Windows programming using the Win32 API. Now, i'm used to working with the OS layer being abstracted away, mostly thanks to libraries like SFML or Allegro. Could you guys help me out and tell me if i'm thinking right here.
The place for my gameloop is where i'm reading the messages?
while (TRUE)
{
if (PeekMessage (&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE))
{
if (msg.message == WM_QUIT)
break ;
TranslateMessage (&msg) ;
DispatchMessage (&msg) ;
}
else
{
//my game loop goes here
}
}
Now the slightly bigger issue, that is, drawing. Do i run my drawing where i normaly do it, inside the game loop after the game logic? Or do i do it when WM_PAIN is being called and just call InvalidateRect (hwnd, NULL, TRUE); when i want to draw? This does feel weird, the WM_PAINT is a queued message, so i don't know for sure when it'll be called. So if i wanted to avoid this, do i just get the device handle inside the game loop and only ValidateRect (hwnd, NULL); in the WM_PAINT case (beside the ValidateRect (hwnd, NULL); called after drawing in the game loop)? Actually, now that i think about it, do i even need WM_PAINT in this situation or can i skip it and let DefWindowProc handle it (does it validate the screen if WM_PAINT isn't processed)?
If this is any important, i'm setting up my code for OpenGL.
