NSchnarr

Since creating a compiler for such a high level language is not an easy task.. and you will never create one which is as good as say.. g++, i would skip that step.
Your best bet to create what you want, would be to to create a program to generate code for c/c#/c++ (whatever you use). Again, not an easy task at all.
Then, once the code has been created by your program, compile it with g++.

Duck

Since you don't know much about programming, if someone explained very basically what you need to do in order to complete this task you probably wouldn't understand it, and their instructions would be irrelavant because you wouldn't know how to implement them.

Why don't you learn how to program first, then you will be able to answer your own questions. Learn how to program in C, then learn how to program Windows (assuming that is your desired platform), then learn the basics of 3D programming with OpenGL (or DirectX).

Edit: I actually think what you're trying to do is pretty much impossible. Visual programming interfaces only work well for simple tasks, like creating a GUI, eg, in Microsoft VISUAL Studio.

lpcustom

Don't take the advice everyone here is giving lightly. The task you are talking about isn't as easy as you think. There's no "simple" way to explain it, because it's not as simple as you think. Sure you can learn to do these things but it's going to take a lot more time than you obviously think. Trust the experts.

Eoin

Well sagedavis, if you are determined then you'll have to approach this sensibly. You need to at least start by writing at least one 3d game of your own in some language you like, the 'C family' you suggested in your first post are good but do research this step properly.

Why do I suggest this, well you can't develop a game construction application without knowing how to write games. Note I'm not saying you need a fully playable game so much, rather you'll need full game mechanics along with a number of 'proof of concept' prototypes.

This step should prove quite fun, and you'll get a lot of help with it here I'm sure. Once you got that down you'll be able to take a step back and see the bigger picture much more clearly.

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Pizentios

I would take a look at This here link there are tones of free resources on how to get started in 3d (and 2d) game design. Also i think they have a forum there as well, with users that might know more about the exact information you are seeking.

You'll probably want to take a look at using OpenGL for your 3d programs, it's free and quite good from what i understand. More info on it can be found at gamedev at: This here other link

Good luck man, 3d game programming is a large undertaking.

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sagedavis

I want to note something.

I am so glad that so many people are around to help when someone has a question, and I totally respect the opinions of others, and the help (in this thread), that everyone has offered.

Some of these suggestions are great information, which I know that I will end up using in the future.

However, my main question was (and still is), an explination of how to trigger something to create a compiled aplication.

3d game program asside (I can learn very easily all of the components that I need, with the books and resources that I have), the executable is the only thing that I can not find.

I see programs that impliment it all the time.

Let's say, I have a program that is just a textbox. They type what they want in there and then it saves as a compiled exe which just has the output of whatever the person typed or whatever.

This is the main concept that I don't have any information on that I can get to easily. Regardless of wether it is for a 3d game program or whatever, it's just that I need to take the input from the user and with it, create an exe.

I don't know if you would call it a compiler, or, if there is a way that I can use an existing compiler and build my program around it, or whatever, but the point remains that regardless of what type of program I am designing, the ability to make the user be able to design something and then push a button that automatically compiles their work, is the key.
That is the part I need help with, the rest, I can figure out on my own, books, tutorials, or ask about later here, I just need to have handy this one thing, so that I can keep it in mind while building the program itself, because, I would hate to build the program and find out that I should have used other methods to get it to be able to produce an exe.

Thanks

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kruptof

if you want to generate an executable then you have look into the environment that you are developing for and understand how they handle and read files, every file properly has a different structure so that the host environment can understand how to deal with it, i think all this information is in the header of files, you will properly have to write your own installer, so that finished product can be installed on the machine.

just imagine if what you are proposing is not done yet, it's properly for a reason, or maybe not, it takes years and alot of people and other resources to properly build a good game development or anything of the sort software to be made.

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Klarre

If you want to write a program, on your own, that creates an executable for the Windows platform, you have to understand the PE file format (Portable Executable), which is used by exe files. You can find information about this on this site for example http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/356/11/1.html .
But I can almost promise you that you wont get anything out of this document if you don't have any knowledge about programming other than web stuff.
I would recommend you to read some C++ tutorials so you feel comfortable with functions, classes, polymorphism and pointers. Then you should move on to teach yourself OpenGL using this site http://nehe.gamedev.net . When you feel you master this, you should start using some game engines to get a feeling about how games are made. I should recommend you the OGRE3D rendering engine http://www.ogre3d.org which is open source. Then finally, after a couple of years, you can probably make something useful out of your knowledge. This is what I can recommend you to do! You seem to be forward so you will make it! It might just take a little longer time than you might think!

/Klarre

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Pizentios

If your looking to make an installer (to install your game on a friends computer without having them compile source code), i know Visual Studio enterprise had tools to make an installer, however the enterprise version is expensive. There are several free, or pay to play installer scripts/makers out there.

check out: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/
or http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page <---this is the free one.

once you make your game you would compile and exe and any dll's etc (this asumes you are developing for windows), then you would create a installer package from a installer script like the nullsoft installer. Then you'd pass out the file that the installer script makes to your friends, they would run it and just have the program, not the source because you decide what gets installed on their system. Sometimes you might want to include other libraries like OpenGL or DirectX 9 because it's ether a new lib (meaning not many people would have upgraded to it yet) or it's an uncommon lib (OpenGL isn't that common, but it is getting used for more stuff all the time).

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DaWei

You're taking what is an untenable approach. What you do is make a suitable game engine. This engine is the same for all users. The users don't mess with the engine. They control certain parameters. Suppose they wish to put a model of something (a person, whatever) in the game. They use an existing modeling program to do that. That's a whole other task involving the design and visualization and animation of objects that's totally divorced from the game except via defined attachments. It's the responsibility of the modeling program to export a file suitable for use with your engine. With a new engine, that will no doubt become your responsibility: you design an inbetween app that takes a common output, such as a .x file, and convert it to attach to your engine. Perhaps you design an XML interface so that the user can take an exported file, suitable for use with your engine/converter, and place it in the game world and describe its important parameters. All this is not a trivial task.

I would recommend that you investigate a popular game from the viewpoint of users that modify it with SDKs provided by the game manufacturer, and using readily available tools for the more complex parts, such as modeling. Your view of this task is extraordinarily naive.

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