That's indeed a good choice. BlitzMax will bring you lots of fun in casual programming, and it can be used for professional results too.
There are also 3D engines (free and commercial) which can be used with BlitzMax, for me the real fun at programming starts with 3D programming.
MiniB3D would be your first station, it's very easy and powerful, but if you want to look for more advanced 3D engines which have also realtime shadows and physics, you could try Leadwerks Engine ( www.leadwerks.com ).
There will be also a 3D Engine with physics and shadows called Flow ( www.flow3d.org ) which works with older hardware, but thus doesn't utilize the newest hardware to their full extend.
I personally think both are needed, as you can't put everything into one engine (high-end + compatibility), or if you did then the whole engine would suffer from useless checks and have lower performance.
There are also 3D engines (free and commercial) which can be used with BlitzMax, for me the real fun at programming starts with 3D programming.
MiniB3D would be your first station, it's very easy and powerful, but if you want to look for more advanced 3D engines which have also realtime shadows and physics, you could try Leadwerks Engine ( www.leadwerks.com ).
There will be also a 3D Engine with physics and shadows called Flow ( www.flow3d.org ) which works with older hardware, but thus doesn't utilize the newest hardware to their full extend.
I personally think both are needed, as you can't put everything into one engine (high-end + compatibility), or if you did then the whole engine would suffer from useless checks and have lower performance.