What parts of a game require speed, I have programmed some games before without an API and with SDL but speed wasn''t a problem. Is it the game logic or the graphics? Is 2D or 3D a factor if it''s the graphics.

I''m looking at C# right now and if it''s fast enough I will use it for the time being. I might just look for games written in it.

I think the parts that would require the most speed would be the program logic and how fast it can calculate your vertices to send them to your OGL/DX calls. Things like animation calculations etc. of your scene handled by your app.

Would I be correct in saying that a call to OpenGL or DirectX is a call direct to the api in any language???

quote:Original post by Micko
the program logic and how fast it can calculate your vertices to send them to your OGL/DX calls. Things like animation calculations etc. of your scene handled by your app.

In this day and age, no speed-critical game will calculate any significant amount of vertex data in software. That's what your video card is for.

Furthermore, most game logic in pretty much any professional game I can think of is usually handled by interpreted scripts, which run much slower than C++. I believe that Carmack was at some point considering using Java as a scripting language for Doom 3, but he abandoned the idea for some reason (good going, I strongly dislike Java ).

The moral of the story is that while you will generally want to program most of your engine in C for the speed benefits (although Axiom, a very nice and very fast 3D engine, is written in C#), it's probably a good idea to code the actual game in a more suitable language.

[edited by - twix on May 30, 2004 6:37:53 PM]