I just have a couple of questions concerning the subject. First off Im working on a pretty big game project and engine at the moment. Ive been on it for month and will be on it for quite some more time. Now Im wondering as to what the impact on developers will be. Obviously not even microsoft can force all the game companies to switch to C#. Anybody here have any insite as to wether game companies will switch? 1.) How will c++ be handled? I heard thingas like windows will popup a warning message telling the user its a risk to open the app. That would be horrible since it looks very unprofessional and may even stop some people from using the software. Is this true and what are game companies going to do? 2.) My game and engine consists of multiple dll's. I dont know too much about c# but is it easily possible to mix c++ and c# dll's. So basically at some point I just use my c++ engine and have a c# game dll. I guess what it comes down to is, how long will programming games in c++ continue to be the standard and a professional looking project. Or will I be overly conservative if I wait longer with a transision? -CProgrammer

Longhorn won't be here for about another year. It is also silly to expect an immediate changeover, even if a technology becomes "obsolete." Therefore, even if there is no future in C++ (a fairly ludicrous suggestion), it'll take upwards of five years for it to die out.

And yes, native apps run unaltered on Longhorn.

Game developers need C++ in its plain form for the gamecube and PS2 platforms and presumably their successors. XBOX2 and later may run .NET (?) but since PS2 is the biggest console...
Game developers aren't going to port their C++ across to .NET happily - many would possibly just drop the PC.

Thanks for you answers, they make me feel a lot better already.

Oh thanks for the article.

Concerning managed c++: In your opinion is it possible to port large portions of unmanaged c++ code to managed easily?
Are we talking serious work here?
Oh Im using OpenGL, SDL and DirectX in my project.
Will IJW even do my type of project? And are there noticeable drawbacks using IJW?

-CProgrammer

Quote:Original post by CProgrammer
Concerning managed c++: In your opinion is it possible to port large portions of unmanaged c++ code to managed easily?

Well I think one of the best things about the VSNET compiler is the /CLR switch, I find it just phenominal.

Lets say you write your application in unmanaged C++ and when Longhorn comes out you want to have a managed version available for people.

You can compile with the /CLR switch which will let your code run in a managed environment, it's the magic switch! Now obviously you lose a little bit of performance by doing this, but not by a huge amount at all. Of course porting to managed C++ you will get better speed, but if you wanted a temporary solution when Longhorn is launched this is an option.

Also you can wrap your unmanaged C++ libraries with managed C++ and call from there, which you can take into future consideration. I mean Epic, Valve, iD, etc are not going to be re-writing their codebase to managed code any time soon, but I do think that once Longhorn debuts you will see managed versions by wrapping their existing codebase.

Quote:Original post by Trip99
Another issue is Microsofts desire to make graphics cards provide more similar functionality. So say all WGF 1.0 graphic cards will need to be the same. Microsoft would like to do away with the CAPS flags which is the standard way of IHVs adding their own spins. I just cannot see the IHVs going for this. We will see.....

The IHVs have no choice in the matter, MS define the standard, they have to work with in it, thats the way it is. Going against the grain and not working with MS just isnt an option as you're competitor would jump in and take all the sales.

Still, theres always OpenGL [grin][wink]