What are some C++/C libraries and some techniques that game developers should know when working with C++?

Like I can do some stuff if I put my mind to it, but it will never be optimized. How can I think in a fashion which I try to get the most power and speed out of C++.

Like I have heard to avoid using STL because of there restricting and "slow" when taking to a advance level.

I am not beginner, but I am also no professional software engineer. I am in school learning, but not many courses seem to talk about advance techniques in C++, like some stuff people don't first noticed until a lot of research.

1. There is no single answer to this, it depends on what you need and your requirements. A library that someone would classify as inefficient could be the perfect solution for someone else.
2. Learn to Google. When you know what you want to do, search for how others did it.
3. There is really only one way to learn, and that is by mistakes. Only geniuses learn from others.
4. Be careful about optimizations. Don't do it until you can show, from measurements, that it is needed. Optimizations have a tendency to ruin code. It gets harder to read, harder to maintain, takes longer time to create. It is not uncommon that the most simple implementation is the fastest. After doing number 3 for a while, you will slowly get the ability to write efficient code from the start.

Guess I figured this would be the case. I always do google when I need help, I guess I was just trying not to depend on it so much. Thanks for the input.

swiftcoder, on 05 Feb 2013 - 00:40, said:
In almost all other cases, the standard library (used correctly) is going to be faster and more robust than a home-grown solution.

(It still amuses me that C++ remains one of the only languages where people go out of their way to avoid the standard, library instead of learning how to use it properly, based on 10 year old hearsay and rumours...)

People are just too obsessed with optimization, and I think when they consider how the library is designed (templates in templates in templates), think they can trim the fat and reap the benefits. I think the biggest problem is a lot of people don't even consider the standard library part of C++. That it was something tacked on after the fact, and started off pretty poorly.

Then there's missteps like Microsoft's implementation doing silly things that degrades performance on simple operations unless you add messy definitions to disable them, even in release builds. It just puts a bad taste in everyones mouth and confuses the issue, perpetuating the idea that it's slow.

It took me quite a while before I trusted the standard library before I ultimately moved to C#. I still feel weird about std::string sometimes, and I don't even know why. It just feels so external to the core language for something so fundimental.