My recent post mentioned the fact that game developers use C++ over C# almost exclusively, citing speed as the primary reason.
One of my co-workers sent me this article on the issue: it's an interesting read for those interested in the performance differences of C++, C#, as well as x86 vs x64.
The article concludes by saying a programmer who keeps performance in mind can make their code just as fast if not faster in C# than C++, plus they get the win of smoother development in C#. I'm not sure if I agree with that at face value, but I can see the potential; if you assume (and you can, to some extent) that game developers tend to be some of the sharpest minds in coding, at least for their generation (and I can have a whole article on the nature of game developers, but for now I will settle on a few links), then you can hope they will have the wherewithal to avoid the heavier libraries and other potentially-monolithic code that can creep in through reference libraries and 'high level' architecture. There are programs written to streamline code in C++ to make the most of every clock cycle, I haven't done the research but I assume something similar may exist somewhere in C# land... or maybe that's an untapped market, and I should get to work coding something up. ;-)
Until next time, here are your reference links:
Code Project: C++ vs .Net, the benchmark article.
Ars' article on 'The Death March', the constant crunch-time for game developers.
The now-famous 'EA Spouse' article, detailing the harsh conditions forced on these young minds.
No comments:
Post a Comment