Hi Willem, Yeah, it took me about six months of solid testing and research to come up with those findings. The main reason I got started was when Microsoft announced in Auggust 2007 that they were going to drop support for Managed DirectX. That obviously was going to be a major problem for me personally since I had a handfull of USA Games products under development using the very technologies they were about to drop. Of course they introduced XNA Studio, but a quick look into that showed not only was it unaccessible from a programming standpoint but it was specifically geared for the XBox 360. So that pretty much ruled .Net stuff out as a viable gaming platform for USA Games products. Then, I tried Java, Python, etc and concluded they just didn't have what it takes to produce anything really high quality. Yeah, as a language I like Java, but as a gaming platform it has a long ways to go before it will compete with commercial game quality stuff. I finally, reluctantly, returned to C++ and found everything I was looking for. Support for Sapi 5, solid reliable support for DirectX, support for game controllers, fast game exicution, the works. It was all and all well suited for my Genesis 3D engine which I want to produce and maintain as long as possible without having to do major rewrites everytime Microsoft gets a new idea up their butt. I found most of these new fangled changes are localized to .Net stuff while the core C++ stuff remains good for many years. Eventually C++ developers will have to switch from DirectSound to XAudio2, but it is not a change that will be all that critical until the industry standard is DirectX 10 which is only supported on Vista and above. Since XP is still Microsoft's most widely used OS DirectX 9.0C will remain industry standard for a few years to come.
Willem wrote: > Wow Tom that is an excelent article! I can see you have put a lot of > work and effort into it. > > Not only is your article informative about the programming of > accessible games, but you also summed up the biggest strengths and > weaknesses of programming languages like java and vb6, different sound > libraries and making an accessible program in lesser used opperating > systems. I've been asking various people about programming and the > pro's and cons of opperating systems, as I am learning to program and > I'm not completely happy with java. Your article confirmed some of the > things my friends told me and teached me a lot more. I think it will > serve as a guideline for me in the future. > > It is a well balanced and well thought out article. > > I think i'll forward this to a few of my friends now. > Thanks a lot > Willem. > > > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
