Re: The Future of the Evolution Engine
#KeyIsFull, no, it wouldn't necessarily be that big a deal to create a launcher that makes it easy to click on it and start the game written in .NET. I could write a simple one in C++ or create a launch script to do it so that in of itself isn't a serious issue.
I would think that installing all the dependencies such as Mono, SDL .NET, OpenAL .NET, whatever would be a bigger issue for the end user and the developer since none of those things come with Mac natively. Its more tedious than really a serious con per say.
As far as security goes buying good security is really just part of the territory as far as I am concerned. In fact, all interpreted languages, not just .NET, have really weak security and it is a piece of cake to disassemble them and crack them without some sort of obfuscation or encryption tool involved to prevent the cracker gaining access to your source. A cracker can do it to native C++ apps too, but only to the point of disassembling t hem into assembly code which is harder to work with. There are, however, encryption tools that will encrypt binaries so that they can't be reverse engineered and turned back into assembly code so the security is generally stronger on C and C++ binaries.
#Dhruv, yes, ease of use and ease of language is precisely why we are having this discussion. The current version of the engine is written in straight C++ and is compiled as a standard C++ library. For that reason it is decent for my own needs, but isn't exactly newbie friendly or necessarily the easiest option for a new programmer such as yourself since it requires the developer knows C++ to use it.
@SLJ, its a totally different approach from BGT. BGT is wrapped using a scripting language called Angelscript that obfuscates all the low-level C++ code and libraries beneath it. My engine is merely just a C++ library, has no scripting at all, and therefore requires that you attach it to a C++ project and link it in with your game during compile time. Therefore you have to know C++ to use it. Otherwise it isn't going to be of use to a prospective developer. That's why I was looking into ways of simplifying the development process for newbies.
Python is obviously easy to learn and use. One idea being tossed around on the game developers list is that I create a Python wrapper for the library which would make it easy to use while still being able to be used by C++ developers too. I haven't decided what to do just yet, but that strikes me as one likely possibility.
@Sebby, I'm not really keen on using a COM or CORBA based interface for my library for the obvious reason it is not in any way, shape, or form cross-platform. I'd basically be busting my butt to create this cool COM interface that would work with C++, Java, Python, .NET, whatever, but still would only be for Windows. I really hate putting that much work into an interface that would only serve o
ne platform which is why I was looking at other options.
As far as .NET goes you are right. Windows is really the best fit for those languages and tools, and was never truly designed to go to Mac or Linux. Although Mono is a great technology it really hasn't seen much acceptance on Linux because it violates certain aspects of the free software initiative and is prone to patent issues. I suspect .NET isn't that popular on Mac either even though Mono is just as useful there as it is on Linux. So when it comes to .NET while there are other runtimes, tools, etc it is still by and large a Windows technology. So it may not be a good fit for what I want to do long term.
The other issue you didn't mention is that .NET requires a lot of extra middleware to be installed in order to run that game or application using the .NET runtime. packages which really takes up drive space unnecessarily. On Mac, for example, someone would have to install the Mono Runtime, SDL .NET , OpenAL .NET, etc just to run the game on Mac when a program written in C++ would not need all that extra middleware. Same goes for Windows and Linux as well. The .NET technology is nice, but very very bloated.
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=147335#p147335
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