On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 5:30 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote: > > Keep in mind, most of a AAA game's codebase is externally-developed > middleware these days. I think the middleware development sector would be > willing to fix those issues if it meant being able to provide a more > competitive offering (ie, their customers can use an easier to use/learn > language, and don't need as many C++ gurus, etc). >
You need high performance code gurus, the need for C++ people in non-performance critical code is already alleviated by the scripting world. I disagree with your middleware statement too, most middleware at this level is created by in house teams and then sold on for other titles. For example CryEngine, Unreal Engine, id tech, source engine. Other AAA engines are used entirely in-studio for example IW's engine(s) for the CoD series games and Frostbite for the newer battlefield games. The other problem with this idea is that the middleware needs to play nice with other middleware like physics libraries, ai libraries and other specialised bits of software like speedtree, which typically are written in C++. All of these layers need to be highly tuned for performance across many platforms including the console world. At this level the switch to C# provides much more than a 5% performance hit too, it makes the whole thing unfeasible. My feeling is that the same is true of D due mostly to immature tooling. The indie world however, is much more accommodating, the budgets are lower and programmer productivity more important. Their performance requirements are much lower and their willingness to play with new tools is much greater. Make these guys happy and then down the track the rest of the gaming world might follow.
