January 16, 2005

Review of the benefits of C# for games programming

I have just about reached the limits of what I can hope to achieve with my C# to C++ translator project. There is so much more I would like to do but it is getting to the stage where I cannot make significant progress in weekend time alone. I'm also extremely busy at work and have little energy left. Maybe I'll pick up where I left off in a few months.

I did pretty well in the time available I think. I can translate simple C# programs to C++. The build process is well integrated into my IDE. I can do C# source level debugging using a standard C++ debugger. It took 6 days solid work to get this far.

This is a summary of what I have learned and what I think the benefits of C# would be in console game development. I'll probably round it off with a review of the disadvantages and the alternatives once my enthusiasm has had a change to die down a little!

Reflection

Faster build times

Reuse existing C# and C++ development tools

Testing and test driven development

Fast, safe and fully automatic memory management

Comprehensive class library

Compiled code should have similar performance to C++

Higher level language features

Automatic code generation framework

C++ / C# interoperation

Miscellaneous


Comments:
dè an tionnsgnadh ùr a bhios agad dhuinn?
what new project you're going to present us with?

:-)
platinum mum
 
My next project will be surviving crunch with some semblance of sanity intact :) See:

http://www.gamesfromwithin.com/articles/0412/000054.html
 
interesting ... sounds good. look forward to hearing more :-)

xxx

platmum
 
DigiPen Institute of Technology, a company that started out 20 years ago in computer animation now teaches degree courses in Redmond Washington. They have also published a free 8 lesson course on programming games in C# from start to finish. This was written for Visual C# 2005 Express but should compile in the more recent Visual C# 2008 Express edition.
 
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