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Messages - Tolian

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Can VB do the game logic as fast as C++?

Lets assume I'm writing the logic for generation of a random world in Visual Basic.  I've got some algorithms that raise pointy mounts, carve out deep seas, and run deep rivers.  Then I start populating the world with entities, lets say for the sake of simplicity they are Dwarves.

So far this is all just all in memory, no graphics drawn, just variables.

For each tick of game time, an AI procedure is ran for each Dwarf, which tells it what to do, based on his surroundings.  So for example, if he knows an elephant is close, and his personality = coward, he runs.

Visual Basic is basically comparing data vs data, multiplied by how many objects are in my Virtual World.

Would C++ do this logic part faster?  Because if it can handle logic faster, that would mean I could do more calculations per frame, basically meaning I can have a more complicated and larger world.

If they're the same, then great, I can do my virtual world in VB and not worry that it's spending cpu cycles doing something not related to my game, like polling for Windows drag-drop events or something, or talking to Microsoft Office to see if they would like to have lunch some time, or checking every object of data in my simulation to see if it's not going to break windows?

I suppose I'm getting into some really technical details here.


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Life Advice / Dwarf Fortress and learning to program something similar
« on: October 03, 2008, 05:50:20 pm »
First of all I am under no illusion that I could ever hope to match the brilliance that is DF.  I am however very much inspired by the efforts of Toady One, and for my own personal hobby I would like to create a little virtual world of my own.

I'm not a complete noob, but I couldn't call myself a 'real' programmer.  I have about 8 years experience with Visual Basic, and web-scripting languages, with a strong emphasis on data and databases.  I don't have a lot of game development experience but I figure that since I'm familiar with most of the really boring stuff such as Object Orientated coding and datatypes, I have a good foundation of knowledge to build on.

I'm after advice from some 'real' programmers, who might point me in the right direction for which language and libraries to use, and also the tools.   A lot of people say 'learn C++', but there seems to be many variations of the language, and many different compilers to use, and perhaps being spoiled by the bloated but user-friendly VB has made me reluctant to dive into the rather arcane C language.   And then there's so many different libraries, like SDL, but would it not be more beneficial to learn DirectX?

I am thinking not just about learning game-programming as a hobby, but as a distant hope that I might one day take it on as a career.  That's very long term though, and probably just a stupid dream of mine =)

For some reason, creating a 'world simulator', doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would be practical to write in Visual Basic, but then, I'm not a real 'coder', like the C++ people =)

I want to write fast, efficient, tight code with a small footprint - yet isn't bogged down with having to write 100s of lines code just to get a sprite to be displayed on the screen - or writing functions that are already written in the high level languages that I use today.

If anyone has any advice, I would be very greatful.

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DF Gameplay Questions / Newbie question about map scales
« on: October 31, 2007, 09:45:00 pm »
While the world is being generated we're shown a map - what exactly are we seeing here?  Is it a scale view of the entire world, or a small part of it - if so, how small?  I'm trying to make sense of scales here, it's very hard to determine just how far I'm zoomed out.  Is a tile on the map the equivalent of a game screen (where you can see the individual Dwarves)?  *scratches head*

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