@\NightandtheShape/@

LMFAO

Cute... Anathema - Forgotten Hopes

LMFAO! :crazy:

Felt the need to share

Looks crap. :crazy:

NWN1 came with a tool, NWN2... will either have a tool or it'll be integrated into the toolset, try searching round the NWN2 directory folders... :crazy:

I've mellowed with age. Winding up Mr Josh on the BIS boards was one of my favourite pass times, or should I say attempting to...

NWN1 was buggy on release it had a horrible courrpt save game bug...

Deceptively simple concepts, yes, but it's a b*tch to write complex and efficient programs with them and reason about their correctness. Lock-free approaches (such as transactional memory) greatly simplify the programming and reasoning process. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Conceptually, I agree... I haven't had to work on such a system yet so... To me it's all theory, but i certainly understood the principles easily enough.

Don't assume things.... I have a feeling you could make NPC's and such and perhaps export them as ERF's, which could then be imported into any mod...

I don't quite get how replacing mutexes with spinlocks helps with deadlocks, let alone implementing lock-free algorithms. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Interesting.... Semaphores, and Mutual exclusion, stuff like dekkers algorithm, are surprisingly simple.

That is a brilliant rationalization for poor programming practice. ;p <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm assuming sarcasam. Sometimes you have to hack, sometimes it has to be as fast as possible, it doesn't matter how it looks, if it's readible, so long as it runs fast, this is the LAST stage of development in games, not the first, you set out and write a lovely well structured program, the best case scenario is that it runs fast enough in it's readable state, but if you need more speed, you get it, you need to consume less memory, you get it, that doesn't mean you forget about comments, or anything of the sort, it just means you can end up writing something evil, and against all good programming practices, because those good programming practices don't exist because they're fast, and efficiant they exist because they make communication easier, atleast from my humble experience base.

:crazy: When you want speed, there can be too much going off, this is not fault of the author, but sometimes, you have too little room, you reuse variables which you never intended to use for tasks, it can become such a mess, but if it works it works, and if it's fast, then it's fast. Optimized code is always hard to read, naturally readibility is always at the top of the list when you originally write anything, but the gloves come off when it gets to optermization central. Sometimes though, more readible code can be nice and fast, i recently helped cut a programs memory useage by 15MB, just by helping some restructure the way things were contained. I do use STL.

I'd argue that. With proper use of C++ classes, STL and custom allocators you can achieve same performance as in C. STL may seem bloated, but most of it is compiled inline, e.g. std::vector boils down to simple pointer arithmetic. Coupled with the fact that compilers improved over the years, I'd say C++ overhead is something not worth worrying about. EDIT: I'd argue this point too. .NET became widely used as an alternative to Java in IT. Though I'm not implying that games must be written in it. However MS is sinking a lot of money in pushing the platform in all directions, even game development (managed Direct X) and operating systems (experimental MS operating system, Singularity). My university, for example, offers a scholarship from MS for a PhD research in bioinformatics with C# and SQL Server 2005. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I was actually in regards to C++ not think of the STL, it doesn't come better than STL, my thought was in regards to general code structure, inheritance is always one that springs to mind. The fastest games are written in both C and C++ and about as readible as a turd.

.net is api and not the programs languages :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes, but discussion was about managed languages. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> around 30% slower, that is all there is to say about managed languages.

C# is certainly a favourite of mine after C/C++/ASM Hybrids... Just wish I could find a reason to write more bare metal stuff... MMMMM Bare metal.

This thread is void and BS, it is clearly written by someone who knows frak all. Now that said, the best way to get speed is always ASM, but too much ASM can very quickly become unmanageable, that's not to say it can't be managed, but it's hard to work on the bare metal and it's the realm of the elite. Modern games actually contain very little ASM, except for perhaps shaders and some algorithms, C++ and ASM actually work very nicely togeather and while I have never actually had to personally do it, it is always an option for optermization. Now onto C/C++... are they fast, yeah, infact what you'll find games tend to be, is some kinda bastard hybrid of C and C++ all wrapped up into one program. This tends to get the best speed as when you code in C++ most of the time you're just working with C anyways, it's kinda hard for me to articulate, but lets say.. C++ is C but with a little more ontop, this means overheads... So C++ can be slower, when you take into account OOP coding opposed to the bastard hybrid coding style. That said, C++ is certainly not managed, you have to write your own memory management crap, now you can elect to use managed directX but this is mainly for use with C# and Visual Basic .NET. As for .NET it's just a little coder toolkit at the end of the day, it makes the coders life easier (I still tend to write my own purpose write containers, and such for certain tasks). End of.

Estonian Forests in the middle of summer, that's the only thing I can think of with more bugs than NWN2, all said, it's rather stable.

2DA is part of managing resources and settings, they used to be external text files, but now can be worked with inside the engine. Hakpaks, they usually contain content, such as models. Also on another note, Granny is tool made by the folks that made the Bink compression, I'm shocked to think that any company would need to use granny, but then again there are lots of things under the NWN2 hood that shock me or strike me as bad decisions, thankfully they don't impact the game badly enough as to spoil it.

NWN2's engine is very badly optimised so I doubt it would make that much of a differance. It doesnt really matter how big your engine is when the parking break is stuck. ( still an awesome game though ) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> True but I'm pretty certain it's not actually the GFX stuff that's slowing down the code it's something else, atleast i believe so, some internal in the engine.

Just taken my first look at the NWN2 toolset, it is impressive... Nice to see that the 2DA edit is in there (something I suggested when Obsidian first announced NWN2, but I doubt it came from that suggestion - it was basic common sense). The Particle Editor is perhaps the most comprehensive particle editor I have ever seen in such a package. Not much else to say still searching around, but those two things really stood out.

True, and untrue, while Having an HDTV will make the games look sharper (as is the case with both the PS3 AND 360 due to the HD output) Its just like turning your resolution down in any PC game by a little, the game will still look great, just not as sharp... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Huh... I think not it's more like half'in the res, and that's very noticeable... Infact you can't even read the text properly in some 360 games, Dead Rising for example, without a HD - TV.

Sounds great.... :crazy:

I never cared much for mod making, I don't mind throwing togeather enviroments for a session with friends but nothing major... No SP stuff like Penultima. I just don't find NWN's Toolset to be very advanced, I always want direct access to the engine proper, and thus end up frustrated.

:crazy: An introduction to C++ would serve you better.