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Writing Games With the .NET Compact Framework | |
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| Time: 17:29 EST/22:29 GMT | News Source: Microsoft | Posted By: Chad Myers | ||
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The Microsoft® .NET Compact Framework is a subset of the full Microsoft .NET Framework. The full .NET Framework was factored down to fit resource-constrained devices without compromising user scenarios in such a way that the developers would get enhanced performance with majority of the functionality intact at a much-reduced size. The benefits of targeting the .NET Compact Framework, among other things, includes single binary deployment for Pocket PC and other Windows CE .NET devices, increased developer productivity and reduced time to market. In this whitepaper, I will discuss the key requirements for writing games targeting small devices and show that the .NET Compact Framework can handle them with ease. I will also discuss some of the advanced performance-tuning techniques that you can use to push the limits of your game. In short, you will see how easy it is to develop and optimize your games using the .NET Compact Framework. It will be a fun ride, so buckle up and enjoy. | ||
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| #1 By 531 (67.38.163.42) at 5/20/2003 7:57:04 PM |
| uhh.. and that's why DirectX 9 has Managed .NET libraries. |
| #2 By 2332 (65.221.182.2) at 5/20/2003 9:00:50 PM |
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At this point, aside from trivial games, using .NET for game development is somewhat silly.
In fact, using any managed environment for games is pretty dumb. Out of all the applications you can run, games are the ones that absolutely need the best performance available... and managed code (aside from certain scenarios) just isn't up to that task yet. |
| #3 By 860 (68.62.237.7) at 5/20/2003 10:07:39 PM |
| I have written a CF.NET application and I must say... if they expect programmers to write games under .NET, they have another thing coming. Maybe it's just my bad programming, but opening a form takes upwards of five seconds on my PDA. |
| #4 By 20 (67.9.179.51) at 5/20/2003 11:56:49 PM |
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#3: I wouldn't be so quick to poo-poo it.
Do you think MS invested millions to make a managed DirectX interface if .NET was worthless for games? What you don't know is that the goal for MDX was to get within 90% performance of any equivalent code written in C++ and it did way better then that. In many cases, it performed better due to the fact that the JIT provides code opitmization at runtime which provides huge advantages in many cases over similar code written in C++ and with best-guess optimizations made by the C++ compiler. Please see this URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/dotnetperftechs.asp It explains a lot about how the Runtime works and what advantages it offers over other platforms and methods of development. You'd be suprised how fast .NET really can run when put to it. In the end, the managed code isn't that much more overhead than, say, MFC (probably less even). And with Windows 2003 Server, we see that it can be optimized further. Windows 2003 Server can run the same .NET app 20-30%, sometimes more faster, just out of the box, no tweaks necessary. Part of this is due to the 1.1 Framework, and part of it is due to performance considerations in the OS. |
| #5 By 20 (67.9.179.51) at 5/20/2003 11:58:51 PM |
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#5: First loading the app on Windows or PPC is slow for .NET because the runtime must run and the JIT must initialize the preliminary code, but after that it's not much slower than native code and faster in many cases.
On Win2K3 Server, there is no startup lag, because the runtime is constantly running and ready for new code to be JIT'd. I believe Windows CE .NET (v4) has similar enhancements and can run .NET apps much faster. At any rate, most of the games I have on my PPC take more than 5 seconds to load anyhow, so I'm not sure that it would be much better or worse with .NET. |
| #6 By 2332 (65.221.182.2) at 5/21/2003 1:14:47 AM |
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#6 - Relax... you're preaching to the quior when it comes to the potential for managed code to run faster than unmanaged code. In many cirumstances, it definitly does.
But game development is not one of them... not yet. Regardless of DX managed wrappers (and that's all they are... wrappers), most graphics intensive games have large chunks of them written in assembly. People like Carmack delve into assembly not because they enjoy it (well, maybe he does), but because they need it. If C++ can't cut it for Quake, 90% C++ sure as hell can't either. |
| #7 By 2459 (69.22.78.22) at 5/21/2003 5:54:06 AM |
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Quake was mostly C with some assembly on x86. The GL port he did for NT on the DEC Alpha had no assembly.
John said in past .plan files basically that assembly is okay for crucial functions, but writing all assembly isn't effective. For Doom 3, id switched to C++. BTW, the Doom and Quake series (except Quake 3 AFAIK) have PocketPC ports (3rd party). |
| #8 By 1124 (165.170.128.66) at 5/21/2003 12:44:57 PM |
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n4cer,
I was just about to say that at one time people use to say games cant be written in C++. Now most games are written in C++. With better compilers and faster systems, we should be able to write games in manage code soon. We should also remember we could mix managed and unmanaged code. |
| #9 By 2459 (69.22.78.22) at 5/21/2003 3:52:48 PM |
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Yep. No .NET for the ports. They were written long before .NET was available on either the PC or the PocketPC. IIRC, embedded Visual C was used.
I haven't played them in a while, but I think the resolution could scale (or be set to) what was available, like in the PC versions. For games up to Quake (or possibly including it), the resolution is the same as the default in the PC version (320x240 or 240x320 for portrait mode)There are even landscape modes. Rendering is software (can't wait for mobile 3D acceleration to catch on). The ports are free if you already have the PC version because they use the PC data files. If you don't have the full PC version, the maps from the demo can be used. I forgot that Wolfenstein had also been ported. Here's some links/pics/downloads: Wolfenstein http://wolf.pocketmatrix.com/ Doom4CE http://www.jimmysoftware.com/Software/Doom4CE/ Pocket Quake http://quake.pocketmatrix.com/ It seems that id even contracted out a commercial port of Doom to the PPC (Doom PDA) http://www.doompda.com/ The free Doom4CE reportedly takes less memory though, and it has the ability to handle mods from any of the Doom games. There are also several native 3d games/apps for the PPC. |
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