Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "Matt Verran" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: 3rd Year Project Reseach - please help!!! Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:46:25 -0000 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 55 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 217.18.16.10 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 > I think most developers abstract the game mechanics from the specific > platform mechanics. So parts of the renderer are similar and other parts; > lower level are written independantly for the target platform. Yeh definately. The places I know about tend to have a lead platform then several port teams that work on the others, rather than 1click>xbox to 1click>playstation builds all from the same source. Maybe I just know people at shoddy devcos? :) > Also with regard to target compilation, you maybe basing your question of > "Do all consoles start with GCC?" from your Net Yaroze experience. If you > think about that one a little bit more, Xbox and Xbox360 will both be > using Direct X. Hey, DX is an API James! You knew the oxboxes use Microsofts own C/C++ compilers. > For the other consoles, and in Sony's case, GCC is easy to begin with for > a non-software company, as the toolchain is already available and can be > tuned for the target platform. Microsoft have a head start as they are a > software company with many years experience in developing IDE's, mature > SDK's, other tools, etc. They suffer from the lack of being an full scale > hardware development company, so they have to make the console from parts > off other companies, such as ATI and IBM for Xbox360. Yeh, the losers! We'd never do that ;) > However, there are third party middleware and tools vendors who do provide > other compiler options. Metrowerks and SN Systems are the two biggest > names in the business. SN Systems has been aquired by Sony to develop a > compiler and tools for PS3. I read somewhere recently that Metrowerks were getting out of the console dev system biz. But yeah, pretty much everywhere now will be using a fully WIMPED up dev environment like Visual Studio, with IDE, debugger, compiler, analyser etc all integrated. James will probably tagteam in now and list off hundreds of devs he's been to that still hardcore it in linux command lines :) >Other things im interested in would be: how comercial racing games define a >'race track' in code. >Methods used in network code, client server, peer to peer etc. >Collision methods most commonly used in 3D games. Thats a big list of stuff :) To define a race track I'd guess you'd have something like a 3D mesh to display it and a set of collision data thats simpler and defines the track logically. The collision data might just be a set of lines that define the edge of the track or it might be a complex mesh with every crack in the road modelled. The 3D mesh might be streamed and LODed ir it might just be dumped in its entirety to the GPU. Depends on what the game needs to do. -MattV