On Tue, 30 Oct 2001 16:39:09 -0000, Peter Crowther
<peter.crowther at networkinference.com> wrote:

> I'm not a "modern" 3D games programmer, but know plenty of folks who are.
> Although some of the inner loops are still hand-optimised, 99.9% of the code
> is written in some (moderately) appropriate high-level language these days.
> If you gave Squeak the appropriate 3D plug-in, which would probably have to
> be hand-optimised, I think you could have a pretty good go at something that
> was perhaps a year behind the art (i.e. needed a CPU about twice as fast as
> the equivalent hand-crafted equivalent).  However, portability would likely
> be a *big* problem as you'd almost certainly have tied yourself to one
> architecture in the process.

Yes, part of what you say is true. The "game" is usually written in a high
level, even interpreted language. However, the "engine" consists of a lot
more than just 3D rendering. Scene management, as I said in a previous
message, is huge. There are various types of scene management that might be
doable, but in a general FPS like Quake III (current state of the art) they
use other, much more advanced (and computationally expensive) techniques.

Later,
Jon

--------------------------------------------------------------
   Jon Hylands      Jon at huv.com      http://www.huv.com/jon

  Project: Micro Seeker (Micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
           http://www.huv.com