Thread: what's a good compiler for games?

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    what's a good compiler for games?

    Could anyone tell me what's a decent compiler to use for games programming?

    I was using Borland, but was told that it's not very quick in the graphics department and was advised to use Visual C++, but I'm not overly keen, to be honest - seems a bit over complicated.

    Perhaps I should go back to DJGPP, and use Allegro - what d'ya reckon??

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    Registered User kitten's Avatar
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    DJGPP and Allegro is very good combination. Only drawbacks are that Allegro uses vesa 1-3 for drawing graphics and if your graphic adapter cannot do this, then you're out of changes. I've not been able to use Allegro compiled programs with my school's Matrox G400.

    Borland + OpenGL is a neat solution, but then the graphic adaptor must support OpenGL. You can also use DirectDraw, but with borland compiler there is some problems I've not solved yet. (All suggestions are welcome)
    Making error is human, but for messing things thoroughly it takes a computer

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    Fingerstyle Guitarist taylorguitarman's Avatar
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    Despite the fact that we all hate M$, they know what they're doing. I'd go with VC++. I started out with Borland and moved to VC++ and it was a little bit complicated at first but I wouldn't go back now. I have also tried DJGPP and Dev C++ and they are both great free compilers but lack the sophistication of VC++.
    If you're going to be doing serious games then get yourself the M$ compiler and DirectX (OpenGL if you're worried about cross platform).
    If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to see it, do the other trees make fun of it?

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    Re: what's a good compiler for games?

    Originally posted by adamdalziel
    Could anyone tell me what's a decent compiler to use for games programming?
    Windows Games with DirectX? Visual C++ 6, no question.

    Windows Games with OpenGL? Visual C++6 most likely

    DOS games? DJGPP. This "Vesa 1-3" mentioned is a DOS standard, which is why it won't work on a Matrox G400. So unless you want to develop for a platform that expired 6 years ago, I'd recommend Visual C++ 6.
    -sh0x

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    "The Oldest Member Here" Xterria's Avatar
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    I say for DOS you should go with Borland Turbo C++ 3.1...It is very easy to use and you don't have to unzip 300 zipfiles. Also, it too comes with it's own graphics library(the famous graphics.h). ID Software used Borland Turbo C++ 3.1 for DOOM, DOOM II, FINAL DOOM, Wolfenstein 3-D, and all the others. But, Quake I was made with DJGPP, but then they ported it to Windows because it was too unstable. Did I mention Commander Keen was made with Borland Turbo? Hey man, I'm 12 and to me Borland Turbo is extremely easy to use, and did I mention fun? Yes, fun. You can edit everything down to how much memory your program takes up before it crashes! You can download it online for free, too.

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    CodeWarrior is the best compiler i've ever used. Full C/C++, ASM,Java compiler and it compiles for virtually any platform or OS.

    but its not to cheap.
    ADVISORY: This users posts are rated CP-MA, for Mature Audiences only.

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    Registered User kitten's Avatar
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    Windows Games with DirectX?
    Visual C++ 6, no question.
    This is this sad but true thingy... You can get free VC++ 6 with some book, but then it will be a home edition, which doesn't allow you to optimize at all. With enteprise edition you could optimize but that probably costs more than my annual income is

    And when we are talking about programming a game, compiler that does not optimize is totally out of question, if you're not making thee very olde game.
    Making error is human, but for messing things thoroughly it takes a computer

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    You actually can still get a copy of Borland C++ 5.02 in boxed sets and with other things -- I got it with a book for $20 total. This was the last free compiler from Borland with an IDE.

    You can do DirectX with Borland, but it may take a while to get DX8 to work. DX7 actually included Borland libs, so you can easily use it.

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    Originally posted by kitten

    This is this sad but true thingy... You can get free VC++ 6 with some book, but then it will be a home edition, which doesn't allow you to optimize at all. With enteprise edition you could optimize but that probably costs more than my annual income is
    The Enterprise Edition is the most expensive version of VC++ there is. It's intended for just that; the Enterprise. There are a couple of editions between the Home and Enterprise versions that are intended for your price range (namely the "Standard" edition). And yes, the Standard edition does allow compiling and optimizing. Enterprise edition I believe includes frilly things like SourceSafe. I'm guessing that a Standard version of VC++ 6 would "only" be $300 or even much less, considering they're probably liquidating remaining copies of VC++6 to make way for VC++.NET <GAG!> Get it while it's there for the getting.
    -sh0x

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    OK, have finally decided to go for the VC++ option, but gee have I got a lot 2 learn!!

    Am v familiar with programming in general, but have absolutely no idea when it comes to DirectX - can anyone recomend any good books on the subject?

  11. #11
    bobish
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    Well windows game programing for dummies is a fairly good dx book though it is a few years out of date but that means its cheap (about 25$).

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    I think that DirectX + Visual C++ 6 is the best game programming tool, 'cause -every- video card there is supports DirectX, unlike OpenGL or Glide.

    Allegro is nice, but it doesn't use 3D accelerated features, so it makes it slow, but, on the bright side, it's free!

    I recommend you use DirectX, I have two books I bought @ amazon which are EXTREMELY good!

    -Inside Direct3D (from Peter J. Kovach @ Microsoft Press)
    -Advanced 3-D Game programming Using DirectX 7.0 (from Adrian "Cuban" Perez @ WordWare)

    these books cover Direct3D very well (I think Direct3D is the toughest aspect of DirectX, the rest is easy)

    But, if you're gonna do Visual C programming, you must have a good finger workout (ther's a lot of typing involved), because there are no GDI assistants, such as MFC(Well, you can use it, but I don't recommend it), nor Borland Builder.

    Good Luck

    Oskilian

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    i've been battling this problem for a long time

    i know lots of people aren't gonna like to hear this, but i _HATE_ MSVC++, it and I just dont get along..

    I've used:
    Codewarrior (i got a student version - which i think means a student wrote it, it crashed every 5 minutes)
    VC++ 6 & Direct X
    VC++ 6 & SDL
    BC5 & OpenGL
    BC5 & Direct X
    BC5 & SDL
    BCB & SDL
    BCB & Open GL
    DevC++
    DJGPP & SDL w/ OpenGL
    and now DJGPP & Allegro
    (Funny thing is that this leaves me with 3 compilers that were each between 70 and 150$ which are just lying around, as well as 5 books on other API's that I read but don't use anymore.)

    Honestly, I like BCB (command line) and DJGPP (command line) the best, i dislike most IDE's (Code-Genie is nice look for it @ download.com)

    And if you're like me (i'm a major 2d fan) OpenGL really isn't the best option b/c you'll have a lot of overhead you don't need. SDL's documentation & support is hard to come by, and Direct X is bloatware that is expensive to learn if you like to hold what you learn from. Allegro has DirectX wrapper functions and can make some real nice 2d (and some 3d, but you can use OGL if you need 3d) as well as some nice support and documentation.

    So as of now I'm using CodeGenie & DJGPP & Allegro, and therefore I recommend the same, but command line isn't for everybody .

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    >
    I think that DirectX + Visual C++ 6 is the best game programming tool, 'cause -every- video card there is supports DirectX, unlike OpenGL or Glide.
    <

    every new card and or any card that want's to stay on the market fully supports OpenGL.

    Nobody dares not support GL anymore.

    >Codewarrior (i got a student version - which i think means a student wrote it, it crashed every 5 minutes)<

    i have a full version, and it say honestly it is te best development tool since inspiration, no kidding. it has never crashed on me even once.
    Last edited by no-one; 10-07-2001 at 11:10 AM.

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    Has anybody ever gotten Allegro to work with MSVC++ or BCC?

    I realized that I wasnt able to utilize the Windows features of Allegro b/c of DJGPP's lack of Windows support. I _NEED_ Allegro libraries for BCC, or if someone has MSVC++6.0 and wouldn't mind sending me a few files i need to compile Allegro on BCC i'd really appreciate it.

    (Lib.exe and any files it needs to operate.) -> [email protected]

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