what do the pro's do??

i know we all know and love those japanise masterminds in the east, but, when they compile and create and new game for a console eg: xbox ps2 gamecube) do they use one standatd compiler like devC++, or borland C++, or do they use a variety, as all compilers are built to do the same thing.

Tke a game the size of zelda or final fantasty, huge projects like this must take many man hours, and include lots of files, so, are these compiled on the one compiler, are is it all linked together than debugged? any ideas would be a help!!!

I'm not really sure what you're asking but I'll try to answer. Different compilers are used to build for different platforms. For instance, a company might use CodeWarrior for building for the GameCube and VC++ .NET 2k3 for building for the xbox. It just depends on the company. Usually there are a couple of compilers that can build for a specific console.

Anyone can use any compiler they want. But a commercial company would probably be using a compiler/IDE that you'd normally have to pay for. And a lot I think use VC++, so they probably use MS Visual Studio. But games themselves usually aren't that big. I see what you're saying for Zelda and Final Fantasy, as RPG's containing all kinds of triggers and having that whole story. But on a PC for example, .exe's, .dlls, and any other executables/libraries use for the game aren't big at all. Most shooters lately, all those files added up are less than 20MB, usually less than 15. And a few years ago, usually less than 10. But that's shooters. But either way, what makes games so big are it's contents. Tons of sounds (those big .wav files), the high quality textures that usually contain maps, alphas, and other data now, all the models, maps, etc. The more quality, the bigger the size, the more and more they're putting in games, the more to add up.

PS3 games are developed with a modified version of GCC and OpenGL. I dunno if Sony provides an IDE, but I wouldn't mind coding in VIM anyways. :p

Its like math. Its the same everywhere for everyone.

The preference of which compiler to use would vary from company to company of course. I could see companies using standard gcc too because of the flexibility of Makefiles, but then again I'm sure somewhere in the options in Dev-Cpp the Makefile can be editted.. I just havent looked hard :D

Oh and the compiler programs turn the .cpp's into .o files (and links them later) which dont get deleted after making the executeable. Which means if some of your (say 3/5) .cpp files dont change then it doesnt need to recompile them. So basicly that means even for these huge corporate games they will have a lot of .cpp files that they havent touched in a while, and more than they havent touched since their last compile so they would say only need to compile 5/25 .cpp files.. so yah its not THAT bad.

You are wondering what pro's use?? Wel..... i use visual basic for my 3d engine :cool:

(no this is not serious, i wouldnt do that if i were you ;) )

speaking about CodeWarrior.. How good IS codewarrior 6.0? I mean what are it's advantages over for example vc++ 6.0 or dev-c++ 4.9 ?

To develop for a console like xbox, ps[1-3], gamecube, etc... you'll need a cross compiler to build binaries for those specific architectures.


sidenote: i hate codewarrior, :p