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digitalmars.D.learn - Using D in Games and bindings to c++ libraries

reply Neurone <abc def.com> writes:
Hi,

I have some experience with c++, and am considering using either 
D or python for a game.

1. It is going to be online-based, would D be a good choice for 
writing both the client and server? I haven't seen any online 
games using D yet.

2. A concern is interfacing with c++. I'll like to use the RakNet 
networking library, but there aren't any bindings for it.
a) Are there instructions available for using Calypso on windows? 
Couldn't find any, and it looks like a good alternative to 
writing one by hand.
b) How well would SWIG work? I haven't used multiple programming 
languages in a project before, so have no experience doing this 
sort of thing.
Aug 05 2016
parent reply rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
You can safely forget about RakNet by the looks.

"While I still get some inquiries, as of as of March 13, 2015 I've 
decided to stop licensing so I can focus on changing the world through VR."

So based upon this, what would you like to do? Scratch or another 
pre-existing protocol like proto-buffers?
Aug 05 2016
parent reply Neurone <abc def.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 04:01:03 UTC, rikki cattermole 
wrote:

 You can safely forget about RakNet by the looks.

 "While I still get some inquiries, as of as of March 13, 2015 
 I've decided to stop licensing so I can focus on changing the 
 world through VR."

 So based upon this, what would you like to do? Scratch or 
 another pre-existing protocol like proto-buffers?


It is a mature library, which has been open sourced under the BSD 
license when Oculus baught it. Hence why I want to use this 
instead of reinventing the wheel.
Aug 05 2016
parent reply rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
On 06/08/2016 6:28 PM, Neurone wrote:

 On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 04:01:03 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:

 You can safely forget about RakNet by the looks.

 "While I still get some inquiries, as of as of March 13, 2015 I've
 decided to stop licensing so I can focus on changing the world through
 VR."

 So based upon this, what would you like to do? Scratch or another
 pre-existing protocol like proto-buffers?


 It is a mature library, which has been open sourced under the BSD
 license when Oculus baught it. Hence why I want to use this instead of
 reinventing the wheel.


They really need to update its old website then.

I've had a look at the code, its mostly classes and is very c style.
You won't have trouble making bindings.

The main steps if you want to give it a go are:
1. Compile via MSVC (either 32 or 64bit are fine) can be static of dynamic
2. Compile D with -m32mscoff or -m64 and link against above binary

You will almost definitely want to use 64bit binaries not 32bit if you 
use dub.

I know there is a D target for SWIG but I have never really used it. But 
I do not believe you need any magical tool to do the binding creation 
for you. The headers should convert over nicely as is for you.
Aug 06 2016
parent reply Neurone <abc def.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 08:04:45 UTC, rikki cattermole 
wrote:

 On 06/08/2016 6:28 PM, Neurone wrote:

 On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 04:01:03 UTC, rikki cattermole 
 wrote:

 You can safely forget about RakNet by the looks.

 "While I still get some inquiries, as of as of March 13, 2015 
 I've
 decided to stop licensing so I can focus on changing the 
 world through
 VR."

 So based upon this, what would you like to do? Scratch or 
 another
 pre-existing protocol like proto-buffers?


 It is a mature library, which has been open sourced under the 
 BSD
 license when Oculus baught it. Hence why I want to use this 
 instead of
 reinventing the wheel.


 They really need to update its old website then.

 I've had a look at the code, its mostly classes and is very c 
 style.
 You won't have trouble making bindings.

 The main steps if you want to give it a go are:
 1. Compile via MSVC (either 32 or 64bit are fine) can be static 
 of dynamic
 2. Compile D with -m32mscoff or -m64 and link against above 
 binary

 You will almost definitely want to use 64bit binaries not 32bit 
 if you use dub.

 I know there is a D target for SWIG but I have never really 
 used it. But I do not believe you need any magical tool to do 
 the binding creation for you. The headers should convert over 
 nicely as is for you.


Do I use the DMD compiler? Also, would Dub not work with 64-bit 
executables? I still need to use 32-bit to support systems that 
aren't 64-bit yet.

Also, is it possible to use D like a traditional scripting 
language? The use case is adding content to the server (which may 
contain D scripts) without restarting it for a full recompile.
Aug 06 2016
parent reply rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
On 06/08/2016 10:53 PM, Neurone wrote:

 On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 08:04:45 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:

 On 06/08/2016 6:28 PM, Neurone wrote:

 On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 04:01:03 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:

 You can safely forget about RakNet by the looks.

 "While I still get some inquiries, as of as of March 13, 2015 I've
 decided to stop licensing so I can focus on changing the world through
 VR."

 So based upon this, what would you like to do? Scratch or another
 pre-existing protocol like proto-buffers?


 It is a mature library, which has been open sourced under the BSD
 license when Oculus baught it. Hence why I want to use this instead of
 reinventing the wheel.


 They really need to update its old website then.

 I've had a look at the code, its mostly classes and is very c style.
 You won't have trouble making bindings.

 The main steps if you want to give it a go are:
 1. Compile via MSVC (either 32 or 64bit are fine) can be static of
 dynamic
 2. Compile D with -m32mscoff or -m64 and link against above binary

 You will almost definitely want to use 64bit binaries not 32bit if you
 use dub.

 I know there is a D target for SWIG but I have never really used it.
 But I do not believe you need any magical tool to do the binding
 creation for you. The headers should convert over nicely as is for you.


 Do I use the DMD compiler? Also, would Dub not work with 64-bit
 executables? I still need to use 32-bit to support systems that aren't
 64-bit yet.


Yes to dmd.

$ dub build --arch=x86_64

For 32bit I use a hack of a workaround to make it work recursively.

$ DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" ; dub build

Sadly this is not full proof or much help.

The reason why you must use -m32mscoff or -m64 is to use the COFF binary 
format as OMF (which is default for 32bit) will not link against any 
binaries produced by MSVC.

Of course if you can build it as a shared library and get an OMF import 
library you're good to go as well. But just easier to keep everything 
the same.


 Also, is it possible to use D like a traditional scripting language? The
 use case is adding content to the server (which may contain D scripts)
 without restarting it for a full recompile.


I would not attempt this. Its not worth your time or worry. Instead I 
would use D for infrastructure but Lua for logic that is likely to 
change often.
Aug 06 2016
parent reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 11:18:11 UTC, rikki cattermole 
wrote:


 For 32bit I use a hack of a workaround to make it work 
 recursively.

 $ DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" ; dub build

 Sadly this is not full proof or much help.


For clarity, what rikki is getting at here is that DUB does not 
yet support compiling to the 32-bit COFF format. The --arch 
switch for dub has two options: x86 and x86_64. The former will 
cause it to call dmd with the -m32 switch. The only way to get 
use -m32mscoff is to specify it manually. Doing so in the dflags 
entry of your dub configuration will certainly cause errors if 
you have any dependencies in your configuration (your source will 
be compiled with -m32mscoff, while dependencies are compiled with 
-m32). I've not tried the environment variable approach that 
rikki shows here, so I have no comment on that.

There is an issue in the DUB bug tracker to for this [1].

[1] https://github.com/dlang/dub/issues/628
Aug 06 2016
parent rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
On 07/08/2016 1:08 AM, Mike Parker wrote:

 On Saturday, 6 August 2016 at 11:18:11 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:


 For 32bit I use a hack of a workaround to make it work recursively.

 $ DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" ; dub build

 Sadly this is not full proof or much help.


 For clarity, what rikki is getting at here is that DUB does not yet
 support compiling to the 32-bit COFF format. The --arch switch for dub
 has two options: x86 and x86_64. The former will cause it to call dmd
 with the -m32 switch. The only way to get use -m32mscoff is to specify
 it manually. Doing so in the dflags entry of your dub configuration will
 certainly cause errors if you have any dependencies in your
 configuration (your source will be compiled with -m32mscoff, while
 dependencies are compiled with -m32). I've not tried the environment
 variable approach that rikki shows here, so I have no comment on that.

 There is an issue in the DUB bug tracker to for this [1].

 [1] https://github.com/dlang/dub/issues/628


What happens is dub uses DFLAGS as part of the identifier for builds and 
will propagate it to dependencies. As long as you don't miss-match the 
values of DFLAGS, you're good to go.
Aug 06 2016