Programming language?

[booby_the_bird]

I was just wondering what language Xsyon is written in. My java teacher told me to think about the mechanics of any games I play and try to play it out to see how it would work. I'm currently only learning java though I want to learn more, and what types are best used for games. Thanks for reading and if you reply, thanks for replying too!!

[GuideHael]

I'm not sure what language Xsyon uses but a good programming language to start with would be C#. The syntax will help you move in to C++ or other languages and there is a lot of good tutorials to follow on youtube and other websites.

~Guidehael

[booby_the_bird]

Thanks! I heard Java was a good first language, but I'm going to do a bit more research on it. I think the only program that my school teaches is java and I heard something about another one in advanced computer applacations class. Thanks, again :)

[joexxxz]

C++ IS THE MASTER, at least for me

[tomduril]

Most rendering engines (software that creates computer graphics) are written in C++ for performance reasons.

The "game engine core" (software that handles basic functionality of a game) is very often also implemented in C++ for the same reasons. The "game" itself, with all the specific rules is often implemented in a specific language for that game engine.

Examples:
BlenderGameEngine uses Python (http://www.blender.org/)
UnrealGameEngine uses UnrealScript (http://www.unrealengine.com/udk/)
HeroGameEngine uses HeroScript (http://www.heroengine.com)

Not sure if that helps you ?

[Zakath]

As far as languages go, knowing the basic syntax in Java, C/C++ or C# will let you jump easily between them. I personally prefer Java, but that might just be because I work in Java. C# is really easy to pick up when you know Java, and the reverse is probably equally true. C++ is a bit different though, and the first while you program in C or C++ you will screw up royally and leave dangling pointers hogging your memory. Trust me on that :)

Which language is best would depend on what you want to do with it to be honest.

For server side applications it's Java, hands down. It's a rich language, lots of good Open Source frameworks and several open source server choices. You can easily build an enterprise level solution using nothing but OS frameworks and applications. Java also excels at cross platform as the JVM exists for most operating systems, so the same code will run on pretty much any platform without a recompile.

If you want a client / server application I'd have to go with C#. Has great support for creating a GUI, especially a windows GUI, and it does have several free frameworks available. The catch is that it's windows only, and of course requires .NET frameworks.

For games C++ is the best language performance wise, although it's not that much better anymore. Java used to be utter crap performance wise, but since Java 1.2/1.3 it's really improved and I saw a benchmark for Java 6 where it actually outperforms native C code in a few scenarios. Of course it also helps C++'s case that it generally has an excellent library support for both DirectX and OpenGL.

In conclusion; I support the claim that Java is a good starting point, but it depends what you want to accomplish really. If it's just to learn your way around programming stick to Java, or if you feel like a heretic, C#. If you have the specific goal of making games consider Java or C#, both have graphics libraries available and for your first programming projects the bottleneck won't be in the language :)

[joexxxz]

You ppl forgot assembly/machine language. ??? anyone???

LEA DX,100
MOV AH,09
INT 21
MOV AX,0x4C00
INT 21
DB "Hello World$"

[tomduril]

Yeah assembler - that would be my first choice too :P
If you want to understand how a computer/PC works, assembler is the best choice by far! You can even start to tweak the graphics driver to get the max out of your current graphics card.

The only down side is that it will take you 5-6 graphics card generations to finish the game - by that time you will be old and grey and the code will be outdated about 15 years :P

Java is the way to go - for any starter! After you manage to write a Java application you can switch to assembler :D

PS: Do not use assembler unless you want to implement a game on a hardware plattform like "arduino" (even there assembler is not the prefered language).

[joexxxz]

Really, assembly is to tweak something to extreme, to make it efficient. maybe like writing a >>>SMALL<<< routine for server. But it will take you years to make something. You would be better off creating your own language in assembler, rather than using assembler.

When I was in high school, I took QBASIC, my first programming language lol.

[Zakath]

Assembly is kinda wasted today, typically modern compilers will optimise your code far better than you can do by hand. Even if you dip into assembly land. An optimisation problem today is usually that developers try to optimise the code as they write it, and only succeed in confusing the poor optimiser with their oh so clever tricks.

But I digress. I actually found a reasonable answer as to why most games are still written in C/C++, despite the damn language not having the blessed Garbage Collector I have come to love, can be found here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/1034711

Bookmark that site if you go into programming. It's essential :)