Just for those working with visual studio, wanted to point people to a tool that can be VERY good for timesaving.

http://www.jetfrog.com/Default.aspx

Its a distributed build client, if you have a home network of machines, you could use the idle machines to help speed up your builds. (I know I can, Ive got 5 machines currently and I guess I'll get more).

There is also a similar thing created by Xoreax, but incredibuild licensing is prohibitive, I think Jetfrog's license is far better for us indies.

The build times were something that really attracted me to Blitz. Currently, Juno Nemesis takes around 3 and a half seconds to preproccess (using a custom built preproccessor written by me in C#) and compile, on a 1.66ghz AMD 256mb SD system. I have only used C/C++ for a bit of socket programming and DLLs but the build times are obscene. C compilers generate very optomised code in the end, though.

<smug mode (again>Ho ho! Eclipse is already an incremental compiler. By the time my mouse cursor has wandered to the Run button it's already compiled :P</smug mode>

Say, what is it about C++ games that takes so long to build anyway? There can't be that much code in them surely? I mean, my game code, when compiled and then subsequently zipped, comes to around 700Kb, which in terms of the processors these modern girls are using nowadays can get generated in the blink of an eye!


Cas :)

I use Metrowerks Codewarrior, i usually don't have time to see the hourglass :) ( i have a relatively old pc )

pat.

I don't think build times are too bad. I can compile my entire library (over 30k lines of code) under 10 seconds. At work, to do a rebuild all on over 150k lines of code takes around one minute, and thats cause for every file and linking we access the network and retrieve files from there. You can greatly increase the compile times of C/C++ files by correct formatting and dividing the code into files. Also the order of including the files and even compiling them can increase your compile times.

One of the reasons Visual C++ 6 code may be slow to compile is the STL (Standard Template Library). With this library included, the compiler takes ages to compile anything.

Well, when youre not using any precompiled libraries, are doing a full rebuild and your codebase is in the region of half a million lines or so, you get a bit of a delay :)

I dunno why its so slow, but the code it produces after compiling is worth it I think.

I remember pascal being screamingly fast at compilation (turbo pascal this is).

Ive gotten used to fairly slow compiles, so maybe thats why I see such a huge win.

Phil.

One of the advantages of a scripting engine is a vastly reduced rebuild time. A full rebuild of the torque engine takes a couple minutes for me, but obviously only needs to be done if there's an engine change. Script changes are compiled when the game is run, and are effectivly instant.

Torque's a bugger for needing a full rebuild for some reason though..

Torquescript is great, but most of the changes I make are engine related, not script or mission related.

But anyway, its worth it to me to spend 250 bucks to get a faster compile of torque any day.

Phil.

incredibuilds licensing is indeed crazy. Some of the lionhead companies sue it, but apparently we judged it too expensive. Its very good though.
My home system compiles slow, but its compiling poorly linked code, so itll get faster once i sort out my #includes ;)

Hm, half a million lines of code sounds a bit excessive.
Doesn't incremental compilation work any more??

Cas :)

if you read the Rize of nations postmorem on gamasutra, they used a distributed system like this. According to them their "Gold" build took under 4 min. And that game has a lot of code. They made a humerous observation that dev's who in the past scheduled their days around long build times, getting a bite to eat, playing chess etc. Had to totally re-think their schedule since build times were no longer a factor.