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[Ivan]

The Lua is just a thin wrapper over the C++ core. That is to say, all of the main render loops still happen in C++, just the creation and update of objects happens in Lua, so the performance hit is barely existent.

[Eclipse]

The Lua is just a thin wrapper over the C++ core. That is to say, all of the main render loops still happen in C++, just the creation and update of objects happens in Lua, so the performance hit is barely existent.

uhm... i'd not call a virtual machine a thin wrapper :D


anyway lua is very good as long as you use it only for scripting and not for all your game mechanics, it's way better to do all the math n stuff in C++, and when i say "way" i mean A FREAKING LOT better.

[gnat]

The performance cost of using an interpreted language such as Lua or Python is negligible for the vast majority of projects. This issue becomes evermore irrelevant as computers get substantially faster every year.

As Kaelan said, the real cost bottleneck here is your time, especially as a one-man independent or hobbiest developer.

[Ivan]

If your engine loops happen in a separate thread from the lua VM, there's almost no difference at all, unless your game logic is so complex that it requires a dedicated C++ thread.

[Pishtaco]

I'm bumping this for the possible cockpit compo. Is there any good, simple, free way to get into doing things in 3d?

[Chris Z]

Just an FYI...

XNA is not an engine, more of a managed wrapper over D3D with the content pipeline goodies on top.  I am assuming the deployment problems you're seeing are related to the XNA runtime not being installed on the target machine, something you could easily redist or have an install script set up for the user.  If you need help setting this up drop me a line.

That being said, the productivity you gain from the content pipeline, some of the helper functions, and .NET framework might make XNA just as easy as using some open source engine.  Then again I am biased.

You didn't mention your experience with 3D and linear algebra, etc. but keep in mind that whatever choice you make, you're not gonna get away from that.

[Greg]

http://www.ivansafrin.com/crap6/luaedit5.png

i'm gonna try to release this soonish

That looks pretty stylish.  What are your plans for it? How do you see it being used?

[Ivan]

I'm going to release it when it's stable enough.

[Zaknafein]

Just an FYI...

This manbaby speaks the truth.

To be honest, in the future I don't think I will make any "big", "serious" project using XNA because I feel like it's way too much work to maintain an engine, a tools suite and a game at the same time as a single person. Maybe I just don't have enough experience with game programming... but I'd really recommend going on higher-level languages and engines if your team is of limited time or resources.

[Greg]

I'm going to release it when it's stable enough.

Is it primarily a game-making tool/environment?  Or is there more to it not seen in that screen shot.  I must admit I'm hella curious.

[Ivan]

I'm going to release it when it's stable enough.

Is it primarily a game-making tool/environment?  Or is there more to it not seen in that screen shot.  I must admit I'm hella curious.

It's basically simplified LUA bindings to my 2D/3D engine and a small self-contained IDE for it where you can quickly write stuff with full access to the engine functionality and publish executables to multiple platforms.

[Greg]

I'm going to release it when it's stable enough.

Is it primarily a game-making tool/environment?  Or is there more to it not seen in that screen shot.  I must admit I'm hella curious.

It's basically simplified LUA bindings to my 2D/3D engine and a small self-contained IDE for it where you can quickly write stuff with full access to the engine functionality and publish executables to multiple platforms.

brilliant.