I personally dont like VB. It's not about speed. It's just not nearly as versatile as a language as C++ is -- it's way too watered down. It feels like an GUI design tool with the langauge tacked on as an after-thought. Sure, you can write C++ DLL's for VB to use -- but then why bother to even use VB? It might be faster for writing neat little apps in, but when it comes to games I dont see much advantage in it.

My point is this: VB is a good language for what it was designed for (making small windows apps), but it's not neccasarily a better solution than C++ is for games. I've programmed both, and in my experience I've found its *easier* to write a game in C++ than it is in VB. Use whatever language suits the problem, instead of trying to push your language as the perfect solution like Uthman is.

--TheGoop

Edited by - TheGoop on 4/1/00 12:53:23 PM

yeah, looks like im stickin'' with C++ till the end
i just don''t like VB that much anyway (don''t get me wrong, VB is great for small windows apps, but for games...well, ever heard of Klik and Play? its like that, sort of ). its like a design tool for the wimps, sort of (no offense to anyone, just my opinion). Like TheGoop said, its just watered down.


BTW, Uthman, thanx, i did take that as a complement

lol

If I knew how to include quotes, I would.
But...
"Another thing to remember is that computers are getting powerful enough so that it will not matter."

I don''t care if you''ve got a PVI 6000, You still work for speed and flexability!

-Mezz

quote: If I knew how to include quotes, I would.

hehe, am i mocking you yet?
at the beggining of what you want to quote, write "quote" in brackets ( [ ] ) without the quotes ( " " ) that you see.
at the end of the quote just wite the same thing, only with a / in front of the word "quote", but inside the brackets.

quote: Original post by Zipster

If I knew how to include quotes, I would.

hehe, am i mocking you yet?
at the beggining of what you want to quote, write "quote" in brackets ( [ ] ) without the quotes ( " " ) that you see.
at the end of the quote just wite the same thing, only with a / in front of the word "quote", but inside the brackets.


Or just do it the easy way and click reply to post instead of reply to topic, and the [~quote~] tags are already there

Ok, heres the deal

I used VB to start off programming. Bad idea. I tried other languages and thought "Why use it when to make a program it takes a lot of code?" then i realized C(++) is so much more powerful.

Ok, now to game development:

Speed is VERY important, ESPECIALLY for games.
C(++) is much more powerful and VB is almost never used
in commercial products
C(++) can be ported, you can make the game logic, then make versions for linux, windows, and Direct X or OpenGL
C(++) has a wider support range, etc.
C(++) is much better for applications involving heavy math, string parsing, and programming in general.
C(++) doesn''t require almost a megabyte of runtimes for a Hello World.
A small C(++) app is a lot smaller than a small VB app.
C(++) is cooler

Here''s my 2 cents worth (just in case anyone still cares )

I use VB all day at work, screwing around with databases and the like, and this is what VB is fundamentally designed for... fast development of GUI solutions. However, I also use VB to prototype ideas for my game engines because its quick and dirty, and you can interactively debug without it spitting page faults and other nasties in your face . Its also ok for making tools (like modellers, map makers, etc), simply because its piss easy to knock together a nice GUI.

When its time to get serious (and I''m always very serious ), I use C++, mainly for the reasons that others have listed above (speed, power, portability, etc), and because I like an object-oriented approach (VB''s (currently) half-baked version of OO makes me want to vomit... I''ve given up trying to implement a REAL OO design with it long ago).

And that anonymous poster is right... those runtime dll''s really piss me off. Makes the smallest app about 1.5 MB of joy to distribute

thankyoubye

-------------
squirrels are a remarkable source of protein...

quote: Original post by Bad Monkey
... and because I like an object-oriented approach (VB''s (currently) half-baked version of OO makes me want to vomit... I''ve given up trying to implement a REAL OO design with it long ago).

I totally agree. I''m working on making a tile-based rpg in vb and have the engine all nicely written out, but try and get a nice OO based gui system written without true polymorphism or inheritance! It sucks!

David

I used VB over this spring break to make the map editor for my game. It was pretty easy, and since this is my first time working with tiles, it helped me conceptualize how the whole tile "thing" works. It took me one week and is pretty capable for what I need. However, I am using C++ for the game itself, because I''m having a hard enough time as it is getting FPS (sometimes I think I''m just missing something everybody else gets) and I actually find it more intuitive not to have to switch around between languages.

One other thing I noticed - I did try programming a game in VB once. Because it was so easy, I got really lazy. It got to the point where my friend (the "designer") asked me if I could do transparency for our game, and I said, "No, that''s WAYYYY too hard! You kidding me?" But that was then, this is now. With C++, I feel more as if I''m programming and less as if I''m playing with toys.

Whatever. I''m weird

-Trigon

I like food.