Games in C# is it even Possible

[Chris Charabaruk]

Puh-leeze. C# isn't faster or slower than any other language, it's all in how it's used. I developed a little game in 3 days that used only 2D graphics with the help of SDL.NET, and it struggles at 30 FPS. I've seen MDX and Tao.OpenGL that just fly. C# is a perfectly good language for game development, concerns about resource & memory management or no.

Christopher S. 'coldacid' Charabaruk

[pkoselski]

Try to implement perpixel alpha blending in C# and you'll see why there are no many games written in .net. The answer is - because there are many winapi functions which doesn't have corresponding .net methods. These functions are in most cases so-called low level, such as WINAPI UpdateLayeredWindow function. So, the only way to implement pp alpha blending is to call WINAPI function from C# but does it make any sense? Isn't it better to write the game in C++ and use WINAPI functions directly?

[X Cyclop]

Sure, you can. But, C# has a disadvantage: .Net Framework/MONO. For this reason i'd use C++.;)

[AntiSilence]

Very possible. Check out this article at Coding4Fun... Rocket Commander

[si618]

Interesting, cheers for the link! There is also NGen for improving managed assemblies performance: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6t9t5wcf.aspx

[samir ray]

Not only is it possible, Koios Works has released multiple games all developed in C#. Their latest game, Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm just came out in June.

[baldricman]

bwahahahaha!!!! and 72% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

[Abrian P Stemmet]

Check out this game written in C#: http://www.rocketcommander.com[^] Rocket Commander Tutorials: http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/gamedevelopment/rocketcmd/default.aspx[^]

[Robert Vukovic]

There are some great tutorials on the following links. [http://abi.exdream.com/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/gamedevelopment/rocketcmd/default.aspx](http://abi.exdream.com/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/gamedevelopment/rocketcmd/default.aspx)[[^](http://abi.exdream.com/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/gamedevelopment/rocketcmd/default.aspx "New Window")] Arena Wars is commercial game written in .NET. http://arenawars.krawall.de/com/[^]

[AlexanderF]

Hi, there already is a professional 3d Game programmed in C#/.NET: http://arenawars.krawall.de/start.html

[gancev]

c++ rulez

[Stick]

It is possible, but you would only select C# for game develoment in the case of a game that did not require state-of-the-art performance. C# is indeed slower than properly written C++. However, in either language you can tank the performance if you are not an experienced programmer. C# in the hands of a good developer could actually exceed the performance of a poor programmer using C++, depite being interpreted. If you are planning on writing the next FPS, like Quake X, then you'll need to use C++. If you are writing another version of Soduku, then C# will perform fine. In the industry, programmers skilled in both languages typically use C++ for coding the game, and C# to code tools, like level editors. Why? Well, in the game, I want to be able to do anything at any time for maximum performance. I may even go to inline asm. But, I want the tools to develop game content (levels, animations, etc.) built quickly and C# allows that to happen without worries about memory management. To truely be proficient in programming in C# you'll need to understand memory management to understand how it works behind the scenes, or you'll be writing slow code anyway. So, learn both. Patrick