Random Questions

[Admiral]

C# is JIT compiled to the needed machine code for your specific machine, in a way that makes it run faster than, say, Java does.

NB: Most Java implementations have JIT compilers as well these days.

Modern CPU performance has almost obviated the need for traditional programming languages like C and C++ in favor of more flexible ones (Java, C#, Obj-C 2, or even some of the more functional languages like Haskell, etc.) that offer a variety of programming effort reducing services like GC, introspection, etc.

I still wouldn't do any of my systems development in something other than C (or maybe C++), but for everything else, there's MasterCard. (Oops, I mean, Java, C#, etc.)

Cheers!

[Admiral]

I'll be sure to avoid you at all costs, in that case . While I'm avoiding you, feel up for trying to get together a coop game for sometime this week?

I'd love to get a second game going, thank you, but I already have my hands full with my regular (real sit-next-to-each-other LAN, not any of this Hamachi Sushi stuff) weekly game and all the other constraints of life.

Cheers!

[x4000]

C# is JIT compiled to the needed machine code for your specific machine, in a way that makes it run faster than, say, Java does.

NB: Most Java implementations have JIT compilers as well these days.

That's good to know -- for a long time, that wasn't the case.  The lack of that was traditionally my main beef with Java (well, that and the craziness of some of their naming schemes, and the strangeness of some of their libraries, like Swing).

Modern CPU performance has almost obviated the need for traditional programming languages like C and C++ in favor of more flexible ones (Java, C#, Obj-C 2, or even some of the more functional languages like Haskell, etc.) that offer a variety of programming effort reducing services like GC, introspection, etc.

Yeah, and also these Java and C# tend to be less verbose, too -- I'm not sure about objective C, not having worked in that, but with these two you can accomplish the same thing with a lot fewer lines of code, often.  A lot of that has to do with automatic pointer management, the GC, etc.

I still wouldn't do any of my systems development in something other than C (or maybe C++), but for everything else, there's MasterCard. (Oops, I mean, Java, C#, etc.)

Yeah, I know -- it's not like many people who are already expert at C or C++ are going to convert to C#.  When the main benefit is reduced programming time, and you are facing an uphill battle just to learn a new language, library, and style of programming in general, there's not much incentive there.

[Pandemic]

Psh, who wants *actual* LAN networks anymore? We have da interwebs!

And that's cool, np at all . I should probably put up a topic in the Meeting Grounds anyway


-Pandemic

[Revenantus]

I will vouch for this game's online community's highly friendly atmosphere and willingness to help.

I AM NOT FRIENDLY and I resent you implying such!!!

 

*gasp*!

So the community reveals its true self

I'll be sure to avoid you at all costs, in that case . While I'm avoiding you, feel up for trying to get together a coop game for sometime this week?


-Pandemic

Watch out, when x4000 said his AI was impressive, he was being modest.

Admiral is actually the terrifying result of someone attempting to set the AI level to 11 - it employs every devious trick imaginable to achieve victory. In particular, despite what it says, it doesn't need your credit card details to connect to your server, just the IP address will do.

Anyway, I need to go - a naked Austrian body builder has just appeared in my garden screaming something about needing to kill some guy called Chris before he initiates some robot-based apocalypse - better see what he wants.

[x4000]

Just keep that insane-looking, gun-toting woman that's with him away from me, please.  He's free to cut up his arm as much as he likes, but she's scary.

[Pandemic]

Bleh

I know I'm suppose to use the technical support section for this kinda stuff, but I hate the idea of making new topics for a single purpose...

Anyway, I can has errors. I opened up the game (after having purchased it) and checked for updates. It naturally found them all, and I was like yay! So then I downloaded them all fine, and went to install them. Then it 'sploded .

http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/rr317/pandemic21/error.png

Same thing happened to every file.

If you can explain how to manually update it I can try that


-Pandemic


EDIT: Upon reviewing my browser history, ya, I downloaded it from CNet Thursday, not from Impulse.

[x4000]

This is covered here:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11.msg12.html

Most likely you either don't have Windows Installer 4.5 installed (newer versions of the installer automatically put that in, but the demo on Impulse is older and does not do that).

Also, when you are updating a new version of the software, and you see how it says Skip on all but one of them, don't check them off to download them all -- that's a waste of your time.  The patches are generally cumulative, and so it will skip all of the ones that you don't need; just the ones that aren't skipped are needed in order to get you to the very latest version.

[Pandemic]

If I remember correctly, I merely found out about the game on Impulse, then decided to research it further... I think I ended up downloading it from your site.

And damn. I guess this means I need to download the setup file again...

Ah well, it seems to be that that post will solve my problems; thanks


-Pandemic

EDIT: Upon reviewing my browser history, ya, I downloaded it from CNet Thursday, not from Impulse.

[x4000]

All you need is Windows Installer 4.5, most likely...

EDIT:  Yes, the CNET version is 1.005, which is way out of date.  It should be up to date on their site in a week or so (I have submitted it to them, but it takes that long unless I want to pay them a monthly fee, which I do not).

[Pandemic]

Cool.

*restarting computer*

I should be up to date in a few minutes, yay!


-Pandemic

[x4000]

Awesome!

[Pandemic]

Being up-to-date is so cool .

Anyway, I'm off to try to find a partner or two, probably to be sprouted from my Xfire friends list... I'm apparently weird in the fact that I'm among 5-10% of the gaming population that plays entirely for multiplayer purposes... I still find that hard to believe .

Anyway, thanks for the help; now I just need to get this IRC client working... .


-Pandemic

[x4000]

Being up-to-date is so cool .

Indeed.

Anyway, I'm off to try to find a partner or two, probably to be sprouted from my Xfire friends list... I'm apparently weird in the fact that I'm among 5-10% of the gaming population that plays entirely for multiplayer purposes... I still find that hard to believe .

I don't think you are weird -- I'm in that percentile for RTS games, too, except that I play with my local group and that's about it.  But if you look at sales of Starcraft (8 million), versus the number of players online with Starcraft at any given time, it's a tiny percentage.  Of course, a lot of those players have moved on, and a lot of them play by LAN.

So, fine -- if you look at SupCom or something, I believe they had around a million in sales at least, and yet their online boards only had some 100k people on there at the most.  Again, this is from memory, but I remember looking at these numbers from a few of these games (also the AoE series, which fits that pattern), and being surprised.  Because the vocal minority is certainly those people who play online pvp (which I don't).  So I think everyone else is mostly playing single player or else LAN/direct-connect pvp/co-op.

At any rate, with a long-length co-op sort of scenario, online matchmaking tends to not work the best.  Look at Resistance 2, for example, whose online co-op has been really damaged just by people not actually cooperating when matched randomly.  I don't think we'll have that sort of issue here, but for all these various reasons that's why the online matchmaking simply hasn't been a priority for AI War as yet.  Plus the whole servers thing.

Anyway, thanks for the help; now I just need to get this IRC client working... .

Sure thing!

[darke]

Modern CPU performance has almost obviated the need for traditional programming languages like C and C++ in favor of more flexible ones (Java, C#, Obj-C 2, or even some of the more functional languages like Haskell, etc.) that offer a variety of programming effort reducing services like GC, introspection, etc.

Yeah, and also these Java and C# tend to be less verbose, too -- I'm not sure about objective C, not having worked in that, but with these two you can accomplish the same thing with a lot fewer lines of code, often.  A lot of that has to do with automatic pointer management, the GC, etc.

I disagree on Java being less verbose. I can almost always tell the C/C++ programmers who've come from a java background, they always have TheseInsaneFunctionNamesThatAreHalfAScreenWideAndReallyMakeItHardToWorkOutWTFIsGoingOn.

The C++ standards committe really just needs to give in and include a GC into the spec and the compilers can have it enablable/disablable based on compile flags like they do the dynamic type information; so it can get turned off for the really performance anal, and everyone else can just cope with whatever else. It's not as if there isn't already a half dozen GCs out there already available for both C and C++...

I still wouldn't do any of my systems development in something other than C (or maybe C++), but for everything else, there's MasterCard. (Oops, I mean, Java, C#, etc.)

Yeah, I know -- it's not like many people who are already expert at C or C++ are going to convert to C#.  When the main benefit is reduced programming time, and you are facing an uphill battle just to learn a new language, library, and style of programming in general, there's not much incentive there.

I really don't think it's that much of a problem. It's like Java vs C#, there really isn't much of a difference in the logic/syntax between them. The functionality supported by the libraries is pretty much the same, it's just a matter of working out what the heck it's called, and that's where code completion and quick-help are good for (or just typing it in a google search box in your browser...).

As someone who's job used to be (and to a certain extent still is), building and maintaining code in any language it happens to be in; after a while they all rather merge into being the language groups with minor different syntax. At one point I was using a different programming language every couple of days for a month as there were a couple of dozen various scripting/compiled programs that needed to be updated/moved to a different server, and of course this being a university they were all written in the student's/professor's/staff member's preferred language. Swapping between 10 or 11 different languages in a month was fun.