Comments on: Good Middleware http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/ Musings on Game Engine Design Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:29:09 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Kyle http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-98 Kyle Fri, 08 May 2009 02:27:05 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-98 Hi, Kevin. My comments weren't directed at any middleware package in particular. I'm not sure how much our branch of RakNet even fits the definition of middleware anymore, since we've been making our own modifications to it since the day we forked and we've never looked back. I'm not aware of any big architectural complaints, but our network guys could probably give you more specific feedback than I can. Hi, Kevin. My comments weren’t directed at any middleware package in particular. I’m not sure how much our branch of RakNet even fits the definition of middleware anymore, since we’ve been making our own modifications to it since the day we forked and we’ve never looked back. I’m not aware of any big architectural complaints, but our network guys could probably give you more specific feedback than I can.

]]> By: Kevin Jenkins http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-95 Kevin Jenkins Tue, 05 May 2009 14:43:48 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-95 Hey Kyle, We'd love to hear your particular feedback about RakNet. I believe the version you were using at the time didn't support redefining the memory allocator, so that was probably directed to us :) Hey Kyle,

We’d love to hear your particular feedback about RakNet. I believe the version you were using at the time didn’t support redefining the memory allocator, so that was probably directed to us :)

]]> By: Anatoly http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-66 Anatoly Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:49:23 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-66 IMHO, one more important issue is missed: Good middleware has "realtime" support (or at least one which answers in a few days). A fast answer from author of a code can save a lot of time spent in debugger. IMHO, one more important issue is missed:
Good middleware has “realtime” support (or at least one which answers in a few days). A fast answer from author of a code can save a lot of time spent in debugger.

]]> By: Vince http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-65 Vince Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:31:40 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-65 I recently had a conversation with a friend about this entry (good entry btw), and a point he made was in the not too distant future, good middleware is going to allow you to hook their job scheduling just like you can hook memory allocation. I developed these thoughts further over at my blog: http://solid-angle.blogspot.com/2009/01/good-middleware-revisited.html I recently had a conversation with a friend about this entry (good entry btw), and a point he made was in the not too distant future, good middleware is going to allow you to hook their job scheduling just like you can hook memory allocation. I developed these thoughts further over at my blog:

http://solid-angle.blogspot.com/2009/01/good-middleware-revisited.html

]]> By: Aaron http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-63 Aaron Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:42:08 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-63 Great article! I'm curious in regards to your thoughts on multi-threading and concurrency. Suppose you have your own job/task scheduling system to handle multiple cores etc. How should middleware handle this? I don't think most have tackled this. Would it be beneficial that the middleware hands back "tasks/jobs" that I can run? i.e. "Good Middleware lets you hook into the job/task/concurrency scheduler"? Great article! I’m curious in regards to your thoughts on multi-threading and concurrency. Suppose you have your own job/task scheduling system to handle multiple cores etc. How should middleware handle this? I don’t think most have tackled this. Would it be beneficial that the middleware hands back “tasks/jobs” that I can run? i.e. “Good Middleware lets you hook into the job/task/concurrency scheduler”?

]]> By: Beautiful Pixels http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-42 Beautiful Pixels Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:47:45 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-42 <strong>Is Gamebryo Good Middleware?...</strong> Kyle Wilson writes nicely thought out articles on game development. He just wrote a piece, Defining Good Middleware. I’ve been asked how Gamebryo stacks up to his definition. So, I’ll discuss that, plus throw in some additional thoughts. ... Is Gamebryo Good Middleware?…

Kyle Wilson writes nicely thought out articles on game development. He just wrote a piece, Defining Good Middleware.

I’ve been asked how Gamebryo stacks up to his definition. So, I’ll discuss that, plus throw in some additional thoughts. …

]]> By: Kyle http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-40 Kyle Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:40 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-40 Casey Muratori is a bright guy. We used his Granny animation library in MechAssault and MechAssault 2, and it worked well. We switched away from it for Fracture because we were adopting Havok anyway and thought it would be more convenient to get our animation and physics from the same source. Casey Muratori is a bright guy. We used his Granny animation library in MechAssault and MechAssault 2, and it worked well. We switched away from it for Fracture because we were adopting Havok anyway and thought it would be more convenient to get our animation and physics from the same source.

]]> By: Kyle http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Kyle Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:55:30 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-39 I'm happy to list the middleware packages that we used, but I'd rather not review them here. I hope that my co-workers who are most familiar with specific systems will review them for Game Developer at greater length. We used: Bink for video compression FaceFX for facial animation FMOD for audio Havok for physics and animation RakNet for our low-level network layer SpeedTree for foliage And Boost, Zlib, Flex++ and Bison++, Sony's EDGE libraries, and dlmalloc. We used a couple of other third-party packages in our tools that didn't ship in the game itself. I’m happy to list the middleware packages that we used, but I’d rather not review them here. I hope that my co-workers who are most familiar with specific systems will review them for Game Developer at greater length.

We used:
Bink for video compression
FaceFX for facial animation
FMOD for audio
Havok for physics and animation
RakNet for our low-level network layer
SpeedTree for foliage

And Boost, Zlib, Flex++ and Bison++, Sony’s EDGE libraries, and dlmalloc. We used a couple of other third-party packages in our tools that didn’t ship in the game itself.

]]> By: dmail http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-38 dmail Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:41:23 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-38 Nice article, it reminded me of a presentation I listened to by Casey Muratori. Were he draws knowledge from lessons learnt creating tools entitled Designing and Evaluating Reusable Components. The audio and slides of which are available at the following url http://mollyrocket.com/873 Nice article, it reminded me of a presentation I listened to by Casey Muratori. Were he draws knowledge from lessons learnt creating tools entitled Designing and Evaluating Reusable Components. The audio and slides of which are available at the following url http://mollyrocket.com/873

]]> By: Jesse http://gamearchitect.net/2008/09/19/good-middleware/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Jesse Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:28:22 +0000 http://gamearchitect.net/?p=21#comment-37 Enjoyed the article; it hits on the most important aspects when considering a 3rd party solution. You said in the beginning that you used various middleware for the development of Fracture. Can you elaborate and tell us which packages you used and how those met (or didn't meet) the requirements you gave? Enjoyed the article; it hits on the most important aspects when considering a 3rd party solution.

You said in the beginning that you used various middleware for the development of Fracture. Can you elaborate and tell us which packages you used and how those met (or didn’t meet) the requirements you gave?

]]>