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1

DotNet / Pushing everything to a VertexArray each frame

« on: June 14, 2014, 07:46:19 pm »

So the method I'm using for rendering, is I have all these Images and Tilemaps and stuff I've written. Most of them work using vertices, and I have a BatchManager that will batch everything batchable into the same VertexArray (that is, everything that has the same texture, blendmode, shader, etc.)

Thing is, I've noticed this is a bit cpu-expensive. Clearing all the VertexArrays and pushing everything to them each frame seems to be a bit of a performance issue.

This is written using C# by the way, just to clarify.

Am I doing it terribly wrong? Should I just stick to using SFML's sprites and stuff that simply don't use batching (and just batch Tilemap or Particles)? Any tips on how to improve performance?

2

DotNet / Future Xamarin support?

« on: May 25, 2014, 01:38:06 am »

Is there any chance we could see some kind of Xamarin support for SFML.NET to be able to publish SFML.NET projects to iOS / Android using SFML's iOS/Android implementations?

3

General discussions / SFML: C# or C++?

« on: January 30, 2014, 06:27:14 pm »

Hello everyone,

I'm an experienced AS3 programmer (one of the main guys at FlashPunk), and have also worked quite a bit with C#, Python, Ruby, the web languages, etc.

I'm undecided between choosing the .NET version of SFML or the C++ one, and I was wondering if you guys could help me a bit.

The pros of using the C++ version would be that most of the libraries for SFML are only available in C++. Also, it's faster. But I have never used C++, and I would have to learn the language first. (and the C++11 techniques).

The pros of using the C# version is I already know the language, and I love the additional features it has to offer compared to C++. The disadvantage would be less speed and much less library support. I would have to port the libraries (or make bindings, but I've got no idea about that).

My questions are: is SFML.Net as portable as SFML C++? With that I mean, can I use the C# version to make Mac and Linux versions of my game that would run well? Is Mono fast and good? Could I also use the SFML.net mobile version once finished with my C# code?

Would I be able to easily integrate the Steam API into a C# game? I know the official Steam API is only C++, but I've seen a paid library that brings C# to the API and it's very easy and fun.

What problems would I run into using the C# version instead of the C++ version?

Also, as an aside question... does Java really work for games? I've heard about the cool libgdx library... but I've always seen Java apps perform poorly, and they all have some sort of Java feeling.