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Simple Optimization Trick (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 day ago by Maven@lemmy.zip to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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[-] Angry_Autist@lemmy.world -3 points 22 hours ago

Before Doom (1993), almost all games were assembly

No? Not even close? Why is it people get away with saying such stupid things on the internet?

[-] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 21 hours ago

Because it's true. Here's an article from Tim Sweeney from 2001:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010105180900/http://www.gamespy.com/legacy/articles/devweek_c.shtm

Mainstream application programmers switched to C in the early 80's. Game developers were slower to switch, because their small teams and focus on performance kept assembly language viable till the following decade. When id Software released DOOM, they surprised much of the industry by having no reliance on assembly code--despite excellent game performance, and by successfully cross-developing the game (in NeXTstep and DOS), then successfully porting it to an astounding variety of platforms.

[-] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 18 hours ago

Focus on performance, wow, well the industry has certainly changed a bit.

[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 15 hours ago

Performance is very much still a significant factor. At the end of the day, games are expected to run at certain FPS on certain machines. The machines have gotten better to the extent that unoptimized code can be used sometimes, but when competing for graphics, badly optimized games will have to sacrifice fidelity to hit performance targets, where well-optimized games can get squeeze out better graphics and hit those same targets.

There's plenty of tricks these days but optimized code will always have an edge.