Should C or C be chosen for learning Games Programming consoles

Question

I ve basic game programming knowledge in c and c    I m learning c  nowadays  If I want to make a career in console games programming  which one I should use to proceed  I ve noticed that a lot of game companies are using C   C  probably because of legacy reasons   Also probably C   enjoys more number of supported libraries  In which languages modern game engines unreal crysis etc  are written in  Which language is a better bet  and why

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It really depends on what type of game you re planning on building   many games could be done in a language like C    That being said  the majority of game development is done in C   just becasue the majority of game development needs to eke out every last bit of performance that the platform can provide and that means either C  C   or  shudder  assembler

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You won t find C  running on any consoles  so it s useless in that regard   If you are learning programming  C  offers a softer learning curve than C    but you can write C   without getting into the more scary and complex areas of the language  so it s not really much more difficult   If you want to program with graphics or other  gamesey  things  then C  is a pretty poor choice - go for C   with OpenGL or DirectX   edit  Ultimately  if you want a career in games  go for C    You may be able to write game code in C   but realistically you won t find nearly as many career opportunities using C  as you do with C    Unless you want to become a game tools programmer  in which case C  is much better than C   because you can get a lot more functionality working in a lot less time  A lot of games companies are switching to C  for as much tools dev as possible   Of course  if you can handle the workload  the best way is to learn both languages  and apply  the best tool for the job   As they re so similar  it s really not difficult to learn one when you ve learned the other   Really most of the learning curve moving from C   to C  is  net and LINQ etc rather than the core C  language per se - an awful lot of it is nearly identical  with just a few bits of syntactical sugar here and there

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C   is the lingua franca of the console game industry  For better or worse  you must know it to be a professional console game programmer

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It depends  It depends on a lot of things - your goals  your experience  your timeframe  etc   The majority of game programming isn t language specific   3D math is 3D math in C  as much as it is in C     While the APIs may be different  and different  bookkeeping  may be required  the fundamental logic and math will remain the same   And it s true that most AAA game engines are C   with a scripting language on top of them   That is undeniable   However  most AAA engines also have a bunch of in-house tools supporting them  and those may be in anything - Java  C   C    etc   If you want to write a game  and are an experienced developer then C   and C  have a lot going for them   C  has less housekeeping  while C   has more available libraries and tools   For anything highly complex  however  you d be best off trying to use an existing engine as a starting point   If you want to write a game  and are a new developer then don t write an engine   Use an existing engine  and mod it or use its facilities to write your game   Trust me   If you want to learn how to write an engine  and are an experienced developer you should probably think about C     C  is possible as well  but the amount of code and ease of integration of C   probably puts it over the top   If you want to learn how to write an engine  and are a new developer I d probably recommend C  XNA   You ll get to the game  stuff  faster  with less headache of learning the ins and outs of C     If you want a job in the industry then you need to figure out what kind of job you want   A high-level language can help get a foot in the door dealing with tools and or web development  which can lead to opportunities on actual game work   Even knowledge of scripting languages can help if you want to go for more of the game designer scripter position   Chances are that you will not get a job working on core engine stuff immediately  as the skills required to do so are pretty high   Strong C   development skills are always helpful  especially in real-time or networked scenarios   AAA game engine development involves some serious brain-twisting code   If you want to start a professional development house then you probably aren t reading this  but already know that C   is probably the only viable answer   If you want to do casual game development then you should probably consider Flash or a similar technology

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C   with win32 GDI is relatively easy to get going  but far more difficult than say Flash or Python  pygame  - however  by using C   you ll learn a lot in the process and be well poised to continue advancing your career as a game developer  You can also look into XNA if you want to program to the xbox360   I took some classes at Game Institute  GI  and learned a lot about C    win32 API and DirectX

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If you knew C  and XNA  you could make some sample games in a pretty straight forward manner  which might help to break into the field   My guess is  the core gaming engines are written in C    but some of the other code around the core could be in C

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I m not going to answer the original question since most post here have  I m going to point something out to you that you missed in your post  Simply knowing C C   C  isn t going to get you a career in game development  Most game studios get dozens to hundreds of applications for a simple code monkey job  What makes you stand out compared to them  What makes you a better hire than someone else who has experience making games at another studio   If you really want a career in the games industry  even on consoles  you should make a demo of some kind that shows what you know  C   would be great language choice to use in the demo if you re applying for a console development position  You could show off more by making a tool in C  XNA to create the assets for your demo  You ll show the hiring managers and tech leads that you re not JUST a C   guy or JUST a C  guy  you re a developer

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Ok here is my two cents   If you are planning to seriously get into the game industry I recommend you learn both languages  Starting off with C   then moving into a managed language like C   C   has it s advantages over C   but C  also has advantages over C      Personally I prefer C  over C   any day  This is because many reasons   just a few    C  makes programming fun again     It s managed code helps me complete complex tasks easily and not forget safety  C s  is pure OOP  forcing rules in your code that helps keep your code more readable   maintainable  and execution is more stable   Productivity rate surpasses C   by at least 10   the best C   programmer could be an even better C  programmer  This isn t really a reason  more like something  I  like about C   LINQ    Now   there are many things that I miss about C    I miss being able to  completely  manage my own memory  I can t tell you how many times I caught myself trying to  delete  an instance reference  Another thing I dislike about C  is the inability to use multiple-inheritance  but then again it has forced me to think more about how to structure my code   There has been more discussions on this topic than there are stars in the known universe and they all close at a dead end  Neither language is better than the other and refusing either one for the other will just hurt you in the long run  Times change and so do the standards for computer programming   Whatever language you choose to keep at the top of your list  always keep your options open and don t set your mind to any one single language  You say you already know C    why not learn C   it can t hurt and I  promise  you  it will make you a better C   programmer

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C    for two reasons   1  a lot of games are programmed in C     No mainstream game is  as yet  programmed in a managed language   2  C   is as hard as it gets   You have to master manual memory management and generally no bounds checking  beyond the excellent Valgrind     If you master C    you will find this transferable to managed procedural languages   Less so the other way around   C   has a level of complexity close to APL   You ll never get better by playing weaker opponents   Joel makes a very strong point about this   People who understand how the machine works make better programmers  because all abstractions are leaky

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I think that C     Because c  needs additional instalation for C  runtime which only absorbs space on a disk  And C  is of course a bit slower

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Hey  if BASIC is good enough for Gorillas  it s good enough for me

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To tell the truth   you have to make the decision as to which is the better language  I know what I can do with C   I know what can be done in C    C  isn t made to do what C   was made to do   write code at the most basic level and still be somewhat meaningful when read by human eyes   We are developing a game engine with C   DirectX   is it a challenge  hell yeah   but it s something we chose to do  We are looking at some performance levels that are very close to what C   can give  So  I see no problems with this effort   To cross-platform development  if it weren t for  Net  we might not have the Mono platform  The Mono platform has broadened our platform base   Here is some support to my arguments

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If you want to be employed professionally as a game developer you need to know C C     End of story

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Its always a hard one to say because they were using assembly up until 1993  NBA Jam if anyone remembers that bad boy   Technology is constantly trending so its very difficult to say where it will go  I would recommend learning C and getting a very firm grasp on that then move onto C     I will say this as a caution if you enjoy playing games you will not enjoy coding games

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Look at it like this - while you can write a game in C   it isn t going to open many career doors for you  If you know C   and Lua  then you re going to be far more employable   You re also not just talking about PC desktops and Consoles  games nowadays are very much for the mobile devices  so only knowing C  would limit you even further  Sure  C   isn t going to be the optimal choice for writing iPhone apps  but you re going to be far closer to being an objective-C programmer if you know C   than if you know C    Games devs use C   not for legacy reasons  though having establish C   engines and libraries helps  but for performance and experience  Game devs know C    it works for them very well  so there s no need to change  Its not like line-of-business apps  on Windows  where the developer mindshare moves with the current Microsoft tools

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I believe that C   is the language that you are looking for  The majority of game development is in C   because it is a multi-paradigm language  OOP  meta-programming  etc   and because it allows memory management  What makes C   even better is that it can be used to develop on a multitude of platforms whereas C  cannot do so on such a big scale   Many will say that with C  you will not have to worry about memory allocation and this is true at a certain price  You will have the burden of the  NET framework on your shoulders and will slowly see the limitations of C  in the way certain tasks must be done   Probably you have read from some answers that C   is a hard programming language  This is mostly true  but perhaps you haven t heard about C  0x  Some features found in C  such as garbage collection will become available  optional for you to use  with C  0x  Also  multi-threading will finally be supported by the language with this revision of the C   standard   I would recommend that you buy a few C   books as well as C   DirectX OpenGL books

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There is no one language that is a  better bet    Use the language most appropriate for what you need to do  whether it is game programming or any other domain   C   isn t going away anytime soon   If you re not developing for a Microsoft platform  I doubt you ll use C

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C     It is the gold standard for AAA game programming  If you need to do something interesting  you will need to do C   or delve into unmanaged C  not always nice    C   is also arguably faster usual caveats apply    As a learning experience  C  is not worth it  C   is unquestionably better  especially in the quasi-embedded world of consoles  To get the object-oriented experience  go towards Java

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