A Perspective on D from game industry

[Manu via Digitalmars-d]

On 16 June 2014 05:53, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
> On 6/15/2014 12:27 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>
>> It really gets me that the same industry which created Frostbite 3, Unreal
>> Engine 4, GTA5, Steam (obviously all enormous investments), mostly done
>> *in* C++
>> which makes them that much MORE effort, will bitch *soo* much about C++
>> and
>> STILL won't get off their asses enough to write, or even contribute to, a
>> mere
>> language.
>
>
> It's all about comfort zone. It is much easier to continue doing what one is
> familiar with than to try something new.
>
> It's also fair to say that some people have learned D, and gone back to C++.

I think the reason is mostly like I said in my other post; that
gamedev is a strictly closed and proprietary industry. Open Source is
a synonym with "flakey, barely working, non-windows-compatible,
probably-linux-nonsense, rubbish", if you ask most gamedev's. They
don't understand OSS, and the industry doesn't support any knowledge
in the field. I think this is changing, but it hasn't pervasively
affected gamedev culture yet...

Gamedev is about solutions being given (MSVC, closed console platform
tools, etc), and they are just waiting for the package to appear.
It's not entirely unreasonable either. Most people probably don't
realise how high-stress and unfair the gamedev industry is when it
comes to engineers time and commitment to their work.
To say that they literally have no time to spend on extra-curricular
projects is an understatement, and risk-aversion is a key form of
self-defence. I know many gamedev's who are frequently expected to
choose between their life and families, or their jobs.

If they can't see the package and toolset nicely integrated, they
can't imagine the workflow as realistic. I often make the point how
important VisualD is, and I don't say that lightly, it is everything
to this community. And I must re-iterate, it's a _gigantic_ community!