{"id":138,"date":"2024-04-16T18:46:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T18:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/permutationcity.co.uk\/bp\/?p=138"},"modified":"2024-07-27T08:52:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T08:52:41","slug":"game-programming-patterns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/permutationcity.co.uk\/bp\/2024\/04\/16\/game-programming-patterns\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Programming Patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wanted to cleanse my palette and decided to read Game Programming Patterns<\/a>\nby Robert Nystrom.\nI’ve read it before so I knew what to expect.\nIt’s a clearly written pattern book with simple example situation taken from the games industry.\nDon’t expect to get all the patterns here or advanced game programming knowledge.\nHowever if you want to get a general introduction for patterns before you read\nsomething bigger<\/a> then this is great.\nSimilarly if you want to write games but your spaghetti code is getting out of hand then this could be a lifeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design patterns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Algorithms are often likened to recipes, a series of precise instructions.\nFollowing the instructions in a recipe takes ingredients and turns them into food.\nFollowing the instructions in an algorithm can, say, take an unsorted list of values and turn it into a sorted list.\nLibraries can often offer specific algorithms pre-packaged for easy use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design patterns are normally less precise, more a list of expected features than a proscription on how to do them.\nSo less a recipe and more a style of cooking or a set of ingredients to use.\nLibraries might offer tools to help but it’s more often about recreating the pattern in your own code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t really think about named design patterns or plan my projects around them but I still use them all the time.\nFor me a Builder<\/a> is a classic example of this.\nYou could try to manually construct a complicated object.\nHowever that can be require in-depth knowledge to do correctly or\ntransform the object through a series of intermediate states.\nIt can be safer and easier to encapsulate the construction within a builder.\nThis can collect the information necessary for construction and then, in one go, produce the object.\nI don’t think “Let me use the builder pattern.”\nI think “Having a CommandLineBuilder<\/code> means I don’t have to worry about escaping arguments with spaces.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presentation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each section of the book covers a number of associated patterns.\nEach pattern gets one or two examples to get you familiar with them.\nThen there’s a discussion about the pros and cons of different variations of the pattern.\nFor games the balance is normally between the flexibility of the system and the performance it provides.\nReally this is exactly what I’m writing about for balance programming.\nHaving everything isn’t normally possible so how do you go about picking what’s best for your situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sample code is really simple, sticking to straight C.\nI might have preferred something more modern but he’s made it accessible to everyone.\nI understand the choice.\nYou’ll have to translate the examples into your preferred language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Content overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n