Long time, no post, sorry. I just wanted to ask about the current C++ support state.
As stated here, some C++ support was in the road plan, has been any changes lately?
I come from working with Unreal and Unity and the thing I prefer the most from Unreal compared to Unity is the ability to use C++ and go from gameplay code to engine code in one breakpoint, I admit this is not the normal workflow, but when you really need it, it can save you a lot of time. Considering the documentation of such behemoth of engine sometimes is not updated or even exists.
Last year I checked Defold, all gameplay was still made in Lua, and unfortunately for big projects using non typed languages is a no-no for me. Also the workflow involved online servers for building. I found it was possible to have local servers but I was not able to made it work quickly and gave up.
Are there still plans to work on this? I’d like a workflow that would be able to run the whole project from the IDE, it would be great to have.
Yes, the task(s) haven’t been as fast going as we’d have liked.
Currrently we have two initiatives:
Add more functionality to our C++ sdk
Add a C# api as well.
(And then going back and forth between the two, adding more functions)
We’re currently at the stage where we’re trying to build C# for WIndows on a LInux machine (Who could have known it would be an issue…).
Once that’s fixed, I hope we can pick up the pace again.
I’d also like to point out that it’s not scripting, it’s writing and compiling native code, and building on a build server. Turnaround times will increase.
I also want to mention our new Teal extension, that let’s you write typed Lua.
As I understand, you are talking about a workflow where you open the engine code in an IDE, start writing your logic in C++ using the same IDE, and then compile it all together? If so, no, we don’t have plans for this.
It will still be our extender server that builds your C++ code and links it with the engine.
If you checked the setup of a local extender last year, I recommend you take a look at our new setup, which was released last month.
We now have a container registry with ready-to-use Docker images, and the installation process for a local extender should be much easier! Please take a look at this forum post: Big build server improvements!
There is an example here of recreating the sidescroller example using C++ if you want to get a feel for how it works to write C++ game logic in Defold: