Hot Compiling

Garry Newman

– June 10, 2009

Botch works using worlds. You know how HL2 has server and client dll’s, and you edit them to modify the game. Well Botch works like that, except you can have multiple dlls, and multiple worlds in the dlls.

I chose to do it this way for a few reasons. It forces me to code more modularly, compile times are a LOT faster, and it’s pretty cool.

Today I coded Hot Loading for worlds, which I’m calling Hot Compiling. It allows you to recompile the world dll while the game is running, then the game will automatically reload the dll and the worlds. Check it out:

(You should watch this full screen so you can see what’s going on)

The eventual goal is to get the galaxy (container of the worlds) to save the state of all the worlds, and try to load them back when it restores (right now it just reloads whatever worlds were running when it detected changes).

http://neic0.de/ Neico

oh looks pretty hot, i’m still wondering why valve didn’t take you into their Team so you could make the HL 3 Engine haha
http://neic0.de Neico

oh looks pretty hot, i’m still wondering why valve didn’t take you into their Team so you could make the HL 3 Engine haha
Nobody

Looks alrighty, now knock together another botch :D
Nobody

Looks alrighty, now knock together another botch :D
http://www.daggeringcats.com/ aVoN

Interesting. How do you achieve it?
I’m sure, not by using a loop which constantly checks for fileupdates. Do you use some sort of filesystem-hook?
http://www.daggeringcats.com aVoN

Interesting. How do you achieve it?
I’m sure, not by using a loop which constantly checks for fileupdates. Do you use some sort of filesystem-hook?
Simie

@aVoN
Its explained in his previous post, isn’t it?

That looks awesome, garry.
Simie

@aVoN
Its explained in his previous post, isn’t it?

That looks awesome, garry.
Pim

Wow Garry, that looks awesome. I love how smooth that is.
Pim

Wow Garry, that looks awesome. I love how smooth that is.
Robber

@7: He uses ReadDirectoryChangesW
http://www.garry.tv/?p=956
Robber

@7: He uses ReadDirectoryChangesW
http://www.garry.tv/?p=956
RC-1290′Dreadnought’

Oooh, Shiny! That’ll make debugging a lot easier.
RC-1290′Dreadnought’

Oooh, Shiny! That’ll make debugging a lot easier.
Foohy

Love that smooth transition between worlds.
Foohy

Love that smooth transition between worlds.
Yellow

WOW.
Yellow

WOW.
The MAZZTer

Hmm I thought you would have to unload the DLL before you could overwrite it when recompiling? How do you achieve this? Or is your pre-compile steps set up to rename the old DLL? (This is how DLLs in-use are generally overwritten in Windows; renamed, replace, old DLL deleted on reboot.)

“Worlds” are a totally different thing than maps right? I know you said it’s like multiple server and client DLLs and this makes sense to me, but then you call them “worlds”, which sounds like a map or level. If you’re not trying to give that impression maybe you can call them gamemodes or game rules or something.
The MAZZTer

Addendum: or mini-engines.
The MAZZTer

Hmm I thought you would have to unload the DLL before you could overwrite it when recompiling? How do you achieve this? Or is your pre-compile steps set up to rename the old DLL? (This is how DLLs in-use are generally overwritten in Windows; renamed, replace, old DLL deleted on reboot.)

“Worlds” are a totally different thing than maps right? I know you said it’s like multiple server and client DLLs and this makes sense to me, but then you call them “worlds”, which sounds like a map or level. If you’re not trying to give that impression maybe you can call them gamemodes or game rules or something.
The MAZZTer

Addendum: or mini-engines.
Anthoni_C

So in other words, it would be ridiculously easy for other developers to code new worlds and load them in-engine?
Anthoni_C

So in other words, it would be ridiculously easy for other developers to code new worlds and load them in-engine?
Vbitz

Thats cool, first person to make it into a binary dll for gmod gets a c++ kinged
Vbitz

Thats cool, first person to make it into a binary dll for gmod gets a c++ kinged
Eggy

You say that the eventual goal is to save the state of the worlds. Perhaps allowing for a save inbetween changing worlds, would allow for a hub type system (i.e. Quake 2) for multi-world puzzles/tasks/quests/etc?
Eggy

You say that the eventual goal is to save the state of the worlds. Perhaps allowing for a save inbetween changing worlds, would allow for a hub type system (i.e. Quake 2) for multi-world puzzles/tasks/quests/etc?
Robber

I think you already answered it, but I can’t find where: Are you planning to release an SDK? I mean like the Source SDK, where some code is included and you can modify it, not only through scripting (GMod), but with C++.
Robber

I think you already answered it, but I can’t find where: Are you planning to release an SDK? I mean like the Source SDK, where some code is included and you can modify it, not only through scripting (GMod), but with C++.
http://www.garry.tv/ garry

I look at it like this.

Engine -> Galaxy – > Worlds (multiple) -> Entities (multiple)
Garry Newman

I look at it like this.

Engine -> Galaxy – > Worlds (multiple) -> Entities (multiple)
Zac Ozols

I prefer to look at it like this.
Universe (PC) -> Engine -> Galaxy -> Worlds (multiple) -> Entities (multiple)
Zac Ozols

I prefer to look at it like this.
Universe (PC) -> Engine -> Galaxy -> Worlds (multiple) -> Entities (multiple)
http://jazmcdougall.blogspot.com jazmeister

I lol’d at 0:45 ish :D

Seriously though, this looks fucking amazing. If you lived in someone’s basement, they’d be like “WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING DOWN THERE ALL DAY?”
http://jazmcdougall.blogspot.com Jazmeister

I lol’d at 0:45 ish :D

Seriously though, this looks fucking amazing. If you lived in someone’s basement, they’d be like “WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING DOWN THERE ALL DAY?”
DuckRoll

Really cool, I’ve been waiting for a botch update for months. Looks like its coming along great, nice one Garry.
DuckRoll

Really cool, I’ve been waiting for a botch update for months. Looks like its coming along great, nice one Garry.
THF

Is Botch your engine?
THF

Is Botch your engine?
Andy

What? Worlds consist of code? Where do maps come in? Why would I want to load entities in one world as opposed to another?
Andy

What? Worlds consist of code? Where do maps come in? Why would I want to load entities in one world as opposed to another?
http://www.garry.tv/ garry

The worlds can be different things. One could be a menu. One could be an intro. One could be the main game. One could be a mini game. One could be the HUD.

I’m not making a FPS engine.
Garry Newman

The worlds can be different things. One could be a menu. One could be an intro. One could be the main game. One could be a mini game. One could be the HUD.

I’m not making a FPS engine.
http://superjerk.co.uk/ Andy32muk

Hey, I’m Garry Newman and my skills are totally non-existant. I make a crappy mod that is totally bug-ridden and wastes hours of peoples lives just in trying to make it work properly. The only things that are good about it come from people like the Wireteam and LS team. I like Kanye West and iPhones and crappy French cars and am an incurable microsoft/apple fanboy, yet despite all of this, for some bizarre reason, I have an ego the size of the fucking planet and think I’m better than everyone else! I’m Garry Newman.
http://superjerk.co.uk Andy32muk

Hey, I’m Garry Newman and my skills are totally non-existant. I make a crappy mod that is totally bug-ridden and wastes hours of peoples lives just in trying to make it work properly. The only things that are good about it come from people like the Wireteam and LS team. I like Kanye West and iPhones and crappy French cars and am an incurable microsoft/apple fanboy, yet despite all of this, for some bizarre reason, I have an ego the size of the fucking planet and think I’m better than everyone else! I’m Garry Newman.
Simie

Could you show a snippet of your DLL loading/unloading code? I’m interested to see how you did this :-)
Simie

Could you show a snippet of your DLL loading/unloading code? I’m interested to see how you did this :-)
andy32muk

“Oh, and lots of teenage boys want to suck me off! I’m Garry Newman”
andy32muk

“Oh, and lots of teenage boys want to suck me off! I’m Garry Newman”
no one

@37
haha you are funny
no one

@37
haha you are funny
http://www.badthingsaregood.com/ TheAntitaste -666

Beware, for the day of reckoning is upon you! I am The Antitaste and as your Bible foretold; I have come to make you listen to crappy generic R&B made by pompous asses who look like gay fishes and force you all to buy low quality phones that lack pull-out QWERTY keyboards! I am The Antitaste and my number is -666. Fear me.
http://www.badthingsaregood.com TheAntitaste -666

Beware, for the day of reckoning is upon you! I am The Antitaste and as your Bible foretold; I have come to make you listen to crappy generic R&B made by pompous asses who look like gay fishes and force you all to buy low quality phones that lack pull-out QWERTY keyboards! I am The Antitaste and my number is -666. Fear me.
Warman

what the hell theantitaste?
Warman

what the hell theantitaste?
http://dago.mpg-esports.eu/ Dago

l00kz very well =)
http://dago.mpg-esports.eu Dago

l00kz very well =)
Anthoni_C

So your trying to make an engine that is very flexible in the type of game it can make. So while your not making an FPS engine, someone could modify it to have an FPS camera, and gameplay, right?
Anthoni_C

So your trying to make an engine that is very flexible in the type of game it can make. So while your not making an FPS engine, someone could modify it to have an FPS camera, and gameplay, right?
http://www.garry.tv/ garry

Yeah
Garry Newman

Yeah
Dongmaster

Huh, reminds me of the Fix-and-Continue feature that Xcode has, except that you can’t make massive changes without borking everything up as it’s “patching” the executable, rather than going for something more modular and easily changed like happy little libraries :(
Dongmaster

Huh, reminds me of the Fix-and-Continue feature that Xcode has, except that you can’t make massive changes without borking everything up as it’s “patching” the executable, rather than going for something more modular and easily changed like happy little libraries :(
THF

So if you make a main game dll, you make your own map loader and parser and stuff in it?
THF

So if you make a main game dll, you make your own map loader and parser and stuff in it?
http://blog.luapineapple.com/?p=64 Miscellaneous Nuggets – Inbound transmission

[...] UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32: The hacks of the text processing world (except for UTF-8, which makes the best of an uncomfortable situation). More on this when I get enough conclusive data for an informative post. (You see, I actually try to think before posting, instead of running around yelling that scripting is dead and that C++ DLL hot-loading is the future.) [...]

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