Return from 2020: Super Cruise Control

from JoeUser Forums

The time machine worked like a charm (this time anyway) and I got to spend a few hours in 2020.

Things haven’t changed nearly as much as I imagined (I was hoping for Amazon delivery drones, but alas, none to be found).  But my friend drove me up north and showed off a relatively new feature on his BMW: Super Cruise.

Now, admittedly, I had hoped there would be self-driving cars by then but apparently they still aren’t a thing in 2020 which was a big bummer.  However, most of the high end cards do have Super Cruiser (different companies call it different things – Ford calls theirs “Smart Cruise”).

Anyway, the way it works is that you get on a highway, get to the speed you want and set “Super Cruise” which will then keep you on the road at that speed, in that lane and handle acceleration and deceleration as well as steering.  It only works on certain highways under certain conditions (all GPS / road condition based – which has come a long way) but otherwise it’s pretty neat.

I wasn’t there long but if anyone has any questions on 2020 I’ll try my best to answer. Smile

123,750 views 31 replies
Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Primal_Savage, reply 1


quoting post...I wasn’t there long but if anyone has any questions on 2020 I’ll try my best to answer.

 

The Draginol!

 

While Super Cruise is engaged, do the driver and passenger seats rotate 180° to take care of the "Are we there yet" creatures?
End of Primal_Savage's quote

Not in the car I was in.  It was a BMW i5.  I'm not really a car guy. Do they even make those yet?

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Is there a traditional windshield or have they perfected a video so you can watch the roads backwards.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

What kind of filter did the ventilation system have for keeping out the radioactive dust covering the entire world? What kind of technology was used to keep the tires from going flat while driving over fields of bones? Also, how did you even get permission to "own" a car from our sentient machine overlords - you're not a collaborator, are you? Mr. AI programmer?

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Uh oh......busted! :rofl:

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Putting cars aside: how strategy games look like in 2020? I'm interested in both turn-based and RTS games. And do people still play Counter Strike 1.6?

 

Also: which programming language is the most popular in game development in 2020?

Reply #10 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Quoting Gandhialf, reply 9

Also: which programming language is the most popular in game development in 2020?
End of Gandhialf's quote

At Oxide, we used C++ in 2020.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TheRealWarpstorm, reply 10
At Oxide, we used C++ in 2020.
End of TheRealWarpstorm's quote

For making engine I guess. But what about other stuff, like AI, game logic, scripts, etc.

Reply #12 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Quoting Gandhialf, reply 11

For making engine I guess. But what about other stuff, like AI, game logic, scripts, etc.
End of Gandhialf's quote

For everything, except for graphics shaders, IIRC.  C++ is a great choice for AI and game logic, why would you want those parts to run slowly?

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

I wasn’t there long but if anyone has any questions on 2020 I’ll try my best to answer.
End of quote

What are the winning numbers for next week's lottery?

 

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

How has this affected car accs and congestions?

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Is Al Gore still bloviating?

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If I wanted to remove myself from the 'joys' of driving I'd get a chauffeur...;)

Reason I bought my 9-3 Aero Convertible is because I can drive it......fast....wind in the hair...bugs in the teeth....

 

....when I have neither I'll give it away [the driving]...;)

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

Yay competition!

I wonder if those screeching tire sounds were added later...

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TheRealWarpstorm, reply 12
For everything, except for graphics shaders, IIRC.  C++ is a great choice for AI and game logic, why would you want those parts to run slowly?
End of TheRealWarpstorm's quote

As far as I know people use different languages than C/C++ for non-engine stuff because it's faster to write and debug.

In C to iterate though an array/list you have to:

Code: c++
  3. for(i = 0, s = sizeof(an_array); i < s; i++)
  5. {
  7.     printf("%s\n", an_array[i]); // you have to worry that type is it
  9. }

In Python:

Code: c++
  3. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: &#39;courier new&#39;, courier;">for item in a_list:</span></pre>
  4. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: &#39;courier new&#39;, courier;">
  5. </span></pre>
  6. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: &#39;courier new&#39;, courier;">     print(item) # you don&#39;t care what type is it</span></pre>

When you have to change values between two variables in C you have to:

Code: c++
  3. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: monospace;">temp = var1</span></pre>
  4. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: monospace;">
  5. </span></pre>
  6. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: monospace;">var1 = var2</span></pre>
  7. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: monospace;">
  8. </span></pre>
  9. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: monospace;">var2 = temp</span></pre>

In Python:

Code: c++
  3. <pre class="lang-c prettyprint prettyprinted"><span style="font-family: monospace;">var1, var2 = var2, var1</span></pre>

Etc. 

So writing in C takes longer, and it's more susceptible to little mistakes. I know that C/C++ is way faster and memory efficient than Python. That's why Python could be used in less demanding areas as scripting, or whatever. Or am I mistaken?

Reply #20 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Python is a great language, I've used it on many things in the past.  If you can live with the perf hit, go for it.  We choose not to.

Reply #21 from Elemental Forums Top

If memory serves EVE Online is written in stackless python.

Reply #22 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Quoting TheRealWarpstorm, reply 12
Quoting Gandhialf, reply 11
> For making engine I guess. But what about other stuff, like AI, game logic, scripts, etc.

For everything, except for graphics shaders, IIRC.  C++ is a great choice for AI and game logic, why would you want those parts to run slowly?
End of TheRealWarpstorm's quote

I agree with TheRealWarpstorm.  C++ is a terrific language, and it's very useful for a lot of game logic / AI / UI / tools stuff as well.

I've used a lot of interpreted languages and text-based scripting languages over the years (standardized ones, like Lua, plus a lot of customized, proprietary scripting languages I've ended up having to use for different projects), and it's always been a net negative.  You end up missing out on the debugging and profiling tools that a standardized programming language provides, and you often end up paying a performance penalty.

I've also seen some horror stories of teams that tried to make proprietary languages that ended up basically being just programming languages, or that tried to integrate alternative languages into another code base in ways that didn't pan out in the long run.

My team is using C++ in Unreal Engine 4, and we're also using UE4's "Blueprint" visual scripting system for a lot of the more scriptable elements.  We only do ~5-10% of our work in Blueprint (we expect it to grow to 15-20%) but it ends up being a real time-saver for design-centric and art-centric tasks since it's type-safe and tightly integrated into the engine.

 

TL;DR: Secondary languages often seem like a good idea at the start but there's a lot more risk and benefit there than you'd think.

Reply #23 from Elemental Forums Top

Interesting stuff guys. So nothing is going to replace C++ in gaming in foreseeable future?

Reply #24 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Quoting Gandhialf, reply 23

Interesting stuff guys. So nothing is going to replace C++ in gaming in foreseeable future?
End of Gandhialf's quote

 

It's not going away anytime soon, but there are some other options for sure.  It depends what your game is, what engine you want to use, and what platforms you're targeting.  Unity uses C# and JS and a few other things, some iOS games are written in Objective-C, and I know C# and a few others are still popular outside of that.  You can also make entire games in Unreal Engine 4 Blueprint.

Reply #25 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks. What about Python (I'm currently learning Python, that's why I'm interested)?