gx VS Ebiten

Nice! Ebiten is a super nice API for Go. Lots there to be inspired by in API design. Another API I like a lot is Love for Lua (which also actually can be used from C++).

Re: the comments on here about the GC etc. -- I've posted about this a couple times before but I've been using a custom Go -> C++ compiler for hobby gamedev, which helps with perf, gives access to C/C++ APIs (I've been using Raylib and physics engines etc.) and also especially has good perf in WebAssembly. Another nice thing is you can add in some reflection / metaprogramming stuff for eg. serializing structs or inspector UI for game entity properties. I was briefly experimenting with generating GLSL from Go code too so you can write shaders in Go and pass data to them with shared structs etc.

The compiler: https://github.com/nikki93/gx

I've been using my own little Go (subset / my own extensions) -> C++ compiler -- https://github.com/nikki93/gx -- and found it to be a fun way to add some guardrails and nicer syntax over C++ usage. You get Go's package system and the syntax analyzers / syntax highlighters etc. just work.

Re: perf for hobby gamedev, I basically agree for native builds, but lately I've felt like Wasm support seems key for hobby gamedev (so you can have more people play your game / without downloading it / it works directly on mobile too without dealing with app or play store). And Go perf in Wasm unfortunately is not so good (I was hitting big GC pauses when trying to make a game with Ebiten and large images).

I ended up writing a Go -> C++ compiler. The games I've done with it don't use the GC at all but also don't manually manage memory -- they use an ECS api which helps. https://github.com/nikki93/gx -- the README links to development workflow video and complete example game code.

I've written my own Go (subset + extensions) -> C++ transpiler and using it on a game project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8He97Sl9iy0 -- No GC, it does have slices and has access to an entity/component API and with that I think you're basically set and don't need GC for games.

Example transpiler input / output: https://github.com/nikki93/gx/blob/master/example/main.gx.go... becomes https://gist.github.com/nikki93/97ff376abb6718427387bb9cca2f...

Hey thanks! The source code for the compiler itself is here: https://github.com/nikki93/gx along with a test / example under the 'example/' directory. This is the C++ output when compiling 'example/': https://gist.github.com/nikki93/b650c551ccb67490d8607980a582c468

Reading ebiten docs and source code they very clearly state that writing RGBA bytes to an image is slow, and shouldn't really be done every frame, at least many times per frame. This is where I thought my performance was being lost, and it sent me looking for answers for ages. Turns out, I was wrong and right.

I love Go, yet I've never thought of it as a language with usable game engines. I'm extremely happy to find I was very wrong about that!

I'm woefully behind the curve on compiling to WASM, though, and I've yet to experiment much with tinygo so I have no idea how far I would get in creating a game people could enjoy in a browser without having to download a big bundle of assets. It's reassuring to see WASM mentioned explicitly as a compilation target [1] by Ebitengine though.

[1] https://github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten

For other OSes, see https://github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten/issues/1162

What about learning Go with Ebiten? Or Rust with Bevy?

Actually, there is a game engine in Go. Ebiten(gine) is actually really popular and has already been used for a few games in production

Check out this thread, some of the linked repositories might be of help. https://github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten/discussions/1527

// consider having a laser type to deal with orientation, etc // basic information to draw sprites, track position and update position type Body struct { // positions x float64 y float64 // velocities vx float64 vy float64 // get height and width from sheet.xml using sp width int height int } type Enemy struct { Body sp int health int } type Laser struct { Body sp int } type Mode int const ( ModeTitle Mode = iota ModeGame ModeGameOver ) var ( arcadeFont font.Face smallArcadeFont font.Face ) // fonts and sizes func init() { tt, err := truetype.Parse(fonts.ArcadeN_ttf) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } const dpi = 72 arcadeFont = truetype.NewFace(tt, &truetype.Options{ Size: fontSize, DPI: dpi, Hinting: font.HintingFull, }) smallArcadeFont = truetype.NewFace(tt, &truetype.Options{ Size: smallFontSize, DPI: dpi, Hinting: font.HintingFull, }) } // in the future have a laser type struct, spriteImgNum, and number of animations type Game struct { mode Mode level int // tracks location of player and maybe health Player struct { Body health int laserType int canShoot bool sp int // consider adding in height and width of player object // all of the sprites seem to be the same // TODO set global width } PLasers []*Laser Enemies []*Enemy ELasers []*Laser gameoverCount int } // load images func init() { // sprites img, _, err := image.Decode(bytes.NewReader(resources.Sprites_png)) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } gameImages, _ = ebiten.NewImageFromImage(img, ebiten.FilterDefault) // backgrounds img, _, err = image.Decode(bytes.NewReader(resources.Starfieldreal_jpg)) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } bgImage, _ = ebiten.NewImageFromImage(img, ebiten.FilterDefault) } // background image logic from // # https://github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten/blob/master/examples/infinitescroll/main.go var ( theViewport = &viewport{} ) type viewport struct { x16 int y16 int } func (p *viewport) Move() { w, h := bgImage.Size() maxX16 := w * 16 maxY16 := h * 16 p.x16 += w / 32 p.y16 += h / 32 p.x16 %= maxX16 p.y16 %= maxY16 }

I noticed a similar issue when I got my MBP with the framebuffer not matching the window size and this has to do with the DPI settings. This GitHub link helped me understand the issue better and I hope it can be of assistance to you https://github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten/pull/1811

This program also demonstrates how great Ebitengine is and how you can port GLSL shaders to it almost 1 to 1.

Basic gist: built in Go with ebitengine, medieval fantasy, pixel art