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Professional Source Code

Started by Protocol 0 Feb 13, 2005 at 3:14 AM 44 replies 9.6k views

Original Post

Feb 13, 2005 at 3:14 AM

Has anybody got a link to some free profesional source code, so I can get a picture of what the professionals do over at electronic arts or codemasters etc. I'm dying to know how complex their code is, and if I can ever get that far. Oh ... Do some of those major game companies use the stuff that nehe teaches in that tutorial, or is there stuff way out of this planet?

NLDEV

Feb 13, 2005 at 3:19 AM

Well, there's some links to some professional source code for various games here at GameDev.

Protocol 0

Feb 13, 2005 at 3:28 AM

Thanks, I'l check it out.

Monkeyget

Feb 13, 2005 at 8:05 AM

Here is a list of proffesional games who are now free (to play): http://liberatedgames.com/gamelisting.php . The source are not always included so you'll have to dig a bit to find all the sources.

Beware professional code != good code. Have a look at http://thedailywtf.com/ if you want to be convinced.

Zakwayda

Feb 13, 2005 at 10:22 AM

Try the Doom 3 sdk.

jbadams

Feb 13, 2005 at 10:31 AM

If you'd like, you could head over to id software's tech downloads, where you can get the Quake/QuakeII source among other things.

Promit

Feb 13, 2005 at 11:07 AM

Unfortunately, seeing professional source code is usually not a major eye opening experience that shows you the beauty of perfect software engineering. It's generally pretty bad, and sometimes you wonder how such an incredibly awesome game can have code that is that bad.

Protocol 0

Feb 14, 2005 at 2:59 AM

Thanks for the replies. I downloaded a few of the games as the first guy said, and tryed compiling them with VC++ 6.0, and none of them worked.

...But they where still good to look at, withough compiling. I got a fair idea.

Madster

Feb 15, 2005 at 12:53 AM

I looked at QuakeII source when I was trying to figure how to organise my code.... and just went WTF

didn't get much of it. Figured I'd be better off cooking my own solutions.
Lots of files though.
Lots.

I'll know if thats really necessary when my project is done =)

dave

Feb 15, 2005 at 4:05 AM

I have taken a look at the Quake 2 source and i was also lik OMG!!!!

To be honest if i ever get into the industry as planned my code will probably end up being bodges simply because of deadlines etc.

ace

bmarci

Feb 15, 2005 at 4:28 AM

Looking at professional source can easily disappoint you. BTW: As much people are working on it as big "mess" it becomes :)

Scarfy

Feb 15, 2005 at 6:11 AM

This is one of the great things about Open Source.

I cannot understand why hobby programmers insist on not giving out their source code with their games. When comparing what some guy in his bedroom has written compared to the offering of a professional company it does sound kind of absurd.

Protocol 0

Feb 15, 2005 at 6:43 AM

Woops, the above post is by me lol. I though I was logged in :/

Leffe

Feb 15, 2005 at 6:49 AM

A good place to learn techniques used in professional games is the IOCCC. Take a look at some of the entries and try to decipher them and figure out what they do, then run it and see if your guess was right.

This essay/article/book is also very important if you ever plan on programming professionally. (You can also learn from it by *not* doing what it says)

darkchrono4

Feb 15, 2005 at 2:26 PM

I'm making a flight sim using the Freespace 2 source code. There are some very ugly things going on it there. Unless I want to rewrite major parts of the code I just have to go with it and do what they do.

Sijmen

Feb 15, 2005 at 2:31 PM

Hmm, how about Quake 3? It seems like the source has already been released (look at this page), but the downloads don't work for me. Any mirrors or such?

Mercury

Feb 15, 2005 at 2:51 PM

The Quake series is terrible for explaining how to write good good, great games? Sure. Great code? Ehhhhhh.
If you're looking for some generally very well done code, I'd check out some stuff by Paul Nettle on his Fluid Studios webpage. Note that he's using some odd HTML trickery on that page, the stuff you want's on the Source Code page. That's what I see as "production quality" code.

Protocol 0

Feb 16, 2005 at 3:07 AM

Quote:
Original post by Sijmen
Hmm, how about Quake 3? It seems like the source has already been released (look at this page), but the downloads don't work for me. Any mirrors or such?

Ahh, mad. Im gunna check out that source. Hopefully I can actually compile it :/

Krisc

Feb 16, 2005 at 7:37 AM

After working on a professional project I can honestly say that some of the stuff is out of this world and mind boggling. That does not go without saying that well commented code and seeing syntax that I am used to made the code easy to understand and modify.

Anon Mike

Feb 17, 2005 at 12:04 PM

Most commercial apps are driven by time-to-market and artificial deadlines like needing to release in time for Christmas. These sorts of pressures do not encourage high-quality code, especially in games where you have a relatively short shelf-life and little or no long-term maintenance requirement.

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