[gameprogrammer] Re: server side scripting

On May 25, 2007, at 6:12 PM, Roger D Vargas wrote:
I have designed my server oriented to heavy scripting. C++ code does low level stuff, but knows nothing about entity attributes (stats, skills, items). All that stuff is handled by lua scripts. A friend told me that approach is very bad. His solution is to define a server/client specific language that gets checked at compilation time, opposite to my approach (code is checked at runtime). 
REally is that bad to make server dependant of scripts?
As others have said, it's all a matter of perspective. As an example in the MMO world, Dungeon Runners puts most of the logic in C++, because Dungeon Runners has to be as efficient with server resources as it can. Other MMOs with bigger budgets can afford a lower player-to-server ratio, and can thus afford to gain the advantages of scripting languages that others have mentioned: faster turnaround time, easier programming (especially important if you have any designers working in the language), etc.
Outside the MMO space, the performance of modern systems is such that servers don't tend to have any problems with running all the logic in a scripting language.
That's my two cents: in the context of MMOs on a tight budget, sticking to C++ is a pretty good idea. Outside of that, I think there are likely to be bigger bottlenecks for your system (like the algorithms you're using). 
--
 Matthew Weigel
 hacker
 unique&idempot.ent


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