Question about csDefaultRunLoop

[mark]

The API says

You only need to call this function if your application does not otherwise implement its own run-loop. For example, an existing Microsoft Windows-based application will already have a run-loop which processes the Windows event-queue, among other tasks. Such an application should not call this function, since doing so would interrupt the existing run-loop and prevent it from running.

This confueses me: Does this mean that I must not call csDefaultRunLoop() or csApplicationFramework::Run() in my cs-application on Windows? Or is this for MFC/.net code only?

[jorrit]

The API says

You only need to call this function if your application does not otherwise implement its own run-loop. For example, an existing Microsoft Windows-based application will already have a run-loop which processes the Windows event-queue, among other tasks. Such an application should not call this function, since doing so would interrupt the existing run-loop and prevent it from running.

This confueses me: Does this mean that I must not call csDefaultRunLoop() or csApplicationFramework::Run() in my cs-application on Windows? Or is this for MFC/.net code only?

You should only not call it if you are trying to integrate CS into an 'EXISTING' windows application. For a normal CS application on windows you should call it like usual.

Greetings,

[sunshine]

The general rule is:

(1) If you are embedding CS into an existing application, don't use the default run-loop. An existing application written with MFC, .NET, or wxWidgets is a good example of when this rule applies since you will be embedding CS into that application which already has its own run-loop.

(2) If your application is not an action game, don't use the default run-loop. The default run-loop tries to maximize your application's CPU time, which is important for action games. Unfortunately, this also starves out other running applications. If your application is, for instance, turned-based or just does some other sort of not-real-time rendering, then you should avoid consuming the CPU. Instead, use the run-loop built into a toolkit, such as MFC, .NET, or wxWidgets which is CPU-friendly.

(3) If you are writing a new action-based game using purely CS API, then feel free to use the default run-loop as a convenience. A benefit of the default run-loop is that it is specially coded to work correctly on all platforms supported by CS, which means that it saves you from having to do a lot of ugly, low-level, platform-specific run-loop coding. (You may embed other toolkits into this application, but the overall framework is CS-based.)

[mark]

ok, thanks for the answers.
Out of curiosity: Why is it important to maximize CPU time in action games? Is this only a "trick" to get more ressources from the OS? "Starving out other apps" sounds like increasing the processing priority for the game would do the same thing.

[jorrit]

ok, thanks for the answers.
Out of curiosity: Why is it important to maximize CPU time in action games? Is this only a "trick" to get more ressources from the OS? "Starving out other apps" sounds like increasing the processing priority for the game would do the same thing.

Action games generally try to be as fast as they can (i.e. fast frames per second). To do that the only thing to do is to just keep on processing as fast as you can. That tends to maximize cpu usage.

Greetings,