Contents  Introduction  The Problem  Meet Your Maker  How It Works  Conclusion  Printable version

Introduction

I've developed a nasty habit over the years. Whenever I come across a business programming article, I instinctively assume that it won't be relevant to anything cool. My initial reaction is usually "OK, wow, this is great for writing middleware, but probably useless in game programming."

Most of the time this turns out to be true (when was the last time you used a SQL database to store saved games?), however, there are always a few articles that describe something that can be useful for game programming. One of those articles recently appeared in the magazine "C++ Report." (http://www.creport.com). Timothy R. Culp wrote an article entitled "Industrial Strength Pluggable Factories." In it, he describes a very valuable trick, not only in the business world, but in game programming as well.

This article is an attempt to take Mr. Culp's work and bring it down into the scary mosh pit of game development. Before continuing, head over to the C++ Report website and read the pluggable factories article. I'm not going to duplicate what's already been said; I'm going to assume you've read the article and know the basics, and I'm going to dive straight into showing how Pluggable Factories can be used to simplify DirectPlay communications.

Next : The Problem