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Question about build times (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by WhosMansIsThis@lemmy.world to c/gamedev@programming.dev

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I'm not a game dev so please forgive me if this is the wrong place for this type of question but I'm looking for some resources to try and understand why games take so long to compile.

For context, I've worked with former game devs who've mentioned that builds can take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours to complete - even with a distributed architecture - depending on the hardware. That shit blew my mind. They said it has something to do with compiling shader permutations but didn't go into anyore detail. That said, I have a very primitive understanding of what shaders are but I mostly work with infrastructure and optimizing build systems.

Like I said, I'm not a game dev, im just curious. I appreciate any insight or resources you throw my way. Thanks!

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[–] savvywolf@pawb.social 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Worth noting: That 4 to 6 hour number is probably for a build from scratch. A good build system will be able to only recompile things that have changed and so the develop -> compile -> test cycle is usually much faster.

[–] WhosMansIsThis@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

Ahh yeah that makes sense. That'd be a pain in the ass if it was for every build.