Danl Slides

Racket on the Playstation 3?
Its not what you

think...
Dan Liebgold
Naughty Dog, Inc.
Santa Monica, CA
RacketCon 2013
Motivation
In games, programmers create code; artists, designers,

animators, sound designers create data
We often want to create data like we create code
Effect denitions, animation states & blend trees, event &

gameplay scripting/tuning, sound metadata
We want powerful abstractions, exible syntax, and

language well matched to each domain
Domain Specic Languages to the rescue!

Motivation




Motivation




Motivation




Motivation




Scheme
We had experience using Common Lisp before to create

our own implementation language (GOAL)
Lisp supports creating data like code
We built DC in Racket
Used Racket (MzScheme initially) because its a good Lisp,

is open source, and has quality libraries and
implementation
Scheme


implementation
Scheme


implementation
Scheme


implementation
How?
Racket program that evaluated typed Racket-ish code

that generates data usable by C++ runtime.
Usage of syntax was the prime enabler of rapid DSL

development, but also a source of much inefciency and
confusion.
Error reporting was slow to develop, since it required

careful usage of syntax info, which was difcult and
confusing.
How?


confusion.

confusing.
How?


confusion.

confusing.
Architecture
Example
Lets dene a player start position:
(define-export
*
player-start
*
(new locator
:trans
*
origin
*
:rot (axis-angle->quaternion
*
y-axis
*
45)
))
Start with some types
(deftype vec4 (:align 16)
((x float)
(y float)
(z float)
(w float :default 0)
))
Start with some types
(deftype vec4 (:align 16)
((x float)
(y float)
(z float)
(w float :default 0)
))
struct Vec4
{
float m_x;
float m_y;
float m_z;
float m_w;
};
Types continued
(deftype quaternion (:parent vec4)
())
(deftype point (:parent vec4)
((w float :default 1)
))
(deftype locator ()
((trans point :inline #t)
(rot quaternion :inline #t)
))
Types continued
())
))
(deftype locator ()
((trans point :inline #t)
(rot quaternion :inline #t)
))
Types continued
())
))
struct Locator
{
Point m_trans;
Quaternion m_rot;
};
Dene a function
(define (axis-angle->quat axis angle)
(let ((sin-angle/2 (sin (
*
0.5 angle))))
(new quaternion
:x (
*
(-> axis x) sin-angle/2)
:y (
*
(-> axis y) sin-angle/2)
:z (
*
(-> axis z) sin-angle/2)
:w (cos (
*
0.5 angle))
)))
Dene some instances
(define
*
y-axis
*
(new vec4 :x 0 :y 1 :z 0))
(define
*
origin
*
(new point :x 0 :y 0 :z 0))
(define-export
*
player-start
*
(new locator
:trans
*
origin
*
*
y-axis
*
45)
))
Dene some instances
(define
*
y-axis
*
(new vec4 :x 0 :y 1 :z 0))
(define
*
origin
*
(new point :x 0 :y 0 :z 0))
(define-export
*
player-start
*
(new locator
:trans
*
origin
*
*
y-axis
*
45)
))
How we use these denitions in C++ code
...
#include "dc-types.h"
...
const Locator
*
pLoc =
DcLookupSymbol("
*
player-start
*
");
Point pos = pLoc->m_trans;
...
The Last of Us on the Playstation 3
16 programmers on the game project
20 designers
100 artists & animators
6000 DC les
120Mb of DC source, 45Mb of DC target binary les
Dynamically loaded into about 5Mb of managed heap

space
20 designers
6000 DC les

space
20 designers
6000 DC les

space
20 designers
6000 DC les

space
20 designers
6000 DC les

space
20 designers
6000 DC les

space
Experience
Racket power, library support a big win
Syntax transformation source location and performance

hindered us
S-expression based language a tough sell to industry

programmers, as well as designers, and non-technical
types
...especially when paired up with Emacs as the editing

platform.
Although once learnt many programmers and designers

were expand and extend the language effectively
Functional nature of the system is a big win, allowing data

to be exibly transformed to just the right runtime
representation
Experience

hindered us

types

platform.


representation
Experience

hindered us

types

platform.


representation
Experience

hindered us

types

platform.


representation
Experience

hindered us

types

platform.


representation
Experience

hindered us

types

platform.


representation
Questions?

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Racket on the Playstation 3?

Its not what you

In games, programmers create code; artists, designers,

We often want to create data like we create code

Effect denitions, animation states & blend trees, event &

We want powerful abstractions, exible syntax, and

Domain Specic Languages to the rescue!

In games, programmers create code; artists, designers,

We often want to create data like we create code

Effect denitions, animation states & blend trees, event &

We want powerful abstractions, exible syntax, and

Domain Specic Languages to the rescue!

In games, programmers create code; artists, designers,

We often want to create data like we create code

Effect denitions, animation states & blend trees, event &

We want powerful abstractions, exible syntax, and

Domain Specic Languages to the rescue!

In games, programmers create code; artists, designers,

We often want to create data like we create code

Effect denitions, animation states & blend trees, event &

We want powerful abstractions, exible syntax, and

Domain Specic Languages to the rescue!

In games, programmers create code; artists, designers,

We often want to create data like we create code

Effect denitions, animation states & blend trees, event &

We want powerful abstractions, exible syntax, and

Domain Specic Languages to the rescue!

We had experience using Common Lisp before to create

Lisp supports creating data like code

Used Racket (MzScheme initially) because its a good Lisp,

We had experience using Common Lisp before to create

Lisp supports creating data like code

Used Racket (MzScheme initially) because its a good Lisp,

We had experience using Common Lisp before to create

Lisp supports creating data like code

Used Racket (MzScheme initially) because its a good Lisp,

We had experience using Common Lisp before to create

Lisp supports creating data like code

Used Racket (MzScheme initially) because its a good Lisp,

Racket program that evaluated typed Racket-ish code

Usage of syntax was the prime enabler of rapid DSL

Error reporting was slow to develop, since it required

Racket program that evaluated typed Racket-ish code

Usage of syntax was the prime enabler of rapid DSL

Error reporting was slow to develop, since it required

Racket program that evaluated typed Racket-ish code

Usage of syntax was the prime enabler of rapid DSL

Error reporting was slow to develop, since it required

16 programmers on the game project

100 artists & animators

120Mb of DC source, 45Mb of DC target binary les

Dynamically loaded into about 5Mb of managed heap

16 programmers on the game project

100 artists & animators

120Mb of DC source, 45Mb of DC target binary les

Dynamically loaded into about 5Mb of managed heap

16 programmers on the game project

100 artists & animators

120Mb of DC source, 45Mb of DC target binary les