Juce + Python

General JUCE discussion
1

For the last five years I have been writing a computer training game for learning perfect pitch.

I started out on iOS/XCode/Obj-C and moved to Unity3D/C#-scripting.  From the get-go I have been hitting up against limitations of Unity3D -- it isn't designed for real-time audio, and it is constantly trying to get a square peg in a round hole.  For example, in my game microphone input is fed into a ring resonator and sent out with the headphones as sympathetic resonance. It's impossible to achieve a latency < 0.2s with Unity, as opposed to < 0.01s that I could achieve with iOS.

But I love the idea of cross-platform. One day I will be able to release this game, and to release it simultaneously on all platforms would be fantastic! I also want to use Python. I've looked at Kivy (cross-platform+Python), but it is not designed with audio engineering in mind.

I am hoping that I will be able to use Juce and a mix of Python (for the game logic), GLES2 (for high performance graphics) and C/C++ (for low-level audio processing). In fact I'm hoping that Juce's API may mean I need to do a minimal amount of GLES2 and C/C++.

I have already recoded my game-logic in Python; it is complex game logic that is not performance critical. Also I am constantly revising the logic, trying out new ideas. Hence Python is the perfect language for this. C#/C++/Obj-C family of languages just don't have the flexibility to accommodate for this rapid prototyping.

My question is: can I write the game logic in Python, and still distribute a standalone app on every platform?

I've learned that Python is itself written in C, and if you add its source-tree to your C/C++ project, and #include "Python.h" you can start up a Python environment and execute scripts:

Py_Initialize();

PyRun_SimpleString(

    "from time import time,ctime\n"

    "print 'Today is',ctime(time())\n"

    );

Then you need to worry about how to call script functions from C, and vice versa. But it all seems to be possible! Doc here: https://docs.python.org/2/extending/

I've looked through the forum history:  There appears to be PyJuce, but this seems to be dead in the water; I am pulling up threads between people that haven't been active on this site for over six years.

I think that allowing Python scripting would massively increase the power of this engine. A fusion of high-level and low-level coding.

Is anyone interested in making this happen?

π

 

PS I've set my IRC client to auto-join #juce on the FREENODE irc server; I will be sitting in, if anyone is interested to talk about these things.

1 Like
2

I'd be interested in this too... keep C/C++ for low level intensive stuff for realtime audio and graphics and Python or other dynamic language for logic. 

3

yes, me too - great idea!

4

There's been some talk of integrating Lua as a scripting extension of JUCE apps. But haven't seen anything solid with regards to Python thats not from a number of years ago. The more I'm getting into JUCE, the more its making sense and my development time is getting faster. I would say to the OP that doing the game in JUCE only, esp if there is already code in C#, should not be too difficult.

5

Hi,

it's absolutely possible to EMBED a python interpreter into you application and EXTEND that python interpreter with functionality from you Application. (Did this a few years back). Check out swig.org . swig is a tool that lets you generate binding for source code written in C/C++ to several languages (including python/C#/...). With swig, it should be doable to create a binding for JUCE - but that might be quite a lot of work. What one could do is to write a simpler (e.g. higher level) Interface in C++ and export that to python.

Also read http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3991418/internal-scripting-programming-language-allowed-in-an-iphone-app-store-app if you plan to release on iOS.

If the grapics of you game cannot be done with JUCE-Graphics (because it's 3D or a lot of 2D sprites/particles/etc.) I'd recomend to check out Cocos2d-x, Marmalade, Ogre3D, Unity3D. Anything that goes beyond a few simple sprites can become a lot of work quickly. You need might need Sprite-atlassing, Animations, Particle effects, ... And also a pipeline to get the graphics into your game. 3D is another bag of worms (Skeletal-Animation, Normal-Maps, Shadows, ...). So if you're doing this because of the sake of the game and not because you feel like writing a graphics engine: Use one that's out there!

Also note, that you could extend Unity3D via a native plugin that just does Audio I/O and processing. But you'd need a Pro license for that.

-- Benjamin

6

Boost provides another option for embedding Python: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_57_0/libs/python/doc/

By the way give me a shout if you ever need any beta testers for your perfect pitch game. It's a good idea for a game.