BGCython
WARNING: Tested only on Windows.
BGCython is a Cython implementation for BGE, building extensions automatically at GE start whenever the source files are modified. It only needs a single line of code to compile all of your .pyx files in the given path to C extensions.
If you’re not aware of what Cython is, it basically allows you to write Python code, convert it to C code, allowing you to compile it to a binary extension, and still execute this code through the Python interpreter, but with the benefits from C code, being the speed the most relevant. BGCython brings a simple example file, showing a C extension running at the double of speed from the same pure Python code.
Using Cython in BGE is benefical in various ways, from executing heavy code faster to protecting your scripts by using compiled C extensions instead of your pure Python scripts.
Install
Clone / download the repository and run the blend file named install.blend. The blend contains some instructions, the most important being to enable the Blender console to check the progress of installation and other messages.
This blend will run two scripts:
-
install.pywill runget-pip.py(to install pip on your Blender), then installs Cython through pip and copies package files into Blender’s Python library. -
get-pip.pywill download and install pip on your Blender, allowing to install new packages from inside Blender.
After the installation, a settings text file called settings.txt will/may run, and you can fill some fields with some custom paths if you want.
Windows
Now, you must get the GCC compiler. In case you’re using Windows, download and install MinGW through the web installer, and select only The GNU C++ Compiler to install. After the installation, the default installation path may be C:\MinGW. I recommend you to add C:\MinGW\bin to your system path to easily run it through command line. After you do that, run in the command prompt:
gcc --version
And if the result is something like:
gcc (MinGW.org GCC-6.3.0-1) 6.3.0
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
You’re done. However, you can only add the path C:/MinGW/bin to settings.txt, on path_gcc value, like this:
'path_gcc' : 'C:/MinGW/bin'
And BGCython will be able to find it.
Linux
TODO
Using
Check the demo demos/benchmark/benchmark.blend to test the module. You may need to modify scripts/mod.pyx to make BGCython recreate the timestamps and compile the .pyx file, but it must do it, otherwise the installation may not have worked.
To use BGCython, all you need to do is call inside a initialization script (preferably in module level) the function:
bgcython.bgcythonize(current_path)
The recommended standard is a __init__.py on the top level of your scripts folder with the following code:
# Set to True on game release
release = False
if not release:
from bge.logic import expandPath
from pathlib import Path
from bgcython import bgcythonize
current_path = Path(expandPath('//')).resolve()
bgcythonize(current_path)
With current_path being the path you want the module to look for .pyx scripts. It will look recursively on all folders on the given path, and create a timestamps.txt file on this path. After this first run, everytime you modify your .pyx files and run BGE, BGCython will rebuild the extensions. See the demos on this repository for further advice.
The .pyx files and timestamps.txt can be discarded on your release, you only need the compiled extensions.
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