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Abstract Classes

by William Finlayson · in Technical Issues · 12/09/2001 (2:04 am) · 2 replies

I'm in the middle of programming a high-level 2D engine. I'm using abstract classes as the interface for the user, and hiding the real classes in a DLL. I was just wondering if using abstract classes gives a big performance hit or not. I read somewhere that late-binding was a lot slower then early binding, but by how much?
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Torque Owner SR
#1
12/09/2001 (8:58 am)
The performance penalty for calling virtual functions is almost negligible; it involves a whole pointer-dereference. That being said, you should still avoid calling them within tight loops. On the whole, though, they're the least of your concerns when it comes to optimizing an entire project.

William Finlayson
#2
12/10/2001 (12:34 am)
Thats great thanks! I was worried I'd have to scrap it and start over...