Ramblings++

Hades now has extension loading support! The API is still in the process of being exposed to the extension interface, but that should only take another 15 minutes or so to smooth out.

This is a great step forward because it means extensions can be loaded and unloaded on the fly without having to restart the process (as was the case when it was compiled as a static lib). Furthermore, it means that the modules are independent from changes to the Hades DLL and as long as no breaking interface changes are made should work with updated DLLs without the need for a recompile (as opposed to a static lib where a recompile is obviously necessary, or rather, a relink).

Naturally, both x86 and x64 are tested and working.

One issue I had with this was with the exposure of the interface. It seem that I can’t do what D3D does and do a C-style interface exposure because my interface is just too C++ heavy for me to be able to convert it to work that way. Not that it matters though, all the information exposed via exports is already available in the SDK.

Update (29/06/09):

Scratch that issue, got it working through some minor modifications and the magic of virtual functions! (Okay not magic, but it’s still a nice workaround.)