Lords Of Tech

Error codes are far slower than exceptions

TL;DR On modern 64-bit PC architectures, C++ exceptions only add unreachable code with destructor calls into functions and their effect on performance is below 1%, but such low values are difficult to measure. Handling rare errors with return values requires additional branching that slows down the program in realistic scenarios by about 5% and are also less convenient. If an exception is actually thrown, stack unwinding costs about 2 µs per stack frame.

The Sisyphean task of enabling Adobe Flash Player in a modern QT/Chromium based web browser

Prologue and motivation A part of my PhD. research deals with computer science as a source of innovative ways to…

(Sort of) Reflection in C++11

This is yet another trick to achieve reflection-like functionality before Reflection TS, this time needing only C++11. It’s based on using CRTP to fill the object with carefully chosen garbage before initialisation.

Reflection in C++14

How to write a template function that takes a class and executes type-dependent code on all its member variables, without requiring the class to specifically support it?

Adding OpenCV libraries to a QT5 project in Ubuntu 20.04

I’ve recently gained interest in OpenCV. The problem with this is, that in most modern tutorials and walkthroughs it seems…

Optimising a scene for VR in Unreal Engine

Since I bought Oculus Quest, I felt that it lacked a proper Doom-like action shooter. I created a scene in the editor based on what I envisioned, but it was absolutely impossible to run on Oculus Quest. This article describes various tricks I have used to bring it to Quest without too much sacrifice.