Forking this thread yet again, I have a question. On modern processors (let's say, Pentium IV's and beyond) are virtual function calls in C++ "expensive" anymore? I'm deep into designing a scene graph system for my game engine, and well, after glancing at the first reference in this article on polymorphism (which deals with the overhead/expense of using virtual functions), I'm wondering if I'm heading down the right path. I know the reference is from the mid-90's, and may no longer have much relevance.

I'm considering having a generalized "object" class for numerous things in my engine, including lamps, the camera, models, etc. because from an organizational standpoint, it would make things easier. But considering that rendering a scene may involve numerous rendering calls to these various objects, I'm wondering what if my frame rate would drop much or not if I used virtual functions.