trouble embedding python

[TheDustbustr]

Let me explain my situation:  I'm doing a 3D game with opengl.  I made a simple
terrain renderer that barely made 40 fps with a 48x48 tri mesh and 3 textures
(sorted by texture, using vertex arrays) (I have a Geforce4).  Similarly, I
made an exceedingly basic explosion (randomly rotating triangles with random
velocities) that got 40fps as well.  This simply is not acceptable.  The
problem was probably PyOpenGL, but I got sick of terrible framerates.

So, I'm writing everything in C++ and using Python for scripting and user
configuration.  At this point, I dont need to embed much, I'll simply write
interface functions in Python and call those from c++.

Also, this project serves as a way for me to better learn a language besides
python: in college, I don't want to have to learn another language for a
course.

I don't understand your comment about optimizing C++.  In Python, I optimized
next to nothing (except for OpenGL vertex submission), but it should be
irrelevant: I get hundreds of FPS in similar C++ apps.

Some related questions.
1.  Whats the difference between PyDict_GetItemString and
PyObject_GetItemString?
2. If I want to access "scripts.classes.race.human.Human" (where scripts is a
package containing several subpackages containing subpackages containing
modules containing classes), do I have to PyObject_GetItemString each thing
seperated by periods?  Is there no shortcut?