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Game engines are reusable software platforms for developing video games. Early engines like id Tech separated core components from game content. Modern engines include features for rendering, physics, audio, and networking. Engines are tailored for genres like first-person shooters, real-time strategy, and massively multiplayer online games. Popular current engines include Unity, Unreal Engine, and CryEngine, which power numerous commercial games. Game engines handle low-level technical tasks so developers can focus on game design and content.

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Sandip Das
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23 views

Module1 1 2

Game engines are reusable software platforms for developing video games. Early engines like id Tech separated core components from game content. Modern engines include features for rendering, physics, audio, and networking. Engines are tailored for genres like first-person shooters, real-time strategy, and massively multiplayer online games. Popular current engines include Unity, Unreal Engine, and CryEngine, which power numerous commercial games. Game engines handle low-level technical tasks so developers can focus on game design and content.

Uploaded by

Sandip Das
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Game Engine History

Dr. S. Graceline Jasmine, SCOPE

Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai


What is a Game?
• Interactive experience that provides the player
with an increasingly challenging sequence of
patterns which he or she learns and eventually
masters
• This includes lots of things, but the core idea is
that the “fun” is experience during the eureka
moment
Games for us
• Focus primarily on 2D and 3D virtual worlds
• Most of these can be described as soft real-time
agent-based computer simulations
▫ They are simulations of the real world using a
mathematical model
▫ They are interactive so have at least one actor or
agent
▫ They have loose real-time constraints
What is a game engine
• The term game engine arose in the 1990s
• Doom by id was at the center
▫ The core components were separated from the game
content
• Quake III and Unreal were designed with the
separation in mind
▫ Sold licenses to their engine and tools
▫ So of you may have done modding using these tools
• Game engine are data-driven architectures that are
reusable and therefore do not contain game content
– mostly true
Hydro thunder Engine
• Vector Unit uses a proprietary engine
known as the Vector Engine
• The engine allows for real time
"baking" of assets; when assets are first
run in the game, they are optimized for
that particular platform.
• Visual scripting is used to allow editors
to write scripted events without a
comprehensive understanding of code.
• FMOD is used for audio and Bullet
Physics Library handles all in-game
physics.
Quake III Engine

• Features:
▫ Graphics
▫ Shaders
▫ Video
▫ Models
▫ Dynamic shadows
▫ Sound
▫ Networking
▫ Virtual machine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_
Tech_3
First-person shooters
• Games like Unreal, Half-life, Call of Duty
• Focus on
▫ Efficient rendering of large 3d worlds
▫ Responsive camera control
▫ High-fidelity animations
▫ Cool weapons
▫ Forgiving physics model
• Rendering technology focuses on
optimization for the environment
Third-person games
• Includes games like Ratchet and Clank, Gears of
War
• Focus on
▫ Puzzle like elements
▫ Moving environmental objects
▫ Third person follow camera
▫ Complex camera collision system
Fighting games
• Games like Tekken, Fight Night, and Soul Calibur
• Technology focus on
▫ Fighting animations
▫ Hit detection
▫ User input system
▫ Crowds
▫ Awesome character animations and shaders
▫ Physics based cloth and hair
Racing games
• Games like Grand Turismo, Mario Kart, and
Hydro Thunder
• Technology tricks include
▫ Using simple cards for background objects
▫ Track is broken down into sectors
▫ Third-person and first person cameras
▫ Camera collision
Real-time strategy
• Games like Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empires
• Technology involves
▫ Low resolution characters
▫ Height map based terrain
▫ Complex goal trees
▫ User interaction can take many forms, but
reactivity is really important
MMOG
• Games like World of Warcraft, Star Wars
Galaxies, EverQuest
• Extra technology over 3rd person include
▫ Server side artifacts for
 Sign in/out
 State management
 Billing
▫ Client side rendering and state management
▫ Network layer for state consistency and cheat detection
Player-authored content
• Allowing the player to build content as part of
the game
▫ Different from Mods
• Good example include
▫ Little Big Planet series
▫ Minecraft
• Fun is in sharing with others
• Simplicity is key
Some current engines
• Quake family
▫ Used to create many games
▫ Has lineage that extends to modern games like Medal of
Honor
▫ Quake and Quake II engines source code are freely available
• Unreal Engine
▫ Now at UE4
▫ Very rich tool set – Kismet
▫ Large developers network
▫ Good licensing model – good for small developers
More engines
• Unity
▫ Very feature rich
▫ Uses Javascript or C# for scripting
▫ Large community support
▫ Great for cross-platform development
• Source Engine
▫ Games like Half-life 2 and its sequels, Team Fortress 2, and Portal
▫ Very powerful with good graphics capabilities and a good toolset
• DICE’s Frostbite
▫ Used to create games like Battlefield 4
▫ FrostEd – asset creation tool
Even more engines
• CryEngine
▫ Originally developed as a demo for Nvidia
▫ Used to develop numerous games – starting with Far
Cry
• Sony PhyreEngine
▫ Uses to create games for the Sony platforms
▫ Numerous titles have been written with this engine
• Microsoft XNA and MonoGame
▫ Based on C# - easy to use
▫ Used for Xbox and PC games
▫ Not longer supported – replaced by MonoGame
2D Engines
• Designed for non-programmers to build apps for
Android and iPhone
• Examples include
▫ Multimedia Fusion 2
▫ Game Salad Creator
▫ Scratch

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