Computer Games Engines Dec/2015
Lets talk about game engines but first...
What is a Game Engine?
Primarily a game engine is software that provides dev teams with the tools and equipment in order to create a game. After further research of a game engine I discovered that the engine exists to perform common game tasks like rendering and coding etc. An engine brings the game to life, with its use of physics. Real life models and fine animations that can be created within a simple engine. Computer game engines also have a variety of programming languages such as Java and C++.
What is the history of game engines?
The Doom engine has been the peak in which game engines took a turn, instead of dev teams creating games on independent hardware’s, they now had a clever engine that could generate a 3D game with just 2D sprites.
The next forward step within this evolutionary scale was the Quake engine, this engine was designed to run smoothly without blowing out the computer’s processing power. This engine could render levels and rooms in which the player has not encountered yet. Quake also harnessed lighting in a new way by revealing natural light sources.
Renderware was the next engine in the cycle, having over 200 games created on this engine; it could potentially be one of the most successful engines used for creation. These games were of course made for consoles such as the PlayStation 2. The main attraction to the engine is the ability to manipulate game processes within real time.
Unreal has been a huge successful engine within the world of FPS’s, this was the next trend within the world of gaming. Unreal has been transformed from strictly FPS’s to many RPG titles. In addition, it has been a big successful within the world of modding, allowing content to be created from a wide audience.
The CryEngine was next to follow, with its stunning graphical capability’s, the engine can perform awestruck graphics, the only problem being the hardware of how wants to run it.
The next engine I want to mention is the Creation Engine, this engine is used by Bethesda to create its stunning large open world RPG’s the software has dynamic story telling devices with its radiant story, the ability for NPC’s to create never-ending quests for the player to explore in undiscovered locations. The engine also has a great capability of animations and rendering large amounts of areas at one time.
The final engine that I would like to share is the furthest in the evolutionary step, or so I believe. That being the Frostbite Engine, capable of destructible objects and environments, vast areas and stunning graphics. The engine has been designed with EA as a FPS and most recently as an RPG. Although the engine seems to have memory issues and technical restraints, it is still top of the market.
Types of Game Engines:
There are a range of different engines varying from:
2D: The 2D genre covers a range of platforms that consist of lesser mechanics and lesser graphics, following a simple structure with its flat images and easy controls. The engines used to create 2D games are generally easy to use and fluid in their design control. Unity is a 2D game engine that is remarkably easy; it has been used to create games like Angry Birds, the engine also speaks both programming languages providing ease for the actual engineer.
3D is the most popular in terms of game engines these days, henceforth they are the most complicated. Within a typical game engine, anything is possible. The dev’s can create whatever they want within their 3D environment with few limitations. With 3D, the assets tend to be more realistic and professional as appose to basic sprites within 2D.
An example would be Creation engine, mentioned within the history.
Mobile games have become a recent trend within the industry; the game is focused and optimised for small devices such as phones for the player to be granted access whenever/wherever. The engine harnesses the power of its mobile platform, applying gyroscopes and tilting actions within the game as a control aspect. A great example of a mobile engine would be Game Maker; the engine was used to create Hotline Miami.
There is not a distinctive difference between the functionality of mobile, 2D and 3D engines, all the components are universal. The changes would include scale, like the difference between animating 2D and 3D, the scale would be greater for 3D so it would require more software and memory, etc.
Game Mods:
Mods have become a great trend recently, especially with the release of Fallout 4. A mod, basically is a line of code or an asset that changes the game somehow, it may change the aesthetics of a character model or even add a new mechanic. Within the latest trend, Bethesda are now advancing the exclusive PC modding community and capability and applying it to the consoles for the first time.
Game Engine Components:
The pieces that are universally spread within the kit vary from:
AI: Within the games industry, artificial intelligence is used to create NPC’s behaviours, paths and generally do human like commands. An AI is created from programming and engineering, general computer science
Sound: Music has made a giant leap into games; it has been there from the start but only improved over the years. It seems that sound effects and sound tracks are now expected within a game, so these days the engine provides a varied audio system built in.
Physics: The general footing of physics has been applied to games these days for realism and to stimulate life like environments and scenarios, particularly within 3D computer graphics.
Collision Detection: Detectors are a give and take for engines of present; they clipping of items and ensuring that impact happens upon to objects intersect. Also effecting enemies within the game and even when a specific cut scene may play.
Graphics Rendering: Rendering is used to generate images as either 2D or 3D models or even create some sort of scene, often used for story progression with games, rendering includes: texturing, lighting, shading. Etc.
Bibliography
http://adamcolescollege.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/understanding-purpose-of-game-engines.html
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/michaelenger/blog/game-engines-how-do-they-work/101529/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_detection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_(computer_graphics)