Tools: Engines

Engines

Computer Games

A game engine controls for the basic parts of a game:

Graphics control

Lighting and shading (perhaps multi-colored lights and lighting highlights to the objects)
Textures (which are image files that slip over the shapes of the characters, objects, and walls.)
Polygon detection and removal of hidden shapes
Fog and other special effects

Physics

Object collisions (when I run into you, you and I don't intersect.)
Gravity
Velocity and probable acceleration
Object interaction (when I run into you, you fall back and I slow down or fall back, depending.)
Point of View (first person fixated like Doom, free view like a flight simulator)
OS interaction (Windows, Macintosh, etc.)
Game controls
Interaction with hardware acceleration like OpenGL, 3dfx, or DirectX

When designing a game, a game engine is often the most fundamental component. A game engine is a set of functions for manipulating graphics, performing mathematical and physics calculations, and executing common tasks used in the game. Most often, a game engine is designed in software prior to designing particulars to the game as a set of functions for the game to used. Several games often employ the same or similar game engines, or engines are modified to employ new functionality for new games. For example, the Quake series uses the same base for their engines, but were modified to include better graphics and speed as technology progressed.

In addition, there are companies that only design engines for other companies to use. The price of a game engine can range from free to a half-million dollars, depending on the functionality of the engine and the way it will be used.

Some free engines:

Frog Engine, the engine used in the game being designed by the Computer Science Society. It’s a basic engine that uses a first person view and DirectX technology. A good tool to learn how engines work.
Genesis3D, an engine that employs 3DStudio and Character Animator for 3DStudio. A much more capable engine, but it requires 3D modeling software to create new levels and characters.

Console & Arcade Games

In the case of stand-alone gaming machines, the same concepts for a software engine apply. However, because console and arcade systems are designed only for games, they use hardware to speed up many tasks that a normal computer doesn’t. By using hardware to perform certain computations and graphics manipulation, a game can run faster than if it had to use software.

However, since it is expensive to design and create hardware, hardware engines often stick to a limited set of functionality that every game played on that system can use.

Links to game hardware: