Apr 20, 2018 Viewed: 773

Game Engine Edit

The game engine refers to the core components of some already editable computer game systems or some interactive real-time image applications. These systems provide game designers with a variety of tools for writing games. The goal is to allow game designers to easily and quickly make game programs without starting from scratch. Most of them support multiple operating platforms such as Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. The game engine includes the following systems: a rendering engine (ie, a "renderer" containing a 2D image engine and a 3D image engine), a physics engine, a collision detection system, sound effects, a scripting engine, computer animation, artificial intelligence, a web engine, and scene management. [1]

Chinese name game engine Foreign name Game Engine property program or component use game

table of Contents

1 function

2 principle

3 Evolution

? Overview

? Birth

? Change

? Revolution

? The future

4 Licensing fees

5 mainstream introduction

6 Famous Engines

Functional editing

Obviously, the engine is not a mystery, whether it is a 2D game or

Game Engine 3

A 3D game, whether it is a role-playing game, a real-time strategy game, an adventure-solving game, or an action shooting game, is a code that plays a controlling role, even if it is a one-megabyte game. After continuous evolution, today's game engine has evolved into a complex system of multiple subsystems, from modeling, animation to lighting, particle effects, from physical systems, collision detection to file management, network features, and Professional editing tools and plug-ins cover almost all the important aspects of the development process. Here is a brief introduction to some of the engine's key components.

The first is the effect of light and shadow, which is how the light source in the scene affects the people and things in it. The game's light and shadow effects are completely controlled by the engine. The basic optical principles such as refraction and reflection, as well as advanced effects such as dynamic light sources and color light sources, are all achieved through different engine programming techniques.

Followed by animation, the animation system used in the game can be divided into two types: one is the skeletal animation system, and the other is the model animation system. The former uses the built-in skeleton to bring the animal to exercise, which is more common, and the latter is based on the model. Deformed directly. The engine pre-inserts these two animation systems into the game, allowing the animator to design a rich movement model for the character.

Another important function of the engine is to provide a physical system, which allows the movement of the object to follow a fixed pattern. For example, when the character jumps, the system's default gravity value will determine how high he can jump and the speed at which he falls. How fast, the trajectory of the bullet and the bumping of the vehicle are also determined by the physical system.

Collision detection is the core part of the physical system. It can detect the physical edges of objects in the game. When two 3D objects collide with each other, this technique prevents them from crossing each other. This ensures that when you hit the wall, you will not pass through the wall and will not knock the wall down. Collision detection will determine the position of the two and the relationship between them based on the characteristics between you and the wall.

Rendering is one of the most important functions of the engine. After the production of the 3D model is completed, the U.S. trade unions assign the texture map to the model according to different aspects. This is equivalent to skinning the skeleton. Finally, the model, animation, light and shadow, and All effects, such as special effects, are calculated in real time and displayed on the screen. The rendering engine is the most complex of all parts of the engine, and its strength directly determines the final output quality.

The engine also has an important responsibility to be responsible for the communication between the player and the computer, processing signals from the keyboard, mouse, joystick and other peripherals. If the game supports networking features, network code is also integrated in the engine to manage the communication between the client and the server.

Through these boring introductions, we can at least understand that the engine is equivalent to the framework of the game. Once the framework is set up, the level designer, modeler, and animator can simply fill in the content. Therefore, in the development process of 3D games, the production of engines often takes a lot of time. Max-FX Engine of "Marx Payne" spent more than four years from the initial prototype of Final Reality to the final product. The development of the LithTech engine took a total of five years and cost $7 million. Janson Hall, owner of Monolith (a developer of the LithTech engine), even said in remorse: “If you first realized that you wanted to make your own engine, It is impossible for us to do such a stupid thing at such a high price. No one would expect what the market will be like after five years."

It is precisely from the three aspects of cost savings, shortened cycle and reduced risk that more and more developers tend to use third-party off-the-shelf engines to make their own games, and a large engine licensing market has been formed.

The biggest gainers are major online game companies, and online games developed through third-party engines have benefited greatly. However, as the market changes dramatically, the cost of developing online games with third-party engines is also increasing. So game engine developers began to rack their brains to design an engine that can save development costs and cycle time. Until 2010, the zeroscale engine development giant Dragona produced a major concern to the major game industry, because at this time it was discovered that the giant works can be developed with such a small cost and in such a short time.

Principle edit

A game engine is a collection of code (instructions) that can be machine-recognized and designed for a machine running a certain type of game. It is like an engine that controls the running of the game. A game work can be divided into two parts: game engine and game resource. Game resources include images, sounds, animations, etc. A formula is listed as: game = engine (program code) + resources (image, sound, animation, etc.). The game engine calls these resources sequentially according to the requirements of the game design.

Evolutionary Editing

Overview

There was a period of time when game developers care only about how

Game Engine

Develop new games and sell them to players. Although most of the games were simple and rough at the time, the average development cycle for each game was also 8 to 10 months or more. This was due to technical reasons. On the other hand, almost every game was written from scratch. The code has caused a great deal of duplication of effort. Gradually, some experienced developers have developed a lazy way. They borrowed part of the code from a similar genre as the basic framework of the new game to save development time and development costs. According to Marx’s theory of production mechanics, the cost of a unit product is reduced due to the increase in productivity, and the more highly automated artisans will eventually eliminate those under-represented artisans. The concept of the engine is in the context of this kind of machine operation. Born.

Each game has its own engine, but there aren't many engines that can truly be recognized by others and become standards. Looking at the development history of more than nine years, we can see that the biggest driving force of the engine comes from 3D games, especially 3D shooting games. Although 2D engines like Infinity have a long history, from the Baldur's Gate series to Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale until this year. The Icewind Valley 2 will be released in the summer, but its scope of application is limited to "Dragon and Dungeon" style role-playing games, including the highly anticipated "Neverwinter Nights" used by Aurora. Engines, they all have very special purpose, it is difficult to promote the development of the entire engine technology, which is why sports simulation games, flight simulation games and real-time strategy games rarely enter the licensing market. Even if you use a third-party engine, it is difficult to achieve the desired results. The Star Wars (Galactic Battleground) made with the Age of Empires engine is a prime example.

Therefore, the following historical review of engines will focus on the evolution of action shooting games. The relationship between action shooting games and 3D engines is equivalent to a pair of twin brothers. They are born together, grow together, and provide development for each other. power.

Birth

(1992~1993)

In 1992, 3D Realms/Apogee released a little over 2 trillion game called "Wolfenstein 3D". The slightly qualified players may still remember the excitement when they first touched it. The word "revolution", which is full of colorful words, cannot describe its important position in the development of computer games as a whole. This game pioneered the first-person shooter game. More importantly, it added a Z-axis to the X-axis and Y-axis, adding a forward-backward plane to the width and height. The depth of the space, this Z axis can be imagined for those who are accustomed to seeing the impact of the 2D game players.

The author of Wolfenstein's 3D engine is the famous John Carmack. The id Software's chief programmer is using this Wolfenstein 3D engine to gain a firm foothold in the game circle. In fact, the "German Command" was not the first game to adopt a first-person perspective. In the months before it was released, Origin had already launched a first-person role-playing game - "Genesis: The Underground World." (Ultima Underworld), this game uses a similar technology, but it is quite different from the Wolfenstein 3D engine. For example, Underworld's engine supports ramps, floors and ceilings can have different heights. There are different levels, players can jump in the game, can look up, these features Wolfenstein 3D engine can not do, and from the screen, "The German Command" is closer to the comic style than the traditional pixel screen.

Although in terms of technical details, the Wolfenstein 3D engine can't match the engine of "Genesis: The Underground World", but it makes better use of the characteristics of the first-person perspective. The fast and rapid game rhythm makes people remember "the first The term "one-man shooter game" is not a "first-person role-playing game." The German Command later released a nominal sequel, Rise of the Triad, which adds many important features to the Wolfenstein 3D engine, including jumping and looking up. Lower head movements.

Another important game in the early days of the engine is also a very successful first-person shooter game from Dod Software, Doom. The Doom engine is technically much better than the Wolfenstein 3D engine. All objects in the German Command are fixed in size. The angles between all the paths are right angles, which means you can only advance or retreat straight. Limitations have been broken in Doom. Although the game's level is still maintained on the 2D plane, there is no concept of "upstairs upstairs," but the thickness of the walls can be arbitrary, and the angle between the paths can be arbitrary, which makes the stairs, lifting platforms, towers and Various scenes such as outdoors are possible.

Since the Doom engine is still essentially two-dimensional, it is possible to simultaneously display a large number of characters on the screen without affecting the speed of the game. This feature creates a crazy and stimulating action style for the game. So far only about the "Serious Sam" series can be compared to that, there is no other 3D engine that can keep the game flowing when a large number of enemies come to you, which is why the market is nowadays Most of the first-person shooters on the game are actively developing one of the main reasons why the player's tactical ability to use and improve the shooting accuracy of the player and refuse to indiscriminately kill. It is worth mentioning that, despite the lack of detail in the Doom engine, developers still show amazing environmental effects in Doom. Their skillful design skills are truly amazing.

But even more memorable is that the Doom engine was the first engine to be used for authorization. At the end of 1993, Raven developed a game called ShadowCaster using the improved Doom engine. This was the first successful grafting operation in the history of the game. In 1994 Raven used Doom engine to develop "Hetics", which added flight characteristics to the engine and became the predecessor of jumping. In 1995, Raven used Doom engine to develop "Hexen", adding new sound technology, scripting technology and a hub-like level design so that you can move freely between different levels. A series of cooperation between Raven and id Software fully demonstrates that the authorization of the engine is of great benefit to both users and developers. Only by giving more people to use the engine to make the engine Constantly mature.

The "Doom of Arms" series itself was quite successful, selling about 3.5 million units, and licensing fees brought a considerable amount of revenue to id Software. Before that, the engine was just a self-produced development tool. No game player had ever considered relying on the engine to make money. The success of the Doom engine undoubtedly opened up a new market for people.

change

(1994 to 1997)

In the evolution of the engine, Ken Silverman was developed for 3D Realms in 1994.

3D game engine

The Build Engine is an important milestone. The "flesh" of the Build Engine is the well-known Duke Nukem 3D. The Duke of Destruction has all the standard content of today’s first-person shooter games, such as jumping, 360-degree looking around, and squatting and swimming. In addition, the “Pagan” flight was replaced by a jetpack and even joined. Refreshing features such as character reduction. Based on the Build Engine, 14 games have been born successively, such as Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior, and Blood, as well as the development of Taiwan's Aisheng Information. "Seven Chivalry Five Senses" is one of the few 3D shooting games of the time (and still is still) in China. The Build Engine's licensing business generated approximately $1 million in additional revenue for 3D Realms, and 3D Realms has