Game Engines
This report will explain the purposes of game engines and why we use them, and then it's going to look at different constraints that you may need to consider when making games.
A game engine is the overall building aspect of a video game. It provides the software that game developers need so they can use them to create and edit video games. They feature a large range of tools to help developers create a game. Game engines have many aspects including renderers, animation and scripting. They use a variety of programming languages, such as Java and C++. It took a while for game engines to be developed when video games first existed, meaning that the first ever ones would have been made completely from scratch to make the optimal use of the hardware. The first game engines were developed in 1983 for 2D games.
The purpose of game engines is to provide a range of visual development tools for developers to help them in the production process. They enable a rapid development simply by being able to re-use meshes, codes and textures.It's a bit like a toolbox since it contains all of the aspects required for creating a game, including audio, graphics and AI functions.
When making games on these engines, a few constraints can occur. One of the most noticeable ones is poly count. When making a video game, it's best to keep the poly count to a minimum. Poly count is the number of faces on your model. The higher the poly count doesn't automatically mean the better the quality. For a video game, it's best to keep the poly count as low as possible while still making the quality good to avoid the program slowing down from the amount of data due to all the other stuff that games and consoles have to render, like the frame rate and even the operating system.
Another constraint you need to consider is rendering time. Depending on the length or size of the model, this could take any amount of time from a few seconds to several hours, or in very rare and extreme cases, even days. Smaller, amateur and rendered images models wouldn't take too long to render and save, but models from professional companies like Rockstar who aim to have complex and realistic models, the rendering time could take a ridiculous amount of time. This also depends on the processor that your computer has. The better the processor, the faster the rendering time would take. If a video game has to render too much, like graphics that are too advanced for the processor, it may either not work completely or lag an awful lot.
Another constraint towards making a video game is recognising what hardware it's intended for. Is it for a console, a handheld, or a mobile? A handheld doesn't have as much storage space and can't render as much as a console. This is why Mario Kart: Double Dash on the GameCube which came out in 2003 has better graphics than Mario Kart DS even though that came out in 2005. In Mario Kart DS, most of the items had to revert back to being sprites, not models like Nintendo were trying to introduce for the 21st century. Also, despite what they claim, those driving simulators on phones I've downloaded and been disappointed by a few times can never have ultra HD graphics like the pictures on the app store show, just because phones don't have enough storage space to render graphics that advanced.
A very important constraint is your level of detail. In 3D modelling, to improve the efficiency, the complexity of the model decreases as it gets further away from the players view and has less detail. This might sound like an old detail that people no longer need to worry about due to the most recognisable example being Mario's model in Super Mario 64, which came out in 1996. His full model was shown when he was very close to the camera but you'd notice it change to something more basic with less shapes as he got to a certain distance away from the camera. The level of detail constraint still occurred in 2013 with Grand Theft Auto V. You'd notice that as you walk up to a car, you'll notice that the driver's face and hair just shows a basic shape and then it changes to the full detail in as you get closer. Due to the usage of the sniper, this is the only example it applies to, but GTA V is a very complex game and despite the high amount of storage space available on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it does still have its limits as it needs to save some for the operating system, frame rate and another games.
So much DLC has been added to Grand Theft Auto V over the last 5 years that they had to discontinue it on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 after the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2 DLC in July 2015 because the consoles had been out since 2005 and 2006 respectively when video games weren't as complex, therefore, didn't have as much storage space, which is the next constraint to consider, Simply, the larger you disk space, the With larger video games, the file size needs to be taken into account so that system problems don't occur which may disrupt production. Also, when file sizes are bigger, they may take an awful lot longer to render which may cause issues when there's a deadline coming up very shortly.
A game engine is the overall building aspect of a video game. It provides the software that game developers need so they can use them to create and edit video games. They feature a large range of tools to help developers create a game. Game engines have many aspects including renderers, animation and scripting. They use a variety of programming languages, such as Java and C++. It took a while for game engines to be developed when video games first existed, meaning that the first ever ones would have been made completely from scratch to make the optimal use of the hardware. The first game engines were developed in 1983 for 2D games.
The purpose of game engines is to provide a range of visual development tools for developers to help them in the production process. They enable a rapid development simply by being able to re-use meshes, codes and textures.It's a bit like a toolbox since it contains all of the aspects required for creating a game, including audio, graphics and AI functions.
When making games on these engines, a few constraints can occur. One of the most noticeable ones is poly count. When making a video game, it's best to keep the poly count to a minimum. Poly count is the number of faces on your model. The higher the poly count doesn't automatically mean the better the quality. For a video game, it's best to keep the poly count as low as possible while still making the quality good to avoid the program slowing down from the amount of data due to all the other stuff that games and consoles have to render, like the frame rate and even the operating system.
Another constraint you need to consider is rendering time. Depending on the length or size of the model, this could take any amount of time from a few seconds to several hours, or in very rare and extreme cases, even days. Smaller, amateur and rendered images models wouldn't take too long to render and save, but models from professional companies like Rockstar who aim to have complex and realistic models, the rendering time could take a ridiculous amount of time. This also depends on the processor that your computer has. The better the processor, the faster the rendering time would take. If a video game has to render too much, like graphics that are too advanced for the processor, it may either not work completely or lag an awful lot.
Another constraint towards making a video game is recognising what hardware it's intended for. Is it for a console, a handheld, or a mobile? A handheld doesn't have as much storage space and can't render as much as a console. This is why Mario Kart: Double Dash on the GameCube which came out in 2003 has better graphics than Mario Kart DS even though that came out in 2005. In Mario Kart DS, most of the items had to revert back to being sprites, not models like Nintendo were trying to introduce for the 21st century. Also, despite what they claim, those driving simulators on phones I've downloaded and been disappointed by a few times can never have ultra HD graphics like the pictures on the app store show, just because phones don't have enough storage space to render graphics that advanced.
A very important constraint is your level of detail. In 3D modelling, to improve the efficiency, the complexity of the model decreases as it gets further away from the players view and has less detail. This might sound like an old detail that people no longer need to worry about due to the most recognisable example being Mario's model in Super Mario 64, which came out in 1996. His full model was shown when he was very close to the camera but you'd notice it change to something more basic with less shapes as he got to a certain distance away from the camera. The level of detail constraint still occurred in 2013 with Grand Theft Auto V. You'd notice that as you walk up to a car, you'll notice that the driver's face and hair just shows a basic shape and then it changes to the full detail in as you get closer. Due to the usage of the sniper, this is the only example it applies to, but GTA V is a very complex game and despite the high amount of storage space available on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it does still have its limits as it needs to save some for the operating system, frame rate and another games.
So much DLC has been added to Grand Theft Auto V over the last 5 years that they had to discontinue it on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 after the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2 DLC in July 2015 because the consoles had been out since 2005 and 2006 respectively when video games weren't as complex, therefore, didn't have as much storage space, which is the next constraint to consider, Simply, the larger you disk space, the With larger video games, the file size needs to be taken into account so that system problems don't occur which may disrupt production. Also, when file sizes are bigger, they may take an awful lot longer to render which may cause issues when there's a deadline coming up very shortly.
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