BMOSLFGEMW: A Spectrum of Game Engine Architectures

BMOSLFGEMW:
A Spectrum of Game Engine Architectures

Adam M. Smith

expressiveintelligencestudio

UC Santa Cruz
amsmith@soe.ucsc.edu

CMPS 164 – Game Engines
March 30, 2010

What I’m about to show you cannot be found
in any textbook,
on any website,
on any sheet of paper anywhere.

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz

Outline
 What’s a game engine?
 The Spectrum
 Some Examples
 Spectrum Details
 What’s in your engine?
 What’s at stake?


What’s a game engine? (first attempt)
 A 3D graphics library with optional support for
physics and other animation-related
computation.

 Example: Ogre3D


What’s a game engine? (second attempt)
 A comprehensive game building environment
with specialized languages, libraries, and
tools.

 Example: Unity3D


What’s a game engine? (giving up now)
 All the software and hardware in your game
that isn’t part specific to that particular game.

 Examples:
 cstdio
 HTML5+javascript
 iOS
 …


The Spectrum
 Bare Metal
 Operating Systems
 Libraries
 Frameworks
 Game Engines
 Makers
 Wizards


Gameduino (bare metal)


Ubuntu (OS)


ODE (library)


PyGame (framework)


Flixel (engine)


Game Maker (maker)


Klik-and-Play (wizard)


The Spectrum, revisited
 Bare Metal
Used to build engines
 Libraries
 Frameworks
 Game Engines
Used to build games
 Makers
 Wizards


Bare Metal
 Features
 Processor, memory, I/O hardware
 Primitive programming languages
 Examples
 Gameduino
 PC with no OS
 Early consoles
 Giveaways:
 Reinventing dynamic memory allocation,
managing hardware registers

Operating Systems
 Features
 Filesystems, IO streams, memory management
 Examples
 Windows 7, Mac OSX, Ubuntu
 Some consoles (OtherOS on PS3)
 Giveaways
 Developer documentation suggests you are
making “applications”


Libraries
 Features
 Isolated technical solutions
 Internal vocabulary of domain
 “middleware” in enterprise marketspeak
 Examples
 ODE (physics), bodies/geoms/joints
 OpenGL (graphics), matrices/primitives/textures
 Fmod (sound)
 Giveaways:
 Used outside of just games
 No reference to computational hardware


Frameworks
 Features
 Integration of many libraries using common
vocabulary
 Examples
 DirectX
 XNA
 Delta3D (engine-ish)
 SDL
 PyGame
 Ogre3D (library-ish)
 Giveaways
 Contains multiple libraries!


Game Engines
 Features
 Support for genre-specific abstractions
 Examples
 Flixel (“a platformer engine”, modulo abuses)
 Unity3D
 Unreal Engine
 Giveaways
 Only for games, only for games in certain genres
 You are writing one yourself after your second
game in a genre


Makers (/ Construction Toys)
 Features
 Drag-and-drop GUI
 Integrated level editor
 Usable with mouse only
 Examples
 Game Maker
 Game Salad
 RPG Maker
 FPS Maker
 Giveaways
 Marketed at non-programmers
 Programming is optional / impossible


Wizards
 Features
 Included content libraries
 Coarse mechanics
 Machine has initiative (it asks you questions)
 Examples
 Klik-and-play
 Customizable games (insert your friends)
 Giveaways
 There is a clear set of steps to follow that always
results in a game.

The Spectrum, revisited, again
 Bare Metal
 Libraries
 Frameworks You’ll reinvent these over and over.
 Game Engines
 Makers
 Wizards


What’s in your engine?
 Technical Solutions
 Languages
 Practices


Technical Solutions (library components)
 Input



Network
Keyboard/mouse/joystick/gamepad/touchscreen  Other CS topics:
 Data structures
 Event synchronization
 State propagation and prediction
 Protocols

 Algorithms
Roles (client/server/peer/supernode/etc.)
 Simulation
 Physics


AI
Graphics  Storage
 Content Storage


Textures / models / levels / characters
Downloading/streaming from remote sources  Databases
 De/compression and caching
 Modeling
 Game modes  Graphics
 Finite state machines


Scene graphs
UI stacks  AI
 Output
 Video
 Audio
 Force feedback
 Platform Integration
 Achievents / trophies / badges
 Points
 Presence and text/voice chat
 Matchmaking
 Metrics


Languages (data and code, syntax and tools)
 Base classes  Other CS topics:
 Game Object
 Component  Programming
 Scripting languages languages
 For designers  Compilers
 For developers
 Data languages
 Object vs. Level formats
 Interop
 Language specification
 Tools
 Compilers, assemblers,
packagers, decoders,
debuggers


Practices (the human part)
 How do you create  Other CS topics:
and integrate art?  Software engineering
 How do you plan?  HCI / Interfaces
 How do you build?
 How do you debug?
 How do you
deploy/ship?


What’s at stake?
 A good engine hides the problems you don’t
care about and amplifies your ability to tackle
the ones you do care about.

 A bad engine brings out new problems and
weighs you down as you go about your other
business.

 Use/make the right tool for the job, even if it
doesn’t look like a traditional “game engine”.

Thank you

 BMOSLFGEMW :
A Spectrum of Game Engine
Architectures

 Presenter:
Adam M. Smith
amsmith@soe.ucsc.edu


BMOSLFGEMW: A Spectrum of Game Engine Architectures

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