SilentHill3 0 Report post Posted November 18, 2005 People who have played various computer/console games such as Quake, Doom, Far Cry, Halo. Need for Speed etc may have heard or come across term 'Game Engine' and wondered what the heck it is. The simple answer- Game Engine is main driving component of a game. Kinda like Engine of a car. Game Engine is a layer sits between actual game and low-level HAL ( Hardware Abstraction Layer) which interacts directly to Hardware. Game Engine provides visual, physics, input/output, networking functionalities. That is why GE is comprised of various parts/sub components. Rendering Component - this component solely responsible for rendering( drawing) in the computer screen. It draws world ( such as terrain ), actors, objects etc etc. It produces all those cool effect lighting, fog, shadow etc. IO Component- This component is responsible for interaction with input devices such as keyboard/mouse/joystick/other controllers. Networking - This component manages multiplayers playing across internet, LAN and even on same console/computer with split screen. AI( Artificial Intelligence ) - This is the logic component behind each actor in a game. For eg. in a FPS ( First person shooter) game, if you try to shoot this monster, this monster hides behind a wall. Obviously he has intelligence. This component handles. that. Physics- Math - deals with Matrix, vectors and setups coordinates or location of each actor, object etc in the world. So now you somewhat know what game engine is. You can do reseach in the Web if you want to know more in the subject. Programming or building game engine is very complex. You have to have background in Math, programming. Actually I am building my own game engine. I have started working on it few months back. Since this is such a large project, i am constantly seeking help from others. So if you are some experience in C++/Visual C++ and math background, and interested in computer games or even just artists who want to design different models in software tools such as Maya etc, let me know. I am sure you will learn a lot and make money one day ( if we can sale ). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lucifer 0 Report post Posted November 19, 2005 so how far have you reached so far? what all needs to be done? Do you have all the resources that you want? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilentHill3 0 Report post Posted November 21, 2005 Lucifer, I have only focused in rendering part of engine. That is where I need help for now. I have people working on Network and input. Actually I also need help on art/graphic/modeling part. What I mean is drawing/designing different objects such as Guns, eg FG caliber 35 mm semi automatic gun. since the engine will be focused in FPS ( First First Shooter). But for the rendering part, i have all the resources. I am coding in Visual C++/ C++ using graphic API called OpenGL ( www.opengl.org ). Opengl offers fast, platform independent graphic library and free to download. I think Opengl is easy to use compared to Microsoft DirectX library. All the documents are available online in www.opengl.org website. There are many examples, samples, free books and also a forum in that website. Also, there is a huge demand for Opengl programmers. After you master opengl designing our rendering engine, you never know you might be hired by PIXAR So basically you need to have C++ compiler installed in your system, OpenGL works with variety of C++ compiler from MS visual studio, Borland, CYGWIN, CodeWarrior etc etc. let me know if u have any question. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilentHill3 0 Report post Posted November 21, 2005 Actually Opengl has binding with Java, VB etc. You dont really need C++, Java, VB may suffice. I prefer C++, but not a requirement. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites