Computer Science Canada Game engines question |
| Author: | Geminias [ Thu Dec 20, 2007 6:08 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Game engines question |
I'm not savvy with the game terminology. Is an engine another name for a framework? Is XnA for instance a framework and an engine combined or could you use the framework with a different engine... I just don't get it. |
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| Author: | Mazer [ Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:25 pm ] |
| Post subject: | RE:Game engines question |
XNA isn't a game engine, it's pretty much just a wrapper for DirectX (with the added bonus of a shitload of documentation and the ability to use it on an XBox). Usually you'll want to have a rendering engine that wraps up the complex graphics stuff (loading models/textures, shaders, particles, sorting polygons, levels of detail, etc.) so you don't get bogged down with a bunch of stuff that probably wouldn't interest you (unless that's your thing, in which case you'd likely write the engine rather than work on other game stuff). Aside from this you'd also have other engines. A physics engine, maybe a network engine, whatever. And on top of it all, the game engine to tie everything together. This will usually support some kind of scripting language so that assuming there aren't any bugs in the engine code, you don't actually need to to any low(ish) level programming. Hope that helps. |
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| Author: | chrisciscoioio [ Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:20 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Game engines question |
Basicly, A Game Engine is a Wrapper of Other Engines. Most commonly, it contains... Math Libaries Physics Engine Render Engine Scripting Engine Sound Engine Networking Engine A bunch of Genral Tools, like Archiving, File Management, Memory Management. That Only touches the surface. Basicly the Game Engine is a concept that allows you to create a Game Engine, and a Game Seperate, so that things do not get confused. You can aslo take the game engine and Sell it, or Reuse it for other games. Or you could make a New Engine for the Same Game. It also allows you to fix problems post release, via patches much easier, because you can update only the files needed. There are so many other things to add, check out www.gamedev.net for more information on Game Engines. |
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