What is a game engine, what are its features and what are its components?
The term game engine is actually similar to the software engine in the software industry. Game developers can develop games for consoles and computers using game engines. Functions in a game engine usually include a rendering engine for rendering two- or three-dimensional graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, coding, animation. In many cases, using a single engine or adapting it to different requirements will reduce the cost of game development.
The purpose of the game engine
These tools are usually put together in an integrated development environment, to make the game development process easier and faster, and also to be able to better design games based on data. Game engine developers usually anticipate the needs of developers and try to incorporate the tools that will be needed to develop a game inside the engine.
Many engines have a variety of gadgets, such as graphics, sound, physics, and artificial intelligence, to make the development process easier. Game engines are sometimes called middleware because they provide a flexible, reusable platform that has the basic capabilities that make the development process easier and less expensive. Engines such as Gamebryo, JMonkeyEngine and RenderWare are such middleware.
Like other middleware, game engines do not make the development process platform-dependent in any way, so a game can be developed and then ported to different platforms with a maximum of small changes to the source code. Developers usually develop the game engine on a segment-by-segment basis. In this way, a certain part of the engine can be changed over time or replaced with better options . Some engines include disassembled parts that can be selectively combined to make a special engine.
The opposite of this method, which is also more common, is to develop or customize a flexible engine. However, flexibility is a very important issue for game engines, because an engine is supposed to be used for many years to develop different games. It is true that the word “game” is used in the phrase “game engine”, but such software can also be used for purposes such as making promotional videos, architectural visualizations, educational simulators and environmental modeling.
Some engines offer only instant 3D rendering and do not include other features required for video games. In such cases, the developer must add the required features himself. These engines are more commonly referred to as “graphics engines”, “rendering engines” or “3D engines” than gaming engines. New engines are usually equipped with a graphical scene. With this feature, you can better see the 3D world of your game, and thus the game design will be done more efficiently, as well as large virtual environments will be better rendered.
History of game engines
Before the advent of game engines, games were usually designed as single entities. For example, a game owned by the Atari 2600 had to be coded from start to finish to make the most of the display hardware. Today’s developers who design games for older systems call this basic display routine Kernel. Other platforms had fewer limitations, but even if the display did not pose a problem, the memory constraints still prevented heavy data-based designs (something that game engines need). Even on platforms with high flexibility, it was still possible to share the designs and parts of one game with another, to a very limited extent.
Game engines as an industry
Those who develop a game engine can also decide how others will use it. Games themselves have formed an industry, and so this can be extended to game engines. The cost of using different engines varies: some of you have received a subscription fee, some of you have to get a license to use others, and there are some that are free for independent developers, and if your game revenue exceeds a certain amount, then you have money they receive.
The structure of using this engine is such that its use is free and only a percentage of the sales revenue of the games made with it is received by Epic Games . The difference between different game engines can be more or less due to different game development processes. In the meantime, there are developers who are so dependent on one engine that they can not use another system, or that a particular engine is so popular with them that they are willing to pay exorbitant costs for it.
Game middleware
If we want to have a more general look, then the game engine can be considered as a middleware. Some game interfaces do only one specific task, but they do it more easily and efficiently than general interfaces.
Items such as RAD Game Tools Bink, Firelight FMOD, Havok and Scaleform GFx are among the four most widely used tools in the video game industry. RAD Game Tools, along with Miles and Granny 3D, has also developed the Bink toolkit for basic video rendering. Firelight FMOD is an extensive library and suite of audio tools. Havok offers an extensive physics simulation system as well as a suite of animation and behavior applications. Other middleware is used to optimize performance. Simplygon, for example, is used to optimize and create detail-level problems. Umbra is also used to add optimizations to remove 3D graphics occlusion. Some firmware contains complete source code, while others provide only a reference API for the compiled binary library. In some software, the full source code can be accessed for an additional fee.
Today, game engines can be considered the most complex type of software. These engines have dozens of modified systems to better control the gaming experience. As technology progressed, rendering, coding, artwork, and stage design became very separate. A typical studio now has several times as many artists and programmers as its counterpart in previous years.
First-person shooter games usually make the most of third-party game engines, but naturally other genres do the same. For example, the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or Dark Age of Camelot.