What is a game engine?
A game engine is foundations which a game is built on. Game
engines most often include the Graphics, physics, sounds, scripting, AI,
collision detection networking and handle the difference between different
platforms. Most Games are created using a game engine and many games share the
same engines. This means the engine is often reused between different titles
and lead to the developers looking for different ways to use the engine to make
new and interesting way to create and enjoy games.
Parts of a game engine
The operating system of the engine: This controls how the
different parts of the engine interact with each other and the main underling
code holding the engine together.
Graphics: The graphics of a game is what the user sees on
screen. The graphics are rendered on screen using a chosen technique from the
engine developer. While most engines allow for some level of graphics, certain
engines like Unreal 4 and the cry engine are known for allowing the more
cutting edge look to a game.
Physics: the physics engine in a game is what determines how
objects collide and interact with each other within the world. This can be from
the most basic things to if and how much gravity is felt within the game to the
impact of a punch on an object or another player. The physic engine in a game
can be specific to an engine of shared through multiple engines
Sound: The sound of the engine is processed and created
through small engines packaged within the title just like the physics of an
engine the sound engine can be shared.
AI: Is how the computers perceived intelligence reacts
within a game. This can be bots a player must fight or challenge within a
title, the pathing of a bird or change in difficulty of a chess opponent. The
AI is how the engine “thinks” and approaches the user.
Access to game engines
As game engines are far harder to create than games this
makes the ownership of and engine very important. If a company has create or
owns and engine developers need permission from the company to create and sell
games made on the engine. For a game developer looking for and engine to make
his or her game on this leads to three different approaches.
One. To use a free engine like unreal or unity to develop on
and once developed pay the owner large amounts of royalties fees on the sale of
their title if successful.
Two. To pay for an engine from a company to use. This may be
a onetime payment but often can include royalties from the company once the
game is released.
Three. Either create or pay someone to create them a new
game engine which their company will own. This may be the most time consuming
and cost the most money but this will give the developer the most creative
freedom as it will allow them to make the engine fit the needs of their games.
It will also allow them to sell their engine to other companies.
Middle-ware:
Middle-ware is components of an engine which have been
sourced for outside of the code written by the developer. Middle-ware is bought
by companies to add to their engine. The most common of these is the physics engines
of games as they are often some of the most complicated parts of and engine to code.
This can save a company time trying to create the perfect physics engine for their
game by buying one from another company. The downside to this is apart from the
obvious cost to the developer is the fact the engine won’t be as tailored to
the game the developers is creating as may by desired.
Different game engines
The unreal engine the
unreal engine is arguably the biggest game engine at the moment tied with
unity. The unreal engine has the monopoly on first person shooters. The unreal
engine is an open engine mean people are free to download the engine at will.
However a game developed on the engine will need to pay royalty fees to epic
games the company which owns the unreal engine.
The unreal engine was
developed for epic games first shooter unreal in 1998 however is now in its
fourth instalment. Unreal 4 was originally shown off in 2012 and was sold on
its cutting edge Volex cone tracing however changes have be made to the
original engine after worries of performance on the next generation of
consoles. The main selling point is now the “blue prints” section of the
software which allows for coding and editing of the engine with C++ while
developing this allows for easier interaction and collaboration between
programmers artists and level designer while in development
The unreal engine has
come a long way in the past 18 years as has just released its most current
patch 4.13 which has branched out to the latest VR technology .The unreal engine is free
to use, with access to source code however epic games must be paid 5% of gross
revenue after the first US $3,000 per
product per quarter. https://developer.nvidia.com/unrealengine
Unity
The unity engine is the other
largest engine on the market. While the unreal engine is used to create more
first person shooter and action game unity is the engine used by the more indie
and alternative games. Unity is easier for budding developers and often hosts
smaller projects. Unity hosts the monopoly on phone games and almost all
smartphone titles are created with a version of unity. This is because unity
physic engine is easy to work with and does not require such a deep level of
understanding to manipulate. While unity has been used to create some beautiful
titles such as fire watch, Ori and the blind forest and Verdun. None of these
game brag the most cutting edge graphics however they do look good.
Unity however is
great for cross platform development and is very well optimised for all types
of systems. The other reason unity is heavily used is that developers are not
required to pay royalties per say but are expected to pay a subscription fee
per month on the software once and game has earnt $100000 in one year the game
will be expected to upgrade to the pro version of unity costing $1,500 or $75 per month on a 12 month contract. This is
a tiny amount compared to unreal 4 which takes a flat 5% off the top of a game.
Unity
released unity 5 last year its easy access and quick to grasp systems have been
accused of leading to an influx of underdeveloped titles made by inexperienced
developers, also known as “cash grabs”. https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/physics
Unity is one of the few big engines including unreal engine which uses the PhysX
physics engine. This means both companies while have access to the code for their
physics engine don’t own the engine its self. A problem with using middle-ware
like Phys X is reduces developer’s ability to make big changes within their own
engine. However using middle-ware can save money and time and allows companies
to not spend resources updating their own physic engine.
Rage
The Rage engine or (Rockstar
advanced game engine) is a closed engine owned by the company Rockstar and was
released in 2006. The Rage engine has hosted a range of Rockstar titles but the
most notable is the latest instalment in the GTA franchise GTA V which runs on
the latest version of the Rockstar engine.
https://support.rockstargames.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/200739603-Where-can-I-get-
https://www.quora.com/How-are-large-open-world-games-like-GTA-V-made
The
Rockstar engine is heavily made up of third party middle-ware components such as
the physics engine Bullet and Euphoria the character animation engine. The
engine is focused heavily on allowing large amounts of assets and is well
optimised or the computer and next generation consoles. Because the Rockstar
engine is closed this mean Rockstar doesn’t allow people to download or use the
engine. Rockstar also doesn’t sell the engine to any other companies like some
closed engine owners. This a screen shot from red dead redemption a Rockstar
title which runs on the rage engine
CryEngine
The
cry engine is an engine owned by
Crytek.
a German game developer. The cry engine
is the biggest contender to unreal in terms of the most cutting edge graphics
as an open development engine. The cry engine is currently in its 4th
instalment however a fifth was announced on March 22nd 2016. The software was
originally as a tech demo for NVidia. However was then used to create the first
Farcry game. The Third version of the engine is when it made its biggest break
through. It was announced in 2009 and was set for the next generation of
consoles. The engine and games sold with it often game with editors available
in the game this allowed players to make and create their own levels and use
the WYSIWYP,
"What You See Is What You Play" feature
which allows players to hop into what they have just created.
The Software Development kit or SDK allows payers to
make huge landscapes this means where other game would hide the edges of their
maps with 2d backdrops. The Cry engine offers the potential to make huge 3D back drops and environments. The cry engine is currently being used for the
biggest crowed funded title ever star citizen razing 124 million pounds. The
release of this title will be a huge boost to the engines owners’ Crytek which
have currently been in the shadows after the unreal engine recent success. The cry engine uses its own physics engine
this gives each game created on it a certain feel.
The biggest difference between the Cryegine and its competitor
unreal is the approach to managing the engine. While unreal are taking a more
open approach allowing user more and more ability to make changes to the engine, Crytek are looking to hold more control over how their engine is used "At the core, Crytek is building advances in
that engine and controlling where that engine goes -- that's where we think we
get the best results from," (Crytek
Jones)
The cry engine was recently leased to amazon $50-70
million. This was to create Amazons most recent game engine lumber yard and
more user friendly version of the cry engine and is currently in alpha.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/218947/What_separates_CryEngine_from_its_competition.php
Gamemaker
Game
maker studio is a game engine owned by YoYo games game maker is a 2D game
engine and doesn’t support 3D graphics this leaves game maker to being fairly
limited and therefore not really used to create anything but low budget indie
titles. The positive of game maker is there’s an easy access and usable version
of it open to the public. Game maker is a good for new game developers looking
to learn and pick up some basic skills to use later in their careers or
companies looking to make low budget 2D titles. Game maker is designed to be as
easy as possible to code its uses code similar to C++ called GML
Game
maker was created in Delphi programming language by a man called Mark Overmars
and has produced some quite big steam indie titles
·
Spelunky
·
Gunpoint
·
Nuclear Throne
·
Undertale
·
Super Crate Box
·
Hotline Miami
·
Nidhogg
Id tech
Id Tech is a game engine designed and developed by id Software. Id tech is currently in
its sixth instalment Prior to the presentation of the id Tech 5-based game Rage, the engines lacked official designation
and as such were simply referred to as the Doom and Quake engines, from the name of the main game series the engines have been
developed for. Id tech 2 to 4 have been released for free, along with the
source code to titles such as
Doom and Wolfenstein.
The game engine is well used is Bethesda titles, the sister company to Id tech.
http://www.idsoftware.com/?/age_gate
Id tech is well known for being one of the very first game
engines ever created and was one of the big companies to make creating a game engine
popular. However Id Tech 4 had far fewer licences than the Unreal from Epic Games, and Id planned to regain the momentum with id Tech 5 by releasing it as
an open engine , until
they were bought out by ZeniMax Media which intends to keep the id Tech engines
exclusively for Bethesda’s studios.
Source
engine
Source is a 3d game engine made by valve. It was first used in counter-strike: source.
Then one of valves biggest titles half-life 2.
Valve have since released source 2 the first game to get transferred
over to the new engine is Dota 2. The biggest and most notable thing about the source
engine is how it was designed to have no problems with backwards compatibility.
The source engine is set to be modular.This Makes it easy for valve to upgrade between
titles and have no problems changing the engine for different titles .This helps valve keep moving
assets between titles without issues from changing versions of the engine.
The source engine is well known
for its good physics engine. This engine is a middle-ware component called Havok.
The Havok engine is the biggest Middle-ware physic engine on the market at the
moments and many game engine use it as the Physics engine for their Game engine.
HDR and colour correction was added to
the source engine in 2005 for the title day of defeat. The release of the orange
box came with many things such as the source filmmaker which allowed users to
create source film videos. It also removed inbuilt effects in the engine
replacing them allowing codes to modify and edit to their choice.
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs
There are many different engines on the market and held by companies. While the best one is subjective to the people using and playing games within it. Arguably the "best engines" at the moment are the most popular engines. Obviously this gives closed engines a disadvantage. However I still feel both theses titles deserve there place over any closed engine at this point in time . Both engines I have picked hold something in common as they give the community the most creative freedom and hold the most opportunity for freedom while creating which is what game engine should aim to do. Id say for 3D development of game the Unreal engine is the best on the market at the moment just to the shear openness of the engine. Its highly impressive that an engine this advanced is so user friendly. The unreal engine has way more accessibility than its competitors the cry engine or Id tech.
The other most successful or "best engine at the moment is probably unity as it has the monopoly on phone games with nearly 90% of smartphone games being developed on unity and a large portion of indies games for PC being made with it to. Unity strong point is its cross compatibly between platforms and its quick to create systems.
This is why I think Unreal 4 and Unity 5 are the biggest and best engines out there at the moment.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a3/52/72/a3527245b7c2eb1adbf6423400e79968.jpg
