Game Engines As Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
868 words · ~4 min read
0:00
If you're at all like me, you wear the most sensible footwear on Earth. You
0:05
occasionally get excited about the release of a bigname game title. You
0:08
have at some point in the past heard a friend complain about a forementioned
0:12
bigname game using the same worn out old engine. Or conversely have encountered
0:17
the massive hype train that usually accompanies a shiny new engine. But
0:23
these overly enthusiastic game journalists and downer type friends
0:27
often neglect to explain what exactly a
0:30
game engine is. So here we go. Firstly,
0:35
they provide a rendering engine which allows designers to pair their
0:39
in-housemade 2D images with 3D
0:42
wireframes to create fully actualized models. Then usually one or several
0:48
application programming interfaces such as the upcoming DirectX12 and Vulcan are
0:53
used to furnish the rendering engine with efficient access to a systems
0:58
processing and graphics hardware. Secondly, game engines must provide well
1:03
everything else as well. There's the obvious stuff like physics or collision
1:08
detection engines which account for general movement and the interaction
1:12
between models like you know characters and the ground as well as stuff that you
1:18
might not have considered before like realistic lighting effects with
1:22
realistically bouncing light rays, realistic diffusion through different
1:26
materials, and even crazy stuff like the scattering of light beneath the surface
1:32
of a model's skin to give him natural looking rosy cheeks for example. And of
1:37
course something thirdly has to keep our game subjects marching perpetually along
1:43
the horizon. So AI engines are also
1:46
pivotal to give our characters the ability to create Skynet inside of our
1:51
No, just kidding. Usually an AI engine is more like a complex arrangement of
1:56
behavior trees. But anyway, the point is that a game engine is the sciency
2:02
programming skeleton that supports the game designers and lets them focus on
2:07
the flesh, you know, the story and gameplay elements of their title instead
2:11
of spending countless hours locked away in a room focused on like the sound. Oh
2:15
yeah, don't forget sound and physics of like bouncing balls. Okay, so now that
2:20
we have an idea of what game engines are for, the next obvious question is where
2:25
do they come from? Well, son, let me tell you. When a man loves a woman and
2:30
No, sorry, just just kidding. So, simply put, they come from well, a lot of
2:35
money. There are open source game engines out there, but for the most
2:38
part, no one is building game engines just to help a brother out. And there
2:43
are a couple of main reasons for a developer to build one. Number one, your
2:47
company, uh, let's say Epic, makers of Unreal Engine, or Valve, the makers of
2:52
Source Engine, decides to focus on licensing this engine technology to
2:56
smaller developers rather than trying to make every huge Blockbuster game from
3:01
scratch or even the third episode of a blockbuster game. Number two, your
3:05
company has the resources to absorb the
3:09
multi-year investment into engine building to avoid paying out a
3:13
percentage on future game sales. Blizzard would be a great example of
3:17
this. Or number three, your company just
3:21
can't find the right technology in a prepackaged engine and needs to build
3:26
their own whether they like it or not. So that's it in a nutshell. achieving
3:31
optimal cost efficiency and then in some cases anyway allocating those extra
3:36
resources to other parts of production like paying these guys to do voice
3:40
acting. Something I'm sure we all appreciate. And you know what else I
3:44
appreciate? Fresh books. It is the online accounting tool designed for
3:49
freelance workers or small businesses. So maybe you or someone you know.
3:55
It makes invoicing, getting paid, and tracking your hours and expenses easier.
4:00
The little details about cash flow are all in one place so you know where you
4:03
stand. And this is great. It shows a full history of each invoice, allowing
4:08
you to check if your client, well, you can send it to the client first. You can
4:12
check if they viewed it and then you can actually have them pay it right through
4:17
FreshBooks. Woo! Collecting money just got easier. And if you're your own boss,
4:22
well, give it a try because FreshBooks offers a free trial at
4:26
freshbooks.com/techquicki. So if you're your own boss, use the
4:30
tools that make you feel like a boss. And oh, don't forget to enter techquicki
4:34
in the how did you hear about us section, by the way. So thanks for
4:38
watching, guys. If you like this video, well, you know what to do. If you disliked it, well, you know what to do
4:42
there, too. If you have a comment with suggestions for future fastest
4:46
possibles, that's uh down below. And uh don't forget to subscribe for more
4:50
videos like this and also check out our other channels. We got some pretty good
4:53
stuff coming out on channels super fun lately, including one where you will see
4:58
multiple members of Linus Media Group eat bugs. Yes, that will happen. Was it
5:03
fun? Well, you'll have to find out.