Hi, I have a question. what is this 3Dengine, game engine people talking about ? Can I think of it as the car engine ? please let me know, Thanks,

yes, ya see, you put gas in your 3D engine and rev it up. Don''t forget to get an oil change though or you''ll be sorry

James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://medev.sourceforge.net

is there any informal definition for game engine ?

A thing that makes a game go, so umm yeah just like a car engine, except not.

A car could have the best stereo system, best transmision, awesome brakes, perfect handling. But that car needs an engine to move. Even though everything else is great, it won''t do anything without an engine.

Game engines are kinda similar. You could have great AI, awesome controls, perfect sound. Without an engine, it won''t get you anywhere.

The term "engine" is actually a bit too confused. In most cases, an engine is simply a 3d engine. This is the code that takes 3d points and models and textures and draws to the screen. In actuallity, that is more like the transmision of the car.

The "3d engine" won''t be worthwhile at all if the foundation of the game isn''t there.

Every now and then companies licence an engine. Then the term is used a little more correctly. The engines that companies licence are fully developed. They include code for AI and controls and the such. Once you licence an engine, all you have to do is adapt it for your game and start making sounds, textures, models, story, and all the other non-coding things.

Hope this helped

Look, it''s simple really. Are you familiar with the game Quake 2? How about Half-Life? Counter-Strike ring a bell? Well, they all use the same "engine" (and before you feel the urge to pipe in, I know Valve heavily modified the Q2 engine, but lets make this simple ok?). The only real difference in these games is the models and the maps. Much of the underlying code is exactly the same. They use the same code to render to the screen, play sounds, get input, etc. That is a game engine. A 3D engine is often part of a game engine and provides functions that do handy things such as load in models, maps, and textures, partition the world space and render the scene. In other words, an engine is just an organized collection of functions that allow you, the game programmer, to spend more time coding up your game and less time having to worry about a bunch of low level BS. The end!

A game engine is what the game is built around. Half-life is a game engine and you can build mods for the engine. The engine itself cannot be modified without the original source.

Think of it as the "operating system" of a game. The engine handles the graphics, sound, physics, input and output.

How that "looks" is up to the art, and how it "behaves" is up to the game code.

For example: Using the Quake3 Engine... The same "engine" is used for Q3, and return to Wolfenstein, and Star Trek Elite Force, which are 3 totaly different games.

The Q3 Engine is in effect the operating system that ewach of these games run on. The "Application" or game is defined by the game authors using art to create the look of the game, and game code that defines the behaiviour of all the objects, the player, the rules etc.

A "game engine" is not always 3d (you may have an engine for building sprite based side scrollers for example).

Hope that helps

Annon

quote:

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Original post by ProgramMax
In most cases, an engine is simply a 3d engine.

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I liked that one =)

*adds to sig* in most cases, a hard boiled egg is simply a white, hard boiled egg.

Thanks to you all~!!!
ProgramMax, Your explanation and other ananymous poster''s explanation helped me a lot~~~~~~~~~!!!!

again,
Thank you very much~!!!


Have a wonderful day~!!!