Safa Radwan
A game engine is the software used to design or create games in 2D or
3D. Game Engines are used on computers to create different variety of games
(including 2D, 3D, web games, console games, and mobile games). All games on
Wii, PS4, Xbox, 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PSP, Mobile, Tablet, and PC are created
with a game engine.
In this essay, I will be going into detail about the different game
engines used to create games, what you can do using a games engine, and to understand
the purpose of game engines in depth.
Some popular game engines include;
Unity is a game engine that can be used to create games in both 2D and
3D. This engine can be used across platforms, and create high quality games for
mobile, desktop, VR and game consoles (PS4, Xbox).
Unreal Engine is a game engine, used to create professional 3D games.
It is considered to be one of the best gaming engines, and according to the
Guiness World Record, Unreal Engine is the ‘most successful video game engine’.
Everything is written using C++, and can be used in many game platforms due to
its high portability. It can also be used on TV shows to create props and
backgrounds, not just games.
RPG maker is an engine specialized towards making 2D sprite based
games. It’s not flexible like Unity or Unreal Engine, and is only geared
towards making simple 2D role-playing games. It includes basic map editors and
scripting language. All versions also contain premade characters and tile sets,
making it useful for people who aren’t that good with coding or developing, but
still want to create small games.
Cryengine has been used to develop AAA games such as Far Cry. Code is
written in C++, and can also be used with other programs like Maya, 3DS Max and
CryTif.
Duality is free game engine for people to use. It is an open source
code, designed specifically for creating and developing 2D games. It is written
entirely in C# and backed by OpenGL (a
platform for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics) so they can avoid graphic
issues.
Game Models and Animation
One of the most import assets in a games engine, are the models.
Everything needs a model, from items you pick up, to NPCs (non-playable
characters), and the environment you’re in.
3D models are made from triangles and quads. Each individual pixel
displays 1 colour, this means depending on the game, it could have lots of
pixels or not so many. For professional AAA video games, they will have many
pixels rendered so that they can have high quality graphics, and for Indie or
2D games, they will have a lot less pixels. These rendered models are also used
to create characters that can be animated for the developers to use in their
game.
Animation clips are created either from an external source like Maya,
or created using game engines. Once these clips are made, they are then
structured into a flowchart-like system, known as an animator controller. These
are used to make dialogue between characters, what actions they will do and
determines how they interact with the player character. This is used to make an
AI (artificial intelligence).
The Artificial Intelligence
An AI is controlled by the actions that you chose in a flowchart-like
fashion (pictured below). Some are also only programmed to act one certain way,
when interacting with the player character.
AI’s have become more advanced – depending on how the player plays the
game the AI can combat their playstyle and counter them. One fan of Dark souls
known as ‘metal-crow’ created an AI mod for the game Dark Souls 1, and
programmed the AI to counter Dark Souls players, and be almost unbeatable.
After 10 months of studying PVP (player versus player) for dark souls and
creating the source code, the creator released the AI as a mod for players to
download.
He explained how he created the source code (in C++ for coding) as so,
“In order to have the AI do anything, I needed to be able to feed it data about
the game state. The simplest and most direct way of doing this, would be to
have it watch various variables in the game code, such as the enemy’s x and y
location, and then use that with the AI logic. However, since the game’s code
isn’t open source, I needed to reverse engineer anything I wanted to use.
The first step I took, was finding the basic variables I knew I
needed, and where the easiest to find were. By using a second computer, I could
connect to myself and have a test enemy player I could work with. Using the
program Cheat Engine, which is a powerful debugging and memory scanning
software, I was able to quickly find the enemy’s x and y location variables,
and a few other simple values. Running a pointerscan on these values and cross
referencing these scans, I was able to find the executable base address that
the game always used for to point to the enemy struct, and the pointer paths to
the variables.”
(The AI is the red/black knight, also known as ‘king’)
What he got was an AI that could dodge player’s swings, preform
calculated attacks, and predict when the player was going to strike and parry
them. Although this AI was dangerously intelligent, it was not impossible to
beat, and very skilled players have downloaded the mod onto Dark Souls, and
were able to take advantage of the AI’s slight imperfections and defeat it.
Mods (Modification) in Games
Mods can also be used in other ways. Most notable mods are cosmetic,
and can be used to change textures, for example, the screenshot below is from
the game Star Wars Battlefront. The right is vanilla (meaning no modding has
been done – the game is in it’s purest form), and the left being a mod that
aims on improving the graphics and aesthetics of the original, by using
applications such as Reshade and MasterEffect. The modder (creator of the mod)
also tried to replace the lack of lighting with bloom, corrected the colour,
and sharpened the images.
A popular game to add mods in is Minecraft, since the vanilla version
can be plain and boring after a while, mods have become increasingly used in
the game;
(Image above; vanilla vs modded
texture in Minecraft)
(Image above; vanilla vs modded
texture in Minecraft)
As well as texture mods, new game items and mobs have also been made
by players;
(Pictured below is a Portal mod in Minecraft)
Mods can be used to edit a game, to give the game a graphical upgrade,
or add new enemies/AIs so we have more to do in the game once it’s been
completed, or to add a new challenge.
Rendering Graphics
Many mods are downloaded to give games better graphics and look more
aesthetically pleasing. These are more commonly used in 3D games because they
aim to look more realistic and immersive, while 2D games typically use pixel
art and don’t count on realism to sell their games.
Some popular rendering techniques include:
Scanline/rasterization – this type of rendering is used by developers
who are under time constraint, because it can be used to render graphics
quickly. It does this by rendering and image on a polygon by polygon basis,
instead of rendering an image pixel by pixel. Most games using this technique
can achieve speeds of 60 frames per second due to the low poly count
Raytracing – this rendering technique takes a lot more time, because
every pixel in the scene is rendered and traced through the camera to the
nearest 3D object. Using this can create photorealistic graphics, however this
takes time, and not all hardware are capable of running it in the highest
quality.
Rendering software used:
Mental Ray – this software is packaged with Maya, and is arguably the
most versatile – it is relatively fast, and competent for rendering most
objects. This software uses raytracing and radiosity techniques.
V-Ray – this software is typically used in conjunction with 3DS Max to
render environments and architecture.
(This image shows in simple terms
how a games engine renders graphics)
In conclusion, a games engine can be used to create basic 2D, low
resolution mobile games, to triple A, high-functioning 3D games, with hours of
gameplay, music, and voice acting packed into the game code. A games engine
like RPG maker would probably not be able to create fully-fledged immersive
game, however a games engine like Cryengine would be able to achieve that. In
this essay, I also talked about the kind of things programmers would use in a
games engine, like mods, AIs, and rendering techniques.
(References/sources used;
No comments:
Post a Comment