Unit 70 P1 P2 - Gaming engines

Unit 70 P1 P2 - Gaming engines

What is a game engine?

A game engine is a piece of software used in the creation of a video game. An example of a game engine would be R.A.G.E, the game engine that is used to create Grand Theft Auto and other Rockstar exclusive games. This is primarily a 3D engine, used for graphic intensive games and has quickly become one of the most advanced engine to date. An example of a 2D game engine is Game maker studios, which has the ability to create 3D games but is built to create 2D games. A game engine helps to create all the components of a game and put them together in order to create the game, these include the objects, characters, weapons and environment used for the game. Alongside being used to create games, Engines have also been known to help create mods for games, which edit some of the core features of games to change or add new things, this normally being done by fans of the game who want to see changes to the game such as different skins for characters or new objects that add new life to a game. A game engine contains the core components of creating a game, such as the character generation and environment creation, however navigating through the intense and advanced UI can become hard and therefor takes some time to get used to.

Physics

A physics engine is used in most game engines to create body movement, collision in a game between two objects. Physics in a game normally abide by the physics that are also in real life, for example if a person jumps they will come back down to the ground due to gravity.

Rendering

Game Rendering allows the user to see what is in the world/game. Each engine has its own way of rendering, some being more advanced than others which results in a better quality of the models used. For example Frostbite 3 (EA engine) uses a powerful rendering system which allows for photo realistic models to be viewed in a game.

Closed and open engines:

A closed game engine means that the engine can only be accessed by members of the company that own the engine, or those who are trusted enough to use it. An open game engine however is open to the public, either for free like MAYA or costing like Unreal Engine, both are good game engines and do the same as the closed engines but have the difference of being able to be used by the general public.

Examples (closed engines):

Frostbite (EA):

Frostbite is the exclusive closed engine for the gaming company EA, it is the engine used to create games such as Fifa, Battlefield, Need for speed, Mass effect and Medal of honor. Arguably one of the best game engines to date, Frostbite is one of the most technically advanced engine's which produces some of the most graphically perfect games on the market. However being a closed game engine means that to work on this engine would require you to work at EA, otherwise you cannot use it.

Now being known as Frostbite 3, first used with the game battlefield 4 the engine has undergone a few changes in order to improve the issues and improve the engines overall quality. Now also being adapted to work as a mobile engine device with Frostbite Go, a new engine that will allow EA to create mobile games too. The unique tool set that Frostbite uses is made up of 3 primary components, these being FrostEd, Backend services and Runtime.

FrostEd is a desktop program used by Artists, designers, Animators and programmers at EA. FrostEd uses a unified interface that allows everyone using it to be creative, and efficiently build high quality products/games.

Backend is the data storage system that Frostbite uses, being able to handle hundreds of thousands of data packets and assets to be stored, this allowing EA to create various game assets at the same time and not worry about storing them before they are optimised in order to reduce space. Within this EA has systems called blizzard and avalanche which handle the storage and the caching of the data, with daily updates to keep the system up to date.

Runtime is what allows EA to diversify their games and code them so that all platforms are able to run the game, this being the final process in the Frostbite engine, allowing games to be compatible with the various platforms such as XBOX 360 and now the next gen being XBOX One and PS4.

Fifa 17

Need For Speed 2015

Battlefield 1

Rage Engine (Rockstar):

Rage stands for Rockstar advanced game engine, created by Rockstar in order to further their game quality for certain franchises such as Grand Theft Auto. First created in 2006 the Rage engine changed the quality of Rockstar games significantly, now producing games with photo realistic graphics that allow the users to fully immerse themselves in the game. Like EA's Frostbite engine the Rage engine is only exclusive to Rockstar employees, meaning it is a closed game engine specifically designed for Rockstar and Rockstar alone. With recent releases such as Max Payne 3 Rage has been compatible with Directx 11 and 3D rendering programs allowing for the best quality in games on the PC platform. This is due to the fine tuning that took place over the recent years whilst Rockstar created GTA 5, allowing for the specific changes to be made in order to create a realistic life like game environment for their games.

Rage uses the Bullet physics system created by erwin coumans, This is what allows GTA to have the realistic physics in game such as collision between cars, people when fighting and gravity when planes are shot down. Bullet has been used in multiple other games such as Trials HD, Toy story the game and diRT the racing game, also being using for visual effects in the films sherlock holmes and hancock.

Grand Theft Auto 5

LA Noire

Red Dead Redemption

Operation arrowhead engine/Day Z Standalone Engine:

Starting off as a mod, Day Z become its own game, however the engine used for the standalone game was taken from the original engine used to create the base game arma 2 which day z the mod was created off of. Now being updated to meet the needs of Day Z by Bohemia interactive who now own the rights to the game, the engine works specifically for the game and is a closed game engine, however the Arma 2 engine is able to be accessed. This primarily being accessible so that content creators are able to mod the game and create add-ons. 

Until 2015 the engine used was virtual reality which as mentioned was the Arma 2 engine, now bohemian who have taken over the production of Day Z have started using their own updated Enfusion engine. This was greatly appreciated by players of the game as it allowed for a more fluid movement and physics system for when characters performed actions or when they collided with objects such as stairs, which previously would make the character bob up and down awkwardly.

This engine is not as advanced as the Frostbite or R.A.G.E engine however it still uses similar features to both of these engines, such as a physics engine and a rendering engine capable of HD image rendering allowing for games to have a crisp photo-realistic look. 

Arma 2

DayZ (The mod)

DayZ Standalone

(Open Engines)

Unreal Engine:

Unreal engine is an open game engine created by EPIC games. Providing users with the appropriate assets in a large library for free, it isnt hard to find scenery, objects and characters that can be used for your games. The engine uses direct X 11 and 12 Rendering which allows for their games to make use of dynamic lighting, light reflection and HDR full scale scenes. As well as dynamic lighting, Unreal uses cascade visual effects which allows the creation of movie quality effects, allowing the creator to add various detailing such as fire smoke and dynamic particles.

Thanks to the unreal engine gameplay framework, artificial intelligence is made easy and also works more fluidly with AI having spacial awareness, allowing for them to judge a situation better and being able to navigate without bumping into walls or other objects. The user interface for Unreal is friendly, and allows an instant game preview in the centre of the screen, allowing for the user to edit things in the game such as buildings, characters or scenery and then simply click the play button to test it to see if it works to their satisfaction. This feature makes testing game easy, allowing for each scene to be tested properly to see if it works all to the users needs.

Unreal has had multiple versions throughout the years, now being known as unreal engine 4.13, there has been 4 versions of the engine, with more updates being added every so often to keep the engine up to date. 

Unreal Engine 1:

First created in 1998 with the game Unreal, the engine was capable of creating 2D and 3D games, however not being able to create as HD environments or large as what it is capable of now. Using the Glide API this engine had good rendering paths for its time, and was later updated for Open GL and Direct 3D.

Unreal Engine 2:

Being released in 2002 with the game Americas army Unreal engine 2 was the updated version of the first engine, being able to produce much better quality games thanks to the new physics engine used which was the rag-doll engine. Still using relatively the same rendering tools as the first engine, the look of the games had been improved slightly but not dynamically. During an update to Unreal 2.5, the engine had improved rendering allowing for better game quality and vehicle physics.

Unreal Engine 3:

Unreal Engine 3 was created in 2004, after the success of unreal engine 2. Being able to use shader hardware it allowed for light to be done per pixel as opposed to per vertex, which improved the immersion and the quality of the light in games. This changed the overall look of games created using unreal 3, one being bioshock infinite which used a photo realistic style. Also having destructible environments and soft body dynamics. As well as being a game engine, UE3 has also helped to create sets and backgrounds for the show lazy town, and has been known to create various visual effects for films and other tv shows.

Conclusion

In my opinion Frostbite or Unreal is the best game engine at this current time, the reason i have chosen 2 is because of how Frostbite is only EA exclusive, so i am not able to work on it unless i have a job at EA. However the technically advanced edge of the Frostbite engine is what puts it at the top of the list, with its storage capacity, and its HD image creation capabilities. Unreal is also at the top for its technical edge, being updated over many years now to create the perfect game engine which has my favourite feature which is the game preview screen that allows for specific scene testing which is helpful as it allows you to edit anything that isnt working properly at that current time instead of waiting for it to be properly tested by other people. It also allows you to see how far along you are in the creation process, and with its soft body animation capabilities i feel that unreal engine is able to create some of the most fluid and graphically pleasing games.