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International Journal of Advanced Computer and Mathematical Sciences ISSN 2230-9624. Vol 3, Issue 2, 2012, pp 245-249 http://bipublication.com

HISTORY AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MODERN GAME ENGINES

Partha Sarathi Paul1, Surajit Goon 1, Abhishek Bhattacharya 2 1Birla Institute of Technology, Kolkata Campus, Kol-107,WB, India 2Institute of Engineering & Management, Salt Lake, Kol-91,WB, India

[Received-29/03/2012, Accepted-21/05/2012]

ABSTRACT:

In this paper we try to explain what actually a means and what are the major components of it. It also describes some special types of game engines with their features. This paper also presents a brief history of game engines evolution process and discusses about some modern game engines specifications with comparison.

Keywords: Game Engines, AI, , Physics Engine, 3D Engine, Rendering.

DEFINITION AND COMPONENTS : the content of a game, its specific characters and terrains, the reason behind collision, real Generally, the concept of game engine [1] is world object behaviors etc. are the very simple to understand. It is a platform of components that make the actual game. doing common game related tasks like Game engines are like middleware solutions rendering, physics related computation and [3]. It provides platform abstraction, allowing input, so that developers (artists, designers, the same game to be played on various scripter and other ) can focus on platforms including game console and the details that make their game unique. personal computers with only few changes Engines are actually a collection of reusable made to the code. Often game engines components that can be manipulated to bring are designed with more specialized game a game to reality. There are some clear middleware [1] components like [4] for differences between a game and a game physics, Miles Sound System [5] for sounds or engine [2] . Rendering, loading, , Bink [6] for videos. Physics engines are very collision detection between objects, physics, popular and significant middleware in game inputs, GUI and AI are the primary different development because they give us the more components of an engine. On the other hand realistic game play environment. It is HISTORY AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MODERN GAME ENGINES

specially created to calculate the physics But after releasing of Space Rougue game, related numerical computations while using System had undertaken the with the overall game engine. These game Underworld engine and developed the engines create the simulation of real world algorithm for which can be physics in the digital world by handling the applied to floors, ceilings, walls etc. The basic physics system including collision maximum system requirement for this was detection, object deformation and dynamics. 386 based PC. In 1993, ID A recent survey by gamesutra.com found that developed engine , which is not a 3D generally 55% of the people are using a engine at all, but had capacity to represent middleware game engine on their project [7] . objects, characters and whole map by 2D sprite representation. Rendering was very SOME SPECIAL TYPE ENGINES: fast and it needs 386 based PC with standard 1. Game engines for Massively Multiplayer VGA support to run. Though it was a 2D Online Games (MMOs,MMOGs) is for more engine, the illusion created by the developer complex application than a single player made it a 3D title. NovaLogic’s prprietory game. Every individual game can be used to engine engine (1992) was the basic implements a MMO middleware. Some engines for all Comanche games. Voxel had MMO middleware software packages already their own way to represent volumetric objects include a game engine while others provide as three dimensional . Before that all networking facilities only. Some popular engines applied , which was MMO are –Abyssal engine, little bit slower in speed and less detailing Hero engine,, Vison engine etc. 2. than 3D presentation. , Another subset of game engines are 3D first Command & Conquer are the noteworthy person shooter(FPS) game engines. It was games developed by Voxel engine. In late enhanced through a series of implementation 1993, another game called 3D at various levels and generations, like was released into the market ,which was “Jurassic Park:Trespusser”(1998) introduced developed with the help of engine. Like physics to the FPS games for the first time. it also created 3D effects in 2D Next (2001) featured destructive interface. It simply varied the sectors with walls and grounds. Battlezone(1998) and different heights to achieve the illusions. By Battlezone II: combat commander(1990) applying special tags to various spot within a added vehicle based combat to FPS games particular sector, developers could make it so and combination of all the above are that whenever a player move over to that implemented later in , Battlefield particular spots it switches over to a different 1942, Halo: combat evolved and Unreal sector giving the illusion of changing the Tournament 2004. 3. Visual Novel Engines: levels or environment at run time. these type of engines are not at all resource XnGine(1995) was the first ever 3D engine hungry because they are less graphic- which is developed in DOS base. It would intensive in nature. Examples of these are later make use of high resolution graphics Visual Novelty, KiriKiri, NScripter etc. and be compatible with 3dfx video cards. EVOLUTION OF GAME ENGINES : engines(1996) was the first truly 3D In early 1989 one sci-fi game engine named game engine by . It had an unique Ultima Underworld was developed. That processing capacity to render maps by engine had the same name as the game itself. purging certain areas from processing that the

Surajit Goon, et al. 246 HISTORY AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MODERN GAME ENGINES

player wouldn’t be able to see. It actually (2004) most light surfaces were also done in took advantages of Z-buffering, which simply real-time, allowing more realistic shadows, is a method for determining which parts of but at the expense of being able to render soft the maps are visible to the player and only shadows. To get around this, projected lights rendering those sections. Renderware(1996) could be used to create the illusion of soft was the most popular engine for shadows. Half Life 2 creator Source engine multiplatform games. It supports PlayStation (2005) including advanced 2, , GameCube, , , technologies, dynamic lighting and shadows, PlayStation 3 and PSP platforms. Quake II/ id physics, several effects such as realistic Tech 2 engine(1997) supports native looking reflective water surfaces and real- OpenGL , colored lightening effects and time motion blur, and much more. language support. The moddability was CryEngine's(2004) used for increased because of it’s DLL support. realistic water in Far Cry . Developed by GoldSRC(1998) pushed PC games to a new Crytek company it produced the game named era. It supports both OpenGL and . , a shader heavy DirectX 10 game. Some successful game examples which are Rockstar Advanced Game based on OpenGL are Half-Life, Day of Engine(RAGE)(2006) combines a rendering Defeat and Counter Strike etc. One of the framework, physics engine, audio engine, most popular game engine is Unreal network libraries, animation engine and engine(1998) , which gave birth to Unreal in one package. Grand Tournament game. It integrates its own Theft Auto IV was the finest product of that scripting language called UnrealScript and particular engine. In 2007 and map editor named UnrealEd. A modified 2008 engine took the advancement version of Quake II engine was Quake III of game engines to the level. Battlefield: designed in 1999 which supports 32-bit color, Bad Company, a game which increased it and shaders and advance networking. John up to 92 percent of the environment can be Slagel, Red Faction's lead , destroyed with unbelievable blasting effects developed the Geodmod engine(2001), which was created by using Frostbite engine [7] . Cry stands for Geometry Modification. As Red engine 3 by Crytek was launched in 14 Faction's lead designer Alan Lawrence Oct’2009 which is again a cross platform explained to Gamespot, "When a rocket hits a engine supports C/C++. As for the PC wall, we take this shape and basically platform, the engine is said to support subtract that shape from the world. So we development in DirectX 9, 10, and 11.As of boolean with that 'bit' -- we call them June 1, 2009, it was announced that Crysis GeoMod bits -- and that takes a chunk out of 2 would be developed by Crytek on their the world." [8]. In 2001 engine was brand new engine. developed to modify the FPS Tribes 2 game. COMPARISON: It had on the fly rendering option with less Comparison between various game engine is counts and also had a world map not a simple task because of their various editor integrated within it. Serious genre, types, multimedia support, middleware engine(2001) was designed to allow large support, language and platform dependencies, spaces and large numbers of on-screen rendering techniques and many other sub characters at any given time and give birth to features [9]. In this paper we tried to give some popular series. Later in idea about the strengths and weakness of

Surajit Goon, et al. 247 HISTORY AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MODERN GAME ENGINES

some well-known game engines. We took six platform is X360 (see Figure-1). The popular game engines to compare [10] with awareness about recent engines is each another and they are Cry Engine, Hero tremendous. 80 to 90 percentage of them are Engine, Source Engine, Engine, Unreal very much aware about the functionalities Engine 3 and Engine. Table-1 and developments of the current engines(see describes the performances in terms of Figure-2). But surprisingly they are biased platform dependencies, Interface supports, with some particular engines when the ease API supports, inbuilt physics engine supports of practical use is (see Figure-3). with path finding capabilities and Table-2 indicates the World and GUI editor supports, rendering techniques, and inbuilt MMO 80 70 X360 supports of those selected engines. PS3 Table-1: 60 PC Game Platform Langua API Physics Path 50 Engines ge Engine findi Support ng 40 Series1

CryEngi Win,X360, C++, DX9, Custom Yes Total % 30 Wii ne PS3 Visual 10,11 Script 20 Hero Win C++, DX 9 Physx Yes Engine Hero 10 Script 0 Source Win, Mac, C++ DX9, Custom Yes X360 PS3 PC Wii Engine X360, PS3 Open GL platform Unity Win, Mac, C#, DX9, Physx No Android, Java Open X360, PS3, Script GL Figure-1. shows the popularity of various Wii platforms of game developments. Unreal Win, X360, C++, DX9, Physx Yes Engine 3 PS3 Unreal 10, 11 Script Vision Win, X360, C++ DX9, Physx, Yes 88 Engine PS3, Wii 10, 11 Bullet 87

86 Table-2 85 Engines World GUI Deferred Forward Built- 84 Editor Editor renderer renderer in 83 Series1 MMO % Cry Engine Yes No Yes No No 82 Hero Engine Yes No No Yes Yes A w81 areness Source Engine Yes No No Yes No Unit y Yes No Yes Yes No 80 Unreal Engine 3 Yes Yes Yes No No 79 Vision Engine Yes No Yes Yes No 78

A survey was done with the help of 100 Unreal CryENGINE Torque Source executives from different game industries [7] Engines who had given their opinions on various game engines presently available in the Figure-2. Awareness of popular ngines. market. It indicates that the most popular

Surajit Goon, et al. 248 HISTORY AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MODERN GAME ENGINES

not to write or develop the game from the 70 scratch but just supposed to implement the 60 idea with the help of some engine. In engines the basic core architecture and codes are 50 given, the middlewares are present, a 40 developer only needs to tweak them as their Series1 own requirement. The evolution of game 30 engines is now moving towards more realistic 20 and technically rich games in various fields % according to use 10 like physics, sounds, and rendering etc.

0 REFERENCES: Unreal Torque Gamebryo Source CryENGINE Top 5 Game Engines 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine. 2. Dissecting the Engine and a Brief History by Julie Wilmore Retrieved From- Figure-3. Practical industry acceptance of popular juliewilmore.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/tc339fi game engines. nalpaper. 3. http://www.iwaysoftware.de/middleware.html CURRENT STATE OF THE ART 4. http://www.havok.com/products/physics TRENDS OF GAME ENGINES: 5. http://www.radgametools.com/miles.htm 6. http://www.radgametools.com/bnkmain.htm 7. DeLaura, Mark. March 16, 2009. The Engine Game engines technology, today, is become Survey: Technology Results. Retrieved From more user-friendly then previous few years http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MarkDeLoura/2 and it is continuously changing with time. 0090316/903/The_Engine_Survey_Technology_R Recently in spite of the traditional game esults.php. development, they are used for some serious 8. Lilly, Pauly. July 17, 2009. Doom to Dunia: A business also like training, medical teaching, Visual History of Game Engines.Maximum PC. military simulations etc. They are also now Retrieved from -- targeted to the multiple platforms like- http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/3d_ Android phones, etc. 3D rich games game_engines?page=0%2C0.

of recent times are mostly GPU-limited, that 9. Simpson, Jake. July 11, 2002. Game Engine Anatomy 101. Retrieved from - means restricted by graphics card’s power. http://juliewilmore.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/t , the giant of software industry, is c339finalpaper.pdf also looking forward to this technology. They 10. “Game Engine Comparison”-Retrieved from developed XNA as the SDK for all http://www.esenthel.com/?id=compare developers to build their games on X box platforms.

CONCLUSION: From the beginning of game engines to the recent 3D high performance game engines, the goal of development is remain the same i.e. to give developer a platform to create their unique games into reality. They need

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