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What is a game engine? Game Engines

What is a game engine? Not all dictionaries will find a definition of this phrase. But if we ourselves try to find the answer to this question, then it will most likely be as follows: “ Game engine is a software component that allows us to create and run video games." It gives developers the tools to create most of the game's components and then allows them to put them together. The game engine affects all components of the game, from rendering, physics, sound design, scripting, AI creation and ending with network aspects. And if it’s not possible to create something with it, you can create it in a specialized program and then import it into the game. In any case, game engines are the workhorses of modern video games.

As you know, there are now a huge number of game engines, ranging from well-known brands such as Quake and Unreal, which developers and publishers can purchase at a fairly impressive price, to engines that developers create specifically for their internal projects.
Below we will introduce you to a list of the best game engines of this generation. These are truly the best representatives, proudly shining in the hands of their creators, they bring you that very memorable gaming experience. Here's an example of how good creative ideas can bring you exciting gameplay.
Note: It is worth noting that not all developers talk about their game engines; many keep them a closely guarded secret. Therefore, many good engines that we don’t know about are not included in this list, although they deserve it. Examples of such incognito were and are used to create: Metal Gear Solid 4, FIFA and God of War III.

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Seen in projects such as: Rockstar Table Tennis,
GTA IV + its additional content
Midnight Club: Los Angeles,
Red Dead Redemption,
L.A. Noire (presumably)
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GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas and Bully, while brilliant, were not created in Rockstar's in-house engine, instead using Criterion's "Renderware" engine. But, despite the fact that Red Dead Revolver seemed to be a less commercial game, it was he who gave the popular publisher the idea of creating its own engine for the new generation of consoles. With dreams of a great sequel that no other game engine could deliver, Rockstar San Diego began work on the RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine) game engine back in 2004 to try it out for the first time in their upcoming game Red Dead Redemption . And according to the developers, to the three games that have already been released on this engine, at least one more game will be added in 2010. And this is exactly the desired sequel to Red Dead Redemption.

RAGE has a lot of advantages. Among them, it is worth noting the possibility of creating vast worlds, complex AI, weather effects, fast network code and a wide variety of gameplay styles, all of which GTA IV proved to us. This engine is also quite friendly to symbiosis with other game engines. For example, with the now popular Euphoria engine from NaturalMotion, which suited RAGE as if it had been with it from birth (even LucasArts did not achieve such a symbiosis in its recent game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). The physics engine of Erwin Koumans, responsible for the game’s simulation of bullets, also fits perfectly into RAGE. And what’s more surprising is that this engine is still very young and ready for further development. Improved physics, ecosystem, improved AI and draw distance are just some of the improvements that the developers say RAGE will bring to us in its next game.

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Seen in projects such as: Far Cry,
Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, Crysis 2,
Aion: Tower of Eternity
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It didn't take long for German developers from CryTek to create a big name for themselves. Their first game, released in 2004, Far Cry, became a revelation for everyone. While the world, as expected, was waiting for the appearance of Half-life 2, Doom 3 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., which, according to many, should have heralded the emergence of a new generation of PC games, CryTek was one step ahead of everyone by releasing its topical shooter, created on internal engine of the studio "CryEngine". Three years later new game Crysis, developed on the second version of the CryEngine 2 engine, again achieved the same success, setting a new visual bar in game development. The next pick should be Crysis 2, developed already on the third version of the CryEngine 3 engine. With its help, Crytek will try to cover the console market.

According to CryTek, CryEngine 3 will be the first engine on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that will allow developers to work with DirectX 10 capabilities on next-gen consoles (poof! - editor's note). Unlike most of its competitors, this engine does not need allies among other additional game engines. It can work with the physics of the game, and with its sound and animation. With the help of such an engine, games will be able to achieve high visual heights. Actually, it was thanks to them that Crytek became so popular. And if Crytek's own games are not enough to add CryEngine to this list of the best engines, then it is worth noting the fact that its developers are doing everything possible to promote it as Software available to other developers. This good news for us gamers, and not very good for Epic Games and their Unreal Engine 3, which looks like it will have a very worthy competitor.
P.S. And let's also hope that the rumors about TimeSplitters 4 on CryEngine 3 turn out to be true.

Naughty Dog Game Engine

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Noticed in projects such as: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune,
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
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Undoubtedly, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was one of the graphical wonders of the last E3, and most importantly, it proved that the PlayStation 3 has enormous potential if it takes the right approach to creating a game engine. The Naughty Dog engine - named after the studio behind not only Uncharted, but also such popular series as Jak & Daxter - was created specifically for the PS3 architecture. With its help, the developers achieved enormous heights back in 2007, with the release of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Excellent animation and character models, volumetric lighting, gorgeous sound, a rich palette of colors and Hollywood-like cut scenes became its calling card. More than two years of hard work were spent creating the Naughty Dog 2.0 engine, which is already being used in the development of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The result of this work is stunning. All locations of the game are filled with a large number of dynamic objects that have their own physics. The animation of the environment has become smoother and more varied. . Amazing improvements have been made to the lighting and AI of the game. Seamless transitions from the game to cut scenes and vice versa. And let’s not forget what awaits us in the new part of Uncharted. cooperative game and multiplayer. Simply amazing results.

Also, according to our data, Naughty Dog is sharing their knowledge and experience with Sony’s secret studio The Ice Team, which is developing a basic set of tools that will help improve all projects for the PS3 in the future. And don’t forget that at the last E3 the developers hinted that next year there might be a new part their popular Jak & Daxter series.

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Seen in projects such as: Dead Space,
Dante's Inferno
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Dead Space was simply great: so great that, immediately after its release, unknown studio EA Redwood Shores made a name for itself. In May, Electronic Arts renamed the studio Visceral Games to better express the culture and personality of the studio, which focuses on creating intelligent action games (and there are such! - Ed.). Although Dead Engine is not the official name of the Visceral Games engine (as it was nicknamed by the press and fans of Dead Space), its existence and technical capabilities were announced by Glen Schofield during one of promotions Dead Space in Australia.

After the release of The Godfather in 2006, the development team disbanded, some of them taking the engine with them, and became the same EA Redwood Shores studio that released Dead Space. The engine was almost completely redesigned to suit the horror-futuristic needs of Dead Space. Ultimately, the engine's success owes more to Dead Space than The Godfather. Dead Space surprised us in almost every way new location, however, the main advantages of the engine are its ease of operation, as well as work with the sound and lighting of the game. Dead Space can easily be called one of the most... scary games in the history of video games. And the next point in the development of the engine should be the new game Visceral Games Dante's Inferno.

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Seen in projects such as: Gears of War,
Mass Effect,
BioShock,
Unreal Tournament 3
Borderlands,
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway,
Homefront,
Mirror's Edge,
singularity,
Rainbow Six:Vegas
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How many times have we heard these words "heavily modified Unreal Engine" in different reviews video games or in gaming press releases? Since its first appearance in 1998, Epic Games' Unreal Engine (now in its third incarnation) has become nothing less than the main weapon of most famous and not so famous video game developers. He also appeared in such children's projects as Surf's Up and even in games from studios that, in addition to him, have their own engines. The main question is why?

Despite some negative reviews (Silicon Knights, creators of Too Human) and problems associated with performance in early projects for the PS3 (mainly the problem of frames per second drop), the engine from Epic Games provided its consumers with high quality and the ability to develop games in absolutely any genre . And its modest price has dissuaded many from the expensive creation of their own engines. The most popular game engine is the Unreal Engine, it was the one that formed for us the very picture of what a next-gen game should look like.
According to the latest reports, Epic Games is already hard at work on Unreal Engine 4 and according to the plan, this engine should appear in time for the release of the next generation of consoles; 2012 was announced among the possible release dates.

Avalanche Engine

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Seen in projects such as: Just Cause Just Cause 2,
The Hunter
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Just Cause 2 was one of those games that really surprised us at last E3. Although the first part was quite interesting, almost 4 years have passed since its release and we began to gradually forget about the game. This period of calm killed our interest in the second part a little, and we were no longer looking forward to it. However, the creators of the game - Avalanche Studios, it turns out, did not spend all this time in vain. They completely changed the Avalanche Engine and rebuilt many of its elements from scratch. So, using the new Avalanche Engine 2.0, the developers created Just Cause 2, which can easily surpass the success of the first part of the game.

Looking at Just Cause 2, it's hard not to be surprised at what the developers have achieved with their new engine. The engine produces a very diverse game mechanics(parachute jumping, driving, shooting and hand-to-hand combat from a third person, diving and much more). A large number of explosions and enemies constantly flash on the screen. The main character has new opportunities, the main opportunity is the hook. The enemy AI has also undergone a number of changes and now seems many times better than what we saw in the first part. And besides, the picture of the game is very impressive. All this action takes place over a vast area, where snowy mountain peaks, tropical jungles and sandy shores await us. All these advantages make Avalanche Engine one of the best game engines of this generation.
P.S. In addition, the next already announced project built on Avalanche 2.0 will be a game called AionGuard, which is built in a fantasy setting; I wonder how this engine will cope with such a task.

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Noticed in such projects as: Call of Duty 2,
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,
Call of Duty: World at War,
Quantum of Solace,
Modern Warfare 2
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To clarify: IW stands for Infinity Ward, the legendary studio that created one of the most popular game series of this generation - Call of Duty. And although in the first part of their game series Infinity Ward used the id Tech 3 engine, already for the release of the second part they prepared their own internal engine, which, unfortunately, has not yet received an official name. Following one of the questions we asked about the engine at last E3, Infinity Ward informed us that the upcoming hit Modern Warfare 2 was created on the fourth version of the engine, that is, IW 4.0. The same version of the engine was used to create the masterpiece Call of Duty 4, released in 2007.
If you have played the game, then you are probably aware of the capabilities of this engine and the kind of gaming experience it can provide to its players. Phenomenal animation and lighting, complex AI, wonderful sound, simulation of real bullet behavior - the engine is able to process all this very quickly - and no one denies this. In addition, all this beauty can be seen while playing online with friends, it’s not for nothing that Call of Duty is considered one of the most successful online games throughout the history of video games. Of course, for the second part of Modern Warfare 2 the engine has not undergone major changes, however, they are significant enough to surprise us again. New system texturing will increase the detail of the world and increase the resolution of textures. And the main changes will affect lighting, physics and AI of the game.

P.S. Another good news seems to be that Infinity Ward is allowing other studios under Activision, such as Treyarch, to use their engine.

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Noticed in projects such as: Assassin's Creed,
Prince of Persia (2008),
Shaun White Snowboarding,
Assassin's Creed II
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Probably, Ubisoft is tired of using other people's technologies to create games, so recently their studios have begun to rip together their own game engines one after another. Now there are about a dozen of these engines, among them the following are worth noting: Dunia (Far Cry 2), LEAD ( Splinter Cell: Conviction), Fox (Naruto: Broken Bond), LyN (Beyond Good & Evil 2), IRISZOOM (R.U.S.E) and our hero Anvil, aka Scimitar 2.0 Engine. In fact, it’s difficult to pass by a game built on this engine and not be surprised by the picture it produces. In addition, let's not forget that the acclaimed hit Assassin's Creed owes its popularity to this engine.
In both Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia, Anvil allowed animation to interact with the environment in real time. It also allows you to populate virtual worlds with hundreds of models, while endowing them with their own fairly smart AI. For the sequel to Assassin's Creed developers from Ubisoft Montreal will prepare an improved lighting system, reflections, dynamic clothing, advanced AI, increase the ability to interact with the outside world, the drawing distance, and also add a full cycle of day and night to the game. It is also worth noting that in addition to all of the above, Anvil added one of the technologies of the Dunia engine, on which Far Cry 2 was built. This technology is responsible for simulating the game’s vegetation.

We also note the fact that in Shaun White Snowboarding Anvil offered players online play for the first time, which fueled rumors that the online mode will appear in the second part of Assassin's Creed.

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Seen in projects such as: Colin McRae: DiRT,
Race Driver: GRiD,
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising,
Colin McRae DiRT 2,
F1 2009,
F1 2010
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Codemasters has already published a couple of very mediocre games on this generation of consoles, but when it comes to the studio's internal projects, it tries to bring us only the best. Most of this best is built on the EGO Engine (once known as NEON). By the way, it is worth noting that people from Sony also partly participated in the creation of this engine. For many gamers, Codemasters is known for its Colin McRae & Race Driver game series, very popular and high-quality racing simulators.
Among the advantages of the engine is not only the ability to create good racing gameplay, but with its help you can create models and physics for these same cars. It can also create highly detailed worlds of different terrain (both desert and snow) that look simply amazing, especially through the front window of your car at a speed of 200 km/h. In addition, the developers have created an intelligible damage system, brilliant AI and lighting. All these advantages turn a game created on EGO into candy. Well, the main reason why EGO made it to our list of the best engines is its amazing ability to change from a racing engine to an excellent engine, for example, for FPS. It proved this to us by becoming the basis for the super-realistic Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, which will appear on store shelves this September.

Well, in DiRT 2 the developers decided to focus on the physics of the game in order to bring even greater realism to the game. And if this continues, then the developers of F1 2010, who still have a whole year of development in their pockets, should end up with something very serious and attractive.

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Seen in projects such as: Red Faction: Guerrilla
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When Digital Illusions released their game engine "Frostbite Engine", which showed us a never-before-seen dynamic destruction system in Battlefield game: Bad Company, we were really impressed with how the battlefield changes during the battle. The next step in this direction was taken by the developers from LucasArts, releasing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which had its own physics engine, Digital Molecular Matter. He allowed the world around him to change under the pressure of external forces. What was shown surprised more than one gamer on our planet. But Volition Inc went even further with Red Faction: Guerrilla. Using a new version of their Geo-Mod engine, which appeared back in 2001 during the creation of the first part of Red Faction.
The third part of an entire game series allowed us not just to senselessly destroy everything in the area. Geo-Mod allows objects to take on the properties of their real prototypes, they are destroyed according to the real laws of our world, this instills realism not only in the actions of the player, but also in the objects that surround him. Simulate the explosive gameplay of the game, its complex AI and simulate laws real world, at the same time, not any engine can do it without losses in framerate. Plus, all this work is excellent and in network game. And although this engine does not have many of the advantages of the competitors listed above, its ability to imitate real laws and create amazing explosions in real time sets it apart from the rest.

We really hope that the developers will find the opportunity to use this engine in their future continuation of the hit series Saints Row 3.

That's all. We've walked you through the list of the best game engines available today. Most of the games you love so much were created with the help of these horses. Unfortunately, many other worthy candidates for the title of best engine were not included in this list, but we hope to create a continuation for you in the near future this list and introduce the rest.

Game engines, what are they? Frostbite, CryEngine, Unreal Engine, Source, Unity...
This list can be continued forever, but for now let’s focus on the above-mentioned engines.

So what is a game engine? They call it a game engine central software component of computer and video games, simplifies development, often allowing the game to run on multiple platforms, such as game consoles and desktop operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OS and Windows. Game engine, includes: rendering engine ( graphics engine), physics engine, sound, script system, animation, artificial intelligence, network code, memory management and multithreading.

You can often save on the development process by reusing the same game engine to create many different games. (For example, Call of Duty:D)

So, now that you know what a game engine is, let's move on to analyzing them.

1.Frostbite

Frostbite is a game engine developed by Electronic Arts, a studio called DICE (Digital Illusions CE).
It is used both in the studio’s own developments and in other EA games projects.
Frostbite was first released in 2008 as the Battlefield: Bad Company game engine. Currently there are 4 versions of the engine and one mobile. The engine supports graphics display using DirectX 9.10 and starting from version 1.5 DirectX 11 is also used. Features include optimization for running on multi-core processors.

Now here is a list of games with this engine for personal computers:

Battlefield:Bad Company(Frostbite 1.0)
Battlefield 1943(Frostbite 1.5)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2(Frostbite 1.5)
Medal of Honor(Frostbite 1.5)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam(Frostbite 1.5)
Battlefield 3 (Frsotbite 2.0)
Need for Speed: The Run(Frostbite 2.0)
Medal of Honor: Warfighter(Frostbite 2.0)
Battlefield 4(Frostbite 3.0)
Need for Speed: Rivals(Frostbite 3.0)
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare(Frostbite 3.0)
Dragon Age: Inquisition(Frostbite 3.0)
Mirror's Edge 2014 (Frostbite 3.0)
Star Wars: Battlefront(Frostbite 3.0)
Mass Effect:Next(Frostbite 3.0)

Frostbite raised the bar for destructibility very high (especially after Battlefielld 3), and once again showed that game development does not stand still but is moving in the right direction.

2.Source

Source is a game engine developed not without well-known company Valve. Its features are considered modular and flexible. It especially stood out for its technology for expressing emotions and a physics system that works over the network. The engine can work with a video card that supports DirectX 6-11.
The triumph of this engine can be considered its use in Half-Life 2 at the end of 2004. Then it was a breakthrough. But even now it is used in many games.

Half-Life 2 series
Portal 1 and 2
Counter-Strike:Source
Counter-Strike:Global Offensive
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2
Alien Swarm
E.Y.E:Divine Cybermancy
Nuclear Dawn
Postal 3
TitanFall
Dota 2

In my opinion, Source is one of the cult engines that made a breakthrough in terms of graphics, animation, physics, etc.

3. Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is a game engine developed and supported by Epic Games.

The first game created on this engine appeared in 1998. Since then, various versions of this game engine have been used in more than a hundred games.

So the list is the most famous games:

Unreal Engine

Deus Ex
Rune
X-COM: Enforcer
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Postal 2
Lineage II
Spider-Man 2: The Game
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
Star Wars: Republic Commando
SWAT 4
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Killing Floor
Mass Effect
Bioshock
Turok
Mirror's Edge
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Section 8
Borderlands
Mass Effect 2
BioShock 2
Mortal Kombat (2011)
Batman: Arkham City
Mass Effect 3
Borderlands 2
Spec Ops: The Line
Dishonored
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
DmC: Devil May Cry
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation
BioShock Infinite
Outlast
Lost Planet 3

(Not here full list games on Unreal Engine)

Unreal Engine paired with Source is a cult engine. And while Source was making breakthroughs in facial animation and physics, Unreal Engine was focused on image quality and special effects.

4. CryEngine

CryEngine is a game engine created by the German private company Crytek in 2002
The first game that used CryEngine was FarCry.
CryEngine is a commercial engine that is offered for licensing to other companies. Since March 30, 2006, all rights to the engine belong to Ubisoft.

So, a list of the most famous games:

Far Cry
Aion: Tower of Eternity
Crysis
Merchants of Brooklyn
Entropia Universe
Blue Mars
NED
Kailas
ArcheAge
The Day
Vigilance
Lightspire: Fortune's Web
Project E:st
Hunt The Thing
Homefront 2
Lichdom
Star Citizen
Enemy Front
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Rise: Son of Rome
SNOW
MechWarrior Online
ArcheAge
State of Decay
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2
Crysis 3
PANZAR
Warface
Nexuiz

Crytek has made great strides with its CryEngine engine. In 2007, take Crysis, for example, it was a HUGE breakthrough in terms of graphics, that even now the first CryEngine looks very modern. Well, the graphics of Crysis 3 freeze with its landscapes.

5.Unity

Unity is one of the most common engines used on almost all platforms (Windows, Windows Phone, Android, Apple iOS, Linux, Wii, PlayStation 3, X-BOX 360). It is also increasingly used in game development due to its simplified editor . Applications built with Unity support DirectX and OpenGL.

Here is a list of the most famous games on this engine:

Angry Birds
Bad Piggies
Battlestar Galactica Online
Deus Ex: The Fall
Endless Space
Guns Of Icarus Online
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
King's Bounty: Legions
Prime World
Scrolls
Slender: The Arrival
Slender: The Eight Pages
Temple Run 1.2
The Forest
StarForge
And many others

Unity itself is a very convenient engine.
Firstly: the main advantage is its flexibility and multi-platform
Secondly: it is quite simple to develop games and this is precisely the reason why it has become very popular
Thirdly: this engine produces a very pleasing picture to the eye, excellent performance, and it is also compatible with Nvidia Physx technology, which significantly makes games created on this engine mesmerizing and realistic.

We've all heard about engines for creating games, but few people understand what they are.

Even the studios themselves that develop video games give a very vague definition of the term, or rather, they cannot really separate the game itself from the engine on which it is built.

Let's try to understand the question, approaching the situation in the role, and consider most popular game engines: their features, areas of application, weaknesses and strengths.

Concept

Game engine or game engine- this is the original software, designed to be based on it computer games, often of a specific genre.

The term was formed in the mid-90s in relation to shooters like Quake, Wolfenstein and Doom.

Even before such a concept arose, the gaming world noticed that they combined surprisingly well:

three-dimensional graphics;
calculation of collisions with objects;
voluminous game world;
sound component;
inventory (weapon system) and other rules.

Having noticed this, the developers started releasing own games based on the same Doom, with minimal changes: redrawing maps and other graphic models, editing the physics engine.

The vast majority of engines are created for a specific game genre and often for a specified platform.

Using a game engine across multiple platforms or genres makes it less unified and optimal, and it won't reach its potential.

Varieties

Game development engines specialize in genres.

For example, the base software and the action will be quite different even in the main components. Despite this, they all have a number of common or similar parts (lines of code).

Every game has interaction between objects., controlling someone or something using a gamepad, mouse and keyboard, outputting pictures and sound, overlaying text, rendering three-dimensional objects (in 3D games).

With this in mind, some engines are successfully used to develop entertainment of various genres. was originally a platform for creating first-person shooters, but Gear of War(third person view) and Speed Star(race) based on it turned out to be full-fledged video games.

Shooter

Thanks to them, the concept of an engine appeared, and let’s start with them.

To some extent, platforms for creating shooting games are the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and complex. In addition to high quality, the following requirements are put forward for the toy:

function of modeling a virtual three-dimensional world taking into account the dynamics of events;
presence of aiming control;
highly responsive game mechanics;
significant clarity of drawing and detail of the character’s hands and weapons;
good animation of shots and explosions based on particle interaction;
realistic behavior of the environment in response to shots and explosions, including the destructibility of objects, which is why such engines are subject to high demands in the field of kinematics;
a large selection of weapons with different characteristics;
a well-developed model of character movements and interactions;
quality of artificial intelligence in the presence of a single player game;
manifold game modes and mass participation in corporate mode.

Platformer

Usually these are two-dimensional entertainments, the requirements for them are more lenient:

a lot of attention is paid appearance, customization, behavior and animation of the main character;
a variety of so-called moving platforms (falling, moving along different trajectories, disappearing, rotating);
additional platforms in the form of steps, ropes, ladders, pipes and a system for interacting with them;
presence of puzzle elements;
multilayer geometry;
simple physics of object interaction;
interaction with others game characters(dialogues, fights).

Fighting

They are characterized by a wide variety of characters with unique abilities and techniques, individual animation of each of them, facial expressions and gestures, completion of tasks throughout the rounds, a complex system of strikes, their combinations, defensive movements, combos and special techniques.

Network interaction, character customization, the appearance of consequences of a fight (scratches, abrasions), and finishing techniques are also common in fighting games.

Race

Built for racing more than one game engine, taking into account the specifics of games.

Due to the implementation of multi-threading, PhysX is distinguished by the presence of a dedicated thread without any checks. This allows a number of tasks to be executed simultaneously in parallel threads.

Tessellation allows you to achieve, which has a positive effect on color correction, overlaying noise and grain on the image in real time.

Volumetric fog, motion blur, parallax for any surface, significant accuracy and high detail are not all the advantages of the engine.

The audio component supports three-dimensional positioning, which gives a feeling of three-dimensional space and the ability to calculate the source of the sound.

Other functionality:

visualization of scenes with a wide color space;
using dozens of light sources in the frame;
fully dynamic lighting;
motion blur without impacting performance;
excellent parallelization of the visualization process;
calculation of sound propagation, its absorption and reflection from obstacles;
many battle conditions;
convenient and understandable scripting system;
AI topology analysis system;
characters are endowed with vision, hearing and other senses, which makes them serious opponents;
group behavior.

the complexity of the process of porting games to consoles;
not an original development, but an improved X-Ray (the fact has not been proven, but there are hints of it);
DirextX12 support is not implemented.

improved graphics;
destructibility of models and other advantages of PhysX;
there are no special effects for the sake of special effects (only the necessary ones are added).

Games: Metro series, including being developed Metro Exodus, and Arktika.1.

A striking example of the realization of personal ambitions and one of the few world-famous engines created in the CIS.

Anvil

Created by a subsidiary of Ubisoft, used for release and only within the company.

The first game was the first part of Assassin's Creed, then a snowboard simulator and Prince of Persia appeared.

Any of them caused a lot of surprise and brought into the world virtual entertainment a lot of new things.

Supported on PC, PS all versions, Nintendo, Wii and Xbox.

The code is written in C++, the models are drawn in ZBrush, and the surrounding world is drawn in 3ds Max. For correct skeletal animation, . Physics virtual world models the legendary Havok. In recent releases, a lot of attention has been paid to changing the time of day, dynamic lighting and remote rendering. It also integrated a progressive vegetation scheme (like in Far Cry 2) with new AI, the important difference of which is the improved NPC navigation system. Implementation and debugging of Direct3D 10/11, although very expensive, the work was still done.

Among the unnamed features of the engine Let's highlight the following:

optimization of work on multi-core systems, up to 32 threads;
launching games on multiple screens in panoramic mode;
complex noise fog that can simulate a sandstorm without dropping fps;
effects of refraction, reflection and scattering of light in water;
up to six different characters in one cut-scene;
Most of the animations are based on real actors;
in one scene there can be up to 3 thousand participants, which allows you to organize massive battles, as long as the PC can cope with the load;
NPCs actively react to the hero, they can attack simultaneously, and not one by one;
technology for cutting off models and sorting objects by drawing depth.

demanding of resources;
not licensed;
did not support DirectX 10 and 11 for a long time.

good implementation of multithreading;
works on PC and many consoles;
the ability to implement extras with the participation of hundreds of game characters.

WITHUbisoft is planning to create a massive mess and catch up more people in one place, no one compares.

Creation Engine

A fairly new engine from the American studio Bethesda, which demonstrated its capabilities in Skyrim. Like previous solutions, it was created only for the needs of its developer. Gamebryo was taken as a basis - a help for Oblivion and its addons.

The first thing that's interesting about technology– support for huge locations with long-range rendering, free and fast movement.

Much attention is paid to working with water and snow, and the system for automatically generating precipitation, stones, trees and grass independently determines the proportions of created objects depending on the terrain.

The improved AI used in Oblivion more realistically simulates the lives of people and their relationship to the main character.

The concept of plot development management is capable of generating additional tasks taking into account the playing style.

The tree building system has been extensively reworked in new version engine, which made it possible to diversify the plant world and relieve the load for its calculation.

A third-party tool from Havok was used to animate the characters.

Peculiarities:

Availability of Creation Kit level editor for gamers and mod developers;
Physics-based rendering appeared in Fallout;
a lot of tools for modders;
ease of transferring modifications to consoles.

not licensed;
it is difficult to create two-handed weapons;
The character behavior system is quite weak.

there is a mod editor that will work on any platform;
long draw distance;
a unique scheme for generating trees and their animation.

Nothing better has been invented for modders yet, so more of them than for Fallout have been created only for Oblivion.

CryEngine 4

The latest version of the engine from the German company Crytek for first-person shooters.

The most successful example of use is .

Since 2016, the engine began to be distributed according to the “pay as you please” scheme, but only for gaming use.

Features and capabilities:

the presence of huge territories, and not corridor ones;
locations are created without seams;
support for inverse kinematics of characters and vehicles, their interaction with the environment;
imitation of various non-solid objects: fabric, water;
a huge arsenal with unique characteristics of each type of weapon;
script and command intelligence;
you can change AI parameters without having programming knowledge;
interactive musical accompaniment– the music matches the situation;
full support for 5.1 sound system;
reproduction of natural sounds taking into account the environment, reflection and absorption of sound;
realistic effect of heat and fire;
transparency of glass - you can see what is in the buildings;
operation of height maps to obtain a multi-level environment with a visible distance of up to 2000 m;
incredible possibilities for working with lighting and shadows, which Crysis demonstrates perfectly;
volumetric thick fog and smoke to add atmosphere;
the presence of unusual physical effects (for example, a nanosuit).

many elements and objects were created in 3ds Max and Maya, making them easy to edit;
without knowledge of C++, you can easily control AI and interactive soundtrack depending on the situation;
realistic faces and character animation;
modularity opens up endless possibilities for programmers.

demanding of equipment;
fps drops;
Unresponsive technical support for the free version;
weak graphics at an advanced technological level.

With the synthesis of so many technologies, very few games are released on the engine, unfortunately.

id Tech

Tool for creating Wolfenstein, Quake, Rage, Doom.

When the next version is released (the 7th is currently being developed), the outdated one is made available for public access under a free license.

Different CoD series have their own modifications.

The capabilities of the technology are not very different from the functionality of the original:

excellent parallelization;
separate technologies for processing indoor and outdoor spaces;
surface visualization thanks to several texture layers;
many post-effects applied to the image;
imitation of shell shock and the character’s reaction to being hit by bullets and being injured in other ways;
the presence of atmospheric haze and bright sunshine on a hot day;
support for barrel overheating taking into account the ambient temperature;
shadow processing using high-resolution shadow maps;
a huge number of polygons in one frame;
changing the quality of textures depending on the distance between them and the player;
different special effects in different game situations.

a wide variety of special effects;
modeling the absence of gravity;
very high productivity;
variety of enemy behavior, taking into account the terrain.

good graphics only with high system requirements;
development focused mainly on a variety of visual effects.

Rage Engine (RAGE)

The result of the work of Rockstar Games divisions for internal use.

It contains sound, graphic, animation, network components, artificial intelligence, its own scripting language and .

Some elements were created from scratch by the company's employees.

The physical component is free software.

Red Dead Redemption was released on itAnd Max Payne 3.

Technology is focused on being used to write games with a huge, seamless play space.

Important task– quickly include some elements in processing, and also instantly remove others, for example, the area that the gamer leaves.

An optimized and polished memory manager copes with this,

Source

Released by Valve for its own projects.

He became famous thanks to CS, Portal and Half Life.

He made a revolution in game world, thanks to the second part of the story about Gordon Freeman.

Now the second version is relevant, which is full of improvements, corrections and new technologies.

An important feature of the engine– facial animation containing elements of facial expressions and synchronizing them with the characters’ conversations.

Advanced AI can control both individual opponents and coordinate the actions of their groups. This is one of the first engines with shader effects: water, destructibility of objects, interactive objects, reflections.

cinematic physics;

Rice. 16 – Unreal 4 Editor

The phrase is known to all shooters.

It supports many platforms, including mobile.

To make it easy to transfer games between them, a modular system of dependent components, various technologies for visualization, sound playback and networking are used. Full list of games based on the engine

Engine elements are represented as objects with individual characteristics belonging to a specific class, which defines these parameters.

PhysX, which replaced the model, is responsible for physical calculations Karma. Free until your income exceeds $3,000 per quarter.

There are several versions of the engine, Let's look at the features of the last of them:

support for liquid surfaces, etc. thanks to PhysX;
generation of landscape objects on the fly;
advanced skeletal animation and physics;
integrated animation engine FaceFX;
generation of trees and shrubs using SpeedTree technology;
a large number of characters in the frame;
game logic is created on Blueprint;
C++ code is compiled on the fly;
support for audio communication between gamers;
a large number of editors: AI, particle effects, animation, landscapes, cut scenes...

free for beginner developers;
a ready-made content store from where you can download everything you need;
open source;
work on multiple platforms;
there is no need to delve into the code;

We can’t ignore REDengine 3, which is used to develop mobile entertainment and has demonstrated its charms in .

This year we will see its fourth version in Cyberpunk 2077.

Conclusion

Among the huge number of platforms for game development, only a considerable number of them are available to the average user.

For a free amount you can stay at CryEngine 4. It’s not difficult to make a competitive toy on it, not much inferior to Far Cry, but this will require time to master the tools. But you don’t need to know programming, everything is done in . For an additional fee, the developer will provide access to documentation and tutorials, although there is already plenty of material on the Internet.

Unreal Engine 4– for programmers fluent in C++ and targeting multiple platforms. You will get access to all editors completely free of charge, but 5% of the profits will have to be given to Epic Games.

Previous version id Tech after the release of a new one, it is distributed free of charge. An excellent solution for writing high-performance console shooters with fully destructible environments.

Source 2 made to realize the creativity of users. Except free license, the engine is distinguished by the presence of additional editors, utilities and documentation. Large locations with an unlimited number of objects are a testing ground for the implementation of any ideas.

For small projects aimed primarily at mobile platforms, nothing better has been created, but this is a separate topic.

Game engine(English) game engine) is the central software component of computer, video game, and other interactive applications with real-time graphics. It provides core technologies, simplifies development, and often allows a game to run on multiple platforms, such as game consoles and desktop operating systems such as GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.

The phrase “game engine” implies a whole set of application programs, including a rendering engine (“visualizer”) for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine, or collision detection (and collision reactions), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, network code, streaming, memory management, threading and scene graph. Strictly speaking, all pieces of code written by programmers when developing a game are engine components. Gameplay(gameplay) is determined by the functions implemented in these programs.

If at the dawn of the computer era every game was created by developers “from scratch,” then everything has changed since the advent of Doom games(more than 10 years ago). Nowadays, almost all commercial games are created using off-the-shelf tools: savings can be made during the development process by reusing a single game engine to create many different games.

Sometimes “modders” make some modifications using the programming language built into the game through scripting scripts. You can tweak some parameters of the engine's functions, which cheaters enjoy using (increasing, for example, the amount of money a player has). However, serious gameplay changes are impossible without intervention in source code games. And this is where the problems begin. Firstly, not every gaming company the code will be made public. Secondly, not everyone can independently understand the huge number of engine functions. And there is often no other way, since there is no reference information and technical support(no one to ask). Thirdly, as a rule, they publish the source code of already technically outdated engines (for example, Quake II, III).

What remains for novice developers?

Buy the right to use a modern engine from a well-known company (license the engine). It comes with reference information and manufacturer support. However, this pleasure does not come cheap. There are commercial game engines that cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Develop your own engine. There is a way out, of course, but this requires a lot of effort and high programming qualifications.
Use one of free engines, most suitable for its capabilities. As a rule, they have additional information and support.

Free game engines

Today the most popular and advanced of the free ones (usually o pen source, With open source) game engines are:

OGRE(Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine)

Object-oriented graphics rendering engine. Written in C++, 3D graphics, it uses Direct3D and OpenGL. There are printed books on this engine (on English). There is also a Russian-language website. To work with latest version The engine requires one of the following compilers: gcc, Visual C++ 7.1 (2003), Visual C++ 8.0 (2005). The engine supports compilers. To work on Linux and Mac, gcc 3+ is used. If the game will use DirectX, you must first install the DirectX SDK (can be downloaded from the Microsoft website).

According to the developer, Ogre is not a game engine in the strict sense of the word. As stated in the documentation, “Ogre is a graphics engine, and only a graphics engine. This means that it does nothing other than display and process graphics. But this also means that you can attach third-party libraries to it to create full game, namely:

sound;
networking;
input (manipulators, joysticks);
collision calculation.

Ogre does not contain these libraries, but provides an interface that makes it easy to connect external modules."

The engine has wide support for a variety of graphic formats. In addition to standard ones, you can use volumetric, compressed textures and cubemaps. There are many plugins that allow you to import 3D models from various 3D graphics packages (3DS Max, Maya, Milkshape3D, Blender Wings3D) into it. In this case, you can use both frame and skeletal animation. The landscapes in Ogre look good. To create small game The engine includes all the necessary standard scene control classes. Game resources can be packaged into PK3 ZIP archives.

Commercial games are also made on Ogre - in particular, the games “Steel Monsters” are written on it (Pacific Storm) And online game Anarchy Online. Development based on a commercial game engine shows the great potential of Ogre. It has many users. There is someone to contact if problems arise. Surely someone has solved them before you, or at least knows how to get around them. Large quantity background information and examples will allow even beginners to master the engine. This is an excellent option for developing a game if you don’t have the finances to buy a commercial engine.

Crystal Space. An open source, cross-platform SDK for real-time 3D graphics, especially for game development. It is written in C++, but it can be used not only in C++ projects, but also in Python, Perl, Java projects.

Nebula Engine 2. An open source 3D game and rendering engine. Used in several commercial games. Also written in C++, runs only on Windows, uses DirectX 9.0. There are classes for implementing shaders (HLSL and DirectX FX files), skeletal animation, particle systems, and shadows. Supports several widely used scripting languages TCL, Python and Lua.

. Open source, cross-platform, written in C++, can be used from .NET (languages like C#, VisualBasic, and Delphi.NET), Java - using the jirr or Bindenlicht library, Python - using the Pyrr library, Ruby - using the library IrrRuby and a number of other languages. This game engine comes from Germany. It is actually promoted by one person. Developing an engine alone, making it completely free and posting all the source code is not something everyone can do. Although Irrlicht is still far from the final version, it is already possible to do serious games. The engine has all the necessary functions for this. Rendering is done via OpenGLDirect3D (with DirectX9.0 support). There is also a software mode, that is, everything will be rendered by its own software visualizer, which is practically not used in the era of great hardware capabilities of video cards. This fairly easy-to-learn game engine is suitable for both those taking their first steps in programming 3D games and experienced teams for creating a full-fledged game. You can read more about Irrlicht at knol.google.com.

OpenSceneGraphg . Open source, cross-platform, written in standard C++, uses OpenGL. Works with 3D models in .lwo, .obj, .geo, .3ds, .x, .wrl formats, that is, with objects created in any modern 3D graphics editor (3DS Max, Maya and Lightwave 3D).

Microsoft XNA. Technology from Microsoft for cross-platform game development for 3 platforms - Windows, Xbox 360 and Zune (mp3 player from Microsoft). True, to develop games for Xbox, you will have to purchase the Xbox Developer Kit, but under Windows games can be developed for free. The technology is designed for developing games under DirectX and the .NET Framework (.NET Compact Framework on Xbox 360) and, strictly speaking, the main language when developing games using XNA should be C#. There is a corporate-supported developer community. On the website techdays.ru there are several “” (voiceover slides) that are dedicated to the development of games on XNA. The webinars are presented by Microsoft employees and provide an introduction to the process.

There are some other free game engines: Panda3D, , Dark Basic, however, they are not as widely used as those described above.

Having a ready-made game engine, you can only think about the mechanics of the game, and this is very important for the developer.

Sources:

sindicollo.blogspot.com - review of free game engines;
knol.google.com - free game engines (A. Krylov);
x-sky.ru - free game engines;
irrlicht3d.org - wiki resource on the Irrlicht engine (English).

Game engines, what are they? Frostbite, CryEngine, Unreal Engine, Source, Unity...
This list can be continued forever, but for now let’s focus on the above-mentioned engines.

So what is a game engine? They call it a game engine a central software component of computer and video games that simplifies development, often allowing the game to run on multiple platforms, such as game consoles and desktop operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS and Windows. Game engine includes: rendering engine (graphics engine), physics engine, sound, scripting system, animation, artificial intelligence, network code, memory management and multi-threading.

You can often save on the development process by reusing the same game engine to create many different games. (For example, Call of Duty:D)

So, now that you know what a game engine is, let's move on to analyzing them.

1.Frostbite

Now here is a list of games with this engine for personal computers:

Frostbite raised the bar for destructibility very high (especially after Battlefielld 3), and once again showed that game development does not stand still but is moving in the right direction.

2.Source

Source is a game engine developed not without the famous company Valve. Its features are considered to be a modular basis and flexibility. It especially stood out for its technology for expressing emotions and a physics system that works over the network. The engine can work with a video card that supports DirectX 6-11.
The triumph of this engine can be considered its use in Half-Life 2 at the end of 2004. Then it was a breakthrough. But even now it is used in many games.

Half-Life 2 series
Portal 1 and 2
Counter-Strike:Source
Counter-Strike:Global Offensive
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2
Alien Swarm
E.Y.E:Divine Cybermancy
Nuclear Dawn
Postal 3
TitanFall
Dota 2

In my opinion, Source is one of the cult engines that made a breakthrough in terms of graphics, animation, physics, etc.

3. Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is a game engine developed and supported by Epic Games.

The first game created on this engine appeared in 1998. Since then, various versions of this game engine have been used in more than a hundred games.

Here is a list of the most famous games:

Unreal Engine

(This is not a complete list of Unreal Engine games)

Unreal Engine paired with Source is a cult engine. And while Source was making breakthroughs in facial animation and physics, Unreal Engine was focused on image quality and special effects.

4. CryEngine

So, a list of the most famous games:

5.Unity

Here is a list of the most famous games on this engine: