Unit 7- Game Engines - P1 & P2

Game Engine

Game Engines is the mainframe of the game. Graphical, Gameplay and code.

A game engine is a software development kit (SDK) that contains the source code and tooling necessary to get a basic video game up and running fast, letting the developer script in the gameplay, levels, and characters, without needing to touch a single line (or at least, much fewer lines) of code or know advanced programming.
This allows the game developer to focus more on the gameplay and the “fun factor”, spending less time on complex math trying to get everything set up.


Here are some examples of big games and their game engines.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -

IW 4.0 - 2009

The IW engine is a game engine developed by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games for the Call of Duty series. The engine was originally based on id Tech 3 as its core, since the engine itself is proprietary with inclusion of GtkRadiant by id Software. It has been used by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games.

Fallout: New Vegas -

Gamebryo - 2010

Gamebryo is a game engine. Gamebryo 3D and LightSpeed engines are owned by Gamebase Co., Ltd. and Gamebase USA and have been used by several video game developers including Atlus, Trion Worlds, 2K Games, Disney, Ubisoft, Bethesda Softworks, Firaxis Games, Tencent, Sony, Shanda, NCsoft, Rockstar Games and KingsIsle Entertainment for numerous cross-platform game titles.

FIFA Series (Currently FIFA 16) -

Ignite Engine - 2014

The Ignite game engine (styled as IGNITE) is a collection of video game technologies built by Electronic Arts and designed to make video game sports "alive". The technology was announced at Microsoft's Xbox One reveal event in May 2013 alongside four upcoming EA Sports franchise games for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 using the technology: FIFA 14, EA Sports UFC, Madden NFL 25, and NBA Live 14.

GTA V -

R.A.G.E Engine - 2013/2015

Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the RAGE Technology Group at the video game developer Rockstar San Diego with contributions by other Rockstar studios. The engine has been used on several different platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. RAGE initially evolved from the Angel Game Engine originally developed by Angel Studios for use in the sixth generation console era versions of the Midnight Club series and other Rockstar San Diego games

Rockstar has integrated a few third party middleware components into RAGE like the proprietary Euphoria character animation engine and the open-source Bullet physics engine. Since the release of Max Payne 3, the engine supports DirectX 11 and stereoscopic 3D rendering on the PC platform.

Unit 67: 3D Animation

BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Games Design

Unit 67: 3D Animation

Model Video - https://youtu.be/wAmafA8VYqU

The Last of Us Gameplay - https://youtu.be/Vpg-N8xvno0

Concept

Evaluation:

L3 GD - Unit 66: 3D Modelling - Assignment 3

Zombie Model

Using Maya, I started with five cylinders and modified each of them to Right Arm, Torso, Neck,Right Leg and Pelvis.

Torso - I created one Cylinder 16x12 subdivisions and worked from there, Selecting a line of vertices at a time using the scale tool widened or slimmed down the stomach and chest till I was happy with the shape.  

Pelvis -  Using second cylinder I have used the same technique as the Torso, select the line of vertices and extrude and scale to fit underneath the body and connect it to the torso.

Aligning the Torso and the Pelvis.

I selected all the vertices and used the move tool to position them in line with the rest of the body. I then checked that every vertices was lined up properly.

I repeated this technique for the Legs too.

Head - Move and Scale tool was the most used out of everything, Using the Reduce tool to reduce the polygons when it got very complicated and helped smooth and simplify the model. This is a Weakened Zombie, this is he reasons for Damaged facial features and missing hand.

Head - Side Profile

Right Hand - Seven Cylinders is scaled and positioned to fit the shape of the hand. Two for the wrist and palm, and five for the fingers. The fingers were modeled and shaped using the move tool.

Back - I moved the vertices in to give the definition of a spine. The waist was also formed using the move tool equally on both sides.

Chest - To make the pecs and the six pack, I used the move tool and pulled out vertices in the right position. I also used the insert edge loop tool in order to create another ring of vertices which I could use to create a better 3D effect for the abs.

Full Body

Evaluation: I struggled learning Maya at the start didn't know the basic functions of the program but with lots of practice I'm starting to get the grasp of it. The model has been challenging but happy with my progress over the time.