1. Something about the Game Engine 昱泉 InterServ 王銓彰 Kevin C. Wang

2. Contents About the game engine A practical game engine design Case study : A 4-man fighting game Q&A

3. Game Software System Hardware 3D Graphics API2D APIInput DeviceOS API3D Scene Mngmt2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudioTerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory Game Game Play Layer Engine Layer System Layer

4. A Game Engine Program module that can be “re-used” to develop games

5. 3D Graphics API2D APIInput DeviceOS API 3D Scene Mngmt2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudio TerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory Game Engine Type 1 System API “Direct X”

6. A software interface to hardware Very thin interface Graphics assembly Extremely good performance But a lot of coding work Hard to code a “ good ” program

7. 3D Graphics API 2D APIInput DeviceOS API 3D Scene Mngmt 2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudio TerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory Game Engine Type 2 3D Graphics API “Renderware”

8. 3D graphics only Very difficult to develop a game

9. 3D Graphics API2D APIInput DeviceOS API3D Scene Mngmt2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudioTerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory Game Engine Type 3 3D Application API “Lizard”

10. A game development system except the game play But built-in all program modulus to develop game play Built-in virtual environment and immerse technique for 3D games General API for all types of 3D games

11. 3D Graphics API2D APIInput DeviceOS API3D Scene Mngmt2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudioTerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory Game Engine Type 4 Game API “FIFA”

12. Type 3 + game play For a specific type of game Short development cycle for the sequence of games but need keeping upgrade Consistent game quality

13. Type 5 Turn-key System Data Games 3D Graphics API2D APIInput DeviceOS API 3D Scene Mngmt2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudio TerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory Game Tools “Game En-GEN!”

14. Almost no programming efforts Quick game generation But games look relatively similar Can not create very complicated games

15. A Practical Game Engine Features Performance Scalability the System Cross-platform Easy-to-learn Stability

16. Features

17. Performance Issue How many polygons rendered per frame? To Game : Polygons created To Engine : Polygons rendered To System : Polygons fed Answers : Data Segmentation Visibility Culling

18. Scalability WS 3D High-end 3D Consumer 3D Non-3D HW Renderer SW Renderer High-Polygons Low-Polygons

19. The System

20. Node B Node A Set Parent Node C Clone Data “Scene Graph”

21. Cross-platform Design 3D Graphics API2D APIInput DeviceOS API3D Scene Mngmt2D SpriteGamepadNetworkAudio TerrainCollisionCharacterUIDynamicsSound FX Combat SystemFX SystemGame AIScript System NPC SystemVirtual AgentTrading SystemStory SDK DDK

22. Case Study : A 4-man Fighting Game

23. What We Will Not Talk The whole engine features The details about implementation 3D APIs Anything about graphics

24. What We Will Talk The basic game design – game play The system analysis in brief The character system Motion data management

25. Game Design A 4-man fighting in an arena Designed for consoles (game-pad) Camera controlled by the game system according to the fighters ’ positions The attacking controlling the fighter ’ s targets Joystick to control the fighter ’ s movement

26. Dynamics NetworkAudio System Analysis in Brief 2D APIOS API 2D Sprite 3D Scene MngmtGamepad Terrain CollisionCharacter UISound FX FX SystemGame AIScript System NPC System Camera Mechanism Human Interface (Control Mechanism) Story Combat System Hierarchical 3D Graphics API 1. Bone-skin structure 2. Poses Connection Input Device Game Engine Virtual Animation System

27. SA - Combat System Attacking Stun Dashing/Dodging & parrying Grabbing & holding Throwing Virtual Animation System (VAS) Weapon system …

28. SA – VAS forward Back-right Back-left Front Back Left Right Attack Stun Collision Indicator Stun

29. SA – Character System Bone-Skin characters Motions on bones Pose connection Motion blending Base Root Segments

30. SA – Character System Pose 1 Pose 2 cut frame start frame length slow-fast fast-slow linear Playing speed ….

31. SA – Scene Management Scene tree Scene graph

32. Dynamics NetworkAudio SA - Summary 2D APIOS API 2D Sprite 3D Scene MngmtGamepad Terrain CollisionCharacter UISound FX FX SystemGame AIScript System NPC System Camera Mechanism Story Combat System 3D Graphics APIInput Device Game Engine Human Interface (Control Mechanism)

33. Q & A