17 replies to this topic

[VearmiPone]

So I started out wanting to create my own game but looked into it and decided that I want to know how to make a game engine and how it runs before I create any games. Can anyone help me out? Anything on how to make a game engine. What all do i need? (i.e. DirectX or OpenGL?; C++, Python, BASIC, or anyother language? what all files do I need to create? Anything will help, please.

[hovermonkey]

That's a very vague question. You need to be more specific about your goals. For example, what genre of games are you making? What platforms do you want to support? What level of hardware are you aiming at?
(Do you want all the latest visual effects for only the latest graphics cards, or something for writing casual 2D puzzle games to run on a cheap basic PC)
Once you know the answer to these questions we might be able to help a bit more.

[VearmiPone]

I want it to focus on RPGs. For now I just want to support Windows. I want to have high-detailed graphics and the latest visual effects. I want it to be similar to WOW or Oblivion, I know it won't be anything near those but thats the kind of games I am focusing on.

[dave_]

Give up now, if you cant even read the forum rules (bold red link at the top of every forum) what chance do you have making a game?

[VearmiPone]

I have read the rules dave_ and searched for specific info on engines and haven't found anything. Where is this Engines Forum? If you count atleast point me in the right direction that would be great instead of being so very rude.

[Reedbeta]

There isn't an engines forum on this site; what that means is that specific questions about a particular engine should be directed to the forums of that engine's community (i.e. not on DevMaster).

[Rofar]

I fail to see why there have been replies to this thread but no simple answers. Therefore, I will chime in...

The best advice I can give you would be to grab a book on Game Engine design. There is no better way to get started. What book to get depends on what direction you want to go in. DirectX or OpenGL? FPS type game or RTS/RPG type game? There are many decent books out there that get you started on building an engine.

Hope this helps.

[VearmiPone]

Thank you Rofar. I appreciate your help very much.

[lstockman]

VearmiPone said:

So I started out wanting to create my own game but looked into it and decided that I want to know how to make a game engine and how it runs before I create any games. Can anyone help me out? Anything on how to make a game engine. What all do i need? (i.e. DirectX or OpenGL?; C++, Python, BASIC, or anyother language? what all files do I need to create? Anything will help, please.

Since you're looking to do RPG type games with high detailed graphics, why have you not chosen to use a pre-existing engine? I'm not discouraging you in any way but it really could help you get up and running a bit faster.

On the other hand; if this is something you really want to do, I would recommend using C++ as it's the standard in gaming. This could also help you to make your game cross-platform at a later date. I would also recommend grabbing a book on C++ as well as books related to game design.

As to the files that you would create, well, that's a tough question to answer.

Anyway, look around google.com and see what you might find on tutorials for game programming and you might hit gold. Also, check out the wiki on this site as it's resources from a different persons perspective can give some insight on how to proceed. Also, don't expect to make an MMO as your first project, that would only give you a challenge that you might not be able to complete without first creating several smaller games.

I wish you luck in your adventure.

[marek-knows.com]

you can check out my website for free video's showing how to create your own OpenGL FPS game engine using C++

[Dom_152]

I recommend a book called 3D Game Engine Programming by Stefan Zerbst and Oliver Duvel. It takes you through from the basics of engine design through to implementation. There''s even a chapter on fast 3D calculus and taking advantage on 3D technologies like 3DNow! and SSE. It's very good and helped me get started with my engine.

[anubis]

My personal opinion is that you will have to decide on what your learning experience is going to be. Writing that engine you want is going to be an incredible amount of work, though by no means unachievable. I can only speak for myself ( though in my experience the statement generalizes )... Creating a game is a huge job. Content creation being one of the prime problems. Given that you are intersted in programming your learning experience will be mostly centered around getting the work done, that goes into a game (like finding the right artists). On the other hand writing a game engine almost as assuredly will get you no game at all. But you will learn a great deal about creating a stable and useable software system. If you are aiming for state of the art graphics you will also gain substantial knowledge in the fields of mathematics, that are relevant to computer graphics (linear algebra, calculus, etc.). In conclusion : Write a game, that is in your head and use an existing engine and get the game done... or learn about the internals but don't expect to finish that game...

Books :
(the bible on the topic)
http://www.amazon.co...81449813&sr=8-1

(i should be shot for telling you about this book, since it is riddled with errors. They are easy to spot though and the book covers a lot of important topics... hence I consider it a worthwhile compilation of pages ( 1000+ of them ) ....
http://www.amazon.co...81449867&sr=1-1

(in case you are interested in serious rendering algorithms this book is unavoidable) This is somewhat heavy stuff, if you are not really experienced as a programmer. It covers almost all important offline rendering methods. I dare claim that it is one of the most important books I have read in my field of research)
http://www.amazon.co...81449983&sr=1-1

The Game progeamming gems series has some useful information as well... you might want to try to buy these books from ebay.

If you can gain access to the ACM library of papers through your school or university, that is a great source of information as well...

[anubis]

things that set me up on my way back in the day...

http://www.drizzle.com/~scottb/
http://www.gamedev.n...?categoryid=215
http://chrishecker.com/Homepage

[Kenneth Gorking]

Back in the day when I started getting interrested in creating my own engine, one thing I did was download all the engine sources I could find and investige them for hints and clues. One particular engine I learned a lot from, was the Unreal engine, although I didn't have all the source (just the sdk) I was still able to figure out how it was wired and worked.


:offtopic:

anubis said:

http://www.gamedev.n...?categoryid=215

Haha, I love that it says 'Chris "Kiwidog" Hargrove is a programmer at 3D Realms Entertainment working on Duke Nukem Forever.' and just below it, it says 'Code on the Cob is © 1998 Chris Hargrove' :lol:

[anubis]

Quote

Haha, I love that it says 'Chris "Kiwidog" Hargrove is a programmer at 3D Realms Entertainment working on Duke Nukem Forever.' and just below it, it says 'Code on the Cob is © 1998 Chris Hargrove'

yeah... that's a good one. i heard it's going to be released this winter for sure though :D but hey... there is starcraft 2 now, which i guess nobody expected to ever come out... so maybe there is hope for DN too. ok... probably not but they are way overdue for a new announcement, that they are still working on it.

http://www.penny-arc...omic/2007/05/23

[anubis]

Quote

Back in the day when I started getting interrested in creating my own engine, one thing I did was download all the engine sources I could find and investige them for hints and clues. One particular engine I learned a lot from, was the Unreal engine, although I didn't have all the source (just the sdk) I was still able to figure out how it was wired and worked.

http://www.radonlabs.de/nebula.html

The nebula device is a really great engine. It taught me a lot...

[Dom_152]

I also recommend you read through other engine's source code. Ones like Irrlicht, OGRE, NeoEngine really helped me understand how these things can work and how all the different parts come together to create a functional engine.

[Nautilus]

[disregard this post, thanks]