gamedevlists-general

[GD-General] Future trends for commercial game engines

[jakovo _. <ja...@gm...>]

With the more and more complex technology for games has become over time,
the decreasing interest of students/amateurs wanting to get into game
industry to learn DirectX/OpenGL and preferring to use an existing game
engine instead, the increasing popularity and accessibility of TorqueEngine=
,
CrystalSpace, etc among students/amateurs/indies, and big corporate
companies like EA, etc. licensing UnrealEngine3 for their next-gen games...

What are the future trends for commercial game engines? Will there be a tim=
e
were game studios will no longer create their own home-made game engines an=
d
buy existing licenses (as we do today with Maya/3DSM)?  Will there be a day
were it won't be worth for students to learn Dx/Ogl and how to create their
own engine?, and where game development schools will focus on teaching how
to use a specific game engine like UE3 (as there are animation schools toda=
y
to teach Maya/3DSM) and focus their curricula on other areas of game
development not game-engine-related? Can eventually this day come someday?

And if so=85 how soon or how far do you think we are until that day comes?


jakovo

[GD-General] Future trends for commercial game engines

[<ja...@vj...>]

With the more and more complex technology for games has become over time,
the decreasing interest of students/amateurs wanting to get into game
industry to learn DirectX/OpenGL and preferring to use an existing game
engine instead, the increasing popularity and accessibility of TorqueEngine=
,
CrystalSpace, etc among students/amateurs/indies, and big corporate
companies like EA, etc. licensing UnrealEngine3 for their next-gen games...

What are the future trends for commercial game engines? Will there be a tim=
e
were game studios will no longer create their own home-made game engines an=
d
buy existing licenses (as we do today with Maya/3DSM)?  Will there be a day
were it won't be worth for students to learn Dx/Ogl and how to create their
own engine?, and where game development schools will focus on teaching how
to use a specific game engine like UE3 (as there are animation schools toda=
y
to teach Maya/3DSM) and focus their curricula on other areas of game
development not game-engine-related? Can eventually this day come someday?

And if so=85 how soon or how far do you think we are until that day comes?

jakovo

Re: [GD-General] Future trends for commercial game engines

[Kent Q. <ken...@co...>]

Ing. Jacobo R=EDos wrote:
> With the more and more complex technology for games has become over=20
> time, the decreasing interest of students/amateurs wanting to get into=20
> game industry to learn DirectX/OpenGL and preferring to use an=20
> existing game engine instead, the increasing popularity and=20
> accessibility of TorqueEngine, CrystalSpace, etc among=20
> students/amateurs/indies, and big corporate companies like EA, etc.=20
> licensing UnrealEngine3 for their next-gen games...
>
> What are the future trends for commercial game engines? Will there be=20
> a time were game studios will no longer create their own home-made=20
> game engines and buy existing licenses (as we do today with=20
> Maya/3DSM)?  Will there be a day were it won't be worth for students=20
> to learn Dx/Ogl and how to create their own engine?, and where game=20
> development schools will focus on teaching how to use a specific game=20
> engine like UE3 (as there are animation schools today to teach=20
> Maya/3DSM) and focus their curricula on other areas of game=20
> development not game-engine-related? Can eventually this day come=20
> someday?
>
> And if so=85 how soon or how far do you think we are until that day com=
es?
Basically, the question is what's cost effective? These days, major=20
market games are expected to do a lot. Thousands of objects, millions of=20
particles, physics, intelligent AI, realistic animation, brilliant=20
graphics, 3D sound...

If you're going to build all of that into your game, you'd almost be=20
foolish to build it all yourself, unless it's more your business to=20
build a better game engine rather than to build a great game. And there=20
will continue to be people who do that. But if your budget is growing=20
north of $10 Million and you're building a game that "fits" into one of=20
the existing engines, you'd be wise to spend a million of that on a good=20
game engine.

If your game doesn't feet neatly into one of those categories, or you're=20
building a game with a different emphasis than on technology, you may=20
find it worthwhile to build your own engine, or to start from a=20
different place.

In an industry that changes as fast as ours, building education programs=20
that rely on a particular technology is foolish. I don't care whether=20
it's Maya or Unreal or Max, I want artists to be able to create in 3D --=20
who cares what tool they use? The same can be said of programming=20
languages. Hell, it can be said of human languages. Wouldn't it be nice=20
if we'd all just settle on English so we could drop language education=20
in our schools?

I think your desire is to get the discussion away from the engine and=20
technology and more toward the gameplay, and that's not a bad desire.=20
Because the complexity of game engines is getting so high, for education=20
to start students off with game engines is generally good, because it=20
lets you concentrate more on some of the gameplay issues and less on=20
blitting rectangles to the screen. But expecting a fast-changing=20
technology industry to settle on one target platform isn't gonna happen.=20
There'll be a steady increase in the complexity of the foundation tools=20
(we don't use assembler much anymore in this business), but I don't ever=20
want the schools to get too comfortable with one technology.

    Kent

Re: [GD-General] Future trends for commercial game engines

[Jon W. <hp...@mi...>]

jakovo _r wrote:
> What are the future trends for commercial game engines? Will there be 
> a time were game studios will no longer create their own home-made 
> game engines and buy existing licenses (as we do today with 
> Maya/3DSM)?  Will there be a day were it won't be worth for students to

This is very similar to how, in the '60s, it was possible for an 
application developer to "code to the metal" and write their own OS for 
a machine to run their application. (That happened again with the micros 
in the late '70s and early '80s). These days, you pretty much pick an OS 
(or a few) and use that for all your machine abstraction needs, and 
instead focus on higher-level details. There are some people who still 
make OS-es, but it's not a requirement for application development. If 
you like making an OS, you go to a school specializing in that, and then 
take a job for an OS-making company.

> And if so… how soon or how far do you think we are until that day comes?

We're seeing it happen right now.

Cheers,

             / h+