3D Engine

I have learn all the basics and all, I am kinda interested in a 3D Engine now. I would like to know what exactly is a 3D engine, and form it takes. Is it just a library with a set of functions? Or is it like a fully blown map editor program that lets you desing your own levels and environments?

Hi,

first of all I strongly assume you want all the drawing stuff done by a higher API like OGL or DirectDraw instead of writing an own rasterizer which might be a bit of a job :slight_smile:
In my point of view no one has to write a graphics engine from scratch; the “only” thing you have to do to draw the scenery using tricks like surface removal, level of detail, bsp-trees and so on.
So in my pouint of view a “graphics engine” is a clever written programm that handles all drawings at least costs to save power for other things like KI…

hope that helps

An engine can be quite a few things.

It is sort of a library of functions.

It needs to handle input, sound, graphics, collision detection, AI, etc.

The map editor would not be considered part of the engine IMO, because it is for creating content for the engine to use.

It’s hard to put into words exactly what an engine is and isn’t, but I hope you got the idea…

j

My main question is how does the engine USER interact with the engine? What is the link between the engine and its user? How do they interact?

Generally the engine has an input module that checks out what the user is doing. This module then passes that information onto the rest of the engine, where it is used in several places - AI, movement, interaction with the environment, and so on. That would be the link between the user and the rest of the engine. The user experiences interaction as a result of the input module feeding data about what the user is doing to the rest of the engine, which acts on this.

j

Haha, congratulations, you have just confused the **** outta me :slight_smile: d/w, ill figure it out…

Sorry…

Maybe this will help: http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/articles/gameengines/

j

I think I understand now, the engine sets the world up, while it is up to the use to determine what the world consists of and the rules that govern it. In simplest terms, for example, a texture engine would consist of the funstion for loading a texture and all, while the user is left to determine what texture to load and what filter to use…

this site might be useful to you:
http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html

it is to me…

Thanks everyone! I think I now know how to make a 3D engine, at least I know what a 3D engine is, thats a start
Thanks again!