Table of Contents

Foundations
Introduction
Structure of a Typical Game Team
What Is a Game?
What Is a Game Engine?
Engine Differences across Genres
Game Engine Survey
Runtime Engine Architecture
Tools and the Asset Pipeline

Tools of the Trade
Version Control
Microsoft Visual Studio
Profiling Tools
Memory Leak and Corruption Detection
Other Tools

Fundamentals of Software Engineering for Games
C++ Review and Best Practices
Data, Code and Memory
Catching and Handling Errors
Pipelines, Caches and Optimization

3D Math for Games
Solving 3D Problems in 2D
Points and Vectors
Matrices
Quaternions
Comparison of Rotational Representations
Other Useful Mathematical Objects
Hardware-Accelerated SIMD Math
Random Number Generation

Low-Level Engine Systems
Engine Support Systems
Subsystem Start-Up and Shut-Down
Memory Management
Containers
Strings
Engine Configuration

Resources and the File System
File System
The Resource Manager

The Game Loop and Real-Time Simulation
The Rendering Loop
The Game Loop
Game Loop Architectural Styles
Abstract Timelines
Measuring and Dealing with Time
Multiprocessor Game Loops
Networked Multiplayer Game Loops

Human Interface Devices (HID)
Types of Human Interface Devices
Interfacing with a HID
Types of Inputs
Types of Outputs
Game Engine HID Systems
Human Interface Devices in Practice

Tools for Debugging and Development
Logging and Tracing
Debug Drawing Facilities
In-Game Menus
In-Game Console
Debug Cameras and Pausing the Game
Cheats
Screenshots and Movie Capture
In-Game Profiling
In-Game Memory Stats and Leak Detection

Graphics, Motion and Sound
The Rendering Engine
Foundations of Depth-Buffered Triangle Rasterization
The Rendering Pipeline
Advanced Lighting and Global Illumination
Visual Effects and Overlays
Further Reading

Animation Systems
Types of Character Animation
Skeletons
Poses
Clips
Skinning and Matrix Palette Generation
Animation Blending
Post-Processing
Compression Techniques
Animation System Architecture
The Animation Pipeline
Action State Machines
Animation Controllers

Collision and Rigid Body Dynamics
Do You Want Physics in Your Game?
Collision/Physics Middleware
The Collision Detection System
Rigid Body Dynamics
Integrating a Physics Engine into Your Game
Advanced Physics Features

Audio
The Physics of Sound
The Mathematics of Sound
The Technology of Sound
Rendering Audio in 3D
Audio Engine Architecture
Game-Specific Audio Features

Gameplay
Introduction to Gameplay Systems
Anatomy of a Game World
Implementing Dynamic Elements: Game Objects
Data-Driven Game Engines
The Game World Editor

Runtime Gameplay Foundation Systems
Components of the Gameplay Foundation System
Runtime Object Model Architectures
World Chunk Data Formats
Loading and Streaming Game Worlds
Object References and World Queries
Updating Game Objects in Real Time
Events and Message-Passing
Scripting
High-Level Game Flow

Conclusion
You Mean There’s More?
Some Engine Systems We Didn’t Cover
Gameplay Systems

Bibliography

Index

Reviews

"… this book is the best of its kind, and you’re lucky to have found it. It covers the huge field of game engine architecture in a succinct, clear way, and expertly balances the breadth and depth of its coverage, offering enough detail that even a beginner can easily understand the concepts it presents. The author, Jason Gregory, is not only a world expert in his field; he’s a working programmer with production-quality knowledge and many shipped game projects under his belt. … Jason is also an experienced educator who has taught in the top-ranked university game program in North America. … the many detailed code samples and implementation examples in this book will help you understand just how the pieces come together in a great game. By helping you in this way, Jason’s book might just empower you to outstrip even the most audacious dreams of history’s best game designers and developers."
—From the Foreword by Richard Lemarchand Praise for the First Edition:
A 2010 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
"This course resource provides an excellent, comprehensive look at every major system and issue related to modern game development … a must-have textbook for computer science, software engineering, or game programming majors, amateur hobbyists, game 'modders,' and game developers."
—A. Chen, CHOICE, January 2010 "… it looks like most of the critical areas and concepts are touched on. … it looks like you’ll have some reasonably deep understanding of the elements that go into making a game engine. Quite an impressive work, and I know of nothing else in this area that is so detailed."
—Eric Haines, www.realtimerendering.com/blog/, July 2009 "Jason Gregory draws upon his many years of experience and expertise to create a complete and comprehensive textbook on the theory and practice of game engine software development. Informed and informative, replete with examples for every aspect of the game development process, and fully accessible to aspiring game engine developers as well as a very useful reference for even experienced technicians in the field, Game Engine Architecture is an invaluable, thoroughly `user friendly,’ and highly recommended core addition to personal, professional, and academic Computer Science reference and resource collections in general, as well as gaming engine design instructional reading lists in particular."
—The Midwest Book Review, September 2009 "The book contains a huge amount of data on specifics to consider when developing a game engine."
—Gamasutra.com, November 2009 "Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory has been named a finalist for the Game Developer's 2009 Front Line Award."
—PR Newswire, December 2009