Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@Th3solution An important thing to note is that you don’t need to use a pre-existing or even sophisticated engine at all to create a game. You could potentially individually write your own ways of calculating gravity, light diffusion etc. But chances are that after you’ve done that once, you really really don’t want to do that again. Programming is 99% shortcuts. So you take a package of pre-existing methods, functions and such, and start building your game using those existing parts. Of course, these will usually have to be re-done in some capacity when you’re moving to a different console, or your engine is incompatible with your creative vision (some engines work great with 2D and 3D, some just one or the other etc). All those logos you get on games like Bink Video, Havok and such are middleware developed to save the developers some time so that they don’t have to write their own video handling code or physics code respectively. It’s all about saving time in some parts to focus on others!

A good example is Rockstar’s RAGE. They developed that in-house to be specifically compatible with their style of game. It thus powers all of their open world games after GTA IV. So all of the little calculations and methods take into account the type of world which Rockstar tend to make. Whereas something like Unreal Engine 4 can’t be as in-depth because it’s designed for a much wider range of games.

Probably good to mention that engines pretty much always lack assets (art, sound etc) so it’s less that you build a world from parts in that sense and more that you build the underlying foundations of the world (weather, gravity) on the pre-existing code.

Yes but think of it on the technical level - as in the engine being responsible what you as a player see when there's a light source here and an object with a reflective property there - not how the object actually looks.

More or less. Physics can definitely be a part of the engine (although I imagine Kojima's team expanded on them a lot in this specific case). It's more about efficiently translating the designed world to what you actually see in each frame of video though.

I know Unreal Engine comes with huge library of assets that you can use (like terrain models and textures) but I wouldn't consider it a part of the engine itself.

Basically, it's the layer between the game design and the hardware itself - what makes the game actually run. Hence the name "engine"

On a separate note, you can sometimes tell some games run on the same engine because it handles some things in a specific way. For example, UE4 is notorious for texture pop-in, which I believe is due to prioritizing performance (which isn't a bad thing).

I suppose it can be confusing for someone without any background in IT, don't worry about it too much

@Th3solution Yeah to add to what others have said...you mentioned Dreams which in a way could be thought of as a game engine, but a very high level one. It allows you to utilise functionality that's already been developed such as the ability to display and animate characters, allows logic to be programmed e.g. what happens if character A hits character B, music to be made etc. It then pulls all of those things together and actually runs them for you to play.

In the real world those things aren't provided by an easy to use controller driven interface in a single package, instead they would be spread across loads of different bits of software and then all of that would be assembled into a package that you would run separately on the actual hardware.

@render Dreams is probably one of the hardest ones to get your head around, thinking about it. You could call the creation suite itself an engine of sorts. But then that all exists within BubbleBath Engine. It’s all a bit Engineception.

@nessisonett Totally, it's a real head**** that's for sure. I'm actually surprised that no one has created Dreams within Dreams yet just to add to the confusion 😂

Dang, what an exhausting week this has been and I feel like I got almost nothing done despite that.
It’s not all bad though. I learned that I will most likely be moving to a bigger apartment (with a nice little backyard too) in a few months and I’m very excited about that

@Voltan congrats dude, the missus and I are similarly about to move to a more desirable property in the next couple of months and we just can’t wait. Sounds like you’ve earned the weekend.

@nessisonett @render yeah I tried Dreams back when it released, it seems a really cool piece of kit and is undoubtedly capable of producing some really cool games but after maybe 10 or 15 tutorials it just seemed impossible to retain everything. If I were to continue and try and actually create a game I would’ve had to return to numerous tutorials again and again… and it just felt like I would have to sink mucho hours, days, weeks and months (if not years) to get anywhere near the concept in my mind.

@nessisonett @Voltan @render Thanks, chaps! I learned something new today. I can check that off my list! 😄

@Voltan I moved to an apartment with a backyard earlier this year, and it was a big improvement to my life!

Love having some plants and a place to sit outside. Congrats

@Kidfried I'll be moving in late autum or early winter most likely so it will be a while until I get some real use of that - but even without it, I'll finally have a separate room for all my music/recording stuff AND enough space to get a nice big TV for the PS5 (you know, the important stuff, lol)

@colonelkilgore How's your weekend going? I know you're in Wales but apparently "It's coming home!" (I'm in England, and not actually a football fan - I prefer a bit of cricket)

@Th3solution @nessisonett How are your weekends going?

@Jimmer-jammer Do you ever play jazz on piano? I went to an intermediate jazz jam earlier and, whilst, I kept up, there are just so many little rules in jazz that it doesn't feel very free or open compared to rock music, now considering going back to rock. (I'm on guitar, as I've previously mentioned - still love Sco though!)

@TheBrandedSwordsman So far so good, my friend. I have some chores to do but I’ve got in a couple hours of Returnal already. It a long weekend around these parts since Independence Day will be observed on Monday so most businesses will be closed. I love long weekends. You having a good one?

@TheBrandedSwordsman busy dude… but somehow managed to get everything done in time to catch the Lions first tour match 😅.

Well, there certainly is a different ‘feel’ about England right now and I wouldn’t put it past them. They’re on the right side of the draw and they have a deep and talented squad. Hope you enjoy bud 👍.

PS. Someone has to like cricket I guess 😉

@Th3solution Oh I see, I hope you enjoy your long weekend, yes it has been good so far but as I was saying to @Jimmer-jammer I was playing some jazz music today and there just seems to be too many rules as to how to actually play it, more of a rock guy here from now on I think. Where do you stand on jazz?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Mostly just been taking it easy, been pretty unwell after my vaccine but starting to feel a bit better. Watching the football tonight, of course I’m now a fully subscribed Ukraine fan!

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’m not particularly into jazz, but I appreciate that many people love the genre. I think it’s a type of music that people who play instruments are notably fond of. For those of us who aren’t musicians, I don’t think we appreciate the talent involved with good jazz. It’s definitely been an influence on modern music though.

@nessisonett Haha yeah, I remember you saying you were a fan of whoever England happen to be playing against at the time. Take it you want India to win tonight's women's cricket match against us as well then? haha, also, just noticed you changed your avatar. Eraserhead, is it? Great movie.