Modern game engines are sophisticated software systems that utilise real time rendering technology to deliver a highly interactive multimedia experience. The focus of this module is on the workings and the practical use of these engines within team-based game development projects. In particular the module aims are:- To provide learners with an understanding of the architecture of a modern game engine.- To give learners an opportunity to study a complex software system and in doing so to develop an appreciation of the design decisions involved in its construction.- To demonstrate how a range of theory and practice from across the computing curriculum (software development, 2D and 3D multimedia, networking, artificial intelligence) can be integrated into the one application area.- To give learners the practical knowledge to enable them to create interactive 3D graphics applications such as games or 3D walkthroughs or mobile phone apps- To give learners theoretical and practical knowledge in the challenges and choices facing team-based software development for non-trivial applications
Game Development Life Cycles
Concepts and High Level Designs / Game Design Documents (GDDs)/ Level Design/ versions and testing: first-playable; pre-Alpha; Alpha; Beta; Release Candidate/ device deployment design and testing
Team-based software development
sociology of teamwork, roles, iterations and personality types/ software teams - roles and responsibilities/ distributed version control and codebase masters and branching/ alternatives to traditional SDLC - XP, scrum, continuous-integration etc.
Interactive 3D Environments in context
• History and features of Interactive 3D Environments• Range of applications: virtual architecture; interactive museums; real estate walk-throughs; 3D product viewing and styling• Virtual world authoring technologies (e.g. world editors and scripting systems such as Unity)
Dynamic objects - physics
• Laws of physics & their simulation in virtual worlds• Applying physics to inanimate objects• An event model for 3D environments: Sensors, timers, collisions & triggers
Dynamic creatures – rigs and motion animations
• Introduction to dynamic creatures: people, animals & aliens• Character animation fundamentals: meshes, rigs and motion animations• Tools and technologies to support character animations (character libraries & stores; motion capture animation libraries and stores; tools for creating and exporting an animated character ready for use in a virtual environment system)• Basic 3rd person controller: “off the shelf” scripts for idle+walk+run; • Extending 3rd person controller scripts to trigger named animations
Developing user interactivity
• UI (Graphics User Interface) components: adding menus & scenes; HUD (Head Up Display) feedback; adding sounds effects & background audio• Quality issues: user experience
Advanced issues & research topics
e.g. AI/ cloud-based building and deployment/ automatic test-driven development for interactive systems/ profiling and game data analytics
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 100 |