Game Engine Architecture 1st Edition

As the other reviewer said, this is a very solid, good book. Dare I say refreshingly good. I also echo the previous reviewer's sentiment about the tone that the author takes when speaking to the reader. Some people enjoy comical books but I am not one of them. I read books for information, if I want to laugh I'll open xkcd.Where this book really fills a void is that it assumes you have some experience and maturity under your belt as a programmer / engineer. This is good because it allows us to get down to the meat without hesitation and begin discussing more serious things. What this book is NOT is a book on how to implement a game engine. What it IS is a book on what's in a game engine and common problems and pattern that occur in game engine development. A toolbox of game engine development, if you will. For each chapter / topic, the author devotes some time to explaining the role of this aspect of a game engine and then quickly proceeds to breaking the component down into smaller pieces, discussing common issues, algorithms, and patterns that arise for said system. For example, when discussing memory usage there is a great discussion of a variety of different memory allocators that can be useful in various situations. Almost always the author supplements these discussions with real-world examples of where such a data structure, algorithm, or method was used in an actual game and why.Another aspect of this book that I really really appreciated was the inclusion of references directly in the text. Since, after all, the book is light on implementation details often the author would conclude a section by saying "So and so has an excellent paper discussing this topic in more detail at ." This is great because it allows the book to still provide access to all the implementation details without actually putting them in the book. So it's not like you're actually missing out on anything, you just have to go to the link.The book is thick, and has a strong and serious hardback binding. It feels like it will last a long time. I don't think it's necessarily the type of book that you will refer to over and over throughout your game development career, but it offers a great bird's eye view of the entire process, while still allowing you to zoom in on specific areas and get a little bit more detail (or a lot more detail if you follow the links to the external references).There are a couple minor errors in the book, but they are not that serious and I assume they will be corrected in the first errata and/or second edition of the book. They do not significantly detract from the overall quality of the book however, so I give it 5 stars anyway.This book was definitely a pleasant surprise, and I only wish more authors would stop filling their books with fluff to hide the fact that they don't have enough information to fill the book. This book is packed with information, with zero fluff, and I definitely recommend it.

I recently finished a degree in computer science specialising in computer games. One of the things that was missing from the course was a good overview of game engines. We studied graphics, physics, maths etc... but we never went looked at the game engine as a whole. This book was a great high level exploration of game engines. I should stress high level, because it does not go into great depth on any one topic instead it motivates a particular topic, gives an overview of the theory then explains how that theory is adapted to games. It should be titled "Selected Topics Relating to Game Engines." It was very easy to read whilst still being professional.The one thing that, to me, really gave the book validity is the constant references the author makes to commercial games he has been involved with. "In game X we did Y for reason Z." Something which you don't always get, but really should, when reading technical game books.One of the great things about the book is the coverage - you will be bound to come across something you haven't heard of. For instance the chapter on c/c++ had a couple interesting tid-bits explaining the stack/heap, compilation process etc... The memory management section was very useful - often at uni when you develop small-ish assignments on PCs you don't get a chance to appreciate how important memory management really is in the real world. The only complaint I have is that the chapter I was most looking forward to which discussed the different types of game object models in the end felt underdone and under referenced for such a key part of game development. Although the book is very long it does miss out on a couple topics (AI, sound, game play systems ) which the author points out - not so much an issue because the book does not feel incomplete.All and all an excellent read and one of the best game engine resources I have come across. I wish this had been written while I was still at uni - it would have been a big help!

Read the first few pages and see if this is a beast you want to own. I think you will, because of the way this Text is written. The author gives you the correct terminology and the explanations behind them. This ones going to be on the night stand for a while because of the mere size and content. But dont take my word for it....check it out

Très bien pour des études d'informatique /jeu vidéos

buon prodotto. per gli amanti del game e della programmazione e utile. inglese ma se si vuole imparare questa è la lingua.

This is the book every game programmer should read. It starts small with a look at all the layers that go into a game engine, then with great care it outlines each one until you walk away with an understanding of almost every element that composes a game's core systems. As a programmer or architect, it's all too easy to get lost in the impossibly huge scale of game development - the immense scope of it all is daunting and sometimes you can feel completely lost. Jason walks you through each step with care, and even gives a couple examples from enormous works like Uncharted. Occasionally it can get a bit complicated, but he doesn't misstep and throw you into the deep end unassisted. Each section is carefully written to speak to you with english and comes with many illustrations.While each section doesn't go into enormous detail, it's enough to springboard from. In some cases you'll have enough to just go off and do it yourself. In others, you will feel inspired to research further. In these cases, references to other books and web resources are provided. Excellent!Having worked on some commercial projects before, I can say with confidence that this book helped me get up to speed with understanding the overall architecture of what needed to be built even in a large system. So it wasn't surprising when I found the book popping up on co-workers' desks. Definitely required reading for any developer. Can't recommend enough.

Das Cover beschreibt das Buch extrem gut. Es zeigt Bauteile die zusammengesetzt eine Game Engine ergeben. Aber etwas anderes ist auch offensichtlich: Wer nicht weiß wie eine Zündkerze gebaut wird muss sich eine kaufen oder lernen wie man eine baut. Das Buch zeigt die Bestandteile einer Engine und deren Zusammenspiel. Wer diese Bestandteile nicht programmieren kann, wird nicht viel von diesem Buch haben. Die Zielgruppe ist schwer zu verorten, erfahrene Programmierer denken sich oft "so würde ich es auch machen", aber Einsteiger "das ist interessant, aber wie soll ich das nun genau machen?". Ich würde das Buch trotzdem eher weniger für Einsteiger empfehlen, obwohl es sich gut liest und auch Einsteiger etwas mitnehmen können.Dieses Buch ist bisschen wie der Dialog mit einem Kollegen oder Programmierpartner mit Nachschlagecharakter: Auf Augenhöhe, paar neue interessante Ideen, paar Kontroversen und viele Dinge die man auch so umsetzen würde und sich so bestätigen lässt, dass die nicht doch vollkommen idiotisch sind. Jeder erfahrene Programmierer mit guten Architekturfähigkeiten wird sicherlich eine Game Engine entwerfen können, die nicht vollkommen gegen die Wand fährt. Deswegen wird das Buch keine großen neuen Erkenntnisse liefern können, aber es lohnt sich trotzdem spezifische Kapitel zum momentanen Betätigungsfeld einmal durchzulesen.Persönlich war für mich das Kapitel über Scripting und VM Integration interessant, auch wenn es nur umrissen wurde. Man könnte sicherlich nochmal rund 800 Seiten über VM Programmierung schreiben.Fazit: Für viele mag das Buch zu oberflächlich sein, Code hat oft nur Pseudocode Charakter. Für eine Roadmap und Basis einer Engine-Entwicklung ist das Buch aber perfekt. Und mehr kann ein (!) kompaktes Buch über Engine Programmierung nicht leisten.

Este libro me encanta para reforzar conceptos que ya iba leido en otros libros de su género de forma dispersa o bien, iba deducido por mi mismo, de forma borrosa.Estoy desarrollando mi propio mi game engine y aunque lo he comprado casi al final del desarrollo me ha sido igualmente útil.Realmente, si pudiera, le daria un 4,5 debido a la falta de profundidad de ciertos temas que considero muy importantes, aunquqe ya se advierte en el prólogo, que a diferencia de otros libros que se centran en algunos de los subsistemas que forman un juego, este libro da una buena visión alejada y tratada como pocos libros. Hace una curiosa profundidad sobre el sistema de animaciones, pniendo el Uncharted 2 y el API de Ogre3D como ejemplos. Pero apenas toca la IA, que es un gran topic, hay muchos libros dedicados a ello, pero esperaba al menos, como integrar el subsistema de IA en el resto del engine, ya que el libro trata de arquitecturas.El libro también parece un recopilatorio de problemas que diferentes estudios de videojuegos se suelen encontrar típicamente en un desarrollo, como problemas de localización, codificación de strings, etc ...El encuadernado es de calidad, que sea tapa dura, facilita mucho la lectura.El libro tiene web propia [...] donde encontrareis una amplia información. El autor trabaja en Naughty Dog y participo en muchos proyectos de juegos AAA, siendo los más exitosos: Uncharted 2 y Ratchet & Clank