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Game Engine Architecture 1st Edition
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- ISBN-109781568814131
- ISBN-13978-1568814131
- Edition1st
- PublisherA K Peters/CRC Press
- Publication dateJune 15, 2009
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.5 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
- Print length864 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
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
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 1568814135
- Publisher : A K Peters/CRC Press; 1st edition (June 15, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 864 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781568814131
- ISBN-13 : 978-1568814131
- Item Weight : 3.65 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.5 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,320,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #876 in Game Programming
- #1,047 in Web Design (Books)
- #2,695 in Video & Computer Games
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Jason Gregory has worked as a professional software engineer since 1994. He got his start in game programming in 1999 at Midway Home Entertainment in San Diego, where he wrote tools and engine code, including the Playstation 2/Xbox animation system for "Freaky Flyers," "Hydro Thunder 2" and "Crank the Weasel." In 2003, Jason moved to Electronic Arts Los Angeles, where he worked on engine and gameplay technology for "Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault" and served as a lead engineer during the early phases of the "Medal of Honor: Airborne" project. Jason is currently a lead programmer at Naughty Dog Inc., where he most recently completed work on "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" for PlayStation 4. He and his teammates are now hard at work on "The Last of Us Part II" (PS4). Jason also developed engine, tools and gameplay technology for Naughty Dog's "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" (PS3), "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" (PS3), "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" (PS3), "The Last of Us" (PS3), "The Last of Us Remastered" (PS4), "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" (PS4), and has developed and taught courses in game technology at the University of Southern California.
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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.
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!
This book doesn't really seem to fit the bill of "Game Engine Architecture", and should probably be called something like "Foundations of Game Engines". The book gives only an introductory chapter on the actual architectural (from a CS point of view) side of the engine. Instead it focuses on all the issues that are necessary knowledge for creating a game (and in many cases any performance restricted software), from the very bottom up.
The author covers a great many topics, which leaves some short of details, but in these cases the author always provides great references to both books and online material for more in depth discussion. The online sources are a bit of an issue, as they may not be available. I found one instance where the source provided no longer existed.
Warning:
This book is VERY C++ centric. I would definitely suggest (as does the author) that you learn C++ before tackling this book (I suggest Accelerated C++ or C++ Primer Plus). It'd still be a good resource for someone interested in Game programming, but you will get 5 times as much out of the book with a solid C++ grounding underneath your belt.
Despite the few issues with the book, I cannot give it any less than 5 stars, it was just that good of a read for me.
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Leider beinhaltet das Buch keine vollständigen Quellcodes obwohl C++ als Vorausetzung für das Buch angegeben wird. Einschränkend erwähnt der Autor, es würde reichen ein paar Kapitel aus Stroustrup C++ Buch zu lesen.
Die Seite mit C++ Code sind überschaubar, verwendbar eher kaum. Das Buch ist auch eher etwas Windows lastig, Einsatz von Visual Studio und die Beschreibung der Funktionen dieser Software im ersten Teil des Buches läßt eben auch hier erkennen, das sind die ersen Stunden der Vorlesung / Übungsstunde im Lab.
Vor Interessierte, die schnell zu einem Ergebnis kommen wollen, und vorhandene Codes für eigene Programme verwenden wollen, ist es definitiv das falsche Buch.
Der Autor erwähnt im Buch als auch auf seiner Webseite eine Vielzahl von Tools, Game Engines etc. ppp. Für Einsteiger gints da diese oder jene interessante Information, aber mehr nicht.
Weil der Autor in seinen Buch auch versucht "fast" jedes Thema abzuarbeiten, sind deswegen auch Lücken in vielen Bereichen zu finden. Indem dann auf kommerzielle oder Open Source Produkte verwiesen wird, kann der Leser dann zwar sich mit dem Einsatz dieser Tools / SDKs weiterhelfen, gibts dafür im Buch kaum Beispiele.
An vielen Stellen muß man dieses Buch einfach als Nachschlagewerk sehen.
Ob es sich lohnt, dieses Buch von Seite 1 - 8xx komplett durchzulesen, muß der Leser selbst entscheiden. Ich denke nicht.
Auch was die Theme wie 3 D Mathematik oder "Physik" - Engine angebelangt, sollte man sich für tieferes Verständnis weitere Sekundärliteratur besorgen.
Open GL, DirectX werden erwähnt, auch Produkte wie Blender oder Maya, auch eine Doom oder Ogre 3D Engine, ABER mehr auch nicht.
Die Punkte kann ich nur vergeben weil es ein fachlich korrektes und ordentliches Buch ist. Würde nur der praktische Nutzen bewertet, 1 - 2 Punkte.
Wenn jemand also ein Spiel entwickeln möchte, und neben der Theorie auch Praxis in einem Buch sucht, dann würde ich dieses Buch nicht nehmen. Da gibts bessere.
Spieleprogrammierung lernt man nicht durch lesen, das wird vom Autoren auch erwähnt. Deswegen halt auch das Buch zur Vorlesung!
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
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.
To develop real world game, needs lots of things such as memory management, resource packing, data structure library (like custom STL), profiler and so on.
Author described all things for game engine and I believe there is no other books about these topics because it is very hard(really^53 hard) and only few people know everything.
The only thing I really want is.
Need more practical resources. This book has lot of text but just not enough. Author touched too many issues but some chapter just not enough. If author described all things and more detail
(including more practical resources, executable program or sources), this book will be over the 1500 pages or more.
I hope some other people help him or author do this for us, it will be amazing.
Oh, I need to talk about this book. Simple, there is only one book and you have no choice!!
If you wanna know how real world game engine works and constructed, this book is the best for you. But I don't recommend this book if you are looking for working projects(or examples)
(This is the only reason that I gave 4 stars)
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.





