Engine-design related questions. How code is structured.
2
votes
2answers
258 views
Should a 4x game use one class per planet type?
I'm try to make a small 4x game for my own educational purposes.
Currently I have interfaces like IStarSystem which contains a list of IPlanets. My next step was to make classes implementing those ...
1
vote
2answers
549 views
Is there any option other than Component Based for game architecture?
Having read a lot recently on Component Based systems (for games), i find it hard to go back to my earlier state of mind.
If static object hierarchies fail to model "objects with a dynamic set of ...
13
votes
1answer
722 views
How should I structure an extensible asset loading system?
For a hobby game engine in Java, I want to code a simple but flexible asset/resource manager. Assets are sounds, images, animation, models, textures, et cetera. After a few hours of browsing and some ...
0
votes
4answers
1k views
What is the most efficient container to store dynamic game objects in? [closed]
I am making a first person shooter and I know about about a lot of different container types but I would like to find the container that is the most efficient for storing dynamic objects that will be ...
0
votes
3answers
216 views
Central renderer for a given scene
When creating a central rendering system for all game objects in a given scene I am trying to work out the best way to go about passing the scene to the render system to be rendered.
If I have a ...
2
votes
1answer
158 views
Efficient manager/controller for uniform and/or attribute variables in a rendering engine
Most engines on the market have their drawbacks and it's difficult to find a simple/light-weight one that's open-source and doesn't have to put you through a rather complex learning process. Writing ...
4
votes
0answers
209 views
What engine/technology should I work with to accomplish my unique design goal? [closed]
I'm looking to begin a procedurally generated open-ended sandbox game and would like some educated opinions on a good starting point. (Take a look at the "Engine Specifications" if you don't want to ...
0
votes
2answers
204 views
Logic / Render phases with a single thread
The question I have may generate different opinions from different developers, but I'd still like to have an answer on this.
Its all about the updating and rendering steps of the game loop, and their ...
5
votes
2answers
360 views
Book on designing game architecture?
I would like to make nice games with good architecture that are easy to support and extend. But when i write code it all gets messy and hardcoded, so when I want to add a feature it becomes a huge ...
7
votes
4answers
433 views
Grouping game objects
I'm trying to create a simple turn based console (command line) game but I'm confused of what approach to use when creating classes for objects. My concern is maintainability and flexibility.
First ...
3
votes
2answers
457 views
Design pattern for creating multiple enemies
I'm currently attempting to implement a factory method pattern for creating multiple different enemies after loading data from a file. But I'm having second thoughts on what would be the best design ...
8
votes
3answers
326 views
Are there any narrative (or at least non-spatiotemporal) focused engines/frameworks?
EDIT (2): Since there are two answers and I haven't accepted any of them I figured I'd motivate what I'd consider an answer here: Either something strongly suggesting any such approach would be ...
2
votes
2answers
128 views
Handling of data sharing between framework module
I am currently developping a 3D game using C# / XNA 4.0 and i am currently thinking about how i should structure my game. The actual game is in fact not really important as the framework i am working ...
4
votes
3answers
362 views
Finding the right directory structure for version control
Recently I've started thinking about how to layout the directory structure for my game engine. And well, I kinda hit a little snag.
There's going to be 2 people working on this project. Me and one ...
6
votes
1answer
158 views
Applicability of Business Architectures in XNA 4
I've done a lot of C# programming and the architecture we use of late is a MVC => PresentationService => Domain Service And/OR DataService => Repository with a UnitOfWork and a messaging bus. In web ...
1
vote
2answers
91 views
Refresh a single view
The game I'm working on is based on different levels. I can use different activities or only one activity with different layouts ( or maybe only one layout, you have to apologize me but I'm studying ...
0
votes
1answer
168 views
Handling Latency in Multiplayer Shoot-em-ups
I had an idea for an architecture, and I was wondering if anyone has implemented something like this or has used AWS or some other service to help?
I thought about using NodeJS + SocketIO to handle ...
2
votes
1answer
439 views
C++ game architecture
I'm trying to make a game, but I'm not sure of the best way to set up the main loop and classes. For really small games, I could put everything in the main() loop, including event handling, collision ...
2
votes
2answers
537 views
Architecture for html5 multiplayer game?
Hello I want to write a HTML5 multiplayer game in which there are rooms with two players answering a series of questions with 3 possible answers, 10sec/question, which are being downloaded from a ...
7
votes
1answer
491 views
Separating logic and data in browser game
I've been thinking this over for days and I'm still not sure what to do. I'm trying to refactor a combat system in PHP (...sorry.) Here's what exists so far:
There are two (so far) types of entities ...
52
votes
1answer
6k views
Role of systems in entity systems architecture
I've been reading a lot about entity components and systems and have thought that the idea of an entity just being an ID is quite interesting.
However I don't know how this completely works with the ...
4
votes
3answers
426 views
How can I efficiently create/store/implement animations as I add to my game?
My game's characters are made up of different parts (head/body/legs/etc), and whatever items they have equipped. As I'm creating the animation system for my game, I want to try to anticipate a large ...
2
votes
1answer
199 views
How many UDP ports for an MMOFPS
I'm designing an MMOFPS. I'm not sure whether to use one UDP port for all clients or one UDP port per client. Or is there another alternative?
Currently UDP is only being used for position data ...
3
votes
1answer
212 views
How to synchronise the acceleration, velocity and position of the monsters on the server with the players?
I'm building an MMO using Node.js, and there are monsters roaming around. I can make them move around on the server using vector variables acceleration, velocity and position.
acceleration = ...
3
votes
0answers
359 views
Any recommended books/resources on component-based design?
I come from a background with heavy use of the classical object-oriented paradigm for software development.
The company I am a part of switched to Unity not too long ago, and we're all very excited ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
How to structure game states in an entity/component-based system
I'm making a game designed with the entity-component paradigm that uses systems to communicate between components as explained here. I've reached the point in my development that I need to add game ...
6
votes
3answers
736 views
Best peer-to-peer game architecture
Consider a setup where game clients:
have quite small computing resources (mobile devices, smartphones)
are all connected to a common router (LAN, hotspot etc)
The users want to play a multiplayer ...
3
votes
1answer
535 views
Game editor integration with the engine?
What I am trying to figure out is what is the best way to integrate the editor(level, effects, model, etc...) in the most effective way?
Now the first thing I thought would be to create the game ...
0
votes
3answers
128 views
How can I save state from script in a multithreaded engine?
We are building a multithreaded game engine and we've encountered some problems as described below.
The engine have 3 threads in total: script, render, and audio. Each frame, we update these 3 ...
40
votes
7answers
7k views
Why don't more games use vector art?
It would seem to me that vector art is more efficient in terms of resources/scalability; however, in most cases I have seen artists using bitmap/rasterized art. Is this a limitation put on the artists ...
9
votes
4answers
763 views
Circular class dependency
Is it bad design to have 2 classes which need each other?
I'm writing a small game in which I have a GameEngine class which has got a few GameState objects. To access several rendering methods, these ...
0
votes
4answers
486 views
Separating game logic from animation
For non-game applications the model-view-controller pattern is typical where data, logic, and visuals are separated. But for a game how would you architect the game logic and the animation system in ...
0
votes
0answers
133 views
How game engines handle transactions between users?
my question is about situation when there is action between players at game (like items exchange, players money/tokens billing change). I know this depends on many factors, but please look at one of ...
1
vote
0answers
122 views
How do I keep user input and rendering independent of the implementation environment?
I'm writing a Tetris clone in JavaScript. I have a fair amount of experience in programming in general, but am rather new to game development.
I want to separate the core game code from the code that ...
0
votes
2answers
528 views
Game Logic - Tree Based Game Design
I'm trying to write an easy to use and extremely modifiable game engine in C++. I was thinking about using a tree to store game data. All objects would inherit a from the Node class and would have ...
5
votes
2answers
612 views
Tactics for moving the render logic out of the GameObject class
When making games you often create the following game object from which all entities inherit:
public class GameObject{
abstract void Update(...);
abstract void Draw(...);
}
So in you update ...
8
votes
5answers
458 views
Managing lists of different types of entities - is there a better way?
I am developing a 2D space game for mobile devices, but it gets realy complex and my solution is realy confusing and produces lots of repeated code segments.
I hava a world class in which i have ...
1
vote
1answer
217 views
Class design for instantly switching between free-roaming world to/from battle world?
I plan to have an isometric world, which can be freely roam around. However, I desire the system to instantly apply the grid onto isometric world for battling system on any random encounter. ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Game programming: common methods and design patterns
I begun writing a very simple game engine so that I can learn OpenGL 3.x better but since my inexperience and my sparse knowledge of how a 3D game should be designed, I usually get into problems where ...
1
vote
2answers
203 views
Game states affecting each other's objects
If I had given this question any other title it would have immediately looked like a dupe of this one. Although that has some nice ideas none of the answers actually address what I need.
I'm ...
2
votes
2answers
281 views
Scroller game level map advice
I'm started a XNA project to make a game similar in gameplay to Super Spy Hunter on a NES, which is used as a feature reference. The first thing I thought of is how to store and display level. ...
2
votes
3answers
339 views
C++ Namespace vs Reference passed around like crazy - Implement a quest journal
May sound funny, but that's what the question is about.
Suppose you have this situation:
http://i48.tinypic.com/whl6pk.jpg
Red squares are data types. Hexagons are methods and Journal is the main ...
1
vote
0answers
54 views
Implementing Tools in a Toolkit
I've been building a toolkit for my game and recently decided I needed a history system as well as clean out the mountain of event handlers building up in my code. To do this, I've started using ...
2
votes
2answers
218 views
How can I store a set of concrete components and implement “GetComponent<T>()?”
I would like an abstract class, AbstractComponentAggregate, which has many AbstractComponents. Users of my framework will create their components by extending AbstractComponent and appending the ...
3
votes
3answers
227 views
Loadbalancing Questions
I have been learning networking for about 4 months. Wrote a single standalone Multiplayer server and succeeded with authoritative approach. Now I want to extend it by splitting the single server into ...
3
votes
1answer
297 views
How to design a character animation system?
I'm searching for suggestions and resources on the possible ways to design a character animation system. I mean a system built on top of the graphics engine (as graphics engine I use Ogre3D, that ...
2
votes
2answers
184 views
Debug data visualization best practices
I found debugging games especially hard for some obvious reasons. It's hard to monitor some internal values in dynamic, conditional breakpoints helps somehow, but only to detect some specific ...
0
votes
1answer
1k views
GameObject and Components
I am creating a relatively simple game engine in C++ and Qt. I am using Irrlicht for graphics, and as of now, I will not be using any physics or audio libraries. For time's sake, I am using ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
Turn-based JRPG battle system architecture resources
The past months I've been busy programming a 2D JRPG (Japanese-style RPG) in C++ using the SDL library. The exploration mode is more or less done. Now I'm tackling the battle mode.
I have been unable ...
6
votes
2answers
826 views
How should I structure my turn based engine to allow flexibility for players/AI and observation?
I've just started making a Turn Based Strategy engine in GameMaker's GML language... And I was cruising along nicely until it came time to handle the turn cycle, and determining who is controlling ...
