The Best Game Engines

SlappingOysters writes "IGN has taken a look at the most impressive middleware solutions for the next generation of gaming, giving a detailed analysis of which engines are performing the best and which have the most exciting futures. It runs through the technical strengths of each engine, as well as how that translates into actual gameplay. It also runs through which software has and will be using each engine."

Comments

If only...

[Anonymous Coward]

they had done the same with F/OSS and/or Cross platform game engines, the article would have been significantly more interesting...
Most of the big commercial engines are pretty useless to those without a budget, or with a desire to target their favorite OS...

Re:If only...

[msormune]

Many people who are skilled in graphics creation etc. do NOT have the open source mentality: They are not "geeks" who feel pride in taking part in such projects.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to create a "open source graphics, sound and design" project in which people could contribute various objects needed in game design and graphics? Kind of like a 3D engine, but for graphics etc. only. But then there any such projects?

Re:If only...

[icebraining]

It's strange, 'cause there's a big modding community which provides tons of "full replacement" mods, with textures and 3D models, and there are many open source 3D engines. I think the problem is the lack of "middle" code, to provide a way to make a "mod" to the OS engine as easily as for most commercial games.

And Valve is no where?

[i_ate_god]

The Source engine is a great engine and the results frankly impress me a lot more than Unreal engine. Bioshock was an incredible game, but the look and feel of HL2 and it's subsequent episodes/tech demos were far more impressive visually.

Not only that, but the Source engine is painfully easy to mod and is supported by a company that goes out of its way to encourage third party developers to use it.

Frankly I'm disappointed that Source was not mentioned here.

Re:And Valve is no where?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

The Source engine is a great engine and the results frankly impress me a lot more than Unreal engine. Bioshock was an incredible game, but the look and feel of HL2 and it's subsequent episodes/tech demos were far more impressive visually.

You're taking LSD. Or at least you'd have to be to come to that conclusion.

Every single Valve game, with the exception of Team Fortress 2, is an aesthetic trainwreck, devoid of almost all visual appeal. Desaturated greys and browns dominate, and the landscapes generally resemble gravel strew tundra or concrete fortresses. Half Life 2 itself is set in an eastern European soviet housing, and looks it throughout. Flair on characters consists of things like glasses, a cigar, or perhaps a moustache. Everything is dirty, dilapidated and dank.

Compare to Unreal Tournament 3. The first level is set in a gilded temple complex, lavishly decorated in an eastern style. From there you proceed to space stations, ice caps, futuristic robot factories, desert temples and underground mines. Every level is covered with fantastic architecture and neon lighting. Colours are vibrant and varied. Characters are as eccentric as those from a comic book.

This doesn't say anything for the gameplay mind. Valve's testing process still produces better play, though other companies are improving. But it does point to a consistent problem with Valve's ethos that has finally caught up with their engine. Their visual style is boring, and the (lack of) capabilities of the Source engine reflect that. Even Team Fortress 2 and Portal are still relatively dry in their visuals.

Epic Games by contrast have moved the industry in another aesthetic direction with their new engine and the games made using it, Gears of War and UT3. Other companies are following suit, with lighting effects, water effects, shaders and all more colour saturation all round becoming more common. Crytec and others are following much the same line(NaughtyDog has always produced vibrant titles). Designers are now wowing players with scenes that delight the eye.

It should be stressed that such scenes are in fact "unrealistic". The Source engine typically produces scenes which more closely resemble the real world. Which is its primary problem. People are playing games to escape the real world. I can recall commentary from the beginning of HL2:Episode 1 in which the designers rave on about new effects that allowed, I think, higher lighting contrast in the scene. Alyx's face and features could be seen whilst the sun was setting or some such thing. I recall recalling how completely underwhelming the final presentation actually was the first time around.

The Source engine is finally showing, not its age, but its direction. The direction chosen by Valve for the engine has taken it away from the mainstream path of brighter and more interesting visual scenes towards duller and more realistic displays. But brighter and more interesting scenes, along with musical scores, that give the player a feast for the senses as well as for the mind, are the way that the industry is moving. Thankfully.

Unless Valve take steps to add such capabilities to the engine and, more importantly, develop a game that demonstrates those capabilities, the Source engine is going to be left behind over the next 3 years.

Re:And Valve is no where?

[brkello]

Wow, that was a really long post to show you don't know the difference between artistic style and the underlying engine.

Re:And Valve is no where?

[TheThiefMaster]

You complain about HL2 being brown and grey and then praise the aesthetics of Gears? You do realise that Gears is the ultimate in brown-and-grey technology? Right?

Re:Asheron's Call

[Canazza]

Imo, PvP is considered Content, and has nothing to do with the engine.

A Game engine focuses on things like the underlying game mechanics (movement, physics etc), graphics rendering (Including, but not limited to Shader language, Character animation system, the basic UI handlers and texture engine) network handling and whatever scripting language is used to create content.

Things that come under "Content" are all the things that are put on top of an engine to make a game. IE Combat, interacting with NPCs, Menu systems, Inventory systems, weapons. Most of which is done through whatever scripting language the engine uses (In the case of Unreal it's the UnrealED application and it's scripting language. In the case of Source, it's a mixture of many things, mainly Map-based Entities created through Hammer and C#/C++ if you're changing game mechanics)

Having never played Asherons Call, I can't comment on the gameplay, but a good movement system on it's own does not make a good PvP system.

Re:Asheron's Call

[FTWinston]

C#

Being able to mod source in C# would be the best drug ever.

Havok anyone?

[wordisms]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havok_(software)

I think this list covers it: http://www.havok.com/content/blogcategory/29/73/

Re:Havok anyone?

[hellfish006]

Havok is just a physics engine that is added to other game engines. The Source engine uses a heavily modified Havoks physics engine. Even the Wii runs the Havoks physics engine in some of its top tier games. The same reason Havok was not included is the same reason Natural Motion was not.

Re:thoughtfulorange

[LingNoi]

Because this isn't a list of "best game engines" this is a list of "best games" with stupid descriptions like "oohh look how pretty the gfx are". Any article on best game engines would mention the API, dependencies, how easy it is to work with, etc. This article is just marketing bullshit.