What actually is a game engine, and how do they differ from one another? (e.g. Unreal Engine vs Cryengine)
In: Technology
A game has “assets” – NPC’s, scenery, vegetation, buildings, furniture, clutter, weapons, armor, vehicles, etc. All of these are stored in nice little files and make up about 90% of the game size, the gigabytes you have to download to install the game.
The game engine is the core program that sets up all these assets so they look like a game rather than a collection of art assets. NPC’s move and interact, trees sway in the wind, buildings allow entry and exit etc., weapons function, armor can be put on and taken off, etc. It’s the job of the engine to make all of that work.
The various engines differ in how they do that job (programming language) and how they’re optimized. Some engines are optimized for small indoor areas, others for large open geography and huge armies, others for 3D movement like flying in space and landing on planets, etc.
Sometimes a game will use one engine to let you fly in space, and another to let you walk around on a planet after you’ve landed.
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