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Game Engine Architecture
Hailed as a "must-have textbook" (CHOICE, January 2010), the first edition of Game Engine Architecture provided readers with a complete guide to the theory and practice of game engine software development. Updating the content to match today s landscape of game engine architecture, this second edition continues to thoroughly cover the major components that make up a typical commercial game engine.
New to the Second Edition
Information on new topics, including the latest variant of the C++ programming language, C++11, and the architecture of the eighth generation of gaming consoles, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 New chapter on audio technology covering the fundamentals of the physics, mathematics, and technology that go into creating an AAA game audio engine Updated sections on multicore programming, pipelined CPU architecture and optimization, localization, pseudovectors and Grassman algebra, dual quaternions, SIMD vector math, memory alignment, and anti-aliasing Insight into the making of Naughty Dog s latest hit, The Last of Us
The book presents the theory underlying various subsystems that comprise a commercial game engine as well as the data structures, algorithms, and software interfaces that are typically used to implement them. It primarily focuses on the engine itself, including a host of low-level foundation systems, the rendering engine, the collision system, the physics simulation, character animation, and audio. An in-depth discussion on the "gameplay foundation layer" delves into the game s object model, world editor, event system, and scripting system. The text also touches on some aspects of gameplay programming, including player mechanics, cameras, and AI.
An awareness-building tool and a jumping-off point for further learning, Game Engine Architecture, Second Edition gives readers a solid understanding of both the theory and common practices employed within each of the engineering disciplines covered. The book will help readers on their journey through this fascinating and multifaceted field."
New to the Second Edition
Information on new topics, including the latest variant of the C++ programming language, C++11, and the architecture of the eighth generation of gaming consoles, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 New chapter on audio technology covering the fundamentals of the physics, mathematics, and technology that go into creating an AAA game audio engine Updated sections on multicore programming, pipelined CPU architecture and optimization, localization, pseudovectors and Grassman algebra, dual quaternions, SIMD vector math, memory alignment, and anti-aliasing Insight into the making of Naughty Dog s latest hit, The Last of Us
The book presents the theory underlying various subsystems that comprise a commercial game engine as well as the data structures, algorithms, and software interfaces that are typically used to implement them. It primarily focuses on the engine itself, including a host of low-level foundation systems, the rendering engine, the collision system, the physics simulation, character animation, and audio. An in-depth discussion on the "gameplay foundation layer" delves into the game s object model, world editor, event system, and scripting system. The text also touches on some aspects of gameplay programming, including player mechanics, cameras, and AI.
An awareness-building tool and a jumping-off point for further learning, Game Engine Architecture, Second Edition gives readers a solid understanding of both the theory and common practices employed within each of the engineering disciplines covered. The book will help readers on their journey through this fascinating and multifaceted field."
1014 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
September 2, 2016
First of all, I started reading this edition of the book (1st edition), two weeks after the second edition was published. Had I known, I would obviously read the second edition. Especially considering that the the first edition is five years old, an era within the world of game development. Five years is actually about 10% of the time that video games have existed!
Oh well.. Jason Gregory still does a brilliant job of explaining both the high level overview of a game engine, as well as zooming in on the implementation details of some of these complex systems.
Gregory's expertise shines through in the entire book, and I keep thinking to myself, that Naughty Dog are lucky to have a guy like this.
Also John Carmack's name and the Quake engine tends to come up a lot, probably not a surprise.
You just realize how brilliant these people are, and I find it deeply inspiring... And sometimes a bit spooky. You're a spooky man John Carmack!
Having read this book from cover to cover, I obviously did not comprehend 100% of its contents.
But now I have a general knowledge of all of the major subsystems that make up a game engine, and I think that's going to prove very valuable.
It's worth a re-read, so I will definitely pick up the second edition at some point, and read that.
I'm used to working with Unity 3D, which is probably the most mainstream engine today.
The only downside to this book, in my opinion, was the amount of Unreal Engine references, and not a single mention of Unity. I don't know if the second edition includes perspectives from Gregory on Unity, but I certainly hope so.
Long story short. I feel like I gained a lot from reading this book, even though I didn't understand everything Gregory was talking about(I'm not a C++ programmer, so the amount of C++ code was a bit overwhelming). I would recommend it to everyone making games. Even if you're not planning to create a game engine, it doesn't hurt knowing the inner workings of the tools you're using.
Oh well.. Jason Gregory still does a brilliant job of explaining both the high level overview of a game engine, as well as zooming in on the implementation details of some of these complex systems.
Gregory's expertise shines through in the entire book, and I keep thinking to myself, that Naughty Dog are lucky to have a guy like this.
Also John Carmack's name and the Quake engine tends to come up a lot, probably not a surprise.
You just realize how brilliant these people are, and I find it deeply inspiring... And sometimes a bit spooky. You're a spooky man John Carmack!
Having read this book from cover to cover, I obviously did not comprehend 100% of its contents.
But now I have a general knowledge of all of the major subsystems that make up a game engine, and I think that's going to prove very valuable.
It's worth a re-read, so I will definitely pick up the second edition at some point, and read that.
I'm used to working with Unity 3D, which is probably the most mainstream engine today.
The only downside to this book, in my opinion, was the amount of Unreal Engine references, and not a single mention of Unity. I don't know if the second edition includes perspectives from Gregory on Unity, but I certainly hope so.
Long story short. I feel like I gained a lot from reading this book, even though I didn't understand everything Gregory was talking about(I'm not a C++ programmer, so the amount of C++ code was a bit overwhelming). I would recommend it to everyone making games. Even if you're not planning to create a game engine, it doesn't hurt knowing the inner workings of the tools you're using.
December 27, 2014
I've read one similar book - , and compared to that one this book is more general and less opinionated, but that at the same time means it offers less meat in terms of actual implementations and opinions.
For me personally, Game Coding Complete was a more interesting / inspiring book, even though Game Engine Architecture is being more thorough.
As a programmer, I'm more interested in actual implementation details and learning new things and ideas - and is this respect the book is somewhat of a let-down. As an overview to gaming engine architecture (in particular 3D game engines) it provides better starting points for further exploration, but in itself it offers comparatively little guidance and material.
There are also deliberate omissions, most glaringly is perhaps that of multiplayer networking. This is not strange since that is a fairly extensive field in itself, but I'm tempted to say that it's left out not due to space restrictions, but because very few 3D Game Engine designers are experts at network programming.
Final verdict - if you're doing 3D games and ponder writing a game engine, this is a good reference. If you're just interested in game engines in general, this offers to little meat to be worth it.
For me personally, Game Coding Complete was a more interesting / inspiring book, even though Game Engine Architecture is being more thorough.
As a programmer, I'm more interested in actual implementation details and learning new things and ideas - and is this respect the book is somewhat of a let-down. As an overview to gaming engine architecture (in particular 3D game engines) it provides better starting points for further exploration, but in itself it offers comparatively little guidance and material.
There are also deliberate omissions, most glaringly is perhaps that of multiplayer networking. This is not strange since that is a fairly extensive field in itself, but I'm tempted to say that it's left out not due to space restrictions, but because very few 3D Game Engine designers are experts at network programming.
Final verdict - if you're doing 3D games and ponder writing a game engine, this is a good reference. If you're just interested in game engines in general, this offers to little meat to be worth it.
August 22, 2018
It is a good book, but the title, a bit misleading in my opinion. I think this book gives a very good overview about which requirements a game engine should have, focused on the math and disciplines and well known libraries and frameworks in the market.
When I read a book about software architecture, I expect something on the lines of Principles, Patterns and Practices from Uncle Bob, GoF design patterns or something similar. Well proven ideas that helps you to structure your code and also helps your application (in this case, a game) to evolve more or less smoothly. This book unfortunately explore very little of these and more about challenges you will find in specific game areas like gameplay, rendering, etc.
When I read a book about software architecture, I expect something on the lines of Principles, Patterns and Practices from Uncle Bob, GoF design patterns or something similar. Well proven ideas that helps you to structure your code and also helps your application (in this case, a game) to evolve more or less smoothly. This book unfortunately explore very little of these and more about challenges you will find in specific game areas like gameplay, rendering, etc.
March 11, 2010
This book covers the different systems and components of a professional game engine. This books does not attempt to provide a complete game engine written in C++, as a few other books have done. Instead, it provides good and proven solutions on how different programmers have tackled the problems faced by modern games. The experience of the author really shows, yet the writing style is comfortable and easy. This edition does not cover multithreading, which is a popular and important topic for future games. Definitely a good read for all game programmers to get a better perspective of all the different systems.
February 22, 2017
I purchased this as a present for my son when he was in High School after he showed interest in Gaming. It is certainly a dense book.
My background included computer programming at the assembly level and he was interested in flipping burgers as a career despite being quite bright. He kept this book (actually reading it) along with many others through college and is an accomplished Video Game Programmer today with a number of published titles.
Can't do better than that as a recommendation!
My background included computer programming at the assembly level and he was interested in flipping burgers as a career despite being quite bright. He kept this book (actually reading it) along with many others through college and is an accomplished Video Game Programmer today with a number of published titles.
Can't do better than that as a recommendation!
December 18, 2017
This book is one of the most well-written books in Computer Science generally.
Although you should have some good understanding of programming in general, low-level hardware
concepts, operating systems and of course some mathematics, like linear algebra, trigonometry, and
geometry in general, it's must to have book for someone who want to start in the game programming
field. It covers almost every topic that surrounds modern game engine, although it
cannot cover everything in depth, it contains one of the best explanations for topics like
Animations, Memory allocations and low-level systems in general. Must have book for every game
developer. A book that you cannot get a bored while reading.
Although you should have some good understanding of programming in general, low-level hardware
concepts, operating systems and of course some mathematics, like linear algebra, trigonometry, and
geometry in general, it's must to have book for someone who want to start in the game programming
field. It covers almost every topic that surrounds modern game engine, although it
cannot cover everything in depth, it contains one of the best explanations for topics like
Animations, Memory allocations and low-level systems in general. Must have book for every game
developer. A book that you cannot get a bored while reading.
February 29, 2016
The best book out there on game engine architecture, by far. Certainly not a copy-paste-your-game-engine book, but a good reading to *understand* how the things are done in this (extremely complicated BTW) field.
Target audience: whoever wants to become a senior developer, senior developers, and all the way up.
Target audience: whoever wants to become a senior developer, senior developers, and all the way up.
January 21, 2018
This is the best game programming book I've ever read. It's full of interesting details, extremely informative and enlightening. Must read for anyone making their own game engine.
April 22, 2021
High quality overview of the content of a modern computer game engine. Even as an industry veteran I learned a few things from this book.
However, a few things mean I can't say it's perfect! I did find that it glossed over a few areas, with virtually nothing on camera control, character control, UI, or networking, whereas concurrency got 150 pages, a mathematics primer got 60, and audio theory got almost 50.
It was also surprisingly lean on the actual 'architecture' aspect implied by the book title. I would have liked to have seen more about different ways to communicate between different systems, and how the application might be structured. The game loop was relatively well discussed but this was split across two sections and a single comprehensive treatment might have been better.
It does contain a great overview of the various ways in which a game 'actor' or 'entity' can be represented, from the traditional to the more recently popularized methods, and avoids the "OOP vs no OOP" trap that some online discourse has fallen into in recent years.
On the whole I can recommend it to any junior or intermediate game developer looking to broaden their knowledge, or anyone interested in the specific areas which are covered in detail in this book.
However, a few things mean I can't say it's perfect! I did find that it glossed over a few areas, with virtually nothing on camera control, character control, UI, or networking, whereas concurrency got 150 pages, a mathematics primer got 60, and audio theory got almost 50.
It was also surprisingly lean on the actual 'architecture' aspect implied by the book title. I would have liked to have seen more about different ways to communicate between different systems, and how the application might be structured. The game loop was relatively well discussed but this was split across two sections and a single comprehensive treatment might have been better.
It does contain a great overview of the various ways in which a game 'actor' or 'entity' can be represented, from the traditional to the more recently popularized methods, and avoids the "OOP vs no OOP" trap that some online discourse has fallen into in recent years.
On the whole I can recommend it to any junior or intermediate game developer looking to broaden their knowledge, or anyone interested in the specific areas which are covered in detail in this book.
October 6, 2019
This book is considered a must-read for many people, and I can see why: It explores and demonstrates pretty much every aspect of game engine development, in an relatively easy to follow and understand way - some programming experience is needed, of course, but the book does explain things from the very basic and gives the reader a few references for things it does not teach, like C++.
The edition I've read - the second edition - has one or two things that I know could be updated, but most of it is modern and applicable today. The examples could go a bit deeper, but I understand why they don't most of the times - it's a book written to teach a general idea on game engine programming, if you want to go deeper, you'd probably search for books on the specific subjects you want to learn more about.
Overall, a great book. Nowadays I'd get the third edition, of course, but still, well worth reading if you want to learn about Game Engines, and I'm sure it can work well as a reference book too.
The edition I've read - the second edition - has one or two things that I know could be updated, but most of it is modern and applicable today. The examples could go a bit deeper, but I understand why they don't most of the times - it's a book written to teach a general idea on game engine programming, if you want to go deeper, you'd probably search for books on the specific subjects you want to learn more about.
Overall, a great book. Nowadays I'd get the third edition, of course, but still, well worth reading if you want to learn about Game Engines, and I'm sure it can work well as a reference book too.
April 7, 2018
A really good introduction to Game Engines. It´s a must-read for anyone interested in the game industry, and even skilled developers will improve their domain knowledge.
The examples are written in C++, so a minimum level of C++ knowledge will help to understand the examples. Some of the problems will express themselves differently in other languages/environments, like for example Javascript and the Web. But the book keeps an enough high level to be very useful independently of your environment and language of choice.
The examples are written in C++, so a minimum level of C++ knowledge will help to understand the examples. Some of the problems will express themselves differently in other languages/environments, like for example Javascript and the Web. But the book keeps an enough high level to be very useful independently of your environment and language of choice.
July 9, 2019
It is the story of how games are made. Its the story of the equipment, considerations, and power that makes these worlds come to life. If you love games, or want to build them. If you are a gear head, and need to know how its done, or why its done this way, this is the game engineering book for you. If you want it easy, look elsewhere.
January 3, 2019
A complete tech bible of the components a game engine should implement, providing hardware architecture, mathematics and implementation tricks. A must have for anyone who wants to have a full overview of a game production.
August 30, 2019
It seemed very easy to read, simple to understand, and straightforward to form an overall picture in the software architecture headbook. Much wisdom, good examples, clear structure. This book is good for a wide audience. I'd recommend it to managers. It will help avoid stupid technical decisions.
July 19, 2019
Comprehensive and fun with anecdotal knowledge about game engine design from Naughty Dog's, Sony's and other popular pre-Unreal 4 game engines.
Read
September 6, 2020Good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2020
A big picture about Game Engine and subsystems. It show some good frameworks can be used to achive a basic engine. Great overview.
November 28, 2021
The book gives solid base, although there is a lot more reading (and coding) in order to write a fully-fledged game engine. If you want to write one this is definetely the book to start.
Although, beware - it opens a huge rabbit hole of new knowledge and definetely explains why game engines are written by large team of programmers - you could easily be convinced that writing game engine by yourself is an impossible feat.
Although, beware - it opens a huge rabbit hole of new knowledge and definetely explains why game engines are written by large team of programmers - you could easily be convinced that writing game engine by yourself is an impossible feat.
December 22, 2024
D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2025
Truly a great book, completely demystified the inner working of game engine in easy to understand way.
October 21, 2021
An extremely useful book which taught me about most areas of game development. It gives you a core understanding about how game and game engine work. Compared to the previous editions, the third edition has newer info about games, tech (ps4, xbox one), better examples and new topics. The material of the entire book is very valuable, but the multithreading part and maths were the most useful to me and very indepth.
May 30, 2016
An excellent games programming, covers a lot in 800 odd pages but with enough detail and examples of real world game engines which makes it a must read for all game programmers.
My only slight criticism is that for Game Engine Architecture book it doesn't really touch on Audio at all. Perhaps it may have been an idea to cut back on the discussion of digital content creation.
My only slight criticism is that for Game Engine Architecture book it doesn't really touch on Audio at all. Perhaps it may have been an idea to cut back on the discussion of digital content creation.
December 7, 2014
Provides a good overview and some detailed insights into the
most common parts of a commercial-grade game engine.
You will NOT be able to create your own game engine after
reading this book, but you will have a better understanding
of what you are trying to create.
most common parts of a commercial-grade game engine.
You will NOT be able to create your own game engine after
reading this book, but you will have a better understanding
of what you are trying to create.
January 13, 2019
while this was a pretty basic overview of engine architecture. The anecdotes from the author's knowledge of the Naughty Dog uncharted/last of us engine made this worth the time. I learned a little about implementing scripting virtual machines which is pretty cool and a bit about memory management.
July 28, 2022
The most comprehensive guide on how game engines work inside out. The book goes into painstaking detail about every aspect of what goes into making a game engine. You can use what you learn in this book to apply it easily use it to create a game engine of your own (which I will never do).
July 23, 2012
Felt like it only scratched the surface
May 28, 2014
Huge textbook better used for reference, but still an awesome guide on common game engine architecture pitfalls.
May 19, 2018
ِAn amazing piece of work, lots of advices.. A must have.
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