Game engines in the old days programmers would design

Game Engines: In the old days, programmers would design games from scratch. Given the
complexities of modern games, game programmers rely on software systems called game
engines to provide underlying support (rendering, animation, physics). This frees the game
programmer from many of the more mundane tasks in order to focus on the essential elements
of the game play. Some common examples of game engines include Unity 3D, Unreal Engine,
CryEngine, and Godot.
The Scope of this Course: At some schools, game development constitutes a series of courses on
various topics. Here, we will be able to focus on only a small part of the spectrum of relevant
topics. While most game designers make use of sophisticate software tools (for graphics,
modeling, AI, physics), it is not within the scope of this class to teach a particular set of
tools (even though we will discuss game engines for the sake of project development). As in
Lecture 1 3 Spring 2018

CMSC 425 Dave Mount & Roger Eastman
most upper-division computer science courses, our interest is not in how to use these tools,
but rather how to build these systems. In particular, we will discuss the theory, practice, and
technology that underlies the implementation of these systems.
This semester, we will touch upon only a subset of these issues. For each, we will discuss how
concepts from computer science (and other areas such as mathematics and physics) can be
applied to address the challenging elements that underlie game implementation.
Course Overview: In this course, we will provide an overview of what might be called the science
and engineering of computer games. In particular, we will see how concepts developed in
computer science can be applied to address the aforementioned elements of computer games.
These include the following:
Game Engines: The organization, structure, and overall features of a typical game engine.
Introduction to the Unity game engine.
Geometric Programming and Data Structures: Review of geometry and linear algebra
and their applications to game programming. Linear and affine transformations and 3-
dimensional rotation. Bounding volumes and efficient collision detection.
Modelling, and Animation: Shape representations and meshes, level of detail, terrain
modeling, articulated models and skinning, animation, texture modeling, procedural
generation and geometry synthesis.
AI for Games: Agent-based systems, finite-state machines, decision making and planning.
Motion Planning and Navigation: Path planning algorithms and A
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-search, navigation
meshes, multiple-agent motion and crowds, pursuit-evasion.
Networking and Online Games: TCP/IP, sockets programming, multiplayer gaming, la-
tency hiding, distributed data consistency, security.
Other Topics: Physics (Newtonian dynamics, particle simulation, mass-spring models), physics
engines, aural rendering (audio and HRTFs, audio acquisition and libraries, local and
global aural rendering).
Lecture 1 4 Spring 2018