Queensland University of Technology CRICOS No J ITB/ITN751 Games Production Lecture 7 Game Development Tools Ross Brown

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Lecture Contents Game Development Tool Programming Guest Lecture – Luke Cooper, THQ

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Readings Textbook Chapters: –Chapter 7 Websites: – - great postmortem of tools development for Asheron’s Call 2http:// – html - same author talking about online game toolshttp:// html – - game asset pipeline informationhttp://

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Quality and Quantity “Men have become the tools of their tools” - Henry David Thoreau

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Some Simple Tools

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R A Potential Dichotomy John Ousterhout’s idea of scripting vs system languages [1] So we have a similar dichotomy of system components – game engine, modelling packages etc. and scripts – exporters, prototyping tools, make tools, asset management tools These tools form the Asset Pipeline which processes content generated by modellers/animators into engine formats

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Asset Pipeline Game Engine Asset Tools Formatted Assets Geometric Packages Audio Packages Raw Content Texture Packages Raw Content

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R The Difference Game development tools can be described as the glue that holds the whole process together Thus it differs from the game engine programmer who looks after the system code Efficiency is not the issue here, utility is the issue for a tools programmer Another programming path that does not require as higher skills as engine programming

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Technology Languages are more widely spread: –Compiled languages: C++/C# –Scripting languages: Python, Lua, MEL (Maya Scripting Language), Maxscript (3DS Max script)… Similar development environments as a game engine programmer Note the use of Graphical User Interface (GUI) building software to develop user interfaces to the tools easily – windows style interfaces

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Processes You do not have to create as high-speed code – but it does matter to a certain extent You will have to create useful code This role is still very important as the code you produce is likely to facilitate or impede the process of game development

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Processes Game development success is highly predicated on the available tools Means that the development process runs more efficiently Influences quality of the output Influences quantity of the games generated

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Processes Development programmers are involved in the planning/pre-production phase, and the development stages of the life cycle Preproduction is where the tool assembly line is formed Maintained through the development stage of the life cycle

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Processes Often, the data in the form used in modelling and animation packages is not represented in a manner useful for efficient rendering in games engines Thus the tools developer writes the utilities to convert and manage this data to forms that suit the game engine This may speed up loading and or running of the game

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Communication You work in synchronisation with the games engine development team to make sure you provide the correctly formatted data for the engine You will also need to communicate with designers very closely on the level building tools you develop They will desire certain features, so the planning and dialog here is very important Thus standard software engineering and coding procedures should be enacted

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Communication Engage in extracting and documenting precise user requirements Quality Assurance also tests the tools used in the game development process Might use bug reporting scripts as in MS Windows XP Use MSN to allow for ease of bug fixing with non- reproducible errors

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Exporting Tools Developed Exporting tools from modelling packages written as plugins – see first video Strips data from the files to make them smaller and more efficient –level of detail hierarchies –collision detection bounding boxes… Convert them to the engine format for loading by the game

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Level Tools Game prototyping environments and level design tools – tightly integrated with the game engine Allow easy design of levels using previously created content Scripting of game mechanics in order to test the gameplay May have a version of the game engine incorporated

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Other Tools Similar conversion for audio content Texture images used in the game converted to engine formats Procedural content generation – objects in the game may be created by novel program code, not just modellers and animators

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R More Tools Very small tools for niche creation jobs – modelling and animation tweaking tools etc. Script compilation tools – convert scripts to binary code Digital asset management tools – tools for keeping track of versions of assets across the team

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R and More Tools Bug tracking and engine data logging tools – takes the engine debug log data and processes it for visualisation Also, the myriad of scripts and programs which fill the “holes” between tools used in the development process for your company Note the difference to middleware as discussed in the Engine Programming Lecture – middleware tends to be system libraries for use in engines

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R The Master Tool This asset pipeline is controlled by a master tool, known as the Build Tool It takes the output from all the content software, and synchronises the asset tools to develop a complete set of content for the game engine It also compiles the game engine source code itself Often runs overnight to build the new version of the game, though incremental building systems are now more often used

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Commercial Toolsets XNA – has audio asset and build tools, along with a game engine (Torque) and DirectX/Direct3D integrated in to form a game building environment msdn.microsoft.com/xna msdn.microsoft.com/xna AlienBrain – Digital Asset Management Tool Collada – file format standard for game assets UnReal Engine/Half Life 2 and other engines often come with tools for level design and importation and exportation of assets Build Tools for automatic game asset processing and engine building en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_aut omation en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_aut omation

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R R & D Programming It should be noted here that game studio may also have a Research & Development (R & D) section associated with the tools and engine developers R & D sections will seek to solves problems for engine and tool development by scouting out new technology to incorporate into internally developed software Also may investigate the utility of commercial middleware as solutions to game development problems Not common, but useful for a larger company

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Round Up and Reality Check So far we have dealt with the classic areas of game development –Production –Design –Animation/Modelling –Engine Programming –Audio –Quality Assurance –Development Tools

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Supporting Roles From this we have a good perspective on creating an actual game From now on we will learn about the supporting game production “Ecology” Roles that provide support to the games industry

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Supporting Roles Careers that are of a niche nature but may be of interest to people with more generic skills Providing a broader understanding of the game industry as a whole

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Best Student Awards 2007 ITB751 / ITN751 – Games Production We are introducing a best grade competition this semester, and Microsoft is sponsoring a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate and a number of Xbox/PC Games for the winners These prizes will be awarded to the students with the highest marks in the unit(s) ITB751/ITN751

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R Guest Lecturer Luke Cooper – Game Development Tools Programmer THQ

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R References 1.John K. Ousterhout, Scripting: Higher Level Programming for the 21st Century, 1998, accessed 12/09/ Ben Carter, The Game Asset Pipeline, Charles River Media, 2004