Engine Jumpers Handbook
by Prairie Games · in General Discussion · 06/28/2003 (10:01 pm) · 2 replies
Engine Jumpers Handbook
Choosing an engine is a difficult and often times transient decision. The process of engine jumping could also be called engine evaluation. Once you find yourself coming back to the same engines though, perhaps you are jumping.
I am a repeat jumper between Nebula, QuakeII, and Torque. Why do I jump? I have some ideas on this subject.
1) Love of technology. I am a code junky. I love to see how brilliant minds have approached certain problems. This is all great educational material, it's very important to get a wide view. Being able to recall obscure snippets, from all over, can help make you a very fast/efficient coder.
2) Lack of a clear goal or deadlines. If your goals are changing, different engines become a better fit. This is natural, though programmers like to pretend they know what they are doing... at all times... Day jobs have a nasty habit of keeping goals and deadlines muddy. If you find yourself confused most of the time this is probably the case :)
3) Features. Engines are human creations, they are not perfect (though Quake3 comes close). They generally have a few strong features, and many weak ones. When you are staring at a given engine for awhile, the weak stuff can give off quite a stench. If another engine comes along when you are frustrated.. *boing*
4) License. Depending on what you are doing this is very important. I am always looking at how/where I can use my code. An engine's license is very important whether you are making technology, a game, selling your code, etc. Licenses vary wildly in what they allow.
5) Stagnation. I use an engine I wrote all the time. I have to maintain and upgrade it. This gets to sucking. When I am not working on it, I like new stuff to look at... and work with... once I understand something, stagnation sets in, I need something else interesting. It's a curse.
Hmmm... perhaps this is the beginning of a Engine Jumpers Anonymous book... I dunno... and I am outta time for the moment.
-J
Choosing an engine is a difficult and often times transient decision. The process of engine jumping could also be called engine evaluation. Once you find yourself coming back to the same engines though, perhaps you are jumping.
I am a repeat jumper between Nebula, QuakeII, and Torque. Why do I jump? I have some ideas on this subject.
1) Love of technology. I am a code junky. I love to see how brilliant minds have approached certain problems. This is all great educational material, it's very important to get a wide view. Being able to recall obscure snippets, from all over, can help make you a very fast/efficient coder.
2) Lack of a clear goal or deadlines. If your goals are changing, different engines become a better fit. This is natural, though programmers like to pretend they know what they are doing... at all times... Day jobs have a nasty habit of keeping goals and deadlines muddy. If you find yourself confused most of the time this is probably the case :)
3) Features. Engines are human creations, they are not perfect (though Quake3 comes close). They generally have a few strong features, and many weak ones. When you are staring at a given engine for awhile, the weak stuff can give off quite a stench. If another engine comes along when you are frustrated.. *boing*
4) License. Depending on what you are doing this is very important. I am always looking at how/where I can use my code. An engine's license is very important whether you are making technology, a game, selling your code, etc. Licenses vary wildly in what they allow.
5) Stagnation. I use an engine I wrote all the time. I have to maintain and upgrade it. This gets to sucking. When I am not working on it, I like new stuff to look at... and work with... once I understand something, stagnation sets in, I need something else interesting. It's a curse.
Hmmm... perhaps this is the beginning of a Engine Jumpers Anonymous book... I dunno... and I am outta time for the moment.
-J
#2
07/01/2003 (12:39 pm)
There is of course a simple solution. Come finish my project, I will keep you working day and night with such confusing and conflicting ideas that you will never stagnate again :)
Torque Owner Nicolas Quijano
Keep on the great insights coming Joshua, I know I devour them as soon as I'm aware they're around !!! 8p
(and best of luck of getting Prairie Games out of its underground lair... Oh, wait that's games, not Prairie dogs...;))