In the fields of computer graphics and computer game development, the word gem has been established as a term for describing a short article that focuses on a particular technique, a clever trick, or practical advice that a person working in these fields would find interesting and useful. The term gem was first used in 1990 for the first volume of the Graphics Gems series of books, which concentrated on knowledge pertaining to computer graphics. The mainstream methods for rendering 3D images have changed considerably since then, but many of those gems still comprise useful techniques today and have demonstrated a timeless quality to the knowledge they contain. Several newer book series containing the word "Gems" in their titles have appeared in related subject areas such as game programming and GPU rendering, and they all advance the notion of sharing knowledge through concise articles that each focus on a specific topic. We continue the tradition with this book, the first volume of Game Engine Gems.
Game Engine Gems concentrates on knowledge relating to the development of game engines, which encompass the architecture, design, and coding methods constituting the technological foundation for today's video games. A complete game engine typically includes large components that handle graphics, audio, networking, and physics. There may also be large components that provide services for artificial intelligence (AI) and graphical user interfaces (GUIs), as well as a variety of smaller components that deal with resource management, input devices, mathematics, multithreading, and many additional pieces of generic functionality required by the games built upon them. Furthermore, many game engines are able to run on multiple platforms, which may include PCs and one or more game consoles such as the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. The Game Engine Gems series is specifically intended to include all such aspects of game engine development targeting all current game platforms.
This book is divided into three parts covering the broad subject areas of game engine design, rendering techniques, and programming methods. The 28 gems appearing in this book are written by a group of 25 authors having expertise in game engine development, some quite extensive. It is our hope that the wisdom recorded in these pages and the pages of future volumes of Game Engine Gems continue to serve game developers for many years to come.
