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Preface
The word gem has been coined in the fields of computer graphics and game
development 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. Several book series containing the word
“Gems” in their titles have appeared since the early 1990s, and we continued the
tradition by establishing the Game Engine Gems series in 2010.
This book is the second volume of the Game Engine Gems series, and it
comprises a collection of new game engine development techniques. A group of
29 experienced professionals, several of whom also contributed to the first
volume, have written down portions of their knowledge and wisdom in the form
of the 31 chapters that follow.
The topics covered in these pages vary widely within the subject of game
engine development and have been divided into the three broad categories of
graphics and rendering, game engine design, and systems programming. The first
part of the book presents a variety of rendering techniques and dedicates four
entire chapters to the increasingly popular topic of stereoscopic rendering. The
second part contains several chapters that discuss topics relating to the design of
large components of a game engine. The final part of the book presents several
gems concerning topics of a “low-level” nature for those who like to work with
the nitty-gritty of engine internals.
Audience
The intended audience for this book includes professional game developers,
students of computer science programs, and practically anyone possessing an
interest in how the pros tackle specific problems that arise during game engine
xvi Preface
development. Many of the chapters assume a basic knowledge of computer
architecture as well as some knowledge of the high-level design of current-
generation game consoles, such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The level of
mathematics used in the book rarely exceeds that of basic trigonometry and
calculus.
TheWebsite
The official website for the Game Engine Gems series can be found at the
following address:
http://www.gameenginegems.net/
Supplementary materials for many of the gems in this book are posted on this
website, and they include demos, source code, examples, specifications, and
larger versions of some figures. For chapters that include project files, the source
code can be compiled using Microsoft Visual Studio.
Any corrections to the text that may arise will be posted on the website. This
is also the location at which proposals will be accepted for the next volume in the
Game Engine Gems series.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks are due to A K Peters for quickly assuming ownership of the Game
Engine Gems series after it had lost its home well into the period during which
contributing authors had been writing their chapters. Of course, thanks also go to
these contributors, who took the transition in stride and produced a great set of
gems for this volume. They all worked hard during the editing process so that we
would be able to stay on the original schedule.
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