Thread: What's a engine?

  1. #1
    newbieprogrammer
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    What's a engine?

    I was wondering what's a engine? (In terms of programming)

  2. #2
    Registered User xlnk's Avatar
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    Well, ill give you an example. Lets take a 3d engine. Basically an engine is made so you can re-use the code in the engine. You can make a function to make a cube, plane, sphere, etc. and use it in a game. Then someone else can come along and can use those objects in a game their making.

    Basically an engine, is a group of code or functions that can be reused after and after. Take Quake3 for example, so many games have used the quake3 engine as a base.
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  3. #3
    Sir Mister Insane Sako Klinerr1's Avatar
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    yo this is a newbie heres a more basic answer: a engine is a program that is all coded and all you got do is very basic stuff to it like.. in a platofrm game the complete engine would be the movement programmed and al you have to do is draw out the maps.
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  4. #4
    Code Goddess Prelude's Avatar
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    >I was wondering what's a engine?
    What does the engine of a car do? Take the same concept and put it into the field of programming.

    The jargon file answer:
    Code:
    engine n. 
    
    1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some function but can't
     be used without some kind of front end. Today we have, 
    especially, `print engine': the guts of a laser printer. 2. An 
    analogous piece of software; notionally, one that does a lot of 
    noisy crunching, such as a `database engine'. 
    
    The hacker senses of `engine' are actually close to its original, 
    pre-Industrial-Revolution sense of a skill, clever device, or 
    instrument (the word is cognate to `ingenuity'). This sense had 
    not been completely eclipsed by the modern connotation of 
    power-transducing machinery in Charles Babbage's time, which 
    explains why he named the stored-program computer that he 
    designed in 1844 the `Analytical Engine'.
    -Prelude
    My best code is written with the delete key.

  5. #5
    Registered User moonwalker's Avatar
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    question...

    so does engine mean the same as library ?

    another question:
    what's the difference between a header file and a library ?

  6. #6
    "The Oldest Member Here" Xterria's Avatar
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    header files access library(.lib) files so that they can be used in your program.

    btw libraries have different extensions too, not just .lib

  7. #7
    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    yes an engine is a library, but a special kind of library. It is a set of functions, variables, etc. used for making a specific type of program.

    The type of engine you have probably heard most often is the game engine.

    A game engine will in many cases contain all functions needed for interfacing and interacting characters with each other, but you yourself must actually make the plot of the game, the characters themselves, etc.

    For example, an engine might contain a class which is designed to load an animation of the character, handle the character walking around the screen, attacking other units, etc....but you yourself have to make the animation of the character, decide how much damage the character will be able do, etc., depending on what your game will be. But the game engine, however, should have functions readily availble to easily input that stuff so you dont have to do a lot of coding on top of the engine.

    With the engine, you got a good 75% of your game made...you just have to put the pieces together...
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  8. #8
    ¡Amo fútbol!
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    Header files do not neccessarily access library file Xterria. Some headers could simply be filled with class definitions, #defines, and no actual function prototypes.

  9. #9
    "The Oldest Member Here" Xterria's Avatar
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    perhaps not header files made by you and I, but like iostream, allegro, fstream, etc all access libraries

    and yeah some just contain functions too
    but when c++ was made they were meant to be hpp, so people would know that they do not access libraries, but, people like to use .h files either way

  10. #10
    Sir Mister Insane Sako Klinerr1's Avatar
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    like when u say #include <suchandsuch.h> your putitng in a header file which has coding in it for stuff. a library file is a file you make that can be filled with varibales functions and such. and then u include th elibrary file to ur project. a library file is usualy a .cpp file i bielive.
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  11. #11
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    lets say that you have to create a box everday using c++ instead of writing that code you can write a code that produces box code every day thats a engine
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  12. #12
    Registered User moi's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Klinerr1
    like when u say #include <suchandsuch.h> your putitng in a header file which has coding in it for stuff. a library file is a file you make that can be filled with varibales functions and such. and then u include th elibrary file to ur project. a library file is usualy a .cpp file i bielive.
    you make me cry.
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  13. #13
    SpitBall
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    quote:
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Originally posted by Klinerr1
    like when u say #include <suchandsuch.h> your putitng in a header file which has coding in it for stuff. a library file is a file you make that can be filled with varibales functions and such. and then u include th elibrary file to ur project. a library file is usualy a .cpp file i bielive.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I think you're just a bit confused there...

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