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www.digitaltutors.com Copyright 2002-2014 Digital-Tutors, a service of PL Studios, Inc.
Game Development Terms
Understanding Industry Terms & Working Like a Pro
Whether youre brand new to game development or you need a refresher, weve got you
covered with game development terms and defnitions to help you talk and make games.
See examples of how these key terms are used and why theyre so important for your
assets and games. If you ever encounter a term used in game development that you are
unfamiliar with, use this as a reference.
MODELING
Asset
Assets are anything that must be created
in an external software like 3ds Max,
Photoshop, ZBrush, etc. Assets can
be models, textures, sound efects,
animations, and much more.
Polygon Count
The polycount of your model is the total
number of triangular polygons it takes
to render your model in 3D space. The
higher your polycount, the longer it takes
for the system to render it.
Triangle
A triangle is a single three-sided polygon
of a 3d model. Each polygon in a 3d
model will be triangulated when it is
imported into a game engine.
Quad
A quad is a single four-sided polygon of a
3d model. Remember that a quad is made
up of two triangles.
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Real-Time Render
Games are expected to render at a specifc speed called Frames-Per-
Second. When the player presses a button, they expect to see an
action render immediately. The render time can be afected by a
lot of diferent factors, but if a game is optimized, the art assets are
usually the main reason for low frames-per-second.
FORZA MOTORSPORT is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation
Optimization
Optimization is the process of reducing memory usage
of your assets. For example, models are optimized by
reducing their polycount without drastically afecting
its silhouette.
LOD Models
Level of Detail Models are diferent versions of the
game resolution model used in the game. These
models vary in polygon count and are swapped out
based on the models distance from the camera. This is
an extremely important aspect of optimizing games.
Silhouette
The silhouette is the major form of a model. This does
not include any detail such as screws in a weapon
or a button on a cell phone. Small details like this are
typically faked using a normal map.
ORIGINAL
2500 poly
LOD 1
632 poly
LOD 2
132 poly
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www.digitaltutors.com Copyright 2002-2014 Digital-Tutors, a service of PL Studios, Inc.
TEXTURING
UV Maps
UV mapping is a tedious but necessary part of creating
custom textures for your 3D models. UV maps bridge the
gap between 3D objects and 2D textures, allowing us to
layout the 3D object in fat UV coordinates to paint them
with vivid detail.
Difuse Map
The difuse map is the fat color of your game object.
Essentially, it is just an image wrapped around your model
without any special efects applied.
Bump Map
Bump maps are a great way to give an object the illusion
of depth or relief without increasing render time. Using
the black, white and grey data stored in a bump map,
the surface properties of the object will be altered by the
value given.
Normal Map
Normal maps are similar to bump maps in that the illusion
of depth or relief is created by a normal maps color. For
normal maps however, they use RGB values to signify the
orientation of the surface normal. This helps game artists
take highly-detailed models and bake all of the surface
detail into a normal map which can be applied to a low-
poly model and create the illusion of high-res detail.
Specular Map
A specular map is used to add shininess to an object.
Dark colors of the image provide little to no shininess to
the model, while light colors provide more shininess.
Alpha Map
Alpha maps are also known as transparency maps and are
used to make areas of a model more transparent. They are
usually grayscale images. The darkest areas of the map
will provide zero transparency and the lightest areas will
be transparent. These maps are commonly used for hair,
cloth, plants and windows.
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Displacement Map
Displacement maps add high resolution detail to a model, much
like a normal map. However, displacement maps physically push
or displace the vertices of a model while a normal map does not.
There are two things to be aware of when using displacement
maps: 1) A model must have enough vertices to be displaced in
order to change its physical shape. 2) Displacement maps can be
costly, so use them wisely.
Emissive Map
An emissive map is a map that will provide a glow afect if the
engine supports it. These maps can be any color. However, dark
areas of the map will provide little to no glow.
Light Map
Light maps are maps that are used to reduce the high memory
usage that comes with adding lights in a game environment. This
can be done through Light Baking. The level artist would light
the level as normal and when he/she is fnished, they will bake the
static lights into the textures of the level. Then all of the static lights
in the level can be removed, thus freeing up the much needed
memory to make a game run smoothly.
Tiling Textures
Tiling textures can be applied to a model and repeated infnitely
in one or more directions. Tiling textures are typically used on
surfaces like walls and terrains that would be difcult to texture by
hand. Its a good idea to create multiple variations of tiling textures
to create a more interesting look of the game. The same brick
texture on multiple buildings would look very odd.
Decals
Decals are textures with transparent properties that can be applied
to surfaces in the game to help break up bare and uninteresting
area of the game. Some examples of decals in a game would be
bullet impacts, blood splatter, posters, trash, and stains.
Shaders
Once all of the textures are created, they are combined into an
object called a shader. Each texture must be applied to its proper
channel on the shader. The shader will then display the textures
afect on the model. At this point, the user can tweak certain
parameters to get the fnal look of the model.
Texture Resolution
Texture resolution is the dimensions of your texture.
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Rigging
When rigging assets for games, you are creating
controls, bones and more, and the ability for the
asset to be animated.
Skinning
Skinning is the process of connecting or
associating the individual bones to the
corresponding skin sections. The connection
between bones and skin needs to be gradual -
assigning weights to how much each skin polygon
is afected by the bones motion.
One-Of Animations
One-Of animations represent a specifc action or
movement of an object or character. For example,
a character swinging a bat or throwing a ball.
Looping Animations
Looping animations are animations that can be
looped multiple times without the player noticing. For
example, a walk or run cycle.
Socket
A socket is a bone or dummy object attached to the
skeleton/rig that can be used to attach secondary
models. For example, when a character picks up a gun
and it attaches itself to the characters back.
Additive Animations
Additive animations are added on top of other
animations to perform two or more actions at once.
For example, a character reloading a weapon could
stand in place, crouch, lay prone or sprint in the game.
The player may want to reload while doing any one
of these actions. The reload animation is an additive
animation that blends with other animations. This
relieves the need to create a unique reload animation
for every secondary action.
ANIMATION:
Animation in games is very similar to flm. The models will be rigged to skeletons and
animated with keyframes. However, games have a much higher need for looping
animations and one-of animations.
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www.digitaltutors.com Copyright 2002-2014 Digital-Tutors, a service of PL Studios, Inc.
Game Loop
The game loop is what lets a game run
smoothly whether there is input from a
player or not.
GameState
This can be considered part of a games
internal logic and defnes an object at that
particular time and keeps track of items
such as timers, kills and rounds. A games
internal logic is one of the most important
parts of any games development.
GUI
The Graphical User Interface are the
elements that a player sees when playing.
The interface can consist of remaining
ammo and time, touch-screen buttons,
points and much more.
AI
Artifcial Intelligence is the computers logic
when making decisions in a game.
PROGRAMMING:
Game Engine
These engines are the systems for creating and developing your
games. Most popular game engines use a software framework
that lets game developers bring in assets, create functionality and
publish their game for play.
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www.digitaltutors.com Copyright 2002-2014 Digital-Tutors, a service of PL Studios, Inc.
Player Input
The name pretty much says it all on this
one, but its key to know when talking about
game development. Player input is how the
players controls interact with the game. The
input can be via mouse, controller, keyboard
or touch screen and may difer from device
to device.
Waypoints
Waypoints are a quick and powerful way to
create a simple model of a level that an AI
can understand.
Scripting
There are common scripting languages for
games, c++, c#, Java and more, and scripting
is an essential part of game programming.
An understanding of the languages and
how scripting is connected to all parts of
game programming will help in your game
development skills.
Go deeper with our CG101 series to learn more about other CG and game development terms.
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