XNA Tutorial Forecast

[Ashe]

Hopefully this is the right forum.

Let me start out saying that I am 100% new to 3D game engine programming so please forgive me for stupid questions.  Thank you for creating these XNA tutorials as they have been very helpful.

I was wondering if you could forecast the next 5 or more tutorials.  As a beginner, I am curious what the steps are to building the engine.  At what point you would add animation, collision, AI, etc?

I am also interested in your opinion is on what a real commercial engine consists of.  What do you look for in a game engine that makes it a good engine?

Thanks,

-Ashe

[swakdaddy]

I had the same questions recently...what exactly goes into an engine?
I've been doing these tutorials and playing with a lot of other components such as Ogre3D, etc for over a year now and finally wanted a definite answer for that question.

I just got this book the other day and it is really the only book I've found (so far) that discusses the components of an engine in a very easy to understand manner. The thing I like the most is that it gets to the point...unlike some books that seem to ramble about quaternions and shaders for 500 pages, it gets to the point on what components go into an engine and how they fit together.

Hopefully it helps! :-)

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Architecture-Charles-Development-Paperback/dp/1584504730/sr=8-1/qid=1171505711/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4175445-7784929?ie=UTF8&s=books

[Chr0n1x]

It all depends on what you really want your engine to do, I mean everyone's needs are different and that is why there aren't many concise articles on the topic. You might need shaders, you might not, you might need sound, you might not... it all depends on what you want to do with the engine and what can be done with the technology at hand/skill levels.

[swakdaddy]

Yeah I agree with Chr0n1x on that one...I'm still a relative newbie, but I had to get another book "3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c A Shader Approach" by Frank Luna (excellent BTW) for more detailed information about the graphics stuff than the game engine architecture book.