Game Development Dictionary
|A header file is a file that is included into your program source. For Instance: #include "gamestuff.h" Whatever is in gamestuff.h is availible to the program.|
|A graphics technique which creates the illusion of light reflected on a surface. A specular highlight is the brightest point on an object.|
|Qbasic stands for Quick Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.It was originaly made in 1975 by Biil Gates and Paul Allen. QBASIC is one of many BASIC programming launguages.|
|A free Windows C/C++ compiler by Mumit Khan.|
|A BASIC compiler/interpreter/IDE by William Yu. It's features are very similar to Visual Basic, and it is easy to use. (It's also free!) For more information, or to get a free download, check out the following address:( WWW)|
|A true compiler for the BASIC language by Max Reason. www.xbasic.org|
|QuickBASIC stands for Quick Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.It was originaly made in 1975 by Biil Gates and Paul Allen. QBASIC is one of many BASIC programming launguages.|
An set of operators that take three operands. In C, the ternary operators are ? and :, and the syntax for their use is
an algorithm used to sort elements in an array. Developed by C.A.R. Hoare, it has an average efficency of 1.4n log2(n)
as compared to Insertion, Selection, and Bubble with averages of n(n-1)/4, n(n-1)/2, and |
|Artificial intelligence that is build on several levels, in order to produce concrete and local actions from a global concept or strategy. Mostly used in Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games, in order to simulate military hierarchy.|
|The most popurar sorting algorithm to sort an array of items.|
|When you initialize a variable, you give it its value. Used in programming. You can define and initialize a variable in one statement to help reduce code size. C++ Example: int num=3; ^ ^ ^ | | | | | value | variable name type|
|A set of characters and/or numbers defined within a variable. Used in programming to store data, create matrices, and other. C++ Example: char array="Hello world"; ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | | | | contents | | | | | number of characters | | | variable name type|
|An alias of a variable.|
|Simple DirectMedia Layer. A cross-platform game programming library. SDL uses the OS's native multimedia support to provide fast graphics, sound, and input processing on several platforms. SDL also provides a portable way to create OpenGL contexts, and can be used as a much more powerful replacement for the GLUT toolkit. SDL currently supports Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, IRIX, MacOS, and BeOS. It is covered by the GNU Library General Public License, and it may be used in commercial projects. SDL's website is http://www.libsdl.org.|
|A new programming language. Remarkably simple, flexible, powerful language definition that is easy to learn and use. Euphoria runs under Windows, Dos, and Linux. Available memory usage equals the amount of onboard memory. Not an "object oriented" language yet achieves the benifits of these languages in a much simpler way.|
|Euphoria is a new programming language. A remarkably simple, flexible, powerful language definition that is easy to learn and use. Euphoria runs under Windows, Dos, and Linux. Available memory usage equals the amount of onboard memory. Not an "object oriented" language yet achieves the benifits of these languages in a much simpler way. The language definition is easy to learn and use.|
|A group of instructions that perform one or more functions, mathematical or otherwise. (e.g.: main() )|
|MaxScript is a built in feature of 3D Studio MAX. Is a very basic scripting language that allow you to customize the program (i.e. Macros). With MaxScript you can add buttons and tabs to the 3D Studio MAX interface, create small automated tasks, program shortcuts or just write a quick script to help you in a everyday task. MaxScript is versitle and very straight forward. You tell it what you would like it to do. It also comes w/ many functions that are in the Max/help/scrips file.|
|WDL stands for "World Definition Language". WDL scripting is used to make interaction in 3D game programming. WDL is used with the powerful "Acknex" game creation system created by Conitec at conitec.com.|
|An algorithm to find all prime numbers up to a certain N. Begin with an (unmarked) array of integers from 2 to N. The first unmarked integer, 2, is the first prime. Mark every multiple of this prime. Repeatedly take the next unmarked integer as the next prime and mark every multiple of the prime.|
A theoretical measure of the execution of an algorithm, usually the time or memory needed, given the problem size n, which is usually the number of items.
Informally saying some equation f(n) = O(g(n)) means it is less than some constant multiple of g(n). More formally it means there are positive constants c and k, such that 0 f(n) cg(n) for all n k. The values of c and k must be fixed for the function f and must not depend on n.
|A mathematically specified collection of data-storing entities with operations to create, access, change, etc. instances.|
|For game programming turoials of all type go to the: GameDev.net Programming Reference section.|
From the Greek root "Tribos" which means 'to rub'. Tribology is the science or study of rubbing. Used in physical simulations to determine friction of two objects, such as tires on a road for a driving game.
This discipline includes the study of two interacting (sliding)surfaces, the materials that make-up the surfaces, the space between the surfaces and lubricants used to reduce friction between the surfaces. Tribology is used in many industries including Automotive, Research, Manufacturing, and High Tech.