ABOUT USING THE GAME ENGINES IN SHIPBUILDING, SOFTWARE DEVELOPER’S PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

During the development of the ShipExplorer[1][2] suit of the programs, every single detail was carefully designed and implemented using low level libraries like OpenGL. The result was very sophisticated, quality program that delivered top performance with wonderful user experience. However, development of new features required theoretical and practical knowledge about many different disciplines starting from linear algebra, knowledge of OpenGL internals, and proficiency in C++ programming language. The additional problem was that every new hardware target, like mobile phones, or various HMD models had to be addressed particularly, without any code sharing. At the same time, new class of programs started appearing, so-called “Game Engine”[3] programs. This class of programs promised maximum results with a minimum effort. Screenshots with spectacular graphics and pre-generated movies were available, showing the output of these programs. Also, “out of the box” support for all major platforms and various hardware was claimed. Taken together, it was enough to rise a question if approach of using low level libraries was a correct approach in the presence of the tools like “Unreal Engine” or “Unity”. In this paper, author’s experience in working and extending Unreal Engine, will be presented. Problems using C++ programming language and internal “Blueprint” visual scripting in Unreal Engine will be analyzed. Scenario of usage as a visualization and annotation tool will be evaluated and compared to the possible alternative approaches.