Conceptual approach towards recursive hardware abstraction layers

Abstract

Cross-platform publishing is a must have in game development. Sophisticated game engines such as Unreal or Unity provide cross-platform publishing capability. Therefore, many developers use these game engines. On the other hand, several game developers also provide their own technology and do not want to become fully dependent on external technology. Based on that situation efficient mechanisms are required to combine both sides: Usage of custom in-house technology enhanced with multi-platform capabilities. This paper introduces a new concept for hardware abstraction layers tackling this issue. Sections 1 and 2 motivate the use of multiple hardware abstraction layers and provide a brief overview of related work. Section 3 describes the Kha and Kore frameworks as basic game technology for custom in-house game engines. In the main part of this paper, a conceptual approach of hardware abstraction layers, is introduced in Sect. 4 and Sect. 5 discusses its practical use for the integration in Unreal and Unity. Finally, Sect. 6 provides an overview and best practice examples of how to use Kha and Kore for Serious Games.