Glossary

This page lists definitions for terms used in Crown and this manual.

Component

A collection of data that is necessary for a given simulation to be computed.

Unit

A collection of distinct components. This is the basic building block used to represent all kinds of different objects in a World simulation.

Level

A collection of units, sounds and other objects to be used together in a World.

Resource

A file that describes a particular piece of data to be used by the Runtime. Resource files typically contain definitions for units, levels, Lua scripts etc.

Source Data

The collection of Resource files stored inside the Source Directory.

Source Directory

The directory on disk where the Source Data is stored.

Data Directory

The directory on disk where the Data Compiler output is stored.

Data Compiler

The incremental compiler that transforms generic, human-readable Source Data into specialized, high-performance binary blobs ready to be loaded in memory and consumed by the Runtime.

Runtime

The executable that the end-user runs to play the shipped game. It reads compiled data from the Data Directory and use it to simulate game worlds in real-time.

World

The object where the simulation of a number of units occur. This simulation can be advanced in time and its results can be rendered on screen from arbitrary view points defined by a Camera.

Camera

An object that describes a position and orientation in space, along with other geometric parameters, used to render a World on screen from a specific perspective.

Lua

The scripting language used in Crown.

Shader

A program that runs on dedicated hardware to produce graphical output on the screen or other off-screen buffers.

Sound

A 3D object used to play sounds in a World.

Sprite

An object used to represent animated 2D graphics on the screen.

Mesh

An object used to represent animated 3D graphics on the screen.

Texture

An object used to describes visual features for sprites, meshes etc.