Topic summary
Game engines

Extracted from the Wikipedia article Game engine.
Purpose
Game engines are not limited to use in the video game field, and have found uses in other scientific fields. Part of this is due to game engines being optimized for consumer-grade computing equipment rather than high-performance computing, allowing researchers to develop programs for their use on lower cost machines. Game engines also simplify many of the computing operations needed for scientific software, including graphics, networking, and interactivity, reducing the need to develop these features themselves.