GameState management hierarchical FSM vs stack based FSM

Posted by user8363 on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by user8363
Published on 2012-03-20T00:56:33Z Indexed on 2012/03/20 5:40 UTC
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I'm reading a bit on Finite State Machines to handle game states (or screens). I would like to build a rather decent FSM that can handle multiple screens.

e.g. while the game is running I want to be able to pop-up an ingame menu and when that happens the main screen must stop updating (the game is paused) but must still be visible in the background. However when I open an inventory pop-up the main screen must be visible and continue updating etc.

I'm a bit confused about the difference in implementation and functionality between hierarchical FSM's and FSM's that handle a stack of states instead. Are they basically the same? Or are there important differences?

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