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Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
1
Produce a glossary of terms specific to the methods and principles of Video Game Design and Video Game Terms. Using a provided template, you must research and gather definitions specific to provided glossary terms. Any definitions must be referenced with the URL link of the website you have obtained the definition. You must also, where possible, provide specific details of how researched definitions relate to your own production practice. Name: RESEARCHED DEFINITION (provide short
internet researched definition and URL link) DESCRIBE THE RELEVANCE OF THE RESEARCHED TERM TO YOUR OWN
PRODUCTION PRACTICE?
IMAGE SUPPORT (Provide an image and/or video link of said term being
used in a game)
VIDEO GAMES / VIDEO GAME TESTING
Demo ‘Sales promotion method that (1) shows the performance of a product in actual use conditions, or (2) encourages trial purchase and
use of the product for evaluation by the customer.’
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/demo
nstration.html
‘It i s sample code/graphics/audio that demonstrates key elements of the proposed game. Depending on the genre of the game this could be an entire game level or part of one (FPS), a single race track with a couple of cars (racing) or a few locations/rooms with puzzles (point and click adventure game).’
http://www.obscure.co.uk/articles-2/preparing-a-game-demo/
Demos are very important in production practice as i t is what i s used to display the qualities of the product to a party that is not
di rectly privy to the production of the game i tself. When showing a game to a third
party, the s implest way to communicate the
deta ils of a games design and content is to show them directly.
Demos may a lso be used as a way to di rectly test a section of a game for bugs, a lthough for this purpose open betas are more common.
Demos used to be commonly distributed by
companies via ‘demo discs’ that would be included with video games magazines.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
2
Beta ‘A beta test refers to the distribution of pre-release
game software to a select group of people so that they can test the game in their own homes. The beta vers ion of a game is as close to perfect as the company can make i t, but any bugs, glitches or other
i ssues discovered in beta testing will usually be addressed before the game's official release.’
http://www.techopedia.com/d efinition/27136/beta-test-gaming
The term beta refers to a part of a games
development where it is considered feature complete, but i t still may contain bugs and gl i tches. The testing aspect of a beta is important in order to find and remove as
many unwanted bugs as possible and fix any mistakes in any aspect of the games levels,
game features or UI to reduce the chances of
an unintended negative experience for the player.
During the battlefield 3 public beta test, a
gl i tch was discovered that caused the models of the players to grow in size randomly, this was fixed in the release of the games.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
3
Alpha ‘Borrowed from traditional (i.e. non-games) software development, Alpha designates a key stage in a game's
development. The definition of Alpha for traditional software is, according to Wikipedia: Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. [...] The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete. In game development, the definition is a bit more blurry. Yes, the exact definition of an Alpha may (and often will) vary from one developer to another, and also from one publisher to another. The Alpha build being a key deliverable when you've got a publisher deal, you better be crystal clear with the publisher about what needs to be implemented in that build. This will avoid any surprises. A game's Alpha build usually complies with the following points:
The game is playable from start to finish.
All the game's features are implemented to at least first pass quality.
Some art may still be place holder.
Crashing bugs may be present.
The important thing after is that after the Alpha build has been approved, the developers should stop adding features. However that's theory, and as projects tend to be late, Alphas are usually not what they should be. As such, feature implementation might still happen after the delivery of the Alpha.’
http://technicalgamedesign.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/
alpha.html
Al though video game alphas are somewhat
inconsistent in their definition, alphas are important to a game’s development, as it i s the fi rst intermittent stage between conception and release of the game where
the game is considered to be ‘playable’ and therefore all progress to the game is added
to and built upon from this s tage.
Priori ties in this s tage include thorough
testing and improving game stability, features and mechanics, and removing particularly major bugs and glitches that hamper gameplay considerably (e.g. bugs
that impede progress, crashes, etc.).
DayZ as a standalone game was released on Steamworks as an ‘early access’ title as an open alpha game.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
4
Pre-Alpha ‘Pre-Alpha i s a standard term to denote a number of
interim milestones between prototyping and alpha,
each of which includes new functionality and/or game content. Pre-alphas often mandate
incremented improvements on a number of parallel areas in a project, but rarely expect any one of those areas to be complete. The exact content of each pre-a lpha is often an ongoing discussion between
producers on the team and those at the publisher.
Pre-a lphas are usually followed by a lpha, beta, release candidate and gold master milestones.’
http://www.whatgamesare.com/pre-alpha.html
Pre-Alphas give developers the opportunity
to increment their designs, giving them a greater ability to observe and test individual mechanics and game elements to ensure that they are implemented into the game as
intended.
This pre alpha gameplay of ‘The Avengers’
was used as a reveal tra iler for the game whi le i t was in development.
Gold ‘The term "release to manufacturing", a lso known as "going gold", i s a term used when a software product
i s ready to be delivered or provided to the customer. This build may be digitally signed, allowing the end user to verify the integrity and authenticity of the software purchase. A copy of the RTM build known as
the "gold master" or GM is sent for mass duplication. RTM precedes general availability (GA), when the
product i s released to the public.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_c
ycle#Release_candidate
When a game has ‘Gone Gold’ this means that the game is now considered suitable for
release, and therefore means that the developer is internally confident that it has successfully completed i ts game’s features and removed the vast majority of bugs and
gl i tches in game.
It may be considered to be the final s tage of
the primary development of the game (further support may later be included such
as game updates and downloadable content release).
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
5
Debug ‘Debugging is the routine process of locating and
removing computer program bugs, errors or abnormalities, which is methodically handled by software programmers via debugging tools. Debugging checks, detects and corrects errors or
bugs to allow proper program operation according to set specifications.’
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/16373/debugging
Games often have debug modes included in
the code at some point, even up to and including release versions of the game. This i s useful for a production process because it a l lows a developer to instantly interface with
code from within the game to investigate and remove bugs without being constrained
by the l imitations that the player of the final
vers ion.
This is an image of the debugging console of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, accessed via outside software.
Automation ‘Automation enables an application's command operations to be manipulated from outside that application. The Cl ient for Windows provides
automation objects that can be manipulated from programs built using programming environments such as Microsoft Visual Basic (Version 3.0 or above), Microsoft Visual C++, and Sybase PowerBuilder.
Important: The Cl ient for Windows OLE APIs are tested using Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C++ and the examples in this document are
Visual Basic and Visual C++ language examples. You can use other languages but the syntax and
techniques will differ. Check your language documentation for OLE automation implementation specifics for your environment.
To manipulate the Cl ient for Windows objects, you need to know the properties and methods for each object.’
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cmx/v8r3m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.cliwin.doc%2Fdcmp
o012.htm
Automation a llows for easier preliminary testing of game software, and can mean that a developer can detect bugs and glitches via
obvious errors and breaks in the game code that occur during an automated test. Automation does not necessarily allow for testing extensive enough to detect certain
bugs and glitches that can occur in-game, such as clipping through parts of the map, so
human testers will s till be needed to more
deeply experiment with faults in the game software.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
6
White-Box Testing
‘White Box Testing (a lso known as Clear Box Testing, Open Box Testing, Glass Box Testing, Transparent Box
Testing, Code-Based Testing or Structural Testing) is a software testing method in which the internal s tructure/design/implementation of the item being tested is known to the tester. The tester chooses
inputs to exercise paths through the code and determines the appropriate outputs. Programming know-how and the implementation knowledge is
essential. White box testing is testing beyond the user interface and into the nitty-gritty of a system.’
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_Box_Testing.html
Because White Box Testing involves a savvy development member, i t has the advantage
of the tester being able to recognise how the game functions, and therefore is more likely to understand the underlying cause of a bug or gl i tch that occurs during testing, and is
capable of resolving the i ssue themselves.
Bug ‘In several usages in information technology, a glitch (pronounced GLIHTCH ) is a sudden break in
function or continuity, sometimes of a transient nature, with a varying degree of seriousness.’
‘ In a computer program, a glitch can be a bug that i sn't encountered very often, resulting in a problem that sometimes goes away because next time the combination of events i s different.’
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/glitch
Bugs are an unwanted, but to a degree inevitable part of any game’s development
process, where elements of the game code may s top functioning as intended, or may
negatively affect gameplay. Generally speaking, the larger the scope of the game being developed, the more bugs are likely to occur, and extensive testing has to be done
by the developer to ensure that as few bugs as possible exist in the final version of the game (in particular, bugs that impede
progress of the game).
In Heavy Rain, there was a prompt that a l lowed you to ca ll out for another character
in the game. A glitch allowed you to activate the prompt during the in game cutscenes.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
7
GAME ENGINES GAME ENGINES
Vertex Shader ‘A vertex shader i s a graphics processing function
used to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment by performing mathematical operations on the objects' vertex data. Each vertex can be defined by many different variables. For instance, a
vertex i s always defined by i ts location in a 3D environment using the x-, y-, and z- coordinates.’
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_vertexshader.html
Vertex shaders give a game developer the
abi lity to add a large variety of visual effects, which are directly applied to objects. This is useful in expanding the creative freedom of the designer, and giving an opportunity for
the game to have a more distinctive visual s tyle.
In this image, OpenGL is transforming an
rendering an teapot via a vertex shader pipeline.
Pixel Shader ‘A Pixel Shader is a graphics function that calculates effects on a per-pixel basis. Depending on resolution,
in excess of 2 mi llion pixels may need to be rendered, l i t, shaded, and colored for each frame, at 60 frames per second.’
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_pixelshader.html
Per i ts namesake a pixel shader renders the in-game environment pixel by pixel, which
grants the pixel shader the ability to be used in 3d model based games and sprite based 2d games, the latter being unable to be
rendered by a vertex shader due to a lack of vertices.
This image is comparing visual fidelity of a
render between different pixel shader configurations.
Post Processing ‘A post-processing effect is an effect that you want to apply to the entire window after you have drawn the enti re scene. For instance, a common post-processing
effect i s to make your scene black and white, give it a sepia tone to look l ike an old photograph, or blur the
screen or to create a bloom effect.’ http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/post-processing-
effects
Post processing effects are used to add visual fla ir to a video game’s visuals. There are a wide variety of post processing effects and
they are often used in tandem for specific purposes (for example, depth of field and
motion blur are often used to create a more rea listic environment, while bloom is used to create a more ‘cinematic’ visual style).
This is a comparison of two views in the free to play MMO World of Tanks, showing a view through a scope, one with a post processing
effect (depth of field) and one without.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
8
Rendering ‘There are two major types of rendering, their chief
di fference being the speed at which images are computed and finalized.
Real-Time Rendering: Real-Time Rendering i s
used most prominently in gaming and interactive
graphics, where images must be computed from 3D information at an incredibly rapid pace.
Offline or Pre-Rendering: Offl ine rendering is used in situations where speed is less of an issue, with ca lculations typically performed using multi-
core CPUs rather than dedicated graphics hardware.’
http://3d.about.com/od/3d-101-The-Bas ics/a/Rendering-Finalizing-The-3d-Image.htm
Rendering is a core element of any game, as
i t i s the process that provides a visual element to the game, a llowing any sort of human-computer interaction to occur.
In video games, any gameplay i s rendered in rea l -time, because in each frame what the
player sees i s determined by what the player
inputs into the system, such as camera controls, or an action key. Some cut scenes
are a lso real-time rendered (also ca lled in-engine cut scenes). Pre-renders are used a lmost exclusively for
‘cinematic’ cut scenes, which depict events that occur within the continuity of the game
that the player does not interact with.
This picture shows two pre-renders of a car model made in a modelling animation and rendering software program ca lled 3DS Max. One is of the base model, and the other is of
the model with textures and normal maps applied.
Normal Map ‘A normal map is a way of adding high-resolution deta il to a game ready (low resolution) model,
without drastically affecting the game's performance. Normal maps are applied to an object exactly the
same way that you'd apply a two-dimensional diffuse (color) map to your model, however instead of conta ining simple color information a normal map is
conta ins information that can accurately describes the surface slope of a 3D model with millions of polygons.
That “s lope information” i s cleverly s tored in each of the normal map's three color channels (R,G,B), which,
when translated at render time, will tell the game-
engine which direction any given face i s “pointing” in 3D space. Directionality is determined according to
the surface normal of a face, which i s a term you may have heard in high-school geometry. (In case you've forgotten, the term surface normal refers to the directional vector that is perpendicular to any
Normal maps are useful for adding visual deta il to objects without greatly affecting
performance; otherwise, adding details to a model would involve increasing the number
of vertices on the model and manipulating the xyz coordinates of the points. Therefore, when the object would be rendered in game,
the engine needs to calculate the placement of visual objects and textures based on a greater number of coordinates, increasing how long it takes to render.
A demonstration image showing the di fference between various states of a 3d
model of a head – from left to right, a low
poly vers ion, a high poly version, and a low poly vers ion with a normal map applied).
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
9
geometric surface.’
http://3d.about.com/od/3d-101-The-
Bas ics/tp/Current-Gen-Gameart-Workflow-What-Is-Normal-Mapping.htm
Entity ‘In programming, engineering, and probably many other contexts, the word is used to identify units,
whether concrete things or abstract ideas, that have no ready name or label. In some usages, an entity i s close in meaning
to object as it is used in object-oriented programming . ‘
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/entity
Enti ties are the base of each individual in game ‘object’ (such as non-player characters,
projectiles, and physical objects such as boxes) that are assigned properties by the developer in the game engine. This is important in games, as it allows for individual
‘objects’ to function consistently in game, and for each object to be able to behave relative to each other.
UV Map ‘In case you're wondering, UV mapping stands for the technique used to "wrap" a 2D image texture onto a 3D mesh. "U" and "V" are the name of the axes of a plane, since "X", "Y" and "Z" are used for the coordinates in the 3D space. For example: increasing your "V" on a sphere might move you along a
longitude l ine (north or south), while increasing your "U" might move you along a line of latitude (east or
west).
Another explanation can be gleaned from the Blender manual. Imagine a paper 3D model of an
object, e.g. a sphere, that i s to be laid flat on a table.
Each of the 3D coordinates of the sphere can be mapped to the 2D coordinate on the flat piece of
paper. Blender provides another view of the vertices (coordinates) in the UV/Image Editor. You can select and edit these 2D vertices just l ike in the 3D Editor window. The purpose of this unwrapping of the
coordinates is just to map these coordinates to images/pictures so that the 3D image can have a
rea listic looking surface with textures derived from
UV maps are a useful tool for making objects
appear much more detailed than they actually are (the detail coming from
additional vertices added to and manipulated on the model). By using UV maps on models,
a developer can give those models any
des ired s tyle or appearance without sacrificing performance, as the more ‘actual’
detail is added to an object by the vertices, the more points that an engine has to ca lculate to render the object in real time.
An image showcasing the application of a UV map to a model. The UV is in the lower right corner, and the green lines show how the
application of the UV map to model is a ffect by the shape of the model.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
10
these images.’
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/UV_Map_Basics
Procedural Texture
‘When someone thinks of a texture, they probably think of an image used to 'paint' a model in order to
give i t a certain appearance. This refers to bitmapped textures, because the texture is made of pixels from an actual bitmap image. These can be very realistic, especially i f taken from photographs of actual
surfaces. However, one major restriction applies to bi tmapped textures: a bitmapped texture has a fixed amount of detail. It cannot be scaled larger without
looking softer, i t will never yield any more detail than what i s already captured in the pixels.
Procedural textures take an entirely different approach. Instead of creating an image by defining a
large, unchanging block of pixels, procedurals create the texture from the ground up. This is where the
term 'procedural' comes from. The texture is defined only by the procedure needed to create it. You only need to give the computer a (relatively) small formula, instead of a huge block of pixels. With this
formula, the computer is able to create the texture at any scale, in any orientation, extending as far as you need.’
http://www.upvector.com/?section=Tutorials&subse
ction=Intro%20to%20Procedural%20Textures
Procedural textures are common in modelling and mapping software, as they are
versatile for many objects. The advantage of procedural textures is that they do not need to be created exactly to the s ize and shape of the model that they are applied to, which is
especially useful for models that are liable to be modified and edited at any point, since the texture is calculated by the dimensions of
the model.
This image is showing a variety of simple shapes with procedural textures applied to them; in this case they are all using similar
wood-based procedural textures. This showcases how the textures use formulas to ca lculate how the texture will apply to the surface of the model.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
11
Physics ‘A physics engine i s general used to describe a
software program that is used to simulate physical phenomena. One of the first uses of a physics engine was for simulating where artillery shells would land based on their weight, force behind the firing of the
shells, and angle of the firing. Since then, it has also been used to help in the design of aircraft and
watercraft, as well as vehicles.
A phys ics engine is also used in computer video
games for s imulating various actions and reactions in the game. Unlike physics engines used for vehicle and a i rcraft design, however, the physic engines in video games are used for more real time s imulations
instead of replicating physics encountered in the real world. In other words, video games aren't concerned
with real-life simulations as much as they are about being perceptually correct. In first person shooter games, this can lead to cases where a player is shot in
the leg and dies, instead of just being injured. A phys ics engine is designed to simulate the perception
of shooting and killing a target, not so much in where the target is hit or if it was a mortal wound or just a flesh wound.’
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/p/physics-engine.htm
Phys ics are one of the most important
elements of any 3d game (and a good number of 2d games). Physics engines in games are necessary to give the world bel ievable interactions between the game
world, the player, and objects in game. Understanding the way that physics interact
i s vi tal in the designing stage of games, as the
developer always wants to avoid making progress impossible for the player, which can
happen in particular when the game features puzzles involving objects affected by physics.
This is a demonstration of a physics engine in
action, based on a pyramid of stacked boxes. One of the boxes near the base is removed,
caus ing the above boxes to fall and collide with each other.
Collision ‘With the advent of 3D technologies in the past several years, programmers have made radical
changes in how they program applications, especially when regarding computer games. Collision detection
is an essential part in 3D games. It ensures that the
game physics are relatively realistic, so that an object does not cut through other objects or hovers when it
should fall. How well a game can detect collisions is an integral part of the believability and enjoyment of
the game. A poorly implemented collision detection
system can be a bane to a product, whereas an
Col l ision can be considered to be an extension of the physics, as they both
influences each other. Collision in its most bas ic form ensures that the player character
does not move ‘through’ objects in the
game, the floor, or through other players (in the case of some multiplayer games).
Col l ision also influences the ways that in game objects with physics properties
influence each other. For example, a group
of wooden boxes hit by an explosive may
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
12
excel lent implementation can produce amazing
results. The two main parts in collision detection are detecting whether or not a collision has happened,
and i f so, responding to the collision. Discovering if a col l ision has occurred is the basis of this problem.
Whi le responding to the collision is computationally much easier than discovering a collision, it can still
pose several problems in how objects are going to react to each other. In modern computer games, if the character runs into a wall, then the character will ei ther s top or will continue 'sliding' along the wall.
However, if this character comes up to a movable box, then the character might s tart pushing the box
instead. Or consider a ball bouncing around in a room. The ball is going to behave quite differently than a person walking around in a room. ‘
http://www.edenwaith.com/products/pige/tutorials/
col l ision.php
break and fly off in various directions,
bouncing off of walls and other objects.
This is an image of a collision occurring in
engine between two objects, the wall and a model of a truck. The collision interacts with the phys ics engine, causing the truck to be deformed in areas where it has touched the
wal l.
Lighting ‘Working under the supervision of the lead lighting artist, this person creates lighting and shading
elements within game environments and scenes. Us ing software such as Maya or Lightwave, he or she
applies lighting effects to completed environment and character art that is consistent with i llustrated concepts and level designs and ensures consistency across all concurrent scenes. The artist is concerned
with matching the lighting to interior environments, noting where the artists have placed objects like lamps, windows, or other sources of illumination. Likewise, for exterior locations, the artist i s cognizant of the time of day within the context of the story,
appropriately applying lighting effects to correspond with the position of the sun, moon, or outdoor
sources of light.’
Lighting i s one of the most major aspects of des ign to consider when creating locations
and objects in a game. The application of l ighting to an in game location can influence
the atmosphere, the believability, and the flow of the game level. Lighting is also used as a gameplay element, as developers can manipulate the location and directions of
l ighting elements in game to direct the player to where they can progress.
This image shows a number of different l ighting entities that can be used to illuminate
3d renders, including point lights, ball l ights, spotlights, etc.
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
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http://getinmedia.com/careers/lighting-artist ‘In a game design context, s imulated i llumination is embedded in the vocabulary of the 3D modelling
software (Maya, 3D Studio Max, etc) used in game production (Manovich, 2001)… ‘Each software
product contains a lgorithms that establish simulated
i l lumination. These algorithms have their own set of assumptions concerning how lighting is established or
s imulated, including shadow appearance and colour.’ http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elnasr_
niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko
AA – Anti-Aliasing ‘Anti -Aliasing is a method of fooling the eye that a jagged edge is really smooth. Anti-Aliasing is often
referred in games and on graphics cards. In games
especially the chance to smooth edges of the images goes a long way to creating a realistic 3D image on
the screen. Remember though that Anti-Aliasing does not actually smooth any edges of images it merely
fools the eye. Like a lot of things they are only des igned to be good enough’ http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/index.php?pagei
d=antialiasing
Anti -aliasing is often an optional element that can be toggled to improve a games
graphical fidelity, though they can also
drastically affect a game’s performance. Generally speaking, a developer will want to
ba lance the amount of AA used in a game with i ts performance.
An example of anti-aliasing using a text
character as an example. Where the ‘blocky’ sections of the ‘a’ are visible on the a liased character, there is the anti-aliasing effect
applied on the other. LoD – Level of
Detail
‘One important component of this "language" is
the level of detail -- or the specificity required for a particular element at a particular s tage of the project.
The level of detail for a BIM model must correspond to the needs of the modeler, the project engineer, and the estimators and schedulers. LOD identifies
how much information is known about a model
element at a given time. This "information richness"
The Level of Detail of an object is one of the
most important things to communicate between a games designer and a modeller,
as the detail of an object needs to be appropriate for the rest of the game, or it wi l l risk looking out of place, or negatively
affect performance. Some games have
multiple LoD versions of models that can be
Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1
14
grows as the project comes closer to breaking
ground.’ http://www.vicosoftware.com/BIM-Level-of-Deta il/tabid/89638/
toggled in an options menu, to improve
performance.
Examples of the usage of LoD, using several
vers ions of a barrel. From left to right, is the highest level of detail model to the lowest.
Animation ‘The animator uses a computer to generate a sequence of s till images, that give the i llusion of
motion through three dimensional space when you play them. You require a 3D animation software, such as 3DMax
or Maya, and a good computer.
Instead of drawing every detail in the frame by hand, you draw every frame using a computer! The animator gives the software a set of parameters that describes how the elements should look and move,
something along the lines of: "At frame #1 (a point in time) place the ball at coordinates X1,Y1,Z1 (a point in space)." "At frame #25 (1 second later) place the ball at coordinates X2,Y2,Z2 (a second point in space)."
http://www.the-flying-animator.com/how-does-
computer-animation-work.html
Any object that is intended to move using i ts own properties and scripts will need
animations to make its movements appear feasible to the player. There are many methods of creating animations and applying
them to objects, but the most important thing to consider when creating an animation
is how i t appears in real-time.
Sprite ‘Spri tes are 2D bitmaps that are drawn directly to a render target without using the pipeline for
transformations, lighting or effects. Sprites are commonly used to display information such as health
bars , number of lives, or text such as scores. Some games, especially older games, are composed entirely of spri tes.’
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/l ibrary/bb203919.aspx
Spri tes are the visual element of a 2d game engine (similar to how models are the visual
element of a 3d game engine), although they can be applied to 3d games via ui elements.
Unl ike models, sprites are not a consistent element that i s modified directly to create movement, but instead the sprite is replaced in each frame of movement by another
spri te attached to the same object for each frame of animation of the object.
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Scene ‘A scene graph is a tree s tructure that tries to
s tructure the objects in a scene accordingly to transformations, textures, materials and much more instead of just the geometrical representation of objects l ike for example a quadtree does. All games
does contain a scene graph in some way, in the most s imple form it could just be a root node and all other
rendered objects as child nodes to the root node.’
http://www.gamerendering.com/category/scene-
management/
Scenes are the method by which a game has
i ts locations and levels separate from each other, with their own assets such as models, textures, particles and scripts. Using this method means that the game engine has less
information to load when the player enters each particular scene of the game.
Library
‘In computing, a library i s a collection of s imilar objects that are stored for occasional use - most
frequently, programs in source code or object codeform, data files, scripts, templates, fonts, and phys ical storage units such as tape cartridges. Here are some common types of libraries.
1) A program library is a collection of (usually) precompiled, reusable programming routines that a
programmer can "call" when writing code so that the
programmer doesn't have to write i t. A dynamic l ink l ibrary (DLL) is one type of program library. Another
type of program library is a class library, whose s tored routines are class definitions in object-oriented programming (OOP). Graphical user interface (GUI) components such as scroll bars, buttons, and windowing routines are generally s tored in a class library.
2) A s torage library i s a collection of physical storage media such as tapes or disks and a way to access
them. A tape l ibrary, for example, contains tape
cartridges and a mechanism that moves them into and out of the drive(s) where their content is read or
Libraries are commonly associated with the scripting elements of game engines, such as
the use of Java or C# scripts. These l ibraries speed up development by containing information or routines that the developer may not necessarily be inclined to create or
program themselves, and instead may make use of libraries to bring up code elements from storage to use for a particular script or
enti ty property.
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updated.
3) A data library i s the area of a data center (a centra lized area housing computer systems and equipment) where storage media are archived.Online service providers also sometimes refer to
a di rectory on a server containing files for downloading as a data library.’
http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/library
UI ‘The way a person interacts with a computer, tablet,
smartphone or other electronic device. The user interface (UI) comprises the screen menus and icons,
keyboard shortcuts, mouse and gesture movements, command language and online help, as well as phys ical buttons, dials and levers. Also included are a l l input devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, touch
screen, remote control and game controller.’
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/53558/user-interface
User interfaces are important for allowing
the player to even play the game, as without a medium between the players control
systems (such as a gamepad or a mouse) and the game engine there is no way of actually control ling the game. UI elements are also a useful way of communicating arbitrary
information to the player, such as tutorials or the health bar.
Frames ‘One of the most common benchmarks used in measuring graphics performance of video game is the game's frame rate or frames per second. Frame rates
in a video game reflect how often an image in the game is refreshed to produce or give impression of
motion and is typically measured in frames per
second or FPS. There are many different factors that go into determining a game's frame rate, but the
result of a low frame rate is is often the same, choppy, jumpy movement or frozen screens that make it difficult to interact with a game. ‘
http://compactiongames.about.com/od/Overclocking-and-Performance/a/Understanding-And-
Optimizing-Video-Game-Frame-Rates.htm
Frames are the individual renders that the console makes of the game based on information relevant to the player, such as
where they are looking in game. The amounts of frames that occur in a given time
frame are the most commonly used method
of measuring the performance of a game. Frames don’t just affect the visual flow of
animation in games, but also the gameplay aspect, as each frame also represents an individual moment where the engine i s capable of inputting an action from the
player, so the ability of the player to react to game events is directly l inked (for example, a
game with an fps count of 30 has 30
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opportunities per second to input a
command). Concept ‘Every video game starts as a concept. FromSuper
Mario Bros. to Half-Life, a l l of the world’s most successful games started as pen-and-paper ideas. Before you can s tart designing levels, you need to prepare a rough concept for your game.
The type of concept you’l l need to prepare depends on the type of video game you’re interested in
developing. A large-scale RPG requires a lot more planning than a basic side-scrolling arcade game or
a s implistic multiplayer fi rst person shooter.
Think of your concept as a one-page description of
your game. Your concept should outline the type of game you’re creating, i ts s tory, what sets i t apart from games that are a lready ava ilable, and the type of audience that will enjoy i t.‘
https ://www.udemy.com/blog/make-a-video-game/
Al l games are created from a concept, as a ll
concepts are the ideas that influence what the developer does with the game and how it makes i t. Concepts are the fi rst s tage of development of any game and it’s very
important to have strong concepts, because i t i s likely that without a s trong concept the game will either fail or not start production
at a l l (this is especially true of larger companies that need to ensure that
investors in their company are happy and reassured about their investments).
Event ‘GameMaker uses what i s called an event driven
approach. This works as follows. Whenever something happens in the game the instances of the objects get events (kind of messages telling that
something has happened). The instances can then react to these messages by executing certain actions. For each object you must indicate to which events it responds and what actions it must perform when the
event occurs. This may sound complicated but is actually very easy. First of all, for most events the
object does not have to do anything. For the events where something must be done you can use a very s imple drag-and-drop approach to indicate the
actions.
In the middle of the object property form there is a l i st of events to which the object must react. Initially
‘Events ’ as a term used in game engines is a
specialised term used specifically in the Game Maker program. In this case, an event i s an arbitrary occurrence that is recognised
by the game engine, and based on how objects in the game are manipulated by the developer, may cause other actions to occur in the game world.
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i t i s empty. You can add events to i t by pressing the
button labeled Add Event. A form wi ll appear with all di fferent types of events. Here you select the event you want to add. Sometimes a menu pops up with extra choices. For example, for the keyboard event
you must select the key. ‘
http://gamemaker.info/en/manual/111_00
_events Pathfinding ‘Pathfinding is a complex process that we can split
down into three components: the spacial representation, the goal estimation and the agent.
The spacial representation, a lso known as the graph, i s a means to describe a network of inter-connected walkable zones (roads, floors, …). The goal
estimation, known as anheuristic, is a general representation to where might be the goal. This is a
mere estimation that i s needed to speed things up. Finally, the agent is the one responsible to actually searching through the spacial representation based on the goal estimation.’
http://mgrenier.me/2011/06/pathfinding-concept-the-basics/
Pathfinding is relevant in games that feature
independent npcs that move around in the game world. Pathfinding allows entities
attempting to move from one location to another to be directed around obstacles via a series of points that are defined by a graph.