Task 1 – Digital Graphics for Computer Games

PIXELS AND RESOLUTION

Pixels (Picture Elements) are physical points within a raster image, or the smallest element within a display device. Pixels make up an image of a display device, the more pixels, the higher quality of the image. All these pixels form together in order to make up shapes, each pixel can only be a single colour at any one time, but because they are so small and in such large quantities, they blend together.

Resolution describes the clarity of an image, the resolution is determined by the number of pixels in an image, often referred to as PPI (Pixels per inch). for example, on a YouTube video, the first HD setting is 720x480. This references the width and height of an image, the resolution being the number of pixels per inch.

FILE FORMATS AND USES

• bmp: (Bitmap) Is a Raster image file format which is used to store Bitmap digital images. It is capable of storing 2D images of arbitrary width, height and resolution, which also allows for both monochrome and colour in various depths.

• png: (Portable Network Graphics) is a Raster image format which also allows lossless data compression. PNG supports palette-based images with palettes of 24-bit RGB or 32-bit RGBA colours, grayscale images with or without alpha channel, and full-colour non-palette-based RGBA images.

• gif: (Graphics Interchange Format) is a bitmap image format, it supports up to 8 bits per pixel, this allows a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colours. It also supports animations and allows a palette of 256 colors for each frame.

• tiff: (Tagged Image File Format) is a file format for storing images. It is widely supported by image manipulation programmes, as well as publishing and page lay out applications.

• jpg/jpeg: (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a common digital image format for lossy compression. The ammount of compression is adjustable, therefore the size of the file versus the quality of the image can be measured.

• psd: (Photo Shop Document) is a file format for Photoshop Documents, this format had the advantage of maintaining an image with all it’s existing layers when imported into an image editing programme.

• pdf: (Portable Document Format) is a file format which can be used to represent documents without application software, hardware, or operating systems. Each PDF file contains a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and other information needed to display it

FILE FORMATS AND USES• eps: (Encapsulated PostScript) is a DCS-Conforming post script document, it’s intended use is as a graphics file format. These file documents are fairly self contained and are used to describe an image or drawing, they can also be placed in other post script documents.

• ai: (Adobe Illustrator Artwork) is a proprietary file format which is used to display single page vector based drawings within an EPs or PDF file format. The ai. File extension is used by Adobe Illustrator.

COMPRESSIONCompression is a method of encoding information with fewer bits than the original file. Compression can be lossy or lossless. When it comes to lossless, bits are reduced via identifying statistical redundancy. No information will be lost in lossless compression. On the other hand, lossy compression identifies unnecessary information and has it removed. While data compression is the most common term used for reducing the size of files, it was originally known as “Source Coding”.

IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICES

Image capture devices are used to capture digital images. They can range from cameras to scanners or capture cards to camcorders, etc…

Once captured, the digital image can be stored and manipulated on a computer using image manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator and for more simple changes, Microsoft Paint.

OPTIMISINGOptimising in the Computer sense is the process of modifying a systems function in order to have it run more efficiently. In a general sense, optimising will help a computer run more quickly. This is done by closing down applications which aren’t necessary, or it could cause the computer to use more memory on a single application in order to improve its performance.

Computer optimisation can happen at a variety of levels, these include…

• Design Level• Source Code Level• Build level• Compile level• Assembly level

Each of these methods of optimisation will optimise a computer in various ways, for example the Design level will optimise the computer to make best use of all available resources, whereas the Source Code level will Avoid poor quality coding which can also improve performance, by avoiding obvious "slowdowns". After that however, some optimizations are possible that actually decrease maintainability.

STORAGE AND ASSET MANAGEMENT

Storage in computer science is very much the same as physical storage, it is basically how much space you have left to store things. When it comes to computers, your storage space comes in the form of “ROM” (Read Only Memory). Today this memory is most often stored on a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), this is typically found inside a computer, but you can also get portable versions as well as USB pen drives, which you can plug straight into your computer/laptop.

These could be used to gain extra storage space or simply transport your data around. In relation to Video Games, Storage space has come in a few forms. On the PS3 and Xbox 360, they resemble a computer and use a HDD, while also allowing Portable HDD’s and Pen Drives. However on older consoles, things such as memory cards were used and on most portable devices, memory cards similar to those used in cameras can be used, or in the case of the “GameBoy Advance” the data is saved directly to the game cartridge.