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:

Michael Hughes

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)

`1VIDEO GAMES / VIDEO GAME TESTING

Demo A game demo is a free (usually shortened) version of a game. This demo is not the full game however

lets the people accessing it look at what the in-game content is like

and for the developer, allows him to get reviews of the game or

public opinion.

A game demo can be used in order to give the public opinion of the game and

make any last minute touches on the game; a

game demo is usually to give the public a quick

portion of game play. This

a l lows a user to make a final judgement of whether

they would like to purchase the game. The reason demos are free is so it i s not only more convenient

for the users but also because i t is a small

proportion of the game.

This picture shows the game watch dogs in two forms of demo’s. For PC on the left and PS4

on the right.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

2

Beta The beta stage of a video game is

usually the third s tage of development in any video game bes ides alpha and pre-alpha. This s tage can sometimes be given

access to by a developer for testing purposes.

https ://uk.answers.yahoo.com/que

stion/index?qid=20081019143302AAIBseY

A beta stage is usually the

thi rd or fourth development of any game. Developers will usually release a “beta-test” of

perhaps a multiplayer or s ingle player section of a

game. This is so the public

can find bugs or glitches in a game that may cause

game play disturbance. This i s a beta stage so usually all progress is reset however some game companies

such as EA (Battlefield) a l lowed you to keep

progress after beta.

I wanna be the

boshy: The

beta

vers ion of

the final boss fight

which has

s ince been improved and re-tested.

Alpha The a lpha stage of a video game or piece of software is where developers test their product themselves to ensure the software

runs as efficiently and as smoothly as they wanted it too.

https ://answers.yahoo.com/questi

on/index?qid=20110119184650AAfwy7x

The a lpha stage of development is the 2nd s tage of development, I know this because there

are 4 s tages in total (pre-a lpha, alpha, beta, gold)

The a lpha stage is for

developers to play test their product in order to

test for bugs, play for general enjoyment and see how long the content they have created will last in

terms of duration.

The game “Minecraft” in i t’s alpha development stages. With the creator and sound producer in-game testing.

http://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/13/12771/127982139015.jpg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

3

Pre-Alpha Pre-a lpha is before the alpha stage,

i t i s where the core of the game/mechanics are developed such as the engine, textures, sounds etc. After these basic

systems are put into place, the game development stage

progresses to alpha.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/l ist/440511.page

The pre-alpha stage of

development is the primary s tage of developing a game. The pre-alpha stage is where the entire main

features such as physics, graphics etc. are

implemented, and this is

introduced because these are the main building

blocks for any game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgrrcJb_BaE

The l ink shows a video of a standalone game known as Day Z, at which point was being played in pre-alpha stages, showing generic functions of the game’s engine.

Gold

When a game has gone gold, it means that they have finished the final release build and i t can now be sent for production.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/85622-what-does-gone-gold-means/

Gold is referenced to be a

finalized version of the game. When a game is announced “gold”. It should be released and ready to

purchase fairly close to that time. Gold is really the final product that i s produced from a l l stages of development.

The game “GTA V” announced to be in “gold” by the creators: Rockstar.

http://www.gamepur.com/files/imagepicker/48/thumbs/gta-v-gone-gold-message.png

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

4

Debug In computers, debugging is the

process of locating and fixing or bypassing bugs (errors) in computer program code or the engineering of a hardware device.

http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/debugging

Debugging is generally for

developers. This “mode” of the game is created in order to seek out bugs that may occur during

gameplay, why they occur, how they occur and what

can be done to fix said bug

when developing the game further. It can be used

however in games such as Minecraft with open source code to modify or “mod” the game to their liking.

The debug interface for Minecraft for PC, showing variables and block regions that otherwise could not be seen, the crosshair a lso shows the game’s dimensions.

Automation

The process of making an apparatus or object operates automatically.

Automation is the process of making objects move

automatically. This gives the game a real feeling that most objects could not naturally do, it can also be used in horror games to

show doors opening by themselves

Are any s imilar concept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-AafWkwtao The video shows how to implement moving platforms with coding. The automation in this

video it the platform itself.

White-Box Testing

White Box Testing i s known as Code-Based Testing. White box

testing i s the software testing method in which internal structure

i s being known to tester who is going to test the software. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_Box_Testing.html

White box testing can be used in order to allow

developers the testing they need along with code so

they can a lter any issues they may have, i t is convenient because i t’s a vi ta l role in a games

development and also saves the developers a lot

of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CHRUAMIrVE

This FPS game is being white box tested for the first time the entire length of the video for l ighting and geometry purposes.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

5

Bug A bug is a technical failure in a

game that causes an unpredicted result. In games they can crop up with each feature that is added which is why bug fixing is crucial. -

me

A bug is an error with code

and can cause in most cases minor or even major issues with a games performance. The performance of a game

is vi tal, if bugs continue to occur i t can be a real issue

for the developers as they

need to contribute more time into making the game

more smooth and fixing bugs .

http://hydramedia.cursecdn.com/minecraft.gamepedia.com/c/cc/12550821line.png

This shows a minecraft bug ca lled the “farlands” where the game has a generation error and

runs extremely slowly at 12.5million blocks in 1 di rection.

GAME ENGINES GAME ENGINES

Vertex Shader In computer graphics, shades are

commonly used in game engines. They are a computer program that ca lculates what to shade defending upon the co-ordinates i t gives to 3D objects. Vertex shades run once

a long a vertex and can manipulate properties like position, lighting and colour. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade

r#Vertex_shaders

Vertex shaders are put into

place to make objects look s l ightly more realistic. It a lso gives 3D models 2D co-ordinates in a virtual world. For instance, if developers

need to change the models of an object when level des igning a developer could make a mountain terrain by

s tretching some of these vertices.

The images here show a tea cup but vertex shaders have been put into place i t makes the

object look much more realistic.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~gordonw/OpenGL/images/teapot_vertexShader.jpg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

6

Pixel Shader Pixel shades can be used for detail.

The more complex pixel shades can use mathematical functions to ca lculate what is needed to be blurred amongst the terrain.

Pixel shaders are most

commonly put into place to primarily bring objects forward in a game (basically giving them more detail).

This allows for the terrain and objects within a game

to appear more suited to

their surroundings. For instance, the statue on the

right appears to have detail in the face and hair, including a couple of cracks within the torso, whereas

without the pixel shader, the detail has been

removed from the s tatue and the s tatue looks quite bland and simple, therefore

showing how detail can be affected by the pixel

shaders.

This pixel shader shows detail to one side where the pixel shaders have been used, however without the pixel shader, the model is limited to detail and scarce of colour.

http://assets.overclock.net.s3.amazonaws.com/4/4e/4e776cf7_vbattach2843.jpeg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

7

Post Processing

“Additionally, post-processing is

commonly used in 3D rendering, especially for video games. Instead

of rendering 3D objects directly to the display, the scene is first rendered to a buffer in the memory

of the video card. Pixel shadersare then used to apply post-processing fi l ters to the image buffer before displaying it to the screen. Post-

processing allows effects to be used that require awareness of the

enti re image (since normally each

3D object i s rendered in isolation). Such effects include: High dynamic

range rendering, Bloom ,Motion blur ,Screen Space Ambient

,Occlus ion, Cel shading, Crepuscular rays , Fi lm grain simulation, Depth of field, Shadow mapping”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_post-processing

Post processing is used when a game needs such effects such as shadow

mapping and depth of field. This is why a loading screen

is put in place instead of

seeing the map render with post processing, i t appears

more pleasant to a player. The reason why developers put post processing in is because usually each object

i s i solated and would not have shadows depending

on other objects, making i t appear with different shadows than normal

making the game feel more rea listic because of correct

l ighting and shadows that depend on the terrain around i t.

This image shows the middleware games development engine and i t’s post processing when

enabled and disabled.

http://gamingdead.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/vlcsnap.jpg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

8

Rendering

Rendering is a process which generates 2D and 3D models and

des igns. In the gaming industry, the

rendering process gives actions, models and animations their final

touch.

Rendering is used in games to generate the game itself.

For example: levels in

games are made through this technique and are

fluently made both with rendering, post processing and spawning to create the game’s level or world. This

ensures the world works as i t should and all the entities

and RNG related data is created as realistically as possible.

http://i .telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02681/Minecraft-Poole-Ha_2681157b.jpg

Rendering in minecraft is constantly happnening when a player visits an unexplored region of the loaded world, i t will generate new terrain upon arrival.

Normal Map A normal map is a 2D image

repl icating a 3D map model used to determine surface normal. (Surface

direction) etc. https ://forums.epicgames.com/threads/677015-What-exactly-is-a-

normal-map-a-specular-map-etc

Normal mapping is used

when designing an object that i s not adapting well o

the environment surrounding i t, or to give an object a better look or feel

in a game. For instance; the ‘fake’ lighting and bumps that can be included can make an object stand out

or generally have more deta il. http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/14/13050/NormalAddition.jpg

This shows normal mapping to a game character.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

9

Entity An enti ty i s anything that exists

within the game’s development that appears to be alive. Usually NPC’s or moving objects can be portrayed as entities.

Enti ties are very important

to a game, they make up the world around the landscape and make any NPC’s , objects, and a few

more useful features in games such as vehicles or

weapons. An entity has its

own set of unique characteristics, for instance

one NPC could walk around whi lst another could s tand in place.

The l ist of entities va lve released for the environment of some of their games. Mainly to “modify” the game. (This image was uploaded to screenshot by myself). For a l ist of entities in valve’s games go to: https ://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/List_of_entitieshttps://developer.valvesoftware.c

om/wiki/List_of_entities

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

10

UV Map UV mapping is the process of

creating a 2D image, from a 3D map, i t is the process in which can be seen the whole of the terrain through a single flat image and is

used well for “maps” and guides of the game.

UV mapping is used when

maybe showing a map of the landscape to a player, rather than having a globe that i s scrolled around. If

the map for a game is flat it makes the terrain easier to

navigate and find particular

places. It can also be used by developers to see which

part of the game they need to add or take away from.

The gori lla character has been UV mapped to show a flat face. http://www.uvmapper.com/uvmp035a_big.png

Procedural Texture

Procedural textures are algorithms that are used in order to generate rea l life like nature texture such as wood, plants and water; they use

languages in programming that grasp colour well enough to do so.

Prodcedural textures are used in a game too generate a more realistic type of graphics in specific

objects, including things made from wood, metal and s tone.

The wood in this image has procedural texture showing different Types of wood in the design. http://www.inear.se/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/wood1.jpg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

11

Physics The Phys ics engine is a computer

program that detects life l ike phys ical attributes in a game such as gravity, body dynamics etc. it i s useful when creating first person

shooters and RTS games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physic

s_engine

Phys ics are used in

videogames in order to generate far more realistic properties and attributes to a video game. Personally I

bel ieve that physics are important to any aspect of

a game as it really does

make the game come to l i fe and act certainly l ife

l ike. A game I liked with a s trong access of physics was “Portal 2” as shown on the right. In this game i t

rea lly does make a di fference because of the

puzzl ing aspect of the game and trying to figure out how to solve i t using the

phys ics applied in the game.

Phys ics are shown here from the blue gel being fire from the opening and the gel falling down to the ground (gravity) and through the orange portal below it then falls from the blue portal to the top.

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/199581-header.jpg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

12

Collision Col l isions or “colliding” i s when two

objects in a game touch and have a reaction after colliding, this is used in order to make certain functions such as triggers work.

Col l isions are used in games

to mainly make two di fferent singularities or objects interact with each other in such a way that

they would have some form of outcome when colliding.

For instance; the ball in the

video reacts with each block of the wall. This

showing the colliding objects and how important i t i s for objects to interact with each other. Take into

account that this collision is too apply the laws of

phys ics to the game too and to make the objects react as they would in real

l i fe. I think this is important to any game as a ll games

(even small and simple games such as pong) require this interaction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue_zs0CY9fk

The video shows a test for the collision of triangle mesh with ball and cubes in blender 2.5 engine.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

13

Lighting Lighting Is used in order to make

dark places in the game appear brighter, i t gives dark places such as houses and other large buildings within a game visibility when

entering, i f the l ighting was not Implemented into the engine, then

the room would appear black.

Light i s a very important

factor in games. This includes any form of darkness that should be lit. Lighting i s given to an

object to make i t appear brighter, correct to the

terra in and shadowing.

Lighting i s (in my opinion) one of the most important

attributes of a game, it i s used in dark places in order to make them appear more rea listic to weather or just

to make the player actually vis ibly see what they are

looking at during game play.

This image shows runescape’s “high detail” setting with the torches that show light being

emitted from them within the terrain. http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121014193750/runescape/images/1/1a/Taverley_Dungeon_lava.png

AA – Anti-

Aliasing

“Antia liasing i s a way of smoothing edges. Computer monitors display pixels, but real objects have curves

and l ines. In order to display these on a computer monitor, the edge is

often jagged. Antialiasing helps

reduce the problem by s lightly blurring edges to the point where

jagged lines don't show easily or at a l l.”

http://compreviews.about.com/od/

PC-Gaming/a/What-is-antialiasing-

in-PC-games.htm

Anti -aliasing is the process

of smoothing edges in a computer game. But

because edges are

displayed in pixels, i t blurs the edges to reduce the

problem of jagged lines. This is attention to detail when creating a game. In my opinion, Anti-aliasing

i sn’t as important as some other features, especially

when making a cell shaded

game.

This image shows anti-aliasing because on the enabled AA (right side) the wooden beams appear smoother around the edges than the left image (without AA).

http://solidlystated.com/content/2011/06/divinity2-anti-aliasing.jpg

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

14

Level of Detail The LOD (level of detail) is the

amount of detail that has been put into terrain of a game. This includes objects and sprites, as well as animations. The level of detail in a

game can be important most of the time as most game developers

want to capture real l ife scenarios.

The level of detail in a game

is the amount of detail in a game. Based on graphics, l ighting and a few other settings. However level of

deta il in games (sometimes) isn’t an

important issue. For

example, “mine craft” i s a very pixelated game

a l though i t is popular, showing that level of detail i sn’t everything. But, level of deta il can be very

important when developers want there games to be far

more realistic. For instance, the game “destiny” really tries to emerge a player in a

futuristic setting with i ts vast level of detail.

http://s tatic.gamespot.com/uploads/original/152/1525982/2371525-9614057941-longi.jpg

These weapons for a game in progress are showing the amount of detail between a s imilar shape with some more details added each time it has been modelled.

Animation Animation is the process in which something moves, the s teps it takes

to walk, or the arms it moves when

throwing an object, these animations are important to give a

character movement and actions.

Animation in games is an extremely important

aspect. This is because a

vast vast majority of games wi l l require animation

(especially modern day games). The reason animations are used so much is because i t brings

forward life like game play due to entities, objects and

NPC’s moving instead of

being fixed in place the way they are designed. Too me,

this is probably the most important factor when

creating games.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130701134137/2007scape/images/3/37/TzTok-Jad_Animations.gif This .gif shows animations of an NPC within Rune-Scape that has different animations for the specific attacks, showing i ts relevance in the game.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

15

Sprite A spri te is the design of a character

and is used on a 2D basis.

A spri te is a 2D image that

moves on a flat screen, this i s particularly popular in 2D platformers or s ide scrol lers, it can also be used

in very very bas ic imagery in 3D Fi rst person shooters

or other genres’ of games,

such as the moon or clouds that are very far away from

the player. Often in this s i tuation, sprites will be created to appear 3D from a specific angle.

http://i .imgur.com/LT2w0.png

This image shows a variety of sprites and there appearences in the game.

Scene A cut scene or “event scene” sometimes in-game cinematic or s toryl ine movie, is a section of the

game where a player has limited control and this is used to show

other features.

Cut scenes are very important to a game, they break up game play in a

way that gives the player time to take in a story l ine,

perhaps just a break in game play to give the player a rest from the playing the game. Cut

scenes are increasingly important with story l ine,

often times portraying

cinematic effects that in game play, i s simply

impossible, even if the cut scene is pressing buttons to animate the character to move or ta lk to an NPC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Uin3mj4mk Personally my favourite cutscenes from “Call of duty: World at war”

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

16

Library A l ibrary i s a collection of non-

volatile resources on a computer that contributes to the development of a piece of software. For example all of the

fi les of code in a java game (.java fi les) would a ll be located in the IDE

program eclipse. This makes it a

l ibrary of files that can be changed.

A l ibrary i s a place where all

fi les from a games’ development are stored. This shows everything that has been developed in the

games and the places in which they can be edited.

This is extremely important

for developers as they require to keep things

organised and in correlation with each other. From personal experience; l ibraries of files are one of

the most important features in games purely

due to the mass amount of content you can create and how hard i t is too recover

or find lost or corrupt files with errors or bugs.

Library

of fi les in IDE eclipse showing structures to a game. http://kuikie.com/data/resources/images/eclipse-ide-working-with-java-classes_2.png

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

17

UI The user interface i s the space

where interactions between the human and machines and mechanics occur. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_i

nterface

A user interface is very

important, i t produces a game frame for the player to work with and explore. This game frame is

personally (from a gamers’ point of view) a somewhat

important feature because

functions and actions should be performed in this

interface, although just because a UI is important, it doesn’t mean it necessarily needs to be detailed or high

in graphics/animations. This i s because i t is simply a

place for things to be executed such as loading a game, finding an online

player or invi ting friends to play.

The user interface for the race “Protoss” in starcraft 2. This shows one of three unique UI’s

which depend on the race you play, as shown it is given a metallic look and finish as the protoss race is based around this.

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2010/03/starcraft-2-beta-first-impressions/starcraft2_2010_42.jpg

Frames Frames is the still image that a game produces, projecting the

vi rtua l world to reality.

Frames are used in “frames per second” in order to

show how many s till images are being produced p/secs.

For instance; 60 FPS would equal 60 s till images of a game p/secs. For modern

day games, 60 FPS i s good. Al though Frames are important to games, FPS is a less important factor ,

games can be played with a low FPS a lthough many fans

do not l ike low FPS. More powerful units are bought to test a games potential.

In this image, we see a camera with 20 s till images per second, or 20 FPS. Where as a projector has 10 FPS (10 s till images).

http://s lowmotioncamera.com/wp-

content/uploads/2014/03/OvercrankingTimelineForSlowMotion.png

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

18

Concept “Something formed in the mind; a thought or notion. See Synonyms at idea.” http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

concept

Concept in games, is the

thought and imagination of art behind the game i tself. For instance; games could not be created without a

vis ion of designers knowing what they want their game

to be about. A piece of

“concept” art, is to produce a base or idea about an

NPC, Playable character, object, entity, or even object within the game that can be designed and

imagined, this image is then given to an artist who can

modify (in certain and restricted ways) or produce that replica of the art as

ei ther a 2D or 3D model digitally.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090821033631/starcraft/images/9/93/Viking_SC2_Cn

cpt1.jpg This piece of concept art has been done for the Starcraft I I unit: The Viking.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

19

Event An event i s something significant

that happens or just generally happens for a reason.

In computer games, events

are triggered, commonly on specific variables, settings or when a player progresses far enough into

the game to acquire a new part of content. For

instance, in a personal

favourite game, “Halo 4” the player finishes a level

when he reaches a bridge in the level. This is a good example, as the player has to fight his way through

chal lenging enemies to eventually get to the cut

scene of the game in which case i s also an event because is has been

triggered by the player setting foot in that location.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lga2EDmXi0

This video shows the final fight in halo 4 and cutscene that plays once the event has been triggered (by the player entering the final part of the level).

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

20

Path finding Path finding in the gaming industry

i s the motion of an NPC or Object navigating i ts way through solid objects that cannot be walked through, or a path that is safe to

walk on.

Some games do not use

path finding, such as both 2D and 3D plat-formers, this is to allow hazards to occur for the player to

manipulate and navigate their way around. But

bes ides these games, a lot

of other games such as “Real time strategy’s” and

RPG’s us e this in order to s imulate a player walking as fast as they can to a destination, without path

finding, a player cannot find their way to a location i f

their initial process of moving is to send them to somewhere rather than the

player controlling its movement.

https ://forums.unrealengine.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8420&d=1407499458

This image shows a basic form of plat-forming to get around the blocks (solid objects) the fastest route the ci rcle can take.