daryl bates engine terminology finished

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 (Demo (video games)) A game demo is a freely
di s tributed demonstration or preview of an
upcoming or recently released video game.
Demos are typically released by the game's
publisher to help consumers get a feel of the
game before deciding whether to buy the full
vers ion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_demo
If we make a demo of our game we can
show others a quick snip-it of our
creation. This will help generate buzz
and hopefully grantee buyers.
Thi s is an example of a demo, a demo
di s c from the good old days of the PS2.

IG2 Task 1
2
Beta Beta's are just a test for developers.
They want to see how well their game
works when randoms are playing it,
find out if they got anything wrong
before they sell it ect.
Some betas do look at your playing
habits inside the game, and send
details on your playing back to the
developer. It lets them check whether
you’re playing the game the way they
intended. A large amount of beta
feedback is also relayed through
forums and questionnaires. You can
probably find the relevant forum in
Google if you want to provide feedback
to the developer.
In short, it lets the see if they messed
anything up, or need to make anything
better, and fix it before people actually
pay for the game.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/in
dex?qid=20110421155200AAjBaBn
We could place our game into beta and
al low people to play our game and tell
us what they think. This will help with
finding bugs and it will also help us get
an idea of what people think of our
game.
Thi s is a picture that was a advertisement for the beta of the game
Des tiny.

IG2 Task 1
3
Alpha In independent games, or just "Indie"
Games, The alpha stage is a low
cost release to gain popularity before
the game is released as a retail
copy.
http://johngreasygamer.hubpages.co
m/question/228316/what-is-the-alpha-
stage-in-video-games-and-their-
testing
The alpha stage will be useful to test
out our game mechanics and the game
in general.
Thi s is a picture of someone downloading the alpha for the game
des tiny.
Pre-Alpha Pre-Alpha is a standard term to denote
a number of interim milestones
between prototyping and alpha, each
of which includes new functionality
and/or game
content. http://www.whatgamesare.co
m/pre-alpha.html
Thi s will be used to help us test out the
game engine before we go deeper into
production.
Thi s is a s creen shot of the pre-alpha of Minecraft.
Gold Bas ically, when a game goes "gold", the beta-tes
ting phase has been successful and passed,
therefore allowing the game to be
duplicated/produced and published for retail
sale.
https ://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi
d=20070607052358AAxntHM
The gold stage will be extremely useful
because i t would signify the end of
production and tell us that our creation
i s a success.
Thi s is a picture of the retailed version of the game Destiny.

IG2 Task 1
4
Debug Debugging is a methodical process of finding
and reducing the number of bugs, or defects,
in a computer program or a piece of electronic
hardware, thus making i t behave as expected.
Debugging tends to be harder when various
subsystems are tightly coupled, as changes in
one may cause bugs to emerge in another.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugging
Thi s stage i s a key s tage because i t
al lows us to play through the game and
fix any problems we come across,
making the game an overall better
experience.
Thi s is a s creen cap of someone going through the debugging
process.
Automation The us e or introduction of automatic
equipment in a manufacturing or other process
or faci lity.
https ://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=oJUJ
VJf5KeOq8wfb14GYDA#q=what+is+automation
(google definition)
Thi s would be where we add game
mechanics (by the use of scripts), a
very useful procedure in the whole
creation process.
Thi s is a picture giving an explanation of what automation is.
White-Box
Testing
Al so known as glass box, s tructural, clear box
and open box testing. A software testing
technique whereby explicit knowledge of the
internal workings of the item being tested are
used to s elect the test data.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_
Box_Tes ting.html
Thi s will be useful to test out our
programming to see if it all works, and
i f not. Fix it.
Thi s is a picture explaining the process of white-box testing.

IG2 Task 1
5
Bug Sometimes called a glitch, a bug is just
something wrong with the program.
Sometimes it might be not serious
maybe something like when you prone
on the ground, you might be displayed
incorrectly. And sometimes it might be
serious, like in Call of Duty 4 (recently
fixed) you used to be able to dodge
headshots by leaning, even though a
bullet would hit your face, the game
would register it as a miss.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/in
dex?qid=20080622111127AAsXob5
Understanding this term will be useful
so that we can understand and identify
problems we experience or is reported
to us during beta testing.
Thi s is a picture of bug that was found in the game Battlefield.

IG2 Task 1
6
GAME
ENGINES
GAME
ENGINES
Vertex
Shader
A Vertex Shader i s also GPU component and is
al so programmed using a specific assembly-like
language, like pixel shaders, but are oriented
to the s cene geometry and can do things like
adding cartoony silhouette edges to objects,
etc.
http://s tackoverflow.com/questions/832545/
what-are-vertex-and-pixel-shaders
Thi s will be useful to us so that we can
make objects in our game look more
realistic (or not), in other words making
objects look like we want.
Thi s is a picture of a vertex shader on a surface.

IG2 Task 1
7
Pixel
Shader
A Pixel Shader is a GPU (Graphic Processing
Uni t) component that can be programmed to
operate on a per pixel basis and take care of
s tuff l ike lighting and bump mapping.
http://s tackoverflow.com/questions/832545/
what-are-vertex-and-pixel-shaders
Similar to vertex this will help us make
envi ronments look l ike we want.
Thi s a picture of a pixel s hader demonstrating it’s ca pabilities.
Post
Processing
It the effects you see in games like:
Depth of Field - Blur landscapes in the distance
or clos e up l ike Camera Out of Focus.
Motion Blur - Blurs screen movement to give
games a more "movi e feel" during fast motion.
HDR - High Dynamic Range Lighting - Lighting
of envi ronment changes according to were the
camera view is (Inside/Outside)
Colour Correction and Clamping - Seems to
l imit the range of colours to give a more
realistic feel or washed out feel.
Looks to be all GPU intensive (Shaders) and can
s tress graphics cards a lot more at higher
resolutions. Coli McRae DiRT is a good example
of Pos t Proccesing intensive game which can
chug on even the newest cards at extreme
resolutions.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-
graphics-cards/192383-what-pos
tprocessing.html
Thi s is helpful to help the game look
more vi sually appealing and create a
smoother running scene, by creating a
blur on further away textures.
Thi s is a picture of s cene before post processing and after post
processing.

IG2 Task 1
8
Rendering Rendering is the process of
generating an image from
a 2D or 3D model (or models in what
collectively could be called
a scene file), by means of computer
programs. Also, the results of such a
model can be called a rendering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renderin
g_(computer_graphics)
Thi s will be useful to help us create and
introduce objects and characters into
the game engine.
Thi s picture shows the rendering screen of a game working within
i t’s ga me e ngine.
Normal
Map
Normal mapping used to re-detail simplified
meshes. In 3D computer graphics, normal
mapping, or "Dot3 bump mapping", is a
technique used for faking the lighting of bumps
and dents – an implementation of bump
mapping. It i s used to add details without using
more polygons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping
We can use this to polish over
noticeable imperfections and make the
game look better.
Thi s is a picture of a normal map before it has been applied.
Entity Enti ty-component-system (ECS) is a software
architecture pattern that implements concepts
from Composition over inheritance using a
database-like s tructure. Common ECS
approaches are highly compatible with Data-driven
programming techniques, and the two
approaches are often combined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity_componen
t_sys tem
Enti ties will be used to life and
intelligence to in game AI.
Thi s is a picture explaining what entity i s.

IG2 Task 1
9
UV Map UV Texturing i s how you texture inside of
Blender. It can be quite difficult, so this tutorial
wi l l help you learn the basics of
unwrapping/texturing simple meshes. You will
al so learn the basic techniques in unwrapping
complex textures.
http://bgetutorials.wordpress.com/2007/12/1
8/uv-texturing-mapping/
Thi s will be useful to add textures to 3d
objects.
Thi s is a picture of a UV map before i t has been applied to an
object, in this case the face of an NPC.
Procedural
Texture
A procedural texture is a computer-generated
image created using an algorithm intended to
create a realistic representation of natural
elements such as wood, marble, granite, metal,
s tone, and others. Usually, the natural look of
the rendered result is achieved by the usage of
fracta l noise and turbulence functions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_textu
re
Thi s will be useful to help the game run
a lot smoother by only generating
complex images when required.
Thi s is a picture of procedural textures that have been wrapped
around balls.

IG2 Task 1
10
Physics Computer animation physics or game physics
involves the introduction of the laws of physics
into a simulation or game engine, particularly
in 3D computer graphics, for the purpose of
making the effects appear more real to the
obs erver. Typically, simulation physics is only a
clos e approximation to real physics, and
computation is performed using discrete
values.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_physics
Phys ics will be useful to implement real
l i fe aspects into our game such as
gravi ty.
Thi s is a picture a game where a car i s drifting, demonstrating the
phys ics that have been added to the games engine.
Collision Col l ision detection typically refers to the
computational problem of detecting the
intersection of two or more objects. While the
topic i s most often associated with i ts use in
video games and other physical simulations, i t
al so has applications in robotics. In addition to
determining whether two objects have
col l ided, collision detection systems may also
calculate time of impact (TOI), and report a
contact manifold (the s et of intersecting
points). Collision response deals with
s imulating what happens when a collision is
detected (see physics engine, ragdoll physics).
Solving collision detection problems requires
extensive use of concepts from linear algebra
and computational geometry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_detectio
n
Col l isions will be useful to stop objects
passing through each other and
al lowing hit boxes to be created so that
game mechanics will work.
Thi s is a picture of s tacked blocks falling down, implying that a
col l ision has occurred making the blocks fall.

IG2 Task 1
11
Lighting Lighting is one of the most important and
influential elements in environments. It
has the power to make or break the
visuals, theme and atmosphere.
http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/lightin
g-in-game-environments-the-hows-and-whys
Lighting i s one of the most useful
aspects of creation. Applying lighting
can make mediocre textures look high
end, with no l ighting high end textures
look mediocre.
Thi s is a picture of someone applying light to a scene in the unity
game engine.
AA – Anti-
Aliasing
Anti-Aliasing is a term used lots when
selling graphics cards, but what exactly
is Anti-Aliasing? We look deeper into
the reasoning behind Anti-Aliasing and
why we need it in the first place. There
are varying types of anti-aliasing
producing different results and different
levels of performance hit.
http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/inde
x.php?pageid=antialiasing
Thi s will be useful to fix broken
textures that may appear due to
insufficient or incompatible aspect
ratios.
Thi s is a picture of a scene before and after anti analysing.

IG2 Task 1
12
LoD – Level
of Detail
In computer graphics, accounting
for level of detail involves
decreasing the complexity of a 3D
object representation as it moves
away from the viewer or according to
other metrics such as object
importance, viewpoint-relative speed
or position. Level of detail techniques
increases the efficiency of rendering
by decreasing the workload
on graphics pipeline stages, usually
vertex transformations. The reduced
visual quality of the model is often
unnoticed because of the small effect
on object appearance when distant
or moving fast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_
detail
Thi s will be useful to allow the game
engine to run smoother since i t is
loading less detailed images for the
further away objects, AI or landscape.
Thi s is a s cene demonstrating the level of detail that has been
applied.
Animation Art and animation in video
games refers to how things
physically look, which includes
everything from the packaging
on a retail video game, to the
texture of the skin on each
character, to the graphical user
interface, to the way a character
rolls her ankle when she walks.
It does not include how the
game-playing device or
controller (the hardware) looks.
http://www.gamecareerguide.co
m/features/413/game_art_and_
animation_an_introduction.php
Thi s is useful to help finish off the
games visual appeal, textures and
landscapes may look beautiful but
without animation the movement of
the AI and, possibly, objects will ruin
the game.
Thi s is a picture of someone animating a character.

IG2 Task 1
13
Sprite 1. In computer graphics,
a sprite (also known by other
names; see Synonyms below) is
a two-dimensional image or
animation that is integrated into
a larger scene. Initially including
just graphical objects handled
separately from the memory
bitmap of a video display, this
now includes various manners
of graphical overlays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer
_graphics)
Sprites are useful i f we would like to
create a 2D s idescrolling game, so that
the ga me e ngine doesn’t struggle
loading complex 3d models.
Thi s is a picture of sprite form the game maker game engine.
Scene Scenes contain the objects of your game. They
can be used to create a main menu, individual
levels, and anything else. Think of each unique
Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you
wi l l place your envi ronments, obstacles, and
decorations, essentially designing and building
your game in pieces.
http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/CreatingScen
es .html
Thi s will be useful because this is the
area where the objects and
characters/AI will live. Without the
s cene, there is no game.
Thi s a picture of an in game s cene.

IG2 Task 1
14
Library In computer science, a library i s a collection of
non-volatile resources used by programs on a
computer, often to develop software. These
may include configuration data,
documentation, help data, message templates,
pre-wri tten code and subroutines, classes,
values or type specifications. In IBM's OS/360
and i ts successors they are referred to as
parti tioned data s ets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_(computi
ng)
A l ibrary wi ll be useful to help us keep
al l of the game files together and
organised in one place.
Thi s is a picture of a library in a game engine.
UI User interface design in games differs
from other UI design because it
involves an additional element --
fiction.
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/An
thonyStonehouse/20140227/211823/
User_interface_design_in_video_gam
es.php
Thi s is the first place the player comes
into contact with the game. This will be
useful to us so that we can create an
appeling interface that keeps the
player playing.
Thi s is a picture of the user interface from the unity game engine.

IG2 Task 1
15
Frames Frame rate, also known as frame frequency
and frames per second (FPS), is the frequency
(rate) at which an imaging device produces
unique consecutive images called frames. The
term applies equally well to film and video
cameras, computer graphics, and motion
capture systems. Frame rate is most often
expressed in frames per second (FPS) and is
al so expressed in progressive s can monitors as
hertz (Hz).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate
Thes e are used to help us monitor the
speed the game is running at. We hope
to achieve a solid 60FPS or above.
Thi s picture demonstrates the difference between 30fps and
60fps .
Concept In game theory, a solution concept i s a formal
rule for predicting how a game will be played.
Thes e predictions are called "solutions", and
des cribe which strategies will be adopted by
players and, therefore, the result of the game.
The most commonly used solution concepts
are equilibrium concepts, most famously Nash
equilibrium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_concept
Thi s is useful to allow us to generate
ideas on how we would like the game
to play, without this the gameplay
would be choppy and incomplete.
Thi s is a concept picture for a video game.

IG2 Task 1
16
Event So, what are events? Basically, these are
di s creet moments in the game loop where
things are made to happen based on what you
have programmed for them. You see
GameMaker: Studio works with cycles of these
events - from the moment a room i s started to
the moment it is finished there is a game loop
running where every step (a step is a moment
in game time, governed by the room speed
setting) a series of events are run, and you can
choos e to place code or DnD actions in your
ins tances that respond to these events.
http://docs.yoyogames.com/source/dadiospic
e/000_us ing%20gamemaker/events/index.htm
l
Events are useful to keep the game
running smoothly, by activation events
i t triggers certain bits of code/script to
al low/make the game continue instead
of doing nothing or maybe crashing.
(Al lowing a constant flow)
Thi s is a picture showing how the code for triggering an event
works .
Pathfinding Pathfinding or pathing is the plotting, by a
computer application, of the shortest route
between two points. It is a more practical
variant on solving mazes. This field of research
i s based heavily on Dijkstra's algorithm for
finding the shortest path on a weighted graph.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinding
If the game s cene is a complicated
layout, the AI is going to require a
complex pathfinding in order for i t to
smartly move around the map.
Thi s is a picture of the path of a AI, intelligently avoiding objects.

daryl bates engine terminology finished

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