Task 3

Software Technologies for Game Platforms

Platform Dependency is basically when a game is only available for a certain platform and that platform only. This means that the game has been made for that platform only for mostly beneficial reasons such as to get the players to buy that console in order to play that game and it can only run on one operating system.

Advantages

Platform Dependency can allow a user to buy the platform it is created specifically for in order so that they can play the game. This means that the consoles company will profit because they will be earning more money from the units sold. The company will be offered more support and funding because both companies that have created the console and the game have made a licensing agreement. A game like Forza which was

Disadvantages

A disadvantage using this technique is that people may not buy it because they don't have the console that the game has been released on. For example, if somebody only played games on a specific console such as a Playstation 4, then they wouldn't be able to play exclusive games that are only playable on another console such as the Xbox One which means that if they actually wanted to play a games such as Forza Motorsport 6, then they would have to purchase an Xbox One and the game itself which would be a ridiculous amount of money for just one game that you could possibly end up playing only once and never again.

Examples

InFamous: Second Son - PS4 Only

InFamous: Second Son is a sequel of the InFamous series, which was released on PS4. This is a good example of how Platform Dependency could be bad as a game like this could be spoiled because the first game is only available to be played on the PS3, meanwhile the second game is only available on the PS4. Obviously, this might not be too bad considering that the game was basically upgraded to the next generation but this could end up in resulting on somebody not being able to play the sequel or original because they would have to spend money on a completely different console because you are unable to play PS3 in a PS4 and vice versa.

The game is about a boy can steal and copy magical powers and it's up to the player what choices that he should make throughout the game, as there are multiple outcomes which could be either heroic or evil. The environment in the game is based around the Urban cities and it tries to realistic lighting and graphics to try and make the player think that what is happening in the game is potentially real and destruction could actually occur. Depending on what route you take, you will be able to inherit different powers and moves which will change and have a different effect on what will actually happen in the outcome such as the animation shown and the destruction actually caused.

I think that this is an ideal game for a console because the controls are not too complex and the tasks within the game are not too difficult so you don't need quick reactions and accuracy to actually beat the game. There are not many different moves you can perform within the game either, which makes me think that using a keyboard with macros would be pretty much useless since on a controller, you have every move already configured for you and it means that it would also be easier for anyone to use, especially new players.

Forza Motorsport 6 - Xbox One Only

Forza is a series of games that has been going on for a long time as each game focuses on improving graphics, customisation, mechanics and overall performance. You can participate in multiplayer online with people from all over the world or you could just play with your friends that are on your friends list. The main objective is to race where the game has a wide selection of different maps and then you can race against either AI or real people over the internet which is a pretty simple objective but it could potentially turn out to be really fun, especially with friends.

I think that the controls suit this game since that the whole control system isn't too critical and the controller has everything already on it that you need. In fact, I think that playing games like this would be easier and more enjoyable to play on a controller because it's simple and everything is already there for you.

Pokemon X and Y - 3DS

Pokemon is a franchise that has been going on since 1996, where there has been many main games that introduce us to new generations of Pokemon and new stories and regions to explore and there has also been many different spin offs as well, where some have been popular and some have not been as much. Pokemon X and Y is the first main Pokemon game that has introduced us to a Pokemon world in a 3D aspect which was a really big leap since all of the other games were displayed in a 2D and more retro like form. 

Pokemon has very basic controls that as all you really need are functions to move, cancel and bring up the menu. I think a Nintendo 3DS is a really good platform for this game, mainly because the device itself is portable and can be taken anywhere that you like and you can play it in situations where you can be bored or waiting around as there are many more addtionial things to do in the games, even after you have completed the story. In the games, there aare usually afterstories that take place after you have completed the main story but you can also do things such as battling challanges and also wifi battles that you can play against your friends or against people from all over the world through the internet. The game is set in a turn-based and strategic form where each played gets to select a move that their Pokemon can use against the other Pokemon. I think that a controller and a separate TV or display would be too much for this game since that the resoloution could distort the beautiful pixelly images of the game itself and I also think that the game is fine as it is on an all in one device where everything is where it needs to be.

osu! - PC

osu! is a freeware rhythm game developed by Dean "peppy" Herbert, originally for Microsoft Windows. It is written in C# on the .NET Framework. 

osu! is a rhythm game which was developed by Dean "peppy" Herbert. The objective of the game is to click the circles to the beat. To do this, you can use either a mouse, tablet or touch screen to move the cursor towards the circles and you can either click with a mouse, tap with the keyboard or touch on the touch screen to click to the beat. osu! rises in difficulty using a "star" system where beatmaps that are rated more stars in difficulty probably consist of faster tempos, smaller hitcircles and higher appearance rates. The game might not sound too difficult but once you start to participate in songs that are more difficult, then you are going to want to have the right setup which is comfortable to play this game.

I think that this game is very suitable for the PC because I think it would be near enough impossible to perform well in this game using a controller when you have the freedom of using a mouse where you can customise your sensitivity freely and you can quickly and easily move your cursor to anywhere on the screen, whereas it wouldn't be very accurate using a controller. I think that you would need a keyboard to play this game because as the songs become faster, you want to spread out the work between both hands so one hand can focus on aiming and the other can focus on the rhythm. 

Love Live! School Idol Festival - Mobile

Love Live! School Idol Festival is a Mobile application available for iOS and Android and it is based off the original anime and music videos created from a school idol group called "µ's"(Pronounced "Muses"). It is a Rhythm game which is set out in a style using 9 circles where you can place different idols that have different statistics that will award you more score and other abilities. In the gameplay, there will be rings that appear at different rates depending on what difficulty the song is and when the ring is over the idol, that is when you tap as it is also linked to the rhythm.

The game uses the main idols from the Love Live! School Idol Project anime as characters you can obtain using love gems that can be purchased using Love gems that you can slowly obtain through playing the game for free or you can buy a large sum of them for a rather expensive price. The game is not really pay to win since you can still play all of the songs and obtain high ranks form being a free player like myself but it is something that could speed up the process or you could be buying love gems to open "honor scout boxes" which give you selections of different idols with different rarities and statistics, which could make your team a lot more powerful and you could obtain a much more higher score and get a higher rank.

I think that this game is suitable for the Mobile because the game is very simple as it runs very smoothly on pretty much any phone, you don't need to really worry about screen size or graphics since the game is literally tap the circle to the rhythm of the music and there are pretty much no graphics besides the side stories and the background in the song that you don't even focus on when you are playing the game. I also think that this works well for mobile because you can play in times whenever you are bored such as being in the car or waiting for someone which is an easy way to kill time and the game pretty much limits your addiction because you can only play a certain amount depending on how much "LP" you have in the game which are points you gain every 6 minutes and once you run out of them, the game will not allow you to play any more songs unless you waste your love gems on them which I like to save to open honor scout boxes to obtain new idols.

Platform Independency

Platform Independency is pretty much the opposite of platform dependency. This is where a game is available or able to be played on multiple or all platforms as it gives the player/ buyer the option on which platform they would like to play it on over preference as they don't have to buy a specific platform to play the game.

Advantages

You can save a lot of money with these types of games, since you can buy all of the games for the same platform and then you are able to play them whenever you want, meaning that you will save a lot of money because you don't have to buy a load of different consoles. Another advantage is that you can choose your favourite or most preferred system that you would like to play the game on, whether it be linked to whether you enjoy using more complex and customisable controls like the keyboard and mouse on a PC or a controller which is mainly used on a Console because of its quick and simple plug&plug style.

Disadvantages

When the game is in development, the company doesn't receive extra funds from the publishing company such as if Microsoft published it and it were to be released only on Xbox such as Halo, then the game had more funding's so that the quality and gameplay in the game could improve and be much better in quality and functionality.

Call of Duty: World at War/ Black Ops 2

In COD: WaW, There is a specific game mode called Nazi zombies which can be joyfully played on each platform with friends or by yourself. To be better at this type of gamemode, its more about strategy than skill which I think works just as well with a controller compared to a mouse and keyboard.  PC allows extra user created content such as mods and custom maps which I think is fun and very good as it gives players variety and keeps the player entertained as there are so many different maps and modes they can play to stay entertained.

Call of Duty is a franchise that has been very popular since it first was released. The game itself works very well with all platforms as the game is fun to play both casually and competitively. You can casually play on both platforms and everybody has an even chance of playing just as well as each other. The story within the game is rather easy and not too difficult so you don't really need to have the greatest aim or accuracy to play the game.

Castle Crashers

Castle Crashers is a 2D fighting game which I think is such an incredibly fun game playing both solo and coop. I think the controls work well mostly with a controller but it doesn't take too long to get used to them using the default keyboard controls on a PC version. All versions of the game are very similar and very close to being the same which I think is good because it doesn't make any other console seem better than the other so people can save money and buy the game for the console or platform they already have it for rather than buy another console for the better experience.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a very good example for an all platform game as each different platform offers a different possibility. The mobile version of Minecraft (Pocket Edition) is much farther behind than the other versions since the mobile version is much more casual and to play it when you're on your phone and you could possibly be waiting for something. The game is becoming better and you are able to play on a few multiplayer servers. I think that the controls on the console are very stiff and slow but I think that the mobile version is pretty good the way it is now as a casual game to play when you're on a break or on a journey in the car.

The console version is practically a vanilla version of minecraft where you can host local servers and play it with your friends. You are able to use the same mechanics as the PC version and you can play in different modes such as creative to build different things with your friends. This is another casual version of the game where you can go on every once in a while and add more content to a city or castle you have created in your own personal world which I think would be pretty fun and cool to play as you can end up being proud of what you have created.

The PC version of Minecraft is much more advanced and ahead of the other platforms as there is a much larger variety of things to do within the game including mods, custom skins and more fluent controls which I think is much better than the other versions. You are able to play in huge servers with thousands of other players in different gamemodes that users have created and also mods which has completely new aspects to the game which isn't related to the actual game at all. This means that you can always expect a new adventure and way of playing the game because there are new updates and mods being released constantly. The video above is a video of a Pixelmon mod on the PC version and it shows that Pokemon related things are being used within the minecraft game which can inspire people that play Pokemon to play and enjoy the game and people who play Minecraft to learn about other games and varieties.

Operating systems used

An Operating system is the software that you need installed on your PC so that it can perform all of the basic functions and commands that need to be done since without this, the hardware itself would be useless since the computer would not respond since it is not receiving any commands that it can understand so all of the components and hardware of a PC are practically useless if you don't have an Operating System installed.

Windows

Windows is the Software used on many PC's as it is well known, reliable and easier to use than most other OS. There have been quite alot of version of Windows all together, whilst the lastest version is Windows 10 used in the fairly new Xbox One which was released in late 2013. Microsoft have really gone to try and optimise windows 10 so that it can perform better in games and it can also help Xbox have a lot more features than it previously did

Linux

Linux is another Operating system and it is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. It is difficult to find video games that actually run on the Linux OS because it is not really built for gaming and not too many people use it as most computers already come with Windows already installed because it has everything on it that you really need.

Macintosh

Macintosh is an OS specifically used for only Apple computers and laptops which are better known as "Macs". The software is optimised so that everything is easily layed out on it and the software is easy to use. Macs are known for being used in professional work areas whereas within macs, you get exclusive software that can be used to create better products such as music on a software known a "Garageband". A problem with mac is that it is hard to find a version of most video games that actually run on mac since that most games are configured using windows systems and macs are not really built for gaming purposes.

iOS

iOS is an OS designed by Apple for the Apple mobile smartphones/tablets that they produce. Everything is layed out simply and everything is pretty much already done for you. Things within the phones aren't very customisable which is a reason why many people don't really like phones with iOS. iOS comes with built in applictions with the phone such as itunes and the App store which are the places here you buy/ download all of your music and applications/ games for your phone.

Android

Android is another mobile OS used for pretty much all of the other mobiles besides Apple and Windows mobile phones including brands such as Samsung and HTC. Android is much more complex and hard to understand how to use everything on the phone to its potential but if you do, you can have a much more customisable and nicer layout on your mobile. If you wanted to download applications, you would use the google play store which is fairly easy to use and it comes already downloaded on the phone.

Drivers needed

A driver is a program that is installed to help the input or output device function properly. The operating system installed onto the PC usually comes with all the basic drivers for devices such as a mouse and keyboard but a computer needs to install new drivers for other devices that the computer doesn't recognise for it to function properly, as a good example could be GPU's, Motherboards, Tablets etc. The drivers for these would usually be installed when you connect them to the PC for the first time which installs the files to tell the device what to to and how the computer should handle and react to it.

If the device you connect to your computer doesn't automatically install the driver or the driver is faulty and you need to reinstall, then you may be able to go onto the devices website and directly install the driver for yourself so that it can work. Above is a website with separate downloads for the Wacom tablet drivers which allow them to function correctly so you can draw images.

Application software used

Application software can be divided into two general classes: systems software and applications software. Applications software (also called end-user programs) include such things as database programs, word processors, Web browsers and spreadsheets.

A PC can use many different application softwares that are used for many different things on a daily basis and we need them because they are the reason we use the computer. For example, this includes Google Chrome which allows you to access and browse the internet to find lots of information and they are also used for an entertainment perspective such as games. The game is the application software because it runs on the computer as an app and then it is run as an app and can function at the same time with other applications which is basically multitasking.

File names - .pdf, mp4, mp3,

Steam - This is the application software that allows you to download a variety of video games with other players from all over the world. The software is simple and easy to use which is perfect for everybody to use since you can find what you want very easily as you can filter the game you want to find and once you have the game, then all of the games you own are lay out in alphabetical order on the PC in the steam library so that you can click and play the game.

Unity - This software is used to create 3D environments and 3D video games where you can create different structures which can be tested within the app using a first person perspective mode which is perfect for creating video games.

Sony Vegas - This is used to edit and create different types of video clips which can be kept or uploaded to various websites such as YouTube or social media like Facebook or Twitter. There are many different effects and filters within the software which i great because it makes everything much more simple and easy to use than other video editing software.

Photoshop - Photoshop is an application software used to edit or create different photos and images where you have a range of different effects to change how the image looks like and how it can be changed or improved with the selection of tools the program offers.



www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/application.html

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API is basically the messenger that listens to what the user tells it to do and then you receive a response back from the system. API's are constantly being used for general processes within a PC including things such as online payments, browsing the internet, or looking for a server on a website or video game. All of these use API's which take the role of a messenger, you tell them what you want and then you receive a variety of different choices from different places where the API has delivered your information and it's the feedback that you have received back. API's have allowed people to connect from all over the world and make things such as payments and shopping so easy since it can be done in a couple of clicks and without these API's, the system wouldn't receive our information and it would be like talking to a wall since we will get no feedback.

This is a video that quickly explains what an API is and gives examples physical examples of what they are so it makes it easier to understand. A really good example used is a waiter where you told them what you wanted, they deliver the message and then you receive you're response back which in that case is the food.

Graphical API

Direct X - DirectX was developed by Microsoft and it is used mainly to handle multimedia tasks such as game programming and video. This can help with both 2D and 3D tasks as the API works with video games and it was also used on Microsoft's new console, the Xbox. This API has been worked on for years and is still being worked on and used for Microsoft products including the Xbox and Windows operating systems.

OpenGL - Open Graphics Library is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a GPU to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.

Vulkan - Vulkan is a modern API used specifically for cross platform 3D graphics, released Feburary 2016 and it was developed by the Khronos Group. The API is claimed to be the next generation of the previous "OpenGL" and Vulkan targets high-performance realtime 3D graphics applications such as videogames and interactive media across all platforms, and offers higher performance and lower CPU usage, much like Direct3D 12 and Mantle. Vulkan also has the ability to render 2D graphics applications, however it is generally suited for 3D. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is also able to better distribute work amongst multiple CPU cores.

Sound API

Directsound - DirectSound is a deprecated software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system. DirectSound provides a low-latency interface to sound card drivers written for Windows 95 through Windows XP and can handle the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams. You can record and mix sound, add effects to sound using hardware accelerated buffers in Windows 95 through XP, and position sounds in 3D space. DirectSound is a mature API, and supplies many other useful capabilities, such as the ability to play multichannel sounds at high resolution. While DirectSound was designed to be used by games, today it is used to play audio in a large number of audio applications. DirectShow uses DirectSound's hardware audio acceleration capabilities if the sound card's hardware audio acceleration capabilities exist and are exposed by the audio driver.

OpenAL - OpenAL has the ability to create high quality audio that is designed for a multi channel output for 3D sound sources. OpenAL allows it so that you are able to create sound that works in a 3D area which makes the experience seem more realistic since the audio comes from all directions and the sounds become louder and quieter the further or closer you get to the incident.

Display (TV)

You would display game play using screens such as monitors and TV's. There is a wide variety of different types of screens that can be used which can suit your preference much better as things such as price, resolution, size and refresh rates are things can could be the thing you need to enhance your gaming experience.

Family Gaming

A display for gaming with the family would most likely consist of a large TV that everybody can comfortably see from every angle. There are a wide range of different TV's that can be bought that can work perfectly fine for gaming with the family on mainly party games on consoles such as the Nintendo Wii. Playstation and Xbox on games such as Mario Party, Just Dance, Wii Sports, Family Game Night etc. As you can see, these games are more fun for and not for a competitive point of view. You would also probably want a lot of space around you for moving about and getting excited whilst playing the games as it makes everybody more enthusiastic and interactive.



Competitive Gaming

For competitive gaming, you would want a rather small monitor around 24" since you are most likely going to be sitting close up to the screen on a PC. If you had a large monitor, you would struggle to see more of the environment around you since you would probably have to move and rotate your head around which could easily distract you and get you killed in games with the FPS competitive genre such as CSGO. You would also want a monitor with a resolution of 1080p or above since you want good quality picture and performance so everything feels more smooth and natural within the game as it takes a more serious approach. Refresh rate could potentially be a big part of competitive because you can have the advantage of being able to see something happen first which could give you an advantage over another player which could help you become better or get the kill because you seen it first. 144hz Monitors are recently becoming essential for competitive gaming because it makes the frames feel smoother and you can react that little bit fast which can help you result in the win. The down side is that the 144hz themselves are rather expensive ranging from £250 and up.





Monitor Options & Features

Monitors can have many different features within them where you can change how you see the image on the monitor in a more comfortable way. You can change settings such as brightness, contrast, RGB etc. This can be useful for when a display is too bright or you need to change the settings because you are colour blind which is very good because if the monitor is too bright, you can easily strain your eyes but if its too dark, then you struggle to see what is actually going on.