Y1 js engine_terminology

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.
Nam
e:
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)
VID
EO
GA
MES
/
VID
EO
GA
ME
TES
TIN
G
Demo A demonstration of a product or technique
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definiti
on/english/demo
A demo is a small part of the game that
i s usually released before the full
game; i t is to give people a gameplay
experience before purchasing a game.
http://lazyreviewzzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Mafia-II-GamesCom-
4-1280px-50p.jpg
Thi s photo is part of gameplay in the Mafia 2 demo
Beta a vers ion of a product (such as a computer
program) that i s almost finished and that is
used for testing
http://www.merriam-webs
ter.com/dictionary/beta
A vers ion of the product that is much
l ike the demo, however this is before
the game is fully created. This is normal
used to test he game for any bugs or
crashes in the game and to also see
what changes can be made in the game
before release.
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/uk-videogames/2013/Pre-orders
/d20130912-001_Amazon_LeftBB_FINAL._V356040032_.jpg
Thi s is showing how to gain access to the Destiny beta.
Alpha A very early version of a software product The alpha comes before the Beta. It is a https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTaIk7akOUw

IG2 Task 1
2
that may not contain all of the features that
are planned for the final version
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/alpha
_vers ion.html
very early vers ion of the game that
users normally need to apply to be a
part of or be a big part in games
journalism. The alpha is not released to
the public in this stage of development,
the final product tends to be very
di fferent than in the alpha.
Thi s is a video of Alpha Gameplay
Pre-Alpha A development status given to a program or
application that is usually not feature
compl ete, and is not usually released to the
public. Developers are usually s till deciding
on what features the program should have
at thi s s tatus. This status comes before the
alpha version, and is the first status given to
a program.
http://www.abbreviations.com/pre-alpha%
20version
The Pre-Alpha is an extremely early
edi tion of the game that rarely gets
released out of the company who
create the game. The pre-alpha version
of the game may not even use textures
as i t is normally used to see i f the
gameplay works.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNv9PbRxg14
Thi s is a video of Pre-Alpha Gameplay
Gold A game has "Gone Gold" when the final
mas ter copy has been produced at the
developer and sent off for replication,
packaging and shipment. The game is not yet
released, but it will typically be around 2-3
weeks (sometimes less) before i t begins
appearing on s tore shelves and online pre-orders
arriving at doorsteps. The term itself
comes from the old practice of recordable
CDs being manufactured with gold film.
Hence the gold colored CD actually being the
source, with no reference to copies sold as in
the recording
industry.http://www.urbandictionary.com/d
efine.php?term=Gone%20Gold
If a game goes gold, it means that the
final product of the game has been
created and i s waiting to be shipped to
reta ilers or sent to s ervers for
download on software such as Steam
or Origin. A few days after going gold
they may send a copy to game cri tics
and/or reviewers so that the reviews
can be ready on launch.

IG2 Task 1
3
Debug Debugging is the routine process of locating
and removing computer program bugs,
errors or abnormalities, which i s
methodically handled by software
programmers via debugging tools
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/163
73/debugging
Debugging is the system that is used
when a software searches through the
game code either automatically or
ma nually to fi nd ‘bugs’ i n the code that
need to be fixed and i t may also fix
them without someone retyping that
bi t of the code.
http://media.askvg.com/articles/images3/Reveal_Hidden_Debug_Menu_
Windows_Games.png
Thi s is a debug menu to automatically debug the game.
Automation the technique of making an apparatus, a
process, or a system operate automatically
http://www.merriam-webs
ter.com/dictionary/automation
Automation i s the system in a game
where you have to wait a certain
amount of time for an action to be
completed. This is come in games like
The Si mpson’s Tapped Out, Cl ash of
Clans and Farmville. In these games
you may have to wait up to 24 hours
for an action to be completed.

IG2 Task 1
4
White-Box
Testing
A software testing technique whereby
expl icit knowledge of the internal workings
of the item being tested are used to s elect
the tes t data.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Whit
e_Box_Testing.html
White-Box testing is when a tester has
ful l access to the code in the game and
runs through the game using the code.
Thi s can be helpful to manually debug
the code and to see i f anything goes
wrong without having to use textures
in the game and it is easy to test early
on in the development production.
http://www.softwaretestinggenius.com/photos/wbt1.JPG
Thi s is the process of white-box testing in a game.
Bug The definition of a bug is a minor setback,
problem or unexpected malfunction
http://www.yourdictionary.com/glitch
A bug (also known as a glitch) is a
usually a part of the coding which
mes ses up a l ittle bit. It can either be
exploited by gamers to help them
compl ete tasks quicker or some of
them break the game and i t does not
let them progress any further.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3g2840zXKY
Thi s is a video of the top 10 bugs in gaming.

IG2 Task 1
5
GA
ME
ENG
INES
GA
ME
ENG
INES
Vertex
Shader
The Vertex Shader is the programmable
Shader stage in the rendering pipeline that
handles the processing of individual vertices
http://www.opengl.org/wiki/Vertex_Shader
Thi s helps to shade the object to give it
a lot more depth.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~gordonw/OpenGL/images/teapot_vertexShad
er.jpg
Thi s shows before and after a vertex shader in a game.
Pixel Shader A programmable function in display adapters
that offers a graphics application
programmer flexibility in rendering an
image.
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/
53754/vertex-shader
Thi s give the pixels different shades so
that the quality of the picture is a lot
more clearer
http://assets.overclock.net.s3.amazonaws.com/4/4e/4e776cf7_vbattach2
843.jpeg
Thi s shows before and after a pixe shader on a game.

IG2 Task 1
6
Post
Processing
Unreal Engine provides Post Process Effects
to al low artists and designers to tweak the
overall look and feel of the scene. Examples
of elements and effects include bloom (HDR
blooming effect on bright objects), ambient
occlusion, and tone mapping.
https ://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/E
ngine/Rendering/PostProcessEffects/index.h
tml
Pos t Processing is when artists use
di fferent tools and effects like bloom
to change how the game looks and i t is
used to either fit the s tyle of the game
more or to make the game a lot nicer
looking.
http://gamingdead.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/vlcsnap.jpg
hi s shows before and after post processing that can be used in a game
engine.
Rendering In 3-D graphic design, rendering is the
process of add shading, color and lamination
to a 2-D or 3-D wi reframe in order to create
l i fe-like images on a screen.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/ren
dering
Rendering is the action to make a
character or environment look more
realistic, it adds more colour and
textures to the object and also gives
the character a wireframe.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-
xRWshgWFcPA/UrAEX6J7CKI/AAAAAAAAEj4/aeqvg_CVlao/s1600/uncharte
d_2_among_thieves_8.jpg
Normal Map NormalMaps moves the lights and shadows
on XYZ depending on RGB.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/ind
ex.php/t-256491.html
Normal maps are when the object is on
a XYZ s cale and i t can be easily
modi fied here using various different
tool s.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6Yu-nTbUU
Thi s is a video of someone explaining what normal maps are.
Entity Enti ty Sys tems (ES) are a software technique
us ing Composition rather than Inheritance to

IG2 Task 1
7
bui ld high-performance code-architectures,
us ing a s tructure similar to relational-databases
and/or functional-programming.
http://entity-systems.wikidot.com/
UV Map "UV mapping is the 3D modeling process of
making a 2D image representation of a 3D
model." 3D models are graphed in 3D space
us ing X, Y and Z axis to describe width (X),
height (Y) and Depth (Z) coordinates of the
3d s cene or 'world.
http://www.makehuman.org/doc/node/con
s idering_uv_mapping.html
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2-FfB9kRmE
Thi s is a video on how to create a UV map in Blender
Procedural
Texture
An algorithmic way of describing a texture.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/procedural-texture
http://www.cprogramming.com/discussionarticles/images/blend-tex-s
crn.gi f
Thi s picture shows the texture on a mountain.
Physics A phys ics engine is general used to describe
a software program that is used to s imulate
phys ical phenomena.
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/p/p
The physics in a game shows the
phys ical aspect of a game and it is
commonly used to describe how a
character or object moves within the
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0yvs6RJVVY
Thi s is a video of the physics engine in use I Grand Theft Auto 4.

IG2 Task 1
8
hys ics-engine.htm
game.
Collision Col l ision detection algorithmically calculates
impact time by identifying two or more
object intersection points
8/col lision-detection
Col l ision is when an object meets
another object, and then it is how they
both react for each other. For instance
i f a football collides with a brick wall,
the ball will bounce off and the wall
wi l l stay s till.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuLpoJ9LUJc
Thi s is a vi deo showing off the collision detection I ‘The Next Ca r Ga me’
Lighting Smoothing the jagged appearance of
diagonal lines in a bitmapped image. The
pixels that surround the edges of the line are
changed to varying shades of grey or colour
in order to blend the sharp edge into the
background. This technique is also called
"dithering," but is usually known as anti-al
iasing when applied to diagonal and curved
l ines.
37810/anti -aliasing
The l ighting in a game shows is
di rected somewhere and it gives it a
di fferent atmosphere as it otherwise
would have been.
http://www.dsogaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/winter01c.jpg
Thi s photo shows off the l ighting on the new CryEngine.
AA – Anti-
Aliasing
Smoothing the jagged appearance of
diagonal lines in a bitmapped image. The
pixels that surround the edges of the line are
changed to varying shades of gray or color in
order to blend the sharp edge into the
background. This technique is also called
"dithering," but is usually known as anti-al
iasing when applied to diagonal and curved
l ines.
37810/anti -aliasing
Anti -Aliasing is when a texture in a
game is smoothed out a lot more and it
gets rid of the jagged edges when
zoomed.
http://images.eurogamer.net/articles//a/8/6/7/8/5/1/Saboteur_Aliasing_
001.jpg.jpg
Thi s shows the difference between anti-aliasing on ps3 and Xbox 360.

IG2 Task 1
9
LoD – Level
of Detail
Level of detail is a general design term for
video game landscapes in which closer
objects are rendered with more polygons
than objects that are farther away.
91/level-of-detail-lod
The level of detail differs depending on
how far away from the object you are.
The closer you get to the object the
more polygons it shows.
https ://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/images/4/44/Lod_001.jpg
Thi s shows the leve l of detail on a gun i n Valve ’s Te am Fortress 2.
Animation As an art-form, game & interactive media is
the creation of video games and interactive
media programs through the use of
advanced computer programming and
animation techniques.
http://www.animationcareerreview.com/ani
mation-programs/gaming/game-animation
The animation i s bringing the
characters and environment to life. It
takes the character and gives them
movement. And with the environment
i t can animate the trees or grass to give
i t a sense of realism.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfnceZO1seQ
Thi s video is a tutorial showing how to animate on 2D software.
Sprite A spri te is a bitmap graphic that is designed
to be part of a larger scene. It can either be a
s ta tic image or an animated graphic
http://www.techterms.com/definition/sprite
A game sprite is a very s imple image
that i s created to be a character usually
on a retro game. On i t you can clearly
see the pixels and they are created
us ing bitmap imagery.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRp7F_pCUn4
Thi s is a video tutorial on the creation of a sprite in a 2D game.
Scene A cut s cene or event s cene (sometimes in-game
cinematic or in-game movie) is a
sequence in a video game over which the
player has no or only limited control,
breaking up the gameplay and used to
advance the plot, strengthen the main
A s cene is a cutscene in a game which
ties bits of gameplay together, they are
usually used to keep the consumer in
tone with the story with mostly no
playability during these cutscenes.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogYptnWnJkg
Thi s is an example of cut scenes in Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls.

IG2 Task 1
10
character's development, introduce
characters, and provide background
information, atmosphere, dialogue, and
clues. Cut s cenes often feature "on the fly"
rendering, using the gameplay graphics to
create scripted events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutscene
Library Game Objects is a collection of 2D and 3D
maths classes, and algorithms for helping in
the creation of games with Python. Suitable
for PyGame, but independent of it.
Thi s is a library of objects and coding
that wi ll help create the game.
http://www.pyglet.org/
Thi s is a website of where to download a game l ibrary.
UI The way a person interacts with a computer,
tabl et, smartphone or other electronic
device. The user interface (UI) comprises the
s creen menus and icons, keyboard shortcuts,
mous e and gesture movements, command
language and online help, as well as physical
buttons, dials and levers. Also included are
al l input devices, such as a mouse, keyboard,
touch s creen, remote control and game
control ler.
53558/user-interface
A UI in a game usually comes in the
context of the health of your character,
the map of the world that you are In
and other information that the
consumer may need.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tlagJbF9nQ
Thi s shows the upgrade in UI through windows upgrades.
Frames
Definition - What does Frames Per Second
Games run in frames. The viewing
experience of a game depends on the
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJh9ut2hrc
Thi s is a video of a games cri tic debating on what frames are.

IG2 Task 1
11
(FPS) mean?
Frames per second (FPS) is a unit that
measures display device performance. It
cons ists of the number of complete s cans of
the di splay screen that occur each second.
7/frames-per-second-fps
frames per second. Most games run at
either 30-60 frames per second,
however there is a lot of controversy
on the amount of frames that certain
games can run.
Concept It's a general idea about a thing or group of
things, derived from specific instances or
occurrences.
http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/conc
ept
A concept is an idea. This idea may be
what the character should look like, act
l ike, how the story should be, where
the game should take place etc. This is
usually these are devised early on in
the game.
http://hqwallpapers.org/video-games-concept-art-destiny-wallpaper-
18272/
Thi s is a picture of concept are in Destiny.
Event A thing that happens or takes place,
especially one of importance.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definiti
on/english/event
An event i s something that happens in
the game to further expand the story
or gameplay without zoning the
consumer out into a cut s cene.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIjg-YA4fV8
Thi s is a video of an event that happens in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

IG2 Task 1
12
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 is based heavily on Dijkstra's
algorithm for finding the shortest path on a
weighted graph.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinding
Pathfinding is the idea of showing
where the game should take a certain
object or player.
http://www.cognaxon.com/img/maze003.jpg
Thi s is a picture of path finding in a maze game.

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