Engine Terms

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:
Stuart
Preston
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 A game demo is a freely distributed piece 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 version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_demo
This allows our customers
to play the game so that
it proves the worth of the
game proves their money
as a consumer this is very
important because if this
is not here most would
not mind but quite a few
people would not
consider buying this
product if it did not have
a demo

IG2 Task 1
2
Beta Computers. A quality-control technique in which hardware or software is
subjected to trial in the environment for which it was designed, usually
after debugging by the manufacturer and immediately prior to marketing.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beta+test
It is a label given to
games which are not
finished but in a playable
development phase so
you can catalogue your
different versions under
even more category’s so
you find your latest
version more easily
Alpha An early test of new or updated software or hardware conducted by the
developers or manufacturers prior to beta-testing by potential users.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alpha%20test
It is also a label giving to
games which describes a
functional game first
stage because pre alpha
is normally the
dysfunctional stage
where it is just being
created and then alpha
becomes the first stage
where they can test a
stable version of the
actual gameplay
Pre-Alpha A development status given to a program or application that is usually not
feature complete, and is not usually released to the public. Developers are
usually still deciding on what features the program should have at this
status. This status comes before the alpha version, and is the first status
given to a program.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pre-alpha_version
Its normally the stage
where the game has
come of out of the design
stage and is actually
being made and this is
where all the first
creations of the game are
made and how all the
features planned balance
out and actually work out
and in envisioned in the
game
Gold

IG2 Task 1
3
Debug Debugging is the routine process of locating and removing computer
program bugs, errors or abnormalities, which is methodically handled by
software programmers via debugging tools. Debugging checks, detects and
corrects errors or bugs to allow proper program operation according to set
specifications. Also known as debug.
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/16373/debugging
Debugging allows you to
refine your game into the
smoothest experience
you want it to be and
possibly find game
breaking bugs which will
seriously hinder selling of
the product
Automation automatically controlled operation of an apparatus, process, or system by
mechanical or electronic devices that take the place of human labour
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automation
This allows the
production to be
streamlined always and
its good if you need
something to be running
always
White-Box
Testing
Also known as glass box, structural, 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 select the test data. Unlike
black box testing, white box testing uses specific knowledge of
programming code to examine outputs. The test is accurate only if the
tester knows what the program is supposed to do. He or she can then see
if the program diverges from its intended goal. White box testing does not
account for errors caused by omission, and all visible code must also be
readable.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_Box_Testing.html
This allows you to break
the game to see how it
responds so if certain
problems only happen if
you mess around with the
internal game instead of
inside the game
simulation and then you
fix the game so it can run
more smoothly or fix

IG2 Task 1
4
certain objects and
entities in the game
Bug A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer
program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e.g., producing an
incorrect or unexpected result). Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors
made by people in either a program's source code or its design, and a few
are caused by compilers producing incorrect code Almost the same... It is
generally used like this is a bug that is something that a player can abuse
to improve his in-game resources, or make a game easier and simpler to
him
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_bug_and_
glitch
A bug is an unwanted
error created in the game
due a mistake or failure
within the system or a
fault with the coding
itself and these bugs
need to be ironed out so
that you can create a
pleasant game
experience in your game
and make it run as
smooth as possible and
most enjoyment for the
consumer
GAME
ENGINES
Vertex
Shader
A programmable function in display adapters that offers graphics
application programmer flexibility in rendering an image. The vertex
Shader is used to transform the attributes of vertices (points of a triangle)
such as colour, texture, position and direction from the original colour
space to the display space. It allows the original objects to be distorted or
reshaped in any manner.
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/53754/vertex-shader
This allows for us to be
flexible in the way that
we render our images
and how it done
afterwards and add
effects to the image that
just would cause the
game unneeded
performances hits if it
was hardcoded into the
game

IG2 Task 1
5
GAME
ENGINES
Pixel
Shader
Pixel shaders are tiny programs that can do operations on a single pixel on
the screen, as opposed to geometry shaders and vertex shaders which
work on the geometrical primitives (triangles) that make up everything
you see on the screen. The most common use for pixel shaders is
'shading', approximation to real world lighting. Commonly used shading
model is Phong.
Pixel shaders are executed on your video card, so your video card needs to
support them. Each new version provides more capabilities, so an older
video card will not run newer shaders. A new version of the pixel Shader
specification (e.g. Pixel Shader 3.0) is usually released for each new version
of DirectX (more accurately, Direct3D).
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/22286/what-is-a-pixel-shader
When you need to create
shading to make a game
look up to standard with
the industry these days
and games these days
have tons of shading
went it comes to the
outdoor part of games
when you got to make it
look natural outdoors in
their games and that is
what shaders are mainly
used for
Post
Processing
The term post-processing (or post process for short) is used in the
video/film business for quality-improvement image processing (specifically
digital image processing) methods used in video playback devices, (such as
stand-alone DVD-Video players), and video players software and
transcoding software. It is also commonly used in real-time 3D rendering
(such as in video games) to add additional effects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_post-processing
This allows us to process
the image into a higher
image quality and adjust
the image to add may not
have been in the original
image when it was taken
and post processing
allows you to add this

IG2 Task 1
6
Rendering Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model by means of
computer software. Rendering is used in architecture, simulators, video
games, movies and television visual effects and design visualization.
Rendering, the last step in an animation process, gives the final
appearance to the models and animation with visual effects such as
shading, texture-mapping, shadows, reflections and motion blurs.
Autodesk develops industry-specific software with rendering capabilities.
Many rendering programs by Autodesk can be processed and output to a
digital image or raster graphics image file.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=17940930&siteID=123112
Rendering Is generating
the image that has been
created by the design
team and is now being
put into this game and
rendering allows you to
do this with such
customisability for the
final product
Normal
Map
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 is used to add details without using
more polygons. A common use of this technique is to greatly enhance the
appearance and details of a low polygon model by generating a normal
map from a high polygon model or height map.
Normal maps are commonly stored as regular RGB images where the RGB
components correspond to the X, Y, and Z coordinates, respectively, of the
surface normal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping
This is way to create
more realistic impacts of
bumps and dents by
using lighting and
enhancement and greatly
enhances the details of
the game objects by
creating as it called a map

IG2 Task 1
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Entity An entity is something that exists in itself, actually or hypothetically. It
need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal
fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no
presumption that an entity is animate.
Sometimes, the word entity is used in a general sense of a being, whether
or not the referent has material existence, e.g., is often referred to as an
entity with no corporeal form (non-physical entity), such as a language. It
is also often used to refer to ghosts and other spirits.
The word entitative is the adjective form of the noun entity. Something
that is entitative is "considered as pure entity; abstracted from all
circumstances", that is, regarded as entity alone, apart from attendant
circumstances
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity
An entity is what going to
make up most of the
games content because
say you pick up a gun
which is an entity if entity
was not there everything
would not be interactive
it would set movie set in
a game
UV Map This process projects a texture map onto a 3D object. The letters "U" and
"V" denote the axes of the 2D texture [note 1] because "X", "Y" and "Z" are
already used to denote the axes of the 3D object in model space.
UV texturing permits polygons that make up a 3D object to be painted
with colour from an image. The image is called a UV texture map, [1] but
it's just an ordinary image. The UV mapping process involves assigning
pixels in the image to surface mappings on the polygon, usually done by
"programmatically" copying a triangle shaped piece of the image map and
pasting it onto a triangle on the object. [2] UV is the alternative to XY, it
only maps into a texture space rather than into the geometric space of the
object. But the rendering computation uses the UV texture coordinates to
determine how to paint the three-dimensional surface.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_mapping
The uv map is
programming colours or
textures onto a 3d object
and used to take certain
colour made by other
people their images and
then assign that to your
texture

IG2 Task 1
8
Procedural
Texture
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, stone, and others. Usually, the
natural look of the rendered result is achieved by the usage of fractal noise
and turbulence functions. These functions are used as a numerical
representation of the “randomness” found in nature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_texture
This is a computer
generated image which
creates realistic
Representation of natural
elements even in the
smaller parts of the
model since it is
computer generated
environment and it saves
the time of the actual
workforce to work on
something else
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 observer. Typically, simulation physics is only a close
approximation to real physics, and computation is performed using
discrete values.
There are several elements that form components of simulation physics
including the physics engine, program code that is used to simulate
Newtonian physics within the environment, and collision detection, used
to solve the problem of determining when any two or more physical
objects in the environment cross each other's path.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_physics
A way to introduce real
life physics in games
mainly used in simulators
because they need to be
very realistic in how you
go about doing the games
physics and how you deal
with what will happen
with the entity the player
is controlling

IG2 Task 1
9
Collision Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of
detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most
often associated with its use in video games and other physical
simulations, it also has applications in robotics. In addition to determining
whether two objects have collided, collision detection systems may also
calculate time of impact (TOI), and report a contact manifold (the set of
intersecting points).[1] Collision response deals with simulating 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_detection
Collison also referred to
as hit boxes I used mainly
for fps games to entity
the bullet and the players
connect in the right way if
they connect off body or
after they hit especially
are game breaking
Lighting Introducing lighting into your game is potentially a step towards realism. In
OpenGL you can introduce multiple light sources that are either static or
dynamic. You have a large amount of control over the characteristics of
the light sources at the expense of speed. It is important to realise that a
scene can still have the effects of lighting without a light source. More
about this at a later stage.
http://relativity.net.au/gaming/java/Lighting.html
Lighting I used in almost
all games they can be
used to create more
realistic environments
and more graphically
intense games that want
to create the next
benchmark
AA – Anti-
Aliasing
Antialiasing is a way of smoothing edges. Computer monitors display
pixels, but real objects have curves and lines. In order to display these on a
computer monitor, the edge is often jagged. Antialiasing helps reduce the
problem by slightly blurring edges to the point where jagged lines don't
show easily or at all.
http://compreviews.about.com/od/PC-Gaming/a/What-is-antialiasing-in-
PC-games.htm
Anti-aliasing is way to
smooth edges and
blurring edges so that
certain parts of objects so
that it tricks the
consumer into believing
it’s a more detailed then
it is

IG2 Task 1
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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. Generally speaking, the level of detail is dictated by the
game's system requirements. Given the power of modern processors, very
little degradation in the level of detail is noticeable anymore.
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/11791/level-of-detail-lod
Level of detail is used in
to determine the fact
what graphic quality it is
in the game and the
higher level of detail is
used the higher
performance Is used by
the computer playing it
Animation Computer animation, or CGI animation, is the process used for generating
animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term
computer-generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and
dynamic images while computer animation only refers to moving images.
Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although
2D computer graphics are still used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster
real-time renderings. Sometimes, the target of the animation is the
computer itself, but sometimes the target is another medium, such as film.
Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to the stop motion
techniques used in traditional animation with 3D models and frame-by-frame
animation of 2D illustrations. Computer-generated animations are
more controllable than other more physically based processes, such as
constructing miniatures for effects shots or hiring extras for crowd scenes,
and because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible
using any other technology. It can also allow a single graphic artist to
produce such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or
props.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation
Animation is a way to
move still objects created
in a computer design
software it always used in
game to move the
character which has been
created by a design team
and it always put in
games and is needed for
a successful creation of a
game

IG2 Task 1
11
Sprite A 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. Originally, sprites were a method of
integrating unrelated bitmaps so that they appeared to be part of the
normal bitmap on a screen, such as creating an animated character that
can be moved on a screen without altering the data defining the overall
screen. Such sprites can be created by either electronic circuitry or
software. In circuitry, a hardware sprite is a hardware construct that
employs custom DMA channels to integrate visual elements with the main
screen in that it super-imposes two discrete video sources. Software can
simulate this through specialized rendering methods.
More recently, CSS sprites are used in web design as a way to improve
performance by combining numerous small images or icons into a larger
image called a sprite sheet or tile set, and selecting which icon to show on
the rendered page using Cascading Style Sheets. As three-dimensional
graphics became more prevalent, sprites came to include flat images
seamlessly integrated into complicated three-dimensional scenes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics)
A sprite is a 2d object
which is an old school
characters onto games
but it is still used in
games today mainly to
create indies game and
wait to create a small
budget game where the
graphics and be easily
done by small number of
people instead of 3d
animating entire
characters
Scene A cut scene is a short cinematic clip in a video game to describe a
circumstance the character is involved in, also used for entertainment
purposes or no real purpose at all. Girls enjoy cut scenes because they are
visually stimulating and help to explain the plot of the game. Guys usually
prefer to skip cut scenes even though they can contain useful hints and
tips towards completing levels and earning special achievements
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cut%20scene
A scene is a more of cut
scene is normally used to
create plot points within
a game and create
tension and excitement
with plot twist and
realisations of certain
characters in the game

IG2 Task 1
12
Library A game engine is made up of class libraries. They do not stop being class
libraries simply because they are within a game engine. A library is a useful
framework to tackle a specific need within a game engine. A framework
that entails the needs for a complete game is a game engine.
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/10770/whats-the-difference-
between-a-library-and-an-engine
Libraries are what game
engines are made up of
they help specify
something within the
game engine and they
construct the framework
needed to complete the
engine itself
UI The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine
interaction, is the space where interactions between humans and
machines occur. The goal of this interaction is effective operation and
control of the machine on the user's end, and feedback from the machine,
which aids the operator in making operational decisions. Examples of this
broad concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of
computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator
controls, and process controls. The design considerations applicable when
creating user interfaces are related to or involve such disciplines as
ergonomics and psychology. Generally, the goal of human-machine
interaction engineering is to produce a user interface which makes it easy
self-exploratory efficient and enjoyable user friendly to operate a machine
in the way which produces the desired result. This generally means that
the operator needs to provide minimal input to achieve the desired
output, and also that the machine minimizes undesired outputs to the
human.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface
A user interface is what
you need to have to make
the user understand what
the game mechanics in
the game and how to
understand the situation
in the game and
effectively beat the
situation you have
handed them in your
game

IG2 Task 1
13
Frames A graphic panel in a display window, especially in a web browser, which
encloses a self-contained section of data and permits multiple
independent document viewing.
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=define+Frames
Frames are what
designed by the studio
one by one mostly
repeated because there is
normally hours’ worth of
content in a game
Concept A general idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences.
Something formed in the mind; a thought or notion. See Synonyms at
idea.
A scheme; a plan
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/concept
An idea a company has
thought up and now need
to push it up the chain to
see if management will
accept this idea and then
start work on the title
Event Something that happens or is regarded as happening; an occurrence,
especially one of some importance. the outcome, issue, or result of
anything
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/event
Event is normally a quick
time event I normally
used to create interactive
cut scenes so you can be
part of every part of the
game
Path finding Path finding 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.
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=Define+Path+finding
Path finding is for the ai
used in the game since it
is not player controlled
there movement need to
be an ai controlling the
movement too so path
finding allows you to
create paths the ai
teammates will use in
different situations

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