Human Controller Interface

Level 3 Games Design

Unit 20 computer games platform and technology 

Task A Understanding hardware technologies for games platforms

The HCI or Human Computer Interface are pieces of equipment that help you control something for example a mouse and keyboard and how they move things. In consoles they usually have there own HCI for example the Xbox has a Xbox controller and the PS4 has a PS4 Controller.

List of HCI

Keyboard For PC

Mouse For PC

Xbox Controller For Xbox

PS4 Controller For PS4

Wii Remote For Wii

Wii U pad For Wii and Wii U

Pedals For Arcades 

Xbox Kinect For Xbox

Play Station Move For PlayStation

Wheel For Arcades and Wii

Play Station Camera For PlayStation

ETC

Explanations

I shall be explaining 6 of the HCI's that are in the list

1. Key Board

The Keyboard is used mainly for a Computer but it can be used for other things as well. The keyboard can come in different sizes and styles and can also come with different things that can help people use it for example Grit that can help people who can't see as well use it. Most of the Keyboards are easy to use and don't take much effort. The keyboard is safe because all of the coners are rounded and so there are no sharp edges

2. Mouse

Mouses are usually used with a Computer but they could be used for moving the cursor on the screen or clicking something to load or do something that the games wants it to. Computer Mice are usually quite comfortable and they can also come in different sizes so that they can fit it more peoples hand and this can make them more comfortable. The Mouse is safe because it has no sharp edges to hurt yourself and also it doesn't look like there are easy ways to hurt yourself with it

3. Pedals

Pedals are sometimes used on arcade machines for racing or car games and they are used to move the car in these types of games and because that they are arcade machines they need to be used by kids as well so the pedals can't be to far down but the pedals can change between certain types of arcade machines and so how the pedals feel can be different for each machine. The pedals on arcade machine could be dangerous because of the fact that you could get your foot stuck under it or it could go wrong and end up trapping your foot.

4.Wheel

A Wheel can be used on arcade machines but also different types of consoles but i will be talking about the one for arcade machines and they are usually used for racing or car games and so they usually resemble a steering wheel in a car. They are usually easy to use and also they can be different sizes depending on the arcade machine and also they can't be to big because kids play on the machines but they can't be to small because it could become a danger hazed.

5.Wii Remote

The Wii Remote is used for the Nintendo Wii and and it is used for navigation and also to play the games it is also able to fit in your hand and feels quite comfortable and so it is easy to use but the censor can be a little bit off because it can sometimes loss connection. The Wii remote is not very big and so it is easy to move around. as you can see on the image below there are also many buttons on the controller and this is so that you can play a wider range of games. The Wii remote can be unsafe if you don't have the strap around your wrist because it could end up being throw around the room.

6.Xbox Original

The original Xbox controller is used for the original Xbox and i find it quite comfortable and i find that it fits my hands well and doesn't feel uncomfortable and i have quite small hands and i am sure you could get different sized controllers so you can get the best one for you. the controller was well made and i found it easy to use for most of the games that there are for the Xbox original. The Xbox Controller isn't very dangerous because all of the sides are smooth and they don't have sharp corners

Task B - Understanding Hardware technologies for game platforms

NES Controller The NES Controller is an old controller for a console called the NES and the controller itself is small and doesn't have many buttons to it and all it was it a Start, Select, Movement, A and B Buttons to the controller and because it is so small it is easy to carry and is not that heavy so it is not annoying to use it is also easy to use. The NES controllers don't have smooth corners and so it can be a bit unsafe.

PS4 Controller the PS4 Controller is a new controller for the PS4 and it is easy to use it is also easy to carry but it is quite big and so for people who have small hands it can be harder to use. The controller has many buttons and now it also has a touch pad. The PS4 controller can be wired and wireless so it is more portable than most controllers. The PlayStation controllers are smooth and don't have sharp corners and so it is not that unsafe.

Comparing:

These two controllers are quite similar in their design and their portability but even though they are similar in how portable they are the PS4 controller is more portable because it can be wireless but the main difference in these two is the touch pad because the PS4 has a touch pad and the NES doesn't but because if this it means that the NES controller is smaller than the PS4 one and so it can be easier to carry. The controllers both have some safety problems but the one with teh most would be the NES controller because of the fact that it has sharp corners  

Comparing 2 Games

Level 3 Games Design                                                         P1

Unit 78 Digital graphics and computer games

By Sam Penrith-Jaques

Date: 10/10/2016

Comparing 2 Games

The games I chose are Smite and Super Mario Bros

What types of styles the games are:

Smite

Artistic Style: The type of art style that smite is would be Exaggerated because as you can see the game seems like it has been exaggerated with how some of the characters look for example the art style of certain characters makes them look Exaggerated. 

File Extensions: Some of the file extensions that smite uses could be .JPG and they could have also used .PNG to create images that look good and smooth but they could be using other types that I couldn't find to create their game.

Compression: The game is compressed to suit a lot of computers and the games doesn't take a lot of specs to use and so many different computers can run it along with computers that don't have good specs but if you don't have the good specs then the computer could run the game slow and can lag.

Image Capture: Smite uses image capture for its setting because the area that you are using could have been screen captured and then made more animated but there is also a chance that it was made with no help or source.

Optimising: Smite has been optimised so that the game is not to graphical and because of this it allows the game to run smoother on computers that normally wouldn't be able to run it and so the images such as characters have been optimised and also the area that you are in and also if the game wasn't optimised then the game could end up lagging on lower spec computers.

Storage of image assets: Smite could use this for the background and also the characters and one of the ways it could be used for would be shading and colouring because one person could be designing the characters another could be shading and another person could be colouring and so when sending the images/ sprites over

Link to creating a character in Smite:                                                           P2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaxqNMjVyVE

Super Mario Bros

Artistic Style: The artistic style for super Mario bros would be Pixel because in the game you can clearly see the pixels and it think that this adds the two game because I feel like if it was to HD back then it wouldn't have stood out as much because the cartoon style to the game is nice and easy to look at and so it grabs the attention of people mostly of younger age.

File Extension: Super Mario bros is run the NES that stands for Nintendo Entertainment System and the file format would be .NES. The File Extension .NES is their own product and they made this File Extension them self so that the game wouldn't be as easy to copy but now they could be using something like a .JPG

Compression: Super Mario Bros could be compressed I am not two sure because the game was made to run on this console and so i don't think that it is compressed because of the way the game would be designed.

Image Capture: Super Mario Bros has its background image captured because it is usually just one set background and so it could have been captured so that it was just the same background everywhere and so it could be a capture put on a different layer,

Optimising: Super Mario Bros could have been optimised because of the way the game runs and it feels very smooth for example when you jump there is no delay but this could be because the was already fine for the console that you play it on.

Storage of image assets: Super Mario Bros could have used this for their sprites and there back ground because the sprites in the game could have started out black and white and then the next person could have added colour and this could have been done for both sprites and the background this could have been done for detailing on the blocks and platforms.

Link to a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsdbukLH5E

                                                                                                                   P3

Comparing

The two games that I have chosen are very different from there art style to the File Extension and so I will be comparing the two games.

Artistic Styles: The games have very different Art styles Because Pixel and Exaggeration are 2 different art styles and one is based more on HD while the other is based more on pixels and so the Exaggerated art style looks a lot smoother but because of this it could mean that the game is harder to run while with the pixels it makes it less smooth but is easier to run and so i think that the art styles are correct for the games.

File Extensions: The file extensions are also different because Nintendo used their own File Extensions called the .NES and so smite couldn't use it and they went with .PNG and .JPG and with this it allows the games sprites to look less pixelated because they are both used for HD images but on the other hand the .NES can be used for both HD and non HD graphics.                                                                  

Image Capture: Both of the games could have used the image capture for the same thing and that is the background and also the ground that they walk on for example the sky in Smite is an image capture but on Super Mario the sky has also been Image Captured.

Optimising: Both games could have been optimised but I think that smite has been more optimised because it is used for PC and so the game needs to be able to play well on Computers that may not be as good as others and also you can play it on Xbox One and PS4 so it could have been optimised to play on both of these but Super Mario Bros is a games that is played on the NES and so it could have been designed to run on that console smooth and so in that case it wouldn't have needed to be optimised.

Storage of image assets: The ways that this is used for both of the games could be considered the same because they are both used for sprites but the difference is that one of them is 3D models and the other would be 2D Models and because of this it could take more time to transfer from person to person for the 3D models.

Research exercise

Level 3 Games Design

Unit 78 Digital Graphics for computer games

Research Exercise

File Extensions

A File Extension is a string attached to a file with a Full Stop for example a .JPEG and a .PNG would be considered File Extensions.

File Extensions can be used for certain images and are also different between PC and Mobile because of the storage that they both use for example a .PNG is mostly of PC and a .Tiff is mainly used for Mobile.

There are many different types of File extensions and this image shows many of them but not all of them

Compression

A File Compression is where you reduce a image's size so that it is easier to send via internet and this can help because if you are designing a model sprite then you can send it to the next person for say shading so that you can get the image finished faster.

File compression is also where you can compress a file to make everything in it take less memory 

Image Capture

Image Capture would be by using things like a camera and you can also use a screen capture you can also use things like Fraps that records your screen

Image Capture The process of obtaining a digital image from a vision sensor, such as a camera. Usually this entails a hardware interface known as a frame grabber, which captures single frames of video, converts the analogue values to digital, and feeds the result into the computer memory. Information from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-imagecapture.html

Optimizing

Optimizing would be to make something run or load faster and smoother for example making a game run smooth with the cut seance and also so that websites load faster and this can be used for mobile because they usually take longer to load and so if you don't optimise then it could take time to load.

If you don't optimize a  game on mobile then it could end up using a lot of power and make the phone over heat or crash often

It can also make images look better and turn them into a .PDF

Storage of image assets.

Storage of image assets is a good way of storing things like textures and graphics and this is very helpful in games design because it is an easy way to transfer images and things to other colleges so that they can finish anything that is needed to finish.
These images in Mario would have been sent from one person to another for example the image could have had no colour and just be a black and white image and then sent to someone who does the colour and then sent to the next person who could add detail and maybe add shading if it is needed.