Dependant (can only be played on one system)
A game that is platform dependent means that the software code has been written with only one specific system in mind. This means that there is a clear focus on what console or system the game will be for. An example of a platform dependent game is Spiderman which is created for the Sony PlayStation 4. This is a platform dependent game as the game can only be played on the Sony PlayStation 4 range. This means that PC, Microsoft Xbox users, Nintendo users and owners of previous Sony PlayStations such as the PlayStation 3 cannot play this game unless they purchase a Sony PlayStation 4. This is different to exclusive games such as Mario Kart as Mario Kart is exclusive to Nintendo console but can be played on any Nintendo console meaning that Mario Kart can be purchased for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Wii. This is different to Spiderman as it is only available on the PlayStation 4. An advantage of platform dependent games is the game is developed with a clear goal and aim as the developers know who their target audience is and what the demographic is that the game is aimed at. This means that the game will only need to please one console’s audience. This means that the game will be focused on doing this instead of making the game general to please all console users.
Another advantage is developers are aware of what console they are creating the game for. This means that the game will be well developed as the developers will know what hardware is available and what the limitations of the hardware is. In this case this is the Sony PlayStation 4. This means that the game will be created to complement the Graphical capabilities that the console has. This is because the developers will know the specification of the console and can therefore create the game to fit this specification. This means that the game will work correctly and will not have any lagging issues as the developers are aware of what they can do with the hardware available and will be optimised for the console. So, gameplay will be better compared to a generally available game. The PlayStation 4 is considered more graphically capable than Xbox One which is one of the reasons that the developers have chosen the PS4 as the sole console range to be able to play this game.
Independent (cross platform – javascript etc.)
Platform independent games are the opposite of platform dependent games as independent games are available on more than one platform and the games are built with this idea in mind. An example of a platform independent game is Fortnite. Fortnite is platform independent as it is available on multiple platforms such as on the Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. An advantage of platform independent games is the game does not alienate any gamer, as it is available on multiple platforms. This helps make the game more of a success unlike dependent games as independent games don’t heavily rely on one platform so there is less risk of the game being a commercial failure. However, there are some disadvantages to platform independent games. One of the main disadvantages is the game is limited to the hardware specification of the weakest device it is available on. This means that the game can’t be as detailed as it would be if it was a dependent game as the developers can chose the console and create the game to use all of the available resources to give the user the best gaming experience it can.
Operating systems
For PC/Macintosh
An operating system is software that runs on a computer system that manages the computers memory, processes, hardware, and software. Above all it allows the user to communicate with the computer system without knowing machine code. Without this user wouldn’t be able to use the system and the computer would be useless. The OS acts as a translator, translating our actions into something the computer can understand. The OS is needed to set up a system before a user ever gets to use the system. The hardware allows us to process and store information but is useless without a ‘driver’. To make the machine useful software must specify the tasks for hardware to complete. Both hardware and software together make a useful system.
Windows
Windows is OS made by Microsoft, Windows is now the market standard for home and business operating system. Windows is a graphical user interface meaning user interaction is through Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers. This makes it easier to use because you can use the pointer to click icons which would open a window. These windows can be placed like paper on top of each other on the screen. It also supports multi-tasking and multi-user. Multi-user means that you can have multiple users log on to the same computer. You can also get call support from Microsoft on weekdays if you need technical help. Windows also comes with a free antivirus and firewall called Windows Defender. The latest OS by Microsoft is Windows 10 which was released in 2015. Even though each OS created by Microsoft is different on the technical side, the main difference that is considered by users is the interface which has remained relatively the same throughout the previous version with the exception of features getting easier to use.
Mac OS
Mac OS is the biggest competition to Microsoft Windows. Mac OS is created by Apple and is installed within all Macintosh computers and Apple products. MAC OS is a graphical user interface, this means that it also uses Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers. MAC OS is Unix based meaning it is difficult for viruses to enter the system. The interface of Mac OS has a different look compared to Windows which can be compared using the images above. Most people seem to be more attracted to the sleek style used by Mac OS. However, research gathered in 2014 shows that 9.5% of PC users use Mac OS and 90% of users use Windows OS. This fact may be linked to Macs being expensive compared to Windows systems as Macs start at £1000. This is expensive compared to Windows systems which can be picked up for £299 and more. Another reason is Mac OS is limited to Mac systems and Apple products whereas Windows can be licenced to any system no matter the make and model.
Gaming
Because both operating system have different technical aspects, it means that some games will not run on certain operating systems. This is an important factor to take into consideration when creating or purchasing a gaming PC or laptop. I believe that the best OS to use for gaming is Windows as it is more commonly used, and most games will be tailored to its specs. Also, as Windows is a more commonly used operating system, it means that more games will be available on this OS. Another reason behind choosing Windows is Microsoft also create the Xbox One and are known for creating their games to also be compatible with their OS systems. An example of this is Minecraft which is an Xbox game which Microsoft also makes available on Windows PCs and laptops.
For Mobile
Android OS
Android is a mobile operating system that is developed Google and is based on a Linux kernel. Linux is the most user open source operating system in the world. Linux is mostly graphical user interface meaning user interaction is through Windows, icons, Menus and Pointers. This makes it easier to use because you can use the pointer to click icons which would open a window. These windows can be place like paper on a screen. Android is available on various phones as it is licensed to multiple manufactures who are allowed to use the Android OS in their phones. This allows the user to have a range of phones to choose from based on design and price as android phones range from £199 to £999.
IOS
IOS is a mobile operating system that is created and developed by Apple and is exclusive to Apple products and hardware. IOS is used to power many of the company’s product such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. It is the second largest mobile operating system after Android and has over 1 billion users. Due to android being the most popular mobile OS in the market, IOS uses some of the same features as Android such as the ability to customize their experience. Another one of these features is voice control. Apple has Siri which is a personal assistant that comes with Apple products, it is built into the operating system and allows the user to interact with the device by using basic verbal command such as ‘Call’ followed by the contacts name and ‘Search’ to search the internet for something. Android device also have a personal assistant but it is generalised, so it is compatible with all android OS using devices. This is an advantage for IOS as Apple create the software and hardware and will therefore know what the hardware limitations are and what they can do with the hardware to get the best results.
Gaming
I believe that Android is better suited for gaming. Google has taken Linux which is a plain OS and has added an app store and has allowed companies and users to be able to customize their device and the experience by allowing them to add apps onto their device. Android has over 2 billion monthly users, this means that games available on the Google play store are exposed to a large audience. This is different compared to IOS as IOS is limited to Apple products only. This is an advantage to IOS gaming as developers are aware of what hardware they will be using and are able to make games that utilize the hardware in the device. This is an advantage over android devices as android OS is used in weaker devices and therefore, the game can’t be of the same amount of detail and quality as it must be generalized to work on most android devices. Another benefit of using an android device is android devices allow users to insert external storage cards such as a Micro SD card. This allows the user to increase the storage capacity of their device which means that the user can store more games on the device. This is an advantage over IOS devices as IOS devices don’t have a slot for a micro SD card or any other form of external storage. This means that saving games on an IOS device can lead to the device being full of data and the user having to delete data and apps to accommodate new larger games.
Drivers
A device driver is a piece of software that is used to tell the operating system and other application software how to communicate with a piece of hardware. An example of this would be printer drivers. These drivers are installed onto a system to allow it to be able to communicate with a printer, this allows the user to be able to send items to print and can scan items at the printer and have the scanned image sent directly to the computer system the drivers are installed on. Device drivers are used to translate instructions between a device and the system the user is using. This is used because the system or software that the user is using is created by a different company to the creators of the device that the user is trying to use. This means that the software and the device may be using different software. A driver allows the code to be translated between the device and the software to create communication between these two entities.
Using device drivers means that most software programs don’t need to know how to work directly with hardware and the driver doesn’t need to have a application interface for the user to interact with to get a job done. Instead, the program and driver simply need to know how to interface with each other.
When a new device is used with a computer system, drivers are automatically installed for the drive to establish communication between the computer system and the device. However, an example of drivers that may require the user’s permission to install would be Windows driver updates which the user will need to allow to fix bugs and get new features on their operating system.
Soundcard driver
The operating system uses sound card drivers to translate machine code in mp3 files and other audio files to audio signals that the sound card can output to your headphones or speakers. Sound card drives are required to interact with a computer systems sound chip. This driver is a small piece of software that is used to allow the OS to be able to communicate with the sound card to play sound when needed.
If the sound card drivers are not installed or are outdated, the system will read it as missing hardware and will not be able to communicate with the speakers and no sound will be outputted by the system. Sound drivers can be installed by downloading the driver’s setup file and installing the driver. The driver should install correctly, and the sound should work if the drivers are compatible with the hardware and are the correct version. As if they are not compatible meaning that the system is unable to run the hardware on a particular system with a particular OS. This means that the drivers are not correct for this system. One of the reasons for this is the bit version of the OS as there are multiple versions and the driver must be of the correct bit version to work correctly on the system. For example, a driver for 32-bit Window 7 isn’t compatible on a 64 bit Windows 7 system.
Graphics card driver
A graphics driver is software that allows the operating system and programs to use your computer’s graphics hardware such as the graphics card. PC gamers must have these drivers up to date to get the best performance out of the hardware. Graphics card manufacturers release updates regularly for their graphics card drivers. These driver updates give major performance improvements, especially for newer games. Intel have also got serious about their integrated graphics performance and have started to release more frequent video driver updates. Some graphics cards manufacturers update these drivers each time a new game is released such as NVIDIA. They update drivers for their graphics card to optimise performance when playing new games as newer games are more developed and require more rendering power. The user may not feel this performance increase in the new games but will notice it when playing older games after the update. They will notice that the gameplay will be a bit smoother and graphics will be more rendered. To update these drivers, the user must first know what graphics card they are using. This can be done by searching ‘system information’ in the windows start menu. This will display a screen that looks like figure 11.
Using this information, the user can then search on the graphics card manufacturer’s website which will look like figure 12. Here the user will search for drivers for their graphics card. If there are any new driver updates the user can download. It will display here, then the user can download the drivers and install them.
Some manufacturers have a third party utility that can downloaded and installed to make sure that the drivers for the graphics card are up to date. An example of this is NVIDIA, who have software called NVIDIA GeForce Experience that runs in the background on your PC. This software can be used to automatically download and install graphics card driver updates. This will make sure that the drivers are up to date and will optimise the user’s gaming experience.
Application software
Interpreted language for games (Java, J2ME, C#)
Interpreted language is a type of programming language that doesn’t need to be complied before the code is executed. It uses a programming tool called an interpreter that converts the code to binary when needed. Programs using this language are normally written by users who know the language and are aware of how to make a program using the language. The most common languages used for writing video games in this way are Java, J2ME, and C#. Java is mainly used to make websites and games interactive. Java is object oriented, this means users can take advantage and inherit code that is common to the object. There are multiple types of Java that are used in different devices for different jobs. An example of one of these types of Java is J2ME. J2ME us a type of application software that is designed to create apps for phones. J2ME stands for Java 2 Platform Micro Edition and like Java, it is available to everyone. Java is friendly to new users and is designed as an easier coding language compared to C++.
Compiled languages for games (C++)
Complied languages is very different to interpreted programming language as compiled language is where a user has already gotten a code which is recycled and compiled and uses the old code to create new or repeat an instruction. This means that the code already exists and just needs to be located and changed to fit the new purpose. This is an efficient and easy way to program compared to interpreted language as interpreted code is not suitable for complex code as the user will need to code line by line which will be tiring and time consuming. Using complied languages means that user can use old code which saves time as the code is pre-tested which means it works correctly. It also means that the code will be smaller as the code may be more efficient than what the user would have coded. An example of complied language is C++, this is a very popular language that is used for running and creating games on Windows.
Comparison
The main difference between interpreted and compiled language is an interpreter produces a result from a program while a compiler produces a program written in assembly language. This means that the complier program is not readable by human people as it is architecture-specific machine language that is only readable by the machine to run the code. However, to run code the user must code the program which is translated to machine code to be executed. This is a long process, however, this is why complied code is quicker to run as it is already in machine code.
Another difference is compiled code is made to run on the platform it is designed for and only that platform. An example of this is a program created for HP-UX, this program will not run on a Mac OS system. This is a limitation as it means that the system must be the same to the system used to compile the program. However, this is also an advantage as this makes running the programmer as complied code doesn’t need to ran through an interpreter and the code can be recompiled on a new system to run. Examples of languages that are normally used to produce compiled programs include C, Fortran, and COBOL.
Scripting
Scripting is a program that is an interpreted environment that is automatically turned into a task. The most common scripted items on the internet is webpages. This is because websites contain interactive adverts, dropdown menus, moving images and menus that all require scripts to be interactive. An example of a scripting language is Java, this is used to develop websites. Scripting languages include QuackC, Lingo, Unreal Script, and Maya. All the example except from Lingo are gaming engines and allow the user to create models and assets for games when implemented into the Unreal Engine.
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