HCI (Human Computer Interface)

Task A understanding hardware technologies for game platforms

HCI (Human Computer Interface)

An HCI is basically what you use to control your console so controllers, joysticks, keyboard, mouse, wheel and pedals, motion sensing input device, motion controllers and voice controller. 

Controller

The controller is a device that is used for controlling a console usually a Playstation, Xbox and even a computer with the steam controller. Controllers have been around for many years and have adapted and changed since they were first made. Controllers now have adapted so they are comfortable and fit in your hand so it is easier and better to use. As you can see on the picture to the right it is adapted so the buttons you use most are in places that are easy to reach and use.

Joysticks

Joysticks are a fairly old form of HCI it is usually used in flight simulators or many different simulators they are also used to train people how to fly without using a real plane. The Joystick is made for flying so it is easy to use and helpful if you are playing a flight simulator. 

Keyboard and Mouse

The keyboard and mouse are most likely the most famous and popular HCI it has been around since the computer was made and is easy to use as you can just press keys to do certain things. There are some keyboards and mice that are called ergonomic this means that they have been adapted to make it feel comfy which helps. 

Motion Controllers 

Motion controllers are for Wii and recently new devices are coming out like the PlayStation Move and the Oculus Rift. The way these work is by moving the controller around or moving yourself around which will make your character move. The controller have four buttons and a motion detector so it can tell when you are moving to move your character.

Voice Controller

A voice controller is controlled by the voice examples of this is on the PlayStation when you speak through the headset or camera you can command the PlayStation and go onto things that you want to by speaking and not using the controller. 

Motion Sensing Input Device

Motion sensing input devices consist of the Xbox Kinect and the PlayStation Camera these are used for capturing motion and displaying it so you can move your character which will be you. 

Wheel & Pedals

Wheel and pedals are what they say they are they are a steering wheel and pedals you can use them on the PS2 to play various racing games including Need for Speed. 

Advancements

As you can see in the pictures the controller has advanced and changed a lot since the NES. The two pictures above shows a modern day PlayStation 3 controller and the old NES controller. As you can see in the picture above the NES controller is a lot wider than the modern day controller meaning it is less comfortable to hold. Another difference is there are less buttons on the NES as there were less features to do in the game whereas nowadays you have more features. Also the modern day controller is shaped so that it fits perfectly into your hand and make it comfortable. Another feature is that you can go to the main menu with the modern controller but with the older controller there is no menu button so to get to it you have to use the actual console. I think that the modern day game controller is a food dispenser, the controller will release a certain piece of food that is something from the game and you get to eat it to see what it tastes like and you feel immersed.  

Level 3 Games Design

Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Jack Palmer

Understand theory and application used for (P1) computer game graphics

The games I am going to be using for understanding theory and application used for computer game graphics is The Last of Us and Tetris, there are many differences between Tetris and The Last of Us I am going to go over them.

The Last of Us is an post apocalyptic game based around the characters Joel and Ellie. It is a 64 Bit photo realistic game. Here is the trailer so you can get a better idea of what the game is. 

Tetris is a 2D game that is 8 bit and made using pixel art it is a classic game where you have to match the blocks so they disappear.

Artistic Styles

First of all the difference between the two games artistic styles is massive. Tetris is made using the artistic style of pixel art the reason it is made as pixel art so that the mood and atmosphere is just happy and just unrealistic on purpose so that it works. However, The Last of Us has a completely different purpose Tetris is to destroy the blocks but The Last of Us is a apocalyptic game meaning that the game is made using photo-realism so the mood and atmosphere is there and it feels like an actual zombie apocalypse has occurred. The image above shows that The Last of Us has used photo realism and shows how it makes the mood and atmosphere.

File Extensions  

Every single game has a file extension a file extension is basically the type of file that the game is on for example if you compress a game it is likely to be either TIF or PNG. Tetris was most likely made with the file extension being JPG as JPG is the smallest file extension and it also has the worst quality meaning it is similar to Tetris and its style. The Last of Us however, is a much bigger game meaning that the file extension will be a lot bigger and most likely higher quality. The Last of Us most likely used an camera raw image and file so that it had higher quality and so it would look like it does with high quality graphics.

Optimising/Compression

Optimising is when you increase the graphics or increase a certain item in a game to make it as efficient as possible. The opposite of optimising is compressing the way compressing works is to compress and reduce the resolution or quality of the game but instead it takes up less storage space making it better for games on phones or devices. The difference between the two games is that The Last of Us is optimised and Tetris is compressed, Tetris is compressed because it was made to work for the Gameboy which did not have enough space to optimise or not compress. The picture above is taken in The Last of Us and shows the graphics and game and how it has optimised the graphics.

Picture/Image Resolution 

Picture resolution is the quality of the picture and how much detail it holds in it. The better the quality, the higher the picture resolution and image resolution is the quality of image and how sharp and the depth it has in the image itself. Since Tetris has no photo realism in it the picture resolution can not exist however, the image resolution does exist and is a lot different to The Last of Us as it is not very high but The Last of Us has high image resolution and picture resolution.

Print Media

The print media for Tetris is very different to The Last of Us this is because of the times it was made. As you can see above the Tetris print media is just a picture of a few blocks and it is very different to The Last of Us as you can see in the picture above the print media is a lot more realistic compared to Tetris which is not realistic.

Image Capture

Image capture is taking an image using any software or device you can do this with a camera, screenshotting, screen recording software, scanning and just drawing it yourself. Tetris and The Last of Us have massive differences with image capture. The Last of Us captured its images using a camera as you can see in the picture above they took a picture of Ashley Johnson and then changed a few features. Tetris however, is created using an art software to draw each individual block. There are some similarities between the two image captures though as some parts in The Last of Us were drawn like Tetris.

Storage of Image Assets The storage of image assets is basically what file name the data is stored in so say for example you make a picture of something but someone else is doing the shading of the picture if you save it in a file with no name it will take them a lot longer than if you call the file "picture needing shading". One example of this is below in this picture, i saved the name as "The Last of Us Ellie" so that i know what it is and so do other people. 

Unit 78: Digital Graphics For Computer Games

Research Exercise

File Extensions

File extensions are what you save your work into for example a GIF or TIF or JPEG. It is important that you choose the right file extension because it can save storage or use more storage depending on what device it is being used on for example a TIF is better used when making an APP as TIF files compress therefore using less storage space up. Whereas GIF's do not compress files so they are used more when using a computer because it has more space.

Compression

Compression means to compress something down, compress means to make the volume of something smaller so for example when making a file for an APP you need to compress it so that the phone has enough space and can handle it. Compression is used mainly with TIF's and usually when a file needs to be transferred from a computer to a phone.

Image Capture

Image capture is taking an image using any software or device you can do this with a camera, screenshotting, screen recording software, scanning and just drawing it yourself. Image capture is used for capturing image for example if you take a picture of a background and use it in the video game that would be capturing image. This is also used for the background in garrys mod in the picture above.

Optimising

The meaning of optimising is to get something as efficient as possible so that it is optimised to it's full potential one game example of this that has optimised the graphics is Grand Theft Auto 5 in which the game graphics have been optimised.

Storage of Image Assets

Storing images is important because if you work in a company and you are in charge of making an image but then someone else is responsible for shading it then you need to have put it in the right file so its easy for them to find it and use it. 

Unit 78 

Killer Klowns from outer space

a cop is doing his rounds on friday 

Paul and Nick come round with the ice cream truck and then leave after being laughed at then a meteorite goes over and everyone looks at it circus tent is up in the forest and farmer finds it something takes the dog. killer clown comes out and murders the farmer. young boys get arrested and police officer is really mad 

Debbie 

Mike 

Curtis Mooney

Paul

Rich
farmer gene green

find tent and Alice is scared too go to the circus but eventually goes to it 

Alice and Mike go into the circus and Mike takes the piss 

They go through a door and see a big purple ball and realise its not a circus. a person comes so they go through another door to hide. They break the pink items and see a person then the guy comes back and they have to hide then he drops something and gets spotted and chased by a clown with a gun. They get into a car and get chased by clowns they escape and one jumps on the car but falls off.

Alice and Mike go to the police and one police officer doesn't believe them and Dave tries to help them as the clowns go into the city to kill people. The clown killed two people in the drugstore and wrecks it as Dave and the rest go to the circus as the clowns go around town and shoot people. The clowns mess around with items in the shop. The circus isn't there so Dave arrests Mike then a clown shows up at a rider show down and a rider breaks his bike so he punches his head off. The clown tries to lure a child outside so he can kill her but her mum stops her. Dave pulls over and investigates a car that is filled with candy floss and had a dead body in it. Clown chases after guy in car using an invisible car and hits him off the cliff and kills him. Alice goes and has a shower as the popcorn moves. Clown puts popcorn into the bin and a man comes out and gets pulled into it and murdered. Dave and Mike have a serious conversation. Clown gets off of bus and entertains old people with shadow puppets then eats them all with a dinosaur. Rick and Paul are arguing and have crashed and Mike tells them about the clowns. Clown walks in on the cop and he thinks the clown is fake and isn't actually murdering people. Cop hand cuffs clown but clown takes off of handcuffs and clown comes into the jail and looks at them. Clown gets into jail and hit on the head and trapped in the jail then uses his tongue to knock the officer out. He comes into police station and into the prison there are footprints all over the wall and he finds the teenagers dead and the officer dead. Officer was killed and clown advanced for Dave but Dave shot him in the nose to kill him. The clowns are picking up all of the cacocons. Debbie gets put in some sort of bubble so Mike chases after the clowns for her. They drive to the amusement park in the ice cream truck and some security guard dies. The clowns throws pies at the security guard and he dies. They go into the place where the clowns are to try and find Debby. One person touches the button and an air horn goes off. They search for Debby but can't find her then a big clown comes in and they try and hide. The clown has a really long and complicated straw and he drinks blood from one human. They shoot the bubble to recuse Debby then try and run but the clowns show up. Dave shoots clowns then they chase him and they slide down to escape. They hide in a room and use the shotgun to block the door then the clowns surround them. The brothers tell them to let them go using the ice cream truck. A clown falls from the ceiling and it is attached to strings that it breaks. The brothers got threw and blew up and died. Dave runs out of bullets as the ship is about to take off and the big guy grabs him. Dave stabs him with the police badge and the guy blows up and blows up the ship as he does.

In my opinion Killer Klowns from outer space is the worst movie ever with the worst ever storyline of all time. The story starts where they see a comet and everyone is introduced this was the part of the film that was done the best as it was just introducing the characters.Later on in the story you find out the alien clowns are killing people so they can eat them and not die basically the story is a shambles and is really bad. The story does not attract any body and does not bring any emotions out. 

Unit 78:Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Pixels

Picture Resolution

Picture resolution is the quality of the picture and how much detail it holds in it. The better the quality, the higher the picture resolution.Picture resolution is took by a camera which makes it different to image resolution which is made by creating an image instead of taking a picture. Picture resolution is used in many video games to improve the atmosphere and mood as for instance in the picture above you can see the face in detail however, the two images to the side are image resolution as you can see picture resolution has a higher quality meaning it has more pixels and has a higher resolution.

Image Resolution

Image resolution is the quality of image and how sharp and the depth it has in the image itself. Normally an better looking image or a high resolution image is one that has more pixels and worst more pixelated image is one that not that many pixels. Factors that can effect the image resolution. first can be crop an image which lowers the resolution or basically the pixel size goes down. An another way to effect  the quality when enlarging a cropped or the original image it would make the image look worst because when making  it bigger the pixels don't change or enhance it more like a magnified image than anything else. But it also work the other ways when making an image smaller it look sharper and more detail but it would be more for a logo than anything else. Last way to enhance an image is to use an anti-aliasing which smooths the edges of the image making look sharper and more professional.

Intensity/Pixel Values

There are 2 types of pixel value. In the simplest form of Binary it says it is only a 1 bit number however, with colours it is different. The pixel values for grey scale is from 0 to 255 usually 0 is represented as being white and 255 is represented as black. For colour it is different instead of being a value between 0-255 it is a vector of three numbers. 8 bit games have less pixels than a 64 bit game as the more pixels you have the higher the quality.

top 10 games

Unit 72 

Pokemon Diamond (10)

The storyline for Pokemon Diamond is pretty loose, you start off in a small town and advance through the other towns while getting stronger and encoutering differenet situations as you follow your quest to be the very best like no one ever was. Along the way you have to fight numerous gymns to become the very best.

Call of Duty Blacks Ops (9)

The Story of Call of Duty Black Ops starts with Alex Mason being tied to a chair while being interviewed by a mysterious figure as he interviews you, you go through the flashbacks of what has happened until eventually you get to the present day and then you plan your escape. Call of Duty Black Ops is an photo realistic game

Gravity rush Remastered (8)

You start of the story playing as the main character Kat who falls from the sky and loses all of her memories after falling she befriends a magical creature who later she calls dusty after this she takes up a superhero roll and tries to save the people of hekesville from the evil monsters called nevis and try to rememeber her lost memories as you do. Gravity Rush Remastered is an game that was created by using cell shading and exaggeration. However, this one level that is shown on the YouTube video below was made using abstract.

Dead Island (7)

Dead Island starts on an fictional island called Banoi off the west coast of Papa New Guiena the story starts off at a high profile party with Logan, Xian, Sam B and purna. A zombie apocalplyse starts while they are on the island and they have to survive and try and find a way to get off of the island.

Garry's mod (6)

Garry's Mod has a conterverational story as it does not have a default story but many people say that you just playing along with the game is making your story for you.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (5) 

The story of Grand Theft Auto starts with Carl Johnson (CJ), the main character, comes off of an airport and is back in Los Santos he goes back home and finds out everything is messed he starts to try and make things right and amend his mistakes that he made in the past.

Resident evil revelations 2 Number (4)

Resident Evil Revelations 2 starts off in a meeting for terrasave which is an organisation for people trying to stop bioterror the main character Claire and other Terrasave workers get kidnapped against there will and taken to a remote island miles away from land and they must find a way to get off this island. However, after each episodes it changes to Barry who is coming onto the island to rescue them and get them off the island. 

Life is Strange (3)

Life is Strange is a game with the main character being a teenager called Max who goes to a photography school, but its not as simple as it sounds as one day she saves her friend and Chloe and by doing that finds out that she has the ablity to rewind time after this she tries to help people by using her powers for good but in the end she has to make an important choice.

The Last of Us (2)

The Last of Us is a post apocalyptic zombie game with the main character Joel who is trying to survive while transporting a girl across the country while facing many different problems and difficulties. The Last of Us is one of the most popular photo realism game there is as it shows the characters in great depth showing the characters details well. 

Road Trip Adventure (1)

At the start of the game the president of the world is in his mansion and tells you and the rest of the world about the grand Prix that is going to take place and whoever wins this grand Prix will be the president. You set of on the quest to become the president, you start in a small town called peach town and you have to help people to get a team and become the president. Road Trip is a cell shaded game 

Gaming machines

Gaming Machines 

Arcade Machines 

www.libertygames.co.uk

An arcade machine is an old gaming machine with a joystick and other controls. Arcade machines were created in 1909 with the original pinball machine. An arcade machine comes with all the devices you need to play it with as it is all built into the arcade machine. Meaning that the arcade machines are stand alone items. 

The difference between a console and an arcade machine is that the console is a home device and the arcade machine isn't also the console has to be connected to a TV whereas the arcade machines have a built in screen. However, an disadvantage to arcade machines is that they require you to pay before you can play which means you cannot just buy a game and play it over and over it is a price you have to pay each time. Another problem is that the games are designed for you to lose your money so not long after paying to start it you will have to pay again to carry on playing.

Console

gamesradar.com

The first ever video console was made in 1967 by a guy called Ralph H.Baer who is also known as "the father of games"  The video console is one of the most sold devices that are used to game. Consoles have more memory and data and storage space than a mobile device and arcade machine but less than a PC. An advantage to using an console is that you can have hours of entertainment and can use many different games on it including movies films and even blueray. Consoles have high resolution they can run 1080P which is very high quality however, it is not as good as PC as they can now run at 4K which is the best quality possible. 

PC

The first ever computer was made in 1936 by a guy called Alan Turing, he used it to crack the code the Germans were using and it helped to win the war. 

thegameroom.wikia.com

The PC is not an standalone console as you have to buy a mouse, monitor and many other things to help you game and use them however, you don't have to buy them you can use the computer without them but it means it is a lot harder to do. The differences between computers and the other devices is that the PC has a lot more storage than the other devices and you have much higher specs also you can use discs whereas arcade machines and mobiles cannot. One disadvantage for PC is that it is not portable and if you were to move it then it would take a long time to do and is harder than other devices.

Mobile

A mobile is an mobile device which can be used to play games and text and call people using different applications. The first ever mobile phone was made in 1972 by Motorola it was made by someone who is now known as the "father of cellphones".   The main advantage of having a phone is that it is portable and easy to transport whereas none of the above are but this comes at a flaw of storage space and the size of the screen. Another problem with mobile phones is that you have to charge them unlike consoles, this means that you cannot use it for a long time straight unlike consoles.

Difference Summary 

The arcade machines have the worst memory as the only memory it has is for the game meaning it can only play one game after that the phone has the worst memory as it only has around 12 GB which is hardly anything compared to the above devices. The next best memory is the console as that has more than phones as it can have up to 2 TB which is a lot and finally the best for memory and storage is the PC as you can mod and upgrade the PC to get more space and get better specs. The biggest difference between all of them is the size as they all come in different shapes and sizes and portability.

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