In this first video I am changing the resolution settings on the PS4 so that the PS4 is preforming to be best of it's ability on the TV that is provided. To do this I went onto the settings, went to TV and display and changed the resolution to automatic so that the console could decide which resolution would be better for the TV that it is connected to.
On this video I am connecting the controller to the console allowing me to navigate the menus of the console and when a game is running I will be able to control the character is various ways. To do this I plugged the controller into the console via a cable and then pressed the Playstation button once on the controller allowing it to automatically connect to the console.
Finally in this video I am installing the game "BloodBorne" by simply putting the disk into the console and when the console has read the disk the game begins to install automatically.
This is the game "BloodBorne" installing onto the console.
The first game that I am going to talk about is destiny as this is a game that I play frequently and a game that I know quite a lot about.
Platform dependent?
Destiny is a game that isn't platform dependent as this game runs on many different operating systems on different consoles such as Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. The Xbox consoles run on the Xbox OS operating system which is based on the windows operating system whereas the Playstation consoles run off an operating system based off FreeBDS. However in a way you could say that this game is platform dependent as it is only on consoles with no PC version available due to unknown reasons.
Drivers Needed:
Destiny is a game that when an update is needed it will do this automatically so that all the games features/software is up-to-date otherwise you wouldn't be able to access the game. The current version that Destiny is running on is 2.1.0 as the game is always being developed and fixed to make the players experience better than it previously was, however updates always get a mixed review from the public as people would have preferred the previous version to the new one. Also when the Xbox system gets updated this may add a new feature to the console and if the company working on destiny see this as an opportunity to incorporate this new feature into their game then the next update will be based around this one feature so that the game doesn't fall behind. This means that the game will have to closely watched by developers over the next few weeks because this is when the most bugs and glitches will be created and be listed to be fixed as soon as possible (also known as a hot fix).
Application Software Used:
As stated before Destiny uses the Xbox OS operating system on Xbox one and this allows the player to integrate some features that Xbox has to offer into the game of Destiny, The main application software used is the party chat because compared to "in-game" chat it is more clear, less audio issues and makes it easier to re-invite people to the game if they disconnect. However this does have disadvantages that the Xbox party chat isn't too great itself and when in game you can't see who is talking as their name doesn't pop up on screen, you would have to go to the party chat and see who is talking. Players also use the friends list on the Xbox by simply pressing the middle button twice in quick succession making it quick to get to and easy to find people by their "gamertag" and invite them to the game and party. Without these systems in place it would be incredibly harder to find people to join the fireteam to complete the raid and also meaning that you would have to use game chat with all the problems that it has.
Graphical API:
When playing on the Xbox Destiny uses the graphics card that is provided in the Xbox one to create the smoothest picture and FPS (frames per second) that it can produce. Not much is known about the Xbox one graphics card as it was custom made just for the Xbox one but Destiny runs at 1080p at 30fps on both the Xbox one and PS4 because the game is cross platform and the developers wanted everyone to have the same experience which is both a positive and a negative in my opinion because it takes away from the people who have bought next gen consoles for their games to run better but that has been taken away without a choice.
Sound API:
The sound on Destiny has been designed to be compatible with every headset and uses them to their best ability. For example with my own headset I get a very dynamic/surround sound from the game as I will be able to hear exactly where other players or enemies are whether that be to my left, right or behind. However at the other end of the spectrum the sound could be very mono meaning that everything sounds the same in each ear.
TV:
Depending on the type of TV you have the picture quality of the game Destiny will be different ,in my case I have a smart TV that supports HD so when I connect this cable to both my TV and Xbox one the games that I play including Destiny is anywhere from 720p - 1080p depending on how optimized the game is.
Rock Band 4:
The second game that I am going to talk about is Rock Band 4 as this is a game that I have been playing most recently on both guitar and drums.
Platform Dependent?
Rock Band 4 is not platform dependent as it also runs on Xbox one, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360 and I have previously talked about the operating systems. This game also doesn't have a PC version, not because of the multiple operating systems that PC has but because the company are afraid of people pirating the songs as there are no protections on PC to stop this whereas on consoles they are constantly monitored by the companies to ensure that this doesn't happen.
Drivers Needed:
Rock band 4 is a game that updates on it's own which means that it doesn't need any of the Xbox drivers to tell the game to update. As the game is newer the latest update added a lot of new features to the game because this is what the fans wanted and it also came with bug fixes so that the players can have a better experience when playing the game. The game will also be continually updated with bug fixes as these are also being created as updates on one certain things can cause another to break.
Application Software Used:
The only Xbox feature that Rock Band uses is the store which allows the player to purchase songs from a gargantuan library that is updated by the creators adding new songs to the game each month making the gameplay endless in a sense. By using the Xbox store this makes players information a lot safer as the Xbox store has been tried and tested to protect this information but if the game company decided to make their own store system this could have caused issues with privacy and protection as it would be a completely new system.
Graphical API:
When playing on the Xbox Rock Band 4 uses the graphics card that is provided in the Xbox one to create the smoothest picture and FPS (frames per second) that it can produce. Not much is known about the Xbox one graphics card as it was custom made just for the Xbox one but Rock Band 4 runs at 1080p/60FPS so the game looks smooth and runs well with no hitches/freezes for both PS4 and Xbox One meaning that the character models will look better, colours will look brighter, etc. This means that all players will have the same overall experience.
Sound API:
The sound on Rock Band is very mono based as you are basically just listening to music and going to the rhythm of the song. Depending on the sound system that you are using e.g. headphones, TV and sound bar the sound could either be extremely clear allowing you to hear everything or it could be of poor quality meaning that the sound would be gritty.
TV:
When it comes to Rock Band the TV is one of the most important assets as the whole game is about hitting the notes that you see at the right time. With Rock Band there can be some TV's that will cause input lag on the game meaning that the note may look like it's in the right place but when you strum the guitar it says that you have missed the note completely.
The first ever arcade machine featured the game pong in 1972 which was developed by the company Atari. This game became incredibly successful and an instant hit with young generations at the time as this was something that they had never seen before and engrossed. This was now the past-time that kids would save their pocket money up for to spend on, making the company massive amounts of money overtime. However the hardware during this era didn't allow for much experimenting or development as this game was incredibly basic with one moving cube (ball) and two lines that would move up and down (paddles). Also the graphics were very blunt with only black and white as the software/hardware (the TV that the machine was using) wouldn't prohibit coloured graphics.
From the actual arcade machine we can see that it was designed to be for two players and didn't have artificial intelligence due to the limitations at the time. This encouraged people to play against each other in person with friends or random people that were at the machine waited to have a turn. The controls were also simple to use and learn as it was just two turning knobs (left side is player 1 and right side is player 2). The only controls was turning the knobs left and right which would move the lines up and down.
The two next hugely popular arcade games were space invaders (1978) and asteroids (1979). Although with very similar graphics to pong with only being black and white and very pixel heavy, that game mechanics were changing with these games being more difficult with destruction and space invaders having an objective to defeat all of the creatures that were coming down from the sky without being shot and asteroids was just to survive for as long as possible before being hit by an asteroid. These games brought a new aspect to gaming which was a more competitive side to try and get/beat the previous high score that was set by a different player. While playing this it would be entertaining but also give them determination to get the high score and if they didn't then they would feel the duty to play again and again until they could be the person to gloat about having the high score.
Next in the history of the arcade machines came revolutionary software/hardware with the game Tempest from Atari in 1980 which brought colour to the gaming screens. However this game was quickly overshadowed by the game Pac-Man which quickly became a crowd favourite as this game appealed to everyone. This game also had colour and a simple objective which was to collect all the orbs whilst avoiding the ghosts at the same time. This was a game of skill and make them concentrate on staying alive but also made players have to figure out the game mechanics as you wasn't given clear instructions about everything (for example when Pac-Man eats a larger orb this allows him to then eat the ghosts for a certain amount of time) but without trial and error it could have taken ages to figure this out. This game started a new era for arcade gaming and attracted many new people into the gaming scene.
In 1991 the arcade era was once changed again with games such as Mortal Kombat and street fighter. The software at this allowed these games to improve the graphics and have a lot more complex and intricate movement to happen on the screen. As these games added that gore factor to games with Mortal Kombat having fatalities, lots of blood and people being dismembered. This became a huge success with mostly male audiences as women weren't as interested in this sort of game. After seeing how popular these games were arcade owners knew what direction to head in and started replacing older machines with fighting games as they were making the most money at the time. However this was the point where the media and parents had something to blame for violent acts that were happening in the country. Gaming began to be seen in a bad light as it was ruining peoples minds and causing them to commit violent acts to imitate the game that they had been previously playing. Shortly after in 1999 the a new technology was shown in arcades in the form of Dance Dance Revolution which allowed the player to use themselves as the controller for the first time as this used touch pads and the weight of a player applying pressure to a certain point and was linked to the game. Even though this was something new it still wasn't as popular as fighting games and was seen as too weird as you would have to attempt to dance in front of random people which meant they never really took off and became popular with the masses. On the other hand this is was the pinnacle of arcades and they then began their slow decent as consoles were released but they kept on fighting coming out with new machines with advanced technology to keep up with the times.
The latest advancement in arcades is with games such as Dark Escape 4D which uses the newest technology to try and bring people back to the arcade by offering things that they wouldn't be able to experience at their own home. This game uses surround sound, 3D effects, blasts of air, vibrations and heart rate monitors to fully immerse the player so that they feel like they are actually there. I personally feel that if technology didn't advance this far then arcades wouldn't be around anymore as people could be doing the exact same thing in the comfort of their own home.
Console gaming began in 1967 with the first ever console which was called "The Brown Box". Due to the lack of technology and software this console could only run six simple games such as "Pong" and "Tennis" but this meant that people could now play games that they loved in the comfort of their own homes and invite friends over to play competitively. However the graphics were very basic and bland, not exciting or appealing to look at. Also there was no sound output from the television meaning that the game had no sound effects at all which was another negative of this console.
No other company released a console until 1972 and this console did have any advancements over The Brown Box as this was just a more developed version. This was the Mangavox Odyssey which also had basic graphics and no sound capability at all, the main difference between these consoles was the overall appearance and that the Mangavox Odyssey was the first ever commercial home gaming system to be released onto the market.
The next big advancement for consoles was only a few years later in 1975 when Atari released their first home console which you could only play pong on but this soon became the most popular console out there due to the fact that there was an on screen score board and there was finally audio capabilities so you could hear the ball bouncing of the paddles. This was a massive step forward for consoles as this opened a whole new door for what video games could look like and sound like in the future.
After the Atari console was released technology just kept advancing with better graphics cards and the first console to utilize this was the Telstar that was released by Coleco and this home console was revolutionary at the time as with this console you could set the difficulty of the game. The difficulty options were either beginner, intermediate or pro, this meant that the console appealed to a wider variety of "gamers" weather that be people who are just started to play games or people that have been waiting for more of a challenge to come along so they could advance their skills. Alongside the difficulty settings this console also had colour thus was more aesthetically appealing compared to the rival consoles that were on the market.
After the release of the Telstar console there were no advancements in software or technology until 1981 when consumers of video games were growing tired of Pong style games as it was very repetitive and well overused by this point in time. Due to this and advancements in technology companies began to create other game genres such as fighting, platform, adventure and RPG games. This could now happen due to better game engines allowing more assets, better graphics, bigger worlds, more movement and so much more, at this point in time the possibilities were endless and games could now be distinctively different from others to grab their target audiences attention to boost sale profits. However with these new games being created there had to be consoles that had the capabilities of running these games to their fullest potential. The first console to be released after this genre revolution was the Nintendo Entertainment System alongside their game Mario Bros which was a side scrolling platformer that had bright colours, decent graphics and enemy AI. Nobody had seen a game like this before which is why it became extremely popular and customers also had to buy the console as well as this game would only work in this specific console, this is the game/console that made Nintendo such a well known name to millions of people.
The next advancement in console gaming was a tremendous one as the GameBoy was released in 1989 and this was the first handheld console which meant that you didn't have to plug this into a main power source. The GameBoy was incredibly popular as you could now play games no matter where you were, however you couldn't play with your friends on these handheld consoles which was a major downside to this console. This was now accessible due to the fact that better and smaller hardware was now available to big companies such as Nintendo.
In 1990 the compact discs was starting to be used for games and these discs had exceptional memory capabilities meaning that games on consoles could now convert from 2D to 3D. In the year 2000 Sony released their second gaming console the Playstation 2 which was similar to the first console with how the graphics look and how good the gaming capability is. However this console changed how people/friends would play games with each other, due to the advancements in software allowed online potential meaning that friends didn't have to be in the same room to play multiplayer, instead they could connect via the internet and play "online multiplayer". This would have been seen as making people anti-social yet you could meet other people that were playing online too, this console also pushed its capabilities as it was also a DVD player as well as a gaming console. Only 1 year later Microsoft released the XBOX which incorporated PC technology into a console for the first time and this hardware meant that this console had faster processing speed than any other console on the market. This was the start of the "console war" between Sony and Microsoft.
In 2005 Microsoft released their second console the Xbox 360 which was a dominant success over Sony's third console the Playstation 3 which was released one year later in 2006. Xbox 360 was the dominant console because of the amazing graphics it had to offer which made the games look so much better than previous consoles, also they developed their controllers even further to make them more ergonomic (more comfortable in the players hands and easier to use/control). With the Xbox 360 also came Xbox Live with offered exclusive content to people that subscribed to this service.
Also in 2006 Nintendo came back on the market with a new console the Nintendo Wii which appealed to a much wider variety of people as is was seem as a family console which had a lot of party games such as Just Dance which encourages you to play with other people. Also the Wii used motion controls which you would use to control the game that was on the screen, this also made gamers become more active instead of just sitting down playing.
Mobile gaming hit massive popularity when the game Snake first arrived on Nokia phones in 1997, the game was incredibly simple but also challenging as the more cubes you collected the bigger the "snake" would become. However, because this was one of the earliest forms of mobile gaming, the graphics were poor with it only being black squares moving around on a green background so the playable character didn't exactly resemble a snake at all.
The next big step in mobile gaming history was in 2003 when phones now had coloured screens making games more appealing for the people playing them. This also allowed the game developers to express themselves more though the colours that they added into the game. One example of this is Bejeweled which is a game consisting of coloured jewels that you have to match up in a row of 3 or more. This game is only possible because of the advancement of the cloloured screen otherwise this type of game would have been difficult to develop with only black objects on a green background.
After this 3D mobile games began to be available to the mass community in 2005, although 3D games have been around since 2003, the technology in this time didn't allow for these games to be ran smoothly with no hiccups/glitches as the processing power wasn't enough. However in 2005 the processing power on mobiles became massively improved. This allowed games like Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift to be released by the company I-play, the game was massively popular with the mobile gaming community.
Finally in the history of mobile gaming smartphones such as the well-known Iphone was released in 2008 which had dominating graphics, processors, memory and it also introduced the app store making it incredibly easy for developers to share their games to the world and for the costumer to easily buy and download these games if they wanted to. This was a huge success and still is to this day being improved everyday allowing full console and PC games to now be released on mobile such as The Wolf Among Us.
When it comes to gaming on a television there isn't much to say however the first ever sort of TV gaming was on Sky when you could press the red button on the remote, go over to the game section and there would be a list of games. These games would be aimed at children, such as Tom and Jerry, Spongebob and Ben 10 games. To play these games you would have to pay for the game and a certain amount of lives, this could be costly over time and is still around to this day updating the graphics and adding more and more game. With more games Sky tried to attract the adult audiences with games such as Golden Balls.
There hasn't been much advancements in TV gaming until recently with smart televisions being produced specifically for gaming and entertainment purposes. One example of this is the Apple TV which has amazing graphics and allows the user to use the IPad or IPhone as a controller instead of everything being on that one small screen.
Human Computer Interface:
Human computer interface is how the user actually interacts with the computer itself. If the computer software/hardware is too difficult for the user to understand then it wouldn't be taken well by the customers and the community. There are many different ways that the user can interact with the computer such as they keyboard, the mouse, sketchpads, etc. This then begins to go into the subject of ergonomics which means that all the components feel comfortable in the users hands. For example if the keyboard layout was different to the standard "QWERTY" then it would be difficult for the user to learn which keys are where which could be frustrating at times. Finally human computer interface can be how the user actually perceives the information given to them from the computer screen. When computers were made accessible to everyone this "made everyone in the world a potential computer user, and vividly highlighted the deficiencies of computers with respect to usability for those who wanted to use computers as tools." Quote:https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/human-computer-interaction-brief-intro
A Graphic Processor Unit otherwise known as a GPU. This piece of hardware is designed to have the purpose of briskly changing/modify the memory so that images that are displayed on the screen can run smoothly whilst still looking impressive, "the GPU is used primarily for computing 3D functions." This means that these graphic processors are mainly for consumers who play video games as they want the graphics to be the highest quality as possible without the game lagging or of low quality as they want the best experience for the money they have paid.
"A display is a computer output surface and projecting mechanism that shows text and often graphic images to the computer user". A display screen is used to output the information that the device is giving to the user in a clear and understanding visual way, when packed the display otherwise known as the screen/monitor has to be connected to the device giving the information out in code form which is then sent via cable to the display which decodes the information and turns it into words or images. Displays can be worse or better than others as there are many factors that are involved with displays such as colour capability, resolution and size. Colour capability is as straight forward as it seems, this depends on what colours the display is actually capable of displaying/creating, 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, etc (the higher the number the more colours can be displayed). Resolution refers to how clear the image on the screen is, if the image on the screen is very pixelated then the resolution will be incredibly low but the higher the resolution then the image on screen will be more in-depth/HD. Size is also straight forward as this just how large the screen is, however the larger the screen then the resolution will have to be higher due to the amount of pixels that will be on screen at one time.
"A storage medium is any technology (including devices and materials) used to place, keep, and retrieve data." There can be many different types of storage that people could use all with their advantages and disadvantages depending on the technology used, what you are storing on this memory unit and the memory capability of the device. One form of storage is a flash drive which is otherwise known as a USB is usually used to store small amounts of data depending on the memory capability but it is also used to transfer data from one place to another very easily.
The main type of storage used in consoles and PC's is a hard drive, although much larger in size compared to the flash drive. This hardware can store vast amounts of memory with the current Xbox One having a 500GB hard drive stored inside, these are needed due to everything that is needed to be stored/downloaded as consoles and PC's aren't just about games anymore but a wide variety of activities (TV, apps, etc).
The newest form of storage that is used is the Cloud which gives the user a limited amount of storage they can use before they have to pay for extra storage. The biggest advantage of this system is that you can access this drive on any platform which has incorporated the Cloud and this is happening more often.
"A generic term for connecting devices to each other in order to transfer data back and forth. It often refers to network connections, which embraces bridges, routers, switches and gateways as well as backbone networks." In gaming connectivity is usually about how well your device can connect to the internet via your router, the better the connection then the quicker games/apps will download and games will run more smoothly, however this isn't the case for every game/service. With games such as Battlefield 4 and Destiny the companies who develop those games have their own severs set up with you will have to connect to, these are usually spread out all over the world but depending on with server you get connected to it could cause things like "rubber-banding" and "lag". Most likely to be seen on PC games you can check your connection to other players or to the server easily as it is represented by your "ping". The lower the ping number the better your connection will be to the game. With games like Call Of Duty your connection relies on the game choosing a host with a good connection, however this doesn't always work as this game is international and if you live in the UK and the host of the game is from America then your connection will be terrible compared to theirs which is when the term "host advantage" was created.
"The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer is a piece of hardware that carries out the instructions of a computer program." The CPU is more or less the brain of a computer as it tells every program what to do and when do this. Depending on what you are using the CPU for it may have to have better technology inside the CPU. For example if you wanted to use your computer/laptop for gaming then you would need a more advanced CPU as you want every instruction to be carried out as quick as possible, so that there is no "input lag" when pressing keys and you would also want the 3D animations to be processed quickly. A CPU is made up of 3 different components, the first component is the arithmetic logic unit which preforms all the algorithms/mathematics and logical operations inside the computer. The second component is the control until which basically tells everything else in the computer what to do (tells the arithmetic logic unit to preform calculations). The last component is the cache which stores the any instructions that are needed until they are retrieved from another component.
"Computer memory is any physical device capable of storing information temporarily or permanently."The memory unit in a computer is straight forward, this is the component that stores every piece of information on the computer and everything that you download onto the computer. Memory units can have a wide range of storage from GBs (Gigabytes) to TBs (Terabytes) depending on what you will be storing on the computer. Things such as games and updates that come alone with them periodically usually need quite a lot of memory space.
"Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing." Is the technical term for sound but when relating sound to games there are many different variations. The first one is mono-sound which is when every sound is divided equally between the two channels (left and right) so that each ear hears the exact same sound as the other. The next is stereo-sound which is when sound is split between the channels depending on where the sound is actually coming from, for example this type of sound would be used for the game CS:GO because if there was an enemy walking up to the left of you, only your left ear would hear this helping to determine the position of the enemy. The final one would be surround sound which is when you would have speakers places all around the room, it is similar to stereo-sound except it is a full 360 degrees of sound, mostly used for when you want a truly real experience with the game you are playing.
"An interface device (IDF) is a hardware component or system of components that allows a human being to interact with a computer". When talking about computer hardware there are 3 main interface devices that are used by everyone, the first is the display screen as this actually allows the user to visually see what they are doing on the computer and responses that their actions have. The second device would be the keyboard as every key causes the computer to respond in a certain way depending on which key the user has pressed, this means that the user is interacting with the computer and telling it what to do via this device. The final device would be the mouse as this lets the user to command which programmes are open, which webpage tab they want to be on, etc, the mouse is basically the navigation system to the user. In gaming the display allows the player to see what is going on around then so they can react to an event that happens, the keyboard allows the player to move around, use abilities, jump, ec. Finally the mouse allows the player to look around in a full 360 degree view if he game has this mechanic, it also allows the player to aim and shoot a gun if it was that genre of game.
"A system that converts AC current from the wall outlet into the DC currents required by electronic circuits. A computer power supply converts AC into multiple DC voltages." There isn't much to say about the power supply as it is straightforward. Electronic devices need an electric current to work and the power supply exchanges the electric currents from the source and imports it into the device. With a PC the voltages have to split because every component needs a different amount of power to work to its full potential and if you give the same voltage to everything then you would overload most components most likely causing an electrical fire.
