HCI's consist of different ways people can interact with computers, examples of various HCI's include Buttons, Joysticks (Contact and Micro switches), VR and Motion Controls. HCI's have developed a lot since the start of the video games industry as there way no industry standard at that point. A classic controller would consist of a Joystick with either contacts or micro switches and a few buttons. The differences between Contacts and Microswitches is that microswitches have varying levels of input, an example of this is if you were to hold left lightly the character would move slowly and if you held left with more pressure the character would move faster left. There are many differences between modern HCI's and older ones. Even HCI's from 20 years ago have changed dramatically. Examples of these are the PlayStation 1 Controller and the PlayStation 4 Controller,
There are glaring differences between these two controllers, the most apparent to me is the analog sticks that would allow for more then 4 direct movement options rather the the 4 available on the original PlayStation Controller. Another difference is the middle part of the PS4 controller, that is a touch pad where players can interact with game with touch controls. Another difference that is not so apparent in these image is that the PS4 controller is wireless compares to the PS1's controller being wired.
"The DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller has been updated with a new look and feel, including a more visible, colourful light bar to put even more of the game into your hands. It’s the most ergonomic, intuitive PlayStation controller we’ve ever designed."
Graphic Processors.
Graphic Processors account for the graphic for the computer, GPU's (Graphic Processor Unit) is specialized for the display for a computer. This related to video games due to better and mor up to date GPU allows for better graphics in video games. For graphics to be displayed the GPU goes through the Graphics Pipeline which is the way a graphics is displayed on a screen. These are the steps of the pipeline:
3D Geometric Primitives: This is the first step, this step consists of making the scene out of triangles as its the most primitive geometric shape.
Modeling and Transformation: This step consists of transforming the local coordinate system to the 3D World coordinate system.
Camera Transformation: This step transforms the 3D world coordinate system to the 3D camera worl coordinate system with the camera as the origin.
Lighting: This is the step when the scene is illuminated and it calculates the various surfaces reflective properties.
Project Transformation: This step transforms the 3D world coordinates to the 2D view of the camera.
Clipping: Primitive Geometry not visible from the camera are discarded at this stage.
Scan conversion or Rasterization: This step is complex as each step from this point is used on every pixel on screen. This step consists of turning the 2D image space into a raster format.
Texturing, Fragment Shading: This step gives the various pixels colour based on values from rasterization.
The differences between a PS1 and a PS4 GPU is that the PS4 Uses an APU which combines the CPU and the GPU. PS4 has 8 Cores and the PS1 has 1. Also the PS4 can have up to 4K resolution and the PS1 can have only 640 x 480 resolution.
"for example, the fact that the game is rendered and displayed at 1080p native means that every pixel is rendered,"
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Resolution-Graphics-Affect-Gameplay-PS4-Says-Shuhei-Yoshida-60543.html
Display:
The display is what we look at to play video games and use computers, displays can range from TV's to Computer Monitors. In the early days of the video game industry a CRT TV was what everybody used. The usual resolution of old CRT TV's that everyone used was 640 x 480. A modern monitor that is available from Amazon, an ASUS VS248HR 24 inch Gaming Monitor, this has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080, this is a considerable increase in quality.
"This Full HD LED monitor with 50,000,000:1 high contrast ratio and HDMI interface is optimised for a fine image and colour quality"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VS248HR-inch-Gaming-Monitor/dp/B014RKZ81O/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1475853000&sr=1-4
Game Storage Medium:
Game Storage Mediums encompass alot of different technology across the years, games used to come on cartridges which held the game and sometimes it would hold a battery to save game data. Older consoles did not have on board storage so game data has to be either saved on the cartridge like in The Legend Of Zelda or not at all. This was bypassed on consoles such as the playstation as it had Memory Cards which held saved data on that. Having memory cards also allowed for the portability of saved data. These days saved data is saved either to the on board storage or to the cloud. A PS2 memory card could hold up to 8mb generally (larger sizes came at a later date), but the PS4 on board memory hold from 500Mb all the way up to 1Tb of space with interchangeable hard drives.
"You can upgrade your PS4 hard drive to give yourself some more storage"
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/ps4-hdd-upgrade-how-to-upgrade-your-ps4-storage
Connectivity:
Online connectivity is essential in today's gaming industry as it is essential for may things we do when we play games. Online connectivity is used these days to play games online, party chat with friends, download updates and use different types of media. There are differences between playing online on consoles and playing online on PC's. These differences include Console players having to pay another fee to be able to play online on top off the internet connection. PC also has more online games as its an easier platform to release games on.
"The idea of the 'lone gamer' is really not true anymore. Up to 65 percent of gaming now is social, played either online or in the same room with people we know in real life."
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/janemcgoni560572.html
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
CPU's are often stated as the heart or the brain of the computer, this is because the CPU intakes equations and operations and outputs data. The fundemetal operations have not changes much over the years and they still do the same thing, CPU's can hold varying amounts of cores, cores allow for more operations to be processed at once. The higher the cores the more operations the CPU can carry out. The PS1 CPU runs at 33.86MHz and the PS2 CPU runs at 294.912MHz, The PS2 was much more powerful then the previous console even though the space in time it was created was quite small.
"central processing unit: the key component of a computer system,which contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and executeprogram instructions."
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cpu
Memory (RAM)
RAM is Random Access Memory. When loading data from the hard drive it loaded into the RAM, this is because loading from the RAM is faster from loading from the hard drive, this in turn speed up the processes of the computer. The more RAM in a computer allows for more data to be loaded into the RAM speeding up the processes. Modern Computers would have from 4 - 8 Gigabytes of ram installed although older computers and consoles had only a fraction of this ammount. The Atari 2600 console upon release only help 128 bytes of ram, in comparison 8 Gigabytes is 8589934592 bytes.
"a type of computer memory that can be searched in any order and changed as necessary"
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ram
Sound:
Sound has always had a part in video games, in early arcade games there was simple sounds that were used everywhere from the music to the sound effects. Sounds evolved over the years as the sound quality got better. Sound in games help convey a lot, sound helps set the mood when playing games and it can really help a scene become better with the right sound effects and music, A lot of gamers now use headsets for gaming as it allows for players to directly hear the sounds of the game rather then relying on speakers.
"Housing precision-balanced speakers which pump out strong stereo sound with a wide dynamic range, comfortable earcups deliver clean and crisp audio reproduction"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tritton-AX-180-Universal-Headset/dp/B002P77432
Interface Devices:
An interface device is a system of components that allows for people to interact with various electronic systems. The interface device would be the things that are on the screen from prompts to notifications. These are a lot like HCI's as they both have parts in the interaction with computers using different hardware.
Power Supply:
The power supply used in computer is the component which provides the whole computer with electricity. The power supply normalizes the current that comes from the mains of a house and it converts the electricity to DC. It also eliminated spikes that would be common from electrical mains. The PlayStation 4 has a power supply with a power rating on 250W, A PC power supply can have upwards of 400 to 500W of power.
"Also called a power supply unit or PSU, the component that supplies power to a computer. Most personal computers can be plugged into standard electrical outlets"
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/power_supply.html
The differences between a PS1 and a PS4 GPU is that the PS4 Uses an APU which combines the CPU and the GPU. PS4 has 8 Cores and the PS1 has 1. Also the PS4 can have up to 4K resolution and the PS1 can have only 640 x 480 resolution.
"for example, the fact that the game is rendered and displayed at 1080p native means that every pixel is rendered,"
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Resolution-Graphics-Affect-Gameplay-PS4-Says-Shuhei-Yoshida-60543.html
Display:
The display is what we look at to play video games and use computers, displays can range from TV's to Computer Monitors. In the early days of the video game industry a CRT TV was what everybody used. The usual resolution of old CRT TV's that everyone used was 640 x 480. A modern monitor that is available from Amazon, an ASUS VS248HR 24 inch Gaming Monitor, this has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080, this is a considerable increase in quality.
"This Full HD LED monitor with 50,000,000:1 high contrast ratio and HDMI interface is optimised for a fine image and colour quality"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VS248HR-inch-Gaming-Monitor/dp/B014RKZ81O/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1475853000&sr=1-4
Game Storage Medium:
Game Storage Mediums encompass alot of different technology across the years, games used to come on cartridges which held the game and sometimes it would hold a battery to save game data. Older consoles did not have on board storage so game data has to be either saved on the cartridge like in The Legend Of Zelda or not at all. This was bypassed on consoles such as the playstation as it had Memory Cards which held saved data on that. Having memory cards also allowed for the portability of saved data. These days saved data is saved either to the on board storage or to the cloud. A PS2 memory card could hold up to 8mb generally (larger sizes came at a later date), but the PS4 on board memory hold from 500Mb all the way up to 1Tb of space with interchangeable hard drives.
"You can upgrade your PS4 hard drive to give yourself some more storage"
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/ps4-hdd-upgrade-how-to-upgrade-your-ps4-storage
Connectivity:
Online connectivity is essential in today's gaming industry as it is essential for may things we do when we play games. Online connectivity is used these days to play games online, party chat with friends, download updates and use different types of media. There are differences between playing online on consoles and playing online on PC's. These differences include Console players having to pay another fee to be able to play online on top off the internet connection. PC also has more online games as its an easier platform to release games on.
"The idea of the 'lone gamer' is really not true anymore. Up to 65 percent of gaming now is social, played either online or in the same room with people we know in real life."
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/janemcgoni560572.html
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
CPU's are often stated as the heart or the brain of the computer, this is because the CPU intakes equations and operations and outputs data. The fundemetal operations have not changes much over the years and they still do the same thing, CPU's can hold varying amounts of cores, cores allow for more operations to be processed at once. The higher the cores the more operations the CPU can carry out. The PS1 CPU runs at 33.86MHz and the PS2 CPU runs at 294.912MHz, The PS2 was much more powerful then the previous console even though the space in time it was created was quite small.
"central processing unit: the key component of a computer system,which contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and executeprogram instructions."
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cpu
Memory (RAM)
RAM is Random Access Memory. When loading data from the hard drive it loaded into the RAM, this is because loading from the RAM is faster from loading from the hard drive, this in turn speed up the processes of the computer. The more RAM in a computer allows for more data to be loaded into the RAM speeding up the processes. Modern Computers would have from 4 - 8 Gigabytes of ram installed although older computers and consoles had only a fraction of this ammount. The Atari 2600 console upon release only help 128 bytes of ram, in comparison 8 Gigabytes is 8589934592 bytes.
"a type of computer memory that can be searched in any order and changed as necessary"
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ram
Sound:
Sound has always had a part in video games, in early arcade games there was simple sounds that were used everywhere from the music to the sound effects. Sounds evolved over the years as the sound quality got better. Sound in games help convey a lot, sound helps set the mood when playing games and it can really help a scene become better with the right sound effects and music, A lot of gamers now use headsets for gaming as it allows for players to directly hear the sounds of the game rather then relying on speakers.
"Housing precision-balanced speakers which pump out strong stereo sound with a wide dynamic range, comfortable earcups deliver clean and crisp audio reproduction"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tritton-AX-180-Universal-Headset/dp/B002P77432
Interface Devices:
An interface device is a system of components that allows for people to interact with various electronic systems. The interface device would be the things that are on the screen from prompts to notifications. These are a lot like HCI's as they both have parts in the interaction with computers using different hardware.
Power Supply:
The power supply used in computer is the component which provides the whole computer with electricity. The power supply normalizes the current that comes from the mains of a house and it converts the electricity to DC. It also eliminated spikes that would be common from electrical mains. The PlayStation 4 has a power supply with a power rating on 250W, A PC power supply can have upwards of 400 to 500W of power.
"Also called a power supply unit or PSU, the component that supplies power to a computer. Most personal computers can be plugged into standard electrical outlets"
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/power_supply.html
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