Task 1 – Software Technologies for Game Platforms

Platform Dependency:
Platform Dependency in regards to video games refers to games or game genres depending on a specific type of platform for best results. An example of a game/game genre that is platform dependant is Starcraft 2 which is an RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. This game relies on fast and many inputs on a lot of different buttons on a keyboard. This game is dependant on the PC with the Keyboard and Mouse for precision and speed. Other platforms do not allow for that as the controllers do not have either the necessary buttons and the precision of a mouse. The 2 games that i will compare are Battlefield 1 and Nox. Nox is dependent on the PC as it relies on lots of hotkeys to cast various spells and abilities which other platforms cannot give. Battlefield one of the other hand does not rely on hotkeys and you dont necessarily need the precision of a mouse with options like aim assist in shooting games.

Operations Systems Used:
Operating systems when it comes to video games define what machine you play on from Mac to PC. The OS is the system which manages the software and the hardware, all computer programs require an OS to work. Nox needs at minimum Windows XP to run, compared to Battlefield 1 which needs at least 64-bit Windows 7 to run. Battlefield needs a newer OS as its a much more demanding game then Nox.

Drivers Needed:
Drivers are needed for all devices to work with a computer,the drivers basically allow for the device to communicate with the computer and it allows the computer to recognise the inputs. In relation to video games things like controllers and keyboards all have drivers that need to be installed before use on computers. Other drivers exist though such as sound drivers, these drivers allows for the interpretation of sounds between the computer and speakers/headphones. The drivers that both games used are most likely DirectX for the graphics library as its the most common graphic library for Microsoft systems.

Application Software Used:
Battlefield 1 was created in the programming language C++. C++ is one of the most common programming languages that are used for creating video game, its safe to assume that Nox was probably created with C++ also. A programming language is a formal compuer language which is used to create programs for computers systems using lines of code.

Graphical API:
The graphical API used to create the game Battlefield 1 and Nox is different Versions of DirectX, the newer game Batlefield One would need a better version of the Graphical API as its more of a demanding game compared to Nox. Graphical API's There are different API's that do very different things like allowing for a service to be used in another website such as facebook API which shows facebook posts in different sites.

Sound API:
There are different Sound API's avaliable and they are all different but there are differentces throughout the development of sound API such as stereo sound.

TV:
TV in relation to video games have changed drasticly throughout history, 4K is the newest leap forward which give ultra high definition quality although it all started with CRT TVs which had a low resolution which made for low quality images. The game Nox is designed for a 4x3 screen which was the standard around the year 2000. Battlefield 1 on the other hand works best with High definition preferably 1080p or higher.