Post 14. Video Games

WHAT IS VIDEO GAME PROGRAMMING?

Video game programming is the software development and engineering of video games and involves multiple areas of computer science including computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and software engineering as well as creating computer databases in some cases. Video games are normally programmed by game programmers, however, in our class we have found that even introductory level computer science students can create basic games.

HOW ARE THE GAME WORLDS CREATED?

Similar to the production of animated films, after sketching ideas for the world and characters, computer animation and special effects are used to create lifelike, or fantasy video game settings. Using software programs and packages (there are 3D, 2D, and role-playing software packages available), the video game makers are able to code functions that can enable characters to move through a space, interact with other characters or the setting, and create their video game's "world". However, often in the case of video game design, the software programs available now do not require the creator of the game to use any code at all in designing the game, allowing a larger audience to be able to create video games.

HOW/WHEN IS CODE USED IN VIDEO GAME PROGRAMMING?

The software programs mentioned above are often used in phone games and games that follow the simple structures used by the programs, but when is code used in video game programming? When a more advanced, complicated, and customized video games are needed, programmers use more advanced code. While program packages allow developers to choose from a limited color scheme, movement of characters, size of world, etc., when programmers code from scratch, there are more opportunities to create a more custom,  vivid, and intricate video game world. 

Images from:

http://free4kwallpaper.com/multiplayer-gameplay-2016-call-of-duty-black-ops-3-4k-wallpaper/

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/beginners-guide-video-games

References

"How Making a Video Game Works." HowStuffWorks. N.p., 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

"Game Programming." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

Post 13. Answering All Your Questions

WHAT EXACTLY IS A SEARCH ENGINE?

A search engine on the internet has software that produces search results from all over the Internet. The search engine produces result pages that show all of the results of the user's search. For example, if the user searches for "Pie recipes" the search engine will search the web for the most relevant posts about pie recipes, and even pictures and videos related to pie recipes (See below). As the first well-documented search engine, in 1990, a search engine named Archie was able to search through files.  The most popular search engines currently include Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, with Google being the most popular in the world. 

HOW DOES GOOGLE WORK?

"Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers, just like most search engines," (Strickland). The website also uses algorithms (Specifically an algorithm called PageRank) in order to search through the internet and produce results pages based on relevance. Google also uses stored keywords in memory to determine where to look for those keywords when produced by the users. How Google stands out from the rest is it's algorithm to determine relevance of posts to give the user exactly what they ask for. The algorithm uses the keyword system to try to match the users input with a post word for word if possible. It also uses the date that the web page was posted (as to output the most recent data that matches the search), and the amount of web pages that reference that webpage (to determine popularity of the post). Google also works differently from other search engines by producing a result to the user's input directly from a webpage without the user actually having to click on a webpage link (See above search for pie recipes). This is also done using the PageRank algorithm in order to determine the post that is most relevant, most recent, and most popular and searching through the post for the keywords in the user's search.

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO COMPUTER SCIENCE?

As like the most simple description of computer science, Google takes user input (in the form of a typed search), uses an algorithm (in order to determine which pages are most relevant to the users search, which are the most recent, and which are the most popular), and outputs information (the search results pages with the most relevant answers to the user's input). 

References

Strickland, Jonathan. "How Google Works." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

"Web Search Engine." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.