CS445 Spring 2006Your name: ________________________________________________________(25) 5. GraphicsCS445 Spring 2006Midterm ExamYour name: ________________________________________________________Your GTnum (PRISM username): __________________________Please write legibly! We can’t give you points for things we can’t read.Score: Problem 1: _________ (out of 20)Problem 2: _________ (out of 10)Problem 3: _________ (out of 25)Problem 4: _________ (out of 20)Problem 5: _________ (out of 25)(20) 1. History, Play and FunEnter T (true) or F (false) beside each statement below.F__ (a) In 2003, 10% of games were rated “adults only”F__ (b) “Natural Funativity” is when a person is completely absorbed and focused on some activity. Typically this happens when their abilities as stretched to the limit in the pursuitof accomplishing something difficult.T__ (c) A game requires rules and goals. Without a goal, you have something more like a toy than a game.F__ (d) Pong was the first known example of a computer video game.F__ (e) Tennis for Two was a commercial rip-off of Pong, which resulted in a famous lawsuit.F__ (f) In the Grand Theft Auto “Hot Coffee” mod controversy, it was incorrectly reported that the adult content was embedded in the game, when in fact the mod actually added the models and scenes to the game.T__ (g) The Dreamcast was Sega’s last console.T__ (h) Inappropriate behavior occurs in online games in part because of perceived anonymity.F__ (i) Myst was the first commercially successful first-person shooter.F__ (j) Spacewar was created by Pentagon researchers on a Commodore Pet.(10) 2. The Evolutionary Roots of FunExplain the reasoning authors like those in your text (and others like Koster) use when attempting to use evolution to explain “fun.” They focus on the idea that young mammals play to learn basic survival skills. Games are organized play, and human entertainment is also at its heart about learning how to survive. Things like mating and social rules also critical to us.Education == Entertainment: Fun is about practicing or learning new survival skills in a relatively safe setting.Not just “games that are like what we do to survive”, but they emphasize learning in safe settings.Not because we evolved a need to “unwind”Not that our notion of fun “evolves” over time (25) 3. Game Designa. (7) Define “game mechanics.”The things specific to the game activities performed by the player. Game mechanics are whatthe player actually DOES while playing. The “core mechanics” are the central activities.Consider this contrast from wikipedia. Gameplay vs. game mechanics in video games:Generally, the term "gameplay" in video game terminology is used to describe the overall experience of playing the game excluding the factors of graphics, sound, and the storyline. This is the very essence of a game. The term "Game mechanics" refers to sub elements of the gameplay, but particularly the primary control and movement features of the game (thus excluding things like level design or AI).b. (11) There are two general approaches to game design: special case design and systemic design. What is the difference between them?From the slides, here are the key points. Special case• Experiences built one scene/level at a time• Anticipate states while pre-scripting events• Solved by discovering the intentions of the designerSystemic• General behaviors are designed• Scenes/Levels are specific configurations• Some events may still be pre-scripted• Solved by understanding the systemExtreme examples: games with tons of radically different mini-games are special case (because each interaction is different and designed custom for that minigame), The Sims is systemic because there is a general method of interaction that is used for everything.c. (7) What is meant be the “frame of a game” when discussing game design?The frame is the border of the game’s context. Everything “inside” the frame is part of the game, everything “outside” the frame is real life. Salen/Zimmerman refer to this as the magic circle of the game.If we think of the game as an interactive, dynamic model, then everything in the frame must be consistent and cohesive with itself, but not necessarily with anything outside the frame.(20) 4. Architecturea. (6) Give an example of a piece of data that is shared between all instances of a certain entity type (i.e., a piece of template data).Things like the mesh data, texture data, and animation template. In general, stuff that would be exported from modeling programs would probably fall in this.b. (6) Give an example of a piece of data that is a unique to each instance of a certain entity type (i.e., a piece of instance data).Specific position and orientation of original of entity. Which animation is playing. Animation state, such as the local time in the specific animation. Also, games specific things like hit points or power-ups. Global unique id.c. (8) For things like animation which happen over multiple frames of a game, give two reasons why it is generally better to use time-based control (i.e., specify how long it will take) rather than frame-based (i.e., specify how many frames it will take).Reasons that deal with adapting to different hardware or changing rendering speed due to changing world complexity. So, specifying something should last 1 second ensures it “plays” the same on all computers, regardless of whether the game is running at 10 fps or 100 fps.Keeping animations the same on networked machines.Easier intuition and control for animators (e.g., make this last .1 seconds) …(25) 5. Graphicsa. (7) What kind of scenes are portal-based partitioning well suited to? Why?Indoor scenes. Because lots of the world is hidden behind walls, and the portals are the openings through which these “other rooms” are seen. So, it gives a good first approximation to scene culling.b. (9) What is an environment map, and what is it used for?An image that attemps to show what the world looks like when looking “out” from a model. It is used for creating shiny materials that reflect the world around them (like metal). The map is applied as a texture and gives the appearance of shininess.c. (9) When considering illumination and shading of a model, why is it important to create models with reasonably sized and shaped polygons?5 points for identifying that the reasons all relate to interpolation of