Friday, 16 May 2014

Web Authoring

What is HTML?

Hyper Text Markup Language or more popularly and commonly known as HTML. This language is one of the fundamentals into creating web pages.
The web browser purpose is to read HTML documents and compose the document into visual and audial web pages. The browser does not show any of the HTML tags, but uses the tags to construct the content of the page. HTML is the building blocks of all websites; this allows objects and images to be embedded to create interactive pages. It offers a means to create structured documents by indicating an operational semantics for texts such as paragraphs, lists, heading, quotes, links and other items. It can also embed scripts written in other languages such as JavaScript which would affect the behaviour of the HTML web pages.

Most commonly used HTML tag

<!DOCTYPE html> - It tells the browser how to render the page.
<html>  - the beginning line of the starting the HTML semantics.
 <head> This may contain information about the page and links to resources.
</head> ends the head declaration
<title> - the custom name given by the user to the browsers tab/page.
</title> ends the title declarations
 <body> - where most of the text/images/object are put in and is mainly the meat of creating a web page.
</body> the end declaration for body.
</html> ends declaration for the whole HTML semantics

Advantages:
  • ·         It’s easy to edit.

  • ·         It’s fast to download.

  • ·         Once you get to know CSS it’s easy to learn everything.

  • ·         It’s customary in mostly every HTML

  • ·         It’s supported by most browsers across most platforms.

  • ·         Can be used to present just about any kind of data.


Disadvantages:
  • ·         It’s static and needs to be manually updated.

  • ·         Isn't quite often rendered out correctly in all browsers
  • ·         Isn't very flexible.

  • ·         It can’t be centralised (all pages must be edited individually).

  • ·         Very limited styling capabilities.



This is the HTML tags all filled out

This is what the HTML looks like after its been previewed on a browser


What is CSS?

Cascading Style Sheets or commonly known as CSS this a style sheet language used into defining the look and formatting of a document written in HTML. CSS most often is used to style web pages and is a foundation to almost all web pages and mostly every web pages use CSS style sheets to describe their web pages.
CSS is designed primarily to enable content from document presentation, which would include elements such as colours, fonts, and the layout. These sections can improve the content of accessibility which provides more control and flexibility in the requirement of the web pages characteristics.

Advantages

  • ·         Bandwidth – The style sheet is generally stored in the browser cache, therefore being able to be used on multiple pages, which would also increases the download speed.

  • ·         Reformatting - Different style sheet can be used in the same page. This provides the chance of adjusting a page or a site for different target devices.

  • ·         Flexibility - This allows the provider to edit CSS or HTML code from a selection of layouts of articles or pages that they have chosen on the fly.

  • ·         Consistency - If the situation arises in the style elements and should be changed/adjusted, these changes can be made easily, by simply by changing some rules in the style sheet.


Disadvantages

  • ·         Inconsistent Browser Support - Different browsers will render out the CSS layout differently because of the different elements the browser has or lack in.

  • ·         Limiting Vertical Control - While the horizontal placements are pretty much simple to figure out. Vertical placement tends to be more complicating or even impossible.

  • ·         Control of forms - CSS currently provides only rectangular shapes which really limit the form for CSS.

  • ·         No column Declaration - While possible to have with multiple columns in CSS it tends to be quite complex to implement.

  • ·         No multiple backgrounds – When a web page needs multiple background images for each item, CSS can support only one. 
these are the codes for the style sheet. In the document there are 3 different styles to implement onto the web page.

this is the tag that is to be used to refer from the HTML page to the CSS page.

These are all the style classes being applied onto the HTML document.
the preview of all the style classes being implemented.



Saturday, 29 March 2014

Bug Report

Bug type (A-E etc)
The bug on the game Year 0 I found was a cosmetic bug (E) as it didn’t interrupt or interfere with any part of the gameplay. This bug is more of an annoyance as the player won’t be able to see some of the buildings and terrains. This doesn't affect any of the players save files or any of their characters and vehicles in or during gameplay.

Full bug Description
The bug affects the environment as it glitches out on some parts of building and terrain textures. When the bug is activated the textures on some of the buildings and terrains goes black and isn't visible in enhanced 3D mode. However when switched to standard 3D the buildings and terrains are visible, but when switched back the bug is still there. However when the player zooms in to the building/terrain the texture reappears, but when zoomed out the missing texture is back.   

Which triggers are involved?
To recreate this bug the player in-game will have to switch to enhanced 3D mode if they haven’t already got it on, then zoom around the layout of the map, then switch modes from enhanced 3D to standard 3D. Now when in this mode zoom around the map again, after a couple of seconds fiddling around with the camera, switch back to enhanced 3D mode. If done correctly the cosmetic texture bug should appear. When this bug appears it can now never go away unless the player exists the map or log out of the game.


Before the methods been applied


After the process have been applied

Operating region
This bug can be found “in-game” as this happens when the player is immersed in the game, as he/she might play around with the camera or modes to see which settings would best suit them. This only happens on Google Chrome, I've tried the same method on Firefox with no avail.

Repeatability

If the player repeats the method shown on the “trigger” heading the player will be able to create the bug. This bug can be done on any map and the bug won’t go away after it has been created, unless the player decides to exit the map or log out of the game. 

Test Suite

Pre-Game

Can you log onto different internet browsers?

I have log onto three different internet browsers to find if they can be logged into. I first tried to login with goggle chrome. The login was successfully and I’m greeted with the game start screen. I logged out to see if I can log back in, to which I could. I then logged onto the game using Mozilla Firefox, and I was able to login successfully.  I again logged back out and in to see if I was able to login to the game. I finally tried on Internet Explorer, I was this time unsuccessful to log into the game. However the log out button works, so I can logout easily.
Log on screen

Game-Start

Does the volume work after being un-muted?

Yes they've fixed the bug; the volume can now be muted and unmuted without losing the audio after unmuting. I tried muting the pc's volume and turning it back on and the volume still works. the same can be said with the firefox browser.
Full Volume

Muted

In-Game

Is there any cosmetic bug?

Yes, when you play with the zoom function(right click mouse button) in the enhanced 3D mode, then switch to standard 3D mode, then switch back the texture on some of the buildings and terrains turns black. It is repeatable on any maps. This method can only be done on Google Chrome, nothing happens on the Firefox browser.
Texture Glitch(Cosmetic Bug)


Also whilst I was recreating this bug I found another bug. I was zooming in and out of the map and switching from enhanced 3D to standard 3D, but when I switch back to enhanced 3D the screen went grey. I can still control and interact with the game except I’m not able to see what I’m doing or the map. When I switch to standard 3D it works, but when I switch back the grey screen still there. The only way to get rid of this bug was to exit the map, I retry the same method but didn't get the same outcome again. 


Grey Blank Screen





Mozilla Firefox
 


Post-Game

When you log out does it save your last save point?

On both chrome and firefox when I logged out and logged back in all the information and data was stored from my last save point.  
Game Start screen


Friday, 14 February 2014

Test Phases

Alpha
Alpha taken from the first letter in the Greek alphabet is the first phase of beginning a game test. The developers themselves usually play test their game.  Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha phase typically ends with a feature freeze, which would mean that there will be no more features added to the game. At this point the game is said to be “feature complete”.
Beta
Beta, taken from the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the point in the testing process where the development phase of the alpha test has just been completed. The beta testing phase will usually have many more bugs in than the completed game. This may be bugs such as speed/performance issues, game crashes or data losses. When delivering a beta version to the users this is called a beta release and is the first time the game is available to the pupil outside of the organization.

The people testing the beta version are called beta testers. The users that test the game for free usually would get the final game for free or at discounted price. Some games are usually kept in a continuous beta, where they add new features and functionality to the game without launching a "final" firm release.
Gold
The Gold Standard or "going gold” is the term when the product is ready to be delivered to the consumer masses.  This is when the development team and the testers completed their tests and have done everything they can to add new features and remove all the bugs they can find. This is now normally when the games have completed the alpha and beta testing and is finally ready to release as a physical copy or digital download or even both.

Defect Triggers

Defect Triggers are keywords used in testing to help classify new or existing tests and defects. They use this so they can identify where the defects are coming from and what testing is missing. When defects starts to show up, that’s the cue of the tester to increase upon their testing phase to use the triggers even more.

The efficiency of each trigger can be measured in terms of defects per test. A large defect to other triggers tells them how to find bugs cautiously and also may hint any basic flaws in the game design or implementation. As the tester continues to create and run more tests for the most effective triggers, they will drain them to the point where they can no longer be able to find new bugs.

Trigger
Keywords
Configuration
configure, model, type, version, environment, connect, disconnect, add, remove
Startup
startup, initial, first, un-initialized, creation, boot, warm up, wakeup, loading, setup, entry, transition, delay
Exception
exception, error, violation, exceeds, NULL, unexpected, recover, prevented, blocked, prohibited, unavailable
Stress
stress, load, rate, slowest, fastest, low, high, speed, capacity, limit, long, short, few, many, empty, full
Normal
normal, typical, common, usual, expected, planned, basic, allowed, available
Restart
restart, reset, cleanup, eject, power down, ctrl-alt-del, quit

 

 

Game Test Life Cycle

Plan

The planning phase, is where they plan on revisiting with every build. they would consider things such as "what has changed in the design spec since the last build? What additional test cases have been added? What new configurations will the game support? What features have been cut?" The testing should ensure that no new issues would be introduced in the process of fixing bugs.

Prepare

Code, tests, documents, and the test environment are updated by their respective owners and aligned with one another. By this time the development team should have marked the bugs fixed for this build in the defect database so the QA or test team can subsequently verify those fixes and close the bugs.

Perform

Test the new build check if there is any defect, they also test “around” the bug making certain they have done everything they can to recreate the bug. More research that's done, the easier it becomes to report the bug.

Report

This is where they log in their reports of any defects and bugs they've found.

Repair

The test team participates in this step by being available to discuss the bug with the development team and to provide any directed testing they may require to track it down.

Repeat

Repeat the process with a new bug to test.


Game Testing Cycle