So, to answer my question from last week, frame based allows mostly for resource saving as it only requires calculations when they are needed for frames. Time based is still superior in that regard as it allows for setting an upper limit on calculation rate and allows for much smoother game play.

This week we covered everything about animation and the role it plays in games, websites, and other technologies. ‘Animation is motion’ and motion can be changes between shape, size, colour, scale, and a magnitude other other effects. These changes are compared over time to generate animation between the points such as the animation tools used in modern game development engines that allow for point plotting on a timeline to carry out animations and movement.

The main argument behind animation between games and other forms of media such as film is why 60 fps is desired so much when 24 fps in films is perfectly fine. The history is based on the golden era for film when film reels were very expensive. 24 frames of film per second actually started as a standard from the cinemas as their machines were built for a set speed and the varying frame rated of directors meant films came out very inconsistent (those filmed at low frame rates were played back faster hence why many old films appear to be sped up). 24 was the gold point between quality of recording and price of film reels and remained the standard ahead. Many tv’s still operate with 24 fps in England as the AC electrical current runs as 50 hertz and means that it can refresh the screen at the correct rate for media displayed.

Games operate at much higher frame rates as they don’t have natural smoothing and require small response times. While using a recording device, small amounts of motion blur are captured which allow for a smoother viewing when played back. But frames generated by a computer have no sense of active motion and just generate a static image. Therefore, more images are required per second to fill in the gaps of motion. On top of that, many games require fast and precise movements which are easier to perform when the latency between moving a mouse and seeing movement is smaller. Hence why some people play games at hundreds of frames per second past the point of seeing a difference as it minimises latency.

RNG (random number generation) was also briefly covered this week to explain the lack of true randomness found in computers. There is no access to infinity for a computer so there is always a finite amount of possibilities. This has been solved by using real world particles to encrypt data such as the lava lamp wall used at cloud data storage provider ‘Cloud Flare’. They use a live view of a hundred lava lamps to generate live, random encryption. Movement for our future games was also covered with explanations about radian to degree conversion as well as how the coordinate system for JavaScript and HTML5 starts in the top left as 0,0 with positive going right and down.

Next week looks to be covering physics found in games so I’m interested to learn about what collision looks like from the computer’s perspective such as if it simply a comparison between corners of a hit box and other data.