Software Dependencies - Task 3

In this report I will be discussing what software technologies need to be implemented in the new console and what functions they will contribute to the new design. I will be looking at and explaining: the platform dependency, Drivers, Operating systems, Graphical API's, and Sound API. The platform will be using a windows operating system

Platform dependency

Platform dependency is referring to software, applications and programs that work exclusively with a certain platform, this is most commonly used for advertising and marketing a platform. By paying developers to make software exclusively for a console a company can then use that to their advantage by telling the target audience that their platform is better than the competition because it has more exclusive software, applications and programs.

For the new console having more exclusive software, applications and programs than the competitors is a great way to improve the functionality and desirability of the platform. Since the platform will be windows operating system there will be lots of exclusive games that aren't playable on other platforms like Linux and OS X.

Drivers

A driver is a program that allows hardware to function, the driver controls a particular type of hardware that is plugged into a computer. for a gaming computer there are many drivers that need to be kept up to date by the developers to cater for the ever growing development of software, applications and programs.

The main drivers that need to updated often is the graphics card drivers the developers will need to update the drivers to better support new game releases and fixed problems that may occur when the drivers don't support the games. Graphics card drivers control how the graphics card works with the computer.

Keyboard, mouse and controller drivers are used to control the devices and provide the ability to manage things like mouse speed and acceleration, controller toggles sensitivity and macros for the keyboard.

Operating systems

An Operating system is software that is designed to manage the computers hardware and the software, the OS provides a GUI interface which allows the user to access applications and software easily. The operating system controls and manages the input, output and memory allocation of the computer; the OS works by allowing the user to interact with the computer by acting as a kind of mediator.

The Operating system I will be using is windows 10; this operating system has a lot of benefits one being that most people can use it because it is basic and hasn't changed its layout from previous versions of the operating system. Windows 10 is the best operating system when it comes to games because it has the biggest audience out of the other operating systems, the more audience there is means that more developers want to create for this platform.

Graphical API

An API is software that allows the application to communicate with the operating system which then sends it to the graphics driver to communicate with the graphics card which processes it and displays it on the monitor.

Graphical API's are very important when making a platform for games. there are very few choices of good and widely supported API's; the two best API's right now are Direct X and Vulkan. The Vulkan API supports the most platforms out of the two, it supports: Windows, OS X, Android and Linux. Direct X supports a very limited amount of platforms, because it is a Microsoft product Direct X supports only platforms by Microsoft, Xbox OS and Windows OS.

Since the operating system I am using is developed by Microsoft it's only fitting if I use their API too as it would work better with it's native API.

Sound API

A sound API is a part of an API which gives the sound card drivers an interface. The API also provides options to manipulate the sounds by using effects, (for example making the song really high or low).

Since the graphical API I am using is Direct X I will need to use the sound version of that which is called Direct Sound API. The direct sound API can play at high definition multi channel sounds, direct sound isn't just used for games like it was designed, its used by a wide range of applications to play audio.