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Source (game Engine)
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve. It debuted as the successor to GoldSrc in 2004 with the releases of '' Half-Life: Source'', '' Counter-Strike: Source'', and '' Half-Life 2''. Valve used Source in many of their games in the following years, including '' Team Fortress 2'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', and the '' Portal'' and '' Left 4 Dead'' franchises. Other notable third-party games using Source include most games in the '' Titanfall'' franchise, '' Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines'', '' Dear Esther'', '' The Stanley Parable'' and '' Garry’s Mod''. Valve released incremental updates to Source before it was succeeded by Source 2 in 2015. History Source distantly originates from the GoldSrc engine, itself a heavily modified version of John Carmack's Quake engine with some code from the Quake II engine. Carmack commented on his blog in 2004 that "there are still bits of early ''Quake'' code in ''Half-Life 2''". Valve employee Er ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam (service), Steam and the game franchises ''Half-Life (series), Half-Life'', ''Counter-Strike'', ''Portal (series), Portal'', ''Day of Defeat'', ''Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress'', ''Left 4 Dead (series), Left 4 Dead'' and ''Dota''. Valve was founded in 1996 by the former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut game, the first-person shooter (FPS) ''Half-Life (video game), Half-Life'' (1998), was a critical and commercial success and had a lasting influence on the FPS genre. Harrington left in 2000. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, followed by ''Half-Life 2'' (2004), the Episodic video game, episodic sequels ''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' (2006) and ''Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Episode Two'' (2007), the mult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garry’s Mod
''Garry's Mod'', commonly clipped as ''GMod'', is a 2006 sandbox game developed by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve. The base game mode of ''Garry's Mod'' has no set objectives and provides the player with a world in which to freely manipulate objects. Other game modes, notably ''Trouble in Terrorist Town'' and ''Prop Hunt'', are created by other developers as mods and are installed separately, by means such as the Steam Workshop. ''Garry's Mod'' was created by Garry Newman as a mod for Valve's Source game engine and released in December 2004, before being expanded into a standalone release that was published by Valve in November 2006. Ports of the original Windows version for Mac OS X and Linux followed in September 2010 and June 2013, respectively. As of September 2021, ''Garry's Mod'' has sold more than 20 million copies. A spiritual successor, '' S&box'', has been in development since 2015. Gameplay ''Garry's Mod'' is a physics-based sandbox game t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backward Compatibility
In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with Input/output, input designed for such a system. Modifying a system in a way that does not allow backward compatibility is sometimes called "wikt:breaking change, breaking" backward compatibility. Such breaking usually incurs various types of costs, such as Switching barriers, switching cost. A complementary concept is ''forward compatibility''; a design that is forward-compatible usually has a Technology roadmap, roadmap for compatibility with future standards and products. Usage In hardware A simple example of both backward and forward compatibility is the introduction of FM broadcasting, FM radio in stereophonic sound, stereo. FM radio was initially monaural, mono, with only one audio channel represented by one signal (electrical engineerin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Full-motion Video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information during cutscenes, games that are primarily presented through FMVs are referred to as full-motion video games or interactive movies. Recent full motion video games often combine the use of CGI/green screens and in-game graphics for immersion. The early 1980s saw almost exclusive use of the LaserDisc for FMV games. Many arcade games used the technology but it was ultimately considered to be a fad and fell out of use. In the early 1990s FMV games had a resurgence of interest, the proliferation of optical discs gave rise to a slew of original FMV-based computer games such as '' Night Trap'' (1992), '' The 7th Guest'' (1993), '' Voyeur'' (1993), '' Phantasmagoria '' (1995), and '' Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT'' (1995). The introduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WebM
WebM is an audiovisual media file format. It is primarily intended to offer a royalty-free alternative to use in the HTML video and the HTML audio elements. It has a sister project, WebP, for images. The development of the format is sponsored by Google, and the corresponding software is distributed under a BSD licenses, BSD license. The WebM Digital container format, container is based on a Profile (engineering), profile of Matroska. WebM initially supported VP8 video and Vorbis audio streams. In 2013, it was updated to accommodate VP9 video and Opus (audio format), Opus audio. It also supports the AV1 codec. Vendor support Software Native WebM support by Firefox, Mozilla Firefox, Opera (web browser), Opera, and Google Chrome was announced at the 2010 Google I/O conference. Internet Explorer 9 requires third-party WebM software. In 2021, Apple Inc., Apple released Safari (web browser), Safari 14.1 for macOS, which added native WebM support to the browser. , QuickTime does n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bink Video
Bink Video is a proprietary file format (extensions .bik and .bk2) for video developed by Epic Games Tools (formerly RAD Game Tools), a part of Epic Games. Overview The format includes its own proprietary video and audio compression algorithms (video and audio codecs) supporting resolutions from 320×240 up to high definition video. It is bundled as part of the Epic Video Tools along with Epic Games Tools' previous video codec, Smacker video. It is a hybrid block-transform and wavelet codec using 16 different encoding techniques. The codec places emphasis on lower decoding requirements over other video codecs with specific optimizations for the different computer game consoles it supports. It has been primarily used for full-motion video sequences in video games, and has been used in games for Windows, Mac OS and all sixth-generation game consoles (Dreamcast, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox) and all major seventh-generation gaming platforms (Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middleware
Middleware is a type of computer software program that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement communication and input/output, so they can focus on the specific purpose of their application. It gained popularity in the 1980s as a solution to the problem of how to link newer applications to older legacy systems, although the term had been in use since 1968. In distributed applications The term is most commonly used for software that enables communication and management of data in distributed applications. An IETF workshop in 2000 defined middleware as "those services found above the transport (i.e. over TCP/IP) layer set of services but below the application environment" (i.e. below application-level APIs). In this more specific sense ''middleware'' can be described as the hyphen ("-") in '' client-server'', or the ''-to-'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prima Games
Prima Games is a publishing company of video game strategy guides in the United States. Formerly, Prima was an imprint of Dorling Kindersley, a division of Penguin Random House, and produced print strategy guides, featuring in-depth walkthroughs for completing games and other information, such as character sheets and move charts. Prima was acquired by Asteri Holdings in March 2019, which will transition the business to provide strategy guides in online form only, alongside other gaming news. The company was acquired by GAMURS Group in January 2022. History Prima Publishing was a small publisher working out of a residential-style home office in Roseville, California when in 1990, its owner, Ben Dominitz, contracted with author Rusel DeMaria to create a video game strategy guide imprint, initially called "The Secrets of the Games". At the time, DeMaria was senior editor for ''PC Games'' magazine and on the staff of ''GamePro''. The initial contract called for five books—the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) is a discontinued source control program oriented towards small software development projects. Like most source control systems, SourceSafe creates a ''virtual library'' of computer files. While most commonly used for source code, SourceSafe can handle any type of file in its database, but older versions were shown to be unstable when used to store large amounts of non-textual data, such as images and compiled executables. History SourceSafe was originally created by a North Carolina company called One Tree Software. One Tree SourceSafe had gone through several releases in their 1.''x'' to 2.''x'' cycles, supporting DOS, OS/2 (with a Presentation Manager GUI), Windows, Windows NT, Mac, and Unix. When Microsoft bought OneTree in 1994, they immediately ceased development on all versions except for Windows. Microsoft SourceSafe 3.1, Windows 16-bit-only and Macintosh, rebranded One Tree 3.0 versions, were briefly available before Microsoft released a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fork (software Development)
In software development, a fork is a codebase that is created by duplicating an existing codebase and, generally, is subsequently modified independently of the original. Software built from a fork initially has identical behavior as software built from the original code, but as the source code is increasingly modified, the resulting software tends to have increasingly different behavior compared to the original. A fork is a form of branching, but generally involves storing the forked files separately from the original; not in the repository. Reasons for forking a codebase include user preference, stagnated or discontinued development of the original software or a schism in the developer community. Forking proprietary software (such as Unix) is prohibited by copyright law without explicit permission, but free and open-source software, by definition, may be forked without permission. Etymology The word ''fork'' has been used to mean "to divide in branches, go separate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half-Life (video Game)
''Half-Life'' is a 1998 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the Half-Life (series), ''Half-Life'' series. The player assumes the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is overrun by Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien creatures following a disastrous scientific experiment. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzles. Valve was disappointed with the lack of innovation in the FPS genre, and aimed to create an immersive world rather than a "shooting gallery". Unlike other games at the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of the player character; the story is mostly experienced through scripted sequences rather than cutscenes. Valve developed the game using GoldSrc, a heavily modified version of the Quake engine, ''Quake'' engine, licensed from id Software. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. (The theoretical field studying nomenclature is sometimes referred to as ''onymology'' or ''taxonymy'' ). The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally agreed principles, rules, and recommendations that govern the formation and use of the specialist terminology used in scientific and any other disciplines. Naming "things" is a part of general human communication using words and language: it is an aspect of everyday taxonomy as people distinguish the objects of their experience, together with their similarities and differences, which observers identify, name and classify. The use of names, as the many different kinds of nouns embedded in different languages, connects nomenclature to theoretical linguistics, while the way humans mentally structure the world in relation to word meanings a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
