Ultra-portable computer game design best solution

Address: http://www3.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/apac/zho/326310.htm

 

When developers consider some design needs to ensure a pleasant experience for users, the ultra-portable computer (UMPC) will expand the computer gaming market running on Microsoft Windows * XP. In most cases, a certain version of the game can run on both UMPC and traditional PC platforms.

Prepared by Matt Gillespie, Michael Finkel, and Victoria Bailey

1. Introduction as a target system used by game developers, the ultra-portable computer (UMPC) platform is becoming increasingly important. Because these systems run on Microsoft Windows * XP Tablet PC Edition, you do not need to use the full operating system port for existing games. However, the UMPC exterior size needs to be noticed in game design. For example, UMPC usually has a touch screen with a resolution of 800x480 or 1024x600, which means smaller pixels and greater aspect ratio. In addition, developers must provide alternatives for traditional keyboard-and mouse-user interaction operations, typically without CD-ROM drives.

This document provides the best solution for supporting the successful running of computer games on the UMPC platform based on the analysis of a large number of computer games on the current market. After running those games on the UMPC platform, you can determine the advantages and disadvantages related to the platform, as well as specific game design factors that can provide a pleasant experience for users. The analysis includes considerations for designing high-quality games on UMPC and FAQs related to UMPC support, providing the best solution to each problem.

2 screen size considerations because the UMPC screen is much smaller than the traditional screen, you must be more careful with the size of the graphic elements. Developers should not only avoid excessively small design of scaled down graphic elements, but also avoid occupying too much screen space for other elements of the same size. In particular, sometimes it is hard to see the text and icons, and it is difficult to click some buttons or units. Some game Windows cannot fully adapt to the shape of the screen. 2.1 text and image size Problem: On the game interface connecting to UMPC through a port, text or icons may be reduced to a specific size, which is hard to see clearly. This is a common problem and must be avoided because text and icons become useless if they cannot be read or parsed. If the text is properly displayed on the screen of 15 inch, the text will undoubtedly become too small when it is reduced to 5 to 7 inch. The UMPC screen may be 5 to 7 inch. In addition to the actual text font size, chat and other text windows will also become too small. If you reduce the font size to provide a smaller window size, it will make reading the text more difficult.

Best Solution:Ideally, you must pay attention to the use of less text for UMPC-designed games, as well as the UMPC screen size when selecting a font. Similarly, icons should not be overly precise, so that even on a smaller UMPC screen, different objects with significant differences can be easily located. If you can fully increase the text size, adjust other elements of the game, and adjust the text size is a good solution, that is, allow each player to determine the ideal size of the text. 2.2 click performance of buttons and other elementsProblem:Similar to the problem of text being too small, buttons and other game elements that can be clicked increase the complexity of connecting to the UMPC over a port. That is to say, when the overall interface on the UMPC must be smaller than the corresponding standard PC version, the actual button on the UMPC interface must be larger, in order to use the pen or finger to correctly click, instead of using a precise mouse in the standard PC version. As shown in figure 1, when multiple buttons or other elements are together, this problem is especially serious. This will cause the user to select an element other than the element to be selected. Even if you can carefully select the right elements, it will make the user experience time.

Figure 1 on PC monitor 20 inch (left), you can easily use the arrow cursor to determine and select a domino card. However, when the domino image is scaled down and displayed on the UMPC screen (right) of 5 inch, it is difficult for users to choose a single card or even identify the number of points on each card.

Best Solution:Game Developers should avoid text and Icon size issues by using large and unique buttons or other elements. In addition, there should be enough space between these elements to reduce the possibility of selecting incorrect elements due to negligence. If a text tag is near a button or other element, it should be located in the clickable area related to the element, which makes it easier to click and does not occupy additional space. 2.3 game window sizeProblem:If the size of the game window is fixed, instead of Automatically Adjusting to fill the screen of the UMPC, some parts of the game may suddenly be invisible. In some cases, you may not be able to click some parts of the game, as shown in figure 2. This situation becomes more complex when gamers use the 800x480 or 1024x600 resolution supported by the UMPC wide screen, because the screen aspect ratio must match the Standard 4-3 aspect ratio used by most computer consoles.

Figure 2 on the standard PC (left), you can see the entire game Area, including the information section on the player interface. If the game window is trimmed and the smaller size of the UMPC and the different aspect ratio (in the picture), the relevant part of the game will be hidden, represented here by the translucent part of the screen edge. If the game window is scaled down to adapt to the UMPC screen (right), you can easily see all parts of the game, although there is a certain degree of visual distortion, it is acceptable.

Best Solution:For game developers, the key to solving this problem is to consider using 800x480 and 1024x600 resolutions when developing the UMPC game interface, and adapt to the screen by narrowing down the entire game window, you can also rearrange the interface to make full use of the wide area of the screen. Some simple adjustments can make the game more playable, even in the truncated state. For example, in some cases, a scroll bar is provided to allow manual or automatic window adjustment to allow users to access the entire screen and provide an acceptable experience, especially browser-based games. 3 touch screen considerations using touch screens on UMPC, rather than using the mouse, further increases the complexity of connecting Games through ports. For most software purposes, the touch screen function is like a mouse, except that the user does not record moving linear tracking when dragging the cursor, each time you touch the screen, a series of button-pressing events about a specific position are generated. You cannot move the cursor or the relationship between the left-click and right-click without clicking, which may cause some problems. 3.1 accurate explanation of touch screen input only by clicking (tap-only)Problem:UMPC games must be able to interpret users' cursor input as a series of points (corresponding to a series of screen touch and click operations ), instead of moving in linear mode (as provided by the mouse that controls the cursor ). For example, this problem often occurs in games, especially mobile user perspectives, so the cursor is always in the center of the screen (this is common in first-person shooting software ). In this case, when a player touches the screen, the cursor may jump around the screen irregularly, rather than moving to the user's touch.

Best Solution:If you track the movement of the cursor from point A to point B in the game, you must be able to explain the click of point A and then the click of point B, you do not need to move the cursor between point A and point B first. In addition, an external mouse needs to be inserted to the UMPC, which can usually solve this problem, but from the perspective of user experience, this solution is obviously not the best choice. 3.2 accurate touch screen ing when the game runs in full screen mode but does not fully occupy the entire screen (the entire screen is not filled or the occupied area is larger than the whole screen, the touch screen may be mapped to the wrong game.

Problem (the game resolution is smaller than the actual screen resolution ):When the game runs in full screen mode at a lower resolution than the actual screen, it is displayed in the center of the screen, there is a certain amount of space on the four sides of the screen (for example, a 640x480 window is displayed near the center on a 800x480 screen, or a window of 800x600 is displayed near the center of the screen of 1024x600, and black strips are displayed on both sides of the screen ), when you map the entire touch screen surface to a relatively small display area, this ing will cause an error. Error ing (as shown in 3) may cause incorrect responses to user interaction operations on the interface. For example, the area on which a button is clicked may deviate from the visible position of the button.

Figure 3 when the game window is displayed near the center of the screen and the black strip is displayed on the four sides of the screen, the game logic responsible for explaining the screen click operation must avoid ing the entire actual screen area to a smaller game window. This incorrect ing will cause the game to click on the screen at one position (indicated by a yellow arrow) to interpret the operation as happening at another location (represented by a red explosion ).

Best Solution:When the ing logic considers the black strip as a part of the screen (even if the black strip does not use a part of the game), the game is reliably displayed near the center of the screen, and the black strip is displayed on all sides of the screen, in this case, the touch screen is not incorrectly mapped. With this adjustment, the screen touch will be accurately mapped to the touch position.

Problem (game resolution is greater than screen resolution ):When the game window occupies an area greater than the vertical space of the entire screen, it may incorrectly map the portrait of the touch screen instead of the landscape, as shown in 4. This usually causes the touch screen to be mapped to the entire game window, not just the visible part. In addition, clicking does not correspond to the game window area to be clicked by the user.

Figure 4 cutting a part of the game window (represented in a translucent area) on the actual screen also causes the game to be in a position (indicated by a yellow arrow) the on-screen click operation is interpreted as happening in another location (represented by a red explosion symbol) because of incorrect ing between the game window and the actual display of different shapes.

Best Solution:Developers should ensure that the operating system maps the touch screen accurately to the entire visible part of the screen (including the unused part of the game), but not the invisible part of the game window. Another solution for developers is to support 800x480 and 1024x600 screen resolutions as user configuration options on the local machine. In some cases, if the final size of the game element is unacceptable, the game can adapt to the entire screen by automatically stretching the window. 3.3 alternative solution for hovering EffectProblem:Many Games use the hover function to allow users to place their mouse over an object or a location (without clicking) in the game, triggering animations or tooltip that provide information. This function is often used to provide instructions for beginners, but it is not compatible with the touch screen, because the touch screen cannot move the cursor without clicking.

Best Solution:As the hover function is incompatible with the current UMPC hardware, developers should select other events to trigger animations or tooltip. For example, when a player reaches the game part related to an animation object or tooltip object, it can trigger an animation object or tooltip object. Another possibility is to design an interface that temporarily interprets a click event as a mouse hover event by means of some means, such as a button that remains pressed, to allow you to move the cursor by touching the touch screen without recording the click. 3.4 adjust the right-click FunctionProblem:On a typical UMPC touch screen, you can click the right-click button on the screen for a longer time than the left-click button, which may lead to a left-click when you want to right-click. In addition, you cannot right-click or left-click simultaneously.

Best Solution:Developers should provide other user interaction operations to replace the right-click function. For example, double-click the screen or click the control to replace the right-click function. Alternatively, game developers can only require the use of external mouse or other pointer devices, although this requirement may make users experience it. 4. Precautions for appearance size compared with standard PCs, many problems are directly related to the hardware differences in the appearance size of UMPC. For example, unlike a PC, UMPC may have a touch screen, a joystick, a user-programmed button, and a dedicated button like a menu button, but it typically does not have a keyboard or a CD-ROM drive. Although you can add keyboards, CD-ROM drives, or other peripherals, this reduces the portability of the UMPC. In addition, umpcs of different models may include different elements in the design, which may cause restrictions related to the appearance size to vary with the device. This variability usually requires developers to focus on accommodating the player's lowest hardware functionality when designing the game based on core requirements. 4.1 CD-ROM driverProblem:CD is currently the most popular method for distributing games. In addition to CD installation, disks are often used as a means to verify game ownership, or as an anti-theft measure. When necessary, content such as video clips can be dynamically loaded through CD. Because there is usually no integrated CD-ROM driver on the UMPC, this situation requires the use of an external drive, thus affecting the portability of the UMPC. In addition, the user may not have an external CD drive. In particular, this issue has no impact on web-based and browser-based games.

Best Solution:Allows games to be downloaded and installed over the Internet. This is an ideal method to replace CD when playing UMPC games. This distribution mode is now widely used, and developers should regard the emergence of UMPC as a more powerful impetus to promote this mode. You should also consider using certificates or other software-based methods to verify ownership, rather than requiring the actual provision of CD. Instead of dynamically loading videos or other content through CD as needed during a game competition, developers should consider providing options to store the content on an UMPC hard disk. 4.2 restrict the needs of different command inputProblem:Compared with the entire keyboard and mouse provided by the standard PC, the appearance size of the UMPC has many limitations on the input. Even those games that are designed to run on a PC using a joystick may require multiple buttons, including a typical joystick controller, which may not be provided in the UMPC. In addition, UMPC also has some problems when keyboard shortcuts are displayed as the main game components. It is particularly important to note that a mouse-driven game is not affected by the size constraints described in this section.

Best Solution:Compared with the optional convenience options similar to the shortcut keys of menu options, developers can solve the problem of limited input options on UMPC by reducing the number of commands actually required in Game competitions. However, a more flexible solution is to create screen buttons. In particular, if the button is context-related and only displays the button when it is related to the button, this provides an open solution for the input requirements. 4.3 handle keyboard requirementsProblem:In addition to issuing commands, many games also use keyboards for input, such as naming characters, creating character profiles, saving games, or supporting online game chat. For example, a game generally requires a keyboard to enter the profile name at the beginning of the game session, but the keyboard is not required at any time during the session. Some games also require players to use the keyboard to name and save the games. In many cases, the keyboard on the screen does not run on the top of the game interface, so these problems cannot be solved.

Best Solution: developers should specify that the game is not in conflict with the screen keyboard (for example, full screen mode is not used by default ), or, you can only provide the screen keyboard on the displayed interface as needed. There is a simple way to reduce the need for keyboard input, that is, providing default values for text strings such as profile names and saving game names, and then allowing you to select these values when clicking input on the screen. You can also add an interface button to provide other values of these text strings. You can use this button to randomly select a new value from the developer list. The stored game can also be identified based on the screen capture when the player ends the game, plus the date and time stamp. Since chat functions are not the core content in Game competitions, they are generally disabled in UMPC, which has no negative impact on user experience. 5 conclusion game developers and designers support the UMPC platform in mainstream game products. They propose a set of unrelated design considerations to solve some common problems in the development process. The best solution described in this document provides the basis for this. Because Windows-based UMPC runs the complete version of the operating system, it usually needs less improvement to provide this support compared with the full port of the independent operating environment. Therefore, through continuous efforts to expand the game market, including expanding the UMPC platform deployment front, thus providing a competitive edge for game software providers. 6. Other resources if game developers and designers consider how to integrate the desired UMPC platform to the maximum extent of their products, they will benefit from the following resources:

• The intel software network mobile technology developer community is a network center that provides developer information related to all mobile products, including technical documentation, sdks, forums, knowledge bases and blog http://www.intel.com/software/mobile
• The intel UMPC platform site introduces the platform and platform to developers and usersCommunityPossible impact. Http://www.intel.com/design/mobile/platform/umpc.htm
• UMPC Community provides related devices and applicationsProgramAnd model information, and also provides discussion forums for users and developers. Http://www.umpc.com/
• UMPC buzz provides links to UMPC news, blogs, forums, and software downloads. Http://www.umpcbuzz.com/