This article is translated from "Game Development Essentials -- QA and Testing".
As a tester, the main goals are:
- find bugs
- Reproduce Bugs
- Submit a bug report
Secondary goals are:
- Verify that Bugs have been fixed
- Really fun game
Bug Severity :
1. Low It doesn't make much difference to fix or not to fix. Does not affect the running process.
2. Medium should be fixed
3. High
4. Critical Classification of fatal
bugs
visual, sound, level design, artificial intelligence AI, physics, stability, performance, network, compatibility.
Let's talk about the common bugs in each category:
Vision :
Clipping For example, a person is holding a gun against a closed door, and his gun goes through the door; or a character is sitting in a jeep, his feet stick out through the car go outside.
Z-fighting,
when two surfaces are coplanar, sometimes produces a very ugly picture (refers to flickering when two or more coplanar surfaces overlap).
Screen-tearing,
which happens when the GPU can't draw a frame fast enough.
Missing texture, the
texture (map) is missing, and only shows the visible artifacts of the placeholder tile
Visible artifacts
Sound
: Audio
drops,
sound Absences, such as "I love you" being heard as "I__you"
Skipping,
temporary pauses, are often performance related issues.
Distortion,
Distortion
Missing sound fx,
sound effects lost, not a placeholder tile like texture loss, but nothing is heard
Volume too low/ too high (bad mix)
Volume too low or too high
(surface) design :
Stuck spot, the
character is stuck somewhere and cannot move. The reason is bad geometry operations. is a serious bug.
sticky spot,
Sticky spots, like Stuck Spot, but take some time and effort to get out. Usually a moderate bug. Stick Spot and Stuck Spot may be converted into each other.
Map hole,
map hole, once you fall in, the whole picture is gone. Sometimes players can attack other players in the hole. The only way to find all map bugs is to go around the map (yes, sometimes doing software testing is more of a grind, a repetition of actions than a skill).
Invisible wall,
the invisible wall, is extra calculated, but not artistically processed. Often a map from a previous version. It may also be intentionally designed to indicate some kind of boundary (this is to make the player feel that the face is bigger than it looks - outdated technology). Be sure to investigate carefully, otherwise it may be set to NAB (Not a Bug) by the developer in the bug report.
Missing geometry (opposite of invisible wall; you can see it, but you can't walk through it)
Contrary to invisible wall, the texture is already there, but the real geometry operation is not done.
Artificial Intelligence AI :
Finding bugs in AI is more nuanced than superficial design work. Common examples are pathfinding and non-player character behavior.
Pathfinding: The AI can't find its own path for three reasons:
1) An invisible wall is blocking the character's path
2) A map bug makes a gap in the script
3) The AI's logic is poorly designed for
non-player character behavior :
The success of AI's design is to make human players feel like they are really playing.
rather than player behavior, such as a character facing the wrong door in an elevator. The behavior of NPCs also affects the balance of the game. Too mentally handicapped NPC teammates will make the game more difficult, and too strong NPC teammates will make the game too easy.
Stuck (unable to move correctly through path),
Don't move,
Die too often,
Fall to follow,
Can't open doors
Physics :
Finding physics bugs is now a routine for testers.
There are two main categories: Breakable and Dynamic
A common feature in modern games is "breakable" geometry, which is geometry that can be destroyed. For example, a porcelain bottle can be broken by bullets.
But imagine fragments of bullets that end up floating in the air or that the bottle doesn't break at all! That's a bug!
Object floats when it's not supposed to,
Object doesn't break,
Object doesn't stop moving after being touched,
Unrealistic gravity,
Impossible to pile objects on top of one another
Stability :
Freeze,
Screen Freeze, Immediately Copy or Write Anything Debug information available.
Crash(black screen),
Crash (black screen), similar to screen freeze, but this kind of bug doesn't even have a picture. Fatal bug.
Crash to desktop (PC),
a bug that only occurs on PC. There are two differences from other game crashes:
1) When the game crashes, it returns to the desktop.
2) In the game, any input by the player is invalid, but everything on the operating system desktop is normal.
Fatal bug.
Can't load level, can't load
surface
unresponsive .
Catching stability bugs requires more effort from testers, and so does catching performance bugs, which we'll discuss later.
Performance :
Low frame rate,
low frame rate
Levels take too much time to load,
too long texture surface loading time
Minimum spec machine can't run the game(PC),
players can't run the game on the minimum configuration required by the
game Takes too long to install,
Game
pauses frequently to load data Game pauses frequently to load data
Performance
bugs are, in some respects, the easiest to find but the hardest to fix. And if it's a serious problem, it can't be fixed yet.
Networking :
Networking bugs are especially related to server-client connectivity and bandwidth.
Can't connect/dropped connection,
Can't join invite,
Lag,
frustrating situation: You fire a shot, only to see smoke coming from the muzzle half a second later.
Latency, which often occurs when network packets are dropped or bandwidth is overused.
Invisible players,
can't see other players and can't see NPCs (non-player character)
Scoring errors
Don't ignore potential bugs just because they might be low priority. Don't ignore potential bugs that are low priority.
Compatibility :
Compatibility bugs are about whether a game can run on different hardware.
Game crashes on ATI videocards, the
game may crash on non-mainstream graphics cards.
Logitech controller doesn't work,
you can't use the Logitech controller to operate the
gamepad. It is very important to check compatibility bugs, because it is difficult to guarantee that every manufacturer's product can be used in your Use under test game.
Game doesn't run on Windows ME,
this
is a very common bug.
Bluetooth headset only outputs mono,
Bluetooth headset only hears mono
Game is not compatible with Windows Vista 64 bit Common bugs in various categories