Preparing the test system

First you need to set up and check the test system. Keep the following steps in mind:

• Hardware
  • Is your system powerful enough for the game to be tested?
  • Does it have enough CPU power for both running the game and compressing the video (dual-core CPU or more cores)?
  • Do you have a second HDD (internal or eSATA) for saving the video recordings?
• Software
  • The game to be tested
    • Installation on system hard disk drive
    • Check the game's internal settings
    • Create a test account if necessary
    • Customize the test environment if necessary
  • Capturing Software
    • Test which capturing software works best with the game in question
    • Set up the capturing software, so you can start and end recordings at the press of a button.
    • Customize the video codec if necessary
  • Check the recordings
    • Can you start the recording by pressing a single button?
    • Are both sound and video captured on disk?
      • Laptops may require a patched audio driver
    • Does the video recording affect the game's performance?
    • Is the video going to be split up for longer recordings?
      • Should you reduce the capturing resolution?
      • Should you reduce the game's resolution?
      • Should you reduce the frames per second?
      • Should you re-adjust the codec?
      • Should you skip video compression?
  • Game Flow Analysis Tool
    • Installation
    • Does rating the videos work?
• Environment
  • Is the test player undisturbed?
  • Observer
    • has to start and stop video recordings (according to the schedule)
    • has to open the videos with the GFAT and start the rating
    • then has to store the data for analysis
    • assists the test person in case of questions

Once the test system has been set up and you have successfully made a test measurement, you can start with the actual work. The following example will cover the entire measurement procedure.