JP2000057009A - Debugging system for computer game software - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently debug computer game software for recording a game picture during operation. SOLUTION: The game recording picture of data for debugging recorded together with a game picture by making the internal information of the game software into image signals in the image non-display area part of picture data is displayed on a television monitor and image information related to the internal information recorded in the non-display area of the recording picture is transformed to internal game software information conforming with a preset format and displayed on the monitor.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the development of game software by recording actual game contents and internal information necessary for debugging when developing computer game software, and by reproducing both information back to the original information. Methods and systems for assisting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The most time and labor (software development personnel) in software development is testing and accompanying debugging. The errors that occur during test execution can be broadly classified into: • Errors that stop execution • Errors whose contents differ from the specifications (content defects). In the former case, the execution stops, so errors are crushed each time. Rather, they are errors that occur early in the test. The latter, on the other hand, are errors that do not halt at runtime but have unexpected results.
Depending on the case, a single test can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to debug a plurality of errors at the same time. However, if the previous error affects later, you may need to step-by-step debug.

[0003] If the error can be clearly reproduced, the debugging work will be accelerated. However, in the case of an error that is difficult to reproduce, there is no way to deal with it. In particular, in the case of game software, a key operation (pad operation) is performed while looking at a screen. Therefore, when an unexpected operation is found, it may not be possible to determine which operation has been performed and an error occurred.

[0004] As a method currently used in the game software development process, a game is played from the opening to the ending, a game screen during the playing is stored in a video or the like, and the game progress is not normally performed. There is a way to check later. in this way,
Even if there is an abnormal operation, debugging can be performed without debugging each time, and multiple error locations can be debugged at the same time, so debugging is more efficient than debugging each error individually. Can be performed.

[0005]

As seen in the prior art, in software development, testing and accompanying debugging have required a great deal of time and a large number of staff (development personnel). In the development of the game software targeted by the present invention, in order to perform a test as efficient as possible, the game is actually executed, the execution screen is recorded on a video or the like, and then the game is viewed while looking at the recording screen. I have confirmed that it is working properly.

However, even if an abnormality is found, it has been difficult to analyze what key operation caused the abnormality, and what part of the program caused the execution of the abnormality. This is because internal information cannot be immediately analyzed using only the screen. In particular, in the case of a character motion involving key operations, the type of operation that caused the failure may not be immediately reproducible, making debugging difficult. Further, in the case of a game, since a subsequent operation is often determined by a previous operation, it is difficult to proceed to a state where a problem has occurred, which has hindered debugging.

Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is as follows:
The purpose of the present invention is to propose a support method and a support system for efficiently executing debugging during a game software test.
Further, in the present invention, when the debugging support method is systematized and provided, the efficiency in terms of cost such as equipment cost is taken into consideration.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method for debugging computer game software by recording a game screen during operation.
A game recording screen of debugging data recorded as an image signal of the internal information of the game software in an image non-display area portion of the screen data and recorded together with the game screen is displayed on a television monitor screen, and a non-display area of the recording screen is displayed. Is converted into game software internal information according to a preset format and displayed on a monitor screen.

In the present invention, the test execution result is recorded on a video tape or the like. The recorded contents are game image information, which is the game content itself, and game software internal information (hereinafter simply referred to as “internal information”) useful for debugging. 2)
Type information. The television screen is composed of a display area and a non-display area. The game image information is recorded in the display area, and the internal information is recorded in the non-display area. Normally, since the game image and the internal information have different signal forms, the internal information is converted into television image information and output so that a commercially available video tape can be used. That is, in the recording process, the game image and the internal information are simultaneously recorded as one screen.

In order to realize the above method, for example, in addition to a game machine for executing game software, an image signal recording device in a recording process, and an image signal reproducing device for reproducing a recorded image signal in a debug reproduction process. Then, a game debug information display device for returning the internal information converted into the image signal to the original internal information is prepared. The game image can be displayed separately on the game screen television monitor, and the internal information can be displayed separately on the game software internal information display monitor.

Further, it is also possible to provide internal information by providing a window in a part of the television monitor screen for the game screen.

The television screen used in the present invention will be described. A television screen is made up of a collection of points called pixels. FIG. 1 shows a television screen and pixels forming the screen. The video (image) of the TV screen 11 is
It is formed by changing the brightness of the pixel 12. The color television screen is basically the same as the monochrome television screen except that pixels corresponding to the three primary colors of light are used. Therefore, the monochrome television screen will be described here.

Pixels are laid out neatly on the surface of a cathode ray tube of a television. An electron gun is mounted on the side facing the cathode ray tube surface, and emits an electron beam from the electron gun to illuminate pixels on the cathode ray tube surface. The portion irradiated with the electron beam glows white, and the portion not irradiated with the electron beam does not glow and remains black. White, depending on the irradiation intensity of the electron beam
It can be shaded like gray or black. This level of intensity is called gradation. In the case of color, RGB (red,
Various shades can be expressed depending on which of the color pixels (green, blue) is strongly illuminated. However, since the pixel is illuminated by changing the irradiation intensity of the electron beam, it is completely the same as monochrome, and in principle, neither color nor monochrome is changed.

Generally, there is one electron gun. Therefore 1
To create an image of the screen, move the electron beam from left to right and top to bottom on the screen. The locus of movement of the electron beam is called a scanning line. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a trajectory of an electron beam, that is, a scanning line. When the electron beam (scanning line 13) runs from the left end to the right end, one line of the screen is formed. To form the second line, the electron beam is returned to the left end without illuminating the pixels. This is referred to as horizontal retrace 14. The second line is formed by running the scanning line to the right while illuminating the pixels again. Thus, the entire screen is created. When one screen is completed, the electron beam is in the lower right corner of the screen. To display the next screen, return the electron beam to the upper left corner. At this time,
Do not illuminate pixels. The line drawn by the electron gun when returning is referred to as a vertical return line 15. In FIG. 2, a dotted line portion indicates a retrace line in which the pixel is not illuminated.

At present, the number of scanning lines of a television is based on the NTSC system.
There are 525 lines and 625 lines in the PAL system. This number is displayed by an interlaced scanning method in which even-numbered and odd-numbered scanning lines are alternately displayed twice. Therefore, in the case of the NTSC system, 262.5 lines are displayed in one scan. The screen displayed by this one scan is called a field screen.
The original picture is composed of two field screens. This original picture is called a frame screen. The time for displaying the screen of one frame is 1/30 second.

As shown in FIG. 3, a non-display area is provided at the upper and lower ends of the screen and a part of the left and right ends for play. NTSC
In the system, the total number of scanning lines in the display area 16 of the TV screen is 24
Set to 0 line. Of these, several lines above and below (10 lines in the figure) are non-display areas 17. The scanning line running in the non-display area does not illuminate the pixels, and thus is not an image display target.

The non-display area normally serves only as a play area for timing the screen display, and is not used for other purposes. However, in a TV such as a communication satellite broadcast, a portion corresponding to a scanning line in the non-display area is also used in order to effectively use a transmission signal. For example, a copy guard signal of a satellite TV or the like is given as an example. There are several methods for copy guard. One of them is to include an image signal of a large luminance in a vertical synchronization signal, and when recording on a general VTR, the AG of the VTR is used.
This is a method for malfunctioning a circuit called C (auto gain converter) for keeping the variation of the image signal constant, thereby preventing normal recording.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described. For simplicity, the subject is a monochrome image,
The debug internal information targets only one scanning line in the non-display area. With this assumption, generality is not lost. The principle does not change when a color image is used or when the internal information is written on a plurality of scanning lines in the non-display area.

FIG. 4 shows a screen having a configuration of 300 dots and 240 lines. As seen in the related art, the screen includes a display area and a non-display area indicated by oblique lines.
A normal image was displayed in the display area, and the non-display area was unused. Most non-display areas are individual TVs
Even if the image in the screen display area varies, it is not necessarily meaningless because it is a spare area for displaying the image normally. Unused here means that it is not used except for the purpose of adjusting the display timing.

In the present invention, game software internal information useful for debugging is written in the non-display area, which is an unused area. The game software internal information 2 converted into an image signal in FIG. 4 is an image signal corresponding to one scanning line. Therefore, since the game screen and the internal information have a one-to-one correspondence, optimal information can be provided as debug information. How the information is written here is determined by the programmer. That is, the internal information describes output information in a program, and enables this information to be output as a signal to a non-display area. The equipment configuration for this will be explained later,
First, let me give an example of the format of the internal information to be output.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a format when the game software internal information is drawn as an image. In this format, game software internal information, which is digital information, is replaced with image data using the luminance of an image signal. That is, when recording a screen, the information is information on one scanning line of the TV screen.

The overall format comprises a header 21 and data 22 as internal information. All information is represented as a binary signal 23 represented by luminance. For example, 0 (black) if the luminance is below a certain value, and 1 if it is higher
(White). This 0 or 1 is represented as one bit of binary logic.

The length of luminance on a scanning line representing one bit is:
The length is set to be sufficiently shorter than the length of one scanning line, and the length of each bit is fixed. For example, when one scanning line has 300 pixels and three pixels are expressed as 1-bit length, 100-bit data can be expressed as an image signal with one scanning line.

The header 21 is a signal for positioning the data 22 of the game software internal information which has been converted into an image signal.
Bit configuration of 0 (black), 1 (white), 0 (black), 1 (white) (other configurations are possible as long as they can be detected as headers). Since the non-display area is usually expressed as a black image, the data 24 of 1 (white) is searched from the first position of the scanning line 2, and 0 (black) and 1 (white) are headers. Thereafter, data 25 follows. Since the data 25 are arranged at equal intervals, the data can be sequentially taken out.

The method of recording and reading data has been described above. FIGS. 6 and 7 show examples of the configuration of an apparatus for realizing this method as a debug system.

FIG. 6 shows a device configuration when recording a game screen. First, a game is executed on the game machine 31. At this time, the game machine outputs the game image and the game software internal information converted into an image signal as an image signal 32. This signal is recorded by the image signal recording device 33 (hereinafter simply referred to as “image storage device”). The game software of the game machine 31 is provided with a function of incorporating internal information converted into an image signal into a game image in advance. The content of the internal information converted into an image signal is arbitrarily set by a programmer.

The image signal a'34 output from the image signal recording device 33 has the same image content as the image signal a32. This signal causes the game image to be displayed on the TV monitor a35. Although the internal information can be displayed in the non-display area, it cannot be displayed on a general television monitor.

FIG. 7 shows the device configuration when the game screen is reproduced. This is a device configuration for reproducing the game content recorded by the image signal recording device 33, specifying an error location, and confirming the error content. Hereinafter, each device will be described.

An image recorded at the time of game debugging (correctly, a storage medium on which the image is recorded) is reproduced by the image signal reproducing device 41. This device outputs an image signal 42 including a game image and game software internal information. The output signal is output from the game debug information display device 43 as an image signal c4.
4 and an image signal b45, the image signal c44 is a television monitor c46 for game software internal information, the image signal b
45 is displayed on the television monitor b47 for game images.
Since the content displayed on the television monitor c46 is internal information of the game software, the content is displayed according to a preset format. In this case, the digital display is 0 or 1. The conversion is performed by the game debug information display device 4
3 does. On the other hand, the game screen is directly displayed on the game screen display television monitor b47.

As described above, the programmer can perform debugging while viewing the game screen and the game software internal information at the same time, thus enabling efficient debugging.

The game debug information display device 43 shown in FIG. 7 will be described in more detail. FIG. 8 shows the internal configuration of the game debug information display device 43. The image signal AMP 71 is an amplification device in the game debug information display device 43.

The game image output from the image signal reproducing device 41 and the image signal 42 containing the internal image information of the game software are converted into an image signal b45 having the same contents as the television monitor b.
In order to output the signal to the amplifier 47, the signal is amplified by the image signal AMP 71 and output. On the other hand, the image signal 42 captured by the image reproducing device 7 is input to a synchronization signal detection circuit 72 and a luminance signal extraction circuit 73. From the synchronization signal detection circuit 72,
Vertical synchronization signal 78 indicating the start timing of scanning one screen
And a horizontal synchronization signal 79 indicating the start of each scanning line. Both signals are input to the CPU 75. With this structure, the CPU 75 can know the start timing of one image and the start timing of each scanning line. Also, the memory 76
, The scanning lines including the imaged internal information are numbered and recorded. As a result, the CPU 75 starts counting the horizontal synchronization signal from the vertical synchronization signal, thereby being able to know the scanning line on which the internal information converted into the image signal is recorded and the start position thereof.

On the other hand, the luminance signal extracting circuit 73 extracts a luminance signal 79 from the image signal and outputs it. The luminance signal 79 is a signal representing the luminance difference by the level of the voltage.
This signal is input to the black and white determination circuit 74. The black-and-white determination circuit 74 determines that a voltage equal to or higher than a predetermined value is 1 (white), determines a signal lower than that as 0 (black), and outputs the result as a black-and-white signal 710 as digital data. Thus, when the CPU 75 receives the monochrome signal 710, it is possible to determine whether the luminance on the scanning line is 1 (white) or 0 (black).

With the above-described mechanism, the game software internal information in the format shown in FIG.
U can be read as digital information.

The CPU 75 outputs an image signal conversion circuit control signal 711 for converting the read data into an image signal in a format easily understood by humans in accordance with the display format recorded in the memory 76. The image signal conversion circuit 77 controlled by this signal outputs the image signal c44 in accordance with the format stored in the memory 76 with the game software internal information.

With the above configuration, the game debug information display device 43 can display game software information on the TV screen.

[0037]

The most difficult part of debugging is
It is not reproducible. In the case of a batch processing program, basically the same result can be obtained by flowing the same data. Therefore, when an error is found, if the same data is tested, the error location can be found and debugged. However, if you update the data each time you run it and want to use that data again,
Even if the same data flows, the same result will not be obtained. In consideration of this, there is data update in the batch test, and when performing the same test again, restore the updated data to the original data,
You will retest with the same data. Therefore, in the case of batch processing in which data is updated and used in the next test, it is necessary to back up the state before the test.

On the other hand, in the case of a test of interactive processing in which operation is performed while looking at a screen like game software, it cannot be reproduced by a simple method such as a batch test. Usually, an operation procedure is determined in advance, and the game is operated according to the procedure. The same result can be obtained by executing with the specified operation, but it is not clear what kind of operation resulted in the error, such as the timing of key operation or when an error occurred due to erroneous operation, reproducibility Can be difficult. In addition, the game software must be designed so that an error does not occur even if a random key operation is performed in addition to a predetermined procedure. This is because the user performs an operation that the creator does not expect.

In order to cope with such a test and in consideration of test efficiency, a test screen has been recorded so far, and the recorded screen is reproduced to detect an error portion and debug. (The error here refers to a defect in the game content, etc.). However, the conventional method reproduces the game screen itself, but when an error is found, it is difficult to analyze under what circumstances the error occurred. For example, even if it is thought that a correct key operation has been performed, it is actually a phenomenon that has occurred because of an incorrect operation, and it may not be an error. Also, in the conventional method, the value of the variable that determines the branch point of the conditional statement that is important for debugging is determined by using the conventional method. Debug statements that would normally be output (at the edge of the screen) were incorporated into the program. For this reason, not only was the game screen difficult to see, but also the debugging efficiency was poor.

On the other hand, when the present invention is used, since the game screen and the debug internal information are recorded as the same screen, the error occurrence screen and the error information are detected in a one-to-one relation. In addition, it is very easy to find the location of the error in the program. Also, if the key operation information is output as internal information, it is possible to clearly determine what kind of error has occurred due to which operation and to easily reproduce the game. Since the internal information display monitor is separated from the game screen monitor, the game itself is not difficult to see.

The amount of data is limited on the amount of data to be carried on one screen signal in order to carry data on signals corresponding to the scanning lines in the non-display area. However, since the software developer can easily determine which value should be output and in which portion to perform the most efficient debugging, it can sufficiently cope with a small amount of data. However, since the internal information can be changed and output for the same screen (for each screen to be rewritten) depending on the device, it is possible to output a large amount of internal information. For example, if switching is performed in a conditional statement using a counter as an internal variable, it becomes possible to write different internal information depending on the value of the counter for each screen rewrite on the same screen (usually,
The screen is rewritten about every 1/30 second).

Since the debugging internal information of the present invention is not directly displayed on the game screen, it does not obstruct the game screen during play. For this reason, there is no problem even if the internal information writing sentence is inserted into the commercialized game software. This also means that if the internal information writing statement is inserted as it is at the place where the risk of an error that may occur in the future is predicted, it will be newly analyzed when there is an inquiry from the user about the game failure. Even without inserting a sentence (debug sentence), a recorded image from the product itself can be transmitted to a playback device and used for analysis of game software.

Debugging of game software is performed by dozens of staff over many days. The amount of game screen recorded at that time is enormous. If the same operation as that of the present invention is performed using a special device, a large number of devices and a large number of storage media are required. However, since the method of the present invention can be used in the device configuration system proposed by the present invention, it is also possible to record a game image using a commercially available inexpensive VTR or the like. Therefore, the equipment configuration and the storage medium can be prepared inexpensively, and the system can be used as an advantageous system in terms of cost.

From the above considerations, the following advantages can be obtained by using the present invention: ・ Efficient debugging can be achieved; ・ Equipment cost can be reduced because conventional low-cost equipment can be used; Inexpensive media such as a commercially available VTR can be used, so that equipment costs can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a TV screen and pixels for displaying an image according to the related art.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a TV screen and a scanning line for displaying an image in the related art.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display area and a non-display area of a TV screen according to the related art.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method for drawing game software internal information as image data in a non-display area of a TV screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for describing a format when game software internal information is drawn as an image according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a device configuration and an image signal when recording a game screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a device configuration and an image signal when a game screen is reproduced in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for describing an internal structure of the game debug information display device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 TV screen 12 pixel 13 scanning line 14 horizontal retrace 15 vertical retrace 16 display area 17 non-display area 2 game software internal information 21 header 22 data 23 binary signal 24 first white signal in header 25 data 31 game machine 32 Image signal a 33 Image signal recording device 34 Image signal a 35 TV monitor a 41 Image signal reproducing device 42 Image signal 43 Game debug information display device 44 Image signal c 45 Image signal b 46 TV monitor c 47 TV monitor b 71 For image signal AMP 72 Synchronous signal detection circuit 73 Luminance signal extraction circuit 74 Monochrome determination circuit 75 CPU 76 Memory 77 Image signal conversion circuit 78 Vertical synchronization signal 79 Horizontal synchronization signal 710 Black and white signal 711 Image signal conversion circuit control signal

Claims (9)

[Claims] In a method for creating data used for debugging computer game software by recording a game screen during operation, an internal signal of the game software is converted into an image signal in an image non-display area of screen data. A method for creating recording data for debugging, which is recorded together with a game screen. 2. A method of debugging computer game software by recording a game screen during an operation, wherein the internal information of the game software is converted into an image signal in an image non-display area portion of screen data and the game screen is displayed. A game recording screen of the recorded debug data is displayed on a television monitor, and image information relating to the internal information recorded in a non-display area of the recording screen is converted into game software internal information in accordance with a preset format. A method for debugging computer game software, comprising displaying on a monitor. 3. A method of debugging computer game software by recording a game screen during operation, wherein an internal signal of the game software is converted into an image signal in an image non-display area portion of screen data and the game screen is displayed. A game recording screen of the recorded debugging data is displayed on the game screen display television monitor, and the image information relating to the internal information recorded in the non-display area of the recording screen is converted to the game software internal information according to a preset format. A computer game software debugging method characterized by converting and displaying on a monitor for displaying internal information. 4. A method for creating data for use in debugging computer game software by recording a game screen during an operation by converting internal information of the game software into an image signal in an image non-display area portion of the screen data. An apparatus for creating debug data for computer game software, comprising: means for recording with a screen. 5. A computer game software debugging apparatus for recording a game screen during operation, wherein the internal information of the game software is converted into an image signal in an image non-display area portion of screen data, and the game screen is displayed together with the game screen. A game recording screen of the recorded debug data is displayed on a television monitor, and image information relating to the internal information recorded in a non-display area of the recording screen is converted into game software internal information in accordance with a preset format. A debugging device for computer game software, comprising: means for displaying on a monitor. 6. A debugging device for computer game software, which is executed by recording a game screen during operation, wherein the internal information of the game software is converted into an image signal in an image non-display area portion of the screen data, and the game screen is displayed. A game recording screen of the recorded debugging data is displayed on the game screen display television monitor, and the image information relating to the internal information recorded in the non-display area of the recording screen is converted to the game software internal information according to a preset format. A computer game software debugging device, comprising: means for converting and displaying on an internal information display monitor. 7. The computer according to claim 1, further comprising the step of recording data of a game screen during operation to generate data for use in debugging computer game software. A computer-readable recording medium that records a program for executing a procedure of converting the information into a game screen and recording the same. 8. In a computer game software debugging operation performed by recording a game screen during operation, a computer displays an image signal of internal information of the game software in an image non-display area portion of the screen data to display the game screen. Along with displaying the game recording screen of the debug data recorded on the television monitor, the image information relating to the internal information recorded in the non-display area of the recording screen is converted into game software internal information in accordance with a preset format. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing a procedure to be displayed on a television monitor is recorded. 9. In a computer game software debugging operation performed by recording a game screen during operation, a computer displays an image signal of the internal information of the game software in an image non-display area portion of screen data to display the game screen. A game recording screen of the debugging data recorded together with the game software is displayed on a television monitor for displaying the game screen, and the image information relating to the internal information recorded in the non-display area of the recording screen is adjusted according to a preset format. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing a procedure of converting the information into an image and displaying it on an internal information display monitor is recorded.