Tere’s not really a standard as such. Most customers use either Windows or Linux as the main OS and have their core game application usually developed in-house. Tat application makes use of the drivers and libraries that Advantech provides to interface with the gaming hardware platform.
Advantech’s software has been developed over more than 15 years. Which means it is stable and feature rich. We add features in response to customer requests or changing requirements in the industry. But we make sure that there is backwards compatibility.
So a customer who has been developing content using our software from 10 years ago can still run their games on the newest hardware without rewriting the games. Tis helps protect their investment giving them an easy migration path to new hardware and reduces time to market for new products.
If an online games developer wanted to launch their games in a cabinet, how much support could Advantech offer in regards to Gaming Software to make the transition as easy as possible?
Quite a lot. Our drivers and software cover all the hardware interfaces that they will need to address in moving their games from an online environment to a land based cabinet.
All the physical interfaces for buttons, lamps etc as well as various hardware based security functions are covered by our software i.e. Intrusion/anti tamper and logging, encryption, NVRAM, hardware ID device, TPM, on board EEPROM.
“Our drivers and software solution products are optimised and tested for high performance. They offer a lot
of features, but the CPU load is very low compared to the
other tasks going on when a slot game is in operation. The quality and performance of our solutions allow our customers
to do what they do best, create and provide immersive and highly entertaining content, without expending resources on the hardware and supporting software.
Advantech will handle that now and for years to come.”
Our SDKs include a wide range of demonstration code programmes to help show the developer how to use the API. And we offer support for a variety of programming environments including C, C++ and C# (.net) with equal support for both Linux and Windows.
So in short, we make the transition as simple as possible.
How do you ensure that the Gaming Software you provide is compatible with the myriad of gaming licensing jurisdictions from around the world?
While gaming regulations vary around the world, what we offer is a full set of features that covers all markets. Customers can select the subset they may need for their initial target markets, and know that the others are there if they wish to move into other markets in the future.
Advantech has a good working relationship with most of the certification labs including GLI, BMM as well as some of the main government labs. We often provide technical support for our customers’ submissions direct to the labs and in some case we will ask the labs for advice on future product ideas we have to check they will continue to meet the regulations.
We preview draft updates of technical standards before they come out to ensure our offering continues to be compatible.
How do you keep on top of updating your Gaming Software? Are there regular refreshes, or is everything pretty stable and standardised - or are there big seismic shifts every so often that require major updates?
Most of our software products are very mature, so updates are fairly infrequent. Usually customers will see a major update every six months that helps us keep software current and adds support for our new hardware platforms. We have industry standard systems for software auto-build, QA, bug tracking, revision control and back-up to ensure consistency and quality in our releases.
Backwards-compatibility is a major consideration for us and our customers – we have customers using our products for more than 15 years who have had to do little more than recompile against the latest drivers to run their original code on our newest released hardware.
We also have customers still running hardware from 15 years ago which is a testament in itself to the reliability and quality of our solutions.
We’re seeing cashless gaming take many different forms: card-based and App solutions, to NFC technology etc., all of which is being added to gaming machines. Are these peripherals easily integrated into the gaming platform - or is there more to it than that?
Yes, we have supported a few customers with NFC and smart card interfaces.
Although most of those newer interfaces use standard ports, usually USB, and are provided with drivers for Windows and Linux.
Other areas in which we actively work with our other Advantech product divisions are machine vision, robotics, biometrics (facial and iris recognition), and of course AI. Some of which have already started to find its way to the casino floor.
How much does the gaming software Advantech provides affect the overall performance of the gaming machine? Would a player notice the difference from one machine to the next when playing their game?
Most of what we do is unseen by the ‘player’.
However, our drivers and software solution products are optimised and tested for high performance. Tey offer a lot of features, but the CPU load is very low compared to the other tasks going on when a slot game is in operation. Te quality and performance of our solutions allow our customers to do what they do best, create and provide immersive and highly entertaining content, without expending resources on the hardware and supporting software. Advantech will handle that now and for years to come.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P37
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