Question about information on a disc

[Bradfordly1]

When you load a game from a disc into an Xbox 360, example being Call of Duty, what is the information on the disc classified as? Is it just a different form of application software like Google Chrome or are you just loading a bunch of game files from the disc?

 

[Mark44]

When you install a program or other application, what gets loaded is a mix of executable files (typically DLLs - dynamic load libraries) and data files. Installation usually also makes changes to the Registry (in Windows) so that the program files know where to look for the data files they work with. There could be hundreds of files that get loaded when the game is installed.

 

[jedishrfu]

It depends on the application.

If the game is written in an interpretive language like python, it may be either readable ascii text or interpretable binary byte code (ie not so readable but python can read and execute it). Byte code removes the conversion from ascii text time during application loading making it faster to load and quicker to run.

If the game is written in java then it would be compiled into java binary byte code that is run by the java JVM and can be run from any machine platform ie Windows, Mac or Linux provided the necessary class libraries are installed and are accessible.

If its C or any other compilable language then its written in machine binary opcodes with all library code linked into the final executable file. The executable can only run on the machine platform is was compiled and linked for. Sometimes, the executable may referenced dynamically loaded libraries available on the machine which makes the executable file smaller and reuses common code that other applications on the machine platform may use.

As @Mark44 says there may be additional data files. For java applications these will be called jar files and they are actually zip files of java class files and text property files as well as images and other data.

 

[Mark44]

If its C or any other compilable language then its written in machine binary opcodes with all library code linked into the final executable file.

Not necessarily. A small executable can link dynamically to DLLs, loading the library code as needed at run time. If static libraries are used, then they get linked in at link time to produce an executable that actually contains the library code.

 

[jedishrfu]

Not necessarily. A small executable can link dynamically to DLLs, loading the library code as needed at run time. If static libraries are used, then they get linked in at link time to produce an executable that actually contains the library code.

Thanks for the clarification, I think I said that later on. I didn't use the moniker DLL but instead dynamically linked libraries.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Another term for DLL is shared library.

The XEX file format for xbox comes as a file: default.xex - this file is the main executable. For many games this is all of the code, other files are just vector graphics. Or sound files or whatever. AFAIK shared libraries are not a common feature.

See this for a discussion of running XEX code in an emulator on a PC:
http://www.noxa.org/blog/2011/08/13/building-an-xbox-360-emulator-part-5-xex-files/
[opinion]
PS:
DLL is very windows-centric, I think shared library is more general.
Anyway whatever you choose to call them is kind of irrelevant to XEX technology, they are not all that common.
[/opinion]

 

[jedishrfu]

More on shared libraries

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_(computing)#Shared_libraries

 

[stoomart]

When you load a game from a disc into an Xbox 360, example being Call of Duty, what is the information on the disc classified as? Is it just a different form of application software like Google Chrome or are you just loading a bunch of game files from the disc?

With eighth generation game consoles (PS4 and Xbox One), game data is not used from the disk after installation; it is loaded in a sandboxed space on the console's hard drive, more similar to an app on your smartphone than software on a PC.

http://ps4daily.com/2013/11/how-the-mandatory-game-install-on-playstation-4-works/

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Most data on the disc is going to be packed, this practice has been common since the days of the .WAD file in DOOM. It's probably got a structure similar to a zip or a tarball. That's what it's doing when it's installing, and why a game disc that's 4GB can take 10GB of hard drive space.