If you are a fan of computer games, then you most likely have heard that there is some kind of developer console. But what is it? How to use it? It turns out that it exists not only in computer games: for example, it can be found in every Internet browser. And it can be incredibly useful not only for the developers for whom it was originally intended. In this article, you will learn what a developer’s console is , what you can do with it, and what benefits it can bring to gamers.
What it is?
So, first of all, of course, it’s worth talking about what the developer’s console is all about. This is a special tool designed, respectively, for software developers. When you call such a console, you have the opportunity to enter certain commands that greatly expand your capabilities. Therefore, for its proper use it is necessary to know how to call it, how to use it, as well as what commands can be written there and what actions to perform. At first glance, it might seem that the developer console is a fairly simple tool to use, but in reality it is not. You will need a lot of practice to perfectly master the console and quickly get the result you want. But what should be the result?
It's time to talk about why the developer console exists at all. Its main goal is to debug software that was created by a programmer. This means that using this console, you can find errors in the program and correct them, as well as force the program to do what you want in order to check absolutely all its aspects before releasing it for sale. Accordingly, this console plays a very important role in the work of a specialist in software.
Most often, you may encounter such a console in computer games and Internet browsers, and it is about them that will be discussed later in our article. First, you will learn how to open the developer console in an Internet browser, and figure out what this can give you, and then you will understand how important it is to be in a computer game.
How to open a console in a browser?
Naturally, you are looking forward to the moment when you can find out why you need this console in the Internet browser that you use daily, but first you need to study how it opens. It turns out that it is available in all browsers and opens almost everywhere the same. This is done either by using the key combination Ctrl, Shift and I, or by pressing a single F12 key. You should try to open the console yourself, and when you succeed, you can proceed to further reading the article.
What does the browser console give?
When you call the browser console on the screen, at first you may be surprised at everything that you see. The fact is that the console is a very multifunctional tool, and you will be offered a wide variety of functions. For example, you can view the entire code of the page, look at each element, view its styles and even the JavaScript used for each of the elements you are interested in. Every web developer who has been creating websites for at least a couple of months knows about this console and actively uses it, because there you can even track down errors in the code and try to fix them. Or you can try changing styles and content and see how it looks before you make the final changes. However, this console can be useful to ordinary users due to its versatility, but this does not happen so often. In computer games, the developer console may come in handy much more often. “The Witcher 3”, “Minecraft”, “Contra” and many other popular games have consoles that you can use, and this will be discussed later.
Console in computer games
Everyone knows about the existence of cheats in many computer games, which you can enter in order to get special features. Why remember cheats now? The fact is that in some cases the role of cheats is played by the developer's console, as it opens up new opportunities for you that are not provided for by the game itself. But how does such a console end up in games? Just like in any software! After all, games are also programs, they were created in the same way by programmers using all the tools available to them. So they used the console in order to test all the functions and features of the game before announcing that work on it was finished. In some cases, developers leave the console in the game as a bonus, in others they close access to it so that players do not use advanced features. Both cases will be described later.
Using the console in games
One of the most striking examples of a computer game in which there is direct access to the developer's console is Contra. This team shooter is today an exemplary example in its genre. And using the console, here you can change the color, size and shape of the sight, add bots, and also change many other functions. Some of them are allowed everywhere, while others are prohibited, so you can only use them if you create a game and activate the use of cheats through the console. The developer's console in Minecraft and many other popular games works in approximately the same way.
Modifications
However, not all games allow developers to access the developer console. "The Witcher (1.31 version) 3" is the clearest example of how the developers of the game, using the functions of this tool to test and debug the game, completely closed access to it. Fortunately, there were people who were able to restore this access and released a special modification, downloading which and installing on your computer, you can use the developer's console, which will greatly expand your capabilities.