Headless client testing

Nerror

Based on this:


I wonder what that means exactly? A headless client test usually involves bypassing the graphical user interface, but for Ashes, does that mean that the testers see the world as normal, with the UI, but that the client is doing all kinds of stuff in the background that doesn't require manual tester input? Like some sort of automated scripts or something?

Or is it something different for games/MMOs?

Raven016

This happens 2 months sooner than I thought.
I don't know what means headless in this case.

Tryol

I think this is what they mean by it:

For games, headless client testing is a a method of stress testing that uses bots to simulate player behavior. Unlike NPCs, which have their AI run on the server, these bots connect to the server just like any normal player would, but their AI runs on a separate machine.

They have some pros compared to human testers:

• The bots driving the headless clients can be programmed to do any specific task and do it perfectly, which is not something you can expect from a human tester.
• They can easily adjust their number based on how many of them they need for the testing scenario.
• There is no drawback of having to render the game on the testers' hardware. You can run a huge amount of headless clients from a single machine.

This would be a great way for them to showcase their progress on networking & client-side optimizations.