game trailblazer

Chapter 258 Zhang Lexing's "First Heart Meeting"
"...a special 64-bit central processing unit R-4052A with a main frequency of 250MHz and a floating point capability of 6.2GFLOPS...configured with dual processors..."

"The sum of the two processors is not as fast as the processor of Sega's Dreamcast." Hironobu Sakaguchi shook his head disdainfully.

"...has powerful graphics processing capabilities, can process 4920 million polygons per second, and the peak value is as high as 7500 million polygons...Supports hardware-accelerated edge anti-aliasing, material mapping, bump mapping and other special effects..."

"Is this correct? The PS game console only has 36 polygons per second, and the Dreamcast only has 300 to 700 million polygons. Did you write an extra zero?" Hironobu Sakaguchi couldn't believe his eyes, and couldn't help but be careful After reading it for a while, the numbers on the technical manual clearly told him that he was not mistaken, so he couldn't help but read it seriously.

The representatives of other companies were also stunned by the performance parameters marked in the technical manual, especially the 3D graphics part, which almost left Sega's legendary Dreamcast host far behind. The first thing in their minds was The first thought is "Is there an extra zero printed on the polygon-related part of the data".

Standing aside and waiting for a while, feeling that everyone should have read the information, Chen Zhipeng coughed lightly twice, walked to the round table and said: "Hi everyone, let me introduce the game console we developed for you in detail. , first of all, please take a look at a game demo."

Everyone felt refreshed when they heard it. After all, no matter how beautiful the technical manual is, it is better to have something practical. Besides, reading too many boring numbers will make people feel drowsy, so I listened to it. After what Chen Zhipeng said, everyone cheered up and turned their attention to the display stand next to them.

At this time, a photo appeared on the large-screen monitor connected to the Moon Goddess No. [-] machine. It was Chen Zhipeng's headshot. With the operation of the staff, the two-dimensional photo gradually changed, and Chen Zhipeng's head gradually protruded. Come out, the rest slowly disappears with it, and the whole background turns black.Soon a head full of details made of extremely fitting textured materials appeared on the large-screen monitor, and there was a burst of good-natured laughter from the round table.

Chen Zhipeng's head on the monitor seemed to have anticipated this, and he opened his mouth to speak: "Thank you for your appreciation, the next moment will be the moment to witness the miracle..."

Accompanied by the human voice coming from the speaker, the face on the monitor changes accordingly. The subtle changes in facial muscles and the opening and closing of lips almost match the voice of the voice just right, as if the real head on the monitor As if talking, the representatives around the round table gave out admiration for their face.

As soon as the words "Chen Zhipeng's head" finished speaking, several small balls shining with light of different colors suddenly appeared around it, circling around the "head", making the "head" reflect colorful, but every spot The light and shadow changes are so real, as if there are really many colored lights revolving around "Chen Zhipeng's head".

Chen Zhipeng took the microphone and explained: "This is to show the effect of the light source..."

Then "Chen Zhipeng's head" slowly turned into a streamlined metallic color from top to bottom, exuding a transparent luster, and soon turned into a golden liquid like T-2 in "Terminator 1000". flow down below.

"This is to show the hardware's scene mapping capability and alpha channel mixing technology..." Chen Zhipeng explained again standing aside.

The golden liquid kept going down, fell into a city that suddenly appeared, and slowly recovered into "Chen Zhipeng's head", changed from a metallic color to a human appearance, and then floated on the streets of the city, flying forward quickly , passed one skyscraper after another, and when passing a particularly tall building, "Chen Zhipeng's head" suddenly burst into flames like a monster, turning the whole building into a burning torch.Immediately, heavy rain fell, and slowly doused the flames, leaving only bursts of thick smoke floating from the building.

"This is for performance... Well, the first part of the demo is played here, please don't go away, the second part will start immediately." Chen Zhipeng explained again from the side, but every time when people heard his explanation, What I see in my eyes is the miraculous performance of "Chen Zhipeng's head" on the screen. Compared with the two, people can't help but feel full of laughter.

The screen of the monitor slowly went black, and after nearly a minute, the screen began to light up slowly again.A round of silver-white bright moon appeared in the sky, and the angle of view slowly moved downwards, and came to an empty platform on the top of the mountain. A gust of mountain wind blew, and a short, thick tree beside the platform swayed with the wind. branches and leaves.A leaf fell from the tree and slowly drifted down with the wind to the feet of a black shadow standing behind the tree. The black shadow poked his head out for a look, then flashed out from behind the tree and walked towards the open area of ​​the platform.Under the reflection of the moonlight, the figure of the visitor gradually appeared. He is the protagonist in "The King of Adventure".

The Adventure King slowly came to the center of the platform and stood still. He raised his head and looked around, but found nothing. At this moment, a black shadow suddenly jumped up from a big tree on the other side of the platform, holding the sharp blade in his hand high. With a silvery white light, he slammed down towards the adventure king...

"The picture of this demonstration is also calculated in real time. Everyone pay attention to the fluttering of the branches and leaves of the big tree. It is very real, especially the falling of the leaf, the alternation between light and dark, the change of the texture of the front and back of the leaf, etc. It is very delicate, and the texture of the characters on the stage, you can clearly see the subtle changes in the muscles of the body when punching..." Along with the rotation of the screen on the screen, Chen Zhipeng held the microphone and made a synchronous commentary.

"Mr. Chen, are you sure these images are calculated in real time?" Jason Jones, the representative of Bungie, stood up and asked with some doubts.

"Of course!" Chen Zhipeng looked at the doubtful eyes of most people, smiled and said: "Since everyone is still a little worried, then I will give you another game trial, this time it is no longer the one you can only watch just now." Now, everyone can do it by themselves, it’s definitely very exciting.”

After finishing speaking, Chen Zhipeng gestured to the staff standing in front of the Moon Goddess No. 2 machine. The staff nodded knowingly, ejected the disc from the DVD drive of the game console and replaced it with a new one.A "reading" prompt appeared on the screen, and about [-] minutes later, there was a deafening roar from the speaker.

Accompanied by the roar, a black MiniCooper1.3i appeared on the runway on the screen. Chen Zhipeng took the handle with dual analog joysticks from the staff, and manipulated the car on the screen to run along the runway.The heavy rain came suddenly, and the sky gradually became dark. The black Mini Cooper turned on its headlights and continued to run on the already somewhat slippery road despite the wind and rain.

"Everyone, come and have a look. If you are interested, you can try it yourself." Chen Zhipeng handed the handle in his hand to the staff on the side, and beckoned everyone to come forward and watch. At this moment, the MiniCoope, which lost control for a short time, bumped into On the oncoming safety island, there was a violent impact sound, and the front of the car was smashed to a large extent.

Representatives of various game companies swarmed up and watched carefully around the large-screen monitor.They watched the scene of the car crash just now. Some of them moved faster, and watched the delicate light and shadow changes at that moment from a very close distance. They even felt the subtle change of the engine sound at that moment.

Zhang Lexing sat at the round table, pointed to the crowd around the monitor, and asked, "Sister Xin, why don't you go and take a look."

"No need, I don't understand this kind of details. Anyway, there are experts to deal with it. Besides, brother, I can't trust the things you made." Yang Xinxin closed the technical manual in front of him, leaned back, replied with a smile.

Encouraged by Chen Zhipeng, Ivan Wells from Naughty Dog took the game controller from the staff and continued to control the MiniCooper whose front was crushed on the screen. driving forward.Suddenly the rain stopped, and as the dark clouds in the sky were blown away, the sky gradually brightened up. A ray of sunlight piercing through the clouds shone down, shining golden light on the speeding car of the Mini Cooper...

While Ivan Wells was playing, Chen Zhipeng introduced to the surrounding "audience" by the way: "Everyone pay attention to the details of the changes in the texture of the car body on the screen...the delicacy of the surrounding scene maps...etc. You can also try the operation feel of the gamepad for yourself..."

Most of the game company representatives around them focused their eyes on the monitor screen, listening to Chen Zhipeng's explanation, while paying attention to the changes in the game, and occasionally exchanging views on the game scene in front of them, or touching their own Chin, pondering alone how the data in the technical manual is related to the picture in front of him.

After everyone drove a Mini Cooper one by one, as if they were participating in a game trial meeting, they returned to their seats under Chen Zhipeng's signal.At this time, the Mini Cooper, which had been running on the screen for nearly an hour, finally stopped and leaned against the side of the road, wisps of green smoke slowly coming out from the completely deformed front of the car.

"That's all for the performance display of the game console. Next, I will introduce the game development system of the Moon Goddess No. [-] machine..." Chen Zhipeng connected the laptop sent by his assistant to the projector in the meeting room, and then Turned on the power.

"During the development of the game development system, we received strong support from the VisualSystem Group of the United States. It happened that Ms. Yang Xinxin, the chairman of the VisualSystem Group, was here today, so I would like to express our gratitude on behalf of our game hardware R&D team." Chen Zhipeng Looking at Yang Xinxin who was sitting next to Zhang Lexing, he smiled and said to her, "Miss Yang, thank you!"

Yang Xinxin nodded with a smile, and responded: "We are all partners, and it is normal and appropriate to help each other. Do you think so?"

When the representatives of the game companies heard Yang Xinxin's words, they immediately nodded in agreement.Chen Zhipeng then went on to say: "Well, in the process of developing the game development system, we fully considered the deficiencies of the game consoles that are currently on the market in this regard, adhering to the principles of easy to use, powerful functions, and easy portability. And other principles, and finally designed this set of cross-platform game development tool XNAGameStudio.”

"Excuse me, excuse me. Mr. Chen, what does this XNA mean?" Liu Tianhua, the representative of Konami, asked.

"This XNA is not the abbreviation of Xinhua News Agency (XinhuaNewsAgency)," Chen Zhipeng first joked, and then continued: "The so-called XNA is actually the abbreviation of 'XNAsNotAcronymed', technically speaking, XNAGameStudio is a cross-platform game based on DirectX Development environment. When you read the technical manual just now, I believe you should have noticed that the operating system of our Luna No. [-] machine also contains a layer similar to DirectX, which we call XNAInterface. In fact, this is a streamlined DirectX. Therefore, in theory, both the game PC developed by XNAGameStudio and the Luna No. [-] machine can run. Of course, because of the complexity of the PC itself and the hardware difference between the Luna No. [-] machine and There is still a certain difference in the code, but not too much..."

Chen Zhipeng said while calling out the development interface of "XNAGameStudio": "...This is the XNAGameStudio Enterprise Edition, which is the place where you may have the most contact in the future...I believe this interface will look familiar to everyone. That's right. In this part, we refer to the VisualStudio software development tool produced by VisuslSystem Group Redmond Research Park... In XNAGameStudio, developers can use C or C++ code, or use the library files attached to the development tool...

In order to make it easier for users to get started, in addition to the Enterprise Edition, we can also provide XNAGameStudio Professional Edition and Lite Edition..."

After Chen Zhipeng finished his introduction, Zhang Lexing knocked on the table, glanced around at the representatives of various game companies, and said, "I believe that everyone should have a certain understanding of the Moon Goddess No. Make an assessment of this game console with your own professional knowledge."

Wang Mengyao took a stack of evaluation forms and began to distribute them to everyone one by one. Except for the two idlers Zhang Lexing and Yang Xinxin, all the representatives sitting around the round table had a copy. The language explained: "Please score each of these evaluation items and write down the reasons. In addition, if you have other comments, you can write them at the bottom of the form, and if there is not enough space, you can also write them on the back."

Hironobu Sakaguchi took the evaluation form from Wang Mengyao, glanced at the evaluation items on it, and began to write with a pen.Before seeing the information, Hironobu Sakaguchi completely regarded this journey as a waste of time. In his opinion at the time, if he had that time to rush around, he might as well spend more time on "Final Fantasy 8".After reading the information, his first thought was that he didn't believe it. Apart from RB and the United States, there is no other place where game consoles can be developed.

But when the real machine was placed in front of him and the game demo was actually played, Hironobu Sakaguchi had no choice but to believe it, especially the part of "Chen Zhipeng's head", which he had watched at Sega's press conference a few months ago. I have been to a similar one, and I was so shocked at that time that I even thought about porting "Final Fantasy" to the Dreamcast console."The Head of Shoichiro Nezuko" played on the Dreamcast host at the beginning, but compared with today's demo, it immediately became ordinary.If it wasn't for the later racing game that he could play by himself, he really wondered if the so-called "Chen Zhipeng's head" was an animation rendered in advance by a graphics workstation, and now it was just played.However, the light and shadow changes in racing games are also very complicated, and even contain more details than "Chen Zhipeng's head", so he couldn't help but believe it.

After believing in the performance of the Luna No. 8 machine, Hironobu Sakaguchi couldn't help feeling a burst of regret. It would be great if "Final Fantasy [-]" could be changed to the Luna No. [-] machine. It is no longer an obstacle, and maybe a more exciting "Final Fantasy" can be created.Thinking of this, Hironobu Sakaguchi wrote in the "Other Opinions and Suggestions" column: "I hope to consider the possibility of transplanting "Final Fantasy"."

Jason Jones is also writing his own opinion, but his mood is more of a pleasure.In fact, he came to Hong Kong this time and came out to participate in the evaluation meeting, more for the purpose of going out for a walk and looking for some inspiration. Bungie is currently considering a project for a strategy game, initially intended to put players in control of an entire squad of Space Marines battling a horde of devious aliens, akin to Myth: Fallen God.Players can move on the battlefield at one time, deploy a large number of combat units, and directly operate a certain combat unit, playing the game in a way similar to the No.1 perspective.

However, with the development of the project work, Jason Jones soon found that the current mainstream performance of PCs, or even the mainstream performance of a year later, may not be able to satisfy the smooth progress of that game mode, so the design team revised the plan The game mode in the game has been changed to a pure FPS game, and the player's control is no longer a whole Star Marine Corps, but a warrior.However, the complexity of the PC platform still gave Jason Jones a headache. To play the game smoothly, he had to abandon the fineness of the game, and it might even fail to achieve the game atmosphere they envisioned.

"Can you imagine? If players can't tell the difference between running across a piece of grass and a piece of water in the game, how can the environment affect the game?" Jason Jones often said to his partners Say something like this or something like this.

However, after watching the Moon Goddess II machine today, Jason Jones feels that he has found a solution. The development of PCs is not easy to grasp, but the development of game consoles is very easy to grasp. If the game they envisioned is changed to On the Luna No. [-] machine, I believe that the problems that have troubled them will disappear.And "XNAGameStudio" is not known as cross-platform development, when the time comes there will be both the Moon Goddess II and the PC.More importantly, the partner of Dongfang Industrial Group is VisualSystem Group, an IT giant that has been developing for many years. It also holds a successful video game development company such as KF-Panda in its hands. Both companies are not short of money, and the resources at hand Rich and rich, Jason Jones is confident that the Laureate II will be a success.

Representatives of other game companies are also seriously evaluating, but their ideas are not the same. Some are thinking about which games their company can port to the Moon Goddess II machine to make a fortune, and some are considering the company's development. What kind of excitement will it be if the projects in the project are transferred to the Luna No. [-] machine.However, there is one thing that everyone thinks similarly. They all have no doubts about the possibility of the success of the Moon Goddess No. The strong technical and financial strength of the Group and the VisualSystem Group, all of which have fully guaranteed the success of the Luna No. [-] machine.

(End of this chapter)