The Dawn of the 3D Board (4,000 Characters)

In the few days since Nakayama Takuya and Eri moved back to the mansion, they have been living a "decadent" life where food and clothing are provided for them.

Of course, this mainly applies to Eri.

As for Takuya, his days were far from leisurely.

In addition to having to readjust to this life of being "monitored" from all angles by his mother and maid, he also had to undergo a completely new challenge: prenatal care training.

This is a professional nurse he specially invited from Sugiyama Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, who comes to his home to teach every afternoon.

"Madam Nakayama, nutritional intake during early pregnancy is crucial, especially folic acid supplementation, which is essential for the neural tube development of the fetus."

In the living room, the nurse was pointing to the picture book and patiently explaining the Eri. The nurse listened attentively, nodding occasionally. Next to her, Nakayama Takuya was even more exaggerated, holding a small notebook in his hand, his pen flying across the paper. His seriousness was even greater than when he took the entrance exam for Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Only the mother-in-law, Nakayama Miyuki, sat upright on the opposite sofa with her arms crossed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the nurse's explanation. She only occasionally glanced at her son's exaggerated posture and curled her lips in disdain.

"Mom, did you hear that? It's science!" Takuya, like a child showing off a treasure, handed the notebook to his mother. "The experts said this is called precision parenting!"

Nakayama Miyuki glanced at the scribbles in her son's notebook, then nonchalantly picked up her teacup. "When I gave birth to you two brothers..."

"What do you know about sourness or not? It's growing just fine, isn't it?"

"Times have changed," Takuya said, putting away his notebook and adopting a more persuasive tone. "It's like how we used to use an abacus."

We use calculators now. The wisdom of our ancestors is a treasure, but we also need to utilize modern tools, right? This is a combination of Nakanishi, a double guarantee, all for Eri and your grandson!

After some joking and teasing, the old lady with traditional values was finally persuaded.

Although he was still muttering "You have so many tricks up your sleeve," his ears were clearly perked up, listening more attentively than anyone else.

That afternoon, Takuya had just finished another round of "crash course in becoming a dad" and respectfully saw the nurse off when the old maid Keiko came to greet him.

"Young master, we have a guest."

"Oh?" Takuya followed Keiko's gaze and saw a man wearing a jacket, with unkempt hair but exceptionally bright eyes, standing in the entryway, carrying a rather heavy cardboard box in his hand.

It was Yu Suzuki had just returned from the United States.

"Suzuki -san, this trip has really taken you a long time." Takuya and stepped forward, taking the large box from his hand. "Wow, it's quite heavy. What good stuff did you bring me?"

"It's not for you." Yu Suzuki's face broke into a rare, hearty smile. "I heard your wife is pregnant; this is a gift for Mrs. Nakayama."

Takuya took him to see Eri first.

At this moment, Eri is sitting on the sunny veranda, taking a nap covered with a light blanket, her whole body bathed in the warm sunlight.

Upon seeing Yu Suzuki, she rose, gave a slight bow, and smiled gently.

"Congratulations, Executive Director Nakayama, Mrs. Nakayama." Yu Suzuki bowed slightly.

Eri looked at the large box curiously and gestured for Takuya and take a look.

Takuya quickly tore open the packaging and found a bunch of oddly shaped soft padding parts inside, along with an instruction manual with illustrations.

He studied it for a long time before he realized that it was actually a modular pregnancy pillow that could be freely combined.

"Yu, you're so kind!" Takuya thanked him sincerely.

This kind of thing has only just become popular in the United States. I didn't expect that Yu Suzuki, a tech geek, would think of this. It is indeed a very practical gift that can effectively reduce the burden on pregnant women.

Eri was also overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two entered the study one after the other.

Soon, Nakayama Keiko brought in tea and homemade yokan (sweet bean jelly). She looked at her young master with eyes full of affection.

"Young master, Mr. Suzuki, please have some."

"Thank you, Aunt Keiko." Takuya picked up a piece of yokan (sweet bean jelly) and put it in his mouth, saying indistinctly, "Yours is still the best."

After Keiko smiled and left, gently closing the study door behind her, only the two of them remained in the room.

The two then started talking.

Yu Suzuki first took a sip of tea, then took out a thick stack of reports from his briefcase.

"Takuya, the work in the United States is going much better than we expected! MotionAnalysis's technology is even more advanced than we anticipated. All the motion capture data has been collected, and the subsequent data corrections were done manually by me and the team."

He pushed the report in front of Takuya, turned to one of the pages, which was filled with dense data and several wireframe diagrams of keyframes.

"Look at this. The trajectory of the punch, the arc of the kick, even the momentary sway of the body after being hit—the data perfectly records all of this. For the first time, we truly possess the movements of a 'real person.'"

Yu Suzuki's eyes shone with the light of a creator seeing the beginnings of a dream.

However, the light quickly dimmed.

He abruptly changed the subject, his brows furrowing tightly, as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water.

"But— the Hardware Department is stuck."

Yu Suzuki's voice fell, tinged with obvious despair. "Our 3D arcade board development has hit a huge bottleneck. The 3D effects we want to achieve on arcade machines can only be done by graphics workstations that cost at least several hundred million US dollar. My colleagues in the Hardware Department are practically bald from exhaustion; achieving this performance on a cost-effective board is just too difficult."

Takuya listened quietly, his fingers tapping lightly on the table unconsciously.

He knew that what Yu Suzuki said was true.

The 3D graphics technology of this era is still firmly locked in expensive fields such as military, scientific research and top-notch CG special effects, and there is no such thing as a "consumer-grade 3D graphics processor".

"My biggest worry is that in order for the game to run, we'll have to compromise in the end," Yu Suzuki said, his voice filled with anxiety. "Reducing the polygon count, lowering the refresh rate, cutting 60 frames to 30 frames—if it really comes to that, all the smooth, realistic animations we've painstakingly captured will become a bunch of stiff, frame-dropping jokes! We might as well just do the hand-casting animation!"

For a technical perfectionist like Yu Suzuki, this was nothing short of torture.

Takuya nodded in agreement when he heard Yu Suzuki explain his difficulties.

The atmosphere in the study seemed to turn somber.

However, Nakayama Takuya, who was in the audience, had a somewhat unexpected reaction.

Instead of frowning, he slowly picked up another piece of yokan made by Aunt Keiko, put it in his mouth, and savored it, with a hint of contentment on his face.

"Mmm, the sweetness is just right."

His relaxed demeanor made Yu Suzuki, who was already extremely anxious, twitch at the corner of his eye.

"Takuya!" Yu Suzuki finally couldn't hold back any longer, his voice filled with barely suppressed anxiety, "Our hard work, the precious data we brought back from United States, might become a pile of electronic waste! How can you still accept this?"

"Why can't you eat?" Takuya swallowed the last mouthful of yokan, took a sip of tea, and then looked at him calmly. "I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush."

He put down his teacup and tapped his fingers lightly on the smooth mahogany table.

"You just said that what we lack is a 'consumer-grade' 3D graphics processor with controllable cost, right?"

"Yes!" Yu Suzuki nodded emphatically; this was precisely the crux of the matter.

"That's because our eyes have always been focused solely on our own industry—games and entertainment," Takuya, a slight smile playing on his lips, his eyes gleaming with a strange light. "We took it for granted that if something doesn't exist on the market, then it truly doesn't exist."

He leaned forward slightly, looked into Yu Suzuki's eyes, and asked, word by word, "Think again, besides us, what other industry needs to perform real-time, precise calculations on complex three-dimensional objects?"

This question, like a lightning bolt, cleaved through the fog in Yu Suzuki's mind.

He was a pure technical expert, with a vertical and in-depth way of thinking, but rarely made lateral connections. Takuya, this small step suddenly brought a field he had never considered before to mind.

"Industrial design, automobile manufacturing, architectural simulation?" Yu Suzuki muttered to himself, his eyes widening.

"That's right!" Takuya snapped his fingers. "These are it! Computer-aided design and manufacturing, also known as CAD/CA..."

M industry!

Yu Suzuki suddenly stood up, his chair sliding backward with a screeching sound due to his excitement.

He understood!

The gaming industry may view 3D technology as a game-changer, but in heavy industry sectors involving projects worth tens of billions, 3D graphics technology is a necessity! It's a productivity tool used every day!

This is different from the CG1 in movies, which takes a long time to render bit by bit.

The graphics workstations they use, though expensive, must be supported by core technologies—graphics chips specifically designed for drawing massive amounts of polygons—that are definitely being developed by companies!

"We've always thought about creating from scratch, but actually, someone may have already paved the way!" Yu Suzuki's voice trembled, the previous despair vanished, replaced by a kind of ecstatic joy at finding a new continent.

Seeing his "resurrected on the spot" appearance, Takuya laughed.

This is exactly the effect he wanted.

He picked up the phone on the table and, without hesitation, dialed his assistant's number.

The call was answered quickly.

"Kobayashi? It's me, Nakayama." Takuya's tone was relaxed, but the instruction was crystal clear, "Go to the company's database right now and look something up for me."

"Yes, Executive Director, please proceed."

"Give me a list of all companies in Japan that are engaged in computer-aided design and manufacturing, that is, CAD/CAM related businesses."

I don't care about their size; as long as they're even remotely related, I'll list them all.

"Especially," Takuya emphasized, "Those companies that develop their own graphics workstations, graphics accelerator cards, or even graphics processing chips! Find them all, every single one of them!"

"Understood!" The assistant on the other end of the phone, though puzzled, readily agreed.

After hanging up the phone, Takuya pushed the half-eaten yokan (sweet bean jelly) towards Yu Suzuki.

"Here, have some sugar. Thinking too fast can easily cause low blood sugar."

Yu Suzuki had no appetite; he was in a state of high excitement, pacing back and forth in the study, muttering to himself.

"That's right! How come I didn't think of that!"

He slapped his thigh, looking excitedly at Takuya: "What we need isn't starting from scratch, it's 'downsizing'! It's about simplifying and porting the technology of those expensive industrial-grade chips to our game board!"

Takuya leisurely ate his snacks, listening to Yu Suzuki's technical fantasies, nodding occasionally.

"The idea is absolutely correct." Takuya swallowed the yokan and then took a sip of tea.

Then, the two chatted about their experiences in the United States. Yu Suzuki talked about how the engineers at MotionAnalysis argued heatedly over a data algorithm, while Takuya shared some interesting anecdotes about interacting with filmmakers in Hollywood.

The atmosphere in the study shifted from frustration to relaxation.

About half an hour later, Takuya's phone, which was on the table, rang.

"Kobayashi? This is Nakayama."

"Executive, I've compiled the documents as you requested. There's quite a lot. How can I give them to you?"

"You know my home fax number, send it all over immediately."

After hanging up the phone, Takuya pointed to the fax machine in the corner of the study. "Just wait, the answer will be here soon."

Before long, the fax machine whirred and began to slowly eject papers, listing the names, business scopes, and main products of dozens of companies.

Yu Suzuki grabbed the first few pages that came out and quickly scanned them.

"No, this company is a pure software distributor."

"This company manufactures CNC machine tools; the hardware is sourced from elsewhere."

"This is SGI, United States company. Their graphics workstations are top-notch, but their technology embargo is too strict; it's impossible for them to cooperate with us."

His brows, which had just relaxed, began to furrow again.

Takuya took a piece of paper from his hand, looked at it, and then took another one, comparing the two.

"Don't just look at those big names with impressive names." Takuya pointed to one of the papers. "What we're looking for is a manufacturer that possesses both 'semiconductor R&D and manufacturing capabilities' and 'CAD software development capabilities.'"

Following Takuya's finger, Yu Suzuki's gaze fell on a name— Fujitsu.

"Fujitsu?" Yu Suzuki murmured. "Their main business is mainframe computers and communication equipment, and their semiconductor division is very strong. Their CAD software—I think it's called ICAD—I've heard of it. Its main feature is its extremely fast processing speed, especially good at handling very large-scale assemblies."

"A massive assembly?" Takuya repeated, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Isn't this exactly what we wanted?"

Yu Suzuki froze for a moment, and then a thought struck his brain like an electric current!

He suddenly looked up, and his gaze met Takuya's in mid-air. Both of them saw the answer in each other's eyes!

"That's right!" Yu Suzuki's voice trembled. "The 3D fighting game we're making now has a character model composed of hundreds of polygons, and two characters together have over a thousand. But essentially, it's just a stick figure-like skeleton. In computer graphics, isn't that just a small 'assembly'?!"

"Since Fujitsu's technology can handle industrial assembly drawings with tens or hundreds of thousands of parts, wouldn't it be overkill to process our mere few hundred polygons? It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!"

"It's not about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut," Takuya corrected him with a laugh. "It's about having a knife maker make a custom-made knife for us. It doesn't need to have many functions, just enough to get by, but the cost must be kept under control!"

He turned to another page and pointed to Toshiba's name.

"Look, our previous chip partner, Toshiba, also manufactures workstations, but they use France Dassault ' CATIA software. They manufacture workstations, but they don't develop the software. That's not quite right."

After reviewing all the documents, Yu Suzuki picked up the fax paper with the word "Fujitsu" printed on it.

"Takuya, looking at them all, Fujitsu is still the most suitable for us. If we can reach an agreement, then we can get the chip design and development tools sorted out at the same time."

"Go ahead." Takuya nodded. "Those guys in the Hardware Department are probably almost bald by now. You'll be their savior if you go over there."

Yu Suzuki nodded heavily, even forgetting to say goodbye, grabbed the key fax documents, and turned to walk quickly towards the door.

Watching his hurried departure, Takuya smiled and shook his head.