"As expected of GAMENOVA's headquarters, it's much more impressive than my shabby office."
Will, carrying a box of office supplies he had hastily packed, was led to the front of the newly renovated office building.
The huge "GAMENOVA-Entertainment" logo hangs prominently on the facade, which features a simple, solid-color design with only accent strips highlighting the building's structural divisions.
The strong supporting force of concrete allows it to adopt some radical cubic splicing structural designs.
Extensive glass curtain walls are outlined with contrasting colored edging, clearly indicating the area for staff rest areas and supporting facilities such as gyms.
This scene almost instantly solidified Will's perception of the offices of Silicon Valley powerhouses.
Modern! Elegant! Efficient!
"Isn't it cool? We just bought this apartment too."
Lin Lixin patted him on the shoulder, signaling him to follow.
It's fortunate that the location was changed, otherwise it would have been quite embarrassing for Will to see his rented room, which wasn't even as spacious Will wife's house.
Passing through the parking spaces in front of the door, you enter a reception area that maintains the same simple and modern style inside and out.
A small logo hangs on the partition wall behind the reception desk, and several fluorescent lights are embedded in the ceiling, scattering a rare white, cool light in this era.
On the desk inside the reception area was a CRT monitor, and judging from the classic IBM-ModeIM keyboard, the computer itself probably wasn't a cheap brand.
"That's too luxurious!"
Will had never seen anything like this before.
He himself used inexpensive consumer PCs like the Apple II and C64; he wouldn't even dare to dream of professional PCs like IBM, let alone high-end workstations.
At GAMENOVA, even the PCs used at the front desk are top-of-the-line devices.
They practically had "I'm Rich" written all over their faces.
What surprised Will the most was perhaps the building's unique design style.
Unlike the mainstream Memphis design style that uses a lot of bright colors and elements, GAMENOVA takes a unique approach to subtraction.
The design elements are kept as minimal as possible, and colors are limited to accent colors in each area and the overall black and white color scheme.
"A very unique style, but surprisingly beautiful."
Will looked around in surprise. This unconventional design scheme did not look ugly at all; on the contrary, it made him feel exceptionally comfortable.
It's rebellious and avant-garde, which perfectly matches the tone of GAMENOVA.
"Let's go, Sam should have the paperwork ready."
Lin Lixin led Will up to the second floor.
Although the first floor has a high ceiling and a spacious layout, it has been designed as a continuous rest area.
This can be seen from the row of arcade machines and various game consoles in the corner.
The actual office area is only on the second floor.
Will was surprised once again as soon as he arrived.
Open-plan offices? That's so cool!
Completely different from the dense cubicles he had imagined, there were no obvious wall partitions here; the overall design adopted the bullpen-style open-plan layout favored by Silicon Valley high-tech companies.
Even the partitions used to divide areas are made of large floor-to-ceiling glass.
Openness and collaboration also break down hierarchical barriers.
Judging from the empty furnishings on the desk, it was clear that Lin Lixin was not lying when he said that the renovation had just been completed.
Most of those workstations were empty, and it didn't look like anyone was working at all.
Lin Lixin's gaze fell on Vivian, who was holding a freshly brewed cup of coffee and leaning against a desk.
"Is there any progress on the project?"
Hearing this, Vivian rolled her eyes at him. "What, can't I come here specifically to see you?"
"Absolutely, it's easy."
Lin Lixin chuckled and pulled the still somewhat awkward Will closer.
"Let me introduce you. This is Vivian, the CEO of Micro-Nova. This is Will Wright, a promising new recruit I just recruited."
"A newcomer? That's quite rare."
Vivian curiously sized up the disheveled young man who seemed to have no particular background.
He was probably only a few years older than Lin Lixin, but his overall demeanor was hardly that of an elite.
Apathetic, dull, possessing a very stereotypical Nerd-like quality.
But Vivian knew that Lin Lixin's eye for talent was absolutely impeccable.
"After all, Carmack was pulled to your side to do hard labor, and the development department is short-staffed."
Lin Lixin looked at Will and became more and more satisfied.
Even if he didn't know who Will was, he had to find a way to get his hands on this panel.
[ Will Wright ]
[Overall Rating]: S ( The Godfather of Simulation Games)
[Graphic Design]: 71 (Growth Value: B)
[Hardware Design]: 90 (Growth Value: A)
[Series Composition]: 128 (Growth Value: S+)
[Programming]: 122 (Growth Value: S+)
With these attributes and growth potential, it's definitely a top-tier character.
As they were talking, Lin Lixin saw Vivian shift her body, revealing what had been hidden by her buttocks.
It was a circuit board with an ISA slot.
There are many components, but it doesn't look cluttered; the overall wiring clearly shows the work of an experienced programmer.
Its chip architecture is completely different from NovaWonder, which Lin Lixin was familiar with in the past.
This is a graphics card.
Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow and patted Will beside him.
"Go to that office and find Sam."
After Will left, Lin Lixin turned his attention back to the graphics card, his expression showing some surprise.
"So fast? OpenGL is finished too?"
This research and development speed has far exceeded his expectations.
"Not yet, but we've managed to come up with this technical verification version temporarily. Although it's not ready for mass production yet, it has all the necessary components."
Vivian shook her head. The development process of this graphics card could be described as cost-free; it was entirely built by throwing money at it.
For this project, SGI's entire core technical team was pulled in to work overtime for half a month.
After saying that, Vivian bent down, disassembled an IBM PC/AT on her workstation, and inserted the graphics card into the empty ISA slot.
Its video cable interface is noticeably different from the familiar EGA.
The number of stitches increased from 9 to a full 13.
"I added several independent ground pins to the new specification to handle the RGB channels independently."
Vivian noticed Lin Lixin's gaze, crossed her arms with a touch of pride, and began to explain, "This way, each color of signal wire appears in pairs, forming a simple shielded loop, greatly reducing interference."
Analog signals have a huge advantage in controlling color, and can even theoretically achieve an infinite number of colors.
However, it also has the significant problem of interference, requiring a cleaner signal transmission environment than EGA.
"As expected of you." Lin Lixin picked up the video cable she handed him and examined it carefully, clicking his tongue in amazement. "However, the pin count seems a bit off."
The number 13 is not elegant enough in terms of arrangement, and it is difficult to find a suitable way to arrange it.
Moreover, the real VGA of the future will have a full 15 pins, although the transmission protocols for some of them have not yet been developed.
"Let's increase the number of pins to 15, five in a row, three rows in total. This will make it easier for us to adapt to more new data inputs in the future."