Mid-April.
Lockheed's first batch of arcade cabinets has finally been successfully launched.
Meanwhile, Blizzard's Rock N' Roll Racing project team also officially completed the main body of the game.
In order to achieve a breakthrough in visual presentation, the rendering module was entirely handled by Lin Lixin himself.
Unlike Carmack's ongoing project on true 3D, Lin Lixin chose an extremely bizarre but unexpectedly effective strategy.
A combination of 2D and 3D.
In the game's internal operating logic, the entire track, cars, and fences are stored in 3D.
However, in terms of the rendering logic, it still follows the old 2D approach.
The arrangement and scaling on a plane are determined by techniques such as projection.
It eliminates the need to calculate vertices and triangles, as well as complex coloring, lighting, and materials, significantly reducing rendering workload.
However, Lin Lixin did not waste the performance he saved, and used it all to improve frame rate.
"This circuit board can output up to 60 frames per second—well—with further optimization, 80 frames per second isn't even impossible."
"My God----"
Mike stared wide-eyed at the exquisitely crafted testing platform in front of him.
The hand-soldered boards look even better than those from the factory; this is a true master of wire bonding!
Beyond his craftsmanship, Lin Lixin's ability to implement code was something Lin Lixin could only admire from afar.
Even with powerful hardware, a 3D game that can be optimized to a stable 60 frames per second is already a rare achievement in the industry.
Mike had assumed that such an important project would be "in charge" by a top-tier, large-scale development team hidden behind GAMENOVA.
Unexpectedly, only Lin Lixin actually participated in the actual software development.
In his words, "I'll do all this work myself, so they don't have to Kung-Fu Master."
"No wonder he's a veteran developer—"
Mike was finally completely convinced.
"Don't get too excited yet. I think we can try to make it even better!"
Lin Lixin casually connected the monitor and ran a test, then shook his head in dissatisfaction.
For Gamenova, arcade games were more of an experiment than a commercial success.
While 60 frames per second is already top-of-the-line for this era, it falls far short of Lin Lixin's needs.
"Do you... want to challenge 85Hz?!"
Mike was taken aback; judging from his tone, he was clearly dissatisfied with the current visual presentation.
Still not satisfied with 60 frames per second?
The only possibility is that they'll keep piling it up higher.
Above that lies the almost impossible realm of gods.
"Hmm... there's no need for that."
But Lin Lixin shook his head again, "A higher frame rate would consume too much computation, and it would affect the calculation of other logic in the game, which would be a loss."
So what are you planning to do?
"Frame rate is an objective metric, but the player's actual visual experience is subjective."
How so?
Lin Lixin rubbed his chin and slowly explained, "For example, sometimes a 24-frame movie looks smoother than a 60-frame game. Why do you think that is?"
Mike is the only one of the Blizzard trio with an electrical engineering background, so he certainly has more authority to speak on this issue than the other two.
He thought about it carefully, and finally gave his answer with some uncertainty, "I think it's probably because the interval between each frame in the game isn't as strictly fixed as in a movie, and the frame rate isn't completely stable either, so local stuttering is particularly noticeable."
"Um----"
"Yes, you're right, but that's only part of it."
Lin Lixin snapped his fingers, "What you're talking about, internally at GAMENOVA we call 1% Low frame and 0.1% Low."
"Frame" is used to refer to those instantaneous stuttering moments.
When assessing a game's frame rate performance, the average frame rate is far less accurate than the Low frame rate.
An average of 60, or even an average of 144, is not considered a remarkable achievement.
A truly good optimization is one that can keep low frame rates stable at 60+.
This means that even during the most choppy moments in the game, the frame rate will not drop below 60.
"However, besides this, there is another factor."
Mike's intuition told him that he was close to hitting a key core of game smoothness.
Lin Lixin didn't keep him in suspense and immediately gave his answer, "The images in a movie are continuous, while the images in a video game are discrete."
"Huh? That doesn't make sense. The game's graphics should also be... Shit... You're right!"
Mike suddenly realized.
Although video game graphics usually look very smooth, and the character animations are excellent.
But this does not mean that it is continuous.
Unlike movies, each frame in a video game is rendered individually by a graphics chip.
However, due to the effect of visual persistence, everything looks very smooth when the frame rate is high.
Just like the movements of characters in Street Fighter.
If you break it down, it's actually a series of individual images.
The character's movements change slightly in every frame.
When played rapidly in quick succession, it becomes a cool and fluid combo in the eyes of the player.
Ultimately, however, they are still just individual, discrete images.
"That's right, we can do a simple little test."
Lin Lixin casually picked up a videotape and put it into the projector.
He suddenly paused the video halfway through.
"Did you see that?"
"I get it! It's motion blur!"
Because cameras have a limited shutter speed, when a subject moves, the continuous exposure during which the shutter is open will leave a continuous trail on the film.
This manifests visually as a blurry trailing image on the screen.
This is something that doesn't exist in video games.
One is time, the other is a moment.
This missing information is the key reason why, despite having a higher frame rate, the game doesn't feel as smooth as a movie!
That makes sense.
Lin Lixin's lips curled into a smile.
In an era where frame rates were less than ideal, this was far more powerful than simply stacking hardware performance.
"But—we can't exactly use a camera to record real footage and put it in the game, can we?"
"We don't need to create true motion blur; we just need to figure out how to simulate that sense of dynamism."
Lin Lixin and his team were incredibly experienced in deceiving players.
What should we do?
"Use our graphics cards to proportionally blend the current frame with the previous frame."
Without MicroNova, this task would have been impossible.
But now, with SDRAM high-speed synchronous memory and 16-bit graphics cards, this is no longer a far-fetched, impossible dream.
This thing is just as technologically advanced as the previous ones.
"In addition, we can also utilize the phosphor afterglow effect of CRT televisions to make it part of the motion blur as well."