"Letting data run naked through a MIDI cable—that's insane."
Gerald suddenly felt that he might be being too conventional.
Sometimes, to solve a problem, you need Lin Lixin's unconventional way of thinking.
As he got older, Gerald could feel himself falling further and further behind the thinking of these crazy young people.
The most obvious problem is that he has begun to subconsciously seek stability.
Dogmatic thinking is a very obvious sign of this.
"Why----"
He suddenly sighed.
This sudden exclamation startled Lin Lixin for a moment.
In his memory, Gerald had never looked so gloomy before.
"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly so sentimental?"
"I'm almost 50, Lin."
Gerald casually took off his sunglasses and left them on the Table.
The video game industry is young people's game, even if he is in charge of the hardware department.
"I find myself increasingly unable to let go of my old life experiences, yet I lack the energy to start learning again."
Unlike these young guys in their twenties or even teens, Gerald was born in 1940.
"The whole reason I'm in the gaming industry is because people tell me you can't do it."
"If someone tells me I can't do something, then I will definitely do it."
In some ways, Gerald does have a bit of a punk spirit in this respect.
However, as Gamenova rose higher and higher, this stubborn persistence became increasingly difficult.
Because many of the things Lin Lixin proposed are really difficult to achieve.
That's too difficult to do.
He glanced at the archives.
It contains a large number of Lin Lixin's proposals that were completely unfeasible due to hardware limitations and were therefore shelved.
The NX standalone sound card I'm currently working on is one of the few things that have survived the test of time.
"When I was little, being able to fix radios and help the neighbors fix their TVs already made me a well-known genius in the surrounding area."
He shook his head helplessly. "So I think, perhaps—"
"What are you babbling about? Get this sound card done quickly. There's a big project waiting for you."
Lin Lixin suddenly interrupted him, "Fifty is the age to strive; you can't be so lazy."
With that, he slammed a document on the Table.
The title is in bold: [Project- Swift Project ].
Having temporarily resolved the online connectivity issue by taking a longer route, Lin Lixin then returned to the Blizzard development team.
"Lin, as per your request, we've temporarily reimplemented a 2D map mesh using the N Language."
Mike gave a progress report on the project and showed the contents to Lin Lixin.
It was a black and white checkerboard pattern, used to aid in testing and make it easier to discern the coordinates with the naked eye.
Several pixels of different colors are moving on the screen.
When Mike clicks on a cell, the game pauses for a few seconds, and then a pixel of a certain color begins to move towards that position.
Lin Lixin frowned slightly.
"Let me see how you find your way."
Ta-da!
The group exchanged glances, all feeling a bit lost in this homework-checking-like conversation.
I've never been this nervous even when I forgot to do my test questions in school.
"I wrote this part."
Alan took the initiative to speak, showing Lin Lixin the project's source code.
The three of them had clearly defined roles: Frank was in charge of the studio's operations and management, while Mike was mainly responsible for planning and hardware.
As for the lead programmer, he was responsible for almost all the programming work here before the two developers from Westwood came.
And that's precisely why----
Alan's pressure has exploded!
He glanced at Lin Lixin cautiously.
You're frowning!
After a while, Lin Lixin's brows relaxed and he finally smiled after reading the entire code.
This made Alan breathe a sigh of relief.
But before he could even Panasonic, Lin Lixin's words plunged him into hell.
"Hmm, this won't do, let's scrap it and redo it."
Lin Lixin smiled and said something that was absolutely terrifying.
Honestly, Lin Lixin was just as nervous as Alan.
He had just seen that the pathfinding light required several seconds of computation time per unit, and he thought it was due to insufficient hardware performance.
This is no small matter.
If it's really that serious, then the entire project is essentially unfeasible.
Fortunately, it was confirmed; it was just that the code wasn't written very well.
"You scared me."
Lin Lixin pulled up a chair and sat down. "If I'm not mistaken, this is the A* algorithm, right?"
A pathfinding algorithm that was proposed in the late 1960s and remained a mainstream algorithm even into the millennium.
The fact that Alan could make this thing by hand speaks volumes about his skill.
Logically speaking, this thing should be among the most efficient.
Even the B-algorithm, IDA*, and other algorithms that have been improved based on A* in recent years are nothing more than optimizations made on the basis of the A* idea.
Yes—is there a problem?
Alan was already dizzy.
In order to make Lin Lixin's route-finding proposal a success, he did a lot of research.
The version he implemented now, based on the original, has successfully improved efficiency by adapting to faster memory and transferring some data to the graphics card for computation.
Unexpectedly, Lin Lixin rejected him with his very first sentence.
"Oh, this pathfinding module isn't bad. We can save it for future use, but it can't be used in Command & Conquer."
Lin Lixin made some simple modifications to the code.
The scope of pathfinding has been expanded to include all units simultaneously.
He then recompiled and ran the program, clicking on a random location as before.
The program immediately froze.
The massive amount of computation directly pushed the already limited frequencies of the processor and graphics card to their limits.
"Look, RTS games require a large number of units to move on the same screen. Are you planning to run a complete pathfinding algorithm for each unit?"
Alan scratched his head awkwardly.
He had actually noticed this a long time ago.
However, since he couldn't think of a suitable solution, he was temporarily using the previous method to fool people.
It's incredibly difficult to create something with limited capabilities.
"For our needs, we can no longer use A*, and we need to switch to a pathfinding system that is more suitable for RTS games."
I call it the " Flow Field Pathfinding Algorithm.
F
Its core idea is: one calculation, ten thousand users.
Alan's gaze froze.
If Lin Lixin's statement is true, then he has essentially created a new pathfinding algorithm out of thin air that is thousands of times more efficient.
this----
Isn't that a bit too outrageous?