A month has passed in the blink of an eye.
For the gaming industry, the past month or so since Independence Day has been a rare period of calm.
After all, Gamenova rarely produces absolutely nothing like it has during this period.
Fortunately, thanks to the exaggerated graphics and scale of Need for Speed, players don't feel empty or bored.
Unlike later generations where a game would become boring after an average of ten or twenty hours of play.
Patience is the one thing that gamers of this era have no shortage of.
For a game like Need for Speed, you'd be missing out if you didn't play it for hundreds of hours.
You said you've had enough fun?
Why not upgrade your graphics card and try high-quality graphics without spending some money?
Then it opened the Daimon to a new world, and again, dozens or even hundreds of hours would pass by.
However, Gamenova is not exactly a low-profile company.
Despite the lack of content production, the level of discussion surrounding the Delta Islands has skyrocketed in recent days. This is because the media has already leaked information about the Delta Islands!
This has really stirred up trouble among forestry experts.
The already crowded riverbank was now even more congested.
What was originally a tranquil retirement resort has suddenly become a popular tourist destination for young people.
Pilgrims arrived in droves, busload after busload.
The most impressive ones even drove all the way from the East Coast across the entire United States just to see the legendary "photography base" with their own eyes.
Speculation about the purpose of these islands quickly spread.
After all, it's not far away; with a decent telescope and camera, you can see pretty much everything set up on the island.
According to forestry experts, the following information is currently publicly available:
1. Of the core development team of Gamenova, only Sage Lin was present at the scene.
2. Members of Infocom, the development team behind "Zork," were suspected of being spotted.
3. Lucasfilm is heavily involved in this project. It's not hard to deduce that the new game might be an Adventure game.
Such speculation certainly gave those Adventure game enthusiasts an adrenaline rush.
Even we veteran PC gamers have our day!
And just as these discussions were getting more heated...
A new clue has emerged that truly confirms this speculation.
Harrison Ford, who plays Indiana Jones, was spotted on the main island.
These people were indeed not mistaken.
It wasn't just Harrison Ford; the entire cast of " Raiders of the Lost Ark 3 " was sent over as a package deal.
A group of people, including Sean Connor, who plays Henry Jones, received offers from Lucas and came to this brand-new filming location.
The content that appeared was, naturally, live-action footage from the in-game FMV of "myst", as well as the upcoming promotional PV.
Back then, Cyan Studio didn't have the luxurious filming conditions of Gamenova. Forget about having a professional Hollywood studio like Lucasfilm involved; Cyan didn't even have a decent cast.
All the footage was filmed personally by the Miller brothers, who were the founders.
In addition, there are Apple's numerous compression technologies and CD capacity limitations.
The actual live-action FM video in "Myst" is of very low quality.
It only has about 15 frames per second, and the image quality is at the lowest level.
But the texture of these old-fashioned videotapes actually adds a cinematic feel to The Myst.
It can only be said that it is indeed a product of the ingenious combination of hardware and software with the background of the times.
However, since Gamenova is handling the project, there's no need to be so stingy with resources.
Before Lin Lixin could say anything, Lucas waved his hand and announced that all photography would be done using high-specification 35mm film.
8mm and 16mm film are such garbage! If you're going to use something, use the best!
In addition to 35mm film, some special lenses were even replaced with custom-made 70mm ultrawide film at Spielberg's insistence.
It's practically a roll of gold! Of course, there are also Panavision cameras that are even more expensive than gold.
At the same time, Lucasfilm was also building its filming environment in its Hollywood studios.
Many shots still require a professional black box environment for filming.
With development more than halfway complete, thanks to the tireless efforts of the entire modeling team and the technical Support of Lin Lixin, the vast majority of static images have been modeled.
The next step is to wait for the rendering machine to finish rendering them, and then check if there are any parts that need to be adjusted and re-rendered.
Although this part of the work is not yet complete, we can actually start the next step ahead of schedule.
That is, the dynamic part.
So far, although the project seems incredibly large, only static content has actually been completed.
After all, given the current capabilities and CD-ROM capacity, even a powerful device like Gamenova couldn't possibly fit them all in one place.
All the scenes in the game are pre-rendered images.
It's actually the same pre-rendering technique used in Biohazard.
The difference is that this time there isn't even a fixed camera position. It's just a single, static image.
There is no main character, and no way to move.
To change the scene, you can only do so by clicking on the photo.
If possible, Lin Lixin actually wanted to achieve the kind of true free exploration found in the later remake of "Myst".
Unfortunately, hardware limitations are a bottleneck; achieving this level is already the limit of what technology can reach in this era.
Even replacing these images with 360-degree panoramic images would cause a huge increase in file size, making it impossible for the CD-ROM to accommodate them.
Rather than simply cutting out subsequent chapters for the sake of a free-turning effect, Lin Lixin chose the path of prioritizing gameplay.
"Hmm..."
Lin Lixin, Lucas, and Spielberg gathered in a campervan.
As Lucas clicked, the photos on the screen began to switch.
At first, it seemed as if I was standing in the center of a circular, domed hall.
By clicking on different locations, he can move to the corresponding area. Calling it "moving" is really just changing the photo.
Thanks to the newly optimized file system, the entire switching process is almost imperceptible.
"Surprisingly not bad?"
Lin Lixin stood to the side, arms crossed.
He nodded thoughtfully as he watched the changing images on the screen.
Because there are so many scenes and they are so fragmented, the continuity is surprisingly good, even though it's just a series of scene transitions.
An authentic Myst experience.
Even now, without any dynamic elements added, and without anything interactive in the scene.
This demo already has a sense of exploration.
"Indeed... it fits the theme perfectly. It originally had the feel of flipping through an ancient book, which is more natural than anything else."
Spielberg nodded thoughtfully as well.
For this development project, Lin Lixin didn't bring Kojima along. Instead, he brought in Spielberg, a true film director.
While Kojima is undoubtedly gifted, he is ultimately too young and lacks real experience in film adaptations.
Compared to a film like "Myst," which was produced to cinematic standards, Spielberg's talent is far superior.
He personally handled most of the camera work and lighting in the game.
"If we could integrate China Mobile as you suggested, it would definitely be even better. Currently, this is the best compromise we can find."
Lucas was operating the computer.
From his own experience, the viewing experience was even better than that of an observer.
Because by combining one's own actions, multiple senses such as hands, brain, eyes, and ears are perfectly coordinated.
Once the sense of immersion and engagement is established, the interruption of scene transitions becomes very subtle.
Rather, the effect of having an opening animation play when you push open a door, like in Biohazard, can disrupt your flow state after watching it for a while.
"I'd like to, but unfortunately, CDs have limited capacity."
Videos are different from images; even at a lower resolution, they still have more than ten frames per second. That's equivalent to more than ten images!
Even if the resolution is reduced to 320x240, it is still a huge storage overhead.
"Too..."
Lucas shook his head helplessly.
Damn it, when have these filmmakers ever suffered such injustice?
They have an abundance of funds, but they just can't seem to spend them!
This feeling of suffocation made his chest feel tight.
It's not a lack of ability, nor a lack of funding, but rather that humanity's technological development is insufficient?
This was completely unexpected for Lucas, who was used to the film and animation industries.
It also gave him a new perspective on the current state of the video game industry.
No wonder Lin Lixin is always single-mindedly and frantically pushing forward the development of semiconductors.
This thing is really a bottleneck. "What if we only design transitions for certain important shots? Like here, walking into the spaceship."
After thinking for a moment, Lucas faced the open spaceship hatch in front of him, tapped it lightly, and the scene immediately switched to the interior of the cabin.
"The movement distance here is very short. Theoretically, the transition animation should be compressed to within one or two seconds, right? Is this still not possible?"
Before Lin Lixin could answer, Spielberg, who was standing to the side, spoke first and rejected the proposal.
I don't know if it will work, but doing so will probably only have the opposite effect.
How so?
"The sense of disjointedness, the presence of some transition animations actually disrupts this unity, and the audience's... I mean the player's subconscious expectations are disrupted."
"Um..."
Lin Lixin nodded slightly.
Adding only a portion is worse than not adding anything at all.
But if you want to add all the extra storage, the capacity won't be enough.
What a headache... To be honest, Lin Lixin originally intended this project as a dessert, a project to squeeze in before the Christmas season.
It now appears that it requires quite a bit of technology.
With Gamenova's experience, creating a game of even higher quality than the original Myst is entirely possible.
But to go any further, the difficulty becomes insurmountable.
Spielberg watched as Lucas exited the spaceship and stood on a walkway on the island, when suddenly an idea struck him.
"Mr. Lin, I have an idea."
"How?"
"I studied the amazing masterpiece ' Tokimeki Memorial,' and George mentioned to me that you used a technique called 'Live2D splitting'?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Lixin instantly understood Spielberg's meaning. He exchanged a glance with him, and both could see the surprise in each other's eyes.
"Splitting it up! Use parallax animation!"