The cellular stage, which is the first stage at the beginning of the entire game, is as expected.
After all, it was personally designed by Lin Lixin, and it's a 2D game.
The entire development process went much more smoothly than expected.
But things started to change when the second phase began.
As planned, Spore did, after all, utilize the exaggerated graphics performance of the NovaFusion fifth-generation machine.
To deliver the most cutting-edge gaming experience, it's natural to make it 3D.
But a vast 3D world?
Leaving aside whether graphics processing is feasible, even with current video memory, it's simply not enough.
"In short... that's the current situation. We're considering reducing the face count to stabilize performance."
Carmack explained,
"With fog effects and streaming loading, the video memory can be compressed to almost nothing, but the visual effect will definitely be greatly reduced."
Unlike here, Lin Lixin's 2D phase allows for extremely refined visual effects.
Because with current graphics performance, they can already create many very good, detailed pixel effects.
In comparison, the 3D stages only create a stronger sense of disillusionment for players.
This kind of thing is obviously hard for people to accept.
"I've tried several different optimization solutions, but... because the creatures in Spore are player-created, we can't predict their final appearance in advance, so there's no way to make targeted optimizations."
Carmack pulled up several other optimization schemes on the development machine and demonstrated them to Lin Lixin.
It has to be said that his skills are second only to Lin Lixin in the industry.
Either option performs very well.
But perhaps this is also a limitation of the times.
Due to the changes in the timeline, Carmack hasn't really worked on UGC projects recently, and he's struggling to find a starting point for dealing with this kind of uncertain final outcome.
He is better at performing extreme optimization when all conditions are known.
"I see." Lin Lixin nodded in understanding.
No wonder the engine team has been gathered together these past few days.
"Actually, we can try a different approach."
As he spoke, he sat down next to Carmack.
"This technology will also be used in our new FPS projects in the future, and on a large scale."
After all, FPS is one of the core genres that made Gamenova famous.
As a first-party title in the fifth generation, it's definitely indispensable.
As for what to do then, Lin Lixin already had a plan.
"Actually, we don't necessarily need to worry about the number of noodles; reducing the number of noodles appropriately is perfectly fine."
Lin Lixin casually picked up a lump of clay, rolled it into a ball, and then gently rolled it a few times on the Table.
With just a few simple strokes, this lump of clay was transformed into a regular polyhedron.
"We're making games, not computer graphics. Often, our goal isn't to make it perfect, or to make the computer think it's perfect. We only have one goal—to satisfy the players." This is the difference between the gaming industry and other cutting-edge computer industries.
If it were General Motors, even the slightest error in the modeling would cause serious problems.
The chain reaction can even affect the aerodynamic simulation in the wind tunnel, impacting the entire R&D production line.
This is why General Motors ' digital design department has almost demanding requirements for parameters.
This also made them one of Gamenova's largest buyers of high-end industrial graphics cards.
But games are different.
As long as it looks the way to the player's naked eye, then there's absolutely no problem.
"So we need to ask computer graphics for a little help."
Carmack was a programming genius, and this talent overflowed, allowing him to achieve considerable success in the field of computer graphics as well.
But he was a self-taught garage prodigy, not a true classically trained professional.
When faced with some classic computer graphics problems, he always managed to pull off miracles through sheer force of his own abilities.
While this personality trait can sometimes bring surprises, winning a bunch of awards and helping the computer graphics community solve some age-old problems, it can also make him prone to reinventing the wheel and wasting energy on unnecessary things.
" Gouraud shading."
In the world of computer 3D graphics, there are three main coloring schemes.
The first option, which is the most reliable, simplest, and most traditional solution given current graphics performance conditions, is flat shading.
Because three-dimensional objects in the computer world are composed of a large number of triangular pieces, color schemes can be designed very easily.
When coloring, the color of the entire triangle is calculated only once, and the same color is applied to the entire triangle.
The advantages of this approach are obvious: it is incredibly fast and has extremely low performance overhead.
However, its drawbacks are also obvious, which is why Carmack has yet to find a solution.
stiff.
The colors lack transitions, and the 3D object has very sharp edges, making it look nothing like a smooth object.
Admittedly, this can be improved by increasing the number of faces.
Go to Bing Search Flags to see the latest chapter! But this brute-force approach of the green skin clearly made these graphics scientists very unhappy.
So in the 1970s, two geniuses stepped forward and each came up with a different solution.
Henry Gouraud's Gouraud coloring method and Bui Tuong Phong's Phong coloring method.
Gouraud's approach is to perform calculations directly using the vertices of the face, and then perform a transition interpolation for each pixel on the face.
This ensures a smooth gradient of colors across the entire surface.
Phong takes it a step further, performing a complete color calculation for each pixel, taking into account factors such as lighting and material properties for a comprehensive calculation.
In comparison, it's easy to see that Phong definitely has the best and most beautiful rendering effect.
But it's not perfect either.
Just like how flat coloring sacrifices visual appeal for absolute speed advantage.
The Phong sacrificed performance for absolutely stunning visuals.
It is only suitable for use in applications such as the film and television industry that highly rely on precision but do not require real-time calculations.
As for Gouraud... it struck a middle ground between the two.
The lower computational intensity yields a much stronger effect than planar coloring.
The number of faces didn't increase, but the whole model suddenly looked quite realistic.
That's enough.
It's enough to fool the players' eyes.
Lin Lixin sat down at the development station and quickly modified the shader code.
Recompile and run.
The model that was originally a finite number of faces on the screen suddenly became smooth.
Advanced developers can often cut corners and reduce the workload on the graphics card without anyone noticing.
"I see..."
Carmack glanced at the source code and immediately grasped the brilliance of this strategy.
"Reverse thinking...?" he muttered, as if he had suddenly realized something, and then his eyes lit up.
"Ah! That reminds me. I suddenly have a great idea."
"How?"
" Sam asked me yesterday if there was any way to design flexible and realistic motion animations for a creature when its appearance is uncertain."
Carmack exclaimed excitedly, quickly opening a document to jot down the thoughts that were forming in his head, lest these inspirations vanish in an instant.
"Lin, you know that when we used to make 3D animations, we used existing skeletal data."
"Indeed, but this time our skeletal structure was determined later."
"Yes, so there's no way to pre-design how an organism moves, because we can't even determine where its legs are located, or how many legs it has."
Carmack nodded; this same problem had been bothering him for some time.
But Lin Lixin's words just now gave him a wake-up call.
Sometimes, solving a problem simply requires changing your perspective or thinking in reverse.
He showed the words above to Lin Lixin: [Inverse kinematics]
"We don't control how the limbs move, but rather tell the limbs where to place them."
Logically speaking, the establishment of a leg-raising animation should be a sequential chain.
The thigh moves first, and then the knee, lower leg, ankle, and toes are pulled and moved along with the skeletal system.
This is a typical example of forward kinematics.
But IK took a completely different approach.
It first determines the final landing point.
By analyzing the point of impact, we can deduce how the limbs should move.
Regardless of what the ground looks like, regardless of what the creature looks like.
Its legs always stay firmly planted on the ground.
Of course, the trade-off is that the processor overhead will also be higher.
"This system can even support multiple legs moving together! And it can greatly reduce our resource expenditure." Since everything is calculated in real time by the program, they certainly don't need to store these things on CDs.
In the 3D era, there is a problem that is causing headaches for all manufacturers.
As the number of characters increases and the scenes become more magnificent, the animation resources are also constantly expanding.
Even CDs, which had a capacity that seemed like alien technology just a few years ago, are now starting to feel inadequate.
Especially a game like Spore, which allows players to unleash their boundless imagination.
Theoretically speaking, an infinite number of combinations is equivalent to an infinite number of actions, which in turn is equivalent to an infinite number of expenditures.
Once programmed, they can do only L2D splitting, just like making a 2D game, which greatly saves space.
Of course, it also saves working hours.
After all, animators no longer need to painstakingly create animations frame by frame. As long as the programmers write the rules, the game can handle everything else on its own.
"Combining IK inverse dynamics with the previously discussed Gouraud coloring method, dynamically generating and skinning the mesh based on parameterized spine nodes, using IK skeletons to control gait, and adding Will's Jazz AI architecture..."
Carmack excitedly organized the documents.
A whole new world seemed to have opened up to him. A completely programmed, completely free world.
It is also an infinitely large world with infinite possibilities.
If the idea of procedural sandboxes is further extended...