September 6th, Thursday…
The employees were busy developing the new VR game “Real estate agent simulator” in Slow Movement Studio.
After the tempering and grinding of “Animal Island”, the entire development team had obvious improvements. Their cooperation was more tacit, and the development process was smoother.
Even Cai Jiadong, the chief designer, was more proficient now.
He seemed to have gradually gotten a hang of Tengda’s design ideas and methods. He was becoming more and more compatible with Lin Wan’s ideas and gradually became a qualified chief designer.
After working on the computer for a while, he took the printed document and went to report to Lin Wan.
At that moment, Lin Wan was focused on her computer screen. She was frowning slightly, as if she was thinking about something very important.
When she saw Cai Jiadong, Lin Wan temporarily looked away from the computer screen.
“Boss Lin, have you seen the small program that the Nag artificial intelligence laboratory sent us? How does it feel?”
“If it can be used, not only can it greatly shorten the development time of our entire project, but it might also have a certain impact on the specific design plan of the game.”
Lin Wan was stunned for a moment. “Oh, I’ve been thinking about other things recently and haven’t had the time to see it. What do you think of the effect?”
Cai Jiadong answered truthfully. “I think… the effect is unexpectedly good.”
Lin Wan did not expect Cai Jiadong to give such a high evaluation.
This small program was sent to Tengda Games and Shang Yang Games by Nag laboratory two days ago. They said that it was an artificial intelligence program that was still in the trial stage. They were to try it out and give their opinions.
That was because Lin Wan had a close relationship with Shang Yang Games. Naturally, this program was sent to Slow Movement Studio.
In any case, they were all Tengda’s internal businesses. There was no need for them to say anything.
Lin Wan had been a little busy over the past two days so she had not had the time to see it.
The reason why she did not pay much attention to it was mainly because she felt that this thing would definitely not be reliable.
At the moment, interactive movie games, or RPG games that had more dialogue and required close-up display of characters’ expressions and words, were all done using motion capture technology and actors.
Motion capture technology not only captured physical movements, but also captured the subtle expressions on the faces. During the process of the actor speaking the lines, the facial expression could be captured while recording. Then, these data could be applied to a model created with the actor as the prototype. That would show a very realistic effect in the game.
Of course, if they were not satisfied with the actors’ voice, they could also find someone else to dub the voice and achieve better results.
However, there was also a problem with this method. It was too much work and not very free.
Once the plot dialogue was set, they could not change it randomly. Otherwise, even if they only added one sentence, they would have to hire the motion capture actor to record it again.
The program in the Nag artificial intelligence laboratory was said to be an alternative to facial motion capture technology. The specific principle was to automatically generate the character’s facial movements through intelligent analysis of voice content, the past motion capture data in the comprehensive editor. In other words, it could also be regarded as automatic lip-synching.
It was similar to some softwares that made pictures sing, but it was said to be more effective.
Lin Wan was a little doubtful about this.
The program was automatically generated. How could it be the same concept as the motion capture actor acting personally?
Boss Pei had very high requirements for the real estate agent simulator. It had to be as precise as Struggle. At the same time, all movements had to be captured with real-life movements, so as to bring players a real feeling.
If the NPCs’ movements and expressions were stiff and twisted, it would be too much. The entire game would be flawed.
For all he knew, there would be a terrifying valley effect that would scare gamers.
After all, the immersion of VR games was far better than ordinary games. A slight misstep could lead to a huge fall.
However, hearing from Cai Jiadong now, the effect was unexpectedly good?
Lin Wan could not help but feel intrigued. She checked her own computer.
The real estate agent simulator had been developed for a month. Until now, many character models have been produced.
Due to the existence of the official platform’s simulator, making this character model was actually a process of squeezing people. There was no need to make it from scratch. What’s more, the game that Boss Pei had once made, Struggle, might be mostly Westerners but after some slight modifications, many characters could still be used directly.
The moment he received this program, Cai Jiadong arranged for the designer to make a few transitions with the current models and record them.
Lin Wan quickly finished watching the scene. After a moment of silence, she asked, “This was automatically generated by a new program? It’s not a motion capture?”
Cai Jiadong nodded. “It’s completely automatically generated. However, the current support for foreign languages is not particularly good.”
Lin Wan fell silent.
It did not matter if the support for foreign languages was good or not. In any case, the game ‘real estate agent simulator’ was only meant for domestic players. Even if the response of the game was good and it was planning to produce a multilingual version, it would only be released a few months later.
The effect was really amazing!
The character’s expression in the game was very natural. There was no stiffness in his movements or twisted expression.
Of course, it was impossible for it to be as seamless as real motion capture. The voice and facial movements would not be perfect.
However, as long as one did not focus on the character’s lips, they would not notice anything amiss.
In fact, it was enough to achieve this level. After all, many foreign movies and dramas did not match the shape of their mouths at all after dubbing. The audience would not find it strange if they were used to it. The facial expressions automatically generated by this program were naturally more than those of movies and dramas that dubbed voices.
“From the looks of the current situation, this technology can be used directly in the real estate agent simulator.”
“What’s more…”
Lin Wan’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Wouldn’t that solve the problem that had been troubling us previously?”
“No wonder. Previously, we always felt that this problem was not resolved well and that we did not feel at ease. Now, it looks like Boss Pei was well-prepared. He knew that the new results from the Nag laboratory could solve this problem?”
The appearance of new technology often affected the thought process of game design.
Previously, Lin Wan and Cai Jiadong had been very worried about the design details of the core gameplay in the real estate simulator.
According to the original settings, one of the core gameplay of this game was to sell houses.
The basic process of this gameplay was for players to get a new house, renovate this house, and redo it. They would use the funds in their hands to renovate it, change the furniture, and then receive guests. They would answer different questions during the introduction. Finally, the price would fluctuate to a certain extent and facilitate this transaction.
This gameplay was consistent throughout the game. However, at the beginning, they might not have money on hand and could not make changes to the room. After customers pointed out their problems, they could only reduce the rent to facilitate the transaction. In the later stages, they could discover the problem of the house in advance and solve it before customers came to see the house.
However, Lin Wan and Cai Jiadong encountered a small problem in the process of designing this core gameplay.
Obviously, this was a repetitive gameplay. If it was not done well, players would quickly feel bored.
If the customers who came each time looked similar and asked similar questions, their dialogue, actions, and behaviors would be very similar, players would probably feel bored very quickly. This core gameplay would not be able to support the game experience at all.
Thus, how could this game be like MOBA games? No matter how many times it was repeated, it would still be novel? At the very least, players would feel that every customer they met would be brand new. They would be filled with anticipation for the next customer. This was the most important factor that determined the game experience.
There were many aspects to this problem.
In order to solve the problem of appearance, the program could automatically generate the appearance of the customer.
Many games had similar functions in the face modification system. They were not difficult to make.
Of course, the face that was automatically generated by the face modification system might be more uncoordinated. For example, no matter how one looked at it, it must be strange for a female to be dressed in a professional suit to have a Moxigan hairstyle, piercings, and exaggerated tattoos on her forehead.
Thus, they had to add a few more patches on the system to limit the person’s identity through the algorithm and correspondingly lock some specific elements in the face so that the appearance of the person would not deviate too far from the original persona.
Now that the problem of looks was solved, the next step was movement.
That was relatively easy to solve. After all, there were only a few movements that NPCs could do in the room: sit on the sofa, drink tea, look into the distance by the window, lean over to observe the corner, and so on.
These movements could be arranged in advance. A few supporting movements could be done according to the character’s gender, size, and age. They could be automatically triggered according to the algorithm in the room.
In addition, the NPCs would also have corresponding body movements when speaking. This was very easy.
All in all, these problems could be solved with quantity.
As long as he increased the number of actions, the random algorithm would automatically draw it. Coupled with different appearance, body size, and other factors, he would be able to make a huge difference.
The most important problem was the content of the speech.
In the core gameplay of the game, every house had corresponding problems. For example, the north and south were not clear, the bedrooms were too small, the bathroom was not clean, the windows were not soundproof, and so on.
Of course, there were corresponding advantages.
Players could look at the houses themselves before customers came. After looking, the system would give players a few choices. For example, whether the houses were square, whether they were north or south, how to collect light, and so on.
The choices that players made now represented the correct level of understanding of this house. It would also affect the choice of answering NPC questions.
When bringing NPCs to view the houses, the NPC would raise questions about the house. Players would have to choose the corresponding options to respond. If they chose the right house, there would be no problem. If they chose the wrong house, they would lower the customer’s evaluation of the house. At that time, they would either reduce the price or blow up the deal.
Of course, these questions had been set and used with a lot of professional knowledge.
These contents were not difficult to make. Communicate more with Sloth Apartments and they would be able to set a standard answer for each apartment.
However, the biggest problem was… how should he deal with the specific words used by NPCs?
Different people would definitely have different answers to the same question.
For example, some people might say that the lighting was not good, some would say that it was too dark, and some would say that the opposite building was blocked.
If all the NPCs said that the lighting was not good, it would look very stiff.
However, this problem could not be solved by quantity.
If he continued to use the same method as before, he would have to capture every change in expression. Different body types would have different expressions when they spoke. He could not mix the motion capture. He might have to record the various expressions under the same meaning several times.
It would not be a big problem if it was other interactive games that were driven by plots. It would just be more work and recording a few more times.
However, the real estate agent simulator was different. There were too many questions. Yet, there was no critical improvement to the game experience.
If he did not do it, it would not be perfect nor exquisite. It would be easy for players to act.
Doing it would cost too many resources. It was too much to bear and the price-quality ratio was extremely low.
Thus, they became awkward. It was not appropriate to do it, and it was not appropriate to not do it.
However, with the artificial intelligence program of the Nag laboratory, this problem was easily solved!
That way, there would be no need to capture every sentence, dubbing would be enough.
The work of simply dubbing was much smaller. They could even be solicited online directly and ask many passionate players to help with the dubbing. After inserting the dubbing, this program would automatically generate the facial movements of the characters according to the audio. Coupled with a certain amount of body language and movements, it would create a feeling of a thousand people with a thousand faces.
Cai Jiadong sighed. “What did I say! When I was working on the design details previously, I was wondering if this problem could not be solved under the current conditions! Didn’t Boss Pei think of this when he was designing this game?”
“From the looks of it now, Boss Pei had obviously thought about it long ago. He must have known about the recent research results of the Nag laboratory. That’s why he asked us to create such a game!”
Lin Wan nodded. “Of course.”
“Then there’s no need to hesitate. Let’s do it this way!”
“By the way, Sloth Apartments has sent a new batch of house types over. Check them and hand them to the designers.”
Cai Jiadong nodded and said, “Alright.”
After establishing a project to develop this game, Lin Wan went straight to Liang Qingfan and asked him to cooperate with development.
Speaking of this knowledge, who could be more professional than Liang Qingfan?
Sloth Apartments had many architects and designers, who were specially researching how to modify the apartments. As long as they sent people to collect information on various types of houses online, and then sorted out the advantages and disadvantages of these houses, they could send them to Slow Movement Studio and directly put them in the game.
Of course, Lin Wan did not have to worry about these things. It was the job of Cai Jiadong, the chief designer.
Lin Wan leaned back in her chair and heaved a sigh of relief after watching Cai Jiadong leave.
“Phew… fortunately Liang Qingfan was not kidnapped.”
“If he was kidnapped, even though I can look for other architects in Sloth Apartments, he would definitely not be as reliable as him.”
“Speaking of which… Boss Pei suddenly kidnapped the people in charge for special training. What’s going on…”
Lin Wan felt that something was amiss yesterday.
She might have arrived at Slow Movement Studio but she was still in Tengda’s chat group.
Normally, everyone would chat about the current situation of the various departments. The group was quite lively.
In the end, the entire group suddenly became quiet yesterday. The few people who usually appeared did not say a word.
Lin Wan felt that something was amiss. After asking Wang Xiaobin today, she realized that the person-in-charge of the ten core departments, including Ye Zhizhou, had been kidnapped…
Lin Wan was shocked. She thought that Boss Pei had caught them red-handed for doing bad things behind their backs. However, on further thought, she realized that they had been sent to the special training base…
Shen Renjie, the person-in-charge of the Nag artificial intelligence laboratory, was also taken away by one set like the other person-in-charge.
Fortunately, Liang Qingfan from Sloth Apartments had survived. Otherwise, the development of Slow Movement Studio’s game would probably be affected.
Lin Wan’s senses were very sharp. She immediately felt that this was no small matter.
After asking around in the group, she successfully obtained the first list of people from the special training base. There were a total of ten people. They were Huang Sibo, Hu Xianbin, Xiao Peng, Rui Yuchen, Ye Zhizhou, Shen Renjie, Guo Licheng, He Desheng, Chen Yufeng, and Ma Yiqun.
“The special training base has just been opened. We have to progress slowly. We can’t train too many people at once. Therefore, it is reasonable that there are only ten people in the first batch.”
“However… Why these ten people and not the others?”
“Tengda has so many people in charge. There has to be a corresponding standard for evaluation, right?”
“Boss Pei attaches great importance to this matter. What’s more, he did not hesitate to temporarily affect the work of the core department to arrange for all the person-in-charge to enter. Obviously, he had a special purpose. This purpose is even more important than short-term work or even profits.”
“Purely to support Bao Xu’s work? That’s impossible. Boss Pei is someone who distinguishes public and private affairs. What he does will ultimately be beneficial to Tengda.”
“If there are short-term drawbacks, it means that there will be benefits in the long term.”
“What is Boss Pei’s true intention…”
“Yes, perhaps I should start with this list. I should be able to roughly deduce Boss Pei’s true intentions as long as I figure out the standards of this list…”
Lin Wan looked at her computer screen again and fell into deep thought.
She might not be a person-in-charge of Tengda anymore but she had also been paying attention to Tengda’s internal movements. After all, every movement within Tengda represented Boss Pei’s will. Boss Pei’s actions often contained deep meaning. It would definitely be beneficial to learn more.
