Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 572 PV Fraud?

Just by listening to the description, they could already picture it in their minds.

The interplay of the sacred and the eerie, the stark contrast between the clay sculptures and the golden statues concealing demons and monsters, creates a more impactful experience than simply displaying a dilapidated temple.

Among the group, Yang Qi was probably the most impressed. As the art director of Game Science, he was actually quite confident in his art, or rather, in the art style of games.

The various lighting and shadow effects in the original demo were all his ideas.

But then, the man standing next to him moved his lips, as if trying to say something, but found that he couldn't utter a single word.

He stared blankly at the few wild yet precise lines on the sketchbook, his mind filled with the scene Chu Chen had just described. Clay sculptures crumbled, golden armor suddenly appeared, a dilapidated temple transformed into a heavenly palace, and a celestial king descended to the mortal realm.

Something cool is just cool.

Besides being handsome, Chu Chen's next words were like a revelation to him.

"Don't just think about lighting and shadows; other special effects elements can also be used."

Currently, game science revolves around the Star Engine's most prized features: its lighting and shadow system and real-world scanning technology.

How to make the lighting and shadows more realistic, and how to make the scenes more detailed.

But the StarCraft game engine isn't just about lighting and shadows; it also has special effects and a particle system.

Admittedly, this part of the Star Engine's functionality is not yet perfect, but it is not unusable.

Just like many gamers in later generations who debated which engine had better fire effects, in reality, the technological gap was often not as big as imagined.

For example, the flame systems of many engines today, including the flame system of Star Engine itself, are above the standard.

It's not that the Unreal Engine's fire effects are amazing; the key question is whether anyone thought of using fire so boldly on weapons.

If you have this idea, Star Engine can also perform targeted optimizations and produce good results.

Thinking of this, Feng Yi was filled with mixed emotions. The look in his eyes as he looked at Chu Chen had changed from initial doubt to pure admiration.

After the initial admiration, practical problems immediately came to mind.

"Mr. Chen, your idea is indeed brilliant, especially the Flame Dual Blades and that scene just now. But the problem is, can these scenes even be run?"

"The four statues of gods simultaneously collapse and expand, and we have to seamlessly switch to the Heavenly Palace scene, plus the special effects of thousands of golden rays and swirling clouds... If we were to perform this in real time, with our current optimization level, any consumer-grade graphics card would burn out on the spot."

At this time, Feng Yi and Yang Qi had many imaginative ideas, but it was early 2018, and the content in the DEMO was from 2017, or even 2016.

The fact that the project started relatively early means that they had thought of many things, but felt that the technology was not feasible, so they did not conduct in-depth research.

What Feng Yi could think of, others could naturally think of as well.

As top professionals in the industry, they naturally understand how demanding the hardware must be to achieve the level of visuals Chu Chen described.

Unlike games like Final Frontline, where large-scale scenes can be easily masked by animation, AAA games require players to ultimately want to control the Monkey King and engage in a fierce battle with the Four Heavenly Kings.

Instead of just watching one program.

Under such circumstances, this scenario is practically impossible to achieve for consumer-grade graphics cards in 2018.
However, Chu Chen's reaction to Feng Yi's crucial question was unexpected by everyone.

He didn't even think twice before asking a question in return.

Will players be able to see the PV?

Feng Yi was taken aback, and subconsciously replied, "Of course not, this is for publicity..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chu Chen shrugged.

"That settles it then. Let's just record with a professional card. If that doesn't work, we can render it." "Huh?"

Now, not only Feng Yi, but also Yang Qi, the core members of the entire Black Myth Studio, including Guan Lei who came with Chu Chen, and Xiong Rui and others, were all dumbfounded.

Recording with a professional card?
In the gaming industry, these words are almost synonymous with another term: visual deception.

Running games with a professional graphics card naturally results in better image quality and performance due to its higher configuration, and allows for confident labeling as "real gameplay demo."

The advantage is that it can ignore current hardware performance, making the promotional video highly entertaining and impactful, and quickly attracting players' attention.

The downsides are also obvious.

It's 2018 now, and this formula has already been ruined by major overseas companies, especially Ubisoft's famous Watch Dogs. The trailers were full of amazing features, but in the actual game, the textures were blurry and bugs were rampant, resulting in a consistently poor reputation after its release.

Therefore, in 18, the unspoken understanding between players and manufacturers was that "the quality of the promotional video is for reference only, and the actual product shall prevail".

However, tacit understanding does not equate to acquiescence.

Such behavior is extremely damaging to the reputation of a new IP, and once it is exposed online, it is very likely to cause a backlash from public opinion.

As you can see, even Ubisoft hasn't been using this kind of tactic much in recent years, so when Chu Chen said this, there was a chorus of dissuasion in the conference room.

"Mr. Chen, this is not acceptable!"

"If this gets released, our reputation will be completely ruined. Players will curse us to death."

"Yes, Mr. Chen."

There was a chorus of agreement in the office; everyone preferred a simple PV rather than being labeled a "trailer deception."

However, Chu Chen remained calm in the face of the team's agitated state.

He looked at the crowd, seemingly completely oblivious to their concerns, and then posed an even more perplexing question.

"So, we can just build the actual machine when the time comes, right?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone looked at Chu Chen as if he were an alien.

What do you mean by "when the actual machine is built"?

Do you think this is kneading dough? You think you can just make it like that?
However, Chu Chen's expression was extremely serious, without the slightest hint of joking.

This is actually another typical statement that only a time traveler could utter.

Feng Yi and Yang Qi, who were present, are among the top game developers in China. Their vision is based on the present, on the technological level and hardware environment of 2018.

In their view, the GTX 1080Ti is the ceiling, and being able to run 4K games smoothly is the limit.

But Chu Chen's vision comes from the future.

In the future, it will be the norm for demo videos to get better and better. He is also well aware that in just a few months, Nvidia will release the RTX 20 series graphics cards, bringing ray tracing and DLSS technology.

He also knew that two years later, in 2020, even more terrifying 30-series graphics cards and the next-generation console PS5 would be released.

Furthermore, the Star Engine will continue to be upgraded over the next two years, and technologies that seem impossible now may not be impossible in the future.

Of course, these things cannot be said now.

So Chu Chen changed his wording.

(End of this chapter)