America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 309 The Golden Gate Bridge – This is something we really can't afford to buy.

After arranging the filming on the island, the biggest remaining challenge was figuring out how to get close-ups.

Unlike skyboxes, which use high-definition 2D images to create incredibly realistic illusions, making everyday objects look real requires a tremendous amount of effort.

"Road, railings, traffic lights, buildings, streetlights —"

Lin Lixin was taking stock of the necessary items one by one, and it was getting increasingly difficult for him to stay focused.

Just the sight of a complete traffic light here is enough to cause the game's frame rate to drop by half.

The development team had already learned the details of the next project long ago. Carmack knew what Lin Lixin was thinking and said proactively, "The video memory will definitely not be enough, and the graphics card frequency can't keep up either."

If they wanted to make 3D games, The Sims and Resident Evil were already the best they could do.

Even in these two games, they didn't dare to add too many items.

In Resident Evil, apart from the movable objects, everything else is actually pre-rendered images.

To realize Lin Lixin's "American Truck Simulator," a huge, seamless 3D world map would certainly be required.

To be honest, they think it might not be possible to achieve this even in another hundred years.

Lin Lixin nodded, neither confirming nor denying it.

He casually pulled a CD from his pocket.

"So I didn't use the USGS digital map directly, but only collected common road data."

Unlike city trails, freight routes are usually relatively fixed.

The journey usually starts from one warehouse near the highway and ends at another warehouse.

Most routes are concentrated on those main roads.

In this way, they have effectively simplified the route by more than half.

Even this small amount still couldn't fit into a CD that was less than 1GB in size.

"This is the data from my cross-country trip with Carlos. Guess how much storage space it took up?"

"How many?"

"200KB, of course, this is the redundant original file before it has been pruned and streamlined."

Lin Lixin made a mental estimate.

If we remove the redundant information and keep only the most concise road data—

"Binary encoding can compress it to 20KB."

"?!"

A few years ago, 20KB would have been the capacity of an entire EPROM.

Back then, most games were under 64KB, and MB was even a trendy new concept.

However, nowadays, 20KB is nothing at all.

It's no exaggeration to say that a single CD would be enough to record all the highway routes in the United States.

"We don't need to completely record the actual scenery of the road; we only need the environment to be 'similar.'"

"You mean—procedural generation?"

Carmack's eyes lit up, and he immediately understood what Lin Lixin meant.

Roads are generated based on the route, and prefabricated components that they have prepared are dynamically placed around the road as the vehicle passes through the corresponding area.

That's really a brilliant move.

But this seems to have a very fatal problem.

"But—if we do that, what about the sense of immersion?"

Undoubtedly, while this approach does save on performance and capacity, it also introduces a fatal flaw.

The driving immersion has been severely reduced!

When the environment on the road becomes monotonous and repetitive, it gets boring very quickly.

"You're right. If it's just like that, then it loses the meaning of taking a realistic approach."

Lin Lixin nodded, but then changed the subject, "But we can—include all those landmark buildings."

After saying that, he called out towards the office, "Sam, pack your things, we're going out to gather materials!"

If California has any world-class landmarks, it would undoubtedly be the Golden Gate Bridge, which spans nearly two miles across the Golden Gate Strait, connecting San Francisco and Marin County.

Of course, Hollywood logos are indeed very representative, but they're really not suitable for them to come out specifically for research.

I'm already tired of going there.

The Golden Gate Bridge is undoubtedly a modern engineering marvel!

"It won't be easy to fit this thing into a game —"

Lin Lixin casually jotted down several angles suitable for reference while holding his camera.

If they want to meet the deadline, they need to contact Industrial Light & Magic immediately to start modeling at full speed.

If possible, Lin Lixin really wanted to just buy up the resources directly, just like he did with the villa before, and then slowly develop it.

Unfortunately, even if you sold GAMENOVA as a package deal, you probably still wouldn't be able to acquire this thing.

If you really take him down, you're the one who should be taken down.

"Let me see—there are quite a few landmarks on the East Coast too, like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building—"

"No, Sam, we're only building the Golden Gate Bridge."

Lin Lixin interrupted him, "Or rather, we only do California."

"?"

Sam was briefly taken aback, but immediately realized what Lin Lixin was planning: "Expansion packs!"

After all, he was the one who first proposed this idea, and the expansion packs for "The King of Fighters" are still generating a steady stream of new revenue.

However, since the NX era, optical disc drives have become ubiquitous, and their massive capacity of hundreds of megabytes has made expansion packs, a necessary but unfortunate measure in that era, increasingly unimportant.

Selling the game piecemeal was never their intention.

But now this demand seems to be showing signs of resurgence.

If each state were made into a separate expansion pack, wouldn't that result in a total of 50 copies being issued across the entire United States?

"50 states, 50 discs! We can sell them for a lifetime!"

"50? 50 might not be enough."

Lin Lixin chuckled.

His gaze fell on the dense flow of traffic on the bridge, which consisted almost entirely of cars, but occasionally trucks could be seen passing by.

"Remember our Rocksmith game?"

'

Sam stared blankly at Lin Lixin for a long time before he came to his senses. "You don't even have enough money to earn."

Yes, that's what I mean?

50 states aren't enough! There are so many truck brands and freight companies, shouldn't we include them in the game too?

"After all, the Resident Evil project cost a lot of money, and this road surveying project also cost a lot of money, so we have to recoup our losses."

Being able to drive your favorite brand and car model is also part of the fun of this type of game.

After all, besides simulation, management is also a core gameplay element in both Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator.

For players who don't like the mental relaxation and stress of driving, or those without a driver's license, driving is simply a means to earn money and run a company.

After all, the Golden Gate Bridge is located in California, and the research was completed in just one day.

Although the game is still in development, Lin Lixin has prepared a teaser PV for it to generate some buzz.

mid-December.

The PV for GAMENOVA's new game has arrived as scheduled.

However, there had already been some rumors circulating about this new work.

After all, the black box incident was a huge deal, and anyone across the country who had any contact with the truck industry had already heard about it.

Getting paid to collect data for GAMENOVA – there's nothing more exciting than that.

As for where this data is actually used, there is naturally a lot of speculation and gossip within the industry.

I'm guessing it's either a new racing game or a new map pack for Rock 'n' Roll Racing; those are the most likely possibilities.

[It's definitely a new game. Didn't Nova Karting just release a new Elite Steering Wheel kit recently?]

[Hmm, that makes sense. Is it to continue promoting new peripherals?]

[It's hard to say, it could also be a map pack, right? Maybe it's for a long-distance mode or something for Nova Karting?]

All the speculations will be answered today.

This at least proves that it's definitely a new work.

8 PM.

Erica sat in front of the television, waiting for a new program.

Her mother, Edilia's voice came from next door: "Erica, your father's coming home today. Aren't you going to come and greet him?"

"No way, I'll end up smelling like engine oil again."

Erica pouted and focused on the television in front of her.

Hearing her reply, her mother sighed helplessly.

She knew Erica's temperament well; this was clearly something she said in a fit of pique.

That's understandable. My husband is currently in the prime of his career and is so busy that he can't take care of the family. Coming home once a week is considered frequent.

"What happened to being a sales manager? Why are you doing so many errand-running jobs lately?"

At 8:00 sharp, the PV started broadcasting on time.

The opening sequence naturally begins with the iconic GAMENOVA logo.

Then, a magnificent red suspension bridge appeared in the frame.

This footage is clearly real.

If video games or CG could achieve this level of sophistication, it would be an exaggeration.

"Golden Gate Bridge —"

Erica murmured.

She had heard her father tell her this before.

But that was a long time ago. Now my dad is busy traveling all over the country, and he doesn't have time to share his life on the road with me anymore.

"laugh-

The sound of air brakes came from the television, and the camera slowly zoomed in from a distance, focusing on a large, exaggerated tractor unit.

A somewhat rough hand crossed the frame and landed on the gearshift lever next to it.

Engage gear and start moving.

The massive cab then slowly began to move.

Erica's eyes widened immediately, and her mouth gaped open in surprise, momentarily speechless.

This—this is my dad, who hasn't been home for days!

Why did he go and shoot a promotional video for GAMENOVA?

No, no, even if you took the photos, why didn't you tell them?

The car is driving smoothly in the frame, followed by a particularly well-designed montage.

The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign, Yosemite National Park —

The sky also changed from midday to noon, afternoon, and then sunset.

After working from dawn till dusk, we welcome the sunrise of a new day.

"Erica, Edilia, I'm home! Quickly switch the TV to the game channel, I have a surprise for you!"

Carlos excitedly pushed open the door to his house.