Upon hearing everyone's praise, Aoki Haruhi's lips curved upwards involuntarily.
One could only say that these guys, who had never seen the world, had no idea what 3D game would develop into in the future.
Future game would even feature beautiful sisters whose hair could move.
Making human bodies was much harder than making Pokémon; if you thought about it, the more detailed a 3D model, the more polygons it would naturally have, not to mention adding skeletal animation, various program calculations, and so on.
Back then, Square boasted about Tifa's hair alone. Why? Because the hair was detailed and abundant, which naturally led to more polygons, demanding higher performance from the console.
Now that 3D game was just starting, only simple rigid bodies could be made.
pokémon 3d world truly had a bit of a natural advantage.
Because the Pokémon themselves were relatively simple in shape, unlike the complexity of human bodies, take Pikachu for example: a head plus a large body, with a lightning tail behind it. Even with fewer polygons, as long as your skin was correct, players could basically recognize it as a Pokémon.
Just adding a pair of big eyes made it very cute.
However, making a 3D model of a beautiful girl was incredibly difficult; just sculpting the face would take a long Time, and there also had to be body proportions, with each finger distinct. If not done well, it would look quite strange.
You've never seen Pikachu with fingers, have you?
Even if it did, they wouldn't be sculpted that finely, or even detailed enough to show the joints, right?
That's enough.
So, although the current Pikachu might look a bit rough, when the camera was pulled back and placed in the game scene, it was actually very harmonious and consistent with everyone's perception.
It was the kind of thing where you could just glance at it and say, "Pikachu."
The scene style was also very clever. Although Lisa Asano was assigned to make a 3D game for the first Time, this girl had her own ideas.
After Aoki Haruhi explained, what immediately came to her mind was a fairy tale world.
The first level of the entire game, called "Rainbow Canyon," was actually designed based on drawings Lisa Asano secretly made after reading fairy tales as a child.
Only, her dream prince and princess were replaced by Pokémon.
The scene itself used extremely rich colors, but the color scheme was quite simple, giving people the feeling of truly walking into a fairy tale book.
To make this game well, Lisa Asano even spent her own money to order a bunch of building block models and clay, first simulating it on a sandbox, and then actually playing it out in a real-world scenario. Lisa Asano felt it was good enough, and the planning team also thought this level was great, so they gave the corresponding requirements to the artists.
It seemed to take a lot of Time, but this project team had no shortage of Time.
After all, the game tools and program architecture were only completed half a year ago, while the project had started a year and a half ago. The planning team had ample Time to deduce various levels.
The artists' work became even smoother.
Because the planners had already set up the sandbox, you only needed to produce according to their standards, and then do secondary creation and processing.
In fact, as a Producer, Lisa Asano's aesthetic was still very much online, and she had a childlike heart, so even though the game was 3D, you could always feel that strong sense of fantasy.
Green grass, white block-shaped clouds floating in the sky, a few large trees like Nasu Kinoko with pink crowns and brown straight trunks, and some jagged tall grass on the nearby green ground.
In this, to save polygons, only the trees were actually modeled; the grass and clouds in the sky were actually just textures.
It was equivalent to having a large background canvas in the sky, where artists drew corresponding images and placed them, submitting corresponding gradient maps according to the program format to create a 3D effect of wind blowing through clouds.
And the jagged grass on the ground was actually a cross-shaped patch facing the camera.
Why was it cross-shaped? It was to make sure that when the camera rotated, it still looked like grass.
One side was grass, and the other side was also grass.
These things were actually taught hand-in-hand by Aoki Haruhi to Lisa Asano and her team. Otherwise, these "old-timers" from the 90s would have had to spend Time exploring.
Every Time they encountered a problem they really wanted to solve but found difficult, Aoki Haruhi always had various strange and ingenious solutions. The employees had more than once marveled at their President's extraordinary wisdom.
...
The entire game was a very traditional 3D game mode, which was a three-dimensional space with the XY axes as the plane and the vertical Z-axis as the height.
So, walking forward meant moving along the X-axis.
Walking left or right meant moving along the Y-axis.
Jumping was along the Z-axis.
The moment the game scene was loaded, everyone immediately understood this principle.
The game initially provided a top-down view of about 30 degrees, following the principle of objects appearing smaller the further away they were. Distant trees and clouds looked relatively small, and even a bit blurry.
This wasn't because Aoki Haruhi had implemented advanced LOD technology; it was just a filter technique added to the camera.
A filter, in simple terms, was like attaching a "tool film" to the camera lens. Some filters had colors, which would cause color changes in the resulting footage.
This filter was also very simple: it just blurred the upper half and left the lower half untouched.
So, in the camera's view, the "blurred" part would give people the illusion of a "real 3D vision."
After all, human eyes have a similar structure: objects closer are clearer, and objects further away are blurrier. Objects in the focal point of vision are clear, and the further away from the focal point, the blurrier they become.
But this was just a simple static blur, far from achieving the dynamic blur filter effects of the future.
Yet, even such an effect was extremely advanced for this Time, something that inspired admiration and praise.
Players who didn't understand game might not find it remarkable, but everyone present had been making game for several years or had received professional training after joining. They no longer simply viewed game from the perspective of "is it good-looking?" or "is it fun?"
Professionals would be more critical of game production, just like film critics always subconsciously evaluate the filming techniques used or how the shot composition is handled when watching a movie...
They were actually harder to please than players.
Yet, even such a group of people couldn't help but exclaim when they saw the game effects displayed by pokémon 3d world.
That alone was enough to show that the game technically exceeded their expectations.
At first, everyone thought that the near-far scaling and corresponding blur effect of this scene were "fixed," but when Lisa Asano controlled Pikachu to walk forward, the camera also followed along the negative X-axis. Only then did they realize—
The trees that were originally blurry actually became clear.
And the areas further behind became even blurrier.
This was incredibly astonishing.
"This actually changes; it's not a fixed 3D scene effect!"
"Nani?! How did they achieve this blur effect that simulates human eye vision?"
"Yeah, it's amazing. I never thought 3D game could achieve this kind of effect."
"It feels like playing a building block game, I mean, a very realistic building block effect. Sorry, my language skills are limited, but you get what I mean."
...
Aoki Haruhi smiled without speaking.
Ah, things that seemed so simple in his Time could now make people exclaim "magical existence"!
This was the power of the future!
If he brought out dynamic skeletons, calculations, and scene interactions in the future, wouldn't they be scared to the point of incontinence?
But then again...
Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but sigh, pouting his lips with a hint of regret.
All of this was built on the foundation of sufficient hardware support.
Power came from the future, so it could only be realized through the power of Time.
Lisa Asano continued the demonstration.
She controlled Pikachu, and after walking up the hill, it began to turn and cross the bridge.
The latter half of the bridge formed a 90-degree angle with the green area in front. As she crossed the bridge, the entire game scene's perspective began to rotate.
What was originally the right side facing the bridge gradually turned to face directly, which was a more player-friendly perspective, as Pikachu moved forward.
"Wow!"
Another round of exclamations erupted below.
Because before this, they had never encountered a game with such a rotating perspective.
If the previous 3D was merely for the sake of being 3D, then at this moment, the change in perspective immediately showcased the unique charm of 3D game.
That was—
Your perspective could change.
Gen Urobuchi's eyes lit up when he saw this.
Incredible, how was this automatic camera mode achieved?
And for the newcomer Kamiya Hideki, today's demonstration was like watching a magic show.
As if already anticipating everyone's reactions and questions, Lisa Asano specifically held up the controller in her hand to demonstrate to everyone.
"You see, this left joystick allows me to control the Pokémon's movement direction more precisely. A typical game's D-pad has 4 directions, but in our pokémon 3d world, it can achieve multiple directions, making the operation more precise."
"Wow!"
Another cheer erupted.
"And then, this right joystick is used to adjust the game perspective, essentially rotating the camera." Lisa Asano said, flicking the right joystick.
And so, the perspective in the game also began to rotate.
Seeing this, the applause in the venue was thunderous, and the employees stood up one after another to applaud.
These guys were simply a bunch of ruthless praise machines.
"Amazing."
"It's incredible."
"This is the 3D game I imagined."
...
"But in multiplayer mode, the perspective changes are fixed."
"We have set up camera change zones in the area. This feature is actually quite powerful; it can calculate the gradient angle based on the entry/exit direction and the corresponding initial and final camera positions.
I won't explain the specific details much; you need to operate it in the editor to have a more intuitive understanding."
Kamiya Hideki was completely stunned, mumbling to himself while applauding.
"So scary."
"Pokeni is so scary."
"Luckily, I chose Pokeni."
Besides shock, a surge of warmth welled up inside him.
Kamiya Hideki genuinely felt that this Pokémon 3D game was definitely a game that could change the world.
Even all future 3D standards were defined here.
My goodness, is this Pokeni's strength?
For the first Time, Kamiya felt blessed by fate. How lucky he must have been to join this company, and even more fortunate to witness such a great game today.
...
The first level demonstration ended.
Everyone present stood up and applauded.
The applause was thunderous and long-lasting.
Lisa Asano looked overwhelmed, bowing repeatedly, "Thank you, thank you all for coming today to watch the demonstration of pokémon 3d world. To not delay your Time, there will be no live Q&A here. If you have any questions, please contact me later."
After everyone left, Lisa Asano packed her things while smiling and asked Aoki Haruhi, "President, what do you think of our game? Is there anything that needs improvement?"
Aoki Haruhi took a deep breath, stood up, and patted Lisa Asano's shoulder.
"Well done, Lisa Asano, you're excellent."
Although Aoki Haruhi had already outlined the "framework" and 3D requirements for them, in reality, when pokémon 3d world was completed, it still exceeded Aoki Haruhi's imagination.
The core gameplay of this game was based on the unique characteristics of each Pokémon. Aside from certain level designs still bearing the influence of the original mario 3D, its essence was actually quite different.
In other words, Lisa Asano's team had created their own unique features based on mario 3D World.
Quite remarkable.
Even Aoki Haruhi was drawn to it, wanting to experience this game sooner.
Some game required visual performance to be enjoyed, while others inherently possessed strong enjoyment. Undoubtedly, this game belonged to the latter.
To achieve such performance at the very beginning of 3D game, Aoki Haruhi was immensely proud.
"It's truly not easy to reach this level."
"Really?" Lisa Asano, receiving such unreserved praise from Aoki Haruhi for the first Time, truly felt overwhelmed.
"Thank you, President. We will work hard to improve it."
...
About a week later.
The President finally began to slowly make his way to the United States.
Akanishi Ken was initially quite curious why Aoki Haruhi's [3D graphics card] endeavor had been delayed. At the Time, Aoki Haruhi replied that he was waiting for the east wind.
Now Akanishi Ken finally knew what the previous east wind was—
"pokémon 3d world" was now almost fully developed and had successfully passed its first alpha test internally at the company.
This meant that the current pokémon 3d world already had the capability to be playtested on a console. Although many bugs would need to be addressed in the future, and the planning team still needed to complete the later level content, at least it was playable now.
"pokémon 3d world" was surprisingly good during internal company testing.
Akanishi Ken still felt a cold current run through his body when he recalled it.
He was completely shaken.
Few game had given him such an experience, but when pokémon 3d world was demonstrated in the conference room, Akanishi Ken truly felt it.
He felt the novelty of the experience and the charm of 3D game.
If there were no major surprises, this game would definitely become a landmark work in game history.
The moment Akanishi Ken saw the demonstration, he immediately realized that the Sony PS controller was truly, completely developed for this game.
Everything felt so natural and smooth, as if it were a seamless creation.
At the same Time, Akanishi Ken couldn't help but exclaim once again in his heart—
The President was truly a genius.
If it was "pokémon 3d world," then it would certainly convince the graphics card developers.
Now Akanishi Ken was not at all worried about whether Aoki Haruhi could persuade graphics card manufacturers to produce 3D graphics cards; he was worried about whether the graphics card developers had the capability to satisfy Aoki Haruhi.
...
So Aoki Haruhi, carrying this [Alpha CD] and the corresponding Sony PS console, embarked on his journey to the United States.
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