Reboot the age of gaming

Chapter 295 Design of the first simulator

Zhong Ming took out the hand-painted tablet and began to draw the design of this new device on the hand-painted tablet.

Zhong Ming is not very professional in hardware design, especially he does not know much about the technological level of this world. He can propose some ideas, but the details are not clear.

Therefore, Zhong Ming still put forward some ideas. As for whether these ideas can be realized, how much it will cost to realize them, and whether the final price can be controlled to about 1 yuan, these are the issues that Lin Xiaoguang needs to consider.

The first is the part similar to GAME OMNI.

GAME OMNI is already the latest technology product. Although its design is not perfect, it is generally the best solution at present. The new equipment that Zhong Ming will make will inevitably have to be in some places with GAME OMNI Relatively similar.

The most similar point is the design of 360-degree full surround screen + panoramic sound, which basically has no room for change.

The only thing that can be changed is to make the screen into a flexible screen, which can be stored like a scroll when not in use, but the price will definitely be much higher in this way, and the price will not be so good, and the joint of the screen must be There's a gap, and this one might not be too friendly either.

GAME OMNI's solution is a full-surround screen, which rises to the top of the upper bracket when not in use. Because there is a universal treadmill underneath, it already takes up space, so although the full-surround screen also takes up space, it is all space in the air. It's not a problem.

And judging from the market feedback, most players who bought GAME OMNI don’t have much opinion on it, and it’s not very cost-effective to spend a lot of money on a flexible screen.

In addition, the shooting of the game must also be carried out through a gun simulator, and it must be a long gun and a short gun configuration, which is the same as GAME OMNI.

But when it comes to the function buttons of universal treadmills and firearms, there will be obvious differences between the two.

Zhong Ming began to quickly draw the structure of this new device on the drawing board.

The first is the universal treadmill. Zhong Ming’s idea is to completely change the current way of stepping and moving, and change it to a universal treadmill model similar to an electric balance car.

In Zhong Ming’s previous life, there were already many types of self-balancing vehicles, including those with two wheels, those with one wheel, and those with two legs each with a single wheel. However, at that time, limited by energy and power issues, the battery life of these devices was limited. It's embarrassing, but in general, the technology is already there.

The balance car in this world is more advanced. Zhong Ming saw a new type of balance car on the Internet before. The sole of the foot is a ball-shaped wheel. It uses a special suspension technology to move in any direction.

Of course, this kind of thing is more difficult to drive than ordinary balance cars, but it is more flexible.

The new universal treadmill designed by Zhong Ming is inspired by this new type of balance car, so that players can simulate movement by tilting, and the experience is exactly the same as using a balance car to move in reality.

The universal treadmill is also a circular platform, but unlike the GAME OMNI solution, there is a running belt on it, and the running belt will move in the opposite direction according to the movement rate of the balance car that the player is stepping on.

In other words, the running belt is integrated with the bottom wheel of the balance car. When the player tilts his body to move, the bottom wheel of the balance car does rotate rapidly, but because the running belt of the universal treadmill is also moving, the player actually The position in the space does not change, but the player's sense is that he is indeed moving.

Coupled with the audio-visual effects attached to the large screen of the device, this feeling is definitely much better than the feeling of stepping on a certain area to move.

And in this way, the characters in the game can also do more high-end operations.

The original movement is only to move in a certain direction. Players need to repeatedly step on different movement areas when changing directions quickly. It feels a bit like playing a dance mat. To be honest, it is a bit embarrassing.Although people outside on the big screen can't see clearly what the people inside GAME OMNI are doing, but many anchors who turn on the live camera are often laughed at by the audience because of their footsteps.

But now, the player's experience is more like skating. Instead of simply moving their feet to step on, they move by tilting and offsetting the body. The movements are more graceful and the performance is more natural.

Players can also make some more complicated actions, such as a sudden handsome side throw during high-speed gliding, high-speed movement around a certain point in an arc-shaped route, and then instantly shoot a shuttle at the target. This operation is GAME OMNI can never do it.

Also, this piece of equipment is easier than skating because of the auxiliary support system.

GAME OMNI also has this thing. Specifically, a circular buffer buckle is buckled on the player's waist as a bracket. At the same time, the buckle and the base are connected by a special mechanical structure, which always ensures that the player's tilt does not exceed a certain angle, and with the help of the booster, it can Quickly back to center or lean in the opposite direction, etc.

When Zhong Ming was designing, of course, there will be a similar auxiliary support system to ensure that the player's inclination will never exceed a certain range, and with the help of the assist, the player can easily fall hundreds of times on the skating rink Learned actions.

Secondly, Zhong Ming added an additional arc-shaped baffle to the auxiliary support system of the waist. This baffle is located at the chest and abdomen of the player, with the same width as the chest, and will always be directly in front of the player's body.

The player's auxiliary support system can be said to be something similar to a "belt", which is divided into two layers.

The inner layer and the outer layer use a technology similar to magnetic levitation to ensure the convenience of steering. The outer layer is connected to the base with a special mechanical structure, and the inner layer is close to the player's body and fixed to the player's waist.

This allows the player to turn very easily.

The bracket, the baffle and the inner layer of the auxiliary support system are integrated, so that when the player turns the body, the baffle will always be in front.

There are three different grooves in the horizontal direction on the bracket, the left and right two grooves are slightly smaller, and the middle groove is slightly larger, which is vertically long.These grooves are to share the functions on the firearm simulator, so that the player no longer needs to point all the operations.

The specific operation method is: For example, when the player needs to perform a certain action on himself, such as using a healing agent, he directly inserts the muzzle of the pistol into the corresponding groove on the chest bracket, pulls the trigger, and the use healing agent will appear on the screen. The reading bar of the agent, take it away after reading the bar, and it is used.

In addition, two firearm simulators hang on the bracket by default, a left-handed pistol and a right-handed long gun.The shooting of the pistol simulator in the left hand is only a relatively marginal auxiliary function. Its main function is to complete some specific operations, such as using healing agents, charging shields, throwing explosives, and so on.

When throwing explosives, a parabola will extend from the screen where the muzzle of the pistol points to, prompting the player to fly the explosives.

Players can even shoot the pistol in their right hand while injecting themselves with healing potions with the pistol in their left--provided you can really do both without scrambling.

In this way, it is also possible for players to add shields or heal themselves in the process of fierce fighting. As for how to do it, should they hang up the spear and operate it with a pistol, or continue to fire with the spear while using the pistol? It all depends on the player's personal habits.

In addition, Zhong Ming also considered some small optimizations.

For example, adding an acceleration effect to turning around, players can choose whether to enable it or not.If it is enabled, the faster the player moves when turning around, the larger the angle of rotation will be, which can achieve the effect of turning a large angle with a slight turn;

The former is more convenient, but it takes some time for players to get used to it; the latter is relatively clumsy, but more realistic.

……

Zhong Ming quickly drew the prototype, including various views, and a detailed explanation of the structure inside.

Of course, how to achieve it is something that Lin Xiaoguang needs to worry about. Zhong Ming just expresses his needs and ideas in as much detail as possible.

Zhong Ming took a closer look at the prototype and felt that the completion was almost complete, so he sent it to Lin Xiaoguang through the bracelet.

Lin Xiaoguang quickly replied: "So fast???"

Immediately afterwards, he added another sentence: "This universal treadmill... is a bit unconventional. Can it work?"

Zhong Ming replied: "When you have time, make a video call, and I will explain it to you in detail."

"Hold on."

Ten minutes later, Lin Xiaoguang dialed a video call request, and Zhong Ming answered.

Judging from the situation on Lin Xiaoguang's side, he should still be tidying up the new office.

Yunuo Technology also rented an office building, which is not far from the Weiguang studio, about 10 minutes' drive away, and these bells were ignored. Lin Xiaoguang and other employees chose it by themselves, and they must be satisfied first.

"Mr. Zhong, your speed is really fast. I haven't finished tidying up my new office yet, and the design plan for your new equipment has already come out." Lin Xiaoguang said with emotion.

Zhong Ming smiled: "How does it feel? Especially the balance car-style universal treadmill, is it difficult?"

Lin Xiaoguang said: "It's not too difficult. The self-balancing car is a bad thing for a long time. The various technologies are very mature. Synchronizing a copy of the data of the self-balancing car to the universal treadmill below can realize what you want. Even if there is a little bit of error, it can be solved with a little effort and debugging. However, I am worried about other problems, such as walking and skating. Is this suitable? GAME OMNI did not make a similar design, it should be because of this Think about it?"

Lin Xiaoguang's concern is that the movement effect simulated by Zhong Ming's device is closer to skating, but in fact, almost all FPS games now use walking.

There is a big difference in the senses between walking and skating.

The solution adopted by GAME OMNI is obviously a relatively conservative solution. Although the player does not actually walk, the way of moving and stepping on footsteps is at least somewhat similar to walking.But Zhong Ming simply turned it into ice skating, which made it less compatible with the content of the game.

What's more, even if the player can make actions such as "drawing an arc" through this device, how will it behave in the game?

What scene will other players see when they see you make an "arc slide" operation?
Your character runs normally like he's wearing skate shoes, and then draws an arc on the ground?Crazy drift?

Certainly not suitable.

"Mr. Lin, your thinking is still not divergent enough. Think carefully about the advantages of this solution compared to the GAME OMNI solution." Zhong Ming reminded.

Lin Xiaoguang thought for a while: "The player's experience is better. You don't need to step on this and that like a dancing mat. It's like playing an ice skating simulator. You can complete some operations by tilting your body. And after the player adapts, he can make more high-speed movements." Difficult operations, such as quickly drawing a semicircular arc while shooting at the center of the circle. In addition, simulating the movement of the balance car, accelerating smoothly, making the player's experience more realistic."

After all, Lin Xiaoguang is engaged in hardware, so he figured out many problems by himself.

GAME OMNI's solution has a big problem, that is, after the player steps on the moving area, the game character will immediately move in that direction at a set "running" speed at a constant speed, and this speed will not change.

But Zhong Ming's design is similar to that of a balance car. The speed will be slightly slower at the beginning, and will continue to accelerate to the highest speed in a short time. At the same time, the speed will change according to the player's body control. For example, the player leans back Brake, turn with a little roll, and the handling is much better.

Moreover, this gentle acceleration allows players to get a better view and is less prone to dizziness.

"So, if you don't consider the cooperation with the game content, can you think of a better universal treadmill solution than this?" Zhong Ming asked.

Lin Xiaoguang was silent for 5 minutes: "It should, for now, not anymore."

Zhong Ming smiled: "It's definitely not. Let the player really run? Of course not, the player will be exhausted. By stepping on it? The way GAME OMNI does it is not good enough. So, replace the traditional way with a new movement method. The movement method is the inevitable result. So let’s go back to the question we said before, since the emulator and the game can’t match perfectly, and the experience of the emulator is more important, then the next choice is very simple.”

Lin Xiaoguang was stunned for a moment: "You mean... change the game? Let the game adapt to the simulator?"

Zhong Ming smiled: "Boss Lin is indeed a smart person. That's what I thought, change the game and let the game adapt to the simulator. Since similar solutions are the best in the simulator, it is definitely impossible for the simulator to adapt to the game. Yes. My plan is to change all the movement methods in the game to - sliding."

"All of them... skating..." Lin Xiaoguang supported his forehead, "So the game we made is called 'Shooting on Ice'?"

"Hahahaha Mr. Lin, you are so humorous." Zhong Ming laughed, "Who said that ice must be used when skating in a game? Wouldn’t special high-tech roller skates be enough?”

(End of this chapter)