In the company, Light was both the director and also multi-purpose personnel. Simply, he could jump in and help his staffs anything but simple things only. Most of the time, Light stayed beside others and learned from watching them. He was the one who gave the ideas and directions for the project but when it came to do it, he had much to learn. Thankfully, when it came to programing, all you have to do is remember all the code need to program, as same as formula in math, and it will be good.
There were many ways to create a game: Using game engine, using framework/Tools or simply using IDE
First, game engine: Few game developers reinvented the wheel and wrote their own game engine from scratch, especially for their first game. You want to dive right in, but still have plenty of opportunities for programming then using a game engine was a good option. An engine typically included higher-level tools for altering 3D models, scripting events, and other common game applications, but would still provide plenty of hands-on programming opportunities. Popular programming examples were Unities, UDKs, Unreal Engines, and Crying ENGINE.
Second choice was frame works and other tools: A framework was a step below a game engine but still provided a set of tools and APIs (application program interfaces) to save your time and streamline your coding projects. Consider this the minimum level of software to use for the first gaming project. Depending on the exact framework and/or game engine using, the work in additional was a need, specialized APIs, such as the popular OpenGL for creating 3D graphics. Poly codes and Mono Games were example of frameworks created with both 2D and 3D games in mind
Third, IDE: Integrated Development Environment was a general-purpose compiler and collection of source files. An IDE would make programming a game much more convenient, especially if it came with built-in ways to interact with graphics and audio systems.
Most of the tools above were based in a popular programming language, so following the accompanying tutorials would give you a great start. While you could create a game in almost any sufficiently powerful programming language, the most common languages to program on all device is C++.
Since the project Light was aiming at is a VR game project which support a full-dive experience, there were many spots need to customize programed. In this case, programing the system around IDE supports seem highly recommended since IDE makes complex programming projects easier to build. Light only learned about C Basic program language in his college days so he had to pay his time for this upgraded programing language if he wanted to join in and help at programing the system.
Which in this world exist first, the creatures or the environments?
Everyone must already have the answer for this question
This project was the same. It was hard to program a VR system without a device to test it. However, it was not like there would be a full-dive device suddenly came out from nowhere.
The first thing Light asked his team to do was making a background environment. It was just a blank background without sound or objects. The background was created by an auto-generate environment program. The Environment itself was divided into numerous points, each point was assigned with its 3 values; for example, point A (a; b; c), have its first value was “a”, second value was “b” and third value was “c”. This would make up a 3D environment where value “a” and “b” indicated the coordinate of the point and value “c” showed how high the point was compared to the (a;b;0) point. Obviously, an object would make up by many points. The more points used to create an object, the more details the object was. In Physics, based on the vectors made up each by 2 of these points represent for the forces, the angle of the vectors when it got in touch, we can somehow calculate the outcome of collision between these two forces. This part would need an independent program being writen based on an algorithm to use in the VR system when there were contacts between objects. It was not like Light would be the one who write that kind of program so he has nothing to worry about. He did not have the genius mathematics Kanon in the company (or should I said his team?) for nothing. Simply, Light would push all this work on Kanon since it was her selling point after all (not her cuteness).
For the device itself, Light asked Schieder and Kay to make a number of “not too much” High-Tech device: a pair of special gloves, a pair of special shoe, a pair of knee protect gear and also a pair of elbows protect gear; they made a head gear by combine a headphone with a simple VR goggle with little modifies. The user would be support in their waist with a Jacket-like device which connected to a mobile frame. When the user turned in the VR environment, his body in the real environment would also turned before the mobile frame automatically change their posture back to the default posture (You can imagine the frame working as same as the one in Assassin Creed which move base on the user’s movement)
The gloves, shoes, protect gears or headgears were mostly used as tracking devices. The tracking points in this case were: finger tips, 2 wrists, 2 elbows, 2 knees, 2 foot tips, 2 heels, the head and also the waist where the device connected and supported the user body. If one has the positions of all these points, one could calculate which posture a person in. This was what Light wants to make the movement’s interact of his VR device to be. Compared to things like “brainwave interfere” or “body’s electric signal reading”, wasn’t this kind of device a shame when called high-tech? However, this was safe. Wasn’t it disaster if someone messed with your brainwave? The cost for the device while build follow this solution was also lower than the choice of “body’s signal reading”.
The only disadvantage Light could thought of when thinking about this choice right now was how “unavailable” this device to disadvantage people. To disadvantage people who lost their limps, the only choice was develop this VR device in “body’s signal reading” way since despite the lost limbs, the above joints still received body signal. That would be another story. For now, Light has to focus on the majority of markets.
Light helped Kay and Schieder build up the device. More accuracy, he helped them connecting separated part which Schieder and Kay took they time to make. At the same time, Long and Kanon made the modules for the programs. Kay soon enough left all the work for Schieder and Light to join the programing work. The rest of the team were creating 3D model which would be used in the VR environment.
In 1995, Nintendoor released a gaming console known as the Virtual Girl. Worn as a headpiece and connected to a typical controller, the Virtual Girl received much criticism for its negative physical effects, including "dizziness, nausea, and headaches". People think these symptoms have been caused by prolonged use of virtual reality. However, was it all Virtual Reality fault? Is it purely the technology which caused these “motion sickness” symptoms?
I think “No”
Even until now a day, 2020, after 25 years has pass and the cause for all of it still not improved much. I’m talking about the reason for all the “motion sickness” symptoms which reduce the VR user’s health
How can we human “see” the reality?
We hear
We see
We touch
We smell
We taste
These 5 senses made up our “reality”
It’s means if there was even one of these sense “feel wrong” then the “reality” we “see” would be collapsed and we would surfer the “motion sickness” as a side effect.
Did you ever suffer “motion sickness” just because you are unable to hear?
Did you ever suffer “motion sickness” just by looking at something looked “unreal”?
There were people like that out there. They were just simply more sensitive about “reality” than the rest. However, less sensitive wasn’t equally to unable to feel it at all. All the cases when user got sickness for using the VR device in the past actually caused by these reasons.
You saw yourself moving through the goggle but you couldn’t feel the wind on your skin. The image you saw was too “unreal” with low frame rate and low solution. The sound you hear wasn’t match with the image or delayed. And at the very last, you could not taste or smell at all in these incomplete reality, could you?
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In the reverse, as long as the image has enough frame rate, high solutions, matching surround sound and even the feeling when you touched something then there was no chance you would suffer the “motion sickness” symptoms. That was why the team member made the model as detail as possible. Actually, Light even told his team “there is no need to make many model in the same category, just make it as detail as possible and then clone it” and “there will be time for changing models later so for now just make one model for each category and duplicate it to fill the empty spots first”
These models which could be duplicated to fill the spots were things like animals, monsters, trees, clouds, stones and rocks,…Even a leaf was design as a separate object from the model of a tree (Which is a leaf-less tree). A course, there was only one model of a leaf at the beginning and then the team copied and attracted it to the leaf-less trees as many time as possible.
However, tied of these copy-paste work, Bardell wrote a simple program which auto generate a small tree beside the existed trees after a set amount of time; the scale of the leaf-less model also increased after a set amount of time until the wide and the high of this leaf-less reach the setting ratio; if the leafs attracted to the leaf-less tree model stay next to another tree then the leaf models in these area will have it “height value” (remind you of this “height value”: the object in this VR environment created from numerous points and each point have 3 values. The first 2 values is as same as the coordinate of the point on the flat map while the 3rd value indicate the height of the point in this environment) reduce continuously until the leaf models coordinate is right above another object (The height value of the leaf model is higher than the object it “touch”; “touch” = there were points of the 2 object having the 3 values made up its 3D coordinate are the same). With this the team successfully simulated the way a tree grow up, the way tree lose its unnecessary leafs or how the leafs fall. Well, there were many kind of tree so each have its own limit ratio of wide and height, different in leaf. This program was unable to simulate the change of leaf or the dead of the tree when it loses all the leaf. There were many rooms for the patch later. For the time being, for the purpose of filling the gap in this fiction world environment, all this should be enough.
“I never thought you could spend your free time to write this program” was Filline’s comment when Bardell added this “tree-generate” program into the overall VR system.
“Copy-paste sound simply but doing it thousands or ten thousands of time is a pain. I rather do a huge but limited amount of work for a short time and free the rest of my live than blindly follow director Light’s words and busy for the rest of my life” Bardell replied. It was as same as swallow whole the dish you dislike first and slowly enjoy your favorites isn’t it?
Let talk about the “living creatures” and “monster” later since all of them need a “place” to put inside. Light couldn’t just simply put all the creatures, the trees, the rocks on an even terrain and called it a “place”, a “world”. Light decided to dragged Filline with him outside for collect real datas of building.
Walking together around the Walking streets, bathed in the gorgeous sunlight of Hanoi Fall, despite the low temperature sunlight, Light could not help but feel hot. A part of it came from the crowd around him but the real reason of this heat maybe came from his fluster when walking with a girl. Even though there was nothing more than friendship between them, Light could not help since this was the first time in his life he walking side by side someone from different gender outside of the elementary school.
“I wonder what will happen if you could take the job at Isoft back then. Maybe there would be no Worlds Creator, I would still selling cloths in a “not well-known” shop and we would never has a chance to meet each other. Our life would never cross if you could get that job.”
“Let the things had passed pass away. Now, I’m glad back then I did not get the job”
Back in the August, worry for his life, Light family introduced him a job at Isolf. Light took the offer and went to an interview. He intended to take the job and running the VR project at the same time since most of the work can be handled by his team in Worlds Creator and his main works in there were actually funding them and brought what they need for the VR project.
“But, back then if you ask your former manager or co-worker to talk with the Isoft’s side then maybe you could…”
“Did I not tell you I can’t? After my retired in the shopping mall, their sale fall continuously and then other employees also retied. I always thought of it as my responsibility. I can’t return to that place and ask the manager for help. I don’t even think he could say anything favorable to me after all the mess I left behind” Light said
After graduated, Light want to improve his communicate skill since he has serious trouble when talking with people he don’t know. He chooses a service job to help himself. In the beginning, everything went smoothly. Despite noticed his co-worker take 2 hours to break while the company only gave them 1 hour break time, Light thought as long as there was nothing affect his work, he could let them slip and even handled the work his co-worker slacked off. One factor for Light to not uncover his co-workers back then was also the trust of his manager. Which one would heavier, the trust in a newcomer or the trust of people who worked under the manager for years?
But everything would change, that was how life always worked. Unexpected events happen every moment in everywhere. Light had to go to the hospital for weeks because of an unidentified reason. When he got out of the hospital and backed to work, his working effective reduced. He could not handle of the work of 4 persons like he always did before then. He tried to ask his co-workers to shorten their un-allowed long break and get back to work sooner but it all went to deaf ears. He tried to tell his manager but the manager’s personality was too mild and he could not control Light’s co-workers. Somehow, the other co-worker even fire back at Light for his “unproductive working” despite all of this came from these co-workers 2 hours breaks. Things just got worse and worse until Light decided to quit the job. On a side note: In the period of time when Light work in there, the company got their highest sale record in many years.
Anything raise have to fall!
“It was not your fault!”
“Yeah! The same like that time I worked in “that hotel” and fired after the 2nd day, was it all my fault?”
“That” was even before his job in the super market. After Light first day working in the hotel, a customer suddenly died in his room without any clear reason. The police came and occupied the hotel for all of Light second working day and completely halt the hotel activity. There was no customer who wanted to step in a hotel where every stairs and halls has polices. This was the first incident ever happen in this chain of hotels since the hotel owners stared their businesses and somehow everything put on Light’s responsibility since it only happened in day he appear in the hotel but not any other day for many years before then.
Light and Filline, both of them, could not help but made a smile. Maybe for how Light fate did not allowed him to live as an employee or just simply to forget the unlucky but also unlikely happened events.
Light’s bad luck sound like a joke sometimes.
“Did you not come back to finish you study in school, Filline?”
“Nah! I worked in Circle K for 2 months before I quitted the job and took my previous job. After then, you asked me to work for you. There was not a blank time period for me to finish me study. It was like I was too tired to finish my study”
Light was not familiar with the name of Circle K but it was a chain of convenience stores which were having brands all over the world.
“Having a certificate made the finding of a good job easier, don’t you think so?”
“It’s tiresome to work and study at the same time since both the school and the store not allow me to choose my time shift”
Light had the same thought about working and studying at the same time. It was not like everyone could do something like that. There were people who can work and study at the same time and still obtain a good result in both but many would fail in one of aspects, or both of it.
“I get it! But how many hours do you work per day in your previous job actually? I’m just curious, okay!”
“I worked for 12 hours in the beginning but then I had to reduce it to 10 hours. It was too exhausted.”
“Wow! No wonder you had no time to finish your study”
“Why did you not save up money and quit the job to finish your study back then, Filline? I think it’s still better than working 10 or 12 hours per day” Light continued
“It sounds quite bad you known. I worked and worked all days but still not having enough money to support my life. I brought a new motorbike back then and had to work to pay for the loan I took”
“Is it that much? I worked for only 3 months but still earned enough to save it. I still using my rusty bike right now, you know?” Light said
“I’m not as same as you. I spend almost all of my money for regular expense but luckily earn enough in the period of Lunar New Year to pay off the loan. That was also my reason for working 12 hours per day.”
“Truth to be told, I never thought you are someone who spent money like that. I think you better find a guy who could keep the money safe from you. Someone who can “keep the money like a tomb guard”” Light told Filline. This was the first time they talk about each other personal issue openly like this and Light never thought Filline is a girl who can spend her money without a clear plan even in his wildest imagination.
“At least, she is serious in her job” Light thought “It will be a disaster if Filline manages the company’s financial the same way she is managing her money” Light thought
“There is not a chance. I rather live alone forever and spend all the money I earned for myself than giving it to someone else to safe keeping. What happen if he just keep the money and refuse to use even a coin?” She replied, acting a little bit cute
Light wondered if everyone out there was the same as this girl who was walking alongside him; would all the banks gone bankrupt then?
“Anyway, what do you have there? It’s look like a mirror ball to me. Aren’t we going out to take pictures?” scanned her eyes around, maybe to lessen her embarrassment, the strange objects which Light brought along catch in Filline line of sight
Truth to be told, the object Light brought with him really looks like a mirror ball which you often found in bars. However, instead of the hook to hang the ball there are thin metal legs to keep it standing on the ground.
“These things are our camera!” Light said.