APTnovel Chapter 209 Significant Progress
Chapter 209 Significant Progress
Hearing Lu Ran's suggestion, Zhou Xiaoou was both pleasantly surprised and impressed. As expected of the designer of "That Rabbit," his idol, Lu Ran's casual remark made him feel that he had learned a lot. He quickly wrote it down in his notebook.
Lu Ran walked around the conference room again, carefully examining each design drawing.
The more he looked at it, the more reliable he felt the project was.
"Oh, right, there's something else." He suddenly remembered something, "Since we're going to use your roles, we need to formally sign a cooperation agreement."
Zhou Xiaoou was taken aback: "An agreement?"
"Yes," Lu Ran said, "Let's do a joint collaboration under the names of Xingyao Animation and Tutu Technology. Xingyao will take a cut of the revenue from your characters used in the game. The specific percentage will be negotiated by our legal department, but there's a condition..."
He paused, then looked at Zhou Xiaoou: "You have to guarantee the quality of these characters; you can't ruin my game."
Zhou Xiaoou took a deep breath and nodded solemnly: "Don't worry, President Lu, I will definitely handle this matter well."
"Okay." Lu Ran patted his shoulder. "I'll have my legal department contact you later. By the way, if you need any support, just let me know. If you need manpower, I'll provide it; if you need money, I'll provide it."
Zhou Xiao'ou thought for a moment: "I don't need it for now, but... Mr. Lu, your game is out, can I play it first?"
Since he was going to use a character he designed himself, Zhou Xiaoou wanted to give it a try.
He is a game enthusiast and also loves martial arts.
Lu Ran laughed: "I'll give it to you first when the beta version comes out."
Lu Ran was in a good mood after leaving the animation club.
This collaboration was something he had planned long ago.
When he became the executive director, he coordinated with the company—he had the authority to initiate cross-departmental collaborative projects, including joint ventures with external companies. As long as it did not harm Xingyao's interests and the profit-sharing ratio was reasonable, the board of directors would generally approve it.
Now it comes in handy.
He took out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Mingzhe:
[The character design is finalized, and it looks pretty good. We'll have the animation department make the 3D models later, so we can directly integrate them into the game.]
Zhou Mingzhe replied instantly:
【Received. We've optimized the online module again. Would you like to give it a try?】
Lu Ran glanced at the time; it was a little past four in the afternoon, so there was still time.
Okay, I'll be right back.
...
Three days later, Zhou Xiaoou's message arrived.
[Mr. Lu, the first batch of models is finished. Would you like to take a look?]
A compressed file is attached.
Lu Ran was eating an apple at his workstation at Tutu Technology when he saw the message. He quickly put down the apple and opened the compressed file.
Several files pop up on the screen: Rainbow Cat.obj, Blue Rabbit.obj, Rainbow Sword.obj, Ice Soul Sword.obj...
He first clicked on the Rainbow Cat model.
After a few seconds of loading, a dashing swordsman appeared on the screen—sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, red robes fluttering in the wind, holding a long rainbow sword, assuming a starting stance.
Lu Ran rotated his viewpoint to observe from various angles.
The model is very detailed; even the texture of the folds in the clothing is clearly visible.
Most importantly, the expressions were captured very accurately.
So handsome, he looks like a game protagonist.
He then opened Blue Rabbit.
Her icy blue dress flowed gracefully, she held the Ice Soul Sword, and her eyes held a cool yet tender gaze.
Lu Ran stared at the screen for three seconds and suddenly understood why Hei Xiaohu was willing to be a simp.
"If this were implemented in the game..." he muttered to himself, "wouldn't players be fighting over who gets to choose it?"
He continued flipping through the pages, and the weapon models were also quite well made.
The flame patterns on the Changhong Sword, the icy texture of the Bingpo Sword, the ferocious and domineering aura of the Black Tiger Blade... every sword is meticulously crafted.
I originally thought it would take a week, but I didn't expect Zhou Xiaoou to finish so quickly.
Lu Ran became more and more satisfied as he looked at it, and forwarded it directly to Zhou Mingzhe with the following message:
The model has arrived; it's ready to be fitted into the game.
Zhou Mingzhe replied instantly:
【Received. Where's the Black Tiger model?】
Lu Ran was taken aback and flipped through the compressed file—there was indeed no Black Tiger, only his weapon.
He sent a message to Zhou Xiaoou:
Where is Black Tiger?
Zhou Xiaoou replied:
[Still in production. The villain is quite complex, so it will take another two days.]
Lu Ran relayed this message to Zhou Mingzhe.
Zhou Mingzhe replied:
[Okay, let's start with the righteous faction. Oh, and for that Black Tiger character, let's set a weapon first. The Black Tiger Knife is pretty eye-catching anyway, we can adjust the animations here first.]
Half an hour later, Zhou Mingzhe sent another message:
[It's trapped. Do you want to come and take a look?]
Lu Ran stood up and walked towards the technical department's office area.
A group of people surrounded Zhou Mingzhe's workstation, all staring at his screen.
On the screen is a simple training ground with a grid pattern on the ground and a gray background, but in the middle stands a person—Rainbow Cat.
Although it's still a gray model, the actual model has been fully fitted. Holding the Long Rainbow Sword, his red robes fluttering, he exudes a commanding presence.
It looks much better than the version from a few days ago.
"Try moving it and see," Lu Ran said.
Zhou Mingzhe operated the keyboard, and Rainbow Cat began to run, jump, and draw its sword.
Light attacks, heavy attacks, combos, ultimate moves...
Every movement is fluid and natural, and the model's movements and weapons are perfectly matched.
"Holy crap..." an intern muttered, "Did we really make this?"
Another intern chimed in, "He looks even cooler than the characters in those martial arts games on the market."
Zhou Mingzhe also laughed and said, "The motion data was readily available, and the model was made by the animation department. We just plugged it in. Strictly speaking, we didn't create it ourselves."
"Brother Zhou, can you not be so serious?" Lu Ran said, half-laughing and half-crying. "Can't we just let everyone have a good time?"
Zhou Mingzhe thought for a moment and then changed his mind, saying, "Okay, we made it. Although the core parts were done by others, we pieced together what others had done, and that's a skill in itself."
Everyone: "..."
Lu Ran decided not to argue with this straight man and moved closer to the screen to observe it carefully.
"How's the transition between movements?" he asked.
Zhou Mingzhe pulled up a video: "Look, this is a combo performed by the tester. A+A+forward A+backward A+upward A, no lag at all, the transitions are very natural. Latency testing has also been done, the local area network has been optimized to within 10 milliseconds, and cross-network optimization is still underway."
Lu Ran nodded. The results this time were a huge improvement over when he tried it a few days ago. Lu Ran felt that as long as the cross-network latency issue was resolved, it would be ready to be released.
I watched for a while longer.
Suddenly, he pointed to the screen: "Here, when the heavy attack lands, there's a slight stutter."
Zhou Mingzhe pushed up his glasses and replayed the video at a slower speed.
Sure enough, just as Lu Ran said, there was a slight pause in the model during the frame where the heavy impact landed, which was almost unnoticeable unless you looked closely.
"This is the key point," Lu Ran said. "The soul of an action game is smoothness; there can't be the slightest lag."
Zhou Mingzhe made a note in his notebook: "I asked the animation team to optimize it."
"And another thing," Lu Ran continued, "the special effects for the ultimate skill haven't been added yet, right?"
"No, we'll do it all at once once all the models are in place."
"Okay." Lu Ran patted his shoulder. "Take your time, no rush. Quality comes first."
After all, this is the first large-scale game, so there will definitely be many problems. Lu Ran is not in a hurry and will take it slow. Anyway, the animation has not been released yet.
As Lu Ran left the technical department, he suddenly remembered something—
The second round of auditions for "Super Girl" seems to have ended today.
...