This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 44: Old Huang, Good Bro!

Dream Building 5 Engine is a new thing.

Everyone is familiar with the fourth-generation engine, but the newly released fifth-generation Dream Building Engine has many game companies still in a wait-and-see mode.

Revolutionary game performance?

The promotional slogan sounds impressive, but major game companies believe that before the actual next-generation game consoles are released, the Dream Building 5 Engine’s slogan is just that—a slogan.

Big companies making AAA games are deeply rooted in the console platform, feeling there’s no rush. They think they can wait for the new next-gen console release to develop an exclusive game.

And those smaller companies not making AAA games are even less in a hurry.

The new features promoted by Dream Building 5, they can’t use them anyway, as the mature Dream Building 4 platform already meets all their needs.

Therefore, a bizarre scene appeared in the gaming industry.

The first game developer to officially announce the use of the Dream Building 5 Engine to develop a new game turned out to be a small studio that had never been heard of before.

Looking at their flagship work...

What on earth are you doing, buddy?

Do you really need the Dream Building 5 Engine? It feels like Dream Building 3 would be enough for you!

No one took the announcement of "Star Emperor" seriously because, in their view, Tianba Studio being the first to use the Dream Building 5 Engine was akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

To truly showcase the power of the Dream Building 5 Engine, they believe it requires AAA titles.

Of course!

Not everyone feels that Tianba Studio can’t use the Dream Building 5 Engine well and is merely trying to make a splash.

NVIDIA, the world’s largest graphics card manufacturer, noticed Tianba in its efforts to promote widespread adoption of its gaming graphics technology.

More precisely, they hope that the first game developed using the Dream Building 5 Engine can support their ray tracing graphics technology and be specially optimized for their graphics cards.

As to whether the game is fun?

That’s not important!

NVIDIA quickly approached Chen Ba with a box of their latest 30-series graphics cards, making their requests.

"Uh-huh?"

Chen Ba, unexpectedly receiving a box of sponsored graphics cards, was a bit confused: "They want us to adopt RTX ray tracing and AI technology platform, fully showcasing the platform’s advantages?"

Since when has Old Huang been so kind-hearted?

The batch of graphics cards delivered was hot on the market—a kind that’s essentially unavailable for purchase, and Old Huang assuredly didn’t send any mining cards.

"The Dream Building 5 Engine is garnering a lot of attention from players, and the new engine has made significant improvements in game graphics."

Yang Dong mused: "With ’Star Emperor’ being one of the first games developed using the Dream Building 5 Engine, it’s natural for NVIDIA to come and ride the wave."

Honestly.

It doesn’t matter if the game is a pile of rubbish; what’s vital is that they want to use the game "Star Emperor" to promote their gaming graphics technology.

That’s very common!

Gaming graphics technology needs the power of game developers for promotion, which is why Old Huang likes to sponsor new games.

Besides, there’s a subtle reason: to perform special optimizations for NVIDIA cards to consolidate its existing market share.

"Isn’t this just perfect!"

Lu chuckled: "Our new game primarily focuses on graphics quality, even if Old Huang didn’t sponsor us, we’d have to go to him for optimizations."

"Exactly!"

Chen Ba nodded.

Old Huang still thought highly of Tianba Studio.

Even without sending this batch of graphics cards, Tianba Studio would still optimize for NVIDIA cards, given NVIDIA’s significant market share.

The Steam Platform once conducted a survey to find out about the computer configurations that players use for gaming.

The results were surprising.

The most commonly used graphics card turned out to be the 1060 series, released many years ago, surpassing the second place by a long shot, with NVIDIA card usage rates far exceeding AMD cards.

In other words.

PC games are primarily dominated by NVIDIA cards now, with only a handful of games providing a better experience with AMD cards.

If Tianba Studio wants to tap into the PC market, even if reluctantly, optimizing for NVIDIA cards is unavoidable; otherwise, players will complain.

However, getting to freeload a box of graphics cards from Old Huang, along with access to extensive game graphics and AI technology, is quite a deal.

Old Huang, a good buddy!

Known for his loyalty, since Chen Ba accepted the graphics cards from Old Huang, he had to perform the tasks requested, or he would feel guilty using the graphics cards.

Old Huang’s requirements were simple, too.

All it involved was showcasing some technology during the promotion of the game "Star Emperor," especially displaying ray tracing and graphics, which needed to be highlighted a lot!

A bit of mutual business promotion!

You praise my game as awesome, I praise your technology as top-notch; we look at each other and laugh, exclaiming that only we are the heroes, leaving the players bewildered.

It was just right; Tianba Studio already planned to make a preview video of "Star Emperor" before the Spring Festival holiday approached.

Old Huang arrived at a perfect time!

The video is essentially a CG animation, not an actual gameplay demonstration.

The game currently only has a broad framework and a few character models, making a real gameplay demo unrealistic—using CG is enough to spark curiosity.

The CG is produced by an outsourcing company.

The content is straightforward, mainly introducing the game’s type and background and highlighting the main selling points.

What’s the selling point?

Of course, the use of Dream Building 5 Engine, backed by RTX platform technology and cool battle scenes created with Oriental fantasy and martial arts aesthetic design.

Since the game is still in its early stages, there’s not much to showcase, so the battle scenes in the CG last only about 10 seconds.

Those ten seconds include only one move!

The protagonist, the Star Emperor, stands tall in the depths of the cosmos, his back to all beings; pointing forward, endless starlight gathers, and where his fingertip falls, the stars are extinguished...

These are effects made for the CG, not real game images.

However, there exists such a skill for the Star Emperor, and conceptually, the skill effect involves gathering starlight at the fingertips, so this CG isn’t entirely fictitious.

"Why is his back turned to everyone?"

"You fool! We haven’t even finished designing the face for the Star Emperor, if he doesn’t turn his back, wouldn’t that expose us?"

As Chen Ba knocked on Lu’s wooden head, he replied with an expression of exasperation: "I bet you even want to ask, where are the Star Emperor’s enemies?"

Forget about it!

The protagonist Star Emperor doesn’t even have his face crafted yet, so how could there be other characters ’showing their faces’?

Just keep his back to everyone.

As long as he doesn’t turn around, who would know that the Great Emperor Venerable doesn’t have eyes, a nose, or a mouth?

The game is at its prototype stage like this.

Once the faces are done and the models are refined, they can almost proceed to make a real demo video where all characters will finally show their faces.

About early access?

Facing his good friend Wang Kun’s message inquiry, Chen Ba considered it for a moment and provided a very vague timeline.

"Earliest by summer, at the latest it’s uncertain, could be fall or maybe next year..."