She just didn't say anything, and everyone was smart enough not to ask.
Now that the game is a success, at least for an amateur team, reaching this stage of development is already a great success... How can we let that go?!
"Never mind," Gao Xiaojie said, standing up with a pale face. "I'm tired. Let them say whatever they want."
When she stood up, she accidentally bumped into a chair and stumbled. Zhan Jing immediately steadied her.
"I'll take her home first," Zhan Jing said. "Don't do anything rash, there's always a solution." Then she helped Gao Xiaojie out the door, and Gao Xiaojie almost tripped on the threshold when they reached the door.
Seeing Gao Xiaojie like this, everyone felt a pang of heartache. Chen Xu slammed his fist on the table: "Damn it! We absolutely can't let this go!"
Chapter 56 of the main text: RPG Game Maker
A bunch of guys discussed it back and forth, but couldn't come up with any feasible or effective solutions. They even brought in a few law students for advice, and they said it was completely unavoidable; they were skirting the law, and what they said wasn't wrong. But their priorities were different, so there was nothing they could do. Even the International Journalists' Code wouldn't be violated.
Haven't you seen those idiotic Western journalists reporting on the US military's entry into Iraq, claiming that the Iraqi people lined the streets to welcome them? And there were even photos? But that was only a tiny minority; the vast majority were people marching and protesting. There's a clause in journalist regulations that prohibits fabrication, but allows for personal opinions and perspectives.
If you really want to sue them, you can win, but at most you'll get them to retract the news and apologize. But first, consider whether it's worth it.
A mere animal asks why it's not worth it?
The law student wiped his brow and said, "Do you know how long it takes to go to court in China? Especially online, the process of gathering evidence can be incredibly troublesome. And before you go to court, think about yourselves first. Even though everyone's just messing around with knock-off culture, it's still copyright infringement if you really investigate... Did you not pay Lao Jin royalties when his book was adapted into a game? Unauthorized use of other games' visuals and characters is also copyright infringement, and it's much easier for them to retaliate than for you to do so!"
Everyone deflated at those words. They all looked like defeated roosters. The law student even specifically mentioned that this kind of self-promotion through suppressing others is commonplace, especially targeting people like you without connections or backing. He added, "I know the guys in the computer interest group are pretty powerful. Don't be fooled by the size of this website; you could probably easily smear it if you wanted to. But that would just give them more grounds. Maybe the next day when their website is back up, they'll slap another label on you, saying you've gone from 'copycat' to 'capitalist.' Then a summons will come through, and their self-promotion will be completely achieved, leaving you as the scapegoats."
Hearing this, the group of guys were so frustrated they wanted to bang their heads against the wall, and Chen Xu's face was also frighteningly gloomy. A few of the older guys said, "Let's go drink, let's think about how to kill these bastards," while Chen Xu and Wu Yuan, being newbies who couldn't hold their liquor, went back to their dorms first.
Back in the dorm, after showering, it was almost ten o'clock. For once, Chen Xu didn't fall into a deep sleep. Instead, he and Wu Yuan lay on the bed, cursing at each other, much to the bewilderment of Qin Xiao'an and Dong Qingjie. Finally, after figuring out what had happened, the two were also furious. Dong Qingjie's expression was particularly strange; he tried to make a call but dialed several times without actually dialing, leaving everyone wondering what he was up to.
The cursing subsided, and soon Wu Yuan's snoring could be heard. It seemed he was quite tired and a little tipsy from playing all afternoon. Chen Xu also put on his headphones and drifted off to sleep.
After entering a deep sleep, Chen Xu continued to enter the virtual reality system, but still felt a little dizzy. Xiao Min explained that this was because the alcohol had numbed his brain, and his body needed to slowly recover and eliminate the alcohol; deep sleep alone was not enough.
Chen Xu went in and played some virtual fighting for a while, but it was more of a venting session than a training session. Today's events had indeed angered the usually calm Chen Xu, even though it didn't really concern him personally—he had only participated in a test. The problem was, it was disgusting; these days, some people will do anything for fame.
Moreover, this wasn't entirely unrelated. Chen Xu's consistent principle was that it was fine if his own brothers bullied him, but if others bullied them, that was a diplomatic dispute. Wu Yuan had also put in a lot of effort for this game, disappearing like a ghost for half a month straight. And there were other buddies too; although they called each other "beast" all the time, they were still friends who had drunk together, so how could they just let it go like that?
But to be honest, this problem is really hard to solve.
I just chatted with Wu Yuan for a while. He said the reason that single-player game website dared to bully them like this was because they had no backing or connections. If it were a game company with some real strength, they wouldn't dare to be so arrogant.
There are probably only two ways to solve this problem. One is to find someone with more connections to pressure those jerks on the single-player game website and force them to retract the news and apologize... but that's probably unlikely, since where would those students get such powerful connections? The second is to assemble a professional development team, hire an artist, and completely perfect the game, then create an impact before slapping those jerks on the single-player game website in the face.
However, this possibility is even smaller. A game like this, with thousands of scenes, thousands of characters, and martial arts moves, would require an unimaginable amount of manpower and resources to create. Moreover, art design is different from game development. Game developers are mainly driven by interest, using fixed game editors for editing, and they don't need to spend money on it.
But graphic designers take a long time to draw a single picture and they charge for it. How could our amateur team afford that?
But then Chen Xu's eyes lit up when he thought of graphic design... It's just graphic design!
Beautiful pictures, cool character designs—Xiaomin should have all that information, right? Just pull it out from here. As long as it's a character image that hasn't appeared before, it'll be fine, right? It won't infringe on any copyrights, will it?!
He asked Xiaomin, and she said there was no problem. Then she brought up a bunch of character images and gorgeous scenes... well, they were all in 3D, which made Chen Xu dizzy.
There were thousands upon thousands of character images, each a handsome man and a beautiful woman. Of course, Chen Xu automatically ignored the handsome man, and only glanced at the group of beauties a few times before giving up… he couldn't look anymore! In the virtual world, these characters were almost infinitely realistic; aside from being so perfectly beautiful they seemed inhuman, they were practically indistinguishable from real people. Even Guan Yi and Gao Xiaojie, standing among these beauties, would probably feel inferior.
Chen Xu felt that if he looked at these beautiful women a few more times, he would probably have to rely on his left and right hands to "get wet with lust" for the rest of his life... It was simply making him lose all desire for the real world!
But Chen Xu was quickly met with another setback. These characters were all 3D, and while it allowed for lower image quality import, the game engine Wu Yuan and his team used was simply too inferior. That crappy 2D game engine couldn't possibly meet these requirements. Besides, if he took so many beautiful assets out, wouldn't people question their origin?
Chen Xu suddenly felt somewhat dejected again. Putting everything else aside, the thought of letting these beautiful women enter that kind of garbage engine felt like a blasphemy against them.
“You can try this software,” Xiaomin said, seeing Chen Xu muttering to himself. She understood what Chen Xu needed by judging from the keywords. “It’s a user-friendly game creation software released in 2050, RPG Game Creation Master.”
Chen Xu's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing the date: "You mean, I can make my own games using this software?"
"It can be used to make RPG games because it was developed by a team of RPG game enthusiasts, which is perfect for your current use."
"Just right... what does that mean?"
"You need to view this on the PC platform. Would you like to exit the current Virtual Reality BC platform and open the PC platform?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Xu hesitated. In the virtual reality system, to outsiders, he was simply sleeping, and no one would know what he was doing inside. But on a PC platform, everything would be exposed. What if one of Wu Yuan, Qin Xiao'an, or Lao Dong got up to pee in the middle of the night? Wouldn't that expose them all at once?
Thinking about this, Chen Xu felt that the dormitory was still not safe enough. He checked the time and it was 1 a.m. Chen Xu thought for a moment, put on his clothes, and got up. He tiptoed out of the dormitory.
That's a major drawback of Hexie University; the dormitory doors are locked at night. Although Chen Xu could wake up the dormitory supervisor, Old Zhang, he didn't want to make a scene. It was best to keep it quiet and unnoticed.
Chen Xu ran to the rooftop with the supercomputer. At this time of year, the rooftop was practically deserted. The rooftops of the Hexie University dormitories were generally used for drying blankets. There were many things resembling horizontal bars on the roof, and on sunny days, the students would rush up to air their blankets. If you looked carefully, you might even find a few blankets with maps drawn on them…
Of course, there are also careless ones. For example, Chen Xu ran up and saw that there were still a few quilts hanging here that hadn't been taken back.
The wind was quite strong on the rooftop at night, but the city's summers were indeed very hot, so the evening breeze felt quite comfortable. Chen Xu opened his laptop and, following Xiao Min's instructions, opened the "RPG Game Maker" software.
"Technological products from 2050!" Chen Xu's eyes gleamed with excitement. "A game made with this kind of software would make those bastards on the single-player game website ashamed as ostriches."
With excitement, Chen Xu entered the software interface...
Chapter 57 of the main text is indeed just right...
This "RPG Game Maker" is a very user-friendly software. When Chen Xu opened the software to create a character, he thought he had accidentally clicked on the legendary "artificial girl"...
The most important aspect of designing a 3D character is creating the model, commonly known as 3D modeling. 3D modeling is an extremely complex and demanding process. Besides the meticulous attention to detail required for the character's appearance, there's also the crucial task of designing the character's animations. Generally speaking, creating a good character model is definitely not something one person can accomplish overnight.
However, this "RPG Game Maker" has an independent modeling program, just like the classic H-game artificial girl, which allows you to set the character's height, appearance, clothes, and even actions. It's user-friendly and easy to understand.
However, this simplicity is relative. Even with such convenient software, it's impossible to create a truly exquisite character. Setting up a single character's appearance can take ages… To put it simply, there are 30,000 possible eye models, 80,000 possible face shapes, and then there are the nose, mouth, hairstyle, and so on… Combining them all can drive you crazy!
Although there is an optimized configuration that can automatically create a decent look, you still need to make fine adjustments yourself if you want to achieve the best results.
Moreover, what puzzled Chen Xu was that although the 3D character looked quite exquisite and beautiful, it just felt ordinary.
Well, to say it's just average is a bit unfair; the character designs are quite realistic. At the very least, the graphics quality far surpasses that of the Final Fantasy X series.
The graphics engine of this quality is almost at the level of the world's top single-player games! Any player who sees this kind of graphics will be amazed... but Chen Xu still felt it wasn't enough.
It wasn't that Chen Xu was greedy, but... this is software produced in 2050! 2050 is technology from more than forty years in the future!
Look at the Final Fantasy series. How much has the technology improved in the last ten years? The graphics have become more realistic and stunning with each generation. Surely, the 3D technology more than forty years later should at least achieve a level where it's indistinguishable from reality? But why is it only at this level? It's no exaggeration to say that current technology can already produce this kind of graphics! It's only a few years ahead of the industry average.
Is this the 3D engine we have more than 40 years later?
Chen Xu asked Xiaomin this question, and Xiaomin replied, "Although this software was released in 2050, its technical content is very low because it was just a product developed by some game enthusiasts and is completely free to use. It was once very popular and loved by game DIY enthusiasts. Compared with the software popular in this era, it is roughly equivalent to Photoshop's position in image editing software; it is a mainstream software."
Upon seeing this, Chen Xu couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. So that's what happened?
Speaking of which, Chen Xu also thought of another software... also called "RPG Game Maker," only a modern version. Chen Xu had downloaded it and played it when he was bored out of his mind, and the game graphics he created were comparable to those of an 8-bit NES game...
So this software is still being updated! Chen Xu recalled Xiao Min's earlier comment, "Now is the perfect time," and thought to himself, "It really is the perfect time. I reckon that in another two years, even if this software isn't obsolete, it won't be able to keep up with the mainstream."
Entering the game production process, Chen Xu spent a full hour just creating a protagonist model before he was even slightly satisfied. He thought to himself that making a game was indeed not easy. Even though he had a cheat code, it was still so troublesome.
It's not surprising, really; fine-tuning character designs is inherently a troublesome task. Using pre-made character models would be convenient for Chen Xu, but creating his own would be difficult. For characters in Jin Yong's novels, there are already well-established 3D character models available on the computer. However, in the setting of Jin Yong's Heroes of the Three Kingdoms, the protagonist is always an outsider, so a separate model must be created for him.
Other characters like Huang Rong, Xiaolongnu, and Wang Yuyan require almost no modification. Their appearances already perfectly capture the public's perception of these characters from the books. This is one of the advantages of 3D cartoon characters; these women are all portrayed as ruthless and destructive figures, the kind who could easily bring ruin to a country and manipulate its rulers. Where in reality can you find actresses with that level of charisma and presence?
However, making this game wouldn't be easy. With its massive plot, various maps, and martial arts moves, Chen Xu felt it would be a long time before he could finish it. And Xiao Min couldn't help with this at all, which only fueled Chen Xu's frustration.
After getting into character, Chen Xu stood up and patted his bottom. Hmm, sitting on the cold cement floor was a bit unpleasant. He stretched, lit a cigarette... Tsk tsk, Chen Xu felt that his current image was extremely melancholic, just like that kind of artsy young man who, after a breakup, stayed up late at night and went to the rooftop to get himself beaten up...
Chen Xu's dormitory building, Building 14, was newly built a couple of years ago. It's ten stories high and basically has a commanding view of the entire building in Hefei University. From the top floor, you can see the seven girls' dormitories in the distance. So Chen Xu leaned against the railing and looked towards Building 7... Actually, he didn't intend to look at anything in particular. Chen Xu's gaze was rather blind, because behind Building 7 was the sports field, where the view was quite open.
But after taking a look, Chen Xu felt something was wrong. Chen Xu's eyesight was actually very good, because he had always sat in the back row since he was a child, and both of his eyes were 5.0.
At that moment, he vaguely saw someone sitting on the balcony of Building 7.
Chen Xu rubbed his eyes. Although there was a moon at night, the visibility was still not high. However, it really looked like there was a person sitting on the balcony. It looked like he would fall off at any moment if he leaned forward.
Chen Xu quickly transformed Xiao Min into a DV camera and looked in that direction through the lens. Because the DV camera mode can adjust the focus and has infrared night vision, it can be used as a makeshift telescope, even clearer than a regular telescope.
This sight almost made Chen Xu drop the DV camera he was holding onto the building!
The person sitting on the balcony was none other than Gao Xiaojie!
Is she going to commit suicide?
Chen Xu couldn't suppress the thought, and then took out his phone to call Zhan Jing, only to find that Zhan Jing's number wasn't on his phone. He then tried to call Guan Yi, but the woman's phone was switched off!
Chen Xu searched and found Gao Xiaojie's phone number on his phone. So Chen Xu quickly dialed her number. As soon as the call connected, he blurted out, "Damn it, sis! Let's talk this out, don't try to kill yourself!"
There was a moment of silence on the other end, then Chen Xu quickly started nagging, "It's just a game, isn't it? There's nothing to be upset about. There are ways to help you, so what's bothering you? Don't do anything stupid, don't jump off a building!"
Gao Xiaojie's puzzled voice came from the other end of the phone: "What the hell? What happened to me? I didn't mean to jump off a building."
"Huh?" Chen Xu was taken aback. He picked up the DV camera and looked at it again. Sure enough, it was Gao Xiaojie on the other end, and she seemed to be on the phone. Chen Xu shouted, "Why did you climb so high instead of jumping off a building?!"
Gao Xiaojie, where are you? How did you know I climbed so high?
Seeing her looking around so intently, Chen Xu felt a chill run down his spine. What if she accidentally swayed and fell? He quickly called out, "Stop looking around! Come down quickly! Be careful! Don't fall!"
Gao Xiaojie suddenly burst out laughing and said, "Are you on your rooftop right now? What are you doing up here in the middle of the night? And am I going to kill myself sitting here? Please, there's a big balcony below me, even if I fall headfirst off right now, I'll be fine!"
"Huh?" Chen Xu was stunned, and after a long while, he said, "You really don't want to jump off the building?"
"How could that be? Do I look like such a fragile person to you?"
Hearing Gao Xiaojie's usual cheerful tone, Chen Xu realized it wasn't the despair and farewell tone of someone contemplating suicide. A friend of Chen Xu's from high school had committed suicide, dying in her own bathroom tub by cutting her wrists. After cutting her wrists, she even picked up the phone to say goodbye to a close friend, a girl in the class next to Chen Xu's, the quiet type who wasn't close to Chen Xu. Later, Chen Xu heard from that friend that she felt terrified when she heard the girl's voice on the phone; it was clearly devoid of any hope or life. Although Chen Xu hadn't heard that voice herself, she could imagine it. It was completely different from Gao Xiaojie's tone now.
Gao Xiaojie chuckled and said, "Hey, I really didn't realize you were so cute."
Chen Xu rolled her eyes. Cute? Sister, please don't joke about things like this next time!
Gao Xiaojie said I was just feeling very confused and wanted to be alone. What about you? Why are you up on the roof in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?
Chen Xu heard that she sounded really okay, so he said that it was too hot in the dormitory and he couldn't sleep, so he went up to the roof to catch mosquitoes.
Gao Xiaojie chuckled and then said something quite inexplicable, which surprised Chen Xu as well.
She said:
Thanks.
Chapter 58 of the main text: You have one month, SMMH reappears!
Upon hearing her say those words, Chen Xu immediately tensed up.
He remembered watching a Korean drama where the female lead inexplicably said "thank you" and then jumped off a building. Realizing the situation was similar, Chen Xu nervously asked, "What are you thanking me for? Come down first."