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After signing the contract with DPD, the porting of the "Resident Evil" GAME OMNI version was put on the agenda.

According to the technical documents provided by DPD, it is basically not difficult to port FPS games to GAME OMNI. It is nothing more than changing some input methods from keyboard and mouse/handle to universal treadmill and firearm simulator.

However, there were some problems in other aspects.

The biggest feature of GAME OMNI is that you can view the content from a full 360-degree perspective. For a game like "Resident Evil", the horror experience will indeed be geometrically improved.

But this also means that more video information must be output to the wrap-around display, including 360-degree information around the player, and the picture must not be distorted.

Moreover, some specific transition plots of "Resident Evil" on the PC side also need to be modified. For example, in a certain scene, the player is walking forward, and a zombie or a zombie dog suddenly appears behind him, rushing up to scare the player by surprise .

If the field of view is on a PC or console, the player cannot see the back, and the monster refresh is completed in an instant, and it will definitely not be revealed; but if it is on the GAME OMNI, it is not ruled out that some players who are walking forward turn their heads back If you look backwards, then there is a very low chance that something will be revealed - the player happens to see a monster appear out of thin air.

Of course, these problems are also easy to solve. It is nothing more than re-planning the spawning position of the monsters, so that the monsters appear outside the player's field of vision as much as possible, and then run over.

Another point is that the perspective of the game also needs to be modified.

The original game is an over-the-shoulder perspective, which has many advantages, but the meaning of GAME OMNI is to allow players to experience the game from a first-person perspective. Therefore, the GAME OMNI version of "Resident Evil" must be first-person.

But there is a special case, that is, when the player is attacked by zombies, there will be special animations, such as falling to the ground, counterattacking with a knife, death, etc., which are basically impossible to display in the first-person perspective.

Because the player is standing in reality, what is displayed on the screen is a 360-degree picture in the horizontal direction around the player. If the player is thrown down by a zombie, his field of vision will change from looking straight ahead to looking at the sky. If the whole picture changes accordingly, it will look very strange.

So Zhong Ming’s solution is that when this special animation occurs, such as when the player falls to the ground or is controlled by a zombie and counterattacks with a knife, the camera will automatically pull back, and the player is like a ghost floating behind the character. See the action of the character counterattack, and return to the first perspective after the action is over.

This feeling is basically the same as the first-person/third-person perspective switching in many games. It will not make players feel incomprehensible or unnatural, but it will help keep the player's field of vision always stable and improve the game experience.

The player's movement method still adopts the same movement method as "Road to the Gun God", that is, step on a specific walking area with your feet to walk in that direction.

Zhong Ming is also considering a better mobile method, but that means the transformation of the entire hardware, and it is impossible for Zhong Ming to let DPD company change the form of the product for himself. optimization scheme.

The cooperation with GAME OMNI this time is also equivalent to Zhong Ming's exploration of FPS games. If it proves to be popular with players, then whether to make GAME OMNI or continue to develop similar games is an alternative path.

...

On December 2, the trial version of "Resident Evil" will be launched soon.

On the side of Shimmer Studios, hurry up and hurry up, and finally there is no missed ticket. The version of GAME OMNI has also been successfully ported and pre-installed.

That is to say, every time a GAME OMNI is sold, players can find a trial version of "Resident Evil" on the machine. It may sound cruel, but for GAME OMNI, this is a good addition to the game library. After all, "Resident Evil" is currently the first zombie-themed horror game to be put on GAME OMNI.

On the Internet, many players are waiting for the release of the trial version of "Resident Evil", and a small number of players who have already purchased GAME OMNI equipment are also looking forward to it.

After the global release of GAME OMNI, the pre-sale sales reached about 100,000. It's not high, but it's not low either. It's better than Zhong Ming expected.

In 2016, the annual sales volume of HTC VIVE, a VR device that sold more than 10,000 yuan in Zhong Ming’s previous life, even reached 400,000 units. It is normal for GAME OMNI to sell more than this.

Because the experience of Zhong Ming’s VR helmet in his previous life is actually not good, and there are very few playable content, but the experience of GAME OMNI is relatively more mature, whether it is moving, shooting or the performance of the entire game screen, it is not inferior at all. It is on the PC side, and this thing can play "Road to the Gunslinger", which means that more FPS games will be transplanted in the future. In any case, it is much more reliable than Zhong Ming's previous VR helmet.

At noon, Lao Jin started broadcasting.

After coming back from the anchor competition last time, Lao Jin also gained a wave of fans because of his outstanding performance. After the GAME OMNI that he won in the game was delivered, Lao Jin often praised this device to the audience in the live broadcast room, and also used it to play games. A few "Road to Gunslinger", but because GAME OMNI players can only match GAME OMNI players, it does not support interoperability with "Road to Gunslinger" on the PC for the time being, so relatively few people play it, the audience Just to watch the fun.

The current GAME OMNI is still a device that tends to be experienced by oneself, and the effect of live broadcast is relatively average.

Currently, the most widely used live broadcast method is signal conversion, that is, the image that the player sees is the image directly in front of the anchor, and at the same time, the anchor will use the camera to take pictures of his actions and display them to the audience as a small window.

This is actually not difficult technically. The only problem is how to determine the current orientation of the anchor. This point is not perfectly solved by GAME OMNI, because this set of equipment does not have a head-mounted display. Naturally, it is impossible to determine which direction the anchor is looking at. —Maybe he is walking forward and looking back at the same time, GAME OMNI can't tell.

Therefore, GAME OMNI can only estimate a general direction based on a certain algorithm based on factors such as the player's moving direction, foot position, and muzzle pointing, and judge the position of the player's chest. The screens you see do not overlap.

However, after all, most people are used to looking ahead, and it takes only a moment to turn their heads, so in most cases, this live broadcast solution is still reliable.

Lao Jin played two games of "Road to the Gunslinger" on the computer and checked the time.

"Okay, it seems that the trial version of "Resident Evil" is ready to play, let's play that for a while."

When he exited, he glanced at it. It seemed that there were many anchors who bought GAME OMNI on the live broadcast website and were preparing to broadcast "Resident Evil".

"I heard it's a horror game, exciting!"

"The theme of zombies is not particularly popular, but it should be okay to pass the time for fun."

"I don't know how the adaptation of "Resident Evil" is done on GAME OMNI, but playing horror games with this kind of equipment...it should be particularly sour, right?"

"Hahaha, I really want to see Lao Jin urinate in fear."

"Lao Jin was scared to pee? You think too much. Other anchors may not be used to playing this game, but Lao Jin certainly won't. His marksmanship with GAME OMNI is not much different from that of a keyboard and mouse. He can do whatever he wants with a good marksmanship!"

Lao Jin uses special software on the computer to connect the computer and GAME OMNI, and then pulls an additional data cable. Because the precision of the video transmitted on GAME OMNI is extremely high, if you only use wireless connection, it may cause occasional freezes in the picture, so you still have to use a data cable.

Fortunately, GAME OMNI comes with its own cable.

After everything was done, Lao Jin entered GAME OMNI, buckled the bracket around his waist on the universal treadmill, and the large wrap-around screen slowly lowered down.

At present, there are only three games on GAME OMNI, except for "Road to Gunslinger", the other two are only recently updated. The content of the trial version of "Resident Evil" Lao Jin has been downloaded in advance, but it is only now that he can enter and officially start playing.

In order to confirm the effect of the live broadcast, Lao Jin is used to wearing a bracelet to check the pictures in his live broadcast room at any time.

Now the live broadcast room shows the screen directly in front of Lao Jin, which probably captures a part of the original 360-degree surround screen, removes distortion and stretching, and puts it on a conventional display device. Because the information is not collected according to Lao Jin's field of vision, the picture in the live broadcast room is very stable without any jitter, which is good news for the audience.

Like many anchors in Zhong Ming’s previous life, when live broadcasting VR games, the camera would shake violently with the anchor’s head, especially for some games that required frequent turning of the head to check the surroundings. Live streaming is poor.

GAME OMNI is obviously much better in this respect.

Lao Jin took off the long gun simulator on the bracket, pulled the trigger on the big game icon of "Resident Evil", and officially entered the game.

The capacity of the trial version is less than one-tenth of that of the official version. As long as normal players are not too handicapped, they can basically clear the level in about half an hour.

After entering the game, Lao Jin found himself in the login scene of the game.

Lao Jin is surrounded by the main entrance of the Raccoon City Police Station that once appeared in the promotional film. The vehicles on the side of the road are burning with raging fire, and the screams of zombies can be heard in the distance. It seems that there is a zombie bending over in the shadow on the right front Eating human corpses. Surrounded by large screens and stereo sound, this terrifying atmosphere was instantly revealed.

Of course, this scene is a landing scene, and it is absolutely safe. Those zombies will not rush to attack the player, it is just to add some horror atmosphere.

"This atmosphere is well done."

Lao Jin couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

He is not a loyal player of horror games, he just likes horror games that are frightened + run away, Lao Jin doesn't particularly like them, but if it is horror + shooting, then he likes it more.

Looking far away, you can still vaguely see the outlines of skyscrapers on the edge of the city. Everything is hidden under the night. It should be a brightly lit city, but at this time there are only a few lonely lights on. It's like a dead city.

The options of the trial version are also very simple, there are only three options: [Start Game], [Mall] and [Options].

Lao Jin pressed the trigger on [Start Game] with the long gun simulator.

The operation of this part outside is somewhat similar to the handle experience of many VR games. There will be an obvious mark on the screen where the muzzle of the long gun simulator points to help players click more accurately on this interface, just like the VR handle. as a virtual line. However, the accuracy of the long gun simulator is much higher, and no correction is required.

After entering the game, the surrounding scenes gradually darkened, and a line of prompts appeared on the screen directly in front of him, which seemed to be the summary of the previous story of the game.

"The rookie policeman Leon S. Kennedy originally planned to fill up his gas at the gas station on the outskirts of the city for the last time and take a break, but he found himself surrounded by a large group of zombies."

"Leon worked hand in hand with his new friend Claire Redfield and finally arrived in Raccoon City, but a sudden accident separated the two again."

"Leon walked through the dangerous streets and finally arrived at the Raccoon City Police Station, but is he safe?"

[Important note: This story takes place in a parallel time and space, bringing it into the world of the game as much as possible will allow you to survive longer. 】

This preface is to briefly introduce the background of the previous story to the players, because the trial version starts directly from the police station, and players may be confused after entering. When the official version is released, this plot will be fully displayed in the form of game scenes + cutscene CG, and such blunt text prompts will no longer appear.

For this "important reminder", Lao Jin didn't pay much attention to it. In his understanding, this should be a regular reminder of the game, which roughly means that some content in the game may be self-consistent within the game world view, but with There is a difference in reality, so players with good leverage should not be picky.

The game officially started. The camera first showed Leon's back, and then pulled forward to enter the character's body, turning into a first-person perspective.

Lao Jin first turned his head 360 degrees to check the surrounding situation.

In the regular game mode, this operation can be completed by moving the mouse, but it is easy to forget where you were originally facing after turning. But in GAME OMNI, because the player turns his head, the orientation of the body will not change, which is more convenient and closer to the real situation in reality.

"The layout of this police station...is a bit unique."

Lao Jin complained, because he saw that the lobby of the police station was too grand, and there was a statue directly opposite. In fact, it is because in the plot, this police station was transformed into a museum, but Lao Jin does not know this now.

A line of prompts appeared on the screen: "You have not obtained a long gun weapon, please use a pistol."

Lao Jin was speechless, so he had no choice but to hang up the long gun, take off the pistol simulator and hold it in his hand.

The pistol also has a front sight on the screen, and there are several special interactive buttons on it to complete some specific operations.

Lao Jin walked to the front desk and picked up some bullets. He found that there was a typewriter in front of him saying that he could archive, but when he walked over, the cutscene was triggered first.

All these operations are done with the interaction button on the pistol simulator. Just use the front sight to roughly align the scene element to be interacted with and click the interaction button. The button is located slightly lower on the left side of the pistol handle Some positions are very convenient to press with your thumb.

After the cutscene is triggered, the game will zoom out the perspective so that the player can clearly see the current action of the character. After the cutscene ends, the game will return to the first-person perspective again.