December 27, Preavista, Santa Monica Studio.

As the core studio of SN, Santa Monica Studio has moved from Santa Monica to Preavista, but the name of the studio has not changed.

Santa Monica, which is tech-centric, now provides technical guidance and support to other development teams under SN in addition to its own development work, and has been working on game incubation in recent years.

The development of triple-A masterpieces that can achieve great prestige and financial returns is certainly at their core, but the unique company culture also makes them willing to become some artistic *** or indie game incubators. This philosophy originated with the founder of Santa Monica and has been passed down to this day.

Many developers of excellent indie games with ideas have received help from Santa Monica, including funding, technology, office space, etc., to incubate a number of excellent projects.

In the first half of the year, the new work of Santa Monica's core IP "God of War" once again achieved brilliant achievements, both in terms of word-of-mouth and sales, marking that Santa Monica's exploration over the years has achieved certain results.

Over the years, Santa Monica has been exploring whether this era prefers light casual games or triple-A titles, and they have made several different genres. But the success of the new God of War is a sign that triple-A is the real signature of this studio.

The 200-plus game development studio now has just a handful of people, and the Christmas holiday continues until after the New Year, when almost all of its employees go back to their families.

Of course, there are a few exceptions, and the head of the engine team, Rudolf Müller, remains in the studio today. Knowing by his name that he is German or German, Rudolf Müller, who is in his forties, has been working in Santa Monica for nearly ten years, a veteran employee, and has basically booked the position of technical director.

"Hi, Rudolph."

Rudolf Müller, who was staring at the screen, turned his head and was greeted by artistic director Odell Albert.

"Didn't you go on vacation?" Rudolph asked, somewhat surprised, that Odell Albert was a man with a family who lived with his wife and two children, rather than being alone.

Odell shrugged his shoulders and said, "The vacation plan has been canceled because of something, and there are always a lot of surprises in life. ”

Rudolph was noncommittal.

Odell Albert apparently wasn't just here to say hello, he pulled a USB stick out of his pocket, threw it to Rudolph, and said, "Hey, look at this." ”

Rudolph looked at the USB flash drive with some confusion, plugged him into the computer, and asked, "What is this?" ”

Odell didn't answer, just motioned for Rudolph to point to the file.

There were three videos in the folder, and Rudolph opened a video file, which turned out to be a game video.

After only a few seconds of viewing, Rudolph frowned and stared at the computer screen seriously.

The video was not long, only three minutes, and after watching it, Rudolph did not speak, and immediately clicked on the other two videos.

"Any thoughts?" Odell asked.

"Amazing picture, whose work?" Rudolph's voice was a little serious.

"Futuristic Oasis, a new studio, this is their new project. Just announced. Odell replied.

"Haven't you heard of any company's own, MS?" Rudolph is clearly not well-informed, or he hasn't paid attention to these things these days.

"Not owned by any company, an indie game development studio."

Odell's answer was clearly beyond Rudolph's expectations, and he exclaimed, "How is it possible, this is crazy. ”

Odell didn't comment on this, but said, "Evaluate this footage if it's not a fake." ”

Rudolph nodded, re-watched all three videos, and said: "Yuansheng 4K resolution is not a difficult point, in fact, we have a very mature technology accumulation in this regard." The performance of this generation of consoles has been exploited to the fullest, and interpolation technology is required, but on the new generation of consoles, the source 4K resolution must be standard. ”

Santa Monica is a first-party studio owned by SN, and their work is also released on SN's game consoles. Console games can be optimized for better targeting than complex PC environments. But again, the PC can upgrade the hardware, but the console is at a disadvantage in this regard.

"You know I don't want to ask that." Odell said.

After all, 4K has long become a trend, and large manufacturers have accumulated a lot of experience in the application of 4K, which is no longer a new thing.

"The large-scale application of 4K textures is really a crazy project." Rudolph sighed.

"Originally, I thought that this kind of project would be led by us in Santa Monica, but I didn't expect someone to take the lead."

"Rate their level." Odell was succinct and to the point.

"Personally, I think there's something about it and the full 4K textures are appealing enough, but in the actual gaming experience, using low-resolution textures on small objects is a bad thing. You know, as a project, we have to compromise on budget and schedule. ”

"But that's enough for us to admire, amazing technical power, are they PC games? What is the purpose of the development of this game, to help Factory N sell graphics cards, or is it just to show off skills? ”

There have been quite a few games like this in the history of gaming, and the mainstream configuration has completely failed to run. For example, "Crysis 1" was called a graphics crisis after its release, and even the demand for computer performance from the light and shadow effects that had been emasculated in the official version exceeded the mainstream configuration at that time.

"Crysis 1" is a violent picture piled up with various violent algorithms, in the Crysis series, only one generation can be called a graphics crisis, and the subsequent works are not as good as one generation. It can be said that most of today's game graphics have not undergone revolutionary changes compared to "Crysis 1".

You know, it's a '07 game.

Odell shrugged and said, "They're mysterious, and that's all we have right now. ”

Rudolph watched the video again and said, "If it weren't for the serious flooding, then their engine was really amazing." I'll focus on them, I don't know what kind of configuration will be able to run this game when it's officially released. ”

Odell was concerned about another question, asking, "Rudolph, I just want to know now if our Origin can reach this level." ”

Origin, a brand new engine made for a new game in Santa Monica, decided to take something existing to a new peak when VR wasn't going well.

Origin is a product of this idea, 4K picture output, 4K texture application, smooth loading of complex landscapes, and object destruction. It can be said that the expressiveness in "The Lost Secret Land" is the goal of Santa Monica's development of Origin.

"I don't know where they've gotten now, but they're at most one step ahead of our Origin. A picture of 100 points and a picture of 90 points will not have a decisive effect, we are Santa Monica, in addition to Origin, there are countless excellent designers, there is God of War, and there is a new generation of consoles with SN. ”

Rudolph Mueller looked at Odell and said, "I'll keep a close eye on their project, and Origin will never put Santa Monica to shame." ”