April 18, 2022N. THE GAME NetEase Game Developer Summit (hereinafter referred to as the "Summit") was held online.
At the art polishing sharing meeting on the third day, Zhou Jiake, senior art manager of NetEase, shared with us the art design of "Ace Racing" on how to push the art design backwards from the game experience, which was rich and interesting.
The following is the technical sharing article of the mobile game that is sorted out, in order to facilitate reading, the content has been partially deleted.
Hello everyone, I am Zhou Jiake, from NetEase Art design center, I am very happy to have the opportunity to share with you about the art of "Ace Racing". To briefly introduce myself, I majored in oil painting in college, and when I was in school, I used to be a professional e-sports player for "StarCraft" because I loved competitive games.
In 2006, he joined the Art Department of NetEase and participated in the art development of many games. In 2017, I joined the brand new Ace Race project with my team.
"Ace Racing" is NetEase's first self-developed racing project, after the launch of the real painting style and refreshing game experience has been recognized by players, so why "Ace Racing" can become the way players experience it today?
Taking this opportunity, I also reviewed the whole process of the project from demo establishment to research and development to online operation. Among them, there have been many pits, but also summarized some experience, I hope to share some reference and inspiration to everyone through this sharing.
First, the real VS not the real, the differences are integrated
Back in 2017, when the company decided to lay out the racing category, we were the first team to join, and we were full of mission and enthusiasm.
However, at that time, for the interior, we lacked the accumulation and reference of relevant development experience, and the external team had formed its own relatively fixed player group because of different racing IP.
So we were more confused at the time, as if we were at a fork in the road, and we didn't know which way to choose. We didn't even know at first whether to focus on racing or to make another type of game with racing elements.
We don't know if we should do open world rides, do quests, collect, cultivate, or race against players on the track.
After a period of swinging and exploration, maybe in our bones we still like the competitive direction of the game, we finally determined the direction of focusing on racing, in order to increase the playability we added an element of entertainment. We believe that we must first make our favorite games to bring players fun.
1. Restore the truth
After setting the direction, we made a certain degree of transformation from the beginning of the track. The early direction was more realistic. We can see from the following figure that the design of the curve is more inclined to the natural landform, more relaxed and irregular, and the map is relatively larger.
Our game is based on drifting through corners, accumulating nitrogen, and releasing big moves to gain buffs. Therefore, more corners need to be designed to cope with the drifting technique.
You can see the image below (now the map) with more curves, more regularity, and more variety.
Since the requirements of the road are different, the first thing we need is to improve the road construction tools. We have developed a modular road tool in-house that precisely customizes a wide variety of corners to make it easy to create a track that matches the gameplay.
Now look at what the track made with this tool looks like? Whether it feels a little monotonous, in fact, from the level of pure levels, it is close to completion.
It is theoretically possible to practice skills and race on such a path, but it is clear that the experience of the card alone is incomplete. We want players to have an immersive environment and atmosphere when they play the game experience. So how do you make an immersive track?
The answer is to restore the real and try to create a real environment atmosphere.
The first thing we think of is to do Hangzhou around us, because it is located in Hangzhou, we are familiar with it, understand it.
Probably because we were immersed in it, we could make an immersive track, so we designed the very iconic landscapes of West Lake, Su Causeway, Longjing and Golden Ball into the game. Among them, Longjing Qingcha is also the first track we made to satisfy ourselves.
Of course, "true" does not mean to restore one hundred and fifty, but to refine and generalize. For example, this road, which is drawn from the Duku Highway, is a war-ready national defense highway and a road that crosses the Tianshan Mountains and connects northern and southern Xinjiang that tens of thousands of officers and men have worked hard for ten years.
Due to the difference in rainfall, different natural landscapes have been formed on the 500-kilometer road, so it is now also called the most beautiful road that spans the four seasons in a day.
We took one of the 60km of roads as a track because it contained a very representative and skill-testing continuous hairpin bend. In fact, in the game, it is only condensed to about 5 kilometers.
We almost just scaled in an equal proportion, preserving the original direction of the road, and then planning and specifying the environment for the track in each section.
But here's a little challenge, we want to achieve 500 kilometers of different natural landscapes in just 5 kilometers of track, and we want to make players feel the four seasons of the day in the game.
Let's take a look at how we do it.
The first section of the starting point we set up in the Gobi area, with a semi-enclosed canyon, not only restore the rugged natural landform, but also the vision is obscured, the player through the canyon will enter a new snow mountainous landform. We use this transition-like technique to connect different environments.
The second section is in the snow-capped mountain area, through an enclosed waterproof corridor, before entering the open lush grassland area. We set the finish line near the Jorma Martyrs' Cemetery, a tribute to the 168 soldiers who gave their lives to build the road, and we named the track The Hero's Trail.
Although our tracks are very rich, some in the sun and in the tunnels, there has been no exposure or darkness. How do we achieve relatively consistent bright images?
In nature, such as in the sun, the pupils of cats will shrink into a slit; in low light, such as indoors or tunnels, they will sell cuteness. Why? Because the light is too dim, the cat will dilate the pupil to increase the amount of light entering.
The eyeballs of living creatures can generally be automatically adjusted to a certain extent according to the changes in the conditions of lighting, so that the picture they see maintains a relatively consistent brightness.
We also simulated this process, which is often referred to in games as auto exposure. Looking at the comparison video, the closed low-light environment will increase the brightness of the picture with auto exposure turned on on on, which is to make the player see more clearly.
Notice a performance after the tunnel exits, as the lighting intensifies, the exposure is automatically depressed, and the sky and ground are presented with more detail.
In addition, we simulated the process of eye adaptation delay, believing that these details can make the player feel closer to the real visual experience during the game.
2. Unreal "intrusion"
Relative to the reality of the environment, the route design of "Ace Racing" is actually more "unreal". You can take a look at the road design in the picture, does it look very strange?
If that's not enough for you, we also have this route design.
These strange-looking curves are actually custom-designed for different drift techniques, and also make the player's game experience more operational, strategic and open up the difficulty range.
Of course, the unreality of the route does not mean that the experience must be divorced from reality, and the design difficulty of our art is how to bring players a real and reasonable immersive track experience in these seemingly "strange" routes.
Here our trick is, "Design the route to where he's supposed to be." ”
For example, a discontinuous road surface is planned and designed, where there is an operation technique that can be used by leaping to the near road. You can make up for it, if you say that one hundred and fifty to restore this intermittent road surface, we do not say aesthetics, from the rationality point of view is also more difficult to say, then where should it appear?
We found that on tropical golf courses, there are undulating situations and there are many bunkers. In such a geomorphological situation, a bunker can be used to represent a springboard.
So we designed the track on a tropical golf course. Comparing the effects in the game, it looks more natural now.
Another example is this track, and the planner's request is to make a fighter-like shape and then appear on the airport.
We pass keywords: airport and track. The first thing that comes to mind is the "Silverstone Circuit converted from an airport." But it is long like this, and the route difference is too large, there is no reference value. Obviously, from reality, it is more difficult to find a consistent route reference.
Since the reality is not good, what about the future? By chance, we found that in the concept of airports, airport designs in various places pay more and more attention to the presentation of local cultural symbols, and have more and more formal sense.
For example, the picture on the left is one of the schemes of Weifang's new airport, because Weifang is the capital of kites, so the shape of the airport refers to the form of the kite, so it feels similar to the demand.
So we first built a concept airport, the central blue area is the terminal building, and planned the bridge airport boarding gate, parking lot, flight track. The track is then laid out around the new airfield, presenting this form of a fighter, with the image on the right showing the top view of the track after we finished.
Take a look at the effect in the game, this section is the bridge gate area, which is the entrance and exit of the airport terminal and the parking area.
We planned the layout of the new airport according to the real situation, and finally when the player plays on the track, it will feel that the track is more realistic and more informed.
In fact, this process is a bit like the set of the movie, to tell a good story, we must first build the environment behind the story, so that the audience has a more sense of substitution, and the game design is the same logic.
Of course, the scene will not be static, and in order to enhance the sense of atmosphere, we have also added dynamic weather changes. For example, here from cloudy to rainy, there will be raindrops on the window glass of the detail effect.
This is an extreme climatic condition like a sandstorm, and after entering the sandstorm area, it will block the player's vision to a certain extent, which will make the player more immersive.
3. Vehicles
Next, let's talk about the vehicles in the game.
First of all, I will show you a video of the early stages of the project. We used fully licensed real vehicles in the early days, most of which were models that people could access or see in their lives, and of course there were some dream models like Bugatti.
However, after the vehicle adds skills and the positioning of the setting, some problems will be found under this setting, the biggest problem is that the overall art style tone does not highlight the characteristics of the game very well.
Specifically, there is a lack of strong enough correlation between purely realistic models and futuristic vehicle skills.
So we have added self-designed fantasy models while licensing models, and it is also from this time that we have gradually established the unique game characteristics of "Ace Racing" on top of realism.
Needless to say, these two cars should be able to guess. Like the one on the left, it must be a racing car. Because it has a rocket-like shape, huge spouts, full of a sense of speed. The one on the right is a very cute and cute auxiliary model designed for female players, which can help the surrounding teammates increase acceleration.
Take a look at its design process. First of all, we refer to and extract the styling characteristics of the cartoon tiger, and then apply it to the design language of the posture and front face of our model.
Although it is a fantasy model, our designers also designed according to the industrial standards of real vehicles, including the opening and closing of the doors, the details of the cockpit interior, the center console, the steering wheel and the seats.
It was the end result, and we even added a tail that could be wagged to him. I think every macho should own a car like this.
Looking at it again, this is another car with a tiger as the design theme, which is not annoying at first glance, muscular and aggressive. It is indeed a jamming model, and in the game he can attack the opponent's vehicle and cause loss of durability or speed.
As can be seen through the video, the vehicles of "Ace Racing" can be said to have their own skills, with a variety of exclusive skills, and different models have different positioning. Players can combine and match different lineups to get a very rich gaming experience. This is also what sets us apart from other racing games.
Second, the intensive experience will be full!
The Enhanced Experience is a process of continuous improvement in which procedures, artists, and planning work together to continuously improve.
1. Physical feedback and sense of speed
First of all, racing players actually want to get some feedback that conforms to the laws of physics during the game. Our project used to be a pure physics solution, but real physics doesn't mean the game experience is good, especially after adding vehicle skills.
On complex roads, vehicles can lose control and can be said to be heaven and earth, omnipotent. Of course, it doesn't matter what the driving experience is, so we adjusted the physics scheme.
This is a simplified physics scheme, the movement of the vehicle is more controllable under the current gameplay framework, and the gameplay is established. But in terms of performance, it is simpler, lacking enough suspension and not enough physical feedback for collisions.
So we used a combination of animation to solve the problem of insufficient physical feedback. These seemingly strange animations on the right actually simulate the jolt of the vehicle as it travels and the shaking of the collision.
Of course, there are many other animations. We overlay these animations into the state of the vehicle through the graph table, and through the settings, different vehicles can behave differently on different roads and at different speeds.
This also gives the vehicles in the game different qualities, while also enhancing the physical expression. Take a look at the in-game effects.
I deliberately chose a car with a relatively high posture and obvious suspension. You can pay attention to the uneven pavement it passes, as well as the performance of drift and collision. At this time, we will feel like driving a car with suspension and weight on a textured road.
Next, I want to talk about the sense of speed.
The importance of speed to racing games is self-evident, but in the early days, we did not understand the sense of speed deeply, resulting in actually stepping through the pit.
The video shows that when we were in the middle of the game, the fastest car in the game, excalibur, the speed performance at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, did it look very slow? At that time, it also caused great dissatisfaction among players.
In the face of doubt, we tried to make up for it by increasing the real speed, but can this really solve the problem?
We sink our hearts into learning and studying what the sense of speed really is.
Take a look at these two pictures. On the left, you listen to music on the plane and enjoy the view from the window, ready to take a break, but at this time your speed is about 900 kilometers per hour.
While the right go-kart is not more than 40 kilometers per hour, it can be noted that the owner is nervous to the point of sweating. This is my colleague and friend, thank you for inspiring us.
So after that, we concluded that the sense of speed is a subjective feeling that believes that it is in high-speed motion through the refresh rate of the reference objects in the surrounding environment, and it is not necessarily true.
The reference on the plane is the blue sky and white clouds in the distance, and when driving a go-kart, the reference object is the surface and the guardrails on both sides, etc., and the guardrails will be intentionally made into red and white forms to increase the feeling of refresh.
We further analyze what are the subjective factors that affect the sense of speed. First of all, increasing the real speed can of course improve the sense of speed, but it also increases the difficulty of the game and affects the gameplay, so it is excluded.
The image on the right shows the case of the camera being pressed down, which has an impact on the sense of speed, but after using this method, the front field of view is also compressed, so it also affects gameplay. So the main thing left is to add references and focus on techniques like FOV adjustment, lens shake, and motion blur.
We once overlooked the effect of FOV on the sense of speed. This is an early screenshot of the game, when the value of THE FOV in the game was very small, the screen was relatively flat, and the field of view was relatively narrow.
In fact, in the game, FOV is similar to the concept of focal length in photography. Students who have played photography know that telephoto can compress space, and they can shoot shallow depth of field and take close-ups.
That short focus has the opposite effect, so we usually shoot girls with a wide-angle end, because we can shoot the legs long. But pay attention to the framing, because the face may also be elongated. Since it can stretch the legs, the road surface can of course also be stretched.
You can make a simple judgment, if you use the same time to pass a road that looks like a longer road, will you improve the sense of speed?
So I did an experiment. Today's mobile phones have multiple cameras, shooting with a wide-angle end and a telephoto end, and recording a video at the same speed. It can be seen that at the wide-angle end, the floor is lengthened longitudinally, the field of view is larger, the direction of progress has a narrowing effect, and the corresponding sense of speed has also been improved.
Of course, it is more important to add references. We prioritize the blue areas of the pavement by proximity and distance. Because the closer you get to the center, the more noticeable the effect is, and the ground details are the closest references.
We first give the highest mapping accuracy on the surface to show its granularity, such as details such as crack stains. Then added some artificial design patterns.
Next is the design of advertising bars and guardrails on both sides of the road, and we have added more changes, no longer the same color. Add more items and objects to the parapets on both sides of the road, such as vegetation, rocks, or buildings.
After all the BUFF is stacked, let's take a look at the speed performance in the game. As a reminder, if possible, you can fasten your seat belt because the speed is very fast.
We first enlarge the value of the FOV, you can see that there is a certain stretch of the car body close to the picture, and there are more details on the surface. More trees are placed on both sides, the FOV is further enlarged when accelerating, and the lens has a certain jitter, beautiful beyond!
If you're playing the game in real time, I'm sure you'll feel the adrenaline rush. When I first got that feeling when I first played Ace Racing, I thought it would be a good game.
2. Optimization
Game optimization has two purposes for us, the first is to hope that more players can experience Ace Racing, so we set a relatively low model goal. The second is to let more players experience the performance effect of the complete game, and the operation is smooth and smooth.
When we made racing the core experience, we decided to prioritize silky smoothness.
I wanted to illustrate the art team's attitude towards optimization by using the vegetation that appeared most frequently in the scene.
This is a very iconic sycamore tree-lined boulevard on The North Mountain Road in The West Lake. The conventional 3D approach sacrifices some details for performance, such as sparse foliage of branches and a noticeable patchiness at certain angles.
In addition, when switching lod models, the accuracy will be further reduced, and there will be problems with model loading and switching.
To do this, we use the material of the tree bulletin board, first making the most accurate vegetation effect and baking it on the dough, then superimposing the spherical normal and normal map, and then superimposing the 3S translucent material.
This allows for a very fine wood feeling in the game. The mid-site vegetation is then further merged to achieve this lush vegetation effect.
In addition, baking the distant mountains onto the Skyball map can further reduce the performance pressure and better realize the spatial sense of the picture.
Let's look at the effect of the contrast, the left picture is the early traditional 3D way, because of the pressure of performance, so dare not put too many plane trees, you can see that the entire West Lake is bare. And there is a clear impact on the picture caused by the model switching, and the vista is too late to load. Even so, the game still ran less than 30 frames.
Take another look at the effect of the game now. We realized the feeling of walking through the Wutong Trees Andym Boulevard on The North Mountain Road in the West Lake, we could even see the Su Causeway and Longjing Mountain in the distance, and the game ran very smoothly, it can be said that we achieved better results at a lower cost.
Finally, back to the topic, let's talk about the gaming experience. In fact, from a macro point of view, the game experience is all the feelings that players get in the game, including the gameplay of the game, including audiovisual feelings and so on.
When it comes to improving the gaming experience, we're actually talking about providing a game performance that better meets their expectations for the target players of a certain game.
In racing games, I think the correspondence is a sufficient sense of speed, enough realistic physical feedback, enough silky smooth operation, and an audiovisual experience that is realistic and immersive enough.
Optimizing the experience is a constant polishing process, and it's a photo of our team members playing Ace Racing together, using the program, the art, and the planning.
We always look at our products from the player's point of view, so we can maintain empathy and sensitivity to the player's feelings, so that we continue to polish the quality of the game at every stage.
In the future, we will continue to uphold this attitude, work with players to improve the game, to provide you with a better game experience, thank you!