Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Byte Office
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“Savior's CEO personally designed and sent this?”
The UK's fledgling 3D graphics company, RenderMorphics, which had recently been acquired by Savior.
Its CEO, Seigan, had lately been feeling that the common knowledge he knew was crumbling far too easily.
“To think there's someone besides John Carmack who can handle assembly language this well. Truly astonishing.”
Seigan had no choice but to agree with his subordinate's weary remark.
Among programmers these days, if you asked for the most talked-about developers, everyone would name two.
Savior's Huck.
Id Software's Carmack.
The reason those two names came up so often among countless developers was the games they had released.
'This isn't programming made and optimized by humans. There must be aliens kidnapped in their basements cranking out code.'
While many developers still found even C language unfamiliar and hard to handle, those two wielded C as if it were mere alphabet letters.
And they had produced games with masterful use of assembly language, which was incomparably more arcane than C.
“How long has it been since we sent them the Reality Lab schematics, and they send back an improved version already...”
As Seigan reviewed the schematics sent by Savior's CEO Huck, all he could do was marvel.
Not only had he rewritten every performance bottleneck in the original schematics in assembly language.
He had also replaced computations needed for functions with pre-calculated table lookups, which was immediately apparent.
Beyond that, from redesigned memory access schemes to programming that skipped rendering off-screen objects,
“This isn't something we didn't know about—we knew, but couldn't touch it...”
Seigan knew that to improve the Reality Lab graphics engine's performance, it had to be done just like Huck had outlined.
But knowing that and giving up because they couldn't achieve it were separate matters. Receiving this in less than a month filled him with self-loathing.
“No wonder Savior's raking in cash like crazy with a CEO like this.”
“That's a good thing. Means we're getting solid backing too, right?”
Truth be told, when Savior first proposed acquiring RenderMorphics, Seigan had felt uneasy.
Their technology had already gained industry recognition, so there were plenty of companies eyeing them.
In that situation, he saw no reason to choose Savior, which seemed to lack a solid foundation,
'After the acquisition, please continue as CEO, Mr. Seigan. And if you need more staff or equipment, we'll provide whatever support is necessary.'
Sun Woo-hyuk's words, which Seigan had initially dismissed as bluster.
But astonishingly, at the negotiation table, Savior provided $10 million upfront.
The only request Savior's CEO Sun Woo-hyuk made to RenderMorphics, after they bolstered staff and new equipment with that money, was one.
'We'll boost Reality Lab's performance far beyond its current level. To a point where other companies won't even glance at graphics engines for years to come.'
Hearing that, Seigan had thought Sun Woo-hyuk was setting his sights too high.
The 3D graphics industry was already fiercely competitive.
From ILM, sweeping Hollywood's special effects, to SGI, 3Dfx Interactive, and others raking in tens of millions—new giants were emerging left and right.
No matter how advanced RenderMorphics was for its size, surpassing them to claim the top spot wasn't something said lightly.
“I was wrong.”
But now Seigan realized his thinking had been off.
The new Reality Lab schematics from Savior's CEO Sun Woo-hyuk.
If they could perfectly implement this, he was certain they could create something that would shock not just the industry, but the world.
“Object modeling is set up perfectly without issues. Now we need to implement a system that applies forces to this modeling...”
“The simplest way is gravity as F = m * g, external forces from user input as F += externalForce, then compute a = F / m every frame and apply it to velocity and position, right?”
Rogers and Jason in serious debate—an unfamiliar sight.
“Jason really is a Caltech alum, huh.”
“You still doubting?”
“Honestly, isn't that more your fault than mine?”
Scarlett, watching the scene, seemed more than a little surprised by Jason's earnest demeanor, which she was seeing for the first time.
'No wonder that slacker never got expelled.'
Even rotten mackerel has its uses, as the saying goes.
However,
“Calculate forces separately every frame? That's like reacting to a push by going, 'Uh... this is gravity, this is wind...' separately.”
“...So what would you do?”
“Simple. Model forces as fields.”
“What?”
I pulled over the whiteboard and began explaining my approach to Rogers and Jason.
“Switch from object-centered calculations to a space-centered response model. By structuring forces as fields, the space itself can drive object movement.”
“Composing vector fields in space...”
“Yeah, that would unify impacts, friction, gravity, fluids into one system.”
Rogers and Jason caught on instantly.
Until now, the tasks I'd assigned them were mostly detailing after I'd designed the core.
'That's a waste of talent.'
This physics engine project was the same—I was handling the skeleton—but even the remaining details were too advanced for average programmers.
Physics engines required not just coding, but solid mathematical backing, beyond typical programmers' reach.
But Savior had no such issue.
Math and computers.
We had talent drilled relentlessly in both at Caltech, the world's top, by elite professors and students.
Without these two, who grumbled but instantly grasped and applied my explanations, even I would struggle with physics engine design.
“Oh, by the way, email from RenderMorphics came in.”
“What about?”
“Requesting additional support.”
After a brief physics engine discussion, Scarlett handed me a printout of the RenderMorphics email upon my return.
“Workstations, software, high-speed CPUs... Lots of shopping ahead.”
The email was straightforward.
To rebuild the graphics engine per my schematics by deadline, they needed more equipment and staff—requesting additional funds.
“Even after the first tranche, they're asking for more? Aren't they spending other people's money too freely?”
Scarlett furrowed her brow at the requested amount from RenderMorphics.
But to me, this was an unavoidable necessity.
'All essential. Building a next-gen graphics engine naturally demands more gear than expected.'
Managing Savior's finances, Scarlett worried I was over-investing in RenderMorphics.
“Huck, no matter how I look at it, wouldn't outsourcing have been cheaper than acquiring the company?”
“For now, cost-wise, sure.”
“For now...”
If I told her that in just five years, 3D graphics firms' values would skyrocket tens, hundreds, thousands-fold, would Scarlett believe me?
More importantly,
“Without in-house tech, Savior stays just another game dev.”
As Scarlett said, typical game devs outsourced costly in-house dev.
But for my virtual reality goal, that wouldn't cut it.
We needed to become a massive firm spanning all IT fields, not just games.
“Got it. If that's the CEO's vision, my job is to support it fully.”
“Any financial issues?”
“If there were, I'd have screwed up.”
Scarlett shrugged, raising both hands in mock exasperation.
She firmly stated that while other companies might face issues, Savior wouldn't.
“RenderMorphics acquisition, new hires, equipment rollout— we've poured a ton in lately.”
I nodded at Scarlett's words.
Just the recent 40-ish hires and their gear had cost a fortune.
“But the money we're pouring out is being replenished from outside at an absurd rate.”
Scarlett beamed broadly.
No wonder—Savior's revenue wasn't dipping; it was surging, delighting its CFO.
“Village Maker PC sales are steady as ever, and the Nendo Neo Famicom version is selling insanely well! Especially in Japan.”
Village Maker held steady post-launch, and now the console version was exploding in Japan.
“Plus, with Byte Office's official release, corporate bulk buys are ramping up. In a few years, Savior might not even be a game company anymore, but a software giant.”
Crowning Savior's skyrocketing sales was the recently launched Byte Office.
“Wonder how much Microsoft will curse us over the new Byte Office.”
“If I were them, I'd be dropping F-bombs non-stop by now.”
The response to the newly completed and officially distributed Byte series had been scorching hot.
Hot enough to make Microsoft want to throttle Savior.