Chapter 190: Far Ahead

A week later, Christopher received a package that had been shipped all the way from California. Inside were a NovaXeno console, a NovaRadeon graphics card with 512 KB of video memory, a mouse, and two CDs. 

"This is quite a generous gift." 

Apparently, the new game was being released in both PC and NX versions. Since the hardware and architectures of the two platforms were completely different, even GAMENOVA couldn't make a single disc compatible with both systems. 

Christopher reached into the box and pulled out the game case. Unlike the official DOOM title he had expected, this version bore an entirely different name. 

QUAKE 2

A crescent-shaped arc surrounded something that looked like a nail driven straight through its center. The logo was remarkably simple, yet it carried an ancient, mysterious aura. 

Christopher inserted the CD into the drive, then picked up his coffee and took a small sip. He had no intention of joining GAMENOVA directly, but in return for what he had learned from the DOOM, helping Ethan optimize the new game a little was hardly a difficult task. 

Although the CD loaded much faster than a floppy disk, he still had to patiently wait for a while. The loading time was more than a full minute, proving that the amount of content in this game was astonishingly large. 

He watched as the command-line window on the screen began rapidly scrolling through a large amount of information. 

Eventually, it stopped at a line that read, [Mouse connection not detected]. 

He shrugged and casually plugged in the mouse Ethan had sent him, restarted the computer, and then entered the game again. 

It was certainly a hassle, but for a game developer, this kind of thing happened all the time. If only things like mice and keyboards could become plug and play and support hot swapping in the future, he thought. 1

The command line appeared once again. This time, the loading process went very smoothly. 

The game was continuously retrieving information about the hardware in his PC, selecting the corresponding audio drivers, and attempting to find the graphics card required to run it. 

Fortunately, Christopher had already upgraded all the company's computers to NovaRadeon 16-bit graphics cards, so there were no more problems. 

An electronic, synthesized sound rang out, resembling the rattling motion of an old garage door rolling open. 

The command-line window slowly slid upward, revealing the game's actual screen beneath it. As the screen revealed itself from bottom to top, the first thing he saw was a floor covered in brick and stone textures. 

There seemed to be light sources on both sides, their illumination fading naturally across the area beneath his feet and casting strange shadows over the ground. 

Even this alone was already in a league of its own compared to anything else in the world. This was smooth lighting! 

Christopher himself had spent several days thinking about how to achieve this effect without consuming an enormous amount of processing power. As the command-line window continued to slide upward, pillars, slopes, torches, and ceilings formed from angled surfaces were gradually revealed. 

Christopher had only recently implemented the rendering system used by DOOM, so he was especially sensitive to details like these. 

At a glance, he could tell that something about the scene was fundamentally different. The complexity of the environment far surpassed anything seen in DOOM. 

This was no longer simply a matter of differences in height. The entire hall where the player spawned seemed as though it had never been designed with a pseudo-3D game in mind at all. 

With a space this complex, even the renderer Christopher had designed would have been completely incapable of handling it. It could no longer simply render the scene pixel by pixel as it had in the past. 

The world on the screen felt like a genuine three-dimensional space rather than a flat surface projected onto a screen. The confident expression on Christopher's face gradually turned solemn. 

Just how much time had passed? The somewhat unfinished-looking visuals of DOOM had seemingly evolved into something like this. 

He reached for the mouse and instinctively pushed it forward. 

In Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM, pushing the mouse forward simply meant moving ahead. But this simple action left him completely dumbfounded. 

He froze for a moment, his entire body jolting as though he had just taken a vicious uppercut. 

A wave of dizziness suddenly washed over him. His vision filled with something resembling static, and then the arm supporting him against the desk abruptly went limp. His entire body collapsed. 

Christopher had a dream. He dreamed that he had traveled far into the future and somehow gotten his hands on a true 3D game. In that game, he could even look up and down, freely rotating the camera to take in the entire world around him. 

There were arched doorways, brick dungeons built at different elevations, blazing torches, and the light they cast across the walls. He could control his character, walk right up to every detail, then rotate the viewpoint and examine everything from different angles. 

It was magnificent. If only he could really play a game like that. 

... 

"Hey man, finally awake?" 2

Julian watched as Christopher slowly opened his eyes and finally let out a sigh of relief. 

Seeing Christopher suddenly collapse in front of the PC had given him quite a fright. Thankfully, it seemed that there was nothing seriously wrong with him; he had merely suffered a bout of low blood sugar. 

"Mm…" 

Christopher responded somewhat blankly, his entire body still feeling light and unsteady. 

"Did I pass out? That's really strange." 

"You almost fell onto the floor. Good thing your knees are sturdy enough." 1

"Ugh" 

Christopher rubbed his head before struggling to sit back down in his chair. Then, he slightly raised his eyelids and saw Quake still running on the screen. 

"Bang!" 

"Christopher?! What's wrong? Are you all right?" 

"I'm fine" 

He barely managed to steady himself, yet he suddenly felt as though the entire world had become unreal. 

"Julian, have you seen this yet? GAMENOVA just sent it to me." 

He pulled Julian over and had him sit down beside him. Then, right in front of him, Christopher moved the mouse, making the character in the game freely rotate the viewpoint around the environment. 

He could look up or down, turn his head while keeping his gaze raised, and move his view in any direction he wanted. He was free to look wherever he wanted, however he wanted. 

A shiver ran through Julian as goosebumps spread across his skin, a sudden wave of unease washing over him. Now he understood why Christopher had reacted so badly. 

It hadn't been long since they had developed the 3D rendering module, which they eventually sold to EA. So, they knew better than anyone just how much time, effort, and countless hours of painstaking work had gone into developing the rendering technology. 

For the first time, they felt like they had finally caught up to GAMENOVA, reaching the same level as the company they had spent so long trying to surpass. And just when they thought they had finally made it, GAMENOVA had released this. 

'This... it's like alien technology!' 

Christopher forcibly calmed his emotions, his eyes remaining fixed on the screen. 

Although the camera rotation wasn't particularly smooth, barely reaching a dozen or so frames per second, he couldn't find even the slightest flaw. 1

What method had they used? How had they managed to create such a realistic 3D effect on a 2D screen? 

This wasn't some clever trick or visual illusion. It wasn't even remotely comparable to the techniques used in Wolfenstein 3D or DOOM. 

This was the real deal, a genuine real-time 3D rendering system. 4

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