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Electronic Games  
  Electronic Games

  Toys are getting stiff competition from their electronic cousins, as kids born of the computer age, are getting more and more sophisticated.

  They’re going into sporting goods and music and video games and fashion. And just culturally and socially, they’re growing up faster. So it’s tough to get them as excited about traditional toys as they used to. That’s not going to change.

  But what is changing are games. Traditional board game sales have plummeted… while electronic games are selling out.

  I had always played Monopoly, always played board games, but this was something new and exciting, and it was computers and computers kind of fascinated me anyway.

  Video games are now a booming business and many in it are part of that first group of games…who grew up just a little differently.

  I don’t know why I was different. But there are probably a few thousand of us around the country that, at eight years old, saw computers and said, "Wow, this is something special."

  Now millions of fans think electronic games are special, and they’re not all eight years old.

  Nintendo’s north American headquarters outside Seattle is hit with over a hundred thousand phone calls, Thirty-five hundred email and nineteen hundred letters each week.

  Hi, you've reached Walter at Nintendo Gameplay, what game are you playing?

  Um, I'm playing Zelda 64.

  OK what's going on?

  um...well I'm in the fire temple and I don't know how to get the Megaton hammer...

  Oh well that's a tough area.

  A staff of more than 200 coach callers through tough spots in games.

  Can you tell me where you are in the game?

  They talk about megaton hammers and taming wild monsters for hours on end, but that only seems to feed their desire to play.

  You've got to run. Can you run?

  The most recent crop of games exploits the latest 3d technology.

  And it really brings a new level of Wow factor and, like, feeling like you're actually, in the world of the game.

  Games push the outer reaches of realism … they often use “motion capture” technology which measures how bodies walk, run and jump.

  And they make characters do exactly the same thing on screen.

  But not all worlds are based in reality… crash bandicoot lives in an unreal world of wizards and water temples… and it’s created at a company called naughty dog.

  Naughty Dog is trying to create these fake-real worlds. Worlds that aren't real, don't look real, but at the same time, you feel like you really could be there.

  It's cartoon life that we're after. Crash is like programmed with cartoon physics. In the animation, a block lands on his head, he gets squished into a pizza-shaped crash and wobbles around, and then shrinks himself.

  Creating crash’s cartoon life begins with producing what players see.

  That needs to be shrunk down somewhat and lowered. And that requires the expertise of an entire department of artists.

  The button that changed the views, is that going to be in the game?

  Ah, yes it will. Some version of it.

  So that's going to be a problem because right now the lower camera is fine as soon as you raise it you see it there's missing polygons there.

  All right.

  The element that makes video game art the most difficult is the fact that video games are interactive. You have no control over what the player the person playing the game is going to do. So you have to take everything into account all possibilities, and uh basically cover art for everything.

  Although the art ends up digital, it starts with the traditional pencil and paper…

  Computer modelers rough out basic shapes, while texture artists add critical detail.

  But nothing ever happens in electronic games without a certain wizardry…

  Let's see it's probably that same malachdome.

  Yea see it's attached here.

  Whenever it trashes the stack it can't reconstruct an executable image...

  Programming is kind of this bizarre, black magic of making of making the computer do something that's visual and interactive, just by shoving numbers around underneath the hood. And you learn, over years and years, how to layer and build your building of numbers. And how to make number shuffling actually look like a character like Crash running across the screen.

  Even with a team of artists and all that algebra, crash isn’t finished. Electronic games are often sold in six or more countries and everything from street signs to dialogue has to be changed for each language.

  We change all of the signs within the game to be in their language. We actually work the lips of the character around the speech of all those languages.

  It's an unbelievable amount of work. You need excellent engineers to drive the hardware beyond the edge of its limits. You have a hundred dollar machine and, uh, you are expecting it to work like a, you know, a humongous computer.

  Making hundred dollars machines hum like humongous computers is actually a major at digipen, the world’s first college for video game creators in Redmond, Washington.

  My friends, when I tell them I'm going to Digipen, are usually pretty confused as to what type of school it is. But I just tell them that it's essentially Nintendo school where we learn how to make games and that we get a degree in real-time interactive strategy. And so um they're pretty blown away by that.

  Number three, why check the results in API calls of your program? Who wants to take a stab at why check the results? Mr. Friedman?

  In case it crashes so you know where and why.

  At digipen, students earn bachelor of science degrees, while they learn how to survive in a world of gamers…

  Semester one students are actually put into groups, not according to their choices.

  And when you see hundred some people getting together and producing a wonderful job, it's - it's amazing.

  And uh, new take the straight end of the back button enabled, escape, doesn't quit the game but back to the menu and the normal quit button as you'd expect it, tags it.

  The students begin with the basics, and it can take up to three years before they move on to the complexity of 3D.

  My project group right now is working on a game called "Honey, I Shrunk the Tank". It's a 2D scrolling game with a top down view. It's kind of a God-mode view. Right now, we're actually working on the AI for the game, which is the artificial intelligence, which is sort of the brain behind it.

  Yea that's part of the AI problem. We're trying to get them to behave like real ants would behave.

  From artificial intelligence to artwork, the workday at digipen stretches on and on.

  Our daily events here starts usually around nine o'clock and we finish around ten o'clock in the evening.

  Well I think a lot of people would say that there is no, no social life at Digipen. I think we're all there so often that we are actually our own little family. We kind of cut ourselves off from the outside world and we just focus on our studies and our games.

  Another three hour meeting? Oh probably longer than that.

  We were in there for two hours last night just getting the stupid...

  It's kind of strange, really you find out you have so much in common with each other about certain like, tastes and like movies uh, what games you like to play and it's almost eerie in a sense - you're basically friends with everyone you meet.

  There are so many people there who love to play games and we love to talk to each other about the games. We get excited about figuring out how they did a certain technique. That's what separates us from somebody who just loves games in general, is that we love games to the next level.

  Upon graduation, the game lovers must leave their creations to the school. But they pocket plenty of skills to find jobs in the future.

  Electronic games excite new players all the time, as they continue to transform the world of toys.


电子游戏

  传统玩具正面临着它们电子同类的挑战, 而在计算机时代出生的孩子们, 头脑也越来越成熟, 他们经常接触体育用品、音乐、电视游戏、电脑游戏和各种新潮时尚的东西,从文化和社会的角度讲,他们成熟得更快,因此,很难使孩子们像过去那样,为一件小玩具而兴奋不已,这种情况将继续下去。

  但真正发生变化的是游戏的形式,传统棋盘式游戏的销售直线下降,而电子游戏产品却供不应求。

  我过去一直玩"强手棋"或别的棋牌游戏,但现在的游戏非常新颖激动人心,是电脑和电脑游戏让我着迷。

  电视游戏产业正蓬勃发展,其中许多从业者正是第一批接触电子游戏的人,他们的成长有些与众不同。

  我不知道我为什么会不一样,全国可能有几千个像我这样的人。我在8岁看到计算机时说:"哇 这个东西太特别了。" 现在 数百万电子游戏爱好者,都认为电子游戏很特别,但他们并不都是8岁的孩子。

  位于西雅图郊外的任天堂公司北美总部,每周都会收到10多万个电话,3500多个电子邮件和1900多封信。

  游戏部

  “你好, 我是任天堂游戏部的沃尔特,你在玩什么游戏?”

  “我在玩‘Zelda 64’。” “情况怎么样?” “我正在火庙里,我不知道怎样才能拿到那把大锤。” “噢 那个地方确实很难玩。”

  有200多名员工,指导人们通过游戏中的艰难地段。“你能告诉我,你在游戏的哪一段吗?” 他们在电话里连续几个小时,谈论着如何拿到大锤,怎样驯服怪兽,但这似乎也只是望梅止渴。“不,你得跑,你能跑吗?”

  在最新制作的游戏里,都使用了最先进的三维动画技术。

  它确实把人们带入了新的境界,感觉就像真的进入了游戏世界。

  游戏拓宽了我们现实生活的空间。

  设计人员常常使用"动态捕获"技术,来测量身体如何行走、跑动及跳跃。

  这样他们就能让游戏中的人物,在屏幕上做出一模一样的动作。

  但并非所有的游戏,都是以现实生活为基础的,"冲撞小袋狸"就生活在一个充满了巫术和水中宫殿的虚幻世界,这个游戏是由一个

  名叫"淘气狗"的公司制作的。"淘气狗"公司试图创造出一系列的虚拟世界,这些世界并不真实,它们看上去也不真实,但同时你又觉得自己确实进入了这样的世界。

  我们追求的是一种卡通效果,因此,我们用卡通动作为"冲撞小袋狸"编程,在动画片中,一块大石头砸在它的头上,它被压得像个比萨饼一样,颤颤悠悠地站起来,然后又恢复成原样。

  要创造小袋狸的惊险历程,首先就要设计屏幕上的动画场景,那个需要缩小一些 位置再低一点,这就需要全体美工人员发挥他们的专长,改变画面的按钮。“要出现在游戏中吗?” 是的,如果这样的话 就有点问题了。因为现在下面的摄像机,位置很合适 如果把它抬高,就看不到那些多边形了,电子游戏制作过程中,最困难的一点在于它是互动式的,你无法控制玩游戏的人,他们会有各种各样的玩法,所以你必须考虑到一切可能,并把它们都绘制出来,尽管最后所有画面,都要以数字的形式出现,但一开始它们仍是用,传统的铅笔和纸绘制的计算机模型制作人员,先勾勒出基本形状,美工人员再绘出重要的细节。

  但要是没有独特的技巧,电子游戏就毫无乐趣可言了,这可能是同一个玛拉基圆顶,是的, 它在这里,那是因为可执行程序受到了阻碍,只要一废弃这些数据,就不能重建可执行图像,编程就像是一种奇异的魔术,只要把数字不断地堆砌到屏幕上,就能让电脑画出

  许多栩栩如生的互动式画面。你要花很长的时间,才能学会如何堆砌这些数字,如何让这些数字变成在屏幕上穿行的动画形象,即使经过数字模拟和艺术加工后,"冲撞小袋狸"还没有最后完成,电子游戏常常要在6个或6个以上的国家销售,因此从路标到对话等等,都要进行翻译,我们把游戏里所有的标志,都翻译成销售国的语言,实际上 我们还针对不同的语言,对游戏角色的口型进行变动。

  工作量之大简直令人难以置信,你需要优秀的工程师来让计算机的硬件超负荷地工作,你只有一台廉价的机器,而你却希望它能像一台超级计算机一样工作。

  事实上,要让一台廉价的机器像超级计算机那样工作,正是"数字笔"学校的专业课程,这世界上第一所专门培养电子游戏设计人员的学校,位于华盛顿州的雷德蒙德,当我告诉我的朋友们,我要去"数字笔"学校时,他们都搞不清这是所什么类型的学校。我便告诉他们,它实际上就是任天堂公司的学校,在那里我们学习如何制作游戏,还可以获得"实时互动策略学"方面的学位,他们都被这个镇住了。第三,为什么要检查你程序中API呼叫的结果?谁想试试回答这个问题?

  弗理德曼先生,一旦程序瘫痪,你就能知道问题出在哪里和为什么出现问题。"数字笔"学校的学生将获得理学学士学位,同时要学习如何在电子游戏界生存。第一个学期,学生们都在一起学习,看到上百人聚在一起,制作出奇妙的游戏,这确实让人惊叹不已。你先按退出键让画面退回去,不要直接退出游戏而应该先回到菜单,选用这里的"退出"键。

  学生们从基础知识开始学起,三年之后,他们才能接触到复杂的三维动画技术,我所在的项目小组正在制作一个名叫"亲爱的 我把坦克缩小了"的游戏,这是一个俯视的平面移动游戏,现在我们正在制作它的"人工智能"部分,它就像是游戏的大脑。是的, 那是"人工智能"的问题,我们尽力使它们像真正的蚂蚁那样活动。

  从人工智能到艺术处理,"数字笔"学校里的繁忙生活,就这样一天天继续下去。

  我们通常从九点开始工作,一直到夜里十点左右结束。

  我想,许多人会说在"数字笔"学校没有社交生活,实际上 我们经常呆在那里,彼此就像家庭成员一样,我们与世隔绝,只关注我们的学习和游戏,再开三个小时的会议,可能还要长。昨晚我们在那儿呆了两个小时,都傻了,这真有点儿怪,你会发现自己与周围的人,有着许多共同之处。比如你的口味爱看的电影 、爱玩的游戏,你几乎和遇到的每个人都成了朋友,那里有很多人都喜欢玩游戏,我们也喜欢相互谈论游戏,一旦弄清他们用的某个技巧,我们会很激动,这正是我们与一般游戏迷的不同之处。我们对游戏的喜爱,已经达到了更高的层次,毕业时,这些游戏爱好者必须将自己制作的游戏留给学校,但他们满腹的技能却能帮助他们找到工作。

  在电子游戏改变玩具世界的同时,也让一批批的新游戏迷兴奋不已。





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