Leaving the arcade testing lab, Takuya Nakayama walked down the corridor toward the Development Team area at the other end.
The office area was filled with the acrid smell of burnt coffee beans, and several programmers were slumped over their desks, catching up on sleep.
He approached Yu Suzuki's workstation. The ace producer from Sega was staring intently at a CRT monitor, red and blue pencils in hand, sketching force analysis diagrams for the haptic feedback system on a draft paper.
On the screen, two wireframe characters were locked in a combat test on a sloped staircase.
Collision issues were rampant, with one character's ankle sinking straight into the polygonal ground.
"Director Takahashi just complained to me that your hair loss is now keeping pace with the project's budget overruns," Takuya Nakayama said, pulling up an empty chair and sitting down. "He sent me to see what insurmountable obstacle you've hit."
Yu Suzuki tossed his pencil onto the desk and rubbed his temples.
"The Model 2 motherboard's processing power is maxed out," Yu Suzuki said, pointing to a screenshot of graphical glitches on the screen. "To achieve full 3D combat with varying terrain in Virtua Fighter 3, we need to recalculate character physics—center of gravity, force distribution, attack hit detection—for every slope and step. With our current hardware, running the physics calculations leaves no resources for polygon rendering, and the frame rate drops to unplayable levels."
Takuya Nakayama stared at the screen. "What do you propose?"
"Upgrade the motherboard with a minor revision," Yu Suzuki said, pulling out a handwritten hardware architecture diagram from a drawer. "Add a co-processor specifically for physics calculations. But that will increase the manufacturing cost per arcade unit, and Takahashi is blocking the budget."
Nakayama took the diagram and reviewed it. "Adding a co-processor won't work. Cost is one issue, but the bigger problem is the development toolchain—it would need a complete overhaul." He placed the diagram back on the desk. "The issue is that physics and graphics are competing for the main CPU's resources. It's a common problem with traditional arcade motherboards."
Suzuki crossed his arms. "Without this, we'd have to choose between the visuals and the gameplay. Either abandon the varying terrain and revert to flat-ground combat, or reduce the polygon count and end up with a screen full of mosaics."
"Let's try a different approach," Takuya Nakayama said, tapping the table. "Let's strip out all the graphics rendering tasks and connect an independent graphics processing chip to the main board."
Yu Suzuki paused.
"A graphics card?"
"Exactly," Nakayama nodded. "That's the current PC strategy. The main CPU handles physics calculations and logic, while the graphics chip takes care of the heavy lifting of rendering. Each handles its own domain."
Suzuki stood up and began pacing in front of the whiteboard.
"Arcade games demand extremely stable frame rates. The off-the-shelf graphics chips on PCs are fine for 2D, but they can't achieve 60 frames per second when rendering 3D polygons. The interface bandwidth is also a problem."
"Off-the-shelf won't cut it; we need a custom solution," Nakayama said. "I recently visited Silicon Valley and met with a company called NVIDIA."
Suzuki stopped pacing.
"The ones who made the NV1?"
"You've heard of them?"
"I've studied their architecture," Suzuki said, shaking his head. "They're pursuing quad rendering, which is completely incompatible with our triangle rendering system. Using their chips would mean scrapping all of Sega's existing development tools."
"I've spoken with their founder, Jensen Huang," Takuya Nakayama said, leaning back in his chair. "I've already had him start preliminary research on the triangle rendering framework, specifically tailored to Sega's Model series arcade boards and next-generation consoles."
Yu Suzuki sat back down and picked up his red and blue pencil.
"From research to product, there's a long road ahead: chip fabrication, testing, driver integration. We don't have time. Virtua Fighter 3 can't wait two years."
"We don't need to wait for them to develop their flagship chip," Nakayama offered a concrete plan. "For the first step, all we need is an initial prototype. The performance targets don't need to be too high—just on par with the graphics cards in mainstream new computers. Combined with Sega's expertise in low-level code optimization for arcade platforms, this chip would only be responsible for converting the polygon data calculated by the Model 2 into video output. This would free up at least 40% of the main CPU's processing power."
Suzuki quickly jotted down several parameters on his paper.
"If it only handles pure triangle output and not complex texture calculations, the existing bandwidth should barely suffice. But the driver integration work will be substantial."
"NVIDIA will require them to station engineers in Tokyo to work with you on the low-level integration," Takuya Nakayama said. "I've already spoken with Takahashi. The arcade platform will serve as a frontline for technical experimentation, so the company will cover the R&D expenses. If this external graphics chip solution works, it can be applied not only to Virtua Fighter 3 but also to Fast & Furious 2."
Yu Suzuki stared at the parameters on the paper, twirling his pencil between his fingers.
"This plan has potential," he said, looking up. "When will the NVIDIA engineers arrive?"
"Probably next month," Takuya Nakayama replied, standing up. "They just received the pre-research funds from Sega and are currently at peak efficiency. You should draft the interface protocol framework first. Once they arrive, we can immediately move into the lab."
"The timeline is tight," Suzuki said, balling up the sketch and tossing it into the waste bin. "We need to start modifying the toolchain tomorrow."
"I trust this to you," Takuya Nakayama said, turning to leave. "Remember to eat properly. I don't want to be pushing you in a wheelchair on stage at next year's E3 Exhibition to demonstrate the new game."
Yu Suzuki waved his hand dismissively. "Don't even mention E3. My mind is completely focused on upgrading the Model 2. I'm skipping this year's show. We'll only go next year when we have some concrete progress on Virtua Fighter 3."
With that, he turned back to his keyboard and began typing code.
Back in the Executive Managing Director's office, Hisao Oguchi was already waiting at the door with a stack of documents.
"Managing Director, a fax from North America," Oguchi said, handing over the papers. "The DND licensing negotiations have hit a snag. TSR Corporation's management wants to retain rights to develop merchandise for some of the video games."
"Greedy bastards," Takuya Nakayama said, taking the documents and walking while reading. "Tell Tom to stand firm on exclusive licensing. TSR's financial situation is a mess; they need this cash more than we do. Drag this out for two weeks, and they'll cave on their own."
Oguchi nodded and made a note.
"Also, all the media invitation letters for the E3 Exhibition have been sent out," Oguchi added, following behind.
Nakayama sat down at his desk. "Double-check the trailers for the few exclusive blockbusters we've prepared. Not a single mistake allowed."
Oguchi acknowledged the order and left.
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