The land between ELDEN RING was made in this way -the first open field realized in a small number of people and the commitment included in it [Webinar Reco]

On July 8, the fifth ELDEN RING making seminar of the game production workflow seminar by the cooperation of Autodesk Co., Ltd., sponsored by TOO Co., Ltd., was held online.

• The first open-field game development realized in a small number of people
• Open Field and Legacy Dungeon **
• About characters
• Place emphasis on user experience

https://www.too.com/event/2022/eldenring/

This seminar is a webinar sponsored by TOO Co., Ltd., Creates an environment where people can become creative, who wants to find a job in the game industry, games, animation, and video production, and want to start CG production. It is targeted. Until now, it has been introduced on the back side of the game production based on the title of Square Enix games and the titles such as Gravity Daze 2.

This time, the fifth time, Mr. Keiichiro Ogawa, Chief 3D graphic artist, will be on stage from Flom Software. Immediately after the release in February this year, ELDEN RING, which caused a large boom, introduced commitment and development secret stories about the graphic data production.

In this article, we will report on the seminar held online.

The first open-field game development realized in a small number of people

At the beginning of the seminar, we introduced the PV of ELDEN RING, which became a huge hit with more than 12 million units worldwide. Although attention is focused on the magnificent world view and beautiful graphics, this work is the first open-field game for from software, and the development system has become a new challenge.

From software, there are studios in Tokyo and Fukuoka, and multiple projects are always in parallel. The team has a subdivided section, and it is said that it is realizing smooth development by sharing knowledge and skills using sections and internal Wiki. The tools used are also diverse in the development work in general, and each is used according to the situation and material.

Elden Ring has been produced in a long period of five years since the DLC development of DARK SOUL 3 ended, and has been developed along the milestone as shown in the figure. In the first playable version, elements such as jumping actions and spiritual summoning by ashes are added, and the quality up is repeated in 3-month external reviews while adjusting the data capacity, data adjustment, debug, and network test version via the master. I got up.

In order to realize the development of small groups, the company was carefully examined and cooperated with cooperating companies, and the work style reform that had been advanced before. 。 In order to share the checking work, the establishment of more dedicated directors has increased the check accuracy and reduced the man-hours, and the effects of the corona have to introduce a remote meeting and development. He recalled that the situation was more efficient than before.

Open Field and Legacy Dungeon **

Next, the background and graphics, which are the great attractions of ELDEN RING, were introduced.

The map of this work is divided into an open field, which is freely moved through a vast field and discovers an unknown dungeon, and Legacy Dungeon, a three-dimensional dungeon. In contrast to open fields, which have a high degree of freedom by choosing a player, such as postponing a battle with a strong enemy, Legacy Dungeon enjoys bargaining with the enemy and has a sense of accomplishment that overcomes adversity by repeating many times. It is emphasized.

Regarding the points to be aware of in the background design, it gives a sense of reality and fiction balance that gives the inevitable fiction in the fantasy, and the place where I visited was scared, creepy, and magnificent. There were designs that remain in impressions and memories, and designs that are not convenient for the game.

Various other in-game maps, such as the completion process from the white map map of the open field model to the polygon model, and the representative philosophy that allows you to imagine the events that were from archeological sites on the field or some of the sites in the past. The background and intentions of the ingenuity were talked about.

In particular, in the open field, we are concerned that the increase in the number of assets placed will be the processing load, so the complicated model is replaced with a measuring model in distant views, so it is difficult to understand the diversion by adjusting the texture in plugs such as grass and pebbles. It was also a great deal to pay attention to the efficient management of open field data and prevent the world view from impairing.

Until the Elden Ring map is completed, the quality has been increased many times, and in the seminar, as an example, the appearance of the map and fields changed while consulting with the director, and using 3DSMAX. An example of adjusting the asset arrangement and the size of the light source was explained. In this way, a world that feels like Elden Ring has been completed.

About characters

The last topic is about character design. Here, regarding the flow of the design image process and the data creation process, the process of creating characters by repeating the meeting many times until ordering was described as an example. It was said that the character design was created with attention to elimination of stereotypes and entering emotions and emotions, and that the appearance of the weapon can be imagined.

The characters of this work are created by reducing memory due to the characteristics of the open field, with a small character of 20,000 to 50,000 polygons and the maximum size of 200,000 to 300,000 polygons.

In the creation of models, it is also warned of do not understand the design so that it is easy to make and not impair the concept art impression, and adjust the texture with Shader from the model created by Zbrush. The process of going was introduced as an example of tree guards and dragons.

The commitment to the characters is also packed in expressions using a shader, and many of the witch lani's spiritual expression and the crystal expression of the rouxat are actually adjusted, and there are many different directions, such as different directional reflection of the hair of the player character. A case was introduced.

The variety of motion is also a major feature of ELDEN RING. The player character of this work can use a variety of weapons, but while using motion capture, if you use the actual swordsmanship as it is, the movement will be small, so you can arrange the games such as signs, movements, and gaps. The impressive movement was created.

The motion of the enemy character is also created with caution with what kind of impression the player gives. In addition, regarding the creation of a motion RIG using 3DSMAX Biped, the process of realizing a special movement was explained in detail, including a character called the Futari no Skin, which expands and contracts.

Place emphasis on user experience

As a summary of this seminar, Mr. Ogawa says, I think you can see that the graphics of from software are taking time to adjust the parts that affect the game experience of the player as much as time for creating graphic data. He also introduced that if you have skills and motivation, you can expand your occupation and participate in various jobs.

From Software is recruiting large-scale staff by launching a new project. We are also planning online mid-career recruitment seminars, so please see the recruitment page for details.

Finally, a question-and-answer session was set up, and Ogawa answered the questions in advance regarding graphics and works. The making seminar approaching the back of the huge hit ELDEN RING ended in a great success.