The development of “ELDEN RING” strives for automation and efficiency – changes in development compared to previous work[CEDEC 2022]| GameBusiness.jp

CEDEC2022, a conference for developers focused on games, will be held online in 2022 as well. Talking about how to respond to open-world game development in “ELDEN RING” from the action RPG program, “Provide case studies of engineer’s efforts to respond to the open field of ELDEN RINGIt will be delivered to you.

Ryo Matsumoto, FromSoftware’s Sub-Leader of Design, was on stage in this session. He’s the System Design Director for this work, and the System Designer for 2015 Bloodborne.

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In order to make the world of “ELDEN RING” bigger than “DARK SOULS III”?

Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s first open world game, has a huge map compared to the 2016 Dark Souls III. The “High Wall of Lothric” in “DARK SOULS III” is 216m x 220m. It is too large at 6100m x 7400m to even include areas such as the sea where it is impossible to move.Open the map“).

During the development of the “ELDEN RING”, an open field was created dotted with underground maps and small-sized dungeons”Open the map‘ and ‘Stormville Castle’ and other well-crafted maps like ‘old map”(“Stormville Castle” is about 3.6 times larger than the “High Wall of Lothric”).

The battles in the gameplay are not much different from the previous titles, but it is necessary to deal with many issues such as the costs of mass production, data management, debugging, etc. for this reason,Automate/simplify handcrafted parts as much as possibleIn data management, it is inevitable to adjust the map load and improve the efficiency of correction.

In the previous work “DARK SOULS III”, since it consists of prepared maps, data is managed for each map. In addition, measures are taken that make it difficult for users to notice loading, such as loading a follow-up map in the background when moving close to the connection between maps.

On the other hand, in “ELDEN RING”, the old map is basically the same as the previous work, but the wide open map offers open network control. This is a way to divide and manage the four sides into a square grid, starting with the smallest size of 256m x 256m, the medium size of 512m x 512, and the large size of 1024m x 1024. This isBy limiting the positions that have to be loaded wide, the burst count of loads is prevented., because the purpose is to maintain the quality of distant vision. Also, if a huge or mobile enemy is set on a small grid, it cannot be controlled far from the player, so it is necessary to control it on a large grid.

In the map configuration of the previous work “DARK SOULS III”, the area in which the player can act is created as part of the map, and animations and destructible objects are placed as objects. On the other hand, in “ELDEN RING” the parts of the map are narrowed down to the shape of the terrain,Reduce the uniqueness of the data and reduce the number of things that are used in just one place by making something like something that can be interacted with as an asset.To handle memory efficiently.

NavMesh Generation automation to control allies and enemies

Navmesh is the data that enemies and allies use to search by movement, it is possible to determine the shortest path that avoids obstacles and confirms whether the destination is safe after stepping. In “DARK SOULS III”, it was created from the form of multiplying parts of the map, and special behavior such as jumping was created by mapping the data with the graphic editor. Naturally, “ELDEN RING” is an open map, and since jumping etc. is performed for the player,It is impossible to follow the previous business method as it is. Therefore, the NavMesh architecture has been modified.

In “ELDEN RING”, enemies also perform jumping and jumping stunts on a vast map. Therefore, edge data that can be jumped and jumped is generated automatically. The conditions for automatic generation of edge data are that “width and distance are within a certain range”, “the size of the two navigation networks are above a certain level”, and “there is no obstacle between them”.

On the other hand, big enemies located in different places can’t use normal data because the rules are different, like “ignore some steps and obstacles”. Even if you ignore NavMesh and approach it in a straight line, obstacles will block your way or cause you to fall into the sea, so you can’t use it as a decent enemy. Therefore, we built a path for the player by creating a dedicated navigational network for the giant enemy, ignoring some steps and obstacles.

Automation in the development of “ELDEN RING” also applies to tests and databases

“ELDEN RING” uses not only maps, but also information maps to display detailed data about reviews and placements. In addition, in the automatic test, we automatically run every morning for all maps and all platforms in the address under development, collecting not only frame rate but also CPU / GPU load, memory status, error information, etc. (collects Also the burden of multiplayer assumptions and changes in the weather). These are very useful, but because the results were displayed in a line graph, it was difficult to understand where the data occurred on the map.

What these details were asking for was a memory/performance check to see things like frame rate. Memory check is an unavoidable problem as it causes problems including forced termination when the amount of usage increases dramatically. for this reason,By linking the map of the past information and frame rate load, the state of low frame rate is displayed as a heat map and a pin is placed in the place where the frame rate drops significantly.Makes the burden visible.

It appears that the performance examination was carried out after confirming the position on the results of the automated test, by settling the meeting with the relevant parties, and after identifying the problems. For memory checks, one person is assigned to be responsible, alerts are issued periodically for suspicious parts, and each person proceeds with customization adjustments and data reduction measures. Because these are deep-rooted problems involving various factors,The ability to automatically visualize has helped evolveand analyze it.

During the development of “ELDEN RING” there were cases where we wanted to know the data dependencies for different purposes. This applies not only to the relationship between data used in scenes and unused data and maps with specific assets, but also to reduce the weight of the network test version by not including unnecessary data.In particular, since “ELDEN RING” is a large-scale business, it is difficult to maintain a high-precision state with manpower because document management will be replaced from time to time.. Finding files is also expensive and impractical, so we built a dependency database to solve these problems.

A dependency database, as the name implies, is a tool that manages a dependency database. You can use the viewer to access various information, not only listing characters and assets used in the selected scene, but also browsing, searching, and outputting used textures. In addition, the database is updated daily, the contents of each update are analyzed and dependencies are recorded. Using these things will result in them being listed at a low cost.

We are also working to reduce the drawing load which is not limited to “ELDEN RING”. In the past, the graphic designer controlled the drawing by setting it manually.Due to cost issues, a function to automatically generate drawing settings was developed for SEKIRO, which was released in 2019.. As I mentioned earlier, “ELDEN RING” introduced not only jumps, but also assets, explosively increasing the number of graphic elements.Transfer of automated drawing mechanism developed in “SEKIRO”(“ELDEN RING” was based on the same engine as “SEKIRO”, so it was easy to transport.)

How did “ELDEN RING” strive for automation and efficiency?

The last is a summary. In order to build a vast open world, given this announcement, we will change the map management structure, render assets, automate the navigation grid, visualize performance issues, include data dependencies, and improve graphic settings.The pursuit of efficiency and automation for every elementHe was doing.

In order to integrate these various considerations, such as deciding what we want to do, checking issues after submission, agreeing with related parties, regulating response priority, parallel response in mass production work, etc. At Flåm, the design crew gets in here and takes over. In this announcement, the designers shared various responses to the introduction of assets and problems with the navigation network.

In addition, the designer is also involved in the design of the game system, and participates in the “ash system” and the “signal collection system”. Finally, she concluded the session by saying that “ELDEN RING” was a groped development.

That’s all in today’s announcement. Listening to the session, I can conclude from the program, which ran through the 2000s with the “Dark Souls” series at the top, that it was a subtle, subtle and subtle development style that elevates the quality. In order to deal with the open-world giant, we have no choice but to pursue automation and efficiency in depth, but it seems we have been able to handle it without breaking the development style as much as possible. It seems to be.

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