Chapter 119: You can’t just make children roughly

“Anyway, besides server expansion and diversifying ending branches, is there anything else we need to do before the official open?”

Jina, who had been rapidly scrolling through the hologram screen, paused her hand for a moment, lost in thought.

“Hmm… It’s not very urgent for me, but it’s extremely urgent for Rosy-nim. We have an issue with our NPCs.”

“Is there some kind of problem?”

“It’s not a bug, but the number needs to be increased. Additionally, we need an overall quality upgrade.”

The most frequent feedback received during this beta test (actually, the only feedback) was that the village felt deserted.

The village was certainly large enough to take a whole half-day to explore, but the only living residents within it were those essential for the game to function.

Like shop NPCs, or priestesses in charge of healing and resurrection.

For something confidently claiming to be a ‘world’, it was a shabby composition.

“Well… mass-producing NPC models is no big deal. After all, humanoid models are already templated.”

There’s no need to run AI.

Just input pre-set random parameter values, extract the model, and then neatly refine it as a finishing touch, and that’s it.

It doesn’t matter if it’s an orc or an elf.

For orcs, just abnormally increase the size and muscle mass, then sculpt a wide lower jaw.

For elves, just tweak the ears a bit and change the face to be more beautiful, and that’s it.

‘Has one head, two arms, and walks bipedally with two legs?’

‘Then it’s all within Jina’s coverage.’

“However, the problem is the AI model to be embedded in the NPCs. The artificial intelligence language model will need to be much more sophisticated than it is now.”

At Jina’s sharp remark, Rosy let out an awkward laugh.

“Don’t tell me… it’s because of Yoo Da-hee?”

Jina slowly nodded with a stern expression.

“Why did you even put Summer-nim’s play log in there? Streamers and viewers alike, their standards have not just risen, they’ve pierced the sky.”

“Ahaha…”

“If it weren’t for that, there would have been no need to upgrade the quality of the AI model embedded in the NPCs.”

‘Creating work for herself,’ Jina thought, promptly scolding Rosy.

But Rosy felt not a shred of shame for her actions.

“Still! Thanks to that, we got one legendary scene, didn’t we! Right?!”

“That… I can’t deny that.”

The content with the highest views among Jinro World’s beta test videos was, surprisingly.

Not the thrilling boss raid of the streamer raid party, nor Winter’s heart-pounding Easter egg hunt.

It was none other than Summer’s chaotic other-world life.

If other streamers simply enjoyed the game as ‘players’.

Summer lived as a ‘resident’ of the village, as if she had actually dimension-hopped.

Frequently rushing to the temple to trouble the village’s only saintess, no, priestess.

Wandering the village streets, singing outlandish original songs, causing noise pollution.

Abruptly picking a fight with a shopkeeper who was doing business perfectly fine, then disappearing just as suddenly.

And yet, for some reason, her cheerful and natural demeanor made her impossible to hate.

NPCs and viewers alike were flustered, then burst into laughter.

Especially, the last minute before the beta service ended.

The scene where the priestess, Yoo Da-hee, and Summer sat side-by-side crouched on the temple rooftop, gazing at the starry night sky and conversing, was watched live by over 40,000 viewers.

For a very brief moment, she even surpassed Woogi, one of Pasta’s top three streamers.

[I’m going on a bit of a long journey.]

[But, I’ll be back soon.]

[When I return… I hope you’ll call my name again.]

[It doesn’t matter even if you don’t remember me.]

[Over and over, I’ll seep into your heart.]

She rewatched the scene where Yoo Da-hee, teary-eyed with regret, agonized over not wanting to forget this time, dozens of times.

Soaking an entire box of tissues with tears, Rosy resolved.

She wouldn’t compromise just because it’s a game.

With the mindset of creating a single world, she would push the quality to its absolute limits.

“Well, putting language and personality models into NPCs is Rosy-nim’s role.”

“In the meantime, I should carve out more demon models.”

Instead, her own work will also be quality-upgraded accordingly, no, even beyond that.

“Aren’t the demon models sufficient as they are now?”

“Only the humanoid ones. They’re all movements largely based on bipedal locomotion, so it was very boring.”

Jina slowly turned her head, examining the monster illustration displayed on another hologram window.

Generating high-quality 3D models with human-like forms and similar movements is where Jina is globally unrivaled.

Jina’s next goal is realistic animation for non-humanoid models.

Of course, she had performed similar tasks while creating the VR TRPG.

Generating an arbitrary 3D model.

Automatically generating and embedding a skeleton for it (Auto Rigging).

Furthermore, she had developed technology to automatically connect the skeleton to the 3D model (Auto Skinning).

However, this technology still had clear limitations.

It was a kind of shortcut, where plausible results were extracted by performing transfer learning with humanoid model animations and forcibly setting weight values.

“I’ll have to think about how to diversify and mass-produce demons before the server opens.”

“Ahaha- You’re really working hard. The mother of all demons, Jina.”

Jina smiled faintly at Rosy’s joke-like remark.

Well, as she said.

She can’t just carelessly create her beloved children, can she?

That would be a disgrace to Mama’s dignity.

---

The beta test review meeting with Rosy finally ended as dawn was breaking.

This is the problem with VR Chat. Once you enter a private room, unless you specifically look at a clock, it’s hard to properly notice the passage of time.

Adding to that, both Jina and Rosy are types who don’t take care of themselves when engrossed in work.

Work-life balance? What’s that? If work is life, there’s no need to balance, is there?

After finishing the marathon meeting and dividing the tasks.

She finally laid out her bedding to take a nap before starting work, but.

“Sh*t… So bright…”

The morning sunlight streaming through the window woke Jina up.

Jina groggily got out of bed, drew the curtains, and completely turned off the computer that was in sleep mode.

The room, with all external noise and unnecessary light blocked out, had become her own world.

“…Ah, I’m wide awake now.”

She tried to close her eyes again, but there was no way sleep would come.

Setting aside the fact that she was wide awake after briefly sleeping and waking up.

All sorts of formulas and monster modelings floated around in her head.

Eventually, Jina took a can of coffee from the refrigerator and sat down in front of the computer again.

A 3D model viewer program filling one side of the monitor.

As she dragged a few files onto it, bizarre models began to emerge one by one from a hazy light.

Starting with a jellyfish-type monster with multiple tentacles draped around its body.

An arthropod-type monster with elongated legs.

And even a wolf-type monster with abnormally twisted legs.

These were all models that failed to achieve natural movement and were temporarily placed in a folder.

It was only the animation generation that failed; the models themselves were decently well-made.

Honestly, it’s a bit of a waste to discard them as they are.

If possible, she wants to salvage them somehow.

“Hmm… Let’s see…”

Jina stared intently at the demons displayed on the screen, lightly massaging her temples.

Basic humanoid characters had become easy enough to create even with her eyes closed.

From the movement of muscles and joints to the subtle tremors of the skin.

She had already gathered sufficient data and optimized it from numerous past projects.

However, this time, the forms were too different.

Jellyfish, for instance, barely have a skeleton.

Arthropod-type monsters have far too many legs.

Of course, for a quadrupedal wolf, she could just moderately distort the skeletal structure and transfer the data.

But even this, if judged by realistic quality standards, the result is unusable.

What Jina wanted wasn’t a person mimicking a wolf by crawling on all fours.

But a ‘real’ wolf existing in reality, whose firm muscles tense when galloping across a meadow.

Whose long, torn snout opens hideously when growling.

“One thing’s for sure, the rigging itself isn’t the problem.”

Actually, auto-rigging technology was no longer a difficult technology.

Analyzing the model’s form and then embedding skeletal data into the model accordingly is perfect.

Jina had already completed an algorithm that extracts a point cloud based on modeling data and automatically generates joints in appropriate positions by analyzing the density of each point.

The problem was the next step.

“Skinning is the problem, as expected.”

The skinning process, creating a natural connection between the model surface and the internal skeleton, was one ofhia of the most problematic parts even when implementing humanoid model animation.

To implement the natural deformation of the model when the skeleton moves.

Ultimately, tens of thousands of weight values between the numerous points existing in the model and the skeleton had to be adjusted.

Simply put, it’s like solving an equation with as many variables as polygons.

Formulas, well, it’s a world where you can just copy the entire formula, paste it into a chatbot, and get the result with a single mouse click.

The problem is defining the formula itself.

“Grouping non-humanoids wholesale, the scope to handle is too large.”

Therefore, first, categorizing creatures according to animation.

Breaking down complex problems into smaller pieces and solving them, then combining them into one giant model, is what Jina does best.