Reborn to create a virtual world

The south and north mentioned by Lin Shu refer to two university-affiliated research institutes, two well-known leaders in the field of speech recognition.

The research of Southern University of Science and Technology and Yanda University in this field is at the top of the country, but it is difficult to say whether those who have really made achievements in this field have graduated or not.However, if Lin Shu remembers correctly, both sides have made some achievements in this area a long time ago, but the technology at this time still has many flaws, and it is not well-known yet, mixed with a vast amount of information , and was not valued or appreciated.

The one from Nanke is called Zhou Fan, and later he specialized in the development of smart partners.He has done a particularly good job in language recognition and intelligent speech. The intelligent robot he developed is famous for its lifelike tone and vivid personality, and has dominated the international robot companion market for many years.The research direction of Bai Chiwen from Yanda University lies in public services. The speech recognition system he developed was later used in public services, telephone self-service, mobile interactive games and other fields.

In terms of technical level, it is actually difficult to judge the two. It can only be said that although the emphasis is different, they are also leaders in speech recognition technology.

Ju Mingfeng thought for a while, and said: "Zhou Fan's strength lies in the personality simulation in the language of electronic intelligent life, while Bai Chiwen's strength lies in the application of data induction and derivative technologies such as image recognition and logical judgment. In fact, their specialties We can use it in the future, so there is no need to worry about which one to dig. No matter which one we dig, we will make money. If we can dig both, it will be a big profit. Try to contact both sides, Whichever one can be dug out counts, if both can be dug out, I want to see what kind of sparks these two people can create together."

Lin Shu heard what Ju Mingfeng said, but felt that what Ju Mingfeng said was very reasonable, so he replied, "Then poach both sides to see."

Regardless of Zhou Fan or Bai Chiwen, they are still fledglings and unknown little people. It should not be difficult to poach corners, and the success rate is still quite high.

But Ju Mingfeng thought for a while, and then said: "Although this is said, even the current research of these two people should not be in-depth? Can this technology really be applied in the game in one or two years? You How are you going to use it?"

"I'm not so eager for quick success." Lin Shu replied, "In the future ARPG (action/real-time role-playing game), I only plan to add a voice-activated operation mode. It is similar to the voice-activated function of some current electronic devices. The difference is that I It is planned to use this function in the game, so that the player can choose to use the keyboard handle or voice control. For example, when calling out interface commands or skill commands, the game can automatically recognize and then issue commands... probably this is the idea. "

After hearing this, Ju Mingfeng immediately understood what kind of function Lin Shu wanted.

Many years later, this voice control setting can almost be regarded as the standard configuration of virtual reality games.At that time, the game basically did not rely on the keyboard, mouse or gamepad, but either used nerve connection or pupil scanning and voice control... Ju Mingfeng found that Lin Shu was indeed moving towards virtual online games step by step with a clear purpose.

Because Lin Shu's current plan does not need to establish another project in the company, Zheng Fangcheng, Du Sitong and others could not have gone through it.But for various reasons, he still called several people together for a small meeting.

In this small meeting, Lin Shu first talked about his plans for the future, including the company's future development direction, the distribution of capital flow in the future, and the consideration of the specific positioning of the new engine.

Although the new engine only exists on paper, the types of themes still need to be positioned.Because only by determining the type of theme first, Lin Shu can decide on the AI ​​design scheme that will be used in the game system later.

For example, in the direction of magic, science fiction, or ancient style, the AI ​​system designed by Lin Shu needs to expand knowledge in different directions, and learn different language styles and dialogue methods.If you don't set a good positioning at the beginning, the subsequent development will be very troublesome, and it is easy to do useless work.

After Lin Shu raised this point, everyone did not express their opinions immediately, and seemed to be weighing their words.

After being silent for a while, Zheng Fangcheng asked, "Boss, are you going to adapt a ready-made novel, or do you want to create the background and plot yourself?"

Lin Shu replied: "It's all possible. It mainly depends on which method is more cost-effective, and whether there are ready-made stories suitable for adaptation."

"If you want to change it to an ARPG, I think novels on male websites are more suitable. Recently, fantasy or cultivation novels have been very popular, and many works have a relatively complete world view. The disadvantage is that most of the similar works The homogenization is relatively high, so the settings are relatively similar. But making a game is another way of creation, so there should be no problem with this.”

Several people immediately discussed works suitable for adaptation into games, and Lin Shu also shared some of his thoughts on the new engine.Bai Miao started arguing with Zheng Fangcheng again as if it was a routine job. The two fought hard for their favorite works. Lin Shu was so excited that she almost thought that this girl would rush into Zheng Fangcheng's room in the next second. In the office, there was a real PK with the other party, and there was a big fight.

He had to forcefully stop the two tubes of explosive charcoal.

When the situation finally calmed down, Lin Shu received a book list from Du Sitong before he could speak.

She said: "I don't know what you want, but these are all my favorite works all the time. Among them, I have highlighted the ones that are suitable for adaptation into games-they are all with grand background and strong storytelling. Novels. If you need Lin Shu, I can give you a brief description of the content and main selling points of each novel, and then you can see if it is suitable for adaptation."

Just because of this methodical attitude, Lin Shu felt that Du Sitong had a calm feeling.

Neither Bai Miao nor Zheng Fangcheng thought of this. Zheng Fangcheng reflected on his behavior just now, while Bai Miao was annoyed for a while, and both of them finally diverted their attention.

Du Sitong introduced the books on the list one by one in a clear and vivid way.At first, Bai Miao was still wondering what novel he was going to introduce later, but after listening to it, he was attracted by Du Sitong's narration.

After Du Sitong finished all the introductions, more than half of the works in it had already been on Bai Miao's to-be-read list—she had already read the remaining less than half.

Lin Shu also listened carefully, and even found that there were works he had read later.He listened, but he was really interested in some of Du Sitong's works, so he asked for specific details - such as what is the level setting in it, and is there any in-depth knowledge about supporting roles or group portraits? Depiction, whether there are explosive points or accidents in the plot, etc.

After Du Sitong answered them one by one, Lin Shu selected a few of them, and decided to take the time to read the original works carefully, and then decide whether to choose which one to obtain authorization.

After a few days like this, Lin Shu didn't go to Jiuchongtian again, but read all the selected novels seriously.He is not like Bai Miao, Zheng Fangcheng or Du Sitong who just like a work with a pure attitude. He also examines the story during the reading process, considering which elements can be used, which elements are highlights, and which turning points are in the game. It will appear blunt and abrupt, making it difficult for people to adapt.

After reading and reviewing one by one like this, Lin Shu finally liked "Legend of Destiny" the most.

The setting is unique and innovative, the background construction is magnificent and has a sense of history, and the characters are also all kinds of beings, vivid but not obtrusive.The only problem is that this is a popular work on the Boundary Chinese website under the name of Kuaishu Group in recent years, and the price is absolutely impossible to be low.

Sure enough, after the official of the Boundary Chinese website proposed to purchase the copyright, the number of replies from the other party was very unacceptable.

What followed was all kinds of tense negotiations. Zheng Fangcheng would go to the headquarters of Binhai Kuaishu Group every few days.Fortunately, the distance between Huxi and Binhai is not far, so it is more convenient to negotiate.

But even so, the negotiation process is still somewhat difficult.

Kuaishu itself does not value the impact of future technology, and insists on its own quotation, which is completely an attitude of whether you like to buy or not.They are full of confidence and have a great advantage in this negotiation.In comparison, future technology pales in comparison - after all, there is a big gap with the other party in terms of capital, influence and scale.

But Zheng Fangcheng was not discouraged by this.To be valued by Cui Wenxin, Zheng Fangcheng himself is naturally a young talent with outstanding abilities.Apart from being deflated every time in front of Du Sitong and Bai Miao, he himself is very good in terms of mentality and ability, and his ambition is also high.

During the period of future games, Zheng Fangcheng has almost been brainwashed by Lin Shu and the atmosphere of the entire company—or he can be moved.He has realized the value and development prospects of the game engine and platform system produced by Lin Shu.So even if the physical conditions are weak, Zheng Fangcheng is still full of confidence in his own conditions.

Negotiation success in a state of complete advantage is not considered ability. The real ability should be to dominate the situation in a disadvantaged situation and achieve the expected negotiation effect.

Zheng Fangcheng has done a good job in this regard.

He has always stepped on a patient rhythm, step by step and quickly grind out the terms of the contract step by step, trying his best to make every concession in the negotiation can be exchanged for benefits in other terms.

In this way, until the end of August, the terms of the entire contract were finally basically confirmed.

Leaving aside the time Zheng Fangcheng spent negotiating throughout August, Lin Shu and Ju Mingfeng almost began to devote their energy to the research and development of the basic AI program.

This development process is more complicated.Although it's not that the two of them have done similar projects before, they certainly haven't done so personally at this time.Moreover, the related technologies were quite mature at that time, and there was no need to rebuild from the basics. Naturally, there was a suitable program model that allowed them to choose freely.

However, no matter how troublesome this process is, it is impossible to be sad about the research and development and construction of some relevant research groups from scratch.Compared with many siege lions and researchers who are working hard to do research, Lin Shu and Ju Mingfeng who just reconstructed and sorted out the relevant procedures according to the original knowledge system can be said to have taken advantage of it.

The final AI program was tentatively named Tianqingniang by the two, and it was posted on the homepage of the platform.Lin Shu asked Bai Miao to specially set and customize an image for him, which is a dynamic picture with various expression effects.

The image of Tian Qing Niang is a sunny doll with black hair and red skirt, with short twin ponytails. Her image is lively and lovable.There are not many functions at present, and there is no voice, but it is already possible to carry out simple text conversations and answer some relatively simple or common questions of users.

Of course, the main function is to show cuteness.

At this time, I-Robot (intelligent robot) dialogue programs like this are quite common in foreign countries, but such programs are still relatively rare in China.Earlier, a bank deployed a service-oriented intelligent robot with similar functions, which also aroused heated discussions on the sidelines and on Weibo.

Although Tian Qingniang's appearance was not to the point of causing a topic, at least it attracted enthusiastic onlookers.Many players simply stopped playing, and gathered on the homepage of the platform every day to queue up to tease Tian Qingniang.

Tian Qingniang's character is a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl, a little natural, a little arrogant, and no one can handle her coquettishness.Lin Shu also added the emotion setting and favorability setting in the original engine system, and at the same time bound the user information with Tianqingniang's database.

In this case, Tian Qingniang's attitude and tone will be different when she sees the player for the first time, when she sees the player for the second time, when she sees the player after a long period of time, and when she sees the player every day.At the same time, she will record the number of emotional changes during each conversation. For example, in a chat, she keeps trying to irritate her and make things difficult for her user ID, and she will reply in an arrogant tone every time she talks.A user ID that teaches her new knowledge every time she appears, will be respected by her.

After each conversation, the chat messages that Tian Qingniang's program cannot handle by itself will be submitted to Lin Shu for sorting and integration.Afterwards, if there is a second dialogue, new dialogue content will appear due to the expansion of the information base.

An artificial intelligence like this is a completely curious existence for players, and many people even registered accounts on the future platform because they were curious about Tian Qingniang's existence.

Because of the existence of the weather girl, the official website is a bit more lively than before, gathering more popularity, which is also expected by Lin Shu.But what he didn't expect was that this excitement even affected his next poaching operation.

Lin Shu quickly learned about Zhou Fan and Bai Chiwen's current situation through roundabout investigations.Zhou Fan has graduated from Nanke University and is currently working as a siege lion in a network technology company.He did research on speech recognition when he was in college, mainly for speech-to-text input, that is, after dictation, the software converts the conversation or recording into a text record, because there are already many such technologies at this time The company has already achieved research results, so in the end his technical results were only sold for tens of thousands.

However, Lin Shu researched the audio conference recording software produced by Zhou Fan's technical achievements, and found that its accuracy is obviously higher than that of other similar software, and there should still be some private keys in it.

And Bai Chiwen was just a student who had just entered his final year of university this year.He is very famous in the School of Information Technology of Yanda University. He is known throughout the school for his handsome looks and personality.When Lin Shu contacted him, he hadn't even decided on a company for his internship. It is said that he had applied for many big companies and was rejected.Although the small company Bai Chiwen doesn't dislike it, he dislikes their low wages and is currently struggling.

The process of getting these two people was so easy that Lin Shu felt it was unreal.

Bai Chiwen won't say anything, it's so easy to make people heinous.He only asked about the salary, the price of goods in Huxi City, and whether there were many snacks.When Lin Shu expressed his affirmation, he said without saying a word that he would come over as soon as possible, without even asking about the specific company situation.

All his attention seemed to be on money and food.

In comparison, Zhou Fan is much more reliable.

After receiving the news, he first asked about Lin Shu's identity and situation. When he heard the name Xingze, Zhou Fan immediately asked, "Is it Xingze from the original game platform?"

Lin Shu was not too surprised that the other party knew about Lin Shu's company. After all, the entire platform is very popular now, and a large number of new users register and buy games every day.Although their company is not big, they are well-known and have countless followers. It is not surprising that Zhou Fan is following them.

He affirmed Zhou Fan's question.

Zhou Fan asked again: "You want to hire me, what do you need me to do? Is it related to the artificial intelligence chat program on your platform?"

Lin Shu replied: "It can be said that it is related, or it can be said that it is not. I want to invite you to our company to do research on speech recognition - we want to use speech recognition technology in the second engine later, Together with Tian Qingniang."

Zhou Fan suddenly felt surprised: "...you are going to make a second game engine?"

Lin Shu said: "At present, it is only in the project approval stage."

But I heard Zhou Fan say: "My work here is still in progress, and it may take about a month to handle all the handover tasks. If possible, I will go to Huxi after September 25th... Can you help me find an apartment with a suitable rent ?"

This is obviously a deal.Lin Shu didn't expect Zhou Fan to be so talkative at all. It was as if the other party had already made a decision before he finished speaking.

Seeing that he didn't reply for a long time, Zhou Fan thought it was because of the difficulty of finding an apartment, and asked, "I don't have high requirements, as long as the house can live in it. I really can't find one close to the work place, as long as the transportation is convenient. "

Lin Shu understood that the other party had misunderstood his silence, so he said: "No, there is nothing wrong with the apartment. There are still many suitable housing sources near the office building. It is originally a high-tech zone, and there are workers from all over the country. I'm just surprised , you didn't even ask about the treatment, just agreed so readily?"

After hearing this, Zhou Fan was silent for a while, and asked, "...Then tell me about the treatment?"

Lin Shu then talked about the planned remuneration.After hearing this, Zhou Fan said, "The salary is good. I think it's okay, so what's the problem?"

Lin Shu was so embarrassed.Obviously Zhou Fan didn't even ask about the remuneration when he agreed before, but now their positions seem to be reversed, it seems that he is the one who hesitates instead.

Lin Shu felt that their positions seemed a bit wrong.

Zhou Fan thought for a while, understood the problem, and asked, "Am I acting too straightforward? Actually, what I'm currently working on is a web game program, and the treatment isn't too bad, but I personally I don’t like it very much. The current browser games are all similar in nature and have no technical content. Although the company must make a lot of money, it is of no benefit to me, and the most important thing is that there is no future for development.”

"I've been thinking about job-hopping recently, and you asked me to do research on speech recognition. I don't think I have any reason not to agree."

"Also, I am optimistic about your company."

Water flows to lower place, man goes to higher position.Zhou Fan's reasons are really sufficient, especially the last one.Lin Shu's previous experiences let him know that Zhou Fan is a man of ambition, so it is actually quite normal for him to make such a choice.

At least it's more normal than Bai Chiwen's weird focus.

Lin Shu accepted his reason, but his mentality was still a little erratic, and he felt a sense of unreality.In other words, he finally felt the gap created by the distance of time and space in reality.

A company that has fallen into obscurity more than ten years later is still in full swing at this very moment.A big man who became famous more than ten years later, but at this time is still struggling on the line of food and clothing, a rookie who worries about the distance between food, clothing, flowers and ideals every day.

Time... is so strange.

But in this time distance, only one person crosses the two ends of the time, but there is no wavering or confusion.

When Lin Shu talked to Ju Mingfeng later, he couldn't help asking: "Mingfeng... Speaking of which, you suddenly returned to your childhood, so you don't have any special emotions?"

After all, he is also a tall, handsome and rich man with a successful career. He suddenly returned to the pre-liberation overnight. He has to go to elementary school again, do summer homework, and be reprimanded by his father like a bear child. How can Ju Ming live like this? Is Feng not upset at all?

Ju Mingfeng was puzzled and asked, "For example...?"

For example, wouldn't you be reluctant to give up the status, wealth and reputation you have already acquired?

Although such questions popped up in his mind, what Lin Shu finally said was: "For example, would you be reluctant to part with your parents..."

Then Lin Shu found out that his question had a language problem.

Ju Mingfeng rolled his eyes: "...you said it as if I would become an orphan if I relived my childhood." But after he finished speaking, he still corrected his demeanor and said, "But I know what you want to ask is What. You just want to ask, after 20 years of our accidental death, facing the tragedy that my parents may encounter with a white-haired person sending a black-haired person, I am not guilty; I came back here with you, to re- As an oppressed class (disciplined child) for nearly ten years, do you have any regrets in your heart, right?"

Lin Shu suddenly lost his voice for a second.

Yes, that's what he meant.It's just that Ju Mingfeng's rhetorical question was too blunt and sharp, which made him feel unacceptable.

But Ju Mingfeng said calmly: "It is certain to be guilty. Although I have been disobedient since I was a child, my dad probably thought about stuffing it back into my mother's stomach more than once to be born again, but I They must have been sad to leave without even saying goodbye. But I don't regret it."

Lin Shu froze in front of the computer in shock.

I just heard Ju Mingfeng continue: "Because in the end, you are the one I choose to spend this life with. Parents or others, maybe some people are really important. If possible, I will also I hope to repay them, but after all, they are not the ones I can spend my whole life with. So for this matter, no matter how guilty I am to my parents, I will not regret it."

"Because I'm a selfish person."