Chapter 39: Matrix software and UE Press Conference

[3rd Person POV]

Vgames Press Conference

Events room for Vgames had a make shift stage with dozens of reporters seated in their seats, awaiting the announcement of Vgames. They were all looking forward to whatever is going to be announced by the company that's been making waves recently. While the news they are covering isn't as critically relevant compared to crime and politics, the games Vgamas produce bring comfort to a lot of people. They have brought back some vitality and enjoyment to the people who are weary and tired of constant negativity of the world around them. 

As they were trying to be busy and triple check their notes and camera equipment, when the doors near the stage opened. and one of the female staff walked in front of the dozens of microphones set up on the lectern in front. All the reporters become silent and eager to hear the announcements.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let's begin the press conference. Without further ado, I give you Mr. Ven Matthews."

A handsome man with lean but built body in a suit walks to the lectern and gives a nod to the female staff then lightly smiles to the crowd.

"Hello everyone and thank you for coming. Today, we at Vgames would like to announce a few of our upcoming products. Normally we would simply have our own mini ceremony then launch the products after some marketing. But today these products are quite significant and may affect a lot of parties so we are announcing it here instead."

Ven then signals the staff and the huge screen behind him lights up to show the products.

"Here at Vgames, we not only strive to produce quality games that people can enjoy, we also try to innovate game development and constantly try new things that could further our process. After a lot of work done by my wonderful people at Vgames, we are announcing the Matrix Software solutions."

"These are separate software derived from a single main software that we originally developed to help our game development teams. However, we have come to realize the potential of the software and have decided to release custom versions of this software as well as a few games made with this technology."

The screen changes to show a few short video clips of the software being used to make characters in a game.

"First, let me give you a quick overview of what it is. The Matrix software is a 3d software. We originally intended to use it for game development. specifically for character, object and environment creation. But as most people in the 3d modeling and animation industry may know, artists usually start from scratch every time. It usually starts with objects we in the industry know as polygons in a three dimensional space. Then artists build on it until it becomes whatever object or character was intended."

"But this is a tedious process to start from nothing every single time. So we created a software that would have base foundation templates. These templates range have an extremely wide variety of range from random everyday objects to complete themed environments. But for now, lets focus on characters. A base character model be it male or female can be created on a single click. This will produce a base model that comes fully modeled with internal muscle structures and bone rigging. This is to simulate how each human body part bends so as to not look unnatural. And these base models can be customized with pre existing parameters that can alter the characters appearance. In short, it's like a game's character creation menu but more detailed."

The screen shows the simple character creation process being done.

"With this, our game developers are able to swiftly create characters or any object we may need for the game without starting from scratch. And since they are already set up with muscles, bones rigging and physics simulations, they are practically ready to use for animation or moved to the customization screen for full detail modification. This makes it so our artists and animators are able to focus more on the game play rather than spend countless hours making a new model from scratch."

"This software also uses our Unreal Engine technology that can produce extremely high resolution models and textures, with highly realistic lighting and water simulations."

The screen then shows several animated environments and random characters that were using said technology. The crowd of reporters, and the viewers at home of the broadcast were awestruck as the scenes shown were very realistic compared to the current graphics of games. Even the waterfall simulations shown were so high quality that the audience who have never seen this kind of quality rendering thought it was a video of real places. 

"The Unreal Engine technology focuses on using such high resolution rendering yet keeping the hardware resources moderate so the computers can keep up. So we don't have to worry about polygon count. The difference with our Matrix software is that Unreal Engine is more generalized use. But Matrix software has our base templates more focused on eliminating the need for starting from scratch and reusing already existing assets as well as modifying them to create new ones while keeping the rest of the tedious work of repetition minimal."

"Because of this technology along with our Matrix software, we are able to produce our first batch of games with high quality resolutions."

The screen changed and showed the covers of the first batch of games. It was games in the PS2 era from Ven's old world with titles like FFX, Resident Evil 4, Need for speed, Silent Hill, Dragon Quest VIII, Persona 4, GTA Vice City, MGS 2, Devil May cry, Soul Reaver, Kingdom Hearts, Suikoden III and Breath of fire Dragon Quarter. They didn't release any sports games just yet since Ven was never a fan of sports games. But he knew they were profitable so they were still in the works. 

"The screens only showed the covers but the full trailers will be available through our website and DCW account after the conference."

The crowd suddenly went a bit loud with their murmurs and whispers. This was ground breaking for that world. While most of these were from the PS2 era, Ven used high quality rendering so they might as well be like PS5 quality games from his old world. 

Countless viewers at home felt like they were going crazy with this reveal and took to DCW to post their thoughts. In mere seconds, the topic was trending. For gamers in this world, this was the dawn of a new gaming era.

Ven waited for the press to settle down a bit before continuing.

"While this is a new height in gaming, we at Vgames also realize that this has so much more potential to offer which leads me to the custom software. Our Main Matrix software full version is only internal in Vgames and affiliate companies but we are releasing two custom versions."

"First, we have created what we call Matrix Med which is centered on models that are fully rendered not only in muscle structures, but internal organs as well. We had several teams working with a few privately contacted doctors to make extremely accurate models with proper human anatomy organs that are to this day, still being improved the more we learn about them. This software's focus is particularly for the medical field to help doctors, nurses and interns with learning, procedures, and whatever else they have use for a high quality model like this. It is constantly being improved in cooperation with doctors so as to keep it accurate and ever evolving. These also have separate functions to simulate blood circulation, that we are hoping could help in terms of disease and virus research to discover cures. I will not go into detail any further but the bottom line is, this software is intended to assist the medical field."

This time, it was those who were related to the said field that were going crazy. Several research institutes immediately tried to get in touch with Vgames while hospital heads and CEO's were calling for meetings to discuss the announcement. While initially it doesn't sound anything ground braking to people not in the medical field, little do they know, this would progress research greatly because of the simulations. And since the software is constantly being developed as well, this would keep adding features that the medical field would greatly benefit from.

After another pause, Ven continued his last announcement for the day.

"Finally, we also want to announce Matrix PD, which is focused on helping law enforcement in terms of Crime Scene Investigations. This one will be focused on simulating Crime Scenes and how the crimes took place, be it for police investigation or for court evidence. This one will be able to simulate blood splatters as well as bullet trajectories, even weapon estimations based on body wound damage. These also come with basic physics simulations so as to show the possibilities of what could have occurred based on the data input."

"While this, in no way replaces CSI operatives, we are hoping this would greatly assist them in uncovering truths. Nothing beats a proper human's experience and adaptability, this is merely a tool to assist further. Like the Matrix Med, this will also be constantly improved with coordination from any law enforcement agencies that wish to assist us or leave their feedback and input."

The moment Ven finished, it was government agencies turn to freak out and start contacting their superiors and calling for meetings. 

Since Barry Allen himself took part in the testing, he was also given a copy that he can use which also helped him greatly. Though the first thing he simulated, to no one's surprise in his circle of friends and family, was his mother's death. While Barry didn't share the results with anyone, he was able to get something out of it immediately. 

Originally, Cisco and Detective Joe west would have found the blood splatter in the old house while they were secretly investigating. This would have led them to find the blood that it was future Barry's blood. But now, Barry was able to find the blood sample because of the simulated blood splatter. So he had asked Detective West and Cisco to assist him which led to the same events taking place of them learning it was future Barry that was there that night.

As Ven's announcements were done, the reporters were initially dumbfounded on where to begin with their questions but eventually got their bearings back and did their jobs.

"Mr. Matthews, will you be releasing the full version software at any point in the future?" -reporter1

"We haven't decided yet, but for now, it remains inhouse." Ven replied. But as he does, he saw a familiar girl at the back who interestingly was covering his announcement as well so he chose to pick her for the next question.

"What about the entertainment industry? Will you be releasing a version for them?"

"Excellent question miss--?"

"Sullivan, Chloe Sullivan." Chloe replied. "Smallville Torch...." She said a little quietly since she was way out of her league here. She was only covering for a school paper but she got lucky she was in Metropolis visiting her cousin so she was able to hear about this press conference and somehow attend.

"We haven't decided to release a version for the entertainment industry but we ARE releasing Unreal Engine separately so if they want to use that and build their own software, we don't mind. Provided of course they pay for the usage fees for Unreal Engine." Ven said.

Chloe was elated that her question was answered but decided to push her luck a little and ask a follow up. 

"Will you be getting into the movie industry then? Since you do have software to make your own renders now?"

"That depends, if I still have enough leeway. Game development keeps me busy nowadays but I probably wouldn't say no to making 1 or 2 films if we ever get a good idea for a script. If it's going to be fully animated or not, is yet to be determined as well." Ven said then went to other reporters.

Little did Ven know, this small assist to Chloe would streamline her entry to the Daily Planet instead of starting at the very bottom like she originally would. 

"Are you not afraid of competitors if you release Unreal Engine?" -reporter2

"Not really. In fact, we welcome it. We at Vgames are also passionate about games. We look forward to what our competitors can achieve with this technology. As gamers, it would be fun to enjoy others works as well." Ven replied.

"Of course for now we will still keep our advantage which is the Matrix software full version." Ven said with a slight smirk.

After some minor questions, the press conference ended smoothly with all the reporters eager to get back and start completing their reports. 

As for the viewers at home who saw the announcements via news, everyone was excited with what this could mean. For gamers, it was the dawn of realistic CG gaming, for doctors and nurses, better understanding of the human body, and proper simulations mean better training and possibly quicker decision making if they can create surgical plans using the software. And for law enforcement, it meant improving investigations. So this not only affected the police, even FBI and CIA were trying to contact Vgames.

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