“Hmm? Now that you mention it, it does seem like there’s some compatibility…”
Lin Wan, Wang Xiaobin, and Cai Jiadong thought for a moment and immediately understood what Ye Zhizhou meant.
“Fitness Showdown” was a fitness game. When designing this game, the reason for creating so many distinctive characters and allowing players to develop these characters through fitness was to increase the game’s stickiness.
Only if the game had high stickiness would players enjoy it tirelessly and play for extended periods, thereby achieving the fitness effect.
VR’s characteristic was its extreme immersion. If “Fitness Showdown” were converted into a VR game, those cultivated characters that players could only see on small tablets would appear incredibly realistically in players’ field of vision in VR.
The subtle changes in these characters’ physiques and the effects after each outfit change would be more obvious to players, and their interactions with players would feel more immersive.
This would undoubtedly greatly increase the game’s stickiness, giving players more enthusiasm to develop characters in the game through fitness, to earn calorie coins, or to directly recharge and purchase in-game items.
After all, seeing a dress on a mobile phone versus seeing it in VR created completely different effects.
From another perspective, “Fitness Showdown” was also quite suitable for the current stage of VR equipment.
Because it was a mobile game, it wouldn’t require high specifications or occupy much space. This meant the game wouldn’t need a computer and could be directly streamed to VR glasses from a mobile phone, or even installed directly in the VR glasses, freeing it from the constraints of a host computer.
Moreover, like “Animal Island” which was in the planning stage, it had a cute, moe-style art design.
This would be more advantageous in avoiding the current VR equipment’s insufficient resolution, making the screen door effect less noticeable to players and ensuring they had a good gaming experience.
Additionally, the smart fitness clothes rack’s compatibility with “Fitness Showdown” was already very complete. Developing a VR version of “Fitness Showdown” would require no changes to the operation mode whatsoever. Professional version players could simply use the smart fitness clothes rack according to the prompts after entering the game.
Of course, some basic operations in the game, such as selecting options on the game’s title screen, adjusting interface settings, drawing items, etc., would still need to be completed using controllers.
These were all features that made “Fitness Showdown” compatible with VR games.
If this game could be perfectly ported to VR, those cute young ladies in the game could step out of the narrow tablet and come to the players’ side very realistically, bringing them an unprecedented experience.
However, as Cai Jiadong listened to their discussion, he couldn’t help but frown slightly and said, “Indeed, making ‘Fitness Showdown’ into a VR version can enhance the game’s expressiveness by more than one level.”
“But… I’ve thought of a problem.”
“Current VR headsets on the market try to avoid light leakage to enhance immersion and engagement in games. Therefore, manufacturers choose to use masks that completely cover and wrap around the player’s eye area, which brings a better sense of immersion.”
“The problem this brings is that it’s very stuffy and hot.”
“Although those foreign VR glasses have chosen to use highly breathable foam and lightweight composite support structures to make masks to improve wearing comfort, for now it’s only slightly improved and still doesn’t perfectly solve this problem.”
“If we make a fitness-type VR game, the ‘heat’ problem might be more obvious, making it difficult to ensure the best fitness experience for players.”
After Cai Jiadong finished speaking, the other three fell into deep thought.
Obviously, what he said made a lot of sense.
Heat was just one aspect of the problem. If it were just about sweating a little, many people could still endure completing half an hour of exercise.
The more serious problem was that the VR glasses’ interior was too well-sealed, preventing sweat around the eyes from naturally evaporating. Moisture would condense on the lenses, making the entire field of vision blurry and seriously interfering with normal gameplay.
Although general VR games had relatively low physical activity and wouldn’t produce such problems, “Fitness Showdown” had an exercise intensity that genuinely matched professional gyms. This problem would definitely be more severe than with other VR games.
After considering for a moment, Lin Wan suddenly thought of something and began searching through the pile of abandoned plans.
Soon, she pulled out one of the plans and turned to a specific page.
“What if we add a heat dissipation design? Do you think that would improve this problem?”
Ye Zhizhou, Wang Xiaobin, and Cai Jiadong passed the document around.
This was a previously abandoned plan that had adopted the latest generation of flagship chips currently used in smartphones. It was ultimately discarded because the new generation of flagship chips generated too much heat and consumed too much power, which would seriously shorten the VR glasses’ usage time and make the front panel too hot.
Although it was abandoned, when making this plan, Old Song had put considerable effort into the VR glasses’ cooling system to control the flagship chip.
First was the VR glasses’ own heat dissipation. In addition to adding a large amount of graphite heat dissipation materials inside the glasses like smartphones, a very thin strip-shaped heat dissipation vent was left on the upper front of the VR glasses, using fans to dissipate all the heat inside the machine.
Second was facial heat dissipation after wearing the VR glasses. The solution was to add a horizontal bar above the two lenses of the VR glasses that wouldn’t touch the player’s forehead. This bar would run through both sides of the VR glasses and leave two ventilation openings at positions covered by the side straps.
The bar would also be covered with openings, forming air circulation with the sealed interior space of the glasses after wearing, and the fresh airflow driven by the fan would quickly evaporate sweat around the eyes.
This way, the problem of sweat accumulation around the eyes causing blurry lenses could be solved.
Moreover, the ventilation openings left at the sides were covered by the left and right straps, and the ventilation openings on the horizontal wind channel were very small. Even if a small amount of light leaked in through the ventilation openings, it wouldn’t cause noticeable light leakage or affect the player’s gaming experience.
When designing initially, Old Song had also proposed an interesting idea: when heat dissipation wasn’t needed, this design could simulate natural wind, complementing gameplay in the game to create a feeling of “gentle breeze blowing.”
Cai Jiadong nodded slightly: “Hmm… this solution could greatly alleviate the internal heat dissipation problem of the glasses.”
“But the heat dissipation at the contact points with the VR glasses still can’t be solved.”
“And our VR glasses weigh 340g. Because of the battery, they’re slightly heavier than mainstream VR glasses. Would it be tiring to wear them for long periods of exercise? That’s also a problem.”
The parts in contact with the VR glasses used highly breathable foam, so there was no way to dissipate heat where it pressed against the skin, and sweat would still occur.
The weight of the VR glasses was also an issue. Although the current design plan placed the battery at the rear to balance the entire VR glasses and avoid “nose bridge pressure,” exercising with the weight of two apples would certainly become tiring after a while.
Ye Zhizhou thought for a moment and said, “I heard some companies abroad are developing ultra-lightweight VR glasses weighing less than 200g, which look not much different from ordinary sunglasses. If we could achieve this level…”
Lin Wan immediately shook her head: “No.”
“Achieving less than 200g isn’t impossible, but the battery would have to be greatly reduced, the chip couldn’t be kept, and things like the camera positioning system inside would all have to be cut. In the end, it would just be a toy with very short battery life and no advantages other than being lightweight.”
“What we want to bring to players is the richest gameplay, not toys.”
She then looked at Cai Jiadong: “I think your thinking is too limited, which might be a mindset formed in your previous company, but here you must change it as soon as possible.”
Cai Jiadong was startled: “Limited thinking?”
Lin Wan nodded: “Yes, but this isn’t your fault. It’s a common problem in companies other than Tenda.”
“The typical manifestation is failing to grasp the key points, not understanding priorities, only seeing problems and risks, but not seeing the opportunities behind the risks.”
Seeing Cai Jiadong’s bewildered expression, Lin Wan explained: “Any new thing has flaws, and any attempt involves risk.”
“As an emerging industry, VR at its current level of development definitely has many defects, which is unavoidable.”
“But if you only see risks and problems without proposing solutions, then you can only give up. And giving up means missing an opportunity.”
“The reason Tenda has developed and grown so rapidly is because Mr. Pei not only doesn’t despise risk, but is actually very keen on seeking it out.”
“Of course, seeking risk doesn’t mean foolishly engaging in meaningless adventurous behavior, but accurately seeing through risks to the opportunities behind them.”
“Think carefully, what’s the core purpose of the VR version of ‘Fitness Showdown’? Is it really to provide players with a comfortable, long-term fitness solution?”
“Of course not!”
“Its core purpose is to show players a possibility for the future.”
“Players aren’t paying for a comfortable fitness solution; they’re paying for a future possibility.”
“Whether it’s comfortable to use is indeed a problem we need to work hard to solve and improve, but even if this problem can’t be completely solved, we don’t need to obsess over it. Because it’s not our core goal.”
Cai Jiadong nodded in sudden realization.
“I see!”
“It seems my thinking has indeed become a bit rigid and unable to keep up with the latest trends…”
Lin Wan’s meaning was very clear: the VR version of “Fitness Showdown” was merely a supplement, a way to show players a possibility for the future.
A game or product couldn’t be perfect and please everyone. If it could accomplish its main objectives, it was successful.