Chapter 353: 353 Cross-border Strike

Chen Xu entered the company and saw the employees were all busy with their own tasks, each deeply absorbed in their work. It seemed that even without Luo Xiyun, the company’s operations were still running smoothly.

He walked around the company and was quite satisfied. The first-generation VR glasses were almost ready to start production, and Luo Xiyun’s trip abroad was also to customize the production line.

Luo Xiyun had decided to take the OEM route, which was the general trend, just like smartphone manufacturers, all the major companies were outsourcing their production to OEM factories.

Now, negotiations about OEM were in progress, mainly because Yunxu’s future products differed significantly from the VR devices currently on the market; there were no existing production lines ready for them. Such customization needed to be ordered, and in this regard, foreign countries had more expertise.

In fact, apart from the production line issue, there was also the procurement of various components, which had to be negotiated individually.

This was the trouble with being in a tangible industry; should Yunxu Company grow larger, it would have to establish a stable and healthy supply system, which was a considerable test of the company’s management level.

The biggest problem was the lack of experience. Some time ago, Luo Xiyun had poached a few people from other companies to specifically handle production. However, she didn’t completely let go and followed along with the work.

Chen Xu couldn’t help much with these matters for now. He certainly understood the technical side of the production line, but when the data center was completed, he could help establish automated production lines.

However, Luo Xiyun clearly couldn’t wait that long.

Currently, every department in the company had been busy, and the promotional aspects had never lagged, advertising through various channels to increase product awareness.

The software department was the busiest, not only improving the operating system for VR devices but also providing various technical supports for the independent VR game and VR film content companies.

This department was also the largest in the company, accounting for more than half of the total number of employees. Since its establishment, the department had been continuously expanding its workforce.

There was no choice, in order to maximize the running efficiency of the devices under current hardware conditions, Luo Xiyun had introduced a brand-new programming language from the start, which is now referred to within the company as Luo’s Language.

Luo’s Language came in two versions: one in Chinese and one in English.

Currently, most people within the company used the Chinese version, for a simple reason – it was easier to learn.

But it was only slightly easier; as a programming language, it had a very rigorous logic. To master it, one needed to learn about logic. Without any foundation, it wasn’t easy to get started.

Not only was the operating system using this language, but the development of software, videos, games, and more based on this environment also used this language.

Therefore, it was necessary to quickly popularize this language. The employees of these software departments were the seeds for the future.

Luo Xiyun had already made plans that once there was a solid base of VR glasses sales, she would encourage employees in the software department to start their own businesses to create content, and she would provide some support for them.

…

Thinking about these things, Chen Xu felt it was very troublesome. He couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Xiyun, who insisted on dealing with tangible products and high-tech at that, which involved too many different aspects.

Yang Jinxia was the same, managing flash memory particles was already quite a feat, and she even wanted to make smartphones. To succeed in these ventures required much effort and was by no means easy.

Their ambition was too strong. In contrast, he was much more of a slacker, choosing the easiest path, pushing others to the forefront while he stayed behind the scenes, reaping the benefits.

“This machine is really amazing.”

When Chen Xu arrived at the video company and had just walked in, he heard an excited voice. He recognized the owner of the voice immediately; it was Director Wang, who he had met through Chen Chao and who was in charge of the animation project, Erlang God.

Director Wang looked very young, not yet thirty. He didn’t come from a background in animation. He got into this industry solely because of his passion for animation. After participating in two wildly popular animated movies and feeling he had accumulated enough experience, he left to become a director on his own. His project was indeed Erlang God.

The script was ready, along with a plethora of character designs, settings, and even the storyboard was prepared in advance.

Seeing how well-prepared he was, Luo Xiyun quickly settled on a collaboration scheme.

After signing the contract, Director Wang brought his team over and couldn’t wait to get started.

Chen Xu saw a crowd gathered around a monitor, all with excited expressions. He stepped forward and asked, “Director Wang, what’s going on?”

“Mr. Chen,” Director Wang only then noticed him and asked with expectant eyes, “Is this machine for sale?”

Chen Xu looked at the screen. This machine, which he had developed, was specially designed for special effects production; it could handle games, movies, and animation effects.

He shook his head and said, “Are you talking about this? Sorry, it’s an in-house development of our company and is currently not for sale.”

Director Wang seemed disappointed as he lamented, “That’s a real pity. With this machine, we could significantly shorten the production cycle for animations. With this pace, I am confident we could make the movie within a year.”

He continued, still with a hint of regret. Currently, domestic special effects companies were not up to standard, and with insufficient capital, they could only rely on time to gradually refine their work. It was normal for an animated movie to take several years to produce.

If the production cycle could be reduced to a year, it would be a tremendous boon for animation creators.

“Your company’s technology is really powerful,” Director Wang understood how difficult it was to achieve that and then asked with curiosity, “How much would it cost to produce such a set of equipment?”

Chen Xu didn’t hide anything from him and said, “Just the hardware investment alone would be twenty million.”

A single machine alone wasn’t enough to support the production of special effects; behind it, there was a cluster of powerful servers providing computational support.

Director Wang was surprised; this number was much lower than what he had imagined.

Chen Xu continued, “As for the software, that’s harder to calculate.”

Director Wang realized the truth; the most critical part was clearly the entire suite of production software. He had seen the world and visited special effects companies abroad. Such large-scale professional software, often developed in-house, was considered core technology and not easily sold.

He said sentimentally, “I’ve heard people say that what beats you might not be your competitors, but cross-industry rivals. Now I’ve truly seen it. If your company decided to start doing special effects for others, domestic special effects companies would probably die off in droves.”

Chen Xu smiled and said nothing; the company indeed had plans in that regard. With the domestic film industry being so profitable, how could he ignore such an opportunity?