Started as an independent producer in 1988

Chapter 360 I believe everything Mr. Chen said! I wish you all a happy Dragon Boat Festival!
It is better to buy than to make, and it is better to rent than to buy.

This sentence was very famous in the past few years. Many people thought that since it was already available abroad, why bother developing it ourselves?

The ones developed are not as good as those from abroad, so it’s better to buy one.

Buying one is too expensive, so why not rent one?

Save time, effort and money!

Early domestic supercomputers encountered this problem, or to be more precise, the entire computer industry.

Because of this idea, the development of supercomputers in China was very late.

It was not until 1983 that China built its own supercomputer, but its computing power was too low and its output was too small to meet demand.

Most domestic companies still purchase supercomputers from abroad.

But at that time, foreign countries imposed very strict restrictions on China, strictly prohibiting the export of high-end supercomputers and related technologies.

He even put forward a requirement that if China purchased supercomputers, they must be locked in a glass cabinet, with the key held by Da Piaoliang.

If you want to use it, you must apply to Da Piaoliang and you can only use it after the application is approved.

It’s so deceiving!
You're asking for trouble by spending money, right?
So he got angry and continued his research and development. By 1994, the computer's computing speed exceeded one billion times per second.

Therefore, Da Piaoliang also unlocked the sales limit of computing power of one billion operations.

Blockade is useless, we have our own!
By 1997, the computing speed of the new generation had exceeded 10 billion times per second.

Chen Shiping has checked the supercomputers in China, and found that only the National University of Defense Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed them so far.

It’s just that there is not enough computing power to do other things, and the computing speed is still too slow.

I don’t know if we can reach a petaflop of computing power next year. If we reach that level, there will be extra computing power available for other purposes.

Chen Shiping wanted to build a supercomputer himself for this reason.

Blockbuster movies will be produced frequently in the future, and rendering and computing power will be the biggest problems.

Not to mention Avatar, even for a movie like Transformers, a normal home computer would probably take about two thousand years.

For an animation like Big Hero 48, which has amazing graphics, it would take at least -core workstations to work together for more than half a year to render.

We can't stop in the middle. I don't know how many machines can withstand it. I guess it would be a beautiful scene to have 20,000 machines smoking at the same time.

The key is 20,000 machines, how much does that cost!
The whole super calculation is not cost-effective!

Director Hu from the Special Effects Research Lab wanted money, not to do the rendering himself, but just to buy machines for modeling.

He never thought about doing the final rendering himself because it was unrealistic.

If Hollywood's special effects blockbusters don't use supercomputer power for rendering, we won't be able to see them for a hundred years.

Hollywood rendering companies basically purchase supercomputing power to build rendering farms.

The conditions do not exist in China at present.

What else can you do if you don’t spend your own money to tinker with it? Should you just wait ten years until there are more supercomputing centers before making a blockbuster?
Chen Shiping used to think that domestic special effects were rubbish, but after being reborn, he finally understood his opinion. It’s not just the special effects in the film and television industry that are rubbish.

The hardware really can’t keep up, so I can only do simple things, but full CG special effects are just a dream.

Hollywood uses supercomputer power for rendering, while China uses ordinary workstations for rendering. Sometimes it is not a problem of modeling and motion capture.

If it can't be rendered, it will just be a pile of poop.

The rise of domestic special effects is also due to the increasing number of supercomputing centers and the increasing abundance of excess computing power.

Otherwise, why bother with special effects? Just use some 50-cent special effects, it’s still cheap.

It is extremely expensive to go abroad to make special effects in China, so how can investors in the film and television industry dare to make special effects films?

It's all about money, and it still gets ripped off by Hollywood special effects companies.

The key is that they will interfere with your creation. Domestic films that have special effects made abroad have basically never produced high-quality ones.

It's all garbage.

Sometimes the audience is also puzzled. Isn’t this made by the Avatar special effects team? Why is it so rubbish?
Isn't this a special effect made by the Transformers team? Why is it so ugly?
First, domestic producers are reluctant to spend money, and second, they are unwilling to do the work properly for you.

The end result is a lot of bad movies.

If the country wants to develop, computing power must keep up!
Only by reducing costs can we make more excellent films.

Otherwise it’s all nonsense!
With abundant computing power, we can also shine in the gaming industry.

What Chen Shiping needs to consider now is whether to build one on his own or cooperate with others.

The current supercomputing power has not yet reached its peak. If you build one yourself, it will soon be obsolete. In five years at most, the current supercomputing power will be as inefficient as an old lady crossing the street.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences' Sugon has now delivered several supercomputers, but the delivered supercomputers only have a computing power of millions.

Chen Shiping doesn't like it.

He doesn't even look down on the supercomputer with more than one million computing power!

After thinking for a long time, Chen Shiping decided to go to Shuguang to take a look.

He also called Director Hu and asked him to go and take a look.

Director Hu ran over immediately.

"Mr. Chen, if you really want to buy it, the school can also contribute some money! Can you buy it and put it in the school?" Director Hu said immediately when he saw Chen Shiping.

Chen Shiping: “.” You are not without money, why are you pretending to be poor? You can develop it yourself, why don’t you make one too!

"Your school can do it yourself, right? Just do it yourself, it's cheaper."

"Well, that won't take time."

"That's fine, I can just work with Shuguang, there's a better Galaxy."

Director Hu grinned and said, "Yes, yes, the school also wants to contribute."

Chen Shiping said, "How much money does the school plan to pay?"

"If we squeeze together, we can come up with 500,000!" Director Hu shouted out with the momentum of 5 million.

Chen Shiping rolled his eyes at him and left.

After arriving at Sugon, Chen Shiping chatted with Mr. Li of Sugon for a few minutes and learned that three domestic companies had already reserved Sugon 3,000.

"When will Dawn 3000 be released? How much computing power will it have?" Chen Shiping asked curiously.

Mr. Li smiled and said, “It will be officially released around the year after next, and the computing power is conservatively estimated to be 400 billion.”

"It's too late." Chen Shiping said with some regret.

Mr. Li nodded and said with a smile: "Making movies requires effectiveness. Mr. Chen, who is currently working for 2,000 Shuguang, may also consider it."

"Dawn 2,000 is too slow, and they will be eliminated soon. How about you rent it for a while, and I will purchase more when 3,000 comes out."

"Mr. Chen, I'll give you a discount. It's not cost-effective to rent it."

"How much per hour?"

"Well, it depends on the specific needs, whether it is a dedicated node or a queued job, and the cost of commercial software, this also needs to be discussed in detail. The most expensive one is 100,000 per month, and the cheapest one is 100,000 per month."

"Rent, rent, rent. I'll rent it for a year!" Chen Shiping said immediately.

This price is not cheap, but it is really cheap!
Even if it takes four or five years to render, it would only cost a few million.

But if you really do the math, rendering alone costs several million, which is damn expensive!
This does not include other special effects costs. Rendering can be left there and ignored. The real cost is the work before rendering.

Mr. Li sighed. It would be uneconomical to rent Shuguang. It would be better to sell it.

I still want to clear my warehouse.

"Then Mr. Chen, why don't you just pay more and buy a few more? I'll really give you a discount!"

"Don't buy obsolete ones!" Chen Shiping won't be fooled!

Treat him as a fool.

Shenwei has built a supercomputer with a computing power of 300 billion times. Asking him to buy a product with a computing power of 10 billion times that will soon become obsolete is just fooling a fool.

After discussing the rental, Chen Shiping waved his hand and let Director Hu take over.

Make a request and order a batch of Shuguang 3,000!
Sugon has never made a supercomputer for rendering. In the past, they were all customized for the Meteorological Bureau, Petroleum Exploration Bureau or major universities.

After the delivery, China Film will be able to mass-produce blockbusters.

Once productivity is liberated, as long as there is a steady stream of creativity, it can be monetized immediately!

Five years later, it will be the era of true special effects blockbusters!

Director Hu talked with Mr. Li of Shuguang for almost an hour before he finished stating his request.

Mr. Li took a sip of tea, looked at Chen Shiping and said, "Mr. Chen, it's settled then. Let's talk about the specific price."

"I won't talk about this anymore. Someone from the group will come to talk to you later."

"Yes, then wait a few more days."

Chen Shiping nodded and said, "Let's make some noise later. I'll advertise for you and you'll advertise for me. I hope you can develop it quickly."

"With the funding, the research and development speed will definitely be faster, and the first batch of deliveries will be given to you!" Mr. Li said happily while shaking Chen Shiping's hand.

Taking pre-orders for supercomputers before they are even made is really a big business.

Finally I don’t have to worry about sales anymore. I’ll advertise again and maybe there will be more customers!

Mr. Li never expected that Chen Shiping would buy a supercomputer just for making a movie. This really scared him.

He had always thought that making a movie didn't cost much.

Now that the film continues to run, I wonder how much box office revenue it will take to make a profit.

But it's not just one movie, so if you count it this way, it's not a big loss.

Maybe you can earn more!
Although Mr. Li is a layman in the film and television industry, he still knows how much money China Film is making now.

The film market will get better and better in the future, and special effects blockbusters will definitely make money if they are released in large quantities!

When Chen Shiping left Sugon, he was thinking whether he could sell excess computing power to others when the supercomputer was idle, and do some mining at the same time.

It is not a big loss to have a supercomputer in your hands, and there are no special effects companies in the Asian market that can rival Hollywood.

In the future, we will be able to engage in price wars with Hollywood special effects companies.

No way, Hollywood special effects companies can be as cheap as them!

Fuck him!

Let Hollywood film companies come to China to do special effects!
We will have to keep up with the updates and iterations of supercomputers in the future, or wait until Sugon builds a supercomputing center and invest in it to upgrade to higher computing power.

After Chen Shiping returned to the group in the afternoon, he held a board meeting to discuss this matter.

"The purchase of supercomputers is only for the purpose of filling the digital film base. Whether it is digital projectors, cameras or digital special effects, supercomputers can be used. This is for long-term development."

After listening to what Chen Shiping said, the directors were a little confused, and Director Tong was also a little confused.

What's going on?

You've already finished talking to others before coming back to discuss it at the board meeting?
Are you notifying me?
Chen Shiping drank his tea and asked, "Does anyone have any opinions?"

Several directors shook their heads to indicate that they had no objection. Who dares to offend you?

Chen Shiping looked at Director Tong again and asked, "What about Director Tong? Do you have any suggestions?"

Tong Dong said expressionlessly: "No."

"Okay, let the purchasing department discuss this matter and implement it as soon as possible. We will hold a press conference next week."

After Chen Shiping finished speaking, he looked at Director Tong and asked, "Director Tong, do you have anything else to add?"

Director Tong shook his head and said, "Let's adjourn the meeting!"

Chen Shiping smiled and went out with the cup.

Director Tong is leaving soon and going to work in the bureau.

But it’s not the General Administration. If he wants to go to the General Administration, he will have to wait for a few years.

After the board meeting ended, the purchasing department received the news that they were going to Shuguang to discuss purchasing matters.

Once the purchasing department knows, the entire group will know.

The digital R&D team was very happy when they found out about this. Can we also use supercomputers?

Mr. Chen is tall and hard!
When the news that Chen Shiping was going to buy a supercomputer spread within the group, everyone was stunned.

Aren't we making movies?

Why are we still working on supercomputing?

Is this an attempt to enter the tech world?
Currently, most people in China do not understand special effects production, nor do they understand how important computing power is to special effects rendering.

I always feel that it can be done with a few computers, so why do we need a supercomputer?

There are many people who don’t understand and some people are wondering if Chen Shiping is starting to get caught up in empty talk.

What kind of supercomputer is needed to make a movie?

Are you buying a bunch of empty shells to get kickbacks?

But after everyone had this idea, they immediately dismissed it.

Chen Shiping has always planned everything he does over the years and has never made any mistakes, so there is no reason to doubt him.

I feel guilty for all the thoughts I just had.

Three days later, on Monday, China Film Group and Sugon held a joint press conference.

Almost all domestic media outlets, big and small, sent people over.

I want to know what the situation is with China Film Group purchasing a supercomputer.

At a time when computers were still a strange thing, supercomputers were even more mysterious and sounded difficult to associate with movies.

At the press conference, Mr. Li from Sugon first introduced the development history of domestic supercomputers, and then talked about how powerful Sugon's next-generation supercomputer would be. Finally, he changed the subject and linked it to movies.

“The computing power of Sugon 3000 can help digital movie special effects be produced better and faster.

The Uncharted, which everyone has seen, took nearly seven months to complete at China Film's digital special effects studio.

This period of time was very long, and everyone must have been waiting anxiously for the second part.

But we don’t have to wait so long in the future. If we use supercomputers to render special effects like Uncharted, it will take less than a month to complete, and the quality will be better and more realistic!”

All the reporters were shocked. How could this be said?!

Chen Shiping also explained at this time: "Supercomputers have a wide range of applications. China Film purchased supercomputers to produce better special effects and to focus on creating 3D animated films in the future.

Both of these tasks require huge computing power to complete post-rendering.

This year, China Film Group will have its first collaboration with Sugon 3, and next year will present a D animated film that surpasses Hollywood!

In the future, the special effects and 3D animation of Chinese-language films will completely catch up with Hollywood, or even surpass them!"

The reporters at the scene were stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then they all stood up and applauded wildly!
Don’t say they don’t believe such things, but they believe what Chen Shiping said!

(I wish you all a happy Dragon Boat Festival. Finally, long live the salty rice dumplings!)

(End of this chapter)