Chapter 215: Milky Way Special Effects Rendering Engine

On the 18th of April, less than a month after the establishment of the Star Alliance, the Star Cloud System announced its first major upgrade to the Star Cloud 1.1 System.

The characteristics of this edition were as followed: A new addition of 36 frequently-used functions, 172 bugs repaired, and the system flow rate raising by 15%.

The Chief Technical Inspector for this project, Ma Xiaobing, said, “The extent of this current upgrade is similar to the upgrade of Android from 1.0 to 3.0. But, President Chen has said that one should be more humble. There is no need for a small upgrade to make major changes to the precious edition number. Moreover, we will maintain this pace of upgrades. We will announce an upgraded edition every month. I predict that by the end of the year, our Star Cloud System will have evolved to a stage that is similar to Android 9.0; it will have 95% and above of the functions in the Android 9.0. I am not speaking carelessly, our work efficiency is just this fast. There is another piece of good news. The ‘Star Cloud Studio 1.0′ development tool that is a necessity for the majority of programmers has been announced on the official Star Cloud website. All relevant technical files, tutorial videos, Star Cloud virtual machine, and SDK are available for download to be used in the development of the Star Cloud app. Rest assured that this software tool uses only Z characters. The costs of mastering this software is much lower than the costs to master Android development. I guarantee that one can pick up the skills within three hours, master it within three days, and apply the skills in their full capacity after a week.”

However, the mobile phones that were meant to be specially installed with the Star Cloud system had not been manufactured yet. This would only happen after two months. However, if the programmers wanted to test the application, they could replace the firmware in their mobile phones by flashing the Star Cloud 1.1 system that had been downloaded on their computers into their phones. Their phones would become a test machine. There was a certain risk of failure in firmware replacement, and the phone could even become useless. The risks and costs involved would have to be personally borne by the programmers.

Everything was difficult at the beginning, and the pioneers were the noblest. Xing Hai Technologies could only post articles of a consolatory nature, promising that all progress would be sped up and the pioneers following Xing Hai Technologies should not give up easily. This attitude won over the majority of the programmers. The Star Cloud Studio was downloaded more than 500,000 times on the day that it was launched. About 10% of the programmers were very interested in the Star Cloud application development. The number of downloads exceeded one million after two days. Some of the programmers who were faster at picking up the software had even uploaded some simpler Star Cloud apps. The software was experiencing good momentum.

…

In the technicians’ meeting room, Ma Xiaobing was extolling endlessly. “President Chen, the group of experts from the X team are really too amazing. This system has been maturing two to three times faster since they’ve joined the project of the Star Cloud System. 19 new functions have been added into the Star Cloud 1.1 system and 86 bugs have been removed. More than 100 improvements have been made to the system that allows it to run more smoothly. All of this was achieved by those experts. Although there were less than 50 of them who took part in the project, the problems that they have discovered and the work that they have completed far exceed what we have done as a project team of 500. Moreover, they have only started to join this project. If all of them joined in their full capacity…”

Ma Xiaobing shook his head. This was one aspect that aroused the most suspicion in him. “Since they are so powerful in their skills, why didn’t they make an operating system to replace the Android much earlier? Why wait until the Star Cloud System launched before appearing out of the woodwork to make suggestions and point out the flaws?” His tone was resentful. All geniuses had their tempers. These days, Ma Xiaobing was bossed around by those experts like a servant boy. However, he could talk back or show his unhappiness in any way. It would be strange if he was not depressed.

Chen Jin shook his head. “The problems faced in the development process of this system had never been about the lack of technology. What it needs are huge amounts of funds, a strong determination, and the power to rally millions of supporters. These are also the things needed in the production of the computer operating system. It’s not that those domestic operating systems are no good. Even the government tries to publicize its use. But, without the power to rally millions of supporters and the cooperation of most of the hardware manufacturers and consumers, most of the domestic operating systems that had been done in the past died in their infancy.” How could those individual experts launch an independent operating system without the power or will of the government backing them up? Moreover, they had no influence or power to rally supporters as individuals.

So, could Xing Hai Technologies do it? Xing Hai Technologies had also put a technical team on developing a computer operating system. Could the company produce it successfully? This would have to wait until the operating system had been produced. Currently, Chen Jin dare not call it a done deal.

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“President Chen, your words make sense.” Ma Xiaobing nodded. The gloominess that he felt gradually disappeared. Those experts truly had amazing skills; there was nothing he could do about it.

…

Besides the “Star Cloud System” project, a portion of the X team was also participating in two other mysterious software development projects by Xing Hai Technologies. These experts specialized in different areas. Some were good at operating systems, some were good in algorithms, some were good at other things. There was virtually not a single person who was good at everything.

Li Yicheng was an exception. It was as if he really did know everything and had learned all the different types of programming. He had been a teacher in a training school for more than ten years. As he had taught all kinds of subjects, he had a reputation as someone who was “good at everything.” Even so, after the X team was established, Li Yicheng ranked a few places or even more than ten places under the champion in the many internal competitions that had been organized. However, he was the top in overall rankings. He was soundly trounced by “God” in the algorithm competition. But, he won the title of “God” in many other obscure fields of programming. He was best described as “the best singer to be found amongst the mathematicians” or “the best mathematician amongst the singers.”

Now, one could say that Li Yicheng had no authority in any field. He knew that he was in a very awkward position because there was someone in every department who outperformed him. He had no special talent or skills that made him outstanding. Moreover, well-rounded talents like him became unimportant with the introduction of the “Work Assistant.” He wanted to stay in one field, gain an in-depth understanding of the subject, and achieve results that would earn him respect and trust from others.

Hence, Chen Jin entrusted the project of the “Film and TV Special Effects Rendering Engine” to Li Yicheng and others for their help in refining the software. This project started earlier than the “Star Cloud System.” It had been going on for almost a year; however, the technical team in charge of developing the rendering engine had not come up with anything concrete yet. It was because the key piece to be used in the special effects rendering engine was brought over by Chen Jin from the Base of Operations. Its function was so powerful that it could be used to shoot virtual reality movies. The scenes could be simulated to a degree where it was a 99% match with reality. The software could render a world that was infinitely similar to reality. It was the same rendering piece used in the virtual factory.

Hence, Chen Jin hoped that the technicians in Xing Hai Technologies could build a “Film and TV Special Effects Rendering Engine” using this key piece as a foundation. However, the technical team had greatly disappointed him. They used almost a year to figure out about 30% of the piece. They would need another two years to fully grasp the technology used in the piece. The team leader in charge of this project said, “President Chen, the rendering piece is too advanced! We can’t understand many of its algorithms. Please give us a little more time!”

But Chen Jin had run out of patience. He fired him as a team leader and gave him a much lower position. Then, he let the 50-plus experts from the X team join this project. Indeed, the results achieved by the experts were different. Although they were also unfamiliar with some of the more complex algorithms, they knew what to do about it. As such, they had only used one month. With the decisive actions taken by the programming experts, the “Film and TV Special Effects Rendering Engine” had already begun displaying 80% of the prowess found in the rendering piece.

This was enough to kill off the special effects rendering software that was currently on the market like Maya, Flame, AE, Nuke, Fusion, Combustion, etc. Coincidentally, he received a call from Shi Xiaotao at this point. “President Chen, I’ve thought of what I’m going to do for my next movie. The script is completed and even the actors are confirmed. We’ll be able to start filming very soon. May I ask if you are willing to sell the special effects software to Taotao Studios? I would like the special effects engineers in my studio to get a feel for it.”

“You’re fast!” Chen Jin was astonished. They agreed that she would rest for three months, but she had already started working again so quickly. “I’ll give you about 10 beta editions of the special effects software. Your studio engineers can trial it for a period of time. We can discuss the price at a later date.”

“Ok. Thank you, President Chen.”

With this, the internal test edition of the “Milky Way Special Effects Rendering Engine” had its first client.