For Lin Lixin, the name Industrial Light & Magic is definitely well-known.
Star Wars, the Terminator, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Transformers, Pacific Ocean Rim ----
Industrial Light & Magic has been involved in the visual effects of many famous movies.
This special effects company, which was created for Star Wars, remains a unique entity in the CG field to this day.
It is this development philosophy of spending money on special effects without regard to cost that has allowed Lucasfilm to stand out from other film studios that do not focus on special effects and grow into the renowned studio it is today.
Industrial Light & Magic was founded by Lucas himself, and it has attracted talents from all walks of life.
Lucas naturally has a special affection for this CG company.
"You could have just told me about this."
Whether out of personal favor or otherwise, Lin Lixin would not hesitate to provide the other party with a batch of good graphic websites.
After all, Lucasfilm is not like Lockheed, which is completely unrelated to them. Film and video games can be considered the two giants of the entertainment industry, and they have many opportunities to cooperate in various fields.
If Lin Lixin plans to add cutscenes to the game in the future, then finding a company with mature technology like Industrial Light & Magic would definitely be the most suitable.
"Yes, Mr. Lin, we have indeed purchased a batch of Nova Radeon graphics cards from MicroNova."
Lucas nodded, then changed the subject, "However, Mr. Lin, you should understand that I want more than just the civilian versions."
"Laboratory-grade graphics cards—that's no problem at all."
Lin Lixin pondered for a moment.
This demand is entirely beneficial to MicroNova, so there's no reason for them not to fulfill it.
However, the other party's request actually served as a reminder to Lin Lixin.
"Mr. Lucas, have you ever considered purchasing a genuine 3D rendering engine?"
"Well?"
"A software that is entirely based on 3D design and can create model animations based on a timeline."
"You mean industrial design programs like PowerAnimator or AutoCAD?"
Lucas understood what Lin Lixin meant.
As the owner of a CGI company, Lucas naturally had plenty of exposure to those kinds of things.
However, these software programs are extremely difficult to use; in fact, they are no different from programming.
Artists need to input a series of coordinates and commands into the command-line software to modify the model.
What followed was several hours of rendering.
And after such a huge expenditure, only a single frame of image can be obtained in the end.
"Pretty much, but we have a visual interface."
"A 3D rendering software with a mature shader system and its own ray tracing algorithm."
Lin Lixin deliberately emphasized a sentence about several functions that are crucial in the film and television industry.
This is precisely the Quake Engine that Carmack and his team are working day and night to develop.
However, this is an industrial-grade version running on an SGI ultra-high-end graphics workstation.
"In addition, we also have a rendering supercomputer that SGI is still testing in the lab. We have offloaded a large amount of graphics rendering work to the graphics card and designed a dedicated motherboard for it."
"32-bit ARM processor, multi-GPU CrossFire capability, equipped with 16MB of dedicated SDRAM memory."
59
Lucas's eyes widened in shock, and his mouth involuntarily opened slightly.
Even in Hollywood, where supercomputers abound, this configuration would be considered cutting-edge technology.
In this day and age, once they have designed a complex 3D scene, they often need to rent several or even dozens of expensive supercomputers for rendering.
That's national-level computing power.
The monthly rental fee for just one CrayX-MP supercomputer is as high as several million dollars.
It's safe to say that every single frame in Star Wars was incredibly expensive!
If Lin Lixin can really provide them with that level of rendering machine, then the price is already astronomical.
Even when Lucas doesn't need them during the off-season, he can rent them out to generate revenue.
This is a golden goose!
Not to mention that such impressive performance can drastically reduce rendering time from several hours.
The hidden profits here are beyond what can be measured in numbers.
Let's do a simple valuation----
Prices ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars!
"Call----"
Lucas let out a long breath, clearly feeling his heart pounding frighteningly fast.
But he also understood one thing.
Lin Lixin's interest wasn't limited to his own " Raiders of the Lost Ark.
"Maximum exchange rate: 1%"
"Make a deal!"
It's much more pleasant to discuss cooperation with a company that isn't publicly listed.
A 10% stake would be worth tens of millions of dollars based on Lucasfilm's current valuation.
Two weeks later, Lin Lixin visited again.
No, it should be described as an inspection of company operations.
This time, however, he brought one more thing.
As the truck slowly came to a stop, a group of loaders began to set up the unloading platform.
A large arcade cabinet was mounted on a flatbed cart and towed underneath.
The frame has a semi-enclosed structure with curtains on both sides to block light and ensure that the screen can present the image to the user as perfectly as possible.
The exterior is painted with a tropical rainforest design.
The main structure is made of bricks and stones, resembling some kind of temple or dungeon.
This theme is clearly a tribute to the pioneering tomb raiding film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Spielberg stood there reluctantly, watching a group of people fiddling with the arcade machine.
Standing beside him were Lucas and—Indiana Jones.
Strictly speaking, it's Harrison Ford, the actor who played Indiana Jones.
" Steven, what are your thoughts?"
Lucas now has a clear understanding of the level of hardware technology that Lin Lixin has reached, and he is extremely excited about this trial event.
He even specially brought over the lead actors.
This way, when the contract is officially signed later, it will be easier for him to get the opportunity to appear on screen.
Look how popular Arnold Schwarzenegger, who worked with Lin Lixin back then, is now!
"You'll only know once you've tried it. Have you forgotten how Atari fooled people with its fancy packaging?"
Although Spielberg's heart was already pounding when he saw the arcade machine.
But a group of people have been egging him on and pushing him to this point, so it's impossible to get him to change his mind now.
He could only hope that Lin Lixin's magic formula for creating blockbuster hits would fail this time.
After all, it wasn't made by Gamenova itself. What good games could a developer that had just recovered from a desperate situation possibly have?
At the others' prompting, he lifted the curtain painted with leaves and vines and sat inside the machine.
The control panel is surprisingly simple, with only four directional keys.
Several speakers were installed around it, creating a surround sound setup.
4