Super Spender

Chapter 456: Chapter 450: Changing an Industry

Translator: 549690339

“A special server?” Finn Lewis raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, a special server specifically prepared for filming movies. We have the right to adjust all the scenes inside, block out some terrain, environment, etc. Additionally, I hope Mr. Lewis could afford for some game characters to automatically lip-sync when they speak within this server.” Temel began.

“I need to make a call about that,” Finn paused for a moment. He wasn’t clear if such a feature was feasible or not, so he needed to make an inquiry.

In front of Temel, Finn immediately picked up his phone and dialed Olivia Thatcher, “Hey, Olivia, I want to ask if this technology can be implemented.” Finn recited Temel’s requirements to Olivia.

“It’s feasible. It’s not difficult, but it would require an increase in server maintenance cost, and I would need to allocate some of my computing resources. As you have not provided me with a higher-power server, the value of these computing resources is substantial. Let them know they can use it, but the daily usage cost would be one million federal coins.” Olivia stated curtly.

“Isn’t that a little pricey?” Finn hesitated to ask. While many special effects scenes from popular movies cost a lot, they were the price for the whole movie’s special effects, not per day. How much could be done in a day? Shooting a movie in Floral Village always took lots of time.

“You get what you pay for.” Olivia responded curtly.

“Ok,” with some thought, Finn agreed.

“Master, don’t worry. HQ can use it for free for a week; this will help them familiarize themselves with the system. Also, within this server, they’ll have an auxiliary program to help them design some environments using the computing power I’ve allocated,” Olivia assured Finn.

“Okay, then.” Finn nodded and hung up the call. Temel had no idea who Finn had just called, but it was clear that it should be the technical staff of Finn’s company, from how Finn was asking them if the tech he requested could be implemented. Temel had indeed vetted those requests thoroughly.

He wasn’t expecting Finn to fulfill all the requirements. For instance, real-time lip-syncing of the game characters, which may seem simple, was actually very difficult. Game characters weren’t real people. If they could lip-sync, it meant that the voiceover first needed to be entered, then analyzed before being expressed by the game character.

This has totally different from the game engine concept. The game engine was only responsible for rendering the environment, but this required massive computing power. Yes, their servers were powerful, but servers and necessary computing power were entirely different concepts. For example, game servers are designed to accommodate more players, needing larger storage space and multitasking, etc.

However, such calculations required extremely concentrated computing power, similar to super-computers—two different concepts.

To Temel’s surprise, after hanging up the call, Finn looked at him and said, “We can fully meet the requirements for the server. However, this server needs to be customized and requires massive computing power”, even though Finn didn’t understand how much computing power these technologies required.

But as Olivia had mentioned, implementing one such technology meant giving up part of her computing power. How terrifying was Olivia’s computing power? A simple calculation could tell them, and so, Finn immediately put forward his conditions.

“Oh, is it a cost issue?” asked Temel. Servers need maintenance; therefore, they will indeed require computing resources.

“Yes, it’s a cost issue, and our offer is one million federal coins per day.” Finn told him the price.

“One million?!” Temel almost jumped up from the sofa. Yes, special effects were expensive, but those were the prices for an entire movie, who knew you’d charge daily?! One million a day! The special effects for an entire movie couldn’t possibly be completed in just a few days, right?

“Yes, one million federal coins per day. Of course, once the server is built, you can use it free for a week, as our gift, and to allow you to familiarize yourself with this special server. Trust me, it’s worth every penny.” Finn shrugged.

“Alright,” after some consideration, Temel didn’t reject the offer. Since they were providing a free week trial and Finn was confident that the daily output would surpass what Floral Village special effects companies could achieve with a million federal coins, then they must have confidence in this server. Even though foreigners may not be familiar with the proverb ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, the logic was universal.

Why not give it a try? The free week would be enough for them to explore its potential value.

“I think if Mr. Lewis’s server does indeed exceed our expectations, I believe there would be many companies from Floral Village willing to use Mr. Lewis’s server. Of course, that includes other countries too. However, Mr. Lewis, you might need to be prepared for something,” Temel stated with a smile.

“What?”

“You’re going to piss off a lot of people.” Temel said with a strange look on his face.

“Uh, I am prepared for that.” Finn shrugged. How could it not anger people? First off, the special effects companies would certainly face enormous pressure. Unless they can lower their prices, with their current speed, they simply had no way of competing with Olivia’s services. This was no longer just a matter of the cost of special effects but also a matter of speed.

In movies, the special effects were usually made shot by shot, and making such scenes was incredibly complex. Sometimes a few seconds of footage we saw in a movie could take several days, or even over ten days to produce; depending on how complex the special effects were. But here with Olivia? Finn believed that it would probably take a few minutes to a dozen minutes to generate anything instantaneously.