“The meta universe is just an artistic expression”. Facing the speculation of the concept of meta universe, some people in the industry began to reflect. A market person believes that metauniverse should be a part of the development of digital economy. Compared with complex concepts, the landing scene of metauniverse deserves more attention.
Since the end of 2021, digital economy has become a high-frequency concept in local planning. As the third largest economic form after agricultural economy and industrial economy, how will digital economy lead the development of relevant industries? What role will the yuan universe play? Recently, a reporter from Shanghai Securities News investigated a number of relevant companies and found that from virtual to real is becoming the consensus of this round of industrial development.
digital economy from virtual to real
“All districts in Shanghai have paid close attention to relevant issues recently.” A brokerage analyst revealed that Yuan universe has become a hot word in many government learning conferences he attended recently. However, the analyst also noted that “in the learning conference, leaders do not tangle with the definition of mystery, but focus on the internal logic of technology and look for the relationship between this trend and the digital economy”.
“Compared with the meta universe, the expression of virtual reality related technology may be more pragmatic.” A market person said.
The combination of virtual and reality technology breaks the deep industrial logic behind the meta universe. “The development of industry is the continuous rotation between virtual and reality.” An industry analyst likened the relationship between traditional industry and digital technology to a spiral wound DNA strand, which promote and are inseparable from each other. “Looking back on history, we will find that early digital technology helped industry complete the first round of change and change its development model. This is a process from reality to emptiness.”
“Why is industrial development increasingly inseparable from the digital economy? Because the cost of simulation is cheaper.” An insider engaged in 3D modeling believes that the virtual reality technology represented by digital twins has improved the fault tolerance rate of industrial production. “In ancient times, opening a blacksmith’s shop, where to put boilers and anvils, had little impact, because the cost of correcting mistakes was very low. Now, if you make a small change in a chip production workshop, it will cost hundreds of millions of yuan in the real environment.”
However, when digitization reaches a certain degree, returning to entity has become the goal of digital economy. “Just as e-commerce is inseparable from real logistics and freight transportation, virtual technology must serve the physical scene.” The aforementioned industry analysts said that now, exploring the connection between virtual technology and real scenes as an entry point is not only a response to the question of the meta universe, but also the due meaning of developing the digital economy.
“From a technical perspective, metauniverse involves 5g, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other underlying technologies around virtual reality.” Industry analysts believe that these technologies are not naturally produced in the industrial field, but more migrated from other industries. “The rich and broad scenes of traditional industries give the meta universe room to display, and can also help traditional industries realize the second iteration in the new round of digital economic development.”
technology landing industrial production
The change of market wind direction urges relevant enterprises to actively adapt and seek change.
“Meta universe may open a new round of industrial layout and science and technology game of digital economy, which provides a track for a new round of information reform in China.” The person in charge of Hubei Century Network Technology Inc(300494) believes that “there is the support of corresponding technologies and facilities behind each layer of industrial structure, which will also drive the rise of a series of commercial companies and industrial models.”
The advantage of games in basic technologies such as communication, cloud computing and graphics processing lies in a large number of commercial experience, and its technology also has wide applicability. As the “bridgehead” of the meta universe, the scientific and technological content of the game industry has been underestimated for a long time. The person in charge of Hubei Century Network Technology Inc(300494) gave an example. As an important cornerstone of the digital economy, computing power will restrict the development of the whole industry, and cloud technology came into being. “Cloud game is actually the first important scene in the field of commercialization to test 5g performance and cloud computing.” It is understood that with the maturity of relevant technologies in the field of cloud games, its advantages such as low delay can be copied to industrial fields that require higher transmission efficiency.
In addition to communication technology, in this round of digital economy, the 3D engine in the field of virtual real interaction is also an important infrastructure, and related technologies have long been applied to the industrial field. From chip design to urban planning, computer graphics related technologies have spread all over every corner of the industrial field and become a bridge between virtual reality and reality.
With the continuous development of sophisticated industry, the technical content of virtual development software is higher and higher, and the comprehensiveness is also stronger. A chip engineer gave an example of chip circuit design: “it’s all nano level circuit construction. The mold opening cost of a chip is up to hundreds of millions of yuan. It’s impossible to really try it again and again on the production line. You can only design and test in the software, constantly debug it, and wait until you’re sure, and then put it into production and test on the production line.” Behind this is the high requirement for software performance. The software can simulate all the conditions in the operation of the real chip and iterate continuously to ensure the accurate operation.
Like other “cross-border” technologies, technologies such as image processing are not original in the industrial field. “Computer graphics technology is the strength of many game companies, because it involves scene modeling, physical engine, etc., many technologies can be migrated.” The relevant person in charge of Netease said that metauniverse has broadened the thinking of the industry. “Virtual technology can bridge the insurmountable gap in real scenes, and technology migration also has wide applicability.” In recent years, with the increasing maturity of relevant technologies, Omniverse, a 3D collaborative modeling platform built by NVIDIA, a global leader in graphics cards, has begun to help many car companies design new plants, so as to greatly improve the efficiency of plant construction.
In the A-share market, many traditional industrial enterprises have begun to try transformation iteration. “80% of the company’s Baotong intelligent personnel are composed of software and hardware R & D personnel.” The relevant person in charge of Wuxi Boton Technology Co.Ltd(300031) said that in recent years, the company has transformed from traditional manufacturing to comprehensive intelligence. “The company will rely on 20 years of accumulation in the field of transportation, carry out digital management based on the platform, get through the links of R & D, production, management and service, and use scientific and technological means to improve the work efficiency in the field of industrial transportation.”
In a 3.5-meter-high room, without wearing glasses, the staff can enter the virtual immersion world through the botonspace 1 device composed of 22 optical cameras and the unique “visual fraud” algorithm. “The situation below the mine is extremely complex. This system can use AR (augmented reality) technology in three-dimensional space to reproduce the details of the underground mine and facilitate the monitoring and management of ground personnel.”
basic technology needs to be invested urgently
Facing the growing demand, the development of related virtual technology shows the characteristics of “infrastructure”, and 3D interaction engine is the best example.
As the world’s two largest traditional game engine manufacturers, unity and unreal have been expanding their non game business since 2021. In 2021, unity’s annual non game revenue accounted for 25% of its production solutions. Huatai Securities Co.Ltd(601688) according to the latest research report, the two 3D interactive engine platform products have good compatibility and universality, and are expected to accelerate their expansion in automobile, construction and other fields in the future.
In China, this field is still in the early stage of development, and most of it is invested internally by game companies with limited scale.
“The development of this kind of engine has a very high technical threshold.” Liu Wei, President of MIHA tour, said that at present, the most advanced technology is the unreal unreal engine of American epic company, and there is still a big gap in China’s game engine technology. “MIHA tour is also developing its own and cooperative game engine, but it requires a lot of time, manpower and material resources.”.
Combing the current situation of self research engine, it is not difficult to find the answer. The early investment in this round of digital economy construction will be no less than the new infrastructure. An analyst said: “at present, unity, one of the two mainstream engines in the world, has won half of the global market and is still losing money year after year. It is conceivable that it has invested a lot in R & D.”
“Whether it is the meta universe or the digital economy, it is a very good new opportunity for China’s related industries,” said an industry insider. In the development path, technology should continue to go down and go to the bottom.
