Yihuanyuan VR Technology R&D Center: Make Our Own Products That No One Else Has
Michelle Mak／Jasmin Zhuang
In 2018, Kvue News, a local media in the United States, reported on a VR amusement device that has become popular in the local market recently. With the screams of two TV reporters, the excitement and playability of this device were perfectly displayed in front of the audience, which shocked people by its immersion and experience. But few people know that this hot device actually comes from China, from a Chinese high-tech enterprise - Guangzhou Yihuanyuan Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (Hereinafter referred to as Yihuanyuan)

Make our own products that no one else has

Yu Yi, CEO of Guangzhou Yihuanyuan Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. 
“We make our own products that no one else has, and that is our brand concept,” Yu Yi, CEO of Yihuiyuan, said in an interview with GTI Magazine. The persistence of the concept for Yihuanyuan’s team is firstly reflected in the name of the company. In Chinese characters, "Yi" means "different"; "Huan" stands for "visional", which means "Virtual Reality" here; "Yuan" stands for “source”; therefore, the words "Yihuanyuan" explain exactly what it means to be a "different VR source company". However, the brand concept is also embodied in the products’ research and development. Yihuanyuan was established in 2016 and has been implementing this concept since its inception. In 2017, just as VR egg-shaped chair equipment became popular in the market, Yihuanyuan found a new way and launched its latest original product for the European and American markets - "360 VR King Kong", which features thrilling 360°omni- directional rotation with unique dynamic effects, different from the small-amplitude shaking VR devices on the market. What’s more, the super immersive interactive experience makes this product widely praised by players after it came into the market, and its multi-rotation dynamic form has triggered a chain effect in the industry, giving birth to many products of the same type. Subsequently, Yihuanyuan focused on the research and development of multi-rotation dynamic platforms, and launched two original products based on the 360 VR King Kong: Super 720 and 1080 Iron Warrior. The former offers 360° rotation in both directions, while the latter offers 360° rotation in three directions. Meanwhile, VR360 was born through the process of innovation. Different from the same kind of experience that adapts to multiple types of content or a device that can only adapt to one type of content, the VR360 integrates a variety of hardware, which is not only to provide three types of games, including online racing, simulated flight and roller coaster, but also to provide different and corresponding experience and immersions respectively.

More precise content adaptation, "VR Funfair" is not a fantasy
Based on the concept of “Making our own products that no one else has”, a series of multi-rotation dynamic VR devices developed and produced by Yihuanyuan quickly gained a foothold in high-end VR amusement markets in Europe and America due to their uniqueness and innovation. In this process, this imaginative team not only put into practice numerous undreamed ideas, but also accumulated rich experience in R&D and production. With the accumulation and polish of technology, the "whimsical" team once again came up with a fantastic idea. In 2018, Yihuanyuan proposed the concept of "VR Funfair" and started to implement it. There is no need to worry about the weather, queuing, and no need to consider the danger factor. Yihuanyuan team "moves" all kinds of large playground equipment from outdoors into indoors and "places" them into corresponding VR equipment. Therefore, the VR version of roller coaster, drop tower, topple tower and other devices developed by Yihuanyuan have been born one after another. It is estimated that by the end of 2020, the concept of "VR Funfair" will be fully implemented, and a thrilling, riskless, new and wonderful world will be presented to experiencers around the world. One of the gathering places of China's animation and amusement industry, Yihuanyuan VR Technology R&D Center is located in Panyu district, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. With its area of over 4,000 sq.m, well-organized production line and creative research and development team, the company constantly demonstrates its strong research and development strength and high-end production level to inspection teams from the USA, the UK, Germany, India and other countries of the world.

Dare to innovate, adhere to the original
"Just the ability of imitation can bring the lowest benefit to the enterprise. However, Innovation and originality are the core competitiveness of the enterprise, as well as the most important factor to extend the life cycle of the enterprise and its products," Yu emphasized to the reporter at the end of the interview. From scratch to small success, Yu said that the reason why VR products developed by Yihuanyuan can occupy a place in such a fiercely competitive market is that they rely on “dare to innovate, adhere to the original”, which is also the connotation of Yihuanyuan’s brand concept of "make our own products that no one else has". Yu Yi believes that the future development prospect of the VR amusement market is very broad. The trend of VR products will be similar to that of computers - "VR helmets will be similar to today's computer monitors, VR controllers will be similar to today's computer consoles, and other hardware will be like keyboards and mice. VR hardware devices will be increasingly 'mini', and the advent of 5G era is like a catalyst for this trend, " he said. With the "miniaturization" of VR hardware, VR entertainment products will gradually become "household" and gradually become popular at the consumer end. According to Yu, based on this clear development prospect, it is assumed that if every enterprise engaged in VR amusement product research and development is committed to "making their own products that no one else has", then all of their product concepts will come out distinctively, and their areas of expertise and core values will also be different. If all enterprises adhere to their own ideas and innovation, and burst out more creativity through the integration of core ideas and technology, then the industry will be in a benign development state.

“This is not utopia, but what a healthy industry should look like.”

※The article is published in the Jan.&Feb. combined issue No. 183 of GTI Magazine in 2020