Pokemon Sword And Shield's Japanese Launch Event Is Cancelled
The Pokemon Company has cancelled the Japanese launch event for Pokemon Sword and Shield that was due to take place in Tokyo next week. Lead producer Junichi Masuda, and game director Shigeru Ohmori, were both scheduled to appear at the event.
In an apologetic statement, the Pokemon Company cited "operational reasons" for the event's cancellation.
Both Masuda and Ohmori gave a round of interviews last month, with Sword and Shield's controversial lack of a National Pokedex being a hot button topic. "There were a lot of discussions about which direction we should take that in," Masuda explained in an interview with Eurogamer. "Ultimately we felt that, for the overall game, focusing on creating the richest experience we could within that game, leaving the Pokedex as we did was the best solution overall."
The angry discourse surrounding the National Pokedex's exclusion has hit a fever pitch this week as Sword and Shield leaks have begun to emerge, detailing which Pokemon would not be returning this time around. The topic has even been dubbed "#Dexit" by fans, in reference to the game's UK-inspired setting.
There's nothing suggesting fan anger led to the cancellation of Sword and Shield's Japanese launch event, but it wouldn't be the first time a scheduled event was called off due to potential threats. Square Enix was forced to cancel four Starwing Paradox tournaments earlier this year after several death threats were sent to the game's management team. A man was also arrested by Tokyo police after threatening Square Enix with an arson attack, stating that he would repeat the Kyoto Animation tragedy.
Blizzard recently cancelled an Overwatch Switch launch event in New York City, too. No official reason was given for the abrupt cancellation, but it seemed to stem from backlash the company received due to the actions it took against Hearthstone player, blitzchung, after he voiced support for the ongoing Hong Kong protests.
Pokemon Sword and Shield launches on November 15 for Nintendo Switch.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-09-2019, 10:50 AM - Forum: Lounge
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This Week at Bungie – 11/07/2019
This week at Bungie, we relieved a heavy burden.
Today, we fixed the issue blocking the acquisition of the coveted Izanagi’s Burden, increased Power drops for pinnacle rewards, and deployed a few other improvements in Hotfix 2.6.1.1. Check out the patch notes and the Player Support Report below for more details.
Iron Banner is in full swing. Take advantage of the latest changes and turn your Iron Banner bounties in for +2 pinnacle rewards before the event ends on November 12.
Last week, Hive started pouring out of the Altars of Sorrow. Guardians began to explore the new dungeon. Festival of the Lost kicked off with decorations and some hidden treats in The Tower.
It’s a busy time in Destiny but don’t forget to take a moment and treat yourself to some crispy “one taps” in Momentum Control.
Next week, an Infamy Boost is going live for Gambit and a new raid challenge will be available for Garden of Salvation.
Home Stretch
The final countdown is on! Game2Give concludes this Sunday, November 10, at 11:59 p.m. PST in support of the Bungie Foundation’s iPads for Kids Program and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to fund local children’s hospitals’ greatest needs. Thank you to each and every one of you who pitched in to help with donations, streaming, or both — we truly couldn’t do this without you. If you haven’t gotten the chance, you’re not too late! You can make a donation here to support this great cause.
To date we’ve had nearly 30,000 unique donors, 4,736 individuals and 410 teams sign up to stream on behalf of Game2Give.
As we head into the weekend, we’re kicking off a 72-hour streaming marathon with a bunch of featured content creators. Tune into some of your favorites and meet some new ones as you help them reach their fundraising goals.
A $10 donation will earn you the new Mist Blossoms Emblem:
A $50 donation will earn you both the Mist Blossoms Emblem and our first-ever Charity Ghost, the Gilded Shell Exotic Ghost!
A $100 donation will earn you both of the items above, and will enter you to win an item from the Bungie Prize Pool
Don’t miss your chance to get your hands on a Limited-Edition Gilded Shell Exotic Ghost Vinyl as well! You can pre-order yours now on both the Bungie Store and Bungie Store EU. 100% of profits will be split between the two charities.
Join your fellow Destiny community members in supporting these two great causes before the event wraps on November 10! Follow us on Twitter for exciting announcements as we move closer to our $2,000,000 goal.
Earn This
The Bungie Store has some new purchase offerings this Season, both in the game and soon to be in your house. Act fast, because these offers are only available for a limited time.
We’re giving away the Dark Orbit emblem for free to anyone who completes the initial Festival of the Lost quest. Visit bungie.net/rewards to add the free emblem to your collection.
We also have the Braytech Werewolf Long-Sleeve T-Shirt as a purchasable offer available during the Festival of the Lost. To get your purchase code, complete the Master of Disguise Triumph and grab the Braytech Werewolf Legendary Auto Rifle for 1,000 candy before the Festival of the Lost ends on November 19.
Completing The Pit of Heresy unlocks the ability to purchase a foam replica of the Relic Sword you used to dispatch Hive in the dungeon. Deadline to claim the code is the December 31 reset and the deadline to pre-order is December 31, at 11:59 p.m. PST on the Bungie Store and Bungie Store EU.
There are also three new Seal Medallion Pins available this Season to commemorate your completion of Triumphs for the Season of the Undying, Shadowkeep, and the Garden of Salvation raid. You have until reset on December 10 to claim your code and purchase your pin for Season of the Undying. The deadline for Shadowkeep and Garden of Salvation is August 31, 2020.
It’s recommended that you activate your discount code as soon as you get the email from Bungie.net since Bungie system maintenance can alter the deadline.
What’s in the Box?
Player Support has been tracking current issues and ensuring that the proper people were working on fixes. Today, some of those fixes were deployed.
This is their report.
Destiny2 Hotfix 2.6.1.1
Earlier today, we deployed Hotfix 2.6.1.1 that targets a pair of emergent issues which prevented players from opening the Mysterious Box and acquiring Izanagi’s Burden. Here are some highlights of other changes also included in the hotfix:
Fixed an issue causing Forge Keys to not count towards Mysterious Box (Izanagi’s Burden) quest progression.
Players affected by this should find the corresponding objective marked correctly after logging in.
Fixed an issue where the Obsidian Crystal would not give quest progression.
Players affected by this will need to reacquire a Black Armory Rare bounty and then complete and claim it to get another Obsidian Crystal.
Fixed an issue that occasionally caused the weekly Eris Challenge to not drop a powerful reward.
In addition to this week’s hotfix, today we deployed a server-side change that allows players to receive the Black Armory Key Mold on all of their Destiny 2 characters. This resolves an issue where the Black Armory Key Mold could only be accepted by the first character that claimed it from Ada-1.
For information on upcoming maintenance windows, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed at help.bungie.net. For our patch notes archive, players should visit our Updates page.
REMINDER: Daily and Weekly Reset Time Change
For Guardians who observe it; Daylight Saving Time has concluded for 2019. This means that until March 2020, daily and weekly resets will now occur at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Players in regions that do not recognize Daylight Saving Time will continue to experience resets at 1700 UTC.
Destiny 2 Known Issues
Listed below are the latest issues to emerge in Destiny 2.
Vex Offensive is not currently offering its powerful rewards milestone.
Titans can only throw one hammer or shield per Super activation in Momentum Control.
The Firewalled Haunted Forest cannot be accessed by non-PS+/Xbox Live Gold players.
Some universal ornaments may appear to be locked in Collections after they are obtained.
For the latest list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players should visit our Known Issues thread. Players who observe other issues should report them to the #Help forum.
Tickets
Welcome to another Movie of the Week. This is our ongoing tradition of picking a few of our favorite community created videos and sharing them for all to see. Each featured creator also gets a brand spanking new emblem. If you win, link your Bungie.net profile in the description of the video so we can give you your hard-earned digital goods.
Movie of the Week: The Most Titan Titan On The Moon
Honorable Mention: Jade Rampage
We witnessed some heroics this week when a brave Guardian reached 999 Power in an attempt to challenge the darkness consuming the Dreaming City. We congratulated them on their effort, but the curse remains.
This Year’s Spookiest Halloween Events on Xbox One
Halloween is right around the corner, so you know what that means: Special Halloween events in your favorite video games! What, you thought we’d say candy? With the big day close at hand, a bunch of games have revealed their plans to celebrate the spookiest of holidays with special events. There’s a lot of great stuff happening this year on Xbox One, so let’s take a look at some of the standouts.
Celebrate Halloween in Gears 5 with the Pumpkin Ball versus event featuring oversized Jack-O-Lantern heads, or take part in the 20 wave Horde Event “The Man’s Monsters” featuring Halloween-themed Swarm enemies. Both events include earnable rewards and are online through November 5, at 10am PT. Want more? Gears POP! is also getting into the spirit with the Hordeaween event from now through November 1, at 4am PT. For more details, check out the official Gears 5 site.
Overwatch is one of the best in the biz when it comes to Halloween events, and 2019’s version doesn’t disappoint. The Overwatch Halloween Terror event is here, which means we can look forward to some spooky events and even spookier looks. This time out, you’ll get the chance to earn five new Legendary skins, three new Epic skins, in addition to new sprays, icons, and emotes. We’re particularly partial to the Gorgon Lucio and Vampire Baptiste skins (though you can also earn the Demon Hunter Sombra skin, which was a BlizzCon 2018 exclusive). For more details, check out the official Overwatch site.
The Swine & Bovine Halloween costume pays gory tribute to the chain of restaurants dotting the abandoned landscapes of State of Decay 1 and 2. Players can unlock this new limited time outfit by playing State of Decay 2 until October 31. You’ll be the horror of your friends. Happy Halloween, survivors! For more details, check out the official State of Decay 2 site.
Fort of the Damned is the biggest update to Sea of Thieves’ popular Skeleton Fort feature since launch, offering players action-packed new challenges and massive rewards. The new Fort can be activated on demand as long as the in-game requirements are met, allowing players to take on this new challenge as often as they want. It’s a permanent new addition to the game that will remain available beyond October’s free content update. For more details, check out the official Sea of Thieves site.
Running until November 4, The Witches Festival is an in-game event that the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online has done before. Wondering how to kick things off? To start, you’ll need to complete “The Witchmother’s Bargain” quest from the Crown store. Then, you’ll have to use the Witchmother’s Whistle you get as a reward to summon the “Witchmother’s Cauldron,” which grants you and your party a two-hour 100% XP buff that stacks with all other XP bonuses. There’s a lot more, including new collectibles and costumes, Dremora Plunder Skulls (complete with new items) earned through defeating special bosses, and the Glenmoril Armor set. For more details, check out the official Elder Scrolls Online site.
No thanks to an evil doctor who conducted disturbing experiments on hapless victims, a creepy castle housed in an abandoned theme park is now crawling with mutated monsters. Now, a band of exterminators have been called in to reclaim it. Will they be able to return things to normal, or will the fiends live to terrorize another day? From October 23 to November 6, players can play this special Hide and Seek game mode where Defenders must try to survive until the end of the round, unless they can manage to eliminate the powerful Attackers first. Does your team have what it takes to survive the Doktor’s Curse? Jump in to Rainbow Six Siege today on Xbox One to find out! For more details, check out the official Rainbow Six Siege site.
The Halloween event in Gearbox and 2K’s looter shooter is part of a new content update that dropped last week. Bloody Harvest is a free seasonal event that began on October 24 and runs through December 5. Bloody Harvest offers players the chance to take on haunted enemies, complete challenges to earn rewards, snag some spooky new skins for your Vault Hunter, and take on a nightmarish new boss. This all takes place in the scariest locations Borderlands has ever seen: Heck. Yes, you read that right. Were you expecting something else? For more details, check out the official Borderland 3 site.
Respawn Entertainment is adding a bunch of Halloween goodies to Apex Legends with their Fight or Fright event, running through until November 5. New cosmetic items for weapons and characters are being introduced in Fight or Fright and King’s Canyon is getting a spooky, night-themed makeover. There’s even a new mode called Shadowfall that brings zombies (sorta) to the game. In this mode, Legends who fall in battle will be resurrected as zombies and receive new abilities, including a powerful melee attack and the ability to run up walls. If you survive and want to get on the dropship, you’ll need to battle the undead hordes to get to safety! For more details, check out the official Apex Legends site.
Ready to grab some snazzy masks for your Guardian? Want some candy to spend on the brand-new Braytech Werewolf Legendary Auto Rifle? Are you ready to take on the Haunted Forest again? If you said yes to any of these (or you’re just sick of me asking you questions), you’re in luck: Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost event has returned. You’ll be able to take part in a bevy of special events between now and November 19, so head to the Tower now, Guardian! For more details, check out the official Destiny 2 site.
Netflix’s award-winning “Stranger Things” has invaded this year’s Haunted Hallows event in Rocket League on Xbox One. Available now through November 11, play a chilling version of the Farmstead Arena that’s now watched over by the terrifying Mind Flayer in the Upside Down. If you’re able to make it out of Farmstead in one piece, you’ll earn Candy Corn to be used in the Haunted Hallows Event Store that’s housing some extra-special items, like a Demogorgon player banner, a Scoops Ahoy avatar border, and a Hawaiian Hopper decal, plus some top secret wares developed by the Hawkins National Laboratory. For more details, check out the official Rocket League site.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-09-2019, 10:50 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Nintendo’s 3DS support will continue into 2020
The launch of the fully portable Nintendo Switch Lite reinvigorated questions that first arose alongside the original Switch’s launch surrounding the company’s plans for its 3DS line of handhelds.
While new titles for the 3DS have certainly slowed down since the Switch launched, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser tells The Verge that the company isn’t planning on backing away from the platform in the near future, at least as long as consumers are interested in the 3DS.
“We continue to look at the 3DS family, both hardware and games, as a strong entry point for some consumers,” Bowser tells The Verge. “And we’re seeing that. As long as consumer demand is there, we’ll continue to provide both hardware and software on that front.”
Nintendo has largely maintained that the 3DS and Switch aim to serve different corners of its audience, often referring to the nearly 9-year-old family of handhelds as an affordable entry point for families and those new to video games.
To that end, Bowser says that Nintendo doesn’t yet consider the 3DS, in The Verge’s words, a ‘dead platform’ and that its current plans see it supporting the “3DS this holiday and into 2020.”
You will help jump start our transition to Unreal for AAA console games. You should have deep experience or specialty in at least one area, and strong working knowledge of all client systems — graphics, ai, physics, animation, game rules, audio, ui, i/o, and tools. You should have strong opinions about what goes in cpp and what goes in blue print. You should be able to communicate the “right” way to do things in Unreal to the team.
Requirements:
Shipped a high quality Unreal project in the last 5 years
Voodoo knowledge of UE4
5+ years of games or simulation experience in C++ or C#
Experience on mid- to large teams
Plus – broad knowledge and passion of current generation shooting games
Links to the titles you worked on with a description of which features you owned
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
So strong, in fact, that Raiser Games and U-Play Online have revealed that a brand new set of DLC is now available for free on Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC. The news comes alongside a seemingly unrelated celebration trailer which you can check out above, and we have all the details you need about the DLC itself below:
The Fashion Channel offers players new ways to create content for their channels: from creating their own look, to tailoring any aspect of their everyday lives. As soon as their popularity rises accordingly, players will get invited to exclusive events where they will meet some of the world’s hottest celebrities. Will you become the world’s next big fashionista?
In Youtubers Life Fashion Channel DLC you can:
– Buy and design your own outfits: you will have to combine different styles and colours, always keeping in mind how they suit the time of the year! – Tailor every aspect of your personal life: you can design new outfits, experiment with makeup styles and even get creative with your own haircuts! – Create fashion videos: once you tailor your first outfits you will be able to record a variety of videos about them. Start getting those totally deserved subscribers! – Attend fashion events to become a celebrity – but be careful, because you need to dress properly if you want to make it to that fashion magazine cover! – Become the next top model: Pick the best outfit and share the runway with the world’s top models!!
If you haven’t heard about this one before and want to check it out, you can download the game from the eShop for $29.99 / £26.99. With this new DLC being free, you’ll be able to play through all of the content mentioned above at no extra charge.
Have you always wanted to be a YouTuber? Think you could give our very own Alex and Zion a run for their money? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-09-2019, 07:57 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Nintendo Surprise Launches New Switch Game The Stretchers
Surprise, surprise, Nintendo has stealth released a new Switch game from Little Nightmares developer Tarsier. Called The Stretchers, this whimsical puzzler tasks you with ferrying patients to the hospital in a race against the clock. It's published by Nintendo, and it's out right now on the Eshop.
The gameplay looks like a curious mix between Crazy Taxi and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, as you control two medics in charge of scooping up "dizzy" patients on a stretcher and navigating to an ambulance so you can dump them in the back and set off, crashing through fences, walls, and into other vehicles. Let's just say they're not the safest ambulance drivers.
The Stretchers is clearly designed with co-op in mind; the Switch's two Joy-Con's providing easy access to local multiplayer. But it can be played solo as well, which is where the Brothers vibes come from.
Unreal Engine have just released Unreal Engine 4.24 preview 1. Preview 1 releases are always among the most interesting as you can see all the major new features that are going to be in the next version of Unreal Engine, although like all preview/beta releases, it should not be used in production.
Inertial Blending (Beta). Creates a natural procedural transition between poses. It is based on bone velocities and momentum from the outgoing pose.
Animation Blueprint Linking (Beta). An extension to the sub-instance system allowing for dynamic switching of sub-sections of an animation graph, enabling multi-user collaboration and memory savings for vaulted or unavailable items.
Audio Updates:
Stream Caching (Beta). A feature enabled at cook time that significantly changes the way audio is loaded and released from memory. When enabled, almost all compressed audio data is separated from the USoundWave asset and automatically divided into separate chunks.
Audio Synesthesia (Beta). The Audio Analyzer module and Audio Synesthesia plugin expose extracted audio analysis data to be used for gameplay scripting via Blueprint. This enables designers to drive animations, effects and other elements tightly coupled to sounds being played in game.
Audio Mixer on by Default. The new audio mixer, as first announced at GDC in 2017, will now be enabled by default in 4.24. The audio mixer in UE4 uses a common software audio renderer across all platforms. This not only provides feature parity across all our platforms, it also extends the audio feature set in a wide number of areas and prepares UE4 for continued audio innovation.
Editor Updates:
Variant Manager Improvements. The Variant Manager allows editing and control of a variant system. It can be used in car configurators or other customizable product experiences. The variant manager also has potential for TV & broadcast applications, where users can switch between created scene setups at runtime.
Datasmith for Alias Wire Support Improvements. Alias Studio is a product design software used for surface modeling.
Sun and Sky Actor. We modified the existing Sun Positioner plugin to wrap a directional light, a sky light, and the newly introduced Atmospheric Sky created by the rendering team. The goal is to provide a workflow similar to the HDRI Backdrop actor added to 4.23, where users are provided with self contained functionality into a single actor.
Extended Editor UI Layouts. You can now create, save, load, export, and import multiple Editor UI layouts—even across different machines or devices. Team members can create specific Editor layouts that improve their workflow, and share these layouts with everyone on the team. .
New Project Workflow. The new project creation dialog has been completely redesigned! Instead of the dialog with tabs, there is now a New Project wizard. This simplifies the workflow for creating projects by breaking it up into smaller steps that are easier to understand.
New Toolbars for Chaos Fracture Plugin (Experimental). The UI for the Chaos Fracture Plugin has been updated! We have moved the Fracture and Cluster tools from the Modes panel into two toolbar palettes. These two palettes are designed to naturally progress through the phases of creating a destructible mesh.
Datasmith Improvements for 3ds Max, SketchUp, CAD, AxF
Dev Tools
AutoSDKs (Beta). The AutoSDK feature enables customers to distribute target platform SDKs while configuring them for the Engine on demand. UnrealBuildTool, AutomationTool and the Unreal Editor are all designed to work seamlessly with AutoSDK — the switching between SDKs is handled by UnrealBuildTool, which is invoked by the other tools.
BuildAgent Tool (Beta). BuildAgent is a utility for managing agents on a build farm. It supports fast cleaning of Perforce workspaces using locally stored information about file timestamps, as well as fast switching of workspaces using a local cache of files addressable by MD5 digest. It also includes functionality for parsing errors and warnings from build steps and propagating them to UnrealGameSync to display for users.
Geometry Updates:
Modeling Mode (Experimental). We have implemented a new Editor Mode that allows users to create and edit static mesh assets directly in the main 3D viewport using existing Actors/Components that are placed in the world. This does not replace the Static Mesh Asset Editor, but is a separate set of tools that are focused on interactive 3D modeling.
Modeling Mode Sculpting Tools (Experimental). Sculpting Tools are a subset of the Modeling Tools Editor Mode. We know that this kind of tool is of particular interest to artists, so we wanted to give you some details! The feature is a simplified version of 3D sculpting found in DCC tools like Mudbox or ZBrush. The basic concept is the same: you click and drag on your mesh to push the vertices around.
Mobile Updates:
Auto-instancing on Mobile (Experimental). We are planning to support the auto-instancing feature of the HLR on mobile devices for improved performance due to reduced draw calls. This functions the same as desktop auto-instancing, but it uses a texture instead of a buffer due to limitations on Mali devices, which can only support a buffer of 64 kb.
Android App Bundles. Android App Bundles are a new upload format for the Google Play Store that defers APK generation and signing to Google Play itself. Google’s Dynamic Delivery system then provides an APK optimized for a user’s device configuration automatically. As of 4.24, we will be supporting App Bundle builds through the Unreal Engine.
Networking Updates:
Network Engine Test Suite. In 4.24, we added automated testing features to the EngineTest project for networked features. We added a FunctionalNetTest to this project so we can create tests designed to make sure that different areas of networked games behave properly. With it, developers can test network features such as replication and RPCs between server and clients. This allows for testing with both Listen Servers and Dedicated Servers.
DTLS Support (Experimental). The DTLS packet handler component uses OpenSSL to implement a DTLS (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6347) based encryption scheme for network traffic. It provides two different approaches for accomplishing this goal, encryption based on pre-shared key values (similar to the existing AES packet handler), and a system based on exchanging self-signed X509 certificates.
Steam Sockets (Experimental). SteamSockets is a networking plugin that takes advantage of the new Steam network protocol layer that was introduced recently into the Steamworks SDK. This plugin empowers a project to take advantage of some of the finer benefits of Valve’s network functionality to provide a smoother (and safer) online experience for players when using Steam.
Niagara Updates:
System Overview (Beta). There is a new tab in the Niagara Emitter and System Editor, which gives a high-level overview of the system or emitter being edited. The System Overview panel combines the pan-and-zoom Graph node view with compact versions of the Emitter Stack. With this new panel you get something which feels similar to the Cascade editor, but matches the form, elements and style of Niagara.
Online & Media Framework Updates:
Pixel Streaming Updates (Beta). PixelStreaming plugin was re-architected to resolve various quality-related issues and for general improvement, plus adding features requested by current customers:
Fixed video encoding artifacts.
Improved streaming over limited bandwidth network connections like mobile networks.
Add “Freeze Frame” feature to Pixel Streaming API – to show a static image (either custom or automatically generated) and pause streaming by user request, e.g. to avoid wasting network traffic on user inactivity.
Added encoding support for AMD GPUs.
Early implementation, and not completely on par with NvEnc
Upgraded WebRTC version to release 70.
As an ongoing initiative, integrated PixelStreaming with UE4 Media Framework. This allows basic Pixel Streaming playback inside UE4.
Open World Updates:
Landscape Blueprint Brushes and Landmass Plugin (Beta). Up until now Landscape data could be imported and/or edited from the Landscape Editor Mode only. This new feature opens the Landscape data to Blueprints. It is now possible to assign Blueprint Brushes to the new Landscape Edit Layers. Those Brushes have a Render event that can be implemented in Blueprint that allows the user to inject landscape data (Height data and/or Weightmap data) into the Edit Layer.
Rendering Updates:
Ray Tracing Features Updates (Beta). We have a number of new improvements to highlight – some are:
New RTGI method that delivers faster results. (Experimental)
Enable it using r.RayTracing.GlobalIllumination.EnableFinalGather 1. It supports a single bounce and samples per pixel should be set to 8.
Improved instancing support for Instanced Static Meshes and Hierarchical Instanced Static Meshes with improved efficiency for large worlds.
Multi-view support for Virtual Reality devices and split-screen. (Experimental)
NOTE: denoiser support is not yet in Preview 1. It will come later in the preview releases.
World Position Offset support for Static Meshes (enabled with per-Actor setting)
Improved multi-bounce ray traced reflections with better support for area shadowing in reflections using samples per pixel greater than 1. We’ve also added support for SSR fallback when using the command r.RayTracing.Reflections.Hybrid.
Niagara VFX support for Ribbons.
Screen Space Global Illumination (SSGI) (Beta). We’ve added beta support for dynamic global illumination as a screen space effect. Currently, it can be enabled using r.SSGI.Quality. Use a value between 1-4 to choose a quality level. It’s intensity and tint color can be adjusted using the Post Process Volume > Rendering Features > Global Illumination category.
Material Layers (Beta). Will enable you to combine your Materials in a stack giving you similar functionality to Material Functions except that is supports the creation of child instances. Existing documentation on this feature can be referenced here.
New Atmosphere Fog Component. We have a new AtmosphereSky component which adds a physically based Earth-like atmosphere. It can be used to create exotic worlds and provides a ground view with and aerial perspectives, including ground to space views for planetary atmospheres.
Burley Subsurface Scattering. We’ve added the Burley algorithm to the SSS Profiles Asset. This method is more physically accurate and aims to improve the quality of skin shading and simplifying setup using physically based material properties. This SSS model targets high-end skin rendering with cleaner, more accurate falloff.
Enable it in the SSS Profile Asset.
The Editor Preview Level should be set to Cinematic
It requires Temporal Anti-Aliasing to be enabled.
For existing content using the standard SSS Profiles, it should require minimal changes to your existing content.
Hair and Fur Rendering and Simulation (Experimental). We have experimental support for hair rendering and simulation. In 4.24, you’ll be able to import your Alembic (.abc) groom from an external DCC application, create and setup your hair using the Groom component in UE4, Author and Edit your Material in UE4, and use Niagara to set up hair physics with some adjustable settings.
Runtime Virtual Texturing Improvements (Beta). We’ve continued to improve process and add useful updates to the RVT workflow for 4.24. These are some of the improvements coming this release:
Added settings for more refined control of your RVT through the RVT Asset.
Added RVT Material Types. We now have four options compared to the two in the previous release.
Added different RVT Base Color and Normal Storage settings for encoding.
Added two new RVT Asset actions through the context menu for “Find Material Using This” and “Fix Material Usage” to streamline workflows when creating or fixing RVT Assets and their references.
Ability to build a Streaming Virtual Texture from your RVT from its low resolution mips. This makes it more efficient to make use of both Streaming and Runtime Virtual Textures together to save memory.
Tied RVT to Scalability options for along with console variables to tune RVT settings per-project and/or per-platform.
Virtual Production Updates:
Pro Media Export (Beta). Currently, the export to disk capabilities from Sequencer is limited and does not address the production needs. We are adding Pro media codec support for Avid DNXHR to sequencer export to better integrate with film pipelines and TV Pipelines.
3D Text (Experimental). As Unreal Engine becomes used in the Broadcast industry there have been a number of requests to support Geometry based 3D Text.
nDisplay QoL – Revised Architecture for Pawn, GameMode & Inputs. We have a number of improvements to highlight:
Pawn – We were forcing users to use a custom nDisplay Pawn – nDisplay would not properly work with regular Pawns or Character Classes.
GameMode – Must be using a Custom nDisplay Game Mode. We’re getting rid of that as well.
Consequences – Adding rotations via rotation components vs the controller
XR Updates:
OpenXR (Beta). A new UE4 plugin that utilizes the new OpenXR standard to support a wide range of VR and AR devices through a single plugin.
Magic Leap Update. We’ve updated the Magic Leap integration with support for their latest 0.22 SDK. This required updating almost the entire surface area of the plugin and brings us from a relatively old 0.19 integration up to what they are currently publicly shipping.
Be sure to check the complete forum post for a list of fixes and breaking changes in this release. Check out the video below to see Unreal 4.24 preview 1 in action, including how to enable and use the new mesh modeling and sculpting tools.
There hasn’t been anything really worth reviewing this week, hence a lot more news bits and our usual run of features. Michael’s submitted a tips guide for GWENT, which we’ll run next week – I didn’t really feel like it was something worth rushing to review. I’ll also be trying out the new Hearthstone mode properly next week when the global beta starts. Had to re-download the game as I haven’t played in forever, but should be interesting to see Blizzard’s interpretation of an Auto Chess mode, even if it does look like a lazy man’s game of Hearthstone.
Honestly, there wasn’t much this week that really caught our eye or seemed worth shouting about. If you’ve spotted anything we missed, do let us know and I can update the column.
One thing that did catch my eye was an iOS-only game called Boolitaire (there is a game on android with the same name, but I don’t think it’s the same game). It’s a spooky-themed twist on Solitaire that seems to combine resource management with tactical card play. We’ve always had a soft-spot here on PT for games that do interesting twists on established concepts, and at $1.99 there are much worse ways to spend your money. We haven’t been able to try it out ourselves though, so here’s a gamepaly video from App Unwrapper:
New Apple Arcade Games
We don’t normally run dedicated updates for Apple Arcade but we just happened to get a press release through for these new additions. What’s more, Apple Arcade is now officially up to 100 games! Huzzah!
We’re not going to go into detail on all of them, but the first five of the six new additions include:
Takesahi & Hiroshi – An Adventure about… making a game? I think?
Guildings – A story-driven narrative adventure about going on a quest.
Marble it Up: Mayhem! – An Action/Platformer about playing with Marbles.
Sociable Soccer™ – A Sports management game that uses card mechanics, and has multiplayer.
Discolored – A first-person exploration/adventure game.
BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner – a scolling shoot’em-up game in the BattleSky Brigade series.
And without further ado, the official 100th game to land on Apple Arcade is…..
UFO on Tape: First Contact
Genre: Action
What would you do if a real UFO descended from the clouds? Run screaming? Or grab your iPhone and start recording?! The highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning iOS 2010 release, UFO on Tape puts you in the hot seat as you speed through the countryside in hot pursuit of visitors from outer space.
App Updates
Bridge Constructor Portal
Bridge Constructor Portal has received its first piece of DLC, nearly two years after it released onto mobile. Called Portal Proficiency, this add-on adds 30 new levels, and lets you construct bridges and choose where to place the portals.
Star Traders Frontiers
Another huge update for Star Traders – this one adds the 7th Story Era, which comes with new simulation rules, Rumors, Conflicts, and Contact actions/mutations. Enemy AI Captains also now finally use the new Carrier ship type introduced earlier in the year. There’s plenty more changes and additions as well, so make sure you check out the full update (taken from the Steam entry) to find out more.
Other games to receive updates this week:
Pokemon Masters has received an update that adds in new story story chapters, and the ability to swap Pikachu out for a Torchic.
Hearthstone received its new Auto Chess mode this week – it’ll be available for everyone to play on Monday.
Only a few sales we felt worth highlighting this week:
Star Traders: Frontiers is currently at its best price this year to date at $3.99 on both iOS and Android. This is an excellent sci-fi sandbox RPG, and well worth checking out, especially with the new update!
Night of the Full Moon, which has never been that expensive anyway at $0.99 is currently free on iOS and Android. It’s got several DLCs/IAPs, but it’s still a pretty good solitaire card game.
The excellent strategy card game Age of Rivals is down to $1.99 again, but only on iOS.
Space Grunts is also discounted (since Space Grunts 2 is imminent), but it’s not the best price it’s been, so beware of that.
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-09-2019, 01:28 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Standing up for every Dreamer
They came to the United States as children, brought into the country undocumented by parents with dreams of a better life. Many were so young when they arrived that they have no recollection of their place of birth. We call these young people Dreamers – students, employees and military soldiers who aspire to make the country where they have lived most of their lives a permanent home.
In 2012, the United States created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to protect these young people from being deported. Yet just five years later, the program was rescinded, putting close to 700,000 DACA recipients at risk of being banished from the only home they’ve ever known.
More than five dozen of these DACA recipients at risk are Microsoft employees. These young people contribute to our company and serve our customers. They help create our products, secure our services, and manage our finances. And like so many young people across our nation, they dream of making an honest living and a real difference in the communities in which they reside. Yet they now live in uncertainty.
We’ve told our Microsoft Dreamers that we will stand up for them along with all the nation’s DACA recipients. We’ll represent them in court and litigate on their behalf. That’s why we joined Princeton University and Princeton student Maria De La Cruz Perales Sanchez to file one of the three cases challenging the DACA rescission that will be heard on Nov. 12 by the United States Supreme Court. We will be there in person, along with a group of our employees, to show our support for DACA recipients.
For Microsoft, the decision to bring this case was straightforward. We believe Dreamers are worth protecting. The case speaks to the impact the rescission has on our business, company, employees and the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers across the country. It also has a broader impact on the country’s flow of talent and innovation economy, a perspective that we share with Princeton. Like all research- and innovation-focused organizations, both Microsoft and Princeton depend on the ability to attract talent from around the world. It’s essential not just to us, but also to our country’s ability to compete on the world stage.
Amidst this broader discussion, we also need to remember the individual stories of Dreamers and the contributions that they make. While the number of Dreamers is large, every number is a person and each person is an individual. In short, behind each number there is a unique and important story.
For example, one of the nation’s Dreamers is a young woman, a Microsoft service and security engineer, who was born in Mexico and brought to the U.S. at the age of 4. She thought she was an American citizen until the day, years later, when she asked her mother to sign a permission slip for a school experience in Japan. That was the day that, with tears in her eyes, her mother told her she could never leave the country because she would not be allowed to come back. Inspired by her mother’s sacrifices for her and her siblings, in 2012 she followed her passion for technology through DigiGirlz, a program supported by Microsoft YouthSpark that gives girls the opportunity to learn about careers in technology. After years of commitment, further coursework, and unending grit, she is now building the next chapter of her story at our headquarters in Redmond with our Microsoft 365 team, thanks to DACA. At a time when cyber-attacks are increasing, she is using her skills and experience to help protect our customers across the country and around the world.
Another one of our employees is a Dreamer and software engineer who was born in Tepic, Mexico, and brought to the U.S. when he was only four months old. Growing up in Los Angeles, he and his family lived close to the poverty line for most of his childhood. He excelled in school and earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from California Polytechnic State University. His talents led to multiple offers for engineering roles at top technology companies, and we are thrilled that he is now part of our software development team near Seattle. Today he works to enhance productivity and performance for Azure, the cloud platform that is empowering customers of all sizes across the country – including government agencies – to transform their work. He is part of the team that helps make this transformation possible.
There are so many more stories like those, within and beyond Microsoft. For us, this fight is not just about our employees. It’s also about the potential impact of DACA rescission on the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, on businesses across the country, and on the innovation economy that is central to the nation’s prosperity. Roughly three-quarters of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies have confirmed that they employ Dreamers.
While we are the only company among the plaintiffs of the consolidated cases now before the Supreme Court, we know we represent employers of all sizes in making the case to uphold DACA. Last month, more than 140 companies and associations showed their support in a brief filed before the Court. They wrote about the serious harm that would be inflicted on the economy if we were to lose the contributions of Dreamers.
While the case before the Supreme Court is of fundamental importance, we also appreciate that it is insufficient in addressing the permanent needs of the nation’s Dreamer population. The only path to stability for Dreamers is a pathway to citizenship. And citizenship in this case can only come from Congress.
We also recognize that the Dreamers are one part of the broader immigration challenges we face as a nation. We are committed to constructive steps to attract and retain talent that helps fuel innovation and grow our economy for the benefit of every American. This includes reducing the green card backlog and constraints on high skilled visas. Innovation has been vital to the nation’s history. It needs to be equally fundamental to the country’s future – a future that requires creating more opportunities for those born in the United States as well as long-lasting solutions that support individuals like the Dreamers that have come as children from other nations
