MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air – Which is the better buy?
A few weeks ago, Apple launched a pair of machines in direct competition with each other. Let’s take a look at the differences between Apple’s new entry level MacBook Air, and the new base model 13-inch MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Which one should you pick up?
2019 MacBook Air (left) and 2019 MacBook Pro 13-inch (right)
A couple of weeks ago, Apple decided to kill off its 12-inch MacBook with its single USB-C port and replaced it with the 13-inch MacBook Air with Retina Display.
Air versus Pro
This new MacBook Air now starts at $1099 which packs a 1.6GHz dual-core processor that turbo boosts up to 3.6GHz, 8GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and Intel’s UHD 617 Graphics.
2019 MacBook Air
The new base model 13-inch MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports starts at $1299 and that gets you a 1.4GHz quad-core i5 processor that turbo boosts up to 3.9GHz, 8GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and the Intel Iris Plus 645 Graphics.
Superb build quality, similar design
In terms of overall design, both devices look incredible. The MacBook Air, like its name, is very thin and light. It’s the most portable Mac you can carry with you. We’ve seen this same exact design for the Mac Pro since its 2016 debut, and the 13-inch model is still very portable, but not as light as the MacBook Air.
Both the Air and Pro also feature Apple’s newly updated butterfly keyboard which we’ve covered in length in the past, but to reiterate our review of this new keyboard, it’s a little bit better to type on versus the first gen keyboard, there’s little to no key travel, but we’re not completely sold on whether or not this will end up breaking in a few months.
2019 13-inch MacBook Pro
One of the major differences between these two models and their keyboards however is the Pro’s Touch Bar versus the Air’s Function Keys with Touch ID. Personally, I prefer the MacBook Air’s function keys over the Pro’s Touch Bar because they are physical buttons I can press, and in my opinion is the more reliable option. Of course, others —even within the AppleInsider editorial team —have differing opinions on the Touch Bar. It is a hotly debated piece of tech that Apple now has throughout the entire MacBook Pro lineup.
Those who are champions of the Touch Bar love the familiar shortcuts and app-specific controls that can be displayed. Safari, mail, Final Cut Pro X, and many more apps all take advantage of the Touch Bar to various degrees.
2019 MacBook Air (left) and 2019 MacBook Pro 13-inch (right)
I feel Apple hasn’t yet fully realized the potential in the Touch Bar by themselves. Now that every MacBook Pro comes with the Touch Bar and not function keys, perhaps developers who haven’t embraced it yet will devote some additional resources to fleshing it out.
Great displays, but one is clearly better
Both devices also feature True Tone display which adjusts the color temperature of your display to the environment you’re in to give you a much better viewing experience. The MacBook Pro’s display features P3 wide color gamut, versus the Air’s sRGB so colors and contrast ratio is much better on the Pro.
2019 MacBook Air (left) and 2019 MacBook Pro 13-inch (right)
But one of the biggest differences between the devices is how much brighter the MacBook Pro can get. The Air’s display can go up to 400 nits of brightness, versus the Pro’s 500 nits of brightness. On paper, it may not sound all that drastic, but in person you can tell which display looks better and brighter.
Dual-core versus Quad-core
When it comes to performance and day to day usage, the MacBook Pro is the clear winner here. We’ve tested both machines and ran several benchmarks to showcase how these base model MacBooks perform.
Geekbench 4 results
In Geekbench, the MacBook Pro received a single core score of 4761 and multi-core score of 16932, while the MacBook Air’s dual-core i5 processor scored 4310 in single core, and received a multi-core score of 7871. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a quad-core processor will deliver a big jump in multi-core performance.
As a video creator, I was curious how these two machines compare in Final Cut Pro X. So we imported five minutes of 4K h.264 footage in our timeline, added color correction, adjusted the saturation, and added some contrast to the overall image. We exported this five minute timeline with background rendering on and off.
On the MacBook Air with background rendering on it exported the video in 4 minutes and 22 seconds, and with it off, it exported the video in 14 minutes and 12 seconds. The MacBook Pro exported the video in 2 minutes and 45 seconds. And with it off it did it in 10 minutes and 26 seconds.
Final Cut Pro X results
Testing out the SSD speeds on these two machines we noticed that both devices are about on the same playing field averaging around 1275MB/s on its read speeds and around 600MB/s on write speed. Effectively, a dead heat between the pair.
MacBook Pro is a more performance-oriented choice
The extra $200 you’ll be shelling out on the Pro could go towards AppleCare or accessories if you were to choose the base model MacBook Air, but in the long run, we think you’ll be much happier with the Pro’s better looking display, and overall raw performance.
If you’re looking to grab a MacBook Air just for its weight and portability, the difference between the two laptops is very small. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is still very much a lightweight and portable Mac, and we believe it’s the best bang for the buck Apple portable you can buy at the moment.
If you’re looking for the best prices on the new MacBook Air or the base model MacBook Pro we’ll leave a link down below to AppleInsider’s Price Guide where you can find the best deal on these new laptops.
Where to buy and save on these new laptops
Both the 2019 MacBook Air and the new 13-inch MacBook Pro are eligible for instant and/or promo code savings at Adorama. All CTO models are up to $150 off with coupon code APINSIDER. Details on how to reedem the code can be found in our savings guide.
UTSA Launches Open Source Software To Protect Users On AWS
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has launched an open source user computer environment for Amazon Cloud called Galahad. UTSA is also working to expand its capabilities to support OpenStack software. The software was originally created by Star Lab Corp. for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, or IARPA, which is a division of the Office of National Intelligence. (Source: Biz Journals)
Nintendo Has Updated Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Database With Dragon Quest Spirits
At E3 2019, Nintendo revealed the ‘Hero’ from the Dragon Quest series would come to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as DLC this summer. So, when will this fighter actually be released?
It seems the character’s arrival could be near – with Gamexplain revealing Nintendo has updated Ultimate’s spirit database with multiple Dragon Quest spirits. Much like Joker, the Hero is also expected to have an event celebrating its history.
To see some of the Dragon Quest spirits, take a look at the video below:
This latest development follows on from a possible hint provided by a 7-Eleven advertisement in Japan.
What’s so interesting about this particular ad is that it’s only supposed to be up until 4th August (aka. next weekend). This date happens to coincide with EVO 2019, where Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will conclude the show.
Are you looking forward to playing as The Hero from Dragon Quest in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Leave a comment below.
Allied Vision To Develop Open Source Based Edge Computing Systems
Allied Vision, a provider of industrial camera solutions and Antmicro, a software-driven embedded technology company developing open-source based edge computing systems, have announced a strategic partnership to drive their common goals in building complex and portable vision systems. The announcement is made to underline the ongoing collaboration between the companies that started with the joint demonstration of a successful technology integration between Allied Vision’s revolutionary Alvium camera series and Antmicro’s real-time deep learning object detection system based on the NVIDIA Jetson Xavier edge computing platform. (Source: Automation)
What's New To Hulu In August 2019? Movies, TV Shows, And Originals
August is right around the corner, and that means streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu have revealed what's coming to its services for the upcoming month. And if you're a Hulu subscriber, you're in luck because there are plenty of movies you'll want to watch.
Right at the beginning of the month, Hulu is dropping a ton of movies and roughly 12% of those movies are Star Trek-related. That's right, Spock, Kirk, and the gang will be invading your screen as Hulu releases nine Trek movies. Star Trek 1-6, 8, 9, and Nemesis all arrive on August 1. Watch Captain James T. Kirk yell "KAHN" or watch the crew travel back to 1986 to hang out with some whales. If only Hulu was also releasing Generations and Insurrection, so you could binge them all in one, very long sitting.
If space and science-fiction aren't up your alley, then how do you feel about the personification of Death, trying to end people's lives? Are you into that? If so, the first four Final Destination movies are headed to Hulu on August 1 as well. In those movies, the concept of death is actually attempting to kill people. However, some can see his plan and avoid their demise. Can the trick the being that ends lives for a career or will they ultimately meet their maker? I'm making this movie sound a bit smarter than it actually is. You're going to watch this for the Rube Goldberg-esque death sequences.
What about anime? Well, if you're looking for a series where every character you know and love will eventually be eaten by giantantic beasts--which will make you cry a lot--then you'll want to check out Season 3A of Attack on Titan, which arrives on August 6. Based on the popular manga series, the show follows a world that's been under attack from Titans, humongous, expressionless humanoids who eat people. Humans build a wall around their city, but that doesn't always work out for them. It's emotional, terrifying, and action-packed. Who's your favorite Attack on Titan character? Mine's the one that died in Season 1!
Below, you'll find the complete listing for everything coming to and leaving Hulu in August.
Coming to Hulu in August
Available August 1
Heartland: Complete Season 11(Kew Media)
Pure: Complete Season 2 (WGN)
Unikitty: Complete Season 1B (Cartoon Network)
A Viking Saga: The Darkest Day (2013)
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
American Heart (1993)
Baby Boom (1987)
Big Fish (2003)
The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)
A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
Bulletproof Monk (2003)
Cats & Dogs (2001)
Chinese Box (1997)
The Color Purple (1985)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002)
The Cutting Edge (1992)
The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold (2006)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Das Boot (1981)
Double Impact (1991)
Down in the Delta (1998)
Drumline (2002)
Eight Men Out (1988)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Final Destination (2000)
Final Destination 2 (2003)
Final Destination 3 (2006)
The Final Destination (2009)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Furry Vengeance (2010)
Good Advice (2001)
Hackers (1995)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Idiocracy (2006)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
Ingenious (2009)
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
John Grisham’s The Rainmaker (1997)
Kama Sutra (1997)
Man on a Ledge (2012)
Marley and Me: the Puppy Years (2010)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (2007)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
The Pink Panther (2006)
The Pink Panther 2 (2009)
Rat Race (2001)
Repentance (2013)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rushmore (1998)
Seven (1995)
Shivers (1975)
Snake Eyes (1998)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek VIII: First Contact (1996)
Star Trek IX: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Stargate (1994)
Step Up (2006)
The Terminator (1984)
The Transporter (2002)
Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
Tracker (2011)
Urban Cowboy (1980)
White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
Zookeeper (2011)
Available August 2
Into The Dark: School Spirit: Episode 11 Premiere (Hulu Original)
Rick Steves’ Cruising the Mediterranean: Special (PBS)
Anger Management (2003)
Non-Fiction (2019)
Available August 5
The Kleptocrats (2018)
Available August 6
Apollo: Mission to the Moon: Special (National Geographic)
Attack on Titan: Complete Season 3A (Funimation)
Bachelor in Paradise: Season 6 premiere (ABC)
Plus One (2018)
Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music (2017)
The Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music (2019)
Available August 7
The Armstrong Tapes: Special (National Geographic)
Available August 8
Apollo: Back to the Moon: Special (National Geographic)
BH90210: Series Premiere (FOX)
Mortdecai (2015)
Available August 9
The Beach Bum (2019)
Available August 11
AWOL (2016)
Available August 13
Sharkfest: Special (National Geographic)
Andy Irons: Kissed by Gods (2019)
Available August 15
Dogman (2019)
Own the Sky (2018)
Rattlesnakes (2018)
Smoke Signals (1998)
The Actors (2003)
Zoo-Head (2018)
Available August 16
Find Me In Paris: Complete Season 2 (Hulu Original)
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary: Documentary Premiere (Hulu Original)
Available August 18
The Bookshop (2018)
Available August 20
The Layover (2017)
Available August 21
This Way Up: Complete Season 1 (Merman)
Available August 22
A Simple Favor (2018)
Hail, Satan (2019)
Available August 23
Jawline: Documentary Premiere (Hulu Original)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
Operation Finale (2018)
Available August 24
Mapplethorpe (2018)
Available August 25
Wicked Tuna: Complete Season 5 (National Geographic)
Review: Lethal League Blaze – Jet Set Radio Meets Tennis Meets Street Fighter
Breaking into the beat ’em up genre is a tough ask for any fledgeling title. With gargantuan franchises such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Smash Bros. making up a sizeable part of the Switch’s fighting roster, newcomers need to either nail basic fighting gameplay with pinpoint precision or introduce a fresh spin on the genre in order to stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, Lethal League Blaze does more than enough to avoid getting lost in the eShop ether.
Originally released on PC back in 2018, Lethal League Blaze is a continuation of what developer Team Reptile kicked off in 2014 with Lethal League. It’s a bonkers mix of dodgeball and tennis that comes together to form a fresh take on the beat ’em up genre, backed up by a superb soundtrack featuring none other than Hideki Naganuma, famous for his work on the Jet Set Radio series. The aim of the game is to whack an anti-gravity projectile (which, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to as a ball from now on) towards your competitors within a confined arena, chipping away at their health until you’re the last character standing.
It’s such a simple premise, but Team Reptile has done a remarkable job in crafting the gameplay to make it accessible for newcomers whilst ensuring veterans have plenty of scope to improve and hone their skills. You’ll have a choice of more than 10 characters, each of whom displays truly unique characteristics: Candyman looks like a walking emoji and sports a rather fetching cane, Dice has a love of ping pong and wields a suitably apt paddle, and Latch is a crocodile with a huge tail and stylish headphones. You’ll soon gravitate towards your favourite after a few sessions, but the game remains fair by limiting each character to only one special ability.
All of the characters have the same basic move sets. You can give the ball a good old whack with a press of Y, aiming more or less in any direction with the control stick. If the ball happens to fly around without hitting anybody, you can give it an additional hit (provided you get on the right position) to increase the ball’s velocity – eventually, you’ll have it flying around the stage at impossibly fast speeds, making it incredibly difficult to counter against. Additionally, should your opponents successfully deflect the ball, this will create a volley – much like in tennis – that will increase with speed the longer it goes on.
But it’s not all about just hitting a ball back and forth until you successfully deal some damage; there are additional moves you can use to potentially give you an edge. You can bunt the ball with A, stopping it in its tracks to allow you a brief moment to gather yourself and prepare your next move before continuing. You can also grab and throw the ball, giving it an immediate burst of speed, or you can leap up and perform a smash strike, which really helps to increase its velocity quickly. Of course, the faster the ball travels around the screen, the more damage you’ll ultimately deal to your opponent if they fail to defend themselves.
Finally, each character is granted a special ability that you can access by building up a meter from multiple successive hits. These can prove to be extremely helpful if you’re in a bit of a bind, but crucially never feel powerful enough to immediately hand you the match. Mostly, it allows you to manipulate the ball in ways that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. For example, Dice can put topspin on the ball to make it curve around and hit your opponent, and Latch can actually gobble up the ball and spit it out at an opportune time (when you’re right in front of your opponent, basically).
A multiplayer game at heart, Lethal League Blaze can be played by up to four competitors either locally or online. We’re big fans of playing locally, and with it being such a rarity with games these days, it’s really great to see it given some love here. Online matchmaking is currently limited to include only 4 players, so those who prefer good old 1v1 matches will need to wait for a post-launch patch (which we’ve been told will hopefully arrive in August) before this becomes an option.
If multiplayer isn’t your thing, there’s enough here to keep you occupied in single player for a little while. The game’s story mode features numerous fights preceded by a brief, text-based cutscene to set the stage. This isn’t anything special, but it’s nice to see that the unique characters actually have a bit of personality as well. In addition to the normal 1v1 or 4v4 fights, the story mode also throws in a few surprises and flips the rules slightly for some of the matches. For example, you’ll come across a match that requires you to hit a target behind your opponent, and vice versa, rather than aiming for the character directly. In addition to story mode, there’s a classic arcade mode that will pit you against increasingly difficult foes in a 1v1 setup.
In terms of performance, the game is mostly locked at 30fps at launch. If this sounds a bit disappointing, we’ve been assured that the upcoming post-launch patch will increase the framerate dramatically. That said, we found the performance never falters and remains solid whether you’re playing against one opponent or three, and we suspect that once you get into a few matches, you won’t be particularly fussed about this at all.
Conclusion
If you’re not a fan of multiplayer games, then once you’ve beaten Lethal League Blaze’s story mode and arcade mode, there’s little to entice you back into the fray. Nevertheless, the gameplay itself is remarkably versatile, allowing newcomers to get stuck right in whilst more seasoned players can tinker with the game’s many intricacies. Throw in an amazing soundtrack and some fantastic cel-shaded visuals, and you’ve got a competitive game that’s engaging in terms of both its presentation and its instantly accessible gameplay.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-27-2019, 04:12 PM - Forum: Windows
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Azure publishes guidance for secure cloud adoption by governments
Governments around the world are in the process of a digital transformation, actively investigating solutions and selecting architectures that will help them transition many of their workloads to the cloud. There are many drivers behind the digital transformation, including the need to engage citizens, empower employees, transform government services, and optimize government operations. Governments across the world are also looking to improve their cybersecurity posture to secure their assets and counter the evolving threat landscape.
To help governments worldwide get answers to common cloud security related questions, Microsoft published a white paper, titled Azure for Secure Worldwide Public Sector Cloud Adoption. This paper addresses common security and isolation concerns pertinent to worldwide public sector customers. It also explores technologies available in Azure to help safeguard unclassified, confidential, and sensitive workloads in the public multi-tenant cloud in combination with Azure Stack and Azure Data Box Edge deployed on-premises and at the edge for fully disconnected scenarios involving highly sensitive data. The paper addresses common customer concerns, including:
Data residency and data sovereignty
Government access to customer data, including CLOUD Act related questions
Data encryption, including customer control of encryption keys
Access to customer data by Microsoft personnel
Threat detection and prevention
Private and hybrid cloud options
Cloud compliance and certifications
Conceptual architecture for classified workloads
For governments and the public sector industry worldwide, Microsoft provides Azure – a public multi-tenant cloud services platform that government agencies can use to deploy a variety of solutions. A multi-tenant cloud platform implies that multiple customer applications and data are stored on the same physical hardware. Azure uses logical isolation to segregate each customer’s applications and data from those of others. This approach provides the scale and economic benefits of multi-tenant cloud services while rigorously helping prevent customers from accessing one another’s data or applications.
A hyperscale public cloud provides resiliency in times of natural disaster or other disturbances. The cloud provides capacity for failover redundancy and empowers sovereign nations with flexibility regarding global resiliency planning. A hyperscale public cloud also offers a feature-rich environment incorporating the latest cloud innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT) services, intelligent edge, and more. This rich feature set helps government customers increase efficiency and unlock insights into their operations and performance.
Using Azure’s public cloud capabilities, customers benefit from rapid feature growth, resiliency, and the cost-effective operation of the hyperscale cloud while still obtaining the levels of isolation, security, and confidence required to handle workloads across a broad spectrum of data classifications, including unclassified and classified data. Leveraging Azure isolation technologies, as well as intelligent edge capabilities (such as Azure Stack and Azure Data Box Edge), customers can process confidential and sensitive data in secure isolated infrastructure within Azure’s multi-tenant regions or highly sensitive data at the edge under the customer’s full operational control.
I’ve been cooling it on the Auto Chess testing lately because one of my personal favourite board games is getting its digital release next week, and I’ve been taking the Android version out for a spin.
Raiders of the North Sea is essentially a worker placement game, but it has a cool twist on the usual gameplay and has some pretty amazing artwork. Also: Vikings. The app seems very slick so far, so I’m looking forward to getting our full review out. I’m not sure we’ll make it in time for launch, but it’ll definitely be ASAP.
We’ve been wondering when Aspyr would be getting around to porting the Civ 6 expansions to mobile. Rise & Fall released to the PC audience last February, so it’s been well over a year and we’ve had a second PC expansion (Gathering Storm) in the time since then. Rise & Fall isn’t the most impactful expansion, but it definitely elevates the base game out of the mundane and so in many ways is a bit of an essential purchase if you’re a Civ 6 fan. Along with new leaders and civs, new mechanics emerge in the form of Emergencies, Golden/Dark Ages and Governors. You can head on over to our sister website for a full overview of the expansion.
It’s a shame it’s so expensive ($29.99!), although as part of the release all of the existing IAPs have been made cheaper. You can now pick up the base game for $10, for example. Gathering Storm is supposedly on track for release alter this year as well, and together they make the base Civ 6 experience a better challenger against Civ 5’s comfortable domination of the franchise.
I mention this one because I’ve played the PC version and it is quite fun, if you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful party game. You control stick men on 2D battlefields and you have to jump around, try to pick up weapons and be the last stick standing. The physics are hilarious and the action surprisingly tense. It’s only for three players and one disadvantage of the mobile version is that you can only play online (versus all crowding around a single PC, for example), which is a shame.
The mobile version has gone free-to-play with a single $1 IAP for something called ‘Diamond’, but I imagine this is more of a token gesture to monetise the mobile game, rather than true ‘freemium’ design although you never know with NetEase involved.
Pokémon GO’s time as the most popular Pokémon game on mobile might be coming to an end, as more games are about to land on our phones. Free-to-Play Pokémon Rumble Rush released this week, but you can also pre-register for Pokémon Masters, a 3v3 battler where three trainers each take a Pokémon each (known as a ‘sync pair’) into a head-to-head battle with another team. Pre-registration is available on both app stores, and there’s an overview video you can watch that goes over the basics:
This digital party game has been on our radar for a while, but we weren’t sure when the mobile version was planning to release – turns out it’s next week! This is a co-operation game where one person has ‘the bomb’, while everyone else has the manual that can disarm the bomb. The carrier will need to be able to describe what they can see, while the rest of the team will need to be able to succinctly advise the carrier how to disarm the bomb based on what they’re told. What could go wrong?
What’s good about this one is that only one person needs to ‘own’ the app as only the carrier will need, while everyone else can consult the bomb manual directly from the official website. It’s coming to both app stores and will cost $9.99.
Updates
Not many updates making a splash this week – Star Traders: Frontiers has been updated again, naturally, and the various Auto Chess games have all had extra tweaks and updates, depending on your poison.
In other news, Night of the Full Moon was updated to Version 2.0 this week. This is a larger update than most, and ]comes with it the inclusion of a new DLC – The Red Hood. NotFM is a pretty solid CCG/RPG hybrid which, while it didn’t blow us away when we first looked at it in 2017, has continued to go from strength to strength in the years since. It’s got plenty of DLC now to pick up if you’re interested, and the price for entry is currently ‘free’ on both iOS and Android.
Sales
In addition to the Civ 6 and Night of the Full Moon promotions mentioned above, there are a couple of sales that might be of interest this week:
Tides of Time (iOS | Android), which is a fun and quick 2 player card drafting game, is currently $0.99 – it’s first price-drop since launch.
Tactical RPG Avadon 3: The Warborn is down to half price again this week, only the second time this year.
Seen anything else you like? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
Today, the Khronos group announced that Autodesk has joined the consortium, specifically the 3D Formats Working Group and the 3D Commerce Exploratory Group. The Khronos Group is the regulatory body guiding such efforts as OpenGL, Vulkan, OpenCL and of course glTF. This is a long winded way of saying that Autodesk, makers of popular 3D applications such as 3DSMax and Maya as well as industry standard AutoCAD, are moving to support the open standard glTF.
Big news! 3D software developer, Autodesk has joined the Khronos Group. Autodesk is an industry-leading provider of 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, that joined the 3D Formats Working Group to support the Khronos glTF file format and the 3D Commerce Exploratory Group, a group of companies exploring standards and guidelines for the production and distribution of real-time 3D representations of products. glTF is an open standard for efficient and reliable encapsulation and transmission of 3D assets and scenes, including PBR materials and animations.
“Autodesk is committed to accelerating the adoption of open standards as industry-wide collaboration is critical to improving our customers’ workflows and advancing computer graphics technology,” said Henrik Edstrom, senior software architect, Graphics Technology at Autodesk. “As the need for interoperability and consistency between applications and across platforms becomes increasingly important, we see great value in open data formats like glTF. There is also more demand for richer experiences on web, mobile, and XR platforms, and new opportunities in areas such as general compute and real-time ray tracing. We’re excited to be part of the Khronos group and the evolution of computer graphics.”
Further support for the open and real-time friendly glTF format is a step forward in interoperability between game engines and DCC tools and away from proprietary and complicated formats such as Autodesk’s own Filmbox (FBX) format, or that of prior overly complicated open standards such as COLLADA (DAE).
Interestingly, there was no mention of MAX, Maya or games in general in the entire article, arguably the biggest sector impacted by this announcement.
IBM’s Center for Open-Source Data and AI Technologies (CODAIT) recently unveiled a pair of carefully curated databases designed to provide machine learning developers models and datasets for AI projects. MAX, or Model Assets Exchange, is an online open-source repository for trainable/deployable AI models. You don’t necessarily have to be an AI expert to use the database – there’s even a tutorial that’ll walk you through developing an AI that can write captions – but some of the models available will probably only appeal to enterprise developers. (Source: The Next Web)
