Babylon.js, the open source 3D web based game engine, just released version 4.2 with a ton of new features and tools. Key features of the 4.2 release include:

• New particle editor for direct creation of particle systems in the Inspector

• new Sprite Editor built into the Inspector to create, control and save sprites
• new Skeleton viewer to visual bones and bone weights in Inspector
• texture inspector for debugging texture issues
• PBR support in the Node material editor with access to metallic, roughness, clearcoat, sheen etc when creating materials
• new Procedural Texture, Particle Shader, Post Processing modes added to the Node editor
• reusable frames in Node Material editor, enabling you to reuse shader code between projects easily
• playground templates, essentially quick access code snippets in the code editor using Ctrl+Space
• direct support for pre-filtered .hdr files
• support for React Native for creating native applications
• KTX + Basis U texture compression support
• much, much more

You can learn more about the release in this article here or by watching the video below. Babylon.js is an open source project under the Apache 2 license with the source code available on GitHub. If you are interested in learning more about Babylon, be sure to check out our older Babylon.js tutorial series.

This year, teachers, students, and parents have done an incredible job adapting to remote and hybrid learning. They’ve brought positivity to every interaction, made online learning engaging, found ways to stay connected, and shared acts of kindness throughout rapidly changing situations.

World Kindness Day is November 13, and it’s the perfect time to reflect on and appreciate the positive power of kindness—and recognize the heroes who model it all year round!

As part of our celebration, we are highlighting tips and lessons from teachers, educators, and parents, including you, on what you’ve learned about kindness during remote and hybrid learning. To make this easy and engaging, we’re using Flipgrid to record and display your responses. You can visit the World Kindness Day Flipgrid topic to see them all and add your own! There are already some great messages posted, and we’ve put some of our favorites so far on a one-minute Kindness Sizzle Reel.

Here are some more quick and easy-to-use ways to spread kindness and promote well-being:

New praise badges in Microsoft Teams and sticker packs in OneNote and Whiteboard

Praise badges were released not long ago, and we’re already hearing some great stories of how teachers and students have been using them to build up one another.

Cindy Ramirez, a teacher from the US, was excited to share that her students are celebrating their classmates with praise badges; Patrick O’Callaghan from Ireland said his students really like when he recognizes their hard work with a badge; and students in Sacha van Straten’s class in England surprised him with a badge to thank him for a great lesson.

Donald Gillespie, a teacher in Scotland said, “The pupils really appreciate receiving them and we find they really motivate not just the recipient but others who see the praise being given out.”

Reflect Messaging in Teams

More than ever, it’s important for teachers to understand how students are feeling. It can be hard to gauge well-being during distance learning, but with tools like Reflect Messaging in Teams, educators can create a quick and engaging check-in to get insights on the well-being of their students and classes.

Kindness Cards

Kindness Cards are available in many different languages, and each card has ideas, reminders, or inspiration teachers can use to model kind behaviors. Teachers can keep them handy to share with students or a colleague!

As educators, teachers, and students continue to model empathy and spread kindness around their classrooms and around the world, we’re working to support their incredible work with easy-to-use and personalized resources that amplify their voices. For more information, as well as support and guidance on the best tools to use for social and emotional learning, take a look at the social and emotional learning resource page.

As Brian H. Smith, Ph.D, a member of the Born This Way Foundation’s Research Advisory Board says, “When kindness is a norm, a strong value we hold, it can help guide how we approach the rest of the world.”

I sincerely hope that every small and large act expands the reach of positivity, and brings people of all ages together.

Remember: one kind word (or Praise badge) can change someone’s entire day. Wishing everyone around the globe a Happy World Kindness Day!

The latest entry in Ubisoft’s lounge-dominating dance series has arrived, as Just Dance 2021 launches on Switch today.

To celebrate the game’s release, a brand new TV commercial has started doing the rounds and you can check it out for yourself up above. The game will have players strutting their stuff to 40 new songs and offers access to an old library of more than 600 others if you sign up for a Just Dance Unlimited subscription.

Here’s a look at the Just Dance 2021 tracklist:

• “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande
• “Adore You” by Harry Styles
• “Ice Cream” by BLACKPINK x Selena Gomez
• “Say So” by Doja Cat
• “Kick It” by NCT 127
• “Rare” by Selena Gomez
• “The Other Side (from Trolls World Tour)” by SZA & Justin Timberlake
• “Volar” by Lele Pons Ft. Susan Diaz and Victor Cardenas
• “YO LE LLEGO” by J Balvin, Bad Bunny
• “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” from Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story
• “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello
• “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd
• “Without Me” by Eminem
• “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
• “Que Tire Pa Lante” by Daddy Yankee
• “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa
• “Temperature” by Sean Paul
• “Feel Special” by TWICE
• “Juice” by Lizzo
• “all the good girls go to hell” by Billie Eilish
• “Yameen Yasar” by DJ Absi
• “UNO” by Little Big
• “Paca Dance” by The Just Dance Band
• “Magenta Riddim” by DJ Snake
• “Lacrimosa” by Apashe
• “Kulikitaka” by Toño Rosario
• “Joone Khodet” by Black Cats
• “Get Get Down” by Paul Johnson
• “Georgia” by Tiggs Da Author
• “Buscando” by GTA & Jenn Morel
• “Alexandrie Alexandra” by Jérôme Francis
• “In The Navy” by The Sunlight Shakers
• “Zenit” by ONUKA
• “Heat Seeker” by DREAMERS
• “Till The World Ends” by The Girly Team
• “The Weekend” by Michael Gray
• “Samba de Janeiro” by Ultraclub 90
• “Runaway (U & I)” by Galantis
• “Bailando” by Paradisio Ft. Dj Patrick Samoy
• “Dibby Dibby Sound” by DJ Fresh & Jay Fay Ft. Ms Dynamite
• “Boy, You Can Keep It” by Alex Newell

We’ll have a full review of the game for you as soon as we can, so feel free to keep an eye out for that if you’d like to hear our thoughts before spending your cash.

Until then, let us know if you’re a Just Dance fanatic in the comments below.

PUBG Mobile is set to make a triumphant return to mobile in India two months after being banned by the government. In September, the Indian government controversially banned PUBG Mobile and around 200 other mobile apps, including social media video app TikTok, due to their ties to China. The government said that the decision was made to protect its people’s privacy.

However, according to a report by TechCrunch, PUBG Corporation has severed ties with Chinese publisher Tencent, and agreed to migrate all player data to Microsoft’s Azure. This should bring PUBG Mobile in line with New Delhi’s strict rules on apps’ links to China. While this is exciting news, it could also be a glimmer of light for other apps looking to bypass India’s ban in the future.

Additionally, PUBG Corporation has announced $100 million of investment into jobs, infrastructure, and tournaments in India. It said in a statement: “thanks to overwhelming community enthusiasm for PUBG esports in India, the company also plans to make investments by hosting India-exclusive esports events, which will feature the biggest tournaments, the largest prize pools, and the best tournament productions.”

The company also said that India would receive a specially-created version of the game, however the ever-reliable Daniel Ahmad notes that this shares a lot of similarities with the Chinese version of PUBG Mobile.

The ironic aspect is that India banned the game for its affiliation with Tencent / China

Yet this custom ver. of the game is clearly the China version from Tencent

Green blood? Virtual training ground? Limits on playtime?

Yep, that’s the China versionhttps://t.co/uilGlbZQI5

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) November 12, 2020

As Ahmad notes, PUBG Mobile was the #1 grossing mobile game in India and had over 50 million monthly active users in the country, so it remains to be seen whether the ban impacts its popularity going forward, or whether players will flock back to the shores of Miramar.

With some major changes at both a publisher level and a gameplay level, as well as a promise of huge funding for Indian esports, PUBG Corporation seems intent on getting back into the market. However, these resources aren’t available to all developers, so it may be difficult for other, smaller apps to follow  PUBG Mobile’s footsteps in returning to the Indian market.

There is no release date yet for the new version of the game, but in the meantime you can check out the best mobile multiplayer games, or reacquaint yourself with the latest PUBG Mobile update while you’re here.

Nintendo’s new Super Mario Game & Watch isn’t officially out until tomorrow, but as we’ve already reported, some lucky people have gotten theirs early – and one such individual has been tearing the thing apart all day to find out precisely what makes it tick.

Hacker ghidraninja has been posting their findings throughout the course of the day, with the primary aim of discovering if this new handheld can be hacked to run other programs. A Y-type screwdriver was required to actually gain access to the machine’s innards, but once inside, it was discovered that this particular Game & Watch is powered by an STM32H7B0VBT6 chipset, which comprises of an ARM Cortex-M7, 128 KBytes Flash and 1024 KBytes of RAM.

A quick test found that the machine does have basic security which prevents the firmware from being dumped, but ghidraninja is continuing to pick the machine part to find a way in.

While this dissection is still ongoing, it’s worth noting that the machine is dumping NES ROMs into RAM to play them, so we’d imagine there’s an excellent chance that you’ll be able to turn the Super Mario Game & Watch into a portable NES in the future.

Want more? Video: The History Of Nintendo’s Game & Watch Range

Next month sees the launch of Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack on Switch, a collection of two never-released-in-the-west Taiko no Tatsujin RPGs. Celebrating the upcoming launch, Bandai Namco has shared two new trailers.

The videos give us an insight into the stories that players will enjoy when the two games arrive next month. You can check them both out below:

TAIKO NO TATSUJIN RHYTHM ADVENTURE 1 embarks the players in a space & time mystery adventure having them play as DON-chan in a quest to save history from enemies willing to destroy it. DON-chan will ally with Ticky and Tocky to go through various moments in time, meet historical figures from the past, and face your foes in up to 4vs4 rhythmic battles.

In TAIKO NO TATSUJIN RHYTHM ADVENTURE 2 players will join Tia and Popo Kaka, in a race to retrieve the stolen necklace of the Lion’s fang from the Sorcery Society Hexaglia, in evil organization who stole in order to erase history. In this second game, you can get into up to 8 vs 8 performance battles and create teams with multiple specialties in order to face the many challenges met along the way.

Both games feature more than 250 enemies and 130 songs, and you’ll be able to play them with your old drum set from Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! if you managed to get your hands on one. The pack launches physically and digitally on 3rd December, and both titles will also be sold separately on the eShop.

Looking forward to this one? It’s always nice to see Japan-only games finally make it over to the west, right?