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Microsoft Join Blender Development Fund

Microsoft have just joined the Blender Development Fund as a Gold Sponsor, joining the likes of Epic Games, Ubisoft, AMD and NVIDIA.  Microsoft are currently using Blender in some in-house projects and will be supporting the Blender Development fund to the tune of 30K Euro per year.  Details of the deal from the Blender website:

Microsoft makes use of Blender to generate synthetic 3D models and images of humans that can be used to train AI models. For researchers, having access to high quality free/opensource 3D software has proven to be of great benefit for scientific projects. You can check some of their work here.

To express their support, Microsoft is joining the Blender Foundation’s Development Fund as a Corporate Gold member per July 1st, 2020.

We at Blender are very proud of this support statement, it’s another important signal that the industry migrates to open source and finds ways to contribute to it.

You can learn more about the announcement and development fund in the video below.  If you are afraid of these corporate influences taking over Blender please be sure to watch this video as well.

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Cascadeur Now In Open Beta

Cascadeur is a unique physics based animation system for Linux and Windows (Mac coming soon) that just released into Open Beta.  Details of the first Cascadeur beta release:

New core architecture
The progress from the CBT to the OBT version may appear subtle on the outside, but on the inside the entire core architecture has been revised. As a result, the hardware efficiency and general performance of Cascadeur have improved considerably. With the new data-driven core design, we are able to optimize the software much easier and eliminate bugs faster in the future.

Improved rig creation
One goal of the core redesign was to simplify the rigging process in Cascadeur, by making the rigs adaptable at runtime. We are not there yet, but with the optimized core architecture, we have laid the necessary foundation for moving in this direction. Our long-term endeavor remains to give you instant visual feedback during the entire rigging process. Nevertheless, the new OBT version already offers you improved rig creation tools and other benefits, such as a more user-friendly controller behavior and improved interpolation.

GUI conversion to QML
During the past months, we migrated our GUI from the old QWidgets to the new QML standard. This goal has been achieved, and due to this important transition, we could remove several GUI bugs that came with using QWidgets.

Reverse compatibility issues
Unfortunately, switching to new core caused issues with reverse compatibility. Due to the optimized architecture, your scenes created in the previous versions of Cascadeur will not work in the OBT version. The problem is that old .casc scenes will load only as joints with baked animation and meshes. However, there are simple ways to transfer them to the OBT version. Please refer to this CONVERSION INSTRUCTION for more information.

Changed license model
And last, but not least, we have simplified our licensing model: Any animation created with Cascadeur’s new OBT version can be freely used in commercial games and movies – without asking for Nekki’s permission or paying any license fees.

The future goals of the Cascadeur development team are available on this Trello board roadmap.  More details are available in the documentation as well as in their YouTube based tutorial series.  You can learn more about Cascadeur and see it in action in the video below.

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Get speedy solitaire game Cast for free on Android and iOS!

We here are Pocket Tactics love ourselves a good puzzle game, especially when they’re easy to pick-up-and-play on the move. Games like Threes! or deck-based dungeon games like Card Crawl are always a great way to spend a little time. So that’s why this week we decided to partner with Badbones Productions to give away codes for Cast – a fast-swiping, no nonsense, card-based puzzle game. Cast is free-to-play, but we’ve currently got codes for removing the in-games ads on Android and iOS.

In a similar vein to Threes!, the game centres around combining your cards to earn points, but there’s a little bit of a match-three component as card colour also becomes a consideration. The most important thing to remember, however, is that if you go below zero, you’re done.

Cast builds on a simple formula and escalates it, introducing new cards that damage your total, movement cards that push you in certain directions, and different colours that swap your type. When you round it all off with a lovely vintage aesthetic, it’s a decent little game!

So if fast-swiping card play sounds like your sort of thing, enter below and you might get your hands on one of our Android or iOS codes. If you do, though, please read our terms and conditions first!

iOS

PT – Cast – iOS giveaway

Android

PT – Cast – Android giveaway

If you want to start playing Cast now, you can find it on Google Play and the App Store. You can also check out our list of the best mobile card games should it please you. Good luck! (We’re rooting for you).

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Programming Languages Books By OReilly Bundle

There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, the Humble Book Bundle: Programming Languages by O’Reilly bundle.  This is a collection of ebooks covering a variety of programming languages.  This bundle includes the following tiers:

1$ Tier

  • 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know
  • Think Julia
  • Programming Scala
  • Introducing Go
  • Learning Perl

8$ Tier

  • Learning SQL
  • Programming PHP
  • R Cookbook
  • Head First Kotlin
  • Using Ayncio in Python

15$ Tier

  • Programming Rust
  • C# 8 in a Nutshell
  • Fluent Python
  • Learning Java
  • Programming TypeScript

As with all Humbles, you can decide how your money is allocated, between Humble, charity, the publisher and if you so choose (and thanks a ton if you do!) to support GFS by using this link.  You can learn more about the bundle in the video below.

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Stride 4 Released

Stride, the game engine previously known as Xenko (and Paradox before that), just released version 4.0.  Details of the release from the Stride 4 release notes (no link possible currently).

Thanks to a substantial contribution from Sean Boettger and sponsored by David Jeske, Stride now supports Voxel Cone Tracing GI!

.NET Core

As a first step toward .NET 5, Stride editor and toolchain is now running with .NET Core! Runtime has been working with .NET Core for a few versions already.  This allows to have scripts and custom assets in a project targetting .NET Standard 2.1 or .NET Core.  If you have scripts or custom assets in a .NET Framework project rather than a .NET Standard project, you can still choose between .NET Core and .NET Framework within the launcher. Framework will also be displayed in Game Studio toolbar for easier identification while both coexist.

.NET Framework version can be considered deprecated and will likely be removed in future release (likely 4.1) to allow us to take full advantage of C# 8.0 and soon-to-come C# 9.0.  We also expect dropping .NET Framework and supporting only .NET Core will greatly simplify our installation process since we won’t depend on specific workloads or packages of Visual Studio being installed anymore. This was a recurring issue with our users.  Later down the road, we plan to switch to .NET 5 once it’s in good enough shape.

GPU Instancing

TODO

Graphics API

Different selection mechanism + Vulkan improvements. There’s been a big overhaul on Stride build system to make Graphics API selection work in a more future-proof way.  It was previously relying on custom RuntimeIdentifier being set in the solution. This didn’t work very well because it was completely orthogonal to existing RuntimeIdentifier, and sometimes not having good fallbacks.  From now on, user project will use StrideGraphicsApi in the .csproj project file to specify the graphics API. We hope to expose this in the editor later.

We also took the opportunity to improve state of Vulkan renderer (thanks to a switch to Vortice.Vulkan bindings from Amer Koleci) and automatize graphics unit tests, currently running for D3D11 and Vulkan. It’s still a work in progress so expect more in future releases.

Documentation & Tutorials

The first 10 C# beginner tutorials are recorded and uploaded to the official Stride Youtube channel. These videos are the video equivalent of the existing online documentation for the C# beginner template tutorials and the ‘new project’ template when creating a new project from the Stride launcher. The C# beginner series should be fully recorded by the end of July 2020. After those videos are done, Jorn will put his focus on the C# Intermediate project template.

You can learn more about the Stride 4 release in the video below.

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VainGlory developer’s new game Catalyst Black launches in early access next month

Super Evil Megacorp has announced that its upcoming game, Catalyst Black, is launching in early access from August 12. The shooter first reared its head back in May, and since then we’ve been trying to work out how much influence Catalyst Black takes from its predecessor. But unlike VainGlory, Super Evil Megacorp’s previous game, Catalyst Black is actually an arena shooter, and has a lot more in common with games like Brawl Stars.

But even that comparison doesn’t really do Catalyst Black justice. The game features ten player teams in a variety of drop-in drop-out modes, and is intended to ‘set a new bar for mobile gaming’. We know that literally every mobile game says that, but Catalyst Black’s unique combo of MOBA and arena shooter elements look to set it apart from many of its peers.

Early access to Catalyst Black is iOS only – once again, sorry Android users! If you want to sign up while there’s still space you can head on over to the ironically named ‘Secret Service‘ to secure your spot on the battlefield.

Super Mega Evil Corp also revealed some gameplay with Catalyst Black’s early access trailer:

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As you can see, it’s somewhat hard to determine exactly what Catalyst Black is – it feels likes a MOBA with elements such as neutral monsters, but it does also capture that same free-for-all feel of an arena battler. We’re excited to see more soon!

Catalyst Black’s drop-in drop-out system is also worth making a note of, as it claims next-to-no match-making times, and if that’s true, Black is sure to be very popular. Game controller support is also going to be offered from launch.

You can find out more info about Catalyst Black on its website. If you want some similar recommendations, check out our lists of the best mobile MOBAs and the best mobile multiplayer games!

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Godot Voxel Tools

Voxel Tools is an open source and free C++ module for the Godot game engine that adds Voxel terrain support.  You can create both blocky Minecraft style maps, or smoothed realistic maps.

Details of Voxel Tools features:

  • Realtime editable, 3D based terrain (Unlike a heightmap based terrain, this allows for overhangs, tunnels, and user creation/destruction)
  • Physics based collision and raycast support
  • Infinite terrains made by paging sections in and out
  • Voxel data is streamed from a variety of sources, which includes the ability to write your own generators
  • Minecraft-style blocky voxel terrain, with multiple materials and baked ambient occlusion
  • Smooth terrain using Transvoxel
  • Levels of detail for smooth terrain
  • Voxel storage using 8-bit channels for any general purpose

Since Voxel Tools are implemented as C++ modules (learn more about that topic here), you are required to recompile the Godot engine.  Thankfully however Voxel Tools ships with precompiled versions available for all platforms here.  The sample level used in the below video can be cloned from this repository and the documentation is available here.

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Dota 2 – Aghanim’s Labyrinth Update – July 24, 2020

General
– The next of Aghanim’s Trials will take place on Sorcerer.
– The damage and health of enemies in Sorcerer and Grand Magus Act 1 / 2 now ramp up more slowly, better matching the curve in Apprentice and Magician (Act 3 unchanged).
– Many common and elite shards with low selection or efficacy rates have had their values increased or been removed (i.e. Witch Doctor 5% evasion, many mana cost shards)
– Fixed a bug where Viper and Magnus could get multiple ultimate ability upgrade options in the starting room
– Trap room treasure chests and the items they drop are removed if they are not picked up when the encounter completes
– Improved behavior when units like grumpy ogre seals bounce out of the level
– Boots of Travel: increased bonus move speed 32 -> 90
– Fixed several cases where enemies would not aggro on damage.
– Gary’s armor now increases per ascension level.
– Time before creatures detect invisible players increased from 2.5 to 5 minutes
– Time before providing vision of remaining creatures to players increased from 4 to 5 minutes

Several Encounters have had their difficulty adjusted down
– Splitsville
– The Silent Killer
– Jungle Hijinx
– Blind Bombardiers and their Brethren
– A Strange Morphology
– Al, the Chemist
– The Last of the Corpulent Killers
– Toothy Toothums
– The Malorkian Hammers
– An Unwinnable Standoff
– A Mind-Tingling Offer
– Mister Cleaver
– A Bad Trading Post
– The Soothing Sound of Sirens

Several Encounters have had their difficulty adjusted up
– Hoppy Bats
– The Beastly Babies
– The Scarabs of Scuttletown
– Urn Your Keep

Ursa
– Fury Swipes are no longer affected by creature status resistance.
– Base max Fury Swipes stack count from 5 -> 6
– Added two new Earthshock Legendary Shards: Digging In and Relentless
– Digging In: Earthshock applies and has its damage increased by Fury Swipes.
– Relentless: Enemies that die under Earthshock’s debuff give Ursa 1 stack of Overpower.
– Added two new Fury Swipes Legendary Shards: Rend and Ursa Minor
– Rend: Each stack of Fury Swipes grants Ursa 3% lifesteal/spell lifesteal.
– Ursa Minor: Fury Swipes gains an active component that summons 3 invulnerable, uncontrollable Ursa Cubs. The cubs deal 0 base damage, but randomly attack and apply Fury Swipes to nearby enemies, dealing 20% of the Fury Swipes bonus damage.
– Added a new Enrage Legendary Shard: Rampage
– Rampage: An Earthshock is triggered at Ursa’s position every second while Enrage is active.
– Removed Blunt Their Claws Legendary Shard
– Removed Anger Legendary Shard
– Removed Tough Skin Legendary Shard

Snapfire
– Raisin Firesnaps now create the current level of Mortimer Kisses blob impact at the end position.
– When taking the “Lil’ Shredder Uses Your Attack” talent, the fixed damage from Lil’ Shredder is now applied to those attacks as bonus damage (such that taking bonus Lil’ Shredder damage is no longer wasted)
– Stopping Power now additionally has the effect of Longer Barrels (deals the point blank damage to all targets) in addition to its knockback, and Longer Barrels has been removed.
– Autocannon shotgun interval shortened from 2.0 to 1.0
– Explosive Shells now also applies the Lil’ Shredder debuff in the area instead of just the damage.
– Fixed Raisin Firesnaps not being targetable on enemy channeling targets.

Magnus
– Blast Off has been reworked. It now deals an attack on each Skewered enemy as it is passed through.
– Fixed Reverse Polarity and Reverse Reverse Polarity instantly killing Aghanim’s Spell Shards.

Mars
– Added new Bulwark Legendary Scepter Shard: Retort
– Retort: During Active Bulwark, Mars has a 17% chance to counter attack with God’s Rebuke if attacked from the front

Sniper
– Assassinate: cast point reduced from 2.0 to 1.5
– Added a common / elite shard to reduce Assassinate aim duration
– Hipshot now reduces aim duration by 50% rather than to a fixed duration
– Big Game Hunter: no longer provides bonus agility per Captain kill
– Big Game Hunter: provides +100 Assassinate damage per Captain kill, once per encounter
– Buckshot: fixed it failing to chain Assassinate projectiles to units that were beyond a certain range from the caster

Weaver
– Give Some, Take Some now additionally has the effect of Stay Back (knocking back the target of geminate attack hit), and Stay Back has been removed.
– Changed beetle attack rate reduction upgrade from -0.15 to -15%

Winter Wyvern
– Cool and Collected now also applies your current level of Arctic Burn debuff to the vacuumed targets.
– Arctic Burn: cooldown rescaled from 20/18/16/14 to 19/18/17/16
– Arctic Burn: duration reduced from 8 to 7
– Winter’s Breath: number of additional attacks reduced from 4 to 3, damage to secondary targets reduced from 65% to 50%

Echo Slam Potion
– Initial damage increased 180 -> 300
– Echo damage increased 110 -> 130
– Cost reduced 750 -> 650

Ravage Potion
– Damage increased 600 -> 800

Explosive Barrel
– Now also applies 0.75 second stun

Map Changes:
– Nav fixes for The Long And Winding Path, The Hallway of Pain, The Cliffs of Sacrifice, Corridors of Chaos, No Time To Brood, Badland Bandits, The Bomb Squad, Battle Squawks, The King Returns and The Apex Mage.
– Added trees to the west entrance of Rizzrick the Razorsaw.

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Epic Games 42Million Giveaway

Today Epic Games announced an update to their ongoing Epic MegaGrants program, a series of grants to better the world of game development, media creation and open source technologies that have supported such products as Godot and Blender.  They are approaching the halfway mark with 600 recipients representing a total of $42M USD in grants thus far.  As part of the announcement they also revealed a new partnership with AMD:

Just over one year ago, we launched Epic MegaGrants, a $100 million program to globally accelerate the work of talented teams and individuals working with Unreal Engine, 3D graphics tools, and open source software. Today, we are pleased to reveal that Epic Games has issued $42 million in total financial support to more than 600 remarkable recipients to date as part of the Epic MegaGrants program.

This announcement follows a record initial round of support, which saw Epic MegaGrants extended to more than 200 recipients, surpassing the four-year distributed total of the initiative’s predecessor, Unreal Dev Grants, in only eight months.

In addition to this news, we are happy to share that AMD has introduced their support to Epic MegaGrants with the generous contribution of 200 AMD Ryzen™ 7 3800X desktop processors eligible for giveaway to new and existing recipients. There is no deadline to apply, and hardware is available on a first-come, first-served basis, based on project merit. We welcome creators across games, entertainment, architecture, and many other industries to apply now via online submission for an AMD Ryzen™ 7 3800X desktop processor.

You can learn more about the status of the MegaGrants program on the Unreal Engine blog or by watching the video below.

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Dead by Daylight Mobile adds new skins and a training mode

The new update to Dead by Daylight Mobile sees the introduction of a new game mode: training. While training game modes are quite popular in games across a multitude of genres, few of them have as many benefits as the Dead by Daylight Mobile training mode does.

Unsurprisingly, the training mode is a solo experience where you can refine your skills against bots. The gameplay is the same as you would see outside of training, and you get to keep 50% of Bloodpoints and 10% of Character experience if you appease or outwit The Entity. The game mode offers advantages for new and veteran players, as the bot’s difficulty scales up depending on your skill level.

If you have yet to play Dead by Daylight Mobile, then you are missing out on a brilliant and yet terrifying survival experience – which you can read about in our Dead by Daylight Mobile review. The game is a four-on-one multiplayer horror where one killer hunts and stops the other four players from escaping. Dead by Daylight Mobile isn’t just entertaining, it is also exhilarating as the deranged killer can sneak up on you at any moment.

Dead by Daylight Mobile training mode trailer: What to expect from the new mode

If you are yet to see any of the gameplay for the new mode, this trailer will give you a better understanding of why training was added and how to use it.

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Dead by Daylight Mobile update: Cook Out outfits

As part of the Dead by Daylight Mobile update, four new skins have been added for players to collect. The outfits are only available inside Gold Tier Super Mystery Boxes and are available from now until August 23.

The new outfits include two killers and two survivors:

  • The Huntress: Wild Feast (Killer)
  • The Clown: Chef Carnage (Killer)
  • Jane Romero: Guest Superstar (Survivor)
  • Ace Visconti: Maitre Ace (Survivor)

If you are playing Dead by Daylight Mobile and would like to see the best survivors and killers, then you should read our Dead by Daylight character tier list.