Unity just released version 2019.3 containing several long awaited packages that are now ready for prime time.  The two programmable pipelines (HDRP and URP) are both considered verified at this point, as are a number of other key packages.

Highlights from the 2019.3 release include;

• High Definition Render Pipeline now verified
• Universal Render Pipeline now verified
• Visual Effect Graph now verified
• Update UI including new font, icons and better highDPI performance
• Improved Package Manager including ability to install from git
• New Asset Database system
• New Input system
• Incremental Garbage Collector now no longer experimental
• DOTS GameObject converter in preview
• Unity Live Link
• Havok Physics for DOTS now available
• Configurable Enter Play Mode optimizations

You can learn more about the features in this release on the Unity blog or by watching the video below.

GameDev News Unity

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Pascal’s Wager may sound like a Gallic gambling game, but it is in fact an argument formulated by the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal. The crux of the argument suggests that we should hedge our bets by believing in God and abiding by his rules. Sure, we may have to spend our Sunday mornings sitting on uncomfortable pews in draughty churches. We may have to sacrifice some of life’s little luxuries and abstain from certain unwholesome practices. However, in return, there is the prospect of a pair of wings, a harp and eternal happiness. Then again you could just throw caution to the wind; live the life of a scoundrel and take the chance that you will not have to spend the afterlife stoking the fires of Hell.

You may well ask what has all this to do with mobile games? Well, enter Pascal’s Wager and lead character, Terrence who has been banished from the church for transgressions and is struggling with his theological doubt. Who is Terrence? Imagine tearing The Witcher’s Geralt of Rivia away from yet another round of Gwent and dumping him into an even bleaker and more hostile world, heavily influenced by Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Indeed, the elevator pitch for Pascal’s Wager must have been to replicate Dark Souls’ aesthetics and gameplay on mobile devices. Apple was suitably impressed, being quick to jump on the bandwagon and showcase the game on its latest devices.

Talking of horse-drawn conveyances, Pascal’s Wager begins with a cutscene carriage ride. It may not cause the PS4 underneath your telly any sleepless nights, being a bit blurry and choppy (more VHS than UHD). However, for a platform that not that long ago saw controlling an ever-growing snake as the apex of mobile entertainment, it is mightily impressive. Obviously, you are not going to get the lavish detail and extra polish that a triple-A console release allows. Yet, for sheer bloody-minded ambition, the developer, TipsWorks, deserves admiration.

As already touched upon, our hero resembles someone cosplaying Geralt at a comic convention. Indeed, with a name like Terrence you would assume that he would be more at home sifting through stalls of limited edition Funko Pops rather than hacking and slashing his way through monster-ridden landscapes. It is a dark domain, both metaphorically and literally. The sun has long since crashed into the sea, causing a dark fog to enshroud the world. Only the mysterious colossi, who emit sparks of light can keep the fog at bay. But now even these glorified standard lamps are beginning to fail, and it is your job to find out why.

The first few combat encounters serve to lure you into a false sense of security. Terrence uses a combination of fast slashes and powerful slices to dispatch a few blissfully unaware snail guys without so much as breaking into a sweat. However, any game inspired by the gothic action role-playing of Dark Souls, which is admired and loathed in equal measure for its unforgiving difficulty, needs to be tough. Thus, any hopes of a walk in the park are laid to rest as soon as you encounter the first boss. This is also the point at which you will also realise that the touch controls will simply not do. It is not enough to just master the art of stabbing and lunging; you will also need to perfect the parry and dodge, and all of this is just too much for touch controls to handle. Now is the time to dust down a trusty console controller and take advantage of Apple’s new pairing feature. Even with a controller, you are still likely to die numerous times, but you will at least stand a chance of working out each boss’s weaknesses. Each move has to be considered, as stamina is limited and mindlessly pummelling away will only get you killed. The game’s influences are obvious and with the right controller, combat works well. Taking down a boss that has been making mincemeat of you feels immensely rewarding.

Pascal’s Wager does try and introduce a few ideas of its own. Exploring such a harrowing world has an impact on Terrence’s reason. If he doesn’t restore his sanity with potions then his mental state can lapse into the abnormal or, worse still, lunatic. A neat touch is the way that Terrence perceives how the world changes as his sanity slips away. The skies redden, enemies become tougher to defeat and our hero’s abilities weaken. On the plus side, defeating enemies whilst non compos mentis will earn extra rewards.

So far, I have only talked about Terrence, but other adventurers are encountered along the way. There are a total of four characters, each with their own combat styles and related skill trees. You can take two characters into battle and as soon as one is defeated, the other will enter the fray. This adds a welcome extra layer of strategy, as you try and work out which characters are best deployed against a particular boss.

In addition to the unsuitable touch controls the game does have a few other problems. The text translation can sometimes feel awkward and the camera is a bit twitchy. The voice acting is amdram, understandable when taking into account the game’s much lower budget. On the positive side, the music and sound is excellent, creating a wonderfully creepy and bleak atmosphere.

Pascal’s Wager replaces free-range roaming with small, self-contained areas. This is a blessing as navigating your way around the levels can become frustrating. The game requires quite a bit of backtracking and with no detailed map or compass, and few landmarks or signposts, travel can become confusing. The latest version includes a jar of ten jellyfish, which can be used to leave waypoints. Even so, a map of your immediate surroundings would really cut down on the frustration, especially since visiting shrines to restore health and save progress also causes defeated enemies to respawn.

There is a lot to admire in Pascal’s Wager, it offers 20 hours of challenging gameplay without resorting to in-app purchases. It shows ambition and scope and although it could be accused of borrowing too much from Dark Souls, it has at least captured the tone and core gameplay of its muse. I just wonder if there is really a market for this type of game on mobile devices. The game pretty much demands that you play with a controller, not the ideal set-up for playing on the bus. Even if you are going to play at home, the chances are that you already have a console where such games feel much more at home.

An Android version is due Q2 2020.

Paralympics in Brazil

Project Tokyo was born out of a challenge, in early 2016, from senior leaders at Microsoft to create AI systems that would go beyond completing tasks such as fetching sports scores and weather forecasts or identifying objects. Morrison said creating tools for people who are blind and with low vision was a natural fit for the project, because people with disabilities are often early adopters of new technology.

“It is not about saying, ‘Let’s build something for blind people,’” Morrison said. “We are working with blind people to help us imagine the future, and that future is about new experiences with AI.”

Morrison and her colleague Ed Cutrell, a senior principal researcher at Microsoft’s research lab in Redmond, Washington, were tapped to lead the project. Both have expertise in designing technologies with people who are blind or with low vision and decided to begin by trying to understand how an agent technology could augment, or extend, the capabilities of these users.

To start, they followed a group of athletes and spectators with varying levels of vision on a trip from the United Kingdom to the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, observing how they interacted with other people as they navigated airports, attended sporting venues and went sightseeing, among other activities. A key learning, noted Cutrell, was how an enriched understanding of social context could help people who are blind or with low vision make sense of their environment.

“We, as humans, have this very, very nuanced and elaborate sense of social understanding of how to interact with people – getting a sense of who is in the room, what are they doing, what is their relationship to me, how do I understand if they are relevant for me or not,” he said. “And for blind people a lot of the cues that we take for granted just go away.”

This understanding spurred a series of workshops with the blind and low vision community that were focused on potential technologies that could provide such an experience. Peter Bosher, an audio engineer in his mid-50s who has been blind most of his life and worked with the Project Tokyo team, said the concept of a technology that provided information about the people around him resonated immediately.

“Whenever I am in a situation with more than two or three people, especially if I don’t know some of them, it becomes exponentially more difficult to deal with because people use more and more eye contact and body language to signal that they want to talk to such-and-such a person, that they want to speak now,” he said. “It is really very difficult as a blind person.”

A modified HoloLens

Once the Project Tokyo researchers understood the type of AI experience they wanted to create, they set out to build the enabling technology. They started with the original Microsoft HoloLens, a mixed reality headset that projects holograms into the real world that users can manipulate.

“HoloLens gives us a ton of what we need to build a real time AI agent that can communicate the social environment,” said Grayson during a demonstration of the technology at Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge.

For example, the device has an array of grayscale cameras that provide a near 180-degree view of the environment and a high-resolution color camera for high-accuracy facial recognition. In addition, the speakers above the user’s ears allow for spatialized audio – the creation of sounds that seem to be coming from specific locations around the user.

Machine learning experts on the Project Tokyo team then developed computer vision algorithms that provide varying levels of information about who is where in the user’s environment. The models run on graphical processing units, known as GPUs, that are housed in the black chest that Grayson carted off to Regan’s house for the user testing with Theo.

One model, for example, detects the pose of people in the environment, which provides a sense of where and how far away people are from the user. Another analyzes the stream of photos from the high-resolution camera to recognize people and determine if they have opted to make their names known to the system. All this information is relayed to the user through audio cues.

For example, if the device detects a person one meter away on the user’s left side, the system will play a click that sounds like it is coming from one meter away on the left. If the system recognizes the person’s face, it will play a bump sound, and if that person is also known to the system, it will announce their name.

When the user only hears a click but wants to know who the person is, a second layer of sound that resembles an elastic band stretching guides the user’s gaze toward the person’s face. When the lens’ central camera connects with the person’s nose, the user hears a high-pitched click and, if the person is known to the system, their name.

“I particularly like the thing that gives you the angle of gaze because I’m never really sure what is the sensible angle for your head to be at,” said Bosher, who worked with the Project Tokyo team on the audio experience early in the design process and returned to the Cambridge lab to discuss his experience and check out the latest iteration. “That would be a great tool for learning body language.”

Prototyping with adults

As the Project Tokyo team has developed and evolved the technology, the researchers routinely invite adults who are blind or with low vision to test the system and provide feedback. To facilitate more direct social interaction, for example, the team removed the lenses from the front of the HoloLens.

Several users expressed a desire to unobtrusively get the information collected by the system without constantly turning their heads, which felt socially awkward. The feedback prompted the Project Tokyo team to work on features that help users quickly learn who is around them by, for example, asking for an overview and getting a spatial readout of all the names of people who have given permission to be recognized by the system.

Another experimental feature alerts the user with a spatialized chime when someone is looking at them, because people with typical vision often establish eye contact to initiate a conversation. Unlike the bump, however, the chime is not followed by a name.

“We already use the name when you look at somebody,” Grayson explained to Emily, a tester in her 20s who has low vision and visited the Cambridge lab to learn about the most recent features. “But also, by not giving the name, it might draw your attention to turn to somebody who is trying to get your attention. And by turning to them, you find out their name.”

“I totally agree with that. That is how sighted people react. They capture someone out of the corner of their eye, or you get that sense, and go, ‘Cecily,’” Emily said.

The modified HoloLens the researchers showed to Emily also included an LED strip affixed above the band of cameras. A white light tracks the person closest to the user and turns green when the person has been identified to the user. The feature lets communication partners or bystanders know they’ve been seen, making it more natural to initiate a conversation.

The LED strip also provides people an opportunity to move out of the device’s field of view and not be seen, if they so choose. “When you know you are about to be seen, you can also decide not to be seen,” noted Morrison. “If you know when you are being seen, you know when you are not being seen.”

New data from app store intelligence site Sensor Tower has revealed that Nintendo’s library of smartphone titles have now generated more than $1 billion in player spending.

The figure combines totals from six games – Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Dragalia Lost, Mario Kart Tour, Super Mario Run, and Dr. Mario World – which incidentally have amassed a mighty 452 million downloads between them worldwide.

The majority of this income – $656 million, or 61% of the grand total – is from Fire Emblem Heroes alone, comfortably making it the highest-grossing of Nintendo’s mobile efforts so far. You can see how the others stack up in the chart below:

According to Sensor Tower, 54% of the $1 billion total was generated in Nintendo’s home country of Japan (so that’s $581 million); the US has the second-highest player-spending total with 29% ($316 million). In fact, only Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Run have bucked this trend by generating more money in the US than Japan; all other games have performed better in the latter.

So, the next time someone asks you why Nintendo makes games on smartphones these days, you know where to point them. Impressive stuff.

We are excited to announce a new release of Red Hat Dependency Analytics, a solution that enables developers to create better applications by evaluating and adding high-quality open source components, directly from their IDE.

Red Hat Dependency Analytics helps your development team avoid security and licensing issues when building your applications. It plugs into the developer’s IDE, automatically analyzes your software composition, and provides recommendations to address security holes and licensing problems that your team may be missing.

Without further ado, let’s jump into the new capabilities offered in this release. This release includes a new version of the IDE plugin and the server-side analysis service hosted by Red Hat.

Support for Python applications

Along with Java (maven) and JavaScript (npm), Dependency Analytics now offers its full set of capabilities for Python (PyPI) applications. From your IDE, you can perform the vulnerability and license analysis of the “requirements.txt” file of your Python application, incorporate the recommended fixes, and generate the stack analysis report for more details.

Software composition analysis based on current vulnerability data

An estimated 15,000 open source packages get updated every day. On average, three new vulnerabilities get posted every day across JavaScript (npm) and Python (PyPi) packages. With this new release, the server-side analysis service hosted by Red Hat automatically processes the daily updates to open source packages that it is tracking. The hosted service also automatically ingests new vulnerability data posted to National Vulnerability Database (NVD) for JavaScript and Python packages. This allows the IDE plugin and API calls to provide source code analysis based on current vulnerability and release data.

Analyze transitive dependencies

In addition to the direct dependencies included in your application, Dependency Analytics now leverages the package managers to discover and add the dependencies of those dependencies, called “transitive” dependencies, to the dependency graph of your application. Analysis of your application is performed across the whole graph model and recommendations for fixes are provided across the entire set of dependencies.

Recommendations about complementary open source libraries

With this release, Dependency Analytics looks to recommend high-quality open source libraries that are complementary to the dependencies included in your application. The machine learning technology of the hosted service collects and analyzes various statistics on GitHub to curate a list of high-quality open source libraries that can be added to the current set of dependencies to augment your application. You can provide your feedback about the add-on libraries by clicking on the “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” icons shown for each recommendation. Your feedback is automatically processed to improve the quality of the recommendations.

IDE plugin support

The Dependency Analytics IDE plugin is now available for VS Code, Eclipse Che, and any JetBrains IDE, including IntelliJ and PyCharm.

We will continuously release new updates to our Dependency Analytics solution so you can minimize the delays in delivery of your applications due to last-minute security and licensing related issues.

Stay tuned for further updates; we look forward to your feedback about Dependency Analytics.

The post What’s new in Red Hat Dependency Analytics appeared first on Red Hat Developer.

Ah nostalgia – it’s a tricksy thing. How many times have we gone back to revisit a treasured classic only to find that modern games have spoiled us, if only a bit? For all the brilliant aspects of retro games, the mod cons and performance we’re used to now are pretty fantastic, too, and sometimes going back can be tough. Was this slowdown always here? I don’t remember it looking this fuzzy. You mean I have to start again at the beginning?!

Fortunately, alongside all the remasters, repackages and retro compilations which sand off the rough edges of gaming classics and polish them up for the 21st century, there’s a huge number of modern releases paying tribute to retro games. Taking a core mechanic or two from the past, these homages take advantage of decades’ worth of tech advancements and knowledge to recreate classic gameplay with a modern twist.

Below you’ll find some of our favourite nostalgia trips available on Switch. They’re not in any particular order and most of the games on this list have multiple muses, so the noted inspirations may be the only tip of the iceberg.

Of course, Switch’s list of retro-inspired pixel-graphic games is as long as your arm, and there are plenty more we could mention than you’ll find below, but the titles here are our absolute favourites – games which give us the feels we remember experiencing when we first played the 8- and 16-bit classics they were inspired by.

So, let’s take a look at our very favourite modern games with an undeniably retro vibe…

Publisher: Yacht Club Games / Developer: Yacht Club Games

Release Date: 3rd Mar 2017 (USA) / 3rd Mar 2017 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, DuckTales, Mega Man, Castlevania, the list goes on…

With a list of influences as long as your arm (which developer Yacht Club itself acknowledges in comic fashion), Shovel Knight was excellent in vanilla form, but Treasure Trove includes absolutely everything that developer Yacht Club has created for the game since its Kickstarter success back in 2013. That includes the extra campaigns Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment and King of Cards, plus multiplayer brawler Showdown which further increases the attractiveness of an already incredibly compelling package. These games are fantastic odes to the glory days of 8-bit(+) platforming, and having the complete Shovel Knight experience in one spot makes this a must-have for Switch owners – especially those that have never dug into this game and its add-ons. Strike the earth!

Please note that some links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

Publisher: Hi-Bit Studios / Developer: Hi-Bit Studios

Release Date: 23rd Jan 2020 (USA) / 23rd Jan 2020 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: Streets of Rage, R-Type, Out Run, Shinobi, Kill Screen, the ’80s

A passionate love letter to a bygone age, 198X celebrates 2D, arcade-based gaming brilliantly and wraps it up in some of the best hand-drawn art we’ve seen in years. The soundtrack is also exceptional, and, in terms of pure presentation, it’s really hard to fault what’s on offer here. 198X’s biggest weakness is its brevity; you can finish it in around an hour, but the experience will remain with you for long after the credits have rolled. While we’re sure many people will consider the game’s shortness a cardinal sin, we’d still recommend you give it a try if you’re a fan of ’80s and ’90s gaming, appreciate lush 2D artwork and desire an experience which firmly lodges itself in your consciousness – even if it doesn’t last all that long.

Publisher: Inti Creates / Developer: Inti Creates

Release Date: 24th May 2018 (USA) / 24th May 2018 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: the 8-bit Castlevania entries

Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon is undoubtedly aimed at a very specific audience, but if that audience is you then you’re in luck. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night nuts may want the full-fat Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (and the Switch version appears to be slowly but surely patching its way closer to the experience players on other platforms enjoy), but if the 8-bit Castlevanias get you more excited than the more expansive latter style, this is as perfect a callback as you could wish for.

Publisher: Aquiris / Developer: Aquiris

Release Date: 28th Nov 2018 (USA) / 28th Nov 2018 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: Top Gear, Out Run

Out Run might be the most obvious comparison here, but Horizon Chase Turbo actually feels much more like a modern interpretation of the Top Gear games from the SNES days. It’s silky-smooth old-school arcade racing with blue skies, colourful cars and retro-polygonal visuals that leave you in no doubt as to how you should be driving (fast, and with the top down).

Publisher: Capcom / Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2nd Oct 2018 (USA) / 2nd Oct 2018 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: … really?!

Mega Man 11 is an excellent resurgence for the Blue Bomber, imbuing the tried-and-true classic gameplay with modern touches and new ideas that expand on existing concepts in interesting ways. The underlying action platforming gameplay is just as tight and challenging as you remember, and when combined with the new visuals and extra options for replayability, you’ve got a game that’s every bit as good as those that came before, while surpassing them in some ways. Mega Man 11 is a modern classic, a fitting refresh for a beloved series, and we’d highly recommend you add this one to your Switch library whether you’re a newcomer or you’ve been playing since the NES days.

Publisher: Devolver Digital / Developer: Sabotage

Release Date: 30th Aug 2018 (USA) / 30th Aug 2018 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: Ninja Gaiden

2D side-scrolling action games like The Messenger may be a dime a dozen these days, but you’d be missing out on something special by passing this one up. Featuring a surprisingly long campaign, an incredible soundtrack and tight, challenging level designs, we’d be remiss not to mention its incredible chiptune soundtrack as well. The Messenger stands as a shining example of great game design in the old-school mould which deftly skips from 8- to 16-bits without missing a beat, and the game remains an absolute treat in Switch’s fully-stocked larder of sweetmeats.

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: Christian Whitehead

Release Date: 17th Jul 2018 (USA) / 17th Jul 2018 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: … you’re not even trying, are you?

Sonic Mania was a true return to form for SEGA’s mascot, in his 2D ‘Classic’ guise at least, and celebrates the glory days of the original Mega Drive / Genesis games while also enhancing their qualities and taking on new ideas. From new areas, imaginative second acts and some delightful boss encounters, the development team poured a lot of passion and talent into the project. The new characters and modes that came in the Plus update added some neat tweaks which iron out some of the kinks present in the original release, and after the blue hedgehog’s unarguably patchy history in the intervening decades, it was an absolute pleasure to see him return in one of the best 2D platformers of recent memory.

Publisher: Inti Creates / Developer: Inti Creates

Release Date: 20th Mar 2019 (USA) / 20th Mar 2019 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: Sunsoft’s original Blaster Master

Inti Creates knocked it out of the park with Blaster Master Zero 2, improving on the original ‘reboot’ in nearly every conceivable way while also setting a clear path forward for what could hopefully become a flagship series for the company. Tight platforming action, memorable boss battles, plenty of extra side content, and some gorgeous pixel art make this one of the easiest recommendations on the eShop; we’d strongly encourage you to pick this one up. Whether you’re a long-time fan of the series or are just getting into it for the first time, Blaster Master Zero 2 is a stellar experience from stem to stern, and further cements Inti Creates’ legacy as one of the best developers in the retro gaming business.

Publisher: ConcernedApe / Developer: ConcernedApe

Release Date: 5th Oct 2017 (USA) / 5th Oct 2017 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: Harvest Moon

Stardew Valley offers its players a chance to live a second life – one where you can forget the troubles of the real world and get excited over finding a particularly rare carrot. It is a truly magical experience; games can often be enjoyable but they don’t all manage to be as captivating as this. It’s the sort of game that ideally requires a significant amount of time to be invested; the enjoyment doesn’t necessarily come from the day-to-day actions you perform, but rather from the general growth of pride, satisfaction, and sense of security as the days go by in this colourful, 16-bit-styled farm sim. Fans of games such as Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing will be right at home here.

Publisher: Thomas Happ Games LLC / Developer: Thomas Happ Games LLC

Release Date: 5th Oct 2017 (USA) / 5th Oct 2017 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: the Metroid series

Axiom Verge channels the gameplay of Metroid into an old-school action adventure which adds a dusting of twists and surprises to keep things feeling fresh. As well as delivering the patented exploration you’d expect from a title with Metroid in its DNA, there’s also an affecting narrative to follow as you’re filling out the world map and blasting nasties to kingdom come. While Super Metroid still plays beautifully these days, the original NES game doesn’t hold up as well as it might, and playing the sublime Axiom Verge only highlights how far we’ve come since then.

Publisher: StudioMDHR / Developer: StudioMDHR

Release Date: 18th Apr 2019 (USA) / 18th Apr 2019 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: 1930s Fleischer or Disney cell animation, Contra, Gunstar Heroes, Mega Man

Cuphead fires nostalgia out of every orifice. Whether you’re a sucker for its early 20th century style of animation or can’t get enough of run-and-gun boss battlers, StudioMDHR’s classic – which was an Xbox One console exclusive until it made a surprising jump to Switch – is the same visually jaw-dropping, aurally delightful, knuckle-whiteningly difficult game it was on Microsoft’s console and the Switch’s library is all the better for its presence. Its focus on intense boss battles won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into we can’t recommend it enough. Just look at it!

Publisher: Devolver Digital / Developer: Dennaton Games

Release Date: 19th Aug 2019 (USA) / 19th Aug 2019 (UK/EU)

Inspired by: the original top-down Grand Theft Auto games, Drive, the ’80s

Both games in this collection offer some of the most addictive and rewarding (not to mention ridiculously violent) experiences you can play anywhere. The Switch versions don’t bring anything particularly new to the table, but if you’re looking to experience these games for the first time (or again) on a portable platform, this is the place to do it. The sequel is the lesser of the two games here but the pixel art visuals and synthwave soundtrack of both have aged incredibly well since 2012 – probably because nostalgia for this retro aesthetic still burns bright in 2020.

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