The open source MIT licensed game engine Xenko just released version 3.1. We have featured Xenko several times in the past including this somewhat outdated tutorial series. The 3.1 release is somewhat difficult to nail down what is new, as the release blog post primarily focuses on the new NuGet features:
Xenko was always a big proponent of NuGet: since first version, Xenko was distributed as a NuGet package.
However, due to limitations (hello packages.config and project.json!), we were leveraging NuGet more as a distribution medium than proper NuGet packages: Xenko 3.0 is still a monolithic single package and it would not work out of the box when referenced from Visual Studio without using Xenko Launcher and Game Studio.
Xenko 3.0 paved the way by making Xenko compatible with the new project system (game projects were referencing Xenko using a PackageReference).
Today, Xenko 3.1 brings Xenko as a set of smaller NuGet package, each containing one assembly, with proper dependencies:
As a result, it is now possible to create a game project that references only the packages you want.
You can learn more about the release, as well as a complete unfiltered change long here. One other thing to be aware of before upgrading to Xenko 3.1 is the requirement to use Visual Studio 2019! You can learn more about Xenko and this release in the video below.
Ex-Apple executives take aim at datacenter processor market
By Malcolm Owen Saturday, November 16, 2019, 11:25 am PT (02:25 pm ET)
A trio of former Apple executives who worked on the iPhone maker’s mobile chips have launched their own startup to design processors destined for use in data centers, with the company Nuvia recently raising $53 million in funding.
From left to right: John Bruno, Gerard Williams III, and Manu Gulati
The three founders of Nuvia are Gerard Williams III, Manu Gulati, and John Bruno, who all worked for Apple for multiple years. Williams left Apple earlier this year after spending nine years at the company, leaving his position as senior director of platform architecture, and having helped architect Apple’s CPU and Systems-on-Chip development for Apple’s self-designed A-series processors.
According to Williams’ LinkedIn, he was the “Chief Architect for all Apple CPU and SOC development,” including leading work on the Cyclone, Typhoon, Twister, Hurricane, Monsoon, and Vortex architectures.
Gulati worked on mobile SoC development for eight years at Apple, before being hired away by Google in 2017. Bruno worked on Apple’s platform architecture group for five years after spending time at AMD, before making a similar exit to Google.
Reutersreports the trio are using their backgrounds in mobile chip development and the creation of power-efficient but powerful processors for the iPhone and other Apple products in Nuvia, but for data center usage. By targeting a processor market that typically uses power-hungry chips, the team are hoping their self-designed chip codenamed “Phoenix” will offer performance gains and lower energy usage, as well as more security than current server processors.
“We want to bring all these aspects that we have developed over time through our careers to this new market and really exploit them in this market, because it’s an area ripe for innovation and advancement,” Williams advised.
The effort puts them against industry giants like AMD and Intel who already make up the majority of server processors used today. A similar concept is also being made like other chip producers, such as Qualcomm and Marvell, who are keen to pivot their knowledge of mobile chip design towards server usage.
So far, the project has caught the attention of major server vendor Dell, who among with a number of other investors has put $53 million in funding into the startup. Dell is a major customer of Intel, so investing in potential alternatives offering power savings could be worth investigating, but the company advised it could not comment on whether Dell would use Nuvia’s chips in its servers.
Doug Bowser Says More Female Consumers Are Buying The Switch Lite
It’s no secret that Nintendo wants to expand its audience with its smaller and more affordable Switch Lite system.
The company president Shuntaro Furukawa recently revealed registrations for the new model had a higher percentage of female users and also said there was evidence of a “good number of consumers” purchasing the Lite as their second device.
The Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has noticed this trend as well. Here’s what he had to say during an interview with Fortune:
We’re seeing a higher percent of female consumers buying Nintendo Switch Lite than buy the flagship. We see Lite as a great opportunity for us to expand with that audience.
While he didn’t explain why this might be happening, he did reiterate the comments Furukawa made during Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, by stating how the Lite was “absolutely” aiming to expand the Switch audience:
Our intent with Nintendo Switch Lite is absolutely to reach a more expanded audience and to do so by offering a more dedicated gaming device for those that were really looking for that experience.
The first Switch Lite sales figures arrived at the end of October, revealing the device (as of 30th September) had shifted 1.95 million units. At that point, the new system had only been on the market for ten days. To date, Switch sales combined have surpassed 36.87 million units.
Did you or anyone you know pick up a Switch Lite on release? Leave a comment below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-17-2019, 01:36 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Pokemon Sword And Shield: What Are Watts?
Pokemon Sword and Shield are out now on Nintendo Switch, marking the start of the series' eighth generation. While the games very much follow in the footsteps of previous Pokemon titles, they also shake the formula up in some notable ways, introducing a slew of new features and items to the mix.
Among the new additions are Watts. As you explore the Wild Area, you'll notice Max Raid dens scattered about the environment, and interacting with these will net you a number of Watts. So what exactly are Watts, and what are they used for?
What Are Watts?
Essentially, Watts are a secondary form of in-game currency in Sword and Shield. As previously mentioned, you'll primarily earn them from Max Raid dens. If a den is glowing but isn't currently hosting a Max Raid Battle, you'll receive 50 Watts simply by interacting with it (this number will increase to 200 after you've cleared the main storyline). If a Max Raid Battle is occuring at the den, then you'll receive 300 Watts (or 2,000 post-game) before participating in the battle. Watts can also be earned by battling or catching wild Pokemon that are glowing.
As you progress through the game, you can exchange Watts for items and services from certain NPCs around the Wild Area. For example, the Digging Duo near the Pokemon nursery in Bridge Field will excavate items for you for 500 Watts, and the items they can potentially dig up include evolutionary stones and other rare finds. You can also use Watts to upgrade your bike, extending how long you can dash with it, or purchase Technical Records--single-use teachable moves--from different Watt Traders around the Wild Area. These characters are dressed in League clothes, so they'll be easy to spot while you're out in the field.
Below, we've rounded up a list of the different characters in Sword and Shield who accept Watts and the services they provide, so you can easily keep track of where they're located and what they sell. For more on the games, be sure to read our Pokemon Sword and Shield review.
Where To Spend Watts
NPC
Location
Service
Fisherwoman
Roaming around lakes
Sell various Pearls for 100 W
Watt Trader
Meetup Spot
Sells Poke Balls, TRs, and Wishing Pieces
Watt Trader
Dappled Grove
Sells Poke Balls, TRs, and Wishing Pieces
Watt Trader
East Lake Axewell
Sells Poke Balls, TRs, and Wishing Pieces
Digging Duo
Bridge Field
Dig up evolutionary stones, fossilized items, and more for 500 W
If you’re on Windows using Visual Studio, for the best experience we recommend installing the latest preview of Visual Studio 2019 16.4. Installing Visual Studio 2019 16.4 will also install .NET Core 3.1 Preview 3, so you don’t need to separately install it. For Blazor development with .NET Core 3.1, Visual Studio 2019 16.4 is required.
Alongside this .NET Core 3.1 Preview 3 release, we’ve also released a Blazor WebAssembly update. To install the latest Blazor WebAssembly template also run the following command:
dotnet new -i Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Templates::3.1.0-preview3.19555.2
Upgrade an existing project
To upgrade an existing ASP.NET Core 3.1 Preview 2 project to 3.1 Preview 3:
Update all Microsoft.AspNetCore.* package references to 3.1.0-preview3.19555.2
Goodsmile’s New Splatoon Figmas Are Fresher Than Your Bed Linen On Laundry Day
Japanese toymaker figma has announced some new Splatoon figures for 2020, and they’re looking insanely good.
A new ‘DX’ double pack – which contains two Inkling Boys, Judd and Li’l Judd and a whole bunch of accessories – is available for pre-order now. This pack comes with Splattershot guns, a Splatterscope, Squidfin Hook Cans, a Painter’s Mask, Retro Specs, ink splat effects, flags for Judd and Li’l Judd and stands to pose the figures on. Phew! The only catch is that they’re not out until June next year.
If that’s a little too rich for your blood, then you can pick up the Inkling Boy or Inkling Girl on their own for a lower price. The latter is available now, while the former launches alongside the double pack in June 2020.
The double pack will cost ¥13,800, while the single Inkling Boy is ¥6,800. An existing DX double-pack with two Inkling Girls is also available now. We’re drowning in Splatoon figmas, and we love it.
If you place your order using the links below and enter the discount code NLIFE at checkout, you’ll get 5% off the total.
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 which helps support the site. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Eek, Pokémon Sword And Shield Could Be Corrupting Micro SD Card Data
Update: It appears that more people are having this issue with the digital version of the game, and a Switch hacker has claimed to identify the cause, relating to those using exFAT as the filesystem on their SD card (via NintendoSoup). At this point, we imagine this is still isolated to a small number of people and therefore may be SD card dependent. We’ve reached out to Nintendo UK for comment on the matter.
However, as we know from experience, not all software launches are smooth ones. One Japanese player has reported that Pokémon Sword And Shield caused data on their Micro SD cards to become corrupt, requiring them to re-download digital games.
You can watch the moment it happens in the following video:
Some have speculated that the autosave is the problem, but this appears to have been refuted by others who have been affected. How widespread this issue actually is remains to be seen, but we’re seeing additional reports on Twitter, too – and not just with the Japanese edition of the game:
It’s worth noting that this issue does not impact save data, which is stored in the Switch’s internal memory and not on the Micro SD card. Still, it’s quite an annoying situation, and one we hope Game Freak and Nintendo will address sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, let us know if you’ve been impacted by this problem by posting a comment below.
Pokemon Sword & Shield: How To Evolve Milcery Into Alcremie
Every Pokemon game has those few Pokemon you just can't figure out how to evolve. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, there's one Pokemon in particular that doesn't evolve through any existing means: Milcery, which evolves into the adorable Alcremie. Trading, evolutionary stones, and other evolution-related items don't work on Milcery. Instead, it requires one of the strangest methods to evolve of any Pokemon to date.
First, you have to catch yourself a Milcery. They can be found on Route 4 outside Turffield, and you can only encounter them through the exclamation points that pop up as you walk through the tall grass--you won't see one roaming the overworld. Once you have one, your next stop is one of the three Battle Cafes found throughout Galar. The Motostoke cafe is the easiest to beat, followed by the one in Hammerlocke and finally the one in Wyndon, but any of them will work.
One of the many rewards you can get from winning the daily battle at a cafe is a Sweet of some sort. So far, we've found a Berry Sweet, Strawberry Sweet, Love Sweet, and Flower Sweet--we'll update this article if we find more. Each of these Sweets will have a description indicating that Milcery loves holding them, so give one to your Milcery and get ready for the weird part.
Simply giving a Sweet to a Milcery isn't enough to evolve it. Rather, you have to spin the left analog stick in circles until your character does a fancy twirl followed by a pose--then Milcery will evolve into Alcremie. It seems the thinking here is that you have to stir heavy cream a bunch in order to make whipped cream... but regardless, you'll get a form of Alcremie corresponding to the kind of Sweet you had it hold. As far as we can tell, it's purely aesthetic, but the Pokedex will track and display each different form for you.
Alcremie has the potential to be a great support Pokemon in doubles matches, so it's definitely worth the hassle; its signature move, Decorate, increases the Attack and Special Attack of another Pokemon on the field, which can be a boon in a number of situations. For more on Gen 8, be sure to read our Pokemon Sword and Shield review. For other weird evolutions, check out our guides on evolving Applin, Galarian Linoone, and Sinistea.
Tiled, the open source map editor, the open source map editor just released version 1.3, the first major release in almost a year. Details of the 1.3 release from the release notes:
Scripted Extensions
The biggest change in this release is the introduction of the scripting API, which allows you to extend the functionality of Tiled with JavaScript. Scripts can implement custom actions, custom editing tools and add support for additional map or tileset formats.
Almost everything that can be modified through the UI can be changed through a script as well. Scripts can also connect to certain events to automate actions, for example on loading or saving an asset. Any changes made by scripts automatically create appropriate undo commands, which can be grouped together using the Asset.macro function.
Scripts can be grouped in folders to make it easier to share them with others, for example by cloning a git repository into the extensions folder. Tiled automatically reloads the scripts when it detects a change to any loaded script file.
Issues View
A new “Issues” view was added, where reported warnings and errors are displayed persistently and can be searched. Many of the issues reported here can also be double-clicked to jump to the relevant location for fixing the issue. The error and warning counts are displayed on the status bar to make sure they don’t go unnoticed.
While Tiled may encounter many issues of itself, for example when AutoMapping or exporting to certain formats, issues can also be reported through the scripting API. This could be used to add sanity checks to make sure your map won’t trigger an error in your game.
Configurable Keyboard Shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts of most actions can now be changed from the new Keyboard tab in the Preferences. Shortcut schemes can be imported and exported and potential conflicts are marked in red.
New Update Notifications
Tiled now features a native up-to-date check, which displays an unobtrusive notification in the status bar whenever it detects that a newer version is available. This replaces the previously used 3rd-party solutions Sparkle and WinSparkle. For those who don’t want it, it can be turned off in the Preferences, in which case you can still manually check for a new version by opening the “About Tiled” dialog.
The new system does not automatically download & install the new package. For automatic updates, I recommend installing Tiled through the itch.io app.
Be sure to check the full release notes for an in-depth change log. You can learn more about this release in the video below. Additionally we have done a complete tutorial series that will get you up and running with Tiled.
You know what I tried for the first time the other week? Fortnite. I know, right? Since I have a phone that can actually run it now, I thought I’d take it for a spin. It’s ok… I mean I’ve always known the format was quite interesting. I played the original PUBG game back when it was still a mod for ArmA 3.
Not wholly convinced about playing it on a phone… might just download it on PS4 or something and play it that way instead. Still, it’s a pretty interesting phenomenon and now that they’ve released a Stormtrooper skin for it I can completely understand why it’s earned so much money. Like, I want to buy that skin. If I end up playing the game more, I might just.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…
New App Releases
Minecraft Earth (iOS & Android)
Bit of a cheat this one as it’s only to say that the Early Access has now finally rolled out to people in the US. So if you’re American and you’ve been waiting to try out the Minecraft-meets-Pokemon GO hybrid, now you can!
Hearthstone Battlegrounds (iOS & Android)
I know, I know, another cheat. In case you didn’t spot this, Hearthstone Battlegrounds is now available for everyone to play via the Hearthstone client, not just those who pre-ordered the new Dragon card set for the main game. I’ve written some initial thoughts along with some tactics & tips here.
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And… that’s it? Again? They’ll probably be more Apple Arcade games dropping today but we usually don’t find out what those are till quite late, so I’ll update the master list again on Monday. Lots of other free-to-play games have dropped that other sites have mentioned might be special, but I’ll leave those to you guys to decide.
Oh, there’s Star Titan, which is a side-scrolling run-and-gun game with mechs on both iOS and Android that costs $1.99. Not our usual fare, but there’s precious little else to talk about this week. Here’s a trailer:
It’s been a bit of a dire couple of weeks in terms of premium releases, all things considered.
App Updates & News
Pacific Fire
One of the only decent mobile wargames to come out this year, Pacific Fire has just been updated again with new scenarios that allow you to play from the Japanese perspective, including a mega-campaign that covers the entire war as the IJN. It’s also now available on the Amazon App Store, if that’s a game-changer for you.
I asked about an iOS version, and developer said they’re working on it. Potentially by the end of the year, but either way it’s definitely on its way.
Stardew Valley
Farming/Life Simulator Stardew Valley is getting a huge update soon in the form of the 1.4 update. It essentially tackles a wide range of issues and it’s main aim is to ‘Polish’ the experience and really improve the quality of life for all. Bug fixes, extra end-game content… you name it, it’s probably being done. PC Players will be getting the update on November 26th, but Mobile and Console players will be following soon afterwards, so we’ll let you know when it drops. You can read more details here.
Also if you’ve been looking forward to the mobile release of Black Desert Online, the global launch date has been set to December 11th, 2019. You can still pre-register at the official website.
App Sales, Deals & Discounts
Just to sum up what’s been a bit of a lazy week in mobile-land, there aren’t even that many sales going around either. I imagine everyone’s saving up their Big Sale Energy for Black Friday at the end of the month.
Mystic Vale is on sale at $2.99 for only the second time since launch. It’s another deck-building port in digital format, and it’s interesting although not really stand-out.
Bridge Constructor Portal is down to $1.99 in celebration of its DLC launch. I think I got it wrong last week when I mentioned the new DLC, it might have released this week.
Dimension of Dreams was one of the many, many strategy/card game/rogue-lite releases we got earlier in the year. It was pretty good, and now that the base game is free you can see for yourself. It’s got a fair few pricey IAPs though.
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
