If you are looking for a tool to quickly create complex shaders by mixing and matching existing shaders, ShaderFrog might be the perfect tool for you! Running entirely in your browser, ShaderFrog can be used to create WebGL shaders in two ways. First you can create a shader by connecting together existing shaders, to create a new composite shader. Shaders can even be imported from ShaderToy or the GLSL Sandbox.
In addition to the composition based approach, there is also a full blown GLSL text editor with automatic compilation/error reporting, syntax highlighting and more. Once you are happy with your created shader, you can save it, share it, or export it to iOS, Unity or Three.js.
Check out ShaderFrog in action in the video below.
Fortnite Season 8's Unvaulting Event Bugs, Epic Offers Free Item In Response
As is custom when a season of Fortnite approaches its conclusion, Epic Games held a one-time world event that gave people in the right place at the right time the opportunity to see something cool happen on the island. Except, this time it didn't go off without a hitch, and in response Epic has offered those who encountered a problem a make-good gift.
On May 4, players gathered around Loot Lake for an event called the "Unvaulting." As the name implies, the mysterious vault at the center of the location opened up and Fortnite players jumped in. Inside they were faced with a number of pillars that represented different weapons and items. Players effectively chose which of these to free from the vault by collectively striking down a pillar using their pickaxes. The liberated item was the Tommy Gun, and once freed everyone was launched back onto the island.
After being returned from the vault, players got to witness the volcano that appeared for Season 8 erupt and destroy Tilted Towers, effectively reshaping the island and laying the groundwork for Season 9.
That's how it should have gone, and for many that's what they saw. However, a large contingent of players that gathered for the event encountered issues and were not able to see the event unfold as intended. Epic Games has acknowledged the issue and said, "We apologize to those who were unable to witness the event and place their vote."
To make up for the snag, those that were in the Unvaulting playlist at the right time will be given the Arcana Glider free of charge. If you already purchased the Arcana Glider using V-Bucks, you will be refunded the 1200 V-Bucks.
We apologize that some players were unable to view the Unvaulting event. Anyone who jumped into the Unvaulting playlist will be granted the Arcana Glider in the coming days. Players who purchased the Arcana Glider previously will be refunded their V-Bucks.
Fortnite Season 8 is now its 10th week and the season is coming to a close very soon. But before you start thinking about what's next, we recommend wrapping up the season's challenges as quickly as possible. Once the transition to Season 9 happens, older challenges will no longer be available and rewards attached to Season 8's Battle Pass will also expire. If you want any of those, act fast.
Forgotten Interview With Miyamoto Sheds Light On A Classic Zelda Production
Retro gamer Matt Sephton, who goes by the handle @gingerbeardman over on Twitter, has shared a forgotten interview with us dating back to 1992. It’s from issue 25 of the publication Electric Brain and features the one and only Shigeru Miyamoto talking about the development of The Legend of Zelda:A Link To The Past along with the first two Zelda entries on NES.
Throughout the interview, Miyamoto speaks about the various challenges and design choices Nintendo faced during development – such as trying to cram all of the game onto the cartridge. He also explained how the company often began projects with only a handful of people and even revealed how the development team had “all sorts of titles” for the SNES Zelda, like “Gannon Strikes Back” until a decision was made to stick with the original name.
In the second half of the interview, Shigeru touches on the role-playing genre, in general, and states how Zelda paved the way – with a number of original ideas that eventually became “bog standard” for all games under this banner. Later on, he references the original Mother (Earthbound) game on the NES and Pilotwings.
One of the final questions is about future production plans for the company. Miyamoto follows this up by saying how Nintendo “will never run out of ideas” and new genres can be easily created. Read the full interview below:
Did you enjoy reading this classic interview featuring Miyamoto? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-06-2019, 08:19 PM - Forum: Windows
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Accelerating the journey from automated to autonomous systems
Microsoft’s autonomous systems platform overcomes some of these challenges by using a unique approach called machine teaching. It relies on a developer’s or subject matter expert’s knowledge — someone who may not have a background in AI but understands how to steer a drill or keep the airflow in an office building at safe levels — to break a large problem into smaller chunks.
Instead of having reinforcement learning algorithms explore how to solve a problem randomly or naively, which could take forever, that person uses a programming language called Inkling to show the system how to solve simpler problems first and provide clues about what’s important. This shortcuts the learning process and enables the algorithms to hit on a solution much faster.
Microsoft’s platform also enables non AI-experts to establish and tweak the reward system, which is key to arriving at a solution that truly works. And it selects and configures the algorithms to tackle the task, eliminating the need for machine learning experts to custom build solutions.
For instance, team members worked with Schneider Electric, a global company working to digitally transform energy management in homes, buildings and industries, to test whether AI could help reduce the carbon footprint of HVAC systems that are used to heat and cool large commercial buildings.
“Schneider is very focused on sustainability, and large buildings are a top contributor to carbon pollution. So there’s a really important mandate to make HVAC systems more energy efficient,” said Barry Coflan, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Schneider Electric’s EcoBuildings Division.
Centered on a longstanding relationship, a proof-of-concept test was conducted using the Microsoft toolchain and Schneider supplied simulation to train an AI system to autonomously run the HVAC systems that controlled airflow and heating in a conference room. It had to balance saving energy with other goals, such as keeping the temperature comfortable for people inside and making sure there’s enough fresh air to keep carbon dioxide levels from building up.
Optimizing for all those factors — which are controlled by different physical systems — requires far more intelligence than a simple thermostat, says Microsoft’s Hammond. The system has to account for environmental variables that are constantly changing: energy costs that fluctuate throughout the day, people coming and going from the room, what the outside weather is doing, the physics of how air flows.
Using a machine teaching approach, Schneider and Microsoft experts first taught the reinforcement learning system to control temperature well. Then the AI system learned how to control air flows to keep air quality at healthy levels. Then it learned to consider how room occupancy affected those outcomes.
Taking all those factors into account, Microsoft’s AI system was able to reduce energy consumption in the room by about 20 percent, while preserving comfort and high air quality when it mattered. The teams are now embarking on a second phase of collaboration to scale the simulation across different types of rooms and further boost energy savings.
Coflan said the laddered approach to teaching and the ability to layer in different rewards enabled Schneider Electric to understand how the AI system was learning and track which factors contributed to the biggest gains.
“A lot of what we do has safety ramifications so we really need to understand how the AI system is making decisions,” Coflan said. “This approach lets you see how the system is getting smarter and gives you an audit trail that is essential for safety and reproducibility. Our customers would want that too — you can’t just put a system out there and say ‘Trust us.’”
Microsoft’s autonomous systems platform uses a simulated warehouse environment in AirSim to train an intelligent forklift to pick up and deliver loads autonomously while recognizing and avoiding other obstacles. This video illustrates the vision for a future warehouse with pre-trained, intelligent forklifts assisting people in everyday activities.
Running simulation at scale in Azure
Because no company can afford to let a robot or an intelligent control system make millions of mistakes in a real-world factory or wind farm or highway as it is learning, reinforcement learning algorithms need to practice in a simulated environment that can replicate the thousands or millions of different real-world scenarios they might encounter.
The Microsoft toolchain also includes AirSim, an open source simulation platform originally developed by Microsoft researchers to use AI to teach drones, self-driving cars or robots to learn in high fidelity simulated environments. Or, the team can work with customers to train autonomous systems using existing industry-specific simulators.
In either case, running these data-hungry simulations in the Azure cloud enables the system to test thousands of different decision-making sequences in parallel, which allows the AI models to learn what does and doesn’t work much faster.
“If I have the ability to spawn thousands of simulations at once and in each one the pedestrian crossing the street is different and the curve of the road is different, suddenly the AI system is able to gather much more diverse experience in a short amount of time ,” said Ashish Kapoor, Microsoft principal research manager. “Azure gives us the ability to run these simulations at scale, which is really important.”
AirSim also allows developers to train different AI and control tools to solve different parts of more complex problems. In helping develop autonomous forklifts for Toyota Material Handling, for instance, researchers broke the task down into sub-concepts that are simpler to learn and debug: navigating to the load, aligning with the pallet, picking it up, detecting other people and forklifts, delivering the pallet, returning to the charging station.
In these complex scenarios, Kapoor said, it may make sense to use reinforcement learning to train a forklift on basic control tasks, like picking up a pallet. Machine teaching helps the system learn in progressively more difficult steps, such as aligning the lift horizontally and then finding the proper angles.
But other parts of the problem might be better solved by entirely different tools like obstacle detection and avoidance algorithms, robotics path planning or classical control techniques. Decomposing the larger task into smaller ones allows developers to select and deploy the best tool for that particular job.
“We are working to provide a comprehensive platform for customers who want to build intelligent autonomous systems, covering development, operation and end-to-end lifecycle management,” Hammond said.
Top image: An experimental version of the Sarcos Guardian S, a visual inspection robot that can be used in disaster recovery or for industrial inspections, has learned to avoid obstacles and climb stairs on its own using Microsoft’s autonomous systems platform. Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft.
Microsoft Build 2019 — related autonomous systems links:
Jennifer Langston writes about Microsoft research and innovation. Follow her on Twitter
Rocket League Review Bombed After Epic Acquisition; Steam Steps In
The popular competitive esport Rocket League has become the latest victim of review bombing, following news that developer Psyonix is being acquired by Epic Games. Concerns that the acquisition would mean the game will be pulled from Steam led to a flurry of negative reviews on the platform, before Steam's new anti-bombing tool was deployed to stop it.
Steam reviews recently dipped from "Very Positive" down to "Mixed." That prompted Steam to implement its tool that excludes periods of "off-topic review activity" from the aggregate score. The negative reviews are still visible, and they almost universally reference the Epic acquisition, but they're no longer counted in the average.
Concerns about the game's exclusivity stemmed from a statement (via The Verge) that mentioned the game will be coming to the Epic Games Store later this year. It said "in the meantime" it will still be available for purchase on Steam, and that "thereafter" it will continue to be supported--reportedly through the release of patches and DLC.
That gave the impression that once it appears on the Epic Store it will be pulled from the Steam storefront, though no formal announcement has been made. The official Rocket League Twitter account issued a vague statement that stresses the game "remains available on Steam" and that current players can "look forward to continued support," but didn't necessarily rule out pulling it off the store at some future date.
Epic Games has made a habit of securing exclusives on its emerging Steam competitor, even recently issuing an ultimatum to Steam aimed at improving developer revenue splits. This has led to similar controversies over games like Metro Exodus and The Division 2--but in both of those cases, the switch was formally announced, rather than inferred by fans.
The Serious Sam Developer Is Porting Its New Game Engine To Switch
As more publishers and developers jump on the Switch bandwagon, more game engines are being made compatible with the system.
During an interview with Wccftech a few weeks ago, Croteam’s CTO Alen Ladavac and Marketing Manager Daniel Lucic revealed the developer – responsible for the Serious Sam series – was working on making its new game engine compatible with Nintendo’s hybrid system. Unfortunately, they’re “not sure” about its current status or when exactly it will be made available.
“Yeah. It’s become very streamlined to just ship one of our games on Xbox One or PS4 or Nintendo Switch. We are working on all of those platforms to make sure that we can at any point ship any game…As long as that platform can actually handle the amount of content, we’re probably not gonna ship the next big game older platform. But in theory, the engine supports a number of platforms.”
When asked about the possibility of the first-person puzzle game The Talos Principle being released on the Switch, Daniel Lucic simply said it was “likely” to happen. If that wasn’t convincing enough, for some time now the official Serious Sam and Croteam Twitter accounts have been teasing Switch support. There’s also the mention of “NX” in the engine’s Editor.
Would you like to play Croteam’s games on your Nintendo device? Tell us below.
Nintendo Newsletter Suggests Cadence Of Hyrule Will Be Released This Month
If you had to pick one of the most surprising Nintendo Switch announcements so far this year, a standout would likely be Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer. The game was originally revealed during the March Nindie Direct showcase and is being developed by Brace Yourself Games and published by Spike Chunsoft.
Regarding a release date, the game is currently listed for “Spring 2019” on Nintendo’s official website. In saying this, a recent Nintendo Europe email – promoting all of the games coming to the Switch this May –includes Cadence of Hyrule in between the upcoming Resident Evil releases and Assassin’s Creed III Remastered. So, with any luck, we could be playing this rhythmic action-adventure before the end of the month.
For anyone who missed the Nindie announcement, Cadence of Hyrule is modeled on Brace Yourself Games’ original rhythm-combat title, Crypt of the NecroDancer. In the new game, you can play as Link or Princess Zelda as you go on a quest to save Hyrule. Here’s a bit more about it, along with the trailer:
As Link or Princess Zelda, players explore randomly generated overworld and dungeons on a quest to save Hyrule, and every beat of the 25 remixed Legend of Zelda tunes is a chance to move, attack, defend and more. From modern-looking Lynels to the Hyrulean Soldiers of old, players must master the instinctive movements of each pixel-art enemy and strategically outstep them in rhythmic combat using an arsenal of iconic items from The Legend of Zelda, as well as the spells and weapons from Crypt of the NecroDancer.
Have you been anticipating this release? Did you play Crypt of the NecroDancer? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-06-2019, 06:48 AM - Forum: Lounge
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John Wick: Chapter 3 Twitter Reviews Are In
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is the latest movie in the hit action series, in which Keanu Reeves stars as a former assassin reluctantly brought back into action. It hits theaters later this month, but some critics have already seen the movie, and their first reactions are rolling in via social media.
The movie is directed by Chad Stahelski, who helmed John Wick: Chapter 2 and co-directed the first movie. It also stars Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Halle Berry, Lance Reddick, Asia Kate Dillon, Anjelica Huston, Jason Mantzoukas, and Mark Dacascos.
The reactions on Twitter so far are very positive. Unsurprisingly, many critics have highlighted the action sequences, which go beyond anything seen in the series so far in terms of their scale and invention. There is also praise for the way the movie broadens the mythology of its hitman underworld, plus the performances from Reeves, Berry, and Dillon.
Check below for a roundup of reactions. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum releases on May 17. For more, check out the latest trailer and this tense first clip.
#JohnWick3 continues to build on the series' mythology and has some of the coolest action and most memorable side characters of the entire series. I'm not sure about everything it adds, and certain things will be controversial (no spoilers). But overall it's more @JohnWickMovie! pic.twitter.com/Vodcx2nJwE
Oh, and #JohnWick3 is another gorgeous and inventive action extravaganza. I think JW2 is a "better" movie, but this one is completely entertaining and a living video game. #KeanuReeves is once again a force of nature. He actually looks his age, which adds to the pathos. pic.twitter.com/qAojlFhV5n
#JohnWick3 is AWESOME. Some of the action set pieces are so insane you’ll wonder how director Chad Stahelski and his team filmed them. Saying that, the @Halleberry/#KeanuReeves set piece featuring her dogs might be my favorite. Wait till you see this one. Esp if you like dogs... pic.twitter.com/ym2Tn012xw
If you want more John Wick, #JohnWick3 definitely delivers. More insane fights (the Casablanca sequence, OMG), more lore, more dogs (big plus!). pic.twitter.com/e7k6h1qDWD
#JohnWick3: A eye-popping, jaw-dropping, show-stopping killer. Extends world-building dynamics beautifully, but also assigns meaningful resonance to character-driven action. Keanu Reeves is perfect, @AsiaKateDillon is magnetic & @halleberry kicks ass. ❤️’d every stellar minute! pic.twitter.com/cIBF61IZK1
Onto my proper #JohnWick3 reaction: Pure visceral cinema. After the dramatic world expansion of CHAPTER 2, CHAPTER 3 returns to a leaner, exhilarating story chock full of breathless, bone-crunching action and even a few laughs. I was sweating 30 minutes in. This movie RULES.
#JohnWick3 is the electrifying end, if it is the end, of John Wick. It’s not a perfect movie but it cements John Wick as the definitive action icon of the 2010s. The movie begins on a high note and, exhaustingly, keeps it up the entire time. Also: VERY GOOD DOGS. pic.twitter.com/h5TVkNy3sP
There's a bit in #JohnWick 3 where Keanu and a bunch of bad dudes are just chucking knives at each other for about five minutes straight and it's pretty much the greatest thing ever.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-06-2019, 06:48 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
The Call of Duty series has sold over 300 million games
Newsbrief: Activision Blizzard says that the Call of Duty series has now sold over 300 million games since its start in 2003.
CEO Bobby Kotick shared the milestone in a call with investors this week (transcribed by SeekingAlpha), saying that this makes Call of Duty “one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.” Just looking at games, its a bar not many franchises have cleared. With its 300 million lifetime sales, the Call of Duty series is now behind only Pokemon and Mario in terms of total games sold.
In its 15-plus years, Call of Duty has released close to 30 different games from a variety of developers across generations of consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. This particular milestone comes as Activision is pushing the series’ esports scene and just ahead of the release of Call of Duty mobile outside of China.
