Timely backups are important. So much so that backing up software is a common topic of discussion, even here on the Fedora Magazine. This article demonstrates how to automate backups with restic using only systemd unit files.

For an introduction to restic, be sure to check out our article Use restic on Fedora for encrypted backups. Then read on for more details.

Two systemd services are required to run in order to automate taking snapshots and keeping data pruned. The first service runs the backup command needs to be run on a regular frequency. The second service takes care of data pruning.

If you’re not familiar with systemd at all, there’s never been a better time to learn. Check out the series on systemd here at the Magazine, starting with this primer on unit files:

If you haven’t installed restic already, note it’s in the official Fedora repositories. To install use this command with sudo:

$ sudo dnf install restic

Backup

First, create the ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-backup.service file. Copy and paste the text below into the file for best results.

[Unit]
Description=Restic backup service
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStartPre=restic unlock
ExecStart=restic backup --verbose --one-file-system --tag systemd.timer $BACKUP_EXCLUDES $BACKUP_PATHS
ExecStartPost=restic forget --verbose --tag systemd.timer --group-by "paths,tags" --keep-daily $RETENTION_DAYS --keep-weekly $RETENTION_WEEKS --keep-monthly $RETENTION_MONTHS --keep-yearly $RETENTION_YEARS
EnvironmentFile=%h/.config/restic-backup.conf

This service references an environment file in order to load secrets (such as RESTIC_PASSWORD). Create the ~/.config/restic-backup.conf file. Copy and paste the content below for best results. This example uses BackBlaze B2 buckets. Adjust the ID, key, repository, and password values accordingly.

BACKUP_PATHS="/home/rupert"
BACKUP_EXCLUDES="--exclude-file /home/rupert/.restic_excludes --exclude-if-present .exclude_from_backup"
RETENTION_DAYS=7
RETENTION_WEEKS=4
RETENTION_MONTHS=6
RETENTION_YEARS=3
B2_ACCOUNT_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
B2_ACCOUNT_KEY=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
RESTIC_REPOSITORY=b2:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:/
RESTIC_PASSWORD=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now that the service is installed, reload systemd: systemctl –user daemon-reload. Try running the service manually to create a backup: systemctl –user start restic-backup.

Because the service is a oneshot, it will run once and exit. After verifying that the service runs and creates snapshots as desired, set up a timer to run this service regularly. For example, to run the restic-backup.service daily, create ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-backup.timer as follows. Again, copy and paste this text:

[Unit]
Description=Backup with restic daily
[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable it by running this command:

$ systemctl --user start restic-backup.timer

Prune

While the main service runs the forget command to only keep snapshots within the keep policy, the data is not actually removed from the restic repository. The prune command inspects the repository and current snapshots, and deletes any data not associated with a snapshot. Because prune can be a time-consuming process, it is not necessary to run every time a backup is run. This is the perfect scenario for a second service and timer. First, create the file ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-prune.service by copying and pasting this text:

[Unit]
Description=Restic backup service (data pruning)
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=restic prune
EnvironmentFile=%h/.config/restic-backup.conf

Similarly to the main restic-backup.service, restic-prune is a oneshot service and can be run manually. Once the service has been set up, create and enable a corresponding timer at ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-prune.timer:

[Unit]
Description=Prune data from the restic repository monthly
[Timer]
OnCalendar=monthly
Persistent=true
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

That’s it! Restic will now run daily and prune data monthly.

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash.

Many years ago, I worked with healthcare organizations to install infrastructure to support the modernization of their information systems. As I traversed hospitals – both in public and private sectors – I was often struck by one particular best practice: the privacy reminders were ubiquitous. If I stepped into an elevator or walked down a hallway, there was signage to remind everyone about patient privacy. Nothing was left to chance or interpretation. This was also pre-social media, so the concerns ranged from public conversations or inappropriate use of email, to leaving a document on a public printer.

Fast forward to 2019. Our society and culture have changed. We are much freer with our personal information on social media. We talk openly about our lives and post pictures and family information in the wild. We are less concerned about our privacy, as we use these platforms to connect with others – a connection we might be denied given our busy lives. However, as has oft been written, these platforms can be a cache of riches for someone seeking to steal your identity or compromise your email and other accounts. This same type of free flow of information is also following us to other parts of our lives and making it easier for the bad guys to attack and profit. Let me explain with a few examples.

I travel a bit (okay, a lot). While my global travel is mostly for work, this provides an informative world lens for people watching and listening. I am often between flights in an airport reading or catching up on email and overhear a wide variety of conversations – without even trying. Recently, I was in the U.S., delayed at the Chicago O’Hare airport for several hours as “there is (was) weather in Chicago,” the worst phrase in the US travel industry. I overheard a man on the phone discussing his declined credit card in detail, including his full name, billing ZIP code, card number, expiration date, and so on. My shock quickly faded when I started thinking about how many other times I was in public and overheard things that could lead to financial or IP or other loss for an individual or company. The number is non-trivial. That’s when I decided to tweet some simple advice, and solicit input via my twitter feed.

The results were equally horrifying and amusing. Some even thought my post was an attempt in social engineering. Overall, the response convinced me to write a blog as the evidence I gathered suggests this isn’t a small problem. Rather, it’s a real problem. So let me start by sharing some examples and then make some suggestions (which may seem obvious to many of you) on how to protect your privacy and security.

Notes from the airport lounge: social engineering is a thing … a really big thing. Please protect your personal information (like credit card numbers, sensitive customer information etc).

— Ann Johnson (@ajohnsocyber) April 15, 2019

I’ve overheard people many times talking in lounges about confidential info re: unannounced acquisitions. ?‍♂️

— Orion (@OrionListug) April 15, 2019

And a few drinks later I’ve learned about unannounced acquisitions… marriage infidelities, the amount of debt someone owes, passwords pulled up from a word doc. pic.twitter.com/pPDDZd6xq7

— root (@rootsecdev) April 15, 2019

My favorite are people who have had their credit card disabled because their travel inadvertently flagged fraud prevention.
So they are in the middle of the airport, reciting all their personal info to the bank to get the card turned back on.

— Andy Mallon ?️‍? (@AMtwo) April 17, 2019

How you never lock your system when you walk away because it’s so inconvenient to enter your credentials. o_o. // How people on the CTA hold their phone outward and call utility companies and banks and provide information loudly. >_<

— Christopher Clai ?? (@ChrisClai) April 17, 2019

At one of my first IT gigs we kinda beat each other out of the first one by changing people’s desktop backgrounds to annoying memes. (I got to the point of using a bluetooth dongle and my almost-smart phone to autolock it lol)

— Chris ?? (@tuba_man) April 17, 2019

I recently interacted with a thread where it asked individuals for the security weaknesses that they recognized in their orgs and felt would be critical if not fixed. I’m sure if people didn’t warn against accurately responding might in fact harm their org if used by attacker.

— C:…Security (@chris_foulon) April 17, 2019

So how do you protect yourself from theft of personal or proprietary company information in public? The super obvious, somewhat flippant answer is: don’t share any of this type of information in public. But, at times, this is easier said than done. If you travel as much as I do, it becomes impossible to refrain from conducting some confidential business whilst you are on the road. So how do you actually protect yourself?

Many people will read this blog and say, “well that’s obvious,” but sadly it is not, based on what I have personally observed and the feedback I received in preparation for this post. When in these types of situations, my recommendations are:

• Use privacy screens on your laptop and your phone when in public, in meetings, and on airplanes. I cannot tell you how much confidential information I could have obtained just sitting behind someone on a plane.
• Do not discuss confidential information in a public place: restaurant, club, elevator, airplane, etc. Based on the Twitter solicited feedback, people somehow think planes are cones of silence.
• If you must conduct personal/confidential business on the road, wait until you arrive at your hotel or find a quiet place in the airport/club/restaurant where your back is to a wall and you can see anyone who is located by you. Use your best judgment.
• Never give anyone your password. I don’t know how to say this more strongly. Do not ever give anyone your password.
• Use a password manager. Don’t reuse passwords. This way if someone does obtain one of your passwords, you limit your exposure.
• Be cognizant of what you put on social media. I am very active on social media but, remember, your information can and will be used against you. Be careful of when and how you post to avoid advertising when your home will be vacant for vacation or any personally identifiable information that could expose your passwords.
• If someone calls you claiming to be from your bank, the IRS, the police, your company, a tech support organization, offer to call them back from a number that is published on their legitimate website or the back of your credit card, etc. Do not give any confidential information to an inbound caller.
• Use encryption for sensitive data and sensitive communications.
• If you must install IoT devices at home, segment them to a unique network.
• If you are renting a private vacation home, there are some very good apps to scan the network to make certain you have privacy (e.g., cameras in a location that was not disclosed by the owner)
• I am not a fan – at all – of listening devices at home, but if you do have one, remember there is a possibility we will find out all of your conversations were recorded. Be aware of what you say….

The world is quickly evolving as we embrace more technology. The onus is largely on users to protect yourselves. While this blog is just a high-level discussion on social engineering and privacy, using common sense is always your best defense.

Sigma Finite Dungeon is a difficult game to hate, if you have any affinity for tactical turn-based rpgs. As a focused expression of mechanics, it’s a no-frills dose of gridded goodness. As literally anything else – something visually impressive or narratively curious – it fails.

Part of the initial disconnect in my first several runs was just getting over the fact that there was no story. TRPGs are well known for them, and some of the best are often hoisted among some of the best video game stories ever told. That there really was nothing here but a basic “kill the guy at the end of the dungeon” trick felt weird. You definitely get over it, but not before reminiscing over the Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battles of yesteryear.

There is a certain brilliance in stripping the genre down to its basics. As the best roguelikes are want to do, you start to gain a real appreciation for the core pillars of the genre’s they help deconstruct. TRPGs, even with rousing narratives, tend to be very systems-forward engagements, so I was surprised to find that they could even be isolated and manipulated the way they are in SFD.

Starting with a hero character with its own special class, you’re tasked with delving through eight floors of procedurally-generated dungeon in order to slay the dark elven god at the very bottom. On your way, you will hire allies, collect weapons and armor, fight various types of enemies, and try not to die. If you, the hero, is killed in battle, then the game is over.

None of this sounds all that new, but every system you interact with is both completely transparent and almost fully customizable or interactable. All of the six classes of characters you’ll run into can be upgraded into higher, more specialized forms. There are no gear restrictions to each class, but the sorts of special abilities you’ll learn while using certain weapons will be limited. Sometimes, it’s not a terrible strategy to deck out one character in heavy armor and a shield, while giving the rest of the squad bows to attack monsters from a distance. It encourages you to try something weird to fit a playstyle, or to discover a whole new one.

For all of its freedom, it could be more forthcoming as far as guidance and tutorialization. There are a set of screens that point out important HUD and menu options that serve as a help guide, but most of the nitty gritty you’ll learn by doing. As a game reliant on replaying it a bunch to learn how it ticks, there’s still a limit to what you should know going in and have to learn on the fly. And even speaking to what they do outline, I wished SFD found a more engaging way to teach you the ropes, instead of sending you the equivalent of PDF files to study yourself.

How characters are geared largely determines the abilities they can learn by leveling up, but for the main hero, you can find many opportunities to teach him things he wouldn’t have normal access to, even further diversifying your team’s capabilities. This doesn’t extend to your hirelings, which is a bummer. You buy their attendance from one of the assortment of shops you may find on your journey, where they are populated at random. You’ll have a hard time having back to back runs with identical team composition, which is par for the rogue-like course.

Navigating any giving dungeon floor involves a lot of tapping. You tap on the floor. You tap on crates. You tap on lanterns. Exploration is very mind numbing, as you spend much of the time just touching stuff and hoping gold falls out. The randomized rooms don’t even bother making much of a labyrinth to navigate. Rooms are often full of objects that look like someone reached into a bag and just tossed whatever was in their hands at it. I found myself wishing there was no exploration at all. If 70% of the rooms are going to just be empty, why even let me aimlessly tap around them?

The ones that aren’t empty are full of monsters. This is where the real action happens, and where the game most resembles every other member of the genre. Characters all have movement ranges (in squares) determined by their class. There are action points, magic points, attack templates determined by weapon, etc. The things this game does like all the others isn’t the interesting part. It’s the goofy stuff SFD lets you do outside of it that’s cool.

For me this usually starts and ends with the push mechanic. Any character and shove moveable objects or units into squares or obstacles next to them. If I want a character who would otherwise be a square away from range on an enemy to get in close, I might have the previous guy in line push them. If I want to hit an enemy on the other side of a friendly without risking full weapon damage on them, I push my buddy into him. Push monsters into spike traps, or on buttons that activate flame traps on their own friends. Push crates into unwitting skeletons and watch them explode. I can’t tell you how much mileage I got out of such a little mechanic.

This is mostly to do with how so much of the map can interact with each other. In small ways, of course, but all the small ways equal a menu of big ways that make every battle a tactical smorgasbord. SFD doesn’t have unlockable secrets that change the gameplay or add options to some sort of meta tally like other roguelikes – these little encounters are the reason you re-roll and start again after an untimely death.

That said, the replayability of SFD suffers because of its severe lack of goals to reach outside of the main line. As roguelikes have evolved over the years, they’ve all found ways to keep you playing that don’t involve just beating the game. It’s disappointing to see SFD not heed this pattern, and it might be hard to see anyone staying engaged after finally beating the last floor.

There are some elements of other tactics games that are whole missing from this one, as well. Backstabbing is a thing, but that’s one of the few ways to gain any positional advantage over the enemy. There’s no elevation or flanks to use to your advantage. Nor is there cover options to mitigate ranged attacks. The numbers and chances to hit on your profile are, more often than not, the only sort of damage you’ll do.

People won’t be sharing screen shots of the game either. As the hand drawn sprites are individually cool, the sum-of-their-parts areas they create are visually bland. The menus are basic and ugly. Character sprites are pretty one note no matter what gear you deck them out in. Monster sprites, on the other hand, look great and are easily the best visual elements in SFD.

As a whole package, Sigma Finite Dungeon feels like an illuminating, if unfinished, experiment. There is a very good set of basic tactical elements that make playing the game a good time. I just wish there was more here that would keep me playing for a long time, or a presentation that didn’t make me feel like I was QCing the thing instead of playing it.

Epic Games have released a hotfix version of Unreal Engine, the first since the release of Unreal 4.22.  This version is composed entirely of bug fixes.  For details of the new features that were added in the 4.22 release, be sure to check our earlier post or video here.

The complete list of fixes taken from the Unreal Engine forums:

Fixed! UE-66389 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_CoreUObject!CastLogError() [casts.cpp:11]
Fixed! UE-72732 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Engine!USkeletalMesh::GetMappableNodeData(TArray<FName,FDefaultAllocator> &,TArray<FNodeItem,FDefaultAllocator> &) [SkeletalMesh.cpp:3104]
Fixed! UE-72731 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Engine!UAnimSequence::BakeOutVirtualBoneTracks() [AnimSequence.cpp:2866]
Fixed! UE-72757 Audio: LibSoundFile is not included in binary
Fixed! UE-72698 Editor crashes when entering and exiting PIE multiple times
Fixed! UE-71864 Crash when loading statistics into Session Frontend Profiler.
Fixed! UE-72236 Pkginfo commandlet is crashing when running with -properties parameter or when specifying a file that doesn’t exist or can’t be loaded
Fixed! UE-72230 Cannot create a C++ project with Visual Studio 2019 in a source build – Failed to open selected source code accessor ‘Visual Studio’
Fixed! UE-72524 Live Coding console appears when invoking RunUAT from command line
Fixed! UE-72324 Live coding fails on machine with only Visual Studio Express installed
Fixed! UE-73027 Cannot interact with the scrollbar at the bottom of the Live Coding Console window
Fixed! UE-72487 UE4Editor modules file is not written to properly when packaging a plugin
Fixed! UE-72305 Prefer non-express versions of Visual Studio
Fixed! UE-72765 Errors making installed engine build using remote Mac
Fixed! UE-73075 UE4 source in binary build has lots of Intellisense squiggles
Fixed! UE-71031 UnrealHeaderTool is always executed if the UBT makefile is invalidated
Fixed! UE-72711 Navmesh tiles fail to generate
Fixed! UE-72559 Timelines in ActorBPs no longer function when packaged with Nativization
Fixed! UE-72424 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-BlueprintGraph!FBlueprintActionDatabase::Tick(float) [BlueprintActionDatabase.cpp:1165]
Fixed! UE-72110 Crash using Find Actor in Level Blueprint action while in PIE
Fixed! UE-72047 Move recent BP component optimization ensure() fix into 4.22.1 hotfix
Fixed! UE-72727 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Kismet!DispatchCheckVerify<void,<lambda_c743deafb79ebecab857062cedb0f2a7> >(<lambda_c743deafb79ebecab857062cedb0f2a7> &&) [AssertionMacros.h:162]
Fixed! UE-73194 Struct does not appear to save changes after compiling and saving it resets to null
Fixed! UE-72316 Crash when duplicating multiple components at once
Fixed! UE-72252 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Engine!ParallelForWithPreWork(int,TFunctionRef<void >,TFunctionRef<void >,bool) [ParallelFor.h:221]
Fixed! UE-72235 Crash recompiling blueprints with subobjects that are also blueprints
Fixed! UE-47471 Components tree is ending up with duplicate entries (same pointer added to the list view more than once), causing an assert
Fixed! UE-72357 Crash hovering mouse over text variable on blueprint breakpoint
Fixed! UE-73108 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Kismet!SSCSEditor::AddNewComponent(UClass *,UObject *,bool,bool) [SSCSEditor.cpp:5121]
Fixed! UE-72605 Component names do not increment correctly when duplicating a component whose name ends with a number
Fixed! UE-72604 Duplicating a component can result in a broke component that generates a compile error
Fixed! UE-72366 Render on Media Output creates an assertions: Assertion failed: IsValid() [File:d:\perforce\release-4.22\engine\source\runtime\core\public\Templates/SharedPointer.h]
Fixed! UE-72334 AJA IO 4k plus card displays QUAD link 5-8 available as media output while this card does not support it
Fixed! UE-73037 Loading screen widgets no longer display if no movies are present
Fixed! UE-72816 BlackMagic Media Output crashes on Capture Media: UE4Editor_MediaIOCore!UMediaCapture::CacheOutputOptions() [d:\perforce\release-4.22\engine\plugins\media\mediaioframework\source\mediaiocore\private\mediacapture.cpp:264]
Fixed! UE-72984 Crash due to LAN beacon packet incompatibility in 4.22
Fixed! UE-71586 Unable to compile code projects from installed build on Linux
Fixed! UE-71873 Launch on Linux to HTML5 fails due to undefined symbol: tzname
Fixed! UE-71735 Crash Files aren’t being generated from debug crash with a Linux Cooked Server
Fixed! UE-71188 [ShooterGame] LogFileManager warning seen when launching packaged game
Fixed! UE-72278 FOCUS OUT Events Cause Hitch in the Editor
Fixed! UE-72949 Crash in FVulkanLinuxPlatform
Fixed! UE-72416 ActionRPG crashes when packaged for Linux
Fixed! UE-72446 Deployment server crashes in DeploymentServer.Program.ClientLoop
Fixed! UE-71899 Error on tvOS app start: Error excluding PersistentDownloadDir from backup
Fixed! UE-71919 tvOS banner and App thumbnail do not appear on device; errors during app upload to Apple
Fixed! UE-71886 FireFox Quantum 67.0b3 fails to launch on correctly
Fixed! UE-71977 Crash when changing Preview Rendering Level in ARPG.
Fixed! UE-72058 tvOS: Project Packaged with CloudKit Support Crashes on Launch Due to Malformed Value in the Entitlement
Fixed! UE-66627 Full Screen Native Resolution not supported on new iPad Pro 11-inch and iPad Pro 12.9 inch (3rd generation)
Fixed! UE-72638 iOS iCloud app fails to upload to App Store — entitlements that are not supported; value ‘*’
Fixed! UE-73067 iOS blueprint apps are named “UE4Game” regardless of project name when packaged from Mac
Fixed! UE-73066 iOS app icons appear blank on device for C++ projects packaged from Mac
Fixed! UE-73073 tvOS blueprint project names display incorrectly on device
Fixed! UE-72410 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-MetalRHI!FMetalStateCache::SetRenderTargetsInfo(FRHISetRenderTargetsInfo const&, FMetalQueryBuffer*, bool) [MetalStateCache.cpp:485]
Fixed! UE-72404 Translucent Elements of an Invisible StaticMesh are Visible If Hidden Shadow is Enabled
Fixed! UE-71877 Crash on Mac while packaging TM-Decals with Forward Shading enabled
Fixed! UE-71827 Mac and Linux RHI does not update in Editor information ProjectName panel
Fixed! UE-71706 Textures created for Static Mesh LODs during level LOD generation are incorrect
Fixed! UE-70628 Ensure: ReflectionCaptureBuffer.IsBound occurs when building texture streaming for the first time
Fixed! UE-70591 Toggling the Shader Complexity viewmode requires missing viewmode shaders to be compiled
Fixed! UE-70473 GitHub 5572 : C4800 raised by vs2019 preview3
Fixed! UE-72279 Paper2D Tilemap doesn’t render tiles correctly when more than one layer is added.
Fixed! UE-72184 Ensure when enabling Simple Collision and Material Highlight in the static mesh editor
Fixed! UE-72174 Sliced procedural mesh causes blocky unexpected shadows
Fixed! UE-72123 Assertion failed: !BatchElement.IndexBuffer || (BatchElement.IndexBuffer && BatchElement.IndexBuffer->IsInitialized() && BatchElement.IndexBuffer->IndexBufferRHI)
Fixed! UE-72116 Assertion failed: !Elements[ElementIndex].PrimitiveUniformBuffer in GeometryCollectionSceneProxy
Fixed! UE-72052 Editor Crashes after enabling TemporalAA Upsampling with lower Screen Percentages – Referencing PostProcessTemporalAA.cpp Line: 799
Fixed! UE-72050 Shaders Appear to have Less Complexity
Fixed! UE-72893 Creating a VolumeTexture from an asset source not in RGBA8 crashes the engine
Fixed! UE-72724 Move HLR race condition fix to 4.22.1
Fixed! UE-72723 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-MetalRHI!FMetalRHICommandContext::RHISetShaderUniformBuffer(FRHIVertexShader*, unsigned int, FRHIUniformBuffer*) [MetalCommands.cpp:524]
Fixed! UE-72679 Shadows are Heavily Aliased with PCSS Enabled
Fixed! UE-72650 Editor crashes when connecting Eye Adaptation to Base Color
Fixed! UE-67825 TM-ShaderModels -game running about 20 FPS
Fixed! UE-70514 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-D3D11RHI!VerifyD3D11Result(long,char const *,char const *,unsigned int,ID3D11Device *) [D3D11Util.cpp:249] – FD3D11DynamicRHI::RHICreateStructuredBuffer
Fixed! UE-60339 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_D3D11RHI!FD3D11DynamicRHI::RHICreateUniformBuffer() [d3d11uniformbuffer.cpp:218]
Fixed! UE-72440 Assert When Changing Scalability Levels
Fixed! UE-73115 Denoisers are not reprojecting history correctly with dedicated velocity pass.
Fixed! UE-72833 Assertion failed when attempting Android/HTML5 launch on of TM-ShaderModels referencing OpenGLUniformBuffer.cpp:746
Fixed! UE-71643 [CrashReporter] UE4Editor-Engine!FMaterialRenderProxy::EvaluateUniformExpressions(FUniformExpressionCache &,FMaterialRenderContext const &,FRHICommandList *) [MaterialShared.cpp:2039]
Fixed! UE-73090 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Renderer!FMaterialShader::VerifyExpressionAndShaderMaps(FMaterialRenderProxy const *,FMaterial const &,FUniformExpressionCache const *) [ShaderBaseClasses.cpp:165]
Fixed! UE-71514 AMD Vega 64 – Editor crash running with -vulkan
Fixed! UE-71361 EngineTest: Screenshot ‘LODCurveLinkingTest1’ test failed, Screnshots were different!
Fixed! UE-73141 Assertion failed when attempting Lumin launch on TM-ShaderModels, referencing VulkanUniformBuffer.cpp
Fixed! UE-72356 Changing particle system template via Blueprints crashes Editor and packaged game
Fixed! UE-72431 Crash in Niagara SetExecutionState
Fixed! UE-72970 Correct Niagara’s “collision” module’s metadata
Fixed! UE-71662 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-D3D12RHI!FD3D12RayTracingDescriptorCache::GetDescriptorTableBaseIndex(D3D12_CPU_DESCRIPTOR_HANDLE const *,unsigned int,D3D12_DESCRIPTOR_HEAP_TYPE) [D3D12RayTracing.cpp:521]
Fixed! UE-72133 Some alpha-masked materials are not rendered correctly in Path Tracing view mode
Fixed! UE-72903 IES profiles are not working in Ray Tracing reflections nor translucency
Fixed! UE-72837 StochasticRectLight does not respect Light “samples per pixel” control
Fixed! UE-72720 Enable two sided geometry by default for ray tracing shadows
Fixed! UE-72619 Computation on how many view descriptors to allocate for ray tracing resource descriptor heaps is not accurate enough.
Fixed! UE-72620 Wrong composition between RT reflection and cubemap/sky when pre-exposition is enabled.
Fixed! UE-72613 The Path tracer is using invalid ray flags
Fixed! UE-72759 PrepareRayTracingShadows is missing some denoiser requirements
Fixed! UE-72623 Added basic resource usage stats for ray tracing
Fixed! UE-72621 Path tracing invalidation buffer issues
Fixed! UE-72693 Path tracing pure specular brdf renders black
Fixed! UE-71313 GitHub 5610 : Ansel photography: raytracing boosts for ‘high quality’ mode (4.22-ansel53)
Fixed! UE-72521 Compile fixes when enabling VULKAN_ENABLE_DUMP_LAYER
Fixed! UE-71894 Crash opening TM-ShaderModels with Intel’s RHI Thread changes: D3D device being lost.
Fixed! UE-71262 Vulkan’s RHIPushEvent/PopEvent allocate heap memory even when the event is unused
Fixed! UE-72118 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-D3D12RHI!D3D12RHI::FD3DGPUProfiler::UnregisterCommandList(GFSDK_Aftermath_ContextHandle__ *) [D3D12Stats.cpp:383]
Fixed! UE-72983 stat GPU not working on D3D12
Fixed! UE-70143 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Core!FDebug::CheckVerifyFailedImpl(char const *,char const *,int,wchar_t const *,…) [AssertionMacros.cpp:418]
Fixed! UE-69956 Crash occurs while simulating blueprint after triggering a breakpoint and clicking Step Over
Fixed! UE-71291 Assertion failed in DX12 RHI after instancing actors
Fixed! UE-72471 Crash trying to play audio when no audio asset
Fixed! UE-72428 Niagara: Losing focus when editor is open
Fixed! UE-72362 GitHub 5681 : Fix command line sequence render
Fixed! UE-72198 CLONE – Sequencer Batch Rendering cannot output multiple render passes in CLI
Fixed! UE-72197 Infinite sections when upgrading past 4.19 can be non-infinite
Fixed! UE-72097 Entering a text value in the Properties Context Menu closes the context window
Fixed! UE-72862 Sequencer set_interpolation_mode erroneously outputs an error
Fixed! UE-72675 Flattening a weighted tangent causes the tangent handle to go outside of playback range
Fixed! UE-73000 Crash after Undo and garbage collection on sequencer track
Fixed! UE-72417 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Blutility!FBlutilityModule::OnMapChanged(UWorld *,EMapChangeType) [BlutilityModule.cpp:150]
Fixed! UE-72240 Port Reduction fixes to 4.22.1
Fixed! UE-72239 Port HLOD fixes to 4.22.1
Fixed! UE-68121 Ensure deleting StarterContent folder while having StarterMap open
Fixed! UE-67607 Crash when deleting map that is open in the level editor ([CrashReport] UE4Editor_Engine!AActor::IncrementalRegisterComponents() [actor.cpp:4173])
Fixed! UE-72863 [ActionRPG] Crash when Selecting Vulkan Targeted RHI for Windows
Fixed! UE-73150 Crash while holding a window Tab during Auto Save
Fixed! UE-72507 Crash occurs when adding an array element to Landscape Materials Override
Fixed! UE-59256 Foliage: when applying a scale to either painted instance or spawned from a procedural volume the LOD do not take it into consideration
Fixed! UE-72338 Literal text values on BP function return nodes aren’t gathered for localization
Fixed! UE-72314 Unable to save Blueprint Function Library if it references a string table entry
Fixed! UE-72205 Creating a new material instance and exposing lightmass settings causes crash
Fixed! UE-72853 Sequential Level Loading in Python causes Crash
Fixed! UE-71865 UMG Slider continues to move beyond the slider’s limits on short tracks
Fixed! UE-72729 [CrashReport] UE4Editor-Engine!ULevel::IsCurrentLevel() [Level.cpp:2096]
Fixed! UE-72183 Exeption or Freeze when disabling Audio Tracks while GPU Hardware Acceleration is activated
Fixed! UE-72511 Cooked project assert crash on exit with Oculus splash screens
Fixed! UE-71104 SteamVR Stereo layers are using incorrect orientation conversion
Fixed! UE-71034 Stereo layer appears to move opposite the HMD when using Vive
Fixed! UE-73022 Crash entering VR Preview while using a Stereo Layer – Assertion failed: XRCamera.IsValid() in SteamVRStereoLayers.cpp
Fixed! UE-72717 FParallelMeshDrawCommandPass::DispatchPassSetup causes out-of-bounds read
Fixed! UE-72648 Disable Oculus Audio on Android
Fixed! UE-70061 Integrate new Open XR API plugin for 4.22.1
Fixed! UE-72026 steamVR: Crash exiting through steamVR overlay with stereo layers enabled
Fixed! UE-73006 OpenXR ensure occurs when opening a project with OpenXR plugin enabled
Fixed! UE-73011 Packaging fails with OpenXR plugin enabled
Fixed! UE-71909 Missing receipt error packaging blueprint projects with ARCore plugin enabled
Fixed! UE-72406 Audio Capture Timecode Provider asserts if no source device can be found.

GameDev News Unreal

© 2019 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.

Google has lofty ambitions for its coming cloud-based game platform Stadia, many of which include giving game developers and players alike the ability to approach video games in a different way.

Speaking during the GamesBeat Summit earlier today, Google VP and GM Phil Harrison said that one of the key goals of Stadia is to “change the perceived value of games” and make games as a whole a more discoverable medium.

Discoverability is an important topic for any storefront, and one that many platforms struggle to deal with as the number of games they support increases. To solve this issue for Stadia, Google wants to step away from traditional storefronts and the discoverability issues that come with both physical retailers and digital catalogs.

For Stadia, the only storefront is the internet. He said the Chrome-driven platform “gets rid of some of the artificial barriers that have previously been put in front of players,” making it possible for players to pick up a game they’re interested in, or recommend one to a friend, without needing to go to retailer or wait hours for a game to install.

“If you find a game you think I’ll love, I can send you a link and you can play it,” he said, calling back to the fact that one of Stadia’s flagship features is the ability to jump right into a game with no download or install required. He notes later on that it’s a feature that has resonated with publishers in particular, since it offers them a way to close the marketing loop and connect directly with players, no middleman required.

“We’re asking gamers to buy the game, not the platform.”

Much of what Harrison had to say will sound familiar to those that have kept up with Google’s previous Stadia announcements. His talking points, like being able to access games “with no download, no patch, no update, and no install” haven’t changed much in the past month.

Many of the topics he addressed during the short talk were missing important context regarding Stadia’s business model, which would’ve helped flesh out otherwise interesting features. Harrison did note that Google has “architected the platform to support a variety of business models,” but specific information on that topic won’t be announced until this summer at the earliest. To date, there’s no public word on pricing tiers, or revenue share for game devs.

While vague on many things developers want to know about Stadia, Harrison did say that Google is taking care to make sure that devs are armed with the tools they need to focus less on the technical side of running games on Stadia and more on the creative possibilities that the platform opens up.

Part of this comes from the fact that one code base is all that’s needed to run a game on Stadia’s many supported screen types, be it on a TV, tablet, phone, or computer. Devs will have the ability to tweak certain aspects of each as needed, however, like adjusting certain UI elements when a game is being played on mobile to best suit that experience

He also called out Stadia’s “state share” feature, the ability for players to share a link at any point in a game that allows other players to load into that exact moment of the game, as something he thinks will inspire game developers to create new and interesting moments and narrative.

It’s one of the features he says is unique to datacenter-powered game platforms, and one that offers a lot of room for developers to be creative with game worlds and multiplayer.

“That is something that you can only do when games are running on the data center.”

Today, Turn 10 Studios is proud to announce Forza Street, an all-new Forza experience designed to be played anytime, anywhere, and excite anyone who loves cars.

Available today for free on Windows 10 devices, and rolling out to iOS and Android starting this year, Forza Street was designed for racing on the go with streamlined controls that focus on timing of gas, brake, and boost as the keys to victory.

In Forza Street, new Forza fans and seasoned drivers alike can collect and assemble a legendary lineup of cars to compete in intense, cinematic races. Whether players want to squeeze in a quick one-minute race or get immersed in a story campaign, every race is a chance to earn a performance icon from an ever-growing list of incredible cars, turning your garage into a trophy case.

With the game available today on Windows 10 devices, we will continue to add features and actively engage with and listen to our community to make Forza Street the game our fans will want to take with them everywhere.

To stay up to date with Forza Street news, hit “Follow” on our Facebook page here.

See you on the streets!

This week at Bungie, Saladin joins the Revelry.

The Power-enabled combat of Iron Banner is live, and Guardians are mixing things up a bit. Wolf’s Favors, Iron Burdens, and the Reveler’s Tonic have all combined for a lively event. Whether you’re skipping grenades or hunting Iron Banner rewards, this is a week to break the rules and experiment with your loadouts. Double Valor is currently available, with Triple Valor beginning tomorrow at 10 AM PDT.

Balance the Bite

At the release of Destiny 2: Forsaken, two pinnacle weapons became available for players to earn in the Competitive playlist in the Crucible. Each weapon has a unique quest, requiring mastery of Hand Cannons to complete. There has been a lot of feedback on how the pinnacle Crucible Hand Cannons stand above most other weapons in the sandbox. Today, we’ll be going through some balance changes planned for Season of Opulence. We wanted to start this conversation early, to ensure players understood that change was coming, even if they were still on the path to acquiring these rewards. Here’s the Destiny Dev Team to walk us through the planned changes:

Dev Team: We wanted to give you a preview of some plans we have to balance Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten in Season of Opulence. After significant amounts of feedback, internal discussion, and playtesting, we’ve decided to adjust how these Hand Cannons work. For some players, these weapons can represent a significant investment of time and the personal improvement needed to acquire them. When tuning, we attempt to take into account the time commitment players make to acquire weapons and balance that against how those weapons affect the different game modes.

Magnificent Howl (the unique perk on these weapons) is too effective. It works in a neutral setting and rewards players for getting precision shots—something they would have done naturally. As a result, the time to kill of the game shifts to meet this new benchmark, and players feel that the majority of primary weapons in Destiny 2 cannot compete with these pinnacle weapons.

Our current plan is to make Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten the only 150 RPM precision Hand Cannons. They will maintain some aspects of their current behavior while taking on the firing speed and damage of the 150 RPM Hand Cannons. Magnificent Howl will also be adjusted so that it increases only body-shot damage, resulting in a two headshot/one body-shot kill. Magnificent Howl will still give an advantage due to requiring less precision hits for optimal time to kill.

Revelry: Verdant Light

Last week, Revelry Orbs were disabled in Gambit, Gambit Prime, raids, and Competitive Crucible due to an increase in GUITAR errors and activity disconnections. As multiple sources of progress for the “Verdant Light: Competitive” Triumph are no longer available, the team has been investigating a change to the requirements for completion.

As the above listed activities no longer provide progress, players are required to create 200 orbs by defeating other Guardians with precision kills in Quickplay, Rumble, and the featured Crucible playlist. This week, that playlist is Iron Banner, for example.

At this time, our current plan is to reduce this requirement to 20 orbs.

This change will be deployed after the Revelry ends, in Destiny 2 Update 2.2.2. Players who meet the requirement of 20 orbs will have the Triumph auto-complete after downloading the patch, which will also unlock the “Party Harder” Triumph and “Stimulant Spring” Emblem reward if all other Revelry Triumphs have been completed.

Exploring the Curse

Last month, we featured a string of three Bungie Bounties to celebrate Season of the Drifter and Gambit Prime. A few of you have been asking when we’d be jumping back on stream with a Ride Along. With the curse in full effect this week, it’s the perfect time to engage in some developer commentary in a live-fire environment.

Shattered Throne Ride Along

Monday, April 29

2:30 PM Pacific

We’ll have Bungie developers in the hot seats to speak to their inspirations, share some behind the scenes stories of development, and answer a few questions. Get ready for a fun ride. We’ll see you in chat.

At the Ready

With Season of the Drifter, new activities and weekly rituals became available to owners of the Annual Pass. Destiny Player Support has been investigating reports of various issues, and this week brings vital information regarding the Invitations of the Nine.

This is their report.

Denial of the Nine

Tomorrow, the seventh Invitation of the Nine will become available from Xûr. Before this pursuit goes live, we’d like to make players aware of a blocking issue, which we are currently working on.

Tomorrow’s invitation, titled “The Tower,” will require players to complete the Hollowed Lair strike and defeat Hive, Scorn, and Vex on the Tangled Shore. Currently, this invitation cannot be completed, since Vex are not available as enemies at any location on the Tangled Shore. This issue does not impact previous Invitations of the Nine, only “The Tower” invitation is currently blocked. We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

For more information as soon as it is available, please follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net.

Spring Fever

On Tuesday, the Revelry kicked off its second week in Destiny 2.

Whether you’re plundering the depths of the Verdant Forest or you’re bringing a good mood to your favorite activity, there’s still another full week ahead of us before the Revelry ends at the weekly reset on May 7, 2019.

As a reminder, each new week brings a refresh of weekly bounties to Eva Levante. Players can complete these bounties to earn powerful Inaugural Revelry gear, as well as earn progress toward the “A Bountiful Spring” Triumph. Once the Revelry concludes, all unearned and unclaimed Triumphs will be hidden, so players are encouraged to party hard while they still can.

Additionally, we’d like to remind players that we’re tracking the following known issues in the Revelry:

Demolish Your Foes

The Revelry is all about breaking rules, and a few of you are having a field day. Brew your tonic and drink up, because the following videos may inspire you to throw more grenades.

Movie of the Week: Tripping over mines

Runner Up: Verdant Forest Solo : 5 Bosses Defeated

Runner Up: Perfect Grenades Don’t Exist

We’re almost to the weekend, and I’m feeling heavy as death. Not in a bad way—truly! I’m on the grind toward the reward for 2,500 Iron Burden kills in the Iron Banner. I don’t know about you, but this is my favorite emblem in Destiny 2, with a badass name to boot.

I admit, the challenge is difficult. Tasking myself to fight against enemies at a 100 Power deficit is a wild ride. I’ve had to change the way I approach most engagements, but I’m getting closer and closer to my prize with each game.

Maybe I’ll see you out there. Apologies if you’re in the sights of my Arbalest.

Cheers,

Dmg04

Click Here!