The upcoming Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie has just received another trailer, adding to our already ridiculously strong hype and excitement for the film’s release this summer.

We get to see a little more comedic dialogue between Ryan Reynolds (as Pikachu) and Justice Smith (as Tim), as well as some up close shots of Bulbasaur and Lickitung. We’re still slightly freaked out by the designs of each Pokémon, but we can’t help but love it.

If you’ve missed the news on this one up until now, here’s what you can expect to see when the film launches:

“The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.”

The movie hits cinemas on 10th May 2019. That’s less than three months away!

Have you been looking forward to watching this since it was first announced? Will you be heading out to watch it on the day of release? Let us know in the comments.

If you are in the process of moving an existing .NET application to Azure, it’s likely you’ll have to migrate an existing, on-prem SQL database as well. There are a few different ways you can go about this, so let’s go through them.

Data Migration Assistant (downtime required)

The Data Migration Assistant (download | documentation) is free, easy to use, slick and extremely powerful! It can:

• Evaluate if your database is ready to migrate and produce a readiness report (command line support included)
• Provide recommendations for how to remediate migration blocking issues
• Recommend the minimum Azure SQL Database SKU based on performance counter data of your existing database
• Perform the actual migration of schema, data and objects (server roles, logins, etc.)

After a successful migration, applications will be able to connect to the target SQL server databases seamlessly. There are currently a couple of limitations, but the majority of databases shouldn’t be impacted. If this sounds interesting, check out the full tutorials on how to migrate to Azure SQL DB and how to migrate to Azure SQL DB Managed Instance.

Azure Data Migration Service (no downtime required)

The Azure Data Migration Service allows you to move your on-prem database to Azure without taking it offline during the migration. Applications can keep on running while the migration is taking place. Once the database in Azure is ready you can switch your applications over immediately.

If this sounds interesting, check out the full tutorials on how to migrate to Azure SQL DB and how to migrate to Azure SQL DB Managed Instance without downtime.

SQL Server Management Studio (downtime required)

You are probably already familiar with SQL Server Management Studio (download | documentation), but if you are not it’s basically an IDE for SQL Server built on top of the Visual Studio shell and it’s free! Unlike the Data Migration Assistant, it cannot produce readiness reports nor can it suggest remediating actions, but it can perform the actual migration two different ways.

The first way is by selecting the command “Deploy Database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database…” which will bring up the migration wizard to take you through the process step by step:

The second way is by exporting the existing, on-prem database as a .bacpac file (docs to help with that) and then importing the .backpac file into Azure:

Resolving database migration compatibility issues

There are a wide variety of compatibility issues that you might encounter, depending both on the version of SQL Server in the source database and the complexity of the database you are migrating. Use the following resources, in addition to a targeted Internet search using your search engine of choices:

In addition to searching the Internet and using these resources, use the MSDN SQL Server community forums or StackOverflow. If you have any questions or problems just leave us a comment below.

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

This interview is part of our Road to the IGF series. You can find the rest by clicking here.

In Moss, a little mouse sets off on a grand VR adventure, and the player will join in alongside her, using their shared abilities to solve puzzles and overcome monsters that they couldn’t tackle alone. 

Gamasutra sat down with Stephen Hodde (Audio Director), Rick Lico (Animator & Rigger), and Chris Alderson (Art Director) for the Excellence in Audio-nominated Moss to learn about the thoughts that went into making the player wish to help Moss‘ tiny protagonist, how sound deepens that connection, and how VR can make the player truly feel like a part of the journey.

The people behind the mouse

Hodde – Hi, I’m Stephen Hodde and I’m the Audio Director. I started making flash games before transitioning to console. I worked at Volition on Red Faction and the Saints Row games, Bungie on Destiny and its year 1 expansions, and Amazon Game Studios before landing at Polyarc.

Lico – Rick Lico, Animator and Rigger for Moss. I’ve been animating professionally since 2000, and in the gaming industry since 2001. I’ve been credited on 14 shipped games and a few expansions. I was the original animator for the Destiny franchise, helping to establish the animation style of its characters, gameplay feel, and technical animation systems. Before that, I was helping to redefine animation for the Halo franchise by introducing a mocap pipeline for Reach, and pitching the initial concept for Bungie’s runtime rigging system.

Alderson – I’m Chris Alderson, Artist and Art Director. Funny enough, Rick (Lico) and I have been working together in the industry for 14 years. We were both hired at Monolith in 2004 where I worked as a character artist on the Condemned series. Four years later, I was hired at Bungie to build characters for Halo 3: ODST, Halo:Reach, and Destiny, respectively, before leading the Character Art team on The Taken King. In 2015, with the new exciting prospect of VR, I left Bungie to help start Polyarc where we began work on early prototypes of Moss…And the rest is history.

Created from comfortable VR play space

Alderson – Moss was ultimately a product of early VR explorations by the earliest developers at Polyarc, and our love for classic adventure-style games that we grew up with. A new entertainment medium usually means new and exciting ways to interact with it. Basically, starting from scratch. We were excited to make something that everyone could and would want to jump in and play.

We set out to make a world that was inviting with a control scheme that wasn’t daunting. We wanted to make a game that could be played from the comfort of your couch, or if you wanted to get up and walk around, you could do that too.

One of the first big impacts we noticed with VR was the ability to reach in to the world around you and physically interact with it. Furthermore, VR also allows us to bond with characters and have meaningful, emotional interactions with them. In a comfortable play space where you can reach in and interact with objects while being seated, we needed a protagonist that can fit in that space comfortably. Quill was born from those principals. We tried to make a character that you would want to invest your time in to bonding with them emotionally, while also making a game that was fun and easy to play. The world and story around her developed once these basic ideas were in place.

Fetal heart-rate monitors as development tools

Hodde – One of the stranger tools I used was fetal heartrate monitor to record some unique heartbeat sounds. Since all non-synthesized sound originates out in the world, I spend a fair amount of time during development recording in the field. I have a small collection of microphones, but I tend to rely mainly on my Neumanns. I use a Sound Devices recorder and external microphone pre-amplifer on location. I also keep a small, handheld recorder on me most of the time to capture serendipitous sounds.

In the studio, I keep Eurorack & Moog synthesizers. I alternate between many headphones, but have settled mainly on Sennheiser HD650, Oppo PM-3, and Sony MDR-7506 for recording. I have a collection of rare recordings from Andy Martin that he captured during his Northwest Soundscapes Project that appear a lot during the first third of the game. I use Nuendo as my main digital audio workstation which interfaces nicely with Wwise, our audio engine. Unreal and Blueprint cover the other 50% of audio development.

Lico – Moss was made in Unreal. The animation content was authored in Maya.

Alderson – As mentioned above, Unreal Engine was our primary development tool across all platforms, and we love it. The artists used a wide range of different tools during the production of Moss, and our mantra is each artist should use the tools that will help them do the best at their job. Some of us use Maya extensively, while another artist prefers 3D Studio Max.

We used Zbrush and Mudbox for sculpting. Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Photoshop for our textural needs. Marvelous Designer is a great tool for creating garments. We purchased a few scanned data assets from Quixel, and the Unreal Marketplace got us started with our terrain and foliage that we later edited to fit our needs, so our artists could spend more time on hero props and characters. 

Creating a personal connection in VR

Lico – I believe it’s a collection of many decisions that factor into this. The first being Alderson’s design of Quill herself. Having an anthropomorphic mouse at a realistic scale with no discernable pupils makes it very easy to side-step common issues such as the uncanny valley. Or that uncomfortable feeling you may get when someone stares at you too long or ignores you.

Beyond pop cultural icons, people have no preconceptions of how a mouse should move or act. Quill’s also quite tiny, so supporting a complex facial animation system wasn’t necessary, making her body language more of the focus. She’s also appealing on her own, without any animation what-so-ever. All of these made my job much easier.

Beyond that, I felt it was important avoid cliché animation decisions. In film and cartoons, there are certain expectations for how anthropomorphic creatures act and move. It’s common to see animated characters gesticulate well beyond what a human would ever do and is often expected as a given. I believe these exaggerated acting decisions can feel off-putting to VR players, and lack emotional depth. I wanted to give Quill a more genuine personality based on honest acting decisions. But this doesn’t mean I don’t respect traditional animation principals. On the contrary, I wanted Quill to feel like a Disney or Pixar style character in motion, but wanted her acting choices to be more subdued in the hopes that she’d feel more relatable.

Finally, we wanted to take advantage of the VR medium. What separates VR from traditional game/film media is a sense of presence. You’re there with the character, not just viewing the character. This means the traditional ‘4th wall’ doesn’t exist in VR.

We felt it was important to interact with Quill like you would with one of your friends. We’re no longer limited to button inputs. We could have Quill react to gestures, line of sight, and context. Things like waving at her, petting her, or spooking her by sneaking up behind her were important for us to represent. But just as important is Quill’s autonomy. We gave her an opinion and a way to express it using sign language. We gave her sovereignty over her actions as she asks for a high-five, implying that she has free will, thought and emotions. It’s easier to have empathy for a living creature than it is for a thing. And empathy is the root of bonding. 

A shared emotional journey

Lico – The contrast in scale between Quill and the player helps to define roles. Given Quill’s diminutive size, it’s obvious how limited her effect on her world really is. Players pick up on this and may try to protect her. This will often add subtle tension to a battle or give the players a sense of accomplishment when they solve a puzzle with her. These roles provide an opportunity for the player to feel helpful and cooperative.

But we didn’t want Quill to feel helpless, so we made her actions display an overt sense of effort to compensate. She doesn’t just magically pop-up on top of a ledge or swing her sword. She skitters and scratches her way up a ledge and swings her entire body, not just her sword. This puts an emphasis on realistic physical locomotion, making her more grounded in her world.

We also attempted to be mindful of the player’s emotional arc throughout the game and represent the way we hope the player feels via Quill’s actions. For example, after defeating Sarfog, Quill will kick the defeated foe to vent some adrenaline, which is exactly what we hoped our players would feel in that moment. The idea here is that, if Quill acted on the players emotions, it’ll strengthen the bond they have with her.     

Emphasizing vulnerability through environment

Alderson – In the world we created, most of the dangers for a small mouse like Quill have long passed – including the giants who used to roam the land of Moss. Rodents and small animals alike now rule, and except for the occasional war between different rodent kingdoms or other fairy tale creatures the world more-or-less was made for Quill. She had the unfortunate luck of being born right when an ancient evil decided to rear its ugly head. But it wasn’t all coincidence.

What her tale lets us do as developers is take advantage of the scale of the world to emphasize her vulnerability, adding to an emotional weight of your relationship with her. We tried to play up that fact quite often. Whenever Quill leads you into a tiny rodent structure, we like to reward you with a vast environment at the end of it, but this also tends to make you feel for Quill and how open she is to danger. It was also important that the scale of every tree, plant, and rock felt in place to help the player believe they could exist in this world. Once the scale of the world feels out of place, it can really take you out of the experience which would also take away from the emotional weight of Quill’s journey. 

A shared adventure only possible with VR

Alderson – To me, Moss and VR are synonymous. The reason for the game’s existence, and why Quill looks and acts the way she does was to compliment the tech from the get-go. We knew that, to make the best VR game possible, we would have to have to design it with VR in mind first, rather than port over an experience to VR later.

The most notable way that Moss utilized VR is through your relationship with Quill. VR let’ you become your very own character, and if done right, you should have your own personal story and motivations to keep you engaged. And that’s where Quill comes in. Hopefully, when you play Moss you are taken by her charm, where you both discover everything about her world and story at the same time, so that your motivation is to go on this journey with her and help her succeed.

That is just something that isn’t possible on flat screen entertainment where you end up watching some other hero’s journey. You and Quill are the heroes in Moss. In VR, you are present within these worlds with their own rules and stories, and from there it can go so much further. I can’t wait for the future of this type of VR entertainment

On Moss‘ audio design

Hodde – Quill’s relationship with the player became so central to the player’s experience, so I tried to pursue an understated, detailed, and gentle style that could hold that experience. If the sound is working right, the game’s sound arrives in the player’s mind as a unified world. They’re not hearing effects or systems or processing, or consciously registering discrete components of the soundscape. It should all feel glued together. Strangely enough, this line of thinking caused me to spend more time on making cool reverb than I have on any other project.

Using sound to bond with the player

Hodde – Both Jason Graves (our composer) and I are giving GDC talks around this very topic, so I don’t want to spoil too much!

I’ll be breaking down the role audio plays in VR comfort (and discomfort), how to approach sonic scale and perspective, how Quill’s vocalizations allowed players to form their own impression of her identity, the role of voice direction and narration in supporting the player bond, and choosing sounds that have inherent emotional value. It’s all wrapped in a discussion about how to approach sound as a designer, and in Moss’s case, how each one of these aspects contributes directly to the player’s emotional bond with Quill.

Jason will talk a bit about how soloists create intimacy. He’ll also cover how why we chose to create suites of music that were broken down later into small parts, instead of working directly from a cue sheet.

Starting at 2:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Skip Ahead and Preview Alpha Rings will begin receiving the latest 1904 Xbox One system update (19h1_release_xbox_dev_1904.190206-1920). Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1904 system update.   For the next few releases we will keep Alpha Skip Ahead and Alpha builds in sync to test core functionality.

Fixes:

Skype

• We have fixed the issue with Skype crashing when starting a video call or conversation.

System

• Captive portal fixes.
• Localization fixes.

Known Issues:

Disney Adventures

• We are tracking an issue that this title is crashing on launch.

Broadcasting on Mixer or Twitch

• We are tracking an issue that causes broadcasting to fail with both Mixer and Twitch.
• This happens if you attempt to start Mixer or Twitch broadcast with Kinect/webcam captured content sharing turned off.  This privacy setting is at:  Account \ Privacy & online safety \ Xbox Live privacy \ View details & customize \ Game content \ “You can share content made using Kinect or another camera”.  The workaround is to turn this setting to “Allow”

Netflix

• We are tracking an issue with the Netflix app.  When you are playing 4k content and then pause and place the console in connected standby upon relaunching the Netflix app when starting you console back up the Netflix app crashes.  Workaround:  Close and relaunch the Netflix app.  Some users have also found if they change the console display resolution from 4K to 1080p then launch the app.  After the app launch change the console display back to 4k.

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI: Gathering Storm, all new content for Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI is Now Available on Steam!

Civilization VI: Gathering Storm introduces an active planet where geology and climatology present unique new challenges. The second expansion to Civilization VI adds new Environmental Effects, Engineering Projects, Power and Consumable Resources, as well as the World Congress and a new Diplomatic Victory. This new expansion also extends the Technology and Civics trees with a future era, and adds eight new civilizations, nine new leaders, a variety of new units, districts, wonders, buildings, and more.

This week at Bungie, Lord Shaxx is screaming sweet nothings into our ears. 

With the return of Crimson Days, flowers fall again in the Tower. Love is in the air. Lord Shaxx is handing out rewards in exchange for Confectionary Hearts. Go see him to load up on bounties, grab a date, and join the dance. 

Trials

Ever since Trials of the Nine went on hiatus back in Season 4, many of you have been asking when it will come back and how it will be evolving. We still don’t have a timeline for when it may return, but we do want to give you an update on our current thinking about Trials. Here is the team to fill you in. 

Destiny Dev Team: As longtime Destiny players know, Trials of Osiris was released in May of 2015 as the original high-stakes weekend PvP event. Trials had an amazing impact on our game and our community. It was a pinnacle venue for players to show off their best skills, strategies, and gear. The 3v3 elimination mode combined with the card system created the coveted reward of earning a trip to the Lighthouse.

With the introduction of Trials of the Nine in Destiny 2, we made a few changes to the formula which never really hit the same mark. We were unhappy with its role in the ecosystem. The new activity wasn’t achieving the goal of bringing the community together every weekend. Both Destiny and the online PvP scene have evolved since 2015, so we don’t believe that bringing back the 2015 version of Trials of Osiris would accomplish what our goals are today.

Until we have a solid prototype for a pinnacle PvP endgame activity, Trials is staying on hiatus indefinitely and will not return over the course of the next few seasons. When we have those new plans ready, we’ll be sure to share them with you.

Ironing Board

Next week, after the rose petals have been cleared out by the sweeper bot, Lord Saladin will return to the Tower with a competition fit for Iron Lords. He’s missing out on Crimson Days, so he’ll make up for it with another round of Iron Banner. This is the final Iron Banner for the Season of the Forge, as well as your last chance to collect the Iron Fellowship armor set before this vendor is refreshed next season. The Crimil’s Dagger Hand Cannon and Hero’s Burden SMG will continue to be available next season as post-match drops and rewards from Saladin. 

Take a look at the weapons Saladin will have available in his inventory next week.

Iron Banner

Begins: February 19, 2019

Ends: February 26, 2019

Make sure you turn in all of your completed bounties before the end of the season. When the Season of the Drifter begins, they will be removed from your inventory. Your Iron Banner tokens will persist into the next season. Good luck out there, Guardians!

Love Shaxx, Baby

Come rain, sleet, or snow—lots and lots of snow—the Player Support Team will always be there monitoring the Help forums and diagnosing issues.

This is their report.

Crimson Daze

In case you didn’t know it, Crimson Days has returned to Destiny 2. Lord Shaxx invites all players to engage in jolly cooperation, by forging their bonds in the Crimson Days Crucible playlist.

If you have yet to jump into this playlist, don’t worry. Listed below are the key features you should be aware of that set this playlist apart from the standard Crucible experience.

• Player Count: Crimson Days Crucible is a 2v2 experience. Players can jump in solo if they choose, or in a pre-made fireteam with a partner.
• Reunited: Reunited is a special buff that increases the recharge rate of Guardian abilities for teammates who stick close together.
• Falling Apart: Falling Apart is a debuff that grants enemy teammates waypoints to your locations when you and your teammate drift too far apart.
• Vengeance: Vengeance is triggered when a player’s teammate is defeated in combat. For a short time, the surviving player is granted significantly increased ability regeneration and receives a small portion of their health back.

If you’re looking for more information on Crimson Days, have a look at our Crimson Days Guide. Players who encounter gameplay issues should report them to the #Help forum.

Destiny 2 Update 2.2.0 Resolved Issues Preview—Part 1

With Season of the Drifter inbound, we’d like to kick off a new conversation on the current player-impacting issues that are expected to be resolved with Update 2.2.0 in early March.

These issues include:

• Black Armory Key Mold: Players can obtain the Black Armory Key Mold only on their first character to receive it from Ada-1. More info can be found here.
• Dreaming City Chests: Dreaming City chests do not count toward the Black Armory Key Mold objective.
• Obsidian Accelerator: Obsidian Accelerator consumables do not recover to the postmaster when the player’s inventory is full.
• “A Cold Wind Blowin’”: The emblem “A Cold Wind Blowin’” cannot be reclaimed from the Collection if stowed.
• “Relic Rumble”: The “Relic Rumble” Triumph is currently not achievable.
• In Update 2.2.0, this Triumph will unlock when players complete the Nightfall strike “The Corrupted” by defeating Sedia using no more than two relics.
• UPDATE 02/15: Previously, we reported that only this triumph’s description is incorrect, implying that this triumph was currently achievable. That was incorrect, and we have updated this section to make clear that players cannot currently pop this triumph.
• Character Boost Completion Rewards: Characters who use a Level 30 boost are not granted their class Sword or emblem if they have not already completed the Red War campaign.
• Base D2 Crucible Rewards: Players who own only the base Destiny 2 game can receive rewards from Lord Shaxx’s rank-up packages that drop at Year 2 Power levels, which cannot be equipped.
• Collection Counter: The Collection badge counter incorrectly only counts 10 badges instead of 11.

Check back next week for part two of our Resolved Issues Preview. For the full Destiny 2 Update 2.2.0 patch notes when they are available, players should monitor our Updates page.

Popped Corn

Welcome to yet another edition of Movie of the Week. This is where we feature you! Every week we pick a few of our favorite videos created by the community and share them here for all to see. The creators of said video get a special emblem for their effort to boot! Here are this week’s winners.

Movie of the Week: Shattered Throne Flawless Solo No Hud Run

Honorable Mention: RISE

News about Destiny is random and light this week. Winter visited in the Pacific Northwest and blanketed all its splendor with an immovable object. We don’t tend to maintain the irresistible force of a fleet of plow trucks for the one week out of the year that looks like this, so earlier in the week, we hunkered down with our laptops and waited for the whole thing to blow over. That doesn’t mean that our progress has been interrupted. We’ve been working from our homes to prepare for next season and are back in the office now as the white fluffy powder devolves into a brownish mush. Season of the Drifter will arrive on March 5 with some exciting evolutions for your Guardian lifestyle. We’ll begin that conversation soon…

Between now and then, you have a few weeks to reap all the rewards from Season of the Forge. Have you got the new Bow? I’ve got mine. I’m having a great time in Crimson Doubles. Keep an eye out this weekend and you might see me out in the wild. Enjoy the rest of Crimson Days!

<3 Cozmo

Gaming accessory maker YesOJO has now launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for its dedicated portable Nintendo Switch speaker – an accessory first revealed last September.

The speaker hopes to provide buyers with a way to experience greater sound quality while playing Switch on the go, with the design clearly focusing on enhancing tabletop mode play. The speaker system features dual stereo 10W speakers for what YesOJO describes as “perfect audio quality and volume, providing rich audio quality and a deep resounding bass”.

As you can see in the trailer above, it also doubles up as a Switch dock, connecting to your TV via an HDMI cable. Perhaps our favourite part of the design, however, is the interchangeable panels, which just so happen to match the colours of Nintendo’s very own Joy-Con.

YesOJO tells us that, if the campaign is successful, the company will give away a free game card holder, and if $300,000 or more is raised, it’ll give away a free retro-style pro controller.

You can find more details about the product on its Kickstarter page – and pledge your support to get one for yourself, of course. At the time of writing the project is 20% funded with 40 days remaining. There are a limited number of Early Bird options available, costing an approximated £77 after currency conversion.

What do you think? Does this look like a cool accessory for your Switch? Would you like to enhance your console’s audio quality when on the go? Tell us below.