A quick heads up for PlayStation Plus subscribers - eight games will be leaving the service in the coming weeks. Read more

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a game with pretty extreme expectations. It's the first mainline series entry since 2020's AC Valhalla, the first AC game built exclusively for current-gen consoles, and it's a game that probably needs to be a big commercial success for beleaguered publisher Ubisoft. We've seen how the game meets technical expectations on the original trio of current-gen consoles, but this is a title with some substantial Pro enhancements, highlighted by additional ray tracing. How does AC Shadows fare on Pro? Is this an iterative upgrade, or a revolutionary one?As the title of this article has already hinted, Shadows has one of the largest PS5 Pro upgrades we've seen so far. The key difference here is that the performance mode gets the ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) that the PS5's performance mode doesn't. Having this lavish pass of per-pixel RTGI, bouncing light through each space to capture a realistic indirect diffuse lighting response, totally transforms the game. Shadow detail is greatly improved, diffuse bounce lighting transfers colours from skies or surfaces, and the entire world feels more true-to-life. Here's the full video breakdown of PS5 vs PS5 Pro. Watch on YouTubeThe PS5, in contrast, looks overly flat and compressed during these scenes, with a more uniform lighting response. Foliage is a particular sore point, with the baked GI lighting solution on the base PS5's performance mode failing to capture the subtle occlusion you get from bunches of leafy greenery, giving it a dull, artificial look. Running through forest areas, the difference is unbelievably vast, with a generational divide in lighting fidelity. Despite the performance mode on base PS5 using an evolution of the baked GI solution from prior Anvil Engine titles, it largely fails to capture the kind of lighting detail that we've seen in recent AC games like 2023's Mirage. This is likely due to the fact that Shadows is a much larger game, and achieving good lighting fidelity without RTGI is therefore more challenging. Shadows' baked GI also doesn't adapt to changes in the environment, such as opened doors, unlike the Pro code. The addition of RTGI is ultimately a pretty huge visual uplift over the base console. In a lot of lighting conditions, the PS5 Pro version almost looks like a totally different game.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. One consequence of the inclusion of RTGI is that image quality on the Pro's performance mode isn't really improved over the base machine. Both suffer from considerable pixel crawl, even at rest, blocky patterns emerge on moving edges, and transparencies are poorly upscaled, with obvious signs of a low-res source. Ubisoft stated pre-launch that both PS5 and PS5 Pro in their performance modes would upscale to 4K, and that is reflected in the final code. The upsampling produces somewhat variable results in terms of achieving a sharp, 4K-like appearance. Internal resolutions in light scenes on both consoles hovered around 1080p in my tests, with the RTGI apparently eating up most of the additional margin of GPU time on the Pro. However, some of Ubisoft's pre-launch Pro promises haven't quite materialised in the finished game. Press material published last September referenced PSSR upscaling on Pro, and that doesn't appear to have happened - the game doesn't carry the hallmarks of PSSR upscaling in that disoccluded detail is fizzly, not blurred, the edge detail is very sharp, and in general the image has artefacting that is more in line with analytical techniques than ML-based ones. The most obvious evidence is just that base PS5 and Pro look so similar in image quality terms. In my tests, the PC version with Anvil's TAAU proves a pretty close match for both PS5s and therefore is likely the solution of choice on both consoles. It's less stable at rest than FSR, but tends to exhibit fewer issues with disocclusion, and is probably cheaper to run. Presumably, Ubisoft found that this was a better solution for this game than PSSR. The upscaling used here doesn't appear to be PSSR, despite claims by Ubisoft last year. Instead, TAAU looks like the most likely option. | Image credit: Digital FoundryBeyond the RT boost on Pro, the game has very similar visual settings on both machines. Draw distances, shadow resolution, and other common tweakables seemed to be about the same on both consoles. Frame-rates on PS5 Pro's performance mode also land at a similarly consistent 60fps to what we experience on PS5. There are some notable drops below that 60fps target though, including some severe dips in the introductory sequence and more minor blips in open-world traversal. Amazingly, cutscenes still run at 30fps on PS5 Pro, as does the hideout area - perhaps to accommodate the potential for greater player-created complexity. Overall, I think AC Shadows is tremendously improved on Pro when it comes to the performance mode, even if image quality and frame-rates remain imperfect. The addition of RTGI is an absolute game changer here, and Shadows feels like it was built with RTGI tech as a visual baseline. Draw distance is one of several variables that don't appear to have been bumped up on PS5 Pro versus the base machine. | Image credit: Digital FoundryDespite the addition of RTGI though, PS5 Pro doesn't get RT reflections in its performance mode. That means screen-space reflections (SSR) are used instead, with (poorly aligned and lower resolution) cubemaps used as a fallback. RT reflections are instead limited to the quality mode on PS5 Pro, though the effectiveness of these reflections is a little limited - with little evident detail, no foliage animations and no distant geometry. These RT reflections also suffer from a fair amount of pop-in, which can be distracting. Therefore, Shadows uses a hybrid approach in its quality mode with SSR still enabled to fill in specular detail, though having RT means that you do fall back to a perspective-correct technique when screen-space information isn't available. Outside of the RT reflections divergence, other visual settings appear fairly similar. RTGI is present on both machines and generally looks comparable. You can notice some improvements in terms of specular detail on Pro from the additional RT. Other PC tweakables seem pretty similar across both consoles, without an obvious divergence in my tests. Image quality is also generally comparable across both machines. Neither is perfect, though both offer a less artefact-ridden image than their performance mode counterparts. I expect TAAU is again in use here, owing to the similar image quality quirks between the various mode and console configurations. Resolution is similar between the two machines, though some shots exhibited a slightly higher resolution on PS5 Pro. Skinned objects like the NPC at the top of these shots don't persist as reflections when they're off-screen, even in the PS5 Pro's quality mode. Left: NPC visible, reflection visible. Right: NPC nearly hidden, no reflection. | Image credit: Digital FoundryPerformance is very good in quality mode. Expect a locked 30fps in the vast majority of gameplay, including cutscenes, battle sequences, traversal and the hideout. The game can drop a frame in some circumstances, but it's generally a very consistent performer. Base PS5 offers essentially the same update here, with strong performance as well.If we circle back to the performance mode and compare these two PS5 Pro modes directly, there are some obvious settings differences. Shadow resolution is upgraded in the quality mode, as is foliage density. Performance mode also appears to drop the game's strand-based hair during gameplay, though it is present in cutscenes in both modes. RTGI is present at a similar quality level in the two modes, but only the quality mode features RT reflections as we mentioned earlier. Image quality is another key area of divergence, as the quality mode is sharper in some scenes and generally less prone to pixel crawling, serrated edges, and other visual gremlins. Of course, there's one final mode available on PS5 Pro: a 40fps balanced mode for users of 120Hz displays. In a lot of games this would function as a slightly downgraded quality mode, but here it's more like an extended performance mode. RTGI is in, but RT reflections are out. Interestingly, this is another shift from some of the pre-launch press materials, which said that the balanced mode on Pro would feature both RT effects. Elsewhere, fidelity come in somewhere between the other two modes. Quality mode and balanced mode both use strand-based hair during gameplay, for instance, but shadowmap resolution in balanced mode is similar to the performance mode. Relative to the balanced mode on the base PS5, we're basically at parity here in terms of visual settings. Both have RTGI, no RT reflections, and fall on the same side of the hair rendering and shadowmap divide. I can't really compare image quality directly, owing to capture limitations on my HDMI 2.0 system, but pixel counts do suggest a higher resolution on Pro, and it does look cleaner as well. Both are upsampling to 4K, so they produce a sharp final image. Both consoles also basically nail their 40fps updates here, with a consistent 40fps in typical play, with the usual 30fps limits for cutscenes and the hideout.Console/ModeShot 1Shot 2Shot 3PS5/Quality1584p1512p1404pPS5 Pro/Quality1656p1584p1548pPS5/Performance1152p1080p1008pPS5 Pro/Performance1080p1080p1008pCapture limitations on this HDMI 2.0 system prevent from getting solid pixel counts in the 40fps balanced mode, but based on Tom's testing we'd expect to see a narrower range set between the performance and quality modes, with PS5 Pro offering a higher internal resolution. I came away from AC Shadows impressed with the technical package that Ubisoft has assembled. There are so many neat technical touches here - from the dynamic wind and particle systems that make the world feel alive, to the Metal Gear Rising style environmental slicing, to the headlining virtualised geometry and RTGI effects. Shadows presents a beautifully realised open world environment that really draws you in, and is up there with the most convincing worlds in video games. It's a lot of fun to play as well, with simple but satisfying combat that is delightfully visceral. The PS5 Pro upgrade here is pretty enormous in its 60fps performance mode, which honestly looks generationally improved over its base console counterpart. The RTGI does seem to have a considerable performance impact here, but it's absolutely critical for lighting in this particular title. It's hard to overstate how diminished the game is without the technique. Quality mode and balanced mode get more moderate boosts. The headlining change here is the addition of RT reflections, which do make reflections look more accurate when screen-space information isn't available, but this isn't quite enough to recommend these less responsive modes over the excellent 60fps option. It has a compelling combination of visual quality and good frame-rates that's hard to beat, and I suspect that's what most players will prefer. In that context, this is quite possibly the most transformative PS5 Pro upgrade we've seen so far.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereMarvel Rivals features a huge pool of 37 Marvel heroes, merging legendary heavyweights with surprise underdogs. While Spider-Man and Iron Man have received a lot of attention, the game has also featured lesser-known heroes like Squirrel Girl and Cloak & Dagger, which has delighted fans and piqued their interest in the developers selections.Squirrel Girl, a quirky heroine with the ability to command squirrels, unleashes unexpected chaos with her slingshot and ultimate ability demonstrating that even the most modest characters can shine. Similarly, Cloak & Dagger, an often-overlooked combo in Marvels enormous world, provides diverse tactical gameplay, incorporating massive damage and healing into the battlefield with a unique twist.The inclusion of underdog characters is not a coincidence. In a recent interview, Marvel Rivals executive producer Danny Koo revealed the teams methodology, stating why they live to throw some curve ball characters into the rich roster of iconic heroes.Marvel Rivals producer hints at more underdog heroes like Jeff may arrive in the futureIn an interview with PC Gamer at GDC 2025, Marvel Games Executive Producer Danny Koo revealed why the team loves to throw some unknown characters into the roster packed with iconic heroes like Captain America, Thor, and so on. He said, Roughly 70% [of the roster] is made up of your greatest hits, like well-known heroes: Iron Man, Cap, etc. And then we throw in some curve balls; you might not even know who they are, to make the roster more interesting.Lesser-known heroes like Cloak and Dagger are taking over the meta. Image by VideoGamer.While there are superstar heroes like Wolverine, Winter Soldier, and Hulk, Koo revealed even the newer unknown heroes like Jeff or Luna undergo the same development process, What we do is, whenever we have a character, well come up with a character background, who they are, and the comic references that appear in what they do, and well hand it over to the design team. Then theyll come up with some ideas, and well both agree on what their baseline is. When we feel good about [the hero], we go into production. Then the marketing team is like, Okay, how do we present this to new players that might not know whose world this is? Do we need to explain it? We have a comic historian come in.However, as NetEase revealed earlier that with every season they will add two new heroes and two more in mid-season patches, its a high possibility the games roster may see more such additions in future seasons, starting with the upcoming Season 2. When asked about such a possibility, Koo revealed, Nothing is out of the question for now. But we focus on making sure the characters are distinct from each other. For example, Hulk and Red Hulk roughly have the same silhouette, so we may not want to do that one. Their [abilities] have to be as distinct as well because we have all kinds of players. Some players love to be Strategists. Some players like to dive into the action. Some players just like to watch other people play. So we have to tailor it to every kind of player.Since Marvel Rivals is already nearing the end of Season 1: Eternal Night Falls on April 11, the leaks surrounding Season 2 hint towards a more recognizable hero roster full of X-Men characters that players are extremely thrilled about. However, a few more curve balls like Paste Pot Pete and Angela are also major frontrunners to be introduced in a future Marvel Rivals patch.Marvel RivalsPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Fighting, ShooterRelated TopicsMarvel Rivals Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereMarvel Rivals has successfully established itself as a top-tier hero shooter with dynamic gameplay and a free-to-play model that has drawn in a massive player base. However, underlying the bright team-ups and iconic characters is a growing shadow that threatens the games competitive integrity: cheating. NetEase, the games developer, has already cracked down on apparent exploits, banning third-party applications like Blitz for providing players with unfair benefits through real-time statistics.Despite these attempts, a more serious problem is festering in the games ranked mode, aggravating players and risking its long-term viability. Reports of cheating have increased, with the community blaming the rising tide of smurfing. Smurfing, which involves strong players creating new accounts to dominate lesser ranks, has transformed Bronze and Silver lobbies into imbalanced battlegrounds.Newer players, anxious to climb the competitive ladder, are outmatched by Grandmaster-level opponents posing as beginners. Streamers that exaggerate the issue by displaying educational smurf runs merely add gasoline to the fire, infuriating a community clamoring for fair play.Marvel Rivals has a Smurfing problem only mid-season Rank Resets could solveIn Marvel Rivals, smurfing has gotten out of hand and has been ruining the ranked mode since it came out. The situation is getting out of hand, and the only way to fix it is to change ranks in the middle of the season.High-skill players are slashing lower-tier players in lobbies using alt accounts. Image by VideoGamer.Chrono Shields and low-rank punishments arent enough to fix the problem right now. The smurfs quickly get back up, and high-rank inflation fills lower levels with people who dont have the right skills. A mid-season change of ranks is the answer. If NetEase had wiped the ranks in the middle of Season 1, everyone would have played a fair game by now.Players on YouTube are suggesting similar solutions as according to them, Smurfing is heavily hurting the games competitive scene right now where more than half the player base is still sitting on Bronze III and rank distribution numbers are as wide as they could be. They suggest the game incorporated skill-based matchmaking that could put players in lobbies with similarly skilled players rather than smurfs.NetEase could pair this with stricter rules for alt-accounts, but resets get to the root of the problem: they stop smurf growth right away. Unlike changes made at the end of the season, a reset in the middle of the season surprises smurfs and levels the playing field when its most needed.So the next time NetEase announces a mid-season full-rank reset, dont push them to reverse their decision. The devs know what theyre doing and its best for the games overall health and fair play in ranked lobbies.Marvel RivalsPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Fighting, ShooterRelated TopicsMarvel Rivals Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Pokemon No"Not now, not ever" Pokemon Go exec tells players concerned about its new corporate overlords adding in "intrusive" ads or dodgy time limitsThey're sticking to the line about Saudi-backed Scopely adopting an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' approach to the big thing it's just bought.Image credit: Niantic News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on March 19, 2025 Last week, Monopoly Go owner Scopely acquired of a bunch of games headlined by Pokemon Go from Niantic, thereby creating some kind of Saudi-backed terrifying Go-liath alliance. Naturally, there were a number of things that left players of the Pokemon game that was once totally unavoidable with some concerns, which one of its execs has aimed to nip in the bud with a recent interview.In addition to some justified discomfort about Niantic having sold up to a publisher owned by Saudia Arabia's controversial Savvy Games Group in the $3.5 billion deal, folks were worried it might be the harbinger of changes that'd bring some of the questionable advertising and monetisation practices Scopely's other games are known for to Pokemon Go.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Pokemon Go's senior vice president Ed Wu tried to extingish any fears in Ninantic's announcement of the deal, and more of the same has come from the game's senior product director Michael Steranka in a fresh chat with Polygon.Asked if there are any plans for the game to have stuff like "intrusive ads that will interrupt gameplay" or playtime restrictions that could push folks towards paying to keep going, Steranka's answer was "definitively no, that is not happening in Pokemon Go not now, not ever". So, basically the same response you'd get if you asked someone if they'd like to use the game to make it look like they were giving Pikachu the finger.The exec went on to re-iterate pretty much what Wu said - Scopely good, Scopely thinks Pokemon Go good, Scopely not gonna mess up a good thing. It's the message you're getting at this point, though it's up to you if you trust the company to stick to it.Meanwhile, based on one of Steranka's other answers, it sounds like Pokemon Go could be influencing some changes to Scopely's games, rather than vice versa. "Theyre really interested in the fact that Pokmon Go is such a stable business," the exec said of the publisher, "but almost more than that, theyve been really interested to try to learn from us and see what they can take from how we build Pokemon Go and apply that to potentially other games in their portfolio and future games to come as well."Will things actually play out that way in the long-term? It's early days yet, so we'll have to wait and see. One thing I do know is that Steranka at one point in the interview made a joke about Scopely not turning Pokemon Go into "Pokemon Stay at Home" due to this deal, and that might be the moment the concept comedy died.Yes, it's very rich of me - a notorious and unrelenting delivererer of utterly s**t jokes - to say that, but I'm doing it anyway.

Just in case there was any doubt in your mind that Monster Hunter Wilds is the biggest release of the year so far - pretty much everywhere - along comes the consumer report for the month of February. Read more

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube799kHad enough Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition content? No..? Good, 'cause we're not done just yet.Ahead of the game's launch on 20th March 2025 (yes, tomorrow), we thought we'd give you one last glimpse with some direct-feed gameplay. 11 minutes of it, no less! No commentary, no quips, just straight gameplay to give you a nice feel for what to expect from Monolith's remarkably sprawling epic.We should note that the footage isn't from the beginning of the game; in fact, the sections in the video are from roughly the 20-hour mark (apart from the cutscene at the end; that comes a bit earlier). There's nothing here that we'd deem to be an egregious spoiler, but if you're concerned and would like to head into the game completely fresh, then we don't mind if you want to give this one a skip.That said, we imagine some of you who perhaps might be unfamiliar with the game will be wondering just how it differs from the numbered entries. This chunk of gameplay does more than enough to demonstrate the differences in battle mechanics and exploration, so if you're interested, then give it a whirl.We gave Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition a whopping score of 10/10 in our review, calling it "an expertly crafted revamp that gives us all the bells and whistles we could wish for in terms of graphical upgrades". If you love lengthy RPGs that don't skimp on compelling gameplay, this is definitely one to check out. One more sleep!Give 'em SkellAre you looking forward to checking out Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Switch? Did you play it on the Wii U? Share your thoughts with a comment.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:02 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesPokmon Scarlet & Violet: Mystery Gift Codes ListAll the current Pokmon Scarlet and Violet Mystery Gift codesBest Cheap Nintendo Switch Games50 games under 20 bucksNintendo Museum Launches Keychains That Play Your Favourite Console JinglePortable nostalgia

Have researchers discovered a new AI scaling law? Thats what some buzz on social media suggests but experts are skeptical. AI scaling laws, a bit of an informal concept, describe how the performance of AI models improves as the size of the datasets and computing resources used to train them increases. Until roughly a year ago, scaling up pre-training training ever-larger models on ever-larger datasets was the dominant law by far, at least in the sense that most frontier AI labs embraced it. Pre-training hasnt gone away, but two additional scaling laws, post-training scaling and test-time scaling, have emerged to complement it. Post-training scaling is essentially tuning a models behavior, while test-time scaling entails applying more computing to inference i.e. running models to drive a form of reasoning (see: models like R1). Google and UC Berkeley researchers recently proposed in a paper what some commentators online have described as a fourth law: inference-time search.Inference-time search has a model generate many possible answers to a query in parallel and then select the best of the bunch. The researchers claim it can boost the performance of a year-old model, like Googles Gemini 1.5 Pro, to a level that surpasses OpenAIs o1-preview reasoning model on science and math benchmarks.[B]y just randomly sampling 200 responses and self-verifying, Gemini 1.5 an ancient early 2024 model beats o1-preview and approaches o1, Eric Zhao, a Google doctorate fellow and one of the papers co-authors, wrote in a series of posts on X. The magic is that self-verification naturally becomes easier at scale! Youd expect that picking out a correct solution becomes harder the larger your pool of solutions is, but the opposite is the case!Several experts say that the results arent surprising, however, and that inference-time search may not be useful in many scenarios. Matthew Guzdial, an AI researcher and assistant professor at the University of Alberta, told TechCrunch that the approach works best when theres a good evaluation function in other words, when the best answer to a question can be easily ascertained. But most queries arent that cut-and-dry.[I]f we cant write code to define what we want, we cant use [inference-time] search, he said. For something like general language interaction, we cant do this [] Its generally not a great approach to actually solving most problems.Mike Cook, a research fellow at Kings College London specializing in AI, agreed with Guzdials assessment, adding that it highlights the gap between reasoning in the AI sense of the word and our own thinking processes.[Inference-time search] doesnt elevate the reasoning process of the model, Cook said. [I]ts just a way of us working around the limitations of a technology prone to making very confidently supported mistakes [] Intuitively if your model makes a mistake 5% of the time, then checking 200 attempts at the same problem should make those mistakes easier to spot.That inference-time search may have limitations is sure to be unwelcome news to an AI industry looking to scale up model reasoning compute-efficiently. As the co-authors of the paper note, reasoning models today can rack up thousands of dollars of computing on a single math problem. It seems the search for new scaling techniques will continue.

Robots are part of an exciting new frontier in tech, but heres the challenge: robots rely on arrays of sensors, external signals like GPS and Wi-Fi, and customized software to navigate their environments. Further, robotics often involves expensive, ready-made hardware solutions that include built-in software and sensors designed for specific tasks, like estimating relative motion. These products require complex integration and are limited to specific use cases.As a result, most robots today cannot move between different locations, and only a small percentage of self-driving systems use AI for navigation. But Tera AI founder and CEO Tony Zhang thinks software known as zero-shot navigation for robots can overcome these obstacles and investors just gave him $7.8 million in seed funding to prove it.At a high level, Tera AI is building a spatial reasoning AI system to provide affordable visual navigation for autonomous robots. This technology is used in various applications, including robotic manipulation, mobile robotics, and automated driving. We take a pure-software, platform-agnostic approach through an over-the-air software update that works with any robot with a pre-existing camera and a GPU, Zhang said in an interview with TechCrunch. The system is cognition-inspired and can be applied during inference time to entirely novel scenarios- a bit like a large language model (LLM).Zhang founded San Francisco-based Tera in 2023 after leading machine learning efforts at Google X, where he worked on developing and commercializing geospatial models. He earned his PhD at Caltech under Pietro Perona, a pioneer in computer vision who studied how biological systems solve navigation in a general-purpose way. The startups team includes AI and simulation researchers from Google AI, Caltech, MIT, and the European Space Agency.While much of the AI industry has been focused on LLMs, Zhang and his team have developed a new approach that enables AI to learn spatial reasoning independently. Spatial reasoning AI allows machines to navigate, recognize objects, and interact with three-dimensional space. General-purpose navigation software that eliminates hardware constraints could further drastically lower costs and implementation time, making robots 1,000 times more valuable, Zhang told TechCrunch. It could also enable new capabilities for existing robots in areas where autonomy was simply impossible due to constraints on sensors, he said.For example, a Waymo vehicle costing $250,000 can afford a $50,000 localization sensor and $100,000 lidar system. But lighter robots priced under $50,000 need more affordable solutions to navigate autonomously, according to Tera AI. Additionally, a high-precision GPS receiver can cost $10,000, and a top-tier IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) can reach $30,000 expenses that put autonomous navigation out of reach for many smaller robots.Our key unique value proposition is that we are completely hardware agnostic, which means we focus on solving general-purpose navigation in pure software form for any robot and any new environment without needing to be re-tuned every single time, Zhang said. For the first time in robotics, we can sell a piece of software that acts like an operating system, giving any mobile robotic platform the ability to live up to its full potential and deliver on its promises to its customers.The startup has been testing its product with various key U.S.-based players in the robotics industry. The companys clients are primarily robotic manufacturers that already have customers but face challenges when expanding their solutions to different autonomy platforms, situations, and environments.The new funding will help Tera deploy its initial solution on embedded devices this year and expand its technical team.We see a future where software becomes the most valuable asset of robotic platforms. Once people realize that existing cameras that are already on robots are sufficient for positioning and navigation, they will be able to deploy cheaper robots more quickly at scale, Zhang told TechCrunch. Eventually, we envision a future where, like an iOS app store, you can install new capabilities simply by clicking download and boom your robot has a brand new ability.Investors in Teras seed round include Felicis, Inovia, Caltech, Wilson Hill, and entrepreneur-investor Naval Ravikant.SoftBank to invest $500M in robotics startup Skild AITopics

Breakdown & ShowreelsNosferatu: VFX Breakdown by BlueBoltBy Vincent Frei - 19/03/2025 The shadowy world of Nosferatu wouldnt be complete without the meticulous VFX work made by BlueBolt. From eerie castles to raging seas, their artistry enhances the films gothic horror, bringing Orloks terror to life like never before!WANT TO KNOW MORE?BlueBolt: Dedicated page about Nosferatu on BlueBolt website.Angela Barson & David Scott: Heres my interview of Production VFX Supervisor Angela Barson and BlueBolt VFX Supervisor David Scott. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025