Imagine being able to flip open the display on your Apple Watch, use it like an iPhone, and make video calls on it. That's what Apple's has been researching.Detail from the patent application showing a hinged Apple Watch screen image Credit: AppleBack in the very earliest days of the Apple Watch, there was a manufacturing fault that meant the whole front display would come loose around three sides. It would then flap open along that last side, like a hinge.Picture that happening again, but this time deliberately and with at least one extra screen underneath the display. That's what is shown in a recently revealed Apple patent application called just "Wearable Electronic Device." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Thegrand prize winner of the $10,000Forge Prizefor 2025has beenannounced as an underutilized space in dense urban neighborhoods into new communities in New York City by theAmerican Institute of Steel Construction(AISC).

After numerous delays and a bit of controversy, Assassins Creed Shadows is now available worldwide on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Set in Feudal Japan during the late Sengoku era, players control two protagonists Naoe and Yasuke as they embark on a crusade to mete out justice.Backstories aside, each character has a unique gameplay style. Naoe is more suited to stealth and assassinations, possessing extensive parkour and Eagle Vision to navigate environments. Yasuke is a frontline brawler, capable of soaking up damage and wielding powerful two-handed weapons to take on crowds of enemies.You dont have to play them in those ways, with Shadows boasting extensive customization and gear for build variety (as outlined in this gameplay walkthrough). Check out our review for more details we gave it a nine out of ten, praising the world design, combat and stealth while criticizing the story. Head here for various tips and tricks as well.

Helldivers 2 creative director and Arrowhead Game Studios CCO Johan Pilstedt spoke about the development of Helldivers 2 and its success at a recent talk during Game Developers Conference 2025. As caught by PCGamer, Pilstedt revealed that development on the game was difficult due to poor planning.At the talk, Pilstedt revealed that Helldivers 2 didnt go through a more traditional pre-production stage that game development usually needs in order to plan things out. Rather, the studio assumed that it would be able to wrap up development on the game in around four years.We were throwing around some ideas, and then we got a little cautious because weve been burned before by making games that are a little bit too complicated for what were capable of, and then having to crunch. It takes so much energy, Pilestedt said. So we said, This will be easy. We can probably do it in four years.'As it turned out, development Helldivers 2 took almost twice the time that the studio originally predicted. According to Pilstedt, work on the game was considered done in 7 years, 11 months and 26 days. He largely puts this down to the fact that the studio decided to skip the pre-production phase and dove straight into full development without planning.We already knew where the game was going to go and headed straight into productionit was a really, really, really bad idea, Pilestedt said. Always do your homework before you start spending millions and millions and millions of dollars in making a game.More details about Helldivers 2s development were revealed earlier this month during a live stream celebrating the first anniversary of the games release. Speaking on the live stream, head of product testing Patrik Lasota revealed that the co-op shooter was originally designed around having 5-player squads.Helldivers 2 was originally designed for five people, actually, said Lasota. That was Johanns call because he had thoughts around when youre four people playing and a fifth joins you, suddenly youre a three-stack and a two-stack, and it creates this imbalance. But if its five people and someone joins then youre two three-stacks, and with three groups instead one becoming a pair.The decision to go with 4-players quads as we see in the Helldivers 2 today largely comes down to the fact that the original concept just didnt work. According to Lasota, 5-players quads led to one player just standing around, not really participating int he action. It also gave players more freedom in their choice of Stratagems to take on missions, which took away a fair bit of the tension the studio wanted to create for players.In the same livestream, Lasota also revealed that the studio had ultimately cut quite a few ideas that were originally planned for it. This includes more variability in the planets that players could land on, with some even potentially featuring different gravity. The idea was ultimately canned because of the extra work low-gravity jumping and landing would create for the games animators.Helldivers 2 is available on PC and PS5. Check out our review for more details.

Silicon Box Singapore Semiconductor Integration Facility (Image courtesy of Stantec)Stantec, a leader in sustainable design and engineering, and its partner Drees & Sommer, have been selected for Silicon Boxs new 3.2 billion state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly and test facility in Northern Italy. Stantecwill provide architecture for the administration areas and infrastructure design including overall permitting services.The new facility will be located close to Novara, Piedmont, and is expected to create approximately 1,600 jobs in the region. As Silicon Boxs second asset, it will also emulate the companys state-of-the-art automated flagship facility in Singapore, which offers advanced large-format panel-level semiconductor packaging solutions.The global market islooking for a more secure and robust electronics supply chain. Silicon Boxs expansion into Italy is a significant catalystto this growing ecosystem in Europe, saidLeonard Castro,Stantecs executive vice president for Buildings. By uniting our local presence with global expertise in this space, were uniquely positioned to support Silicon Box with this expansion.With a goal to develop advanced technologies that are critical to scale next generation applications with lower-cost, enhanced performance and flexibility,the new facility is expected to serve as a catalyst for broader advanced manufacturing investments and innovation in Italy.It will also aim to enhance the countrys strengths on key initiatives such as artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, mobile technologies, electric vehicles, radio frequency power amplifiers, wearables, and edge computing.These initiatives reflect Silicon Boxs commitment to its broader investment strategy in the semiconductor industry and align with the Italian government and European Commissions goals of driving innovation and building a more resilient semiconductor supply chain.Silicon Box selectedStantecfor its global expertise in building cutting-edge manufacturing facilities. Their partnership with Drees & Sommer highlights a dedication to excellence, and both companies bring a wealth of experience drawn from their extensive global portfolios, providing us with confidence to align with the expectations of Europe and the Italian central and local governments, said Mike Han, head of business at Silicon Box. We were impressed withStantecs dedication to sustainable development, which will enable Silicon Boxs Novara foundry to align with Europes high environmental and community standards. Our recent kick-off workshop has set a strong foundation for the design phase, and we look forward to execution.The new facility is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.The post Stantec to provide design services for semiconductor assembly and test facility in Italy appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Thursday, March 20th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerUnity unveils its 2025 product roadmaphtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Unity Technologies has unveiled its 2025 roadmap for Unity, its game engine and real-time renderer, during a session at this weeks Game Developers Conference.Unity 6.1, due out next month, gets improvements to rendering, including a new Deferred+ rendering path in the Universal Render Pipeline, and support for Variable Rate Shading.Subsequent Unity 6.x releases will feature a new automated Mesh LOD system, an experimental new animation system, and updates to the physics system and UI Toolkit.Future releases presumably those in the Unity 7 series will introduce new generative AI features for generating textured 3D meshes and skyboxes.Unity 6.1: improvements to shading and renderingUnity 6.1, currently in beta, and due for a stable release in April 2025 is primarily a performance- and stability-focused update, although there are a few new features.Those most relevant to artists include a new Deferred+ rendering path in the Universal Render Pipeline, support for Variable Rate Shading, and better DirectX 12 ray tracing performance.You can find more details in our separate story on Unity 6.1.Unity 6.x: New automated Mesh LOD system Features due later in the Unity 6.x series include a new Mesh LOD system.Unity describes it as providing compact automated LOD generation in-editor, making it possible to generate levels of detail for both static and skinned meshes directly inside the Unity Editor, rather than having to configure LOD levels in an external 3D modeling app.Unity 6.x: Preview of new animation systemUnitys new animation system will also be available as an official preview later during the Unity 6.x release cycle.Changes include support for procedural rigging for any skeletal asset, not just characters; and for remapping animations across assets with differing size, proportions and hierarchies.The slide above also namechecks a new animation blending system, with support for per-bone masking and layer blending, and pose correction via a new underlying rig graph.The new animation system will also feature a reworked hierarchical, layered State Machine capable of scaling to thousands of characters. At 32:27 in the video, you can see a demo of a crowd animation with 1,000 characters running in-editor at 30fps, although Unity didnt say what hardware configuration it was running on.Unity 6.x: swappable physics backends, and updates to native Unity physicsChanges to the physics system include a swappable physics backend, making it possible to switch between physics engines in project settings.The slide above mentions initial support for Havok Physics and PhysX, but Bullet Physics and MuJoCo were also namechecked in the presentation. The native Unity Physics system will get new solvers for more complex and reliable behaviors.Unity 6.x: Updates to the UI ToolkitInterface designers get updates to Unitys UI Toolkit.Key changes include the option to render the UI directly in world space, for more immersive XR experiences, and to apply post effects like blur or color shifts.Support for vector graphics will reduce asset file sizes, and enable assets to scale across device screen sizes without loss of visual quality.It will also be possible to modify the ubershader without recreating it, allowing for detailed adjustments to text, graphics and textures through familiar Shader Graph workflows.Unity 6.x and beyond: new generative AI toolsUnity also announced updates to Unity Muse, its in-editor generative AI toolset.Changes include support for video-to-motion as well as text-to-motion for animation, making it possible to generate nuanced animations from smartphone reference footage.There will also be a new library of LoRAs for generating sprites, pre-trained for use cases like icons, props and platformer backgrounds.3D mesh and texture generation and skybox generation are further off: presumably in the Unity 7.x release cycle.New collaboration and programming featuresOther changes covered in the video include new live collaboration features, making it possible to edit files locally and have revisions synced automatically to the cloud.Programmers get improvements to the Entity Component System, the Unity Profiler, and new live game development features, covered in detail in the final section of the video.No mention of the new world-building tools, unified renderer, or Shader Graph 2However, several key upcoming features that Unity had previously announced were not mentioned during the GDC presentation, and will presumably not arrive in 2025.They include updates to the world-building tools, the new unified renderer and Shader Graph 2, all previewed at Unite 2024 last year. You can find more details in this story.Release dates for the Unity 6.x release cycleUnity 6.1 is due for a stable release in April 2025. Unity hasnt confirmed dates for the other Unity 6.x releases, or which of the features previewed at GDC 2025 will be in which release.Read Unitys overview of its 2025 roadmap on its blogHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsUnity unveils its 2025 product roadmapFeatures due in Unity this year include in-editor LOD generation, swappable physics backends, and more generative AI tools.Thursday, March 20th, 2025Unity previews Unity 6.1Check out the key artist features in the next version of the game engine, including support for Variable Rate Shading and better DX12 ray tracing.Thursday, March 20th, 2025Character Creator to get new MetaTailor pluginAdd-on will let you send characters from Character Creator to MetaTailor with one-click, fit 3D clothing to them, then send them back to CC4.Wednesday, March 19th, 2025NVIDIA unveils Blackwell RTX PRO GPUs with up to 96GB VRAMNew series of pro workstation and laptop GPUs include the 'most powerful desktop GPU ever created'. See its key specs for CG work.Wednesday, March 19th, 20255 key features in Blender 4.4Check out the key changes in the latest version of the open-source 3D app, including important updates to animation and the CPU compositor.Tuesday, March 18th, 2025Sketchsoft releases Feather 1.1Promising 3D sketching app for iPad gets time-saving new workflows for Apple Pencil users, including support for haptic feedback.Tuesday, March 18th, 2025More NewsGIMP 3.0 is out after seven years in developmentAdobe releases Substance 3D Modeler 1.21Adobe releases Substance 3D Painter 11.0Free tool: Lens Cap for BlenderCelsys releases Clip Studio Paint 4Assetify 2.1 converts Blender assets to game-ready formatsTutorial: Creature Combat Animation in MayaWonder Studio becomes Autodesk Flow StudioPolygonflow releases Dash 1.9Get KitBash3D's Gaea fantasy architecture asset pack for freeCheck out open-source Blender character generator MPFB 2Check out neat AI-trained hand mocap tool HandCraft ProOlder Posts

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Balatro leads Game Developers Choice Awards 2025, wins Game of the YearLocalThunk's deck-building roguelite also won Best Debut, Best Design, and the Innovation awardImage credit: LocalThunk/Playstack News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on March 20, 2025 Balatro dominated the Game Developers Choice Awards last night, taking home Game of the Year and Best Debut alongside Best Design and the Innovation award.Astro Bot won two awards in the Audio and Technology categories, while Black Myth: Wukong received the accolade for Best Visual Art.Studio Zero's Metaphor: ReFantazio won Best Narrative with Deck Nine Games' Life is Strange: Double Exposure taking home the Social Impact award.As previously reported, Remedy's creative director Sam Lake received the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Alan Wake and Control actor Matthew Porretta.Lucas Pope was given the Pioneer Award for his contributions to game development both as the creator of Paper's, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn and his work at Naughty Dog.The Independent Games Festival also took place yesterday, with Consume Me awarded the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Developed by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thompson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken 'coda' Synder, the game also won the Nuvo and Wings awards.Freehold Games' Caves of Qud won Excellence in Narrative, Moonloop Games' Hauntii took home the Excellence in Visual Arts award, while Suspicious Developments' Tactical Breach Wizards won Excellence in Design.Despelote, developed by Julin Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, won Excellence in Audio, and Vinny Roca's Slot Waste won Best Student Game.Here are the full list of winners for both ceremonies:GDCA 2025 winnersGame of the Year: Balatro (Local Thunk, Playstack)Best Debut: BalatroBest Visual Art: Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)Best Audio: Astro Bot (Team Asobi, Sony Interactive Entertainment)Best Narrative: Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero, Atlus, Sega)Best Technology: Astro BotBest Design: BalatroSocial Impact Award: Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games, Square Enix)Innovation Award: BalatroPioneer Award: Lucas PopeLifetime Achievement Award: Sam LakeIGF 2025 winnersSeumas McNally Grand Prize: Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thompson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken 'coda' Synder)Excellence in Visual Art: Hauntii (Moonloop Games, Firestoke)Excellence in Audio: Despelote (Julin Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena, Panic)Excellence in Design: Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)Excellence in Narrative: Caves of Qud (Freehold Games, Kitfox Games)Nuovo Award: Consume MeWings Award: Consume MeBest Student Game: Slot Waste (Vinny Roca)