Hints and answers for Connections for March 22, #650.

March 21, 20253 min readCan Earths Rotation Generate Electricity? Physicists Divided over Controversial IdeaExperiments suggest an unusual magnetic material could help harness energy from Earths rotation. But not everyone is convincedBy Elizabeth Gibney & Nature magazine A device can supposedly create a tiny current by manipulating Earth's magnetic field as the planet rotates. photovideostock/Getty ImagesElectricity can be generated from the energy of Earth rotating through its own magnetic fieldaccording to a provocative claim put forward by physicists this week.The findings are controversial but intriguing, researchers told Nature. The effect was identified only in a carefully crafted device and generated just 17 microvoltsa fraction of the voltage released when a single neuron firesmaking it hard to verify that some other effect isnt causing the observations.If the phenomenon is real and the device could be scaled up, it could generate emission-free power while remaining static, which could be useful in remote locations or for medical applications. The authors published their findings in Physical Review Research and presented them at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Anaheim, California.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The idea is somewhat counter-intuitive and has been argued since Faraday, says Paul Thomas, an emeritus physicist at the University of WisconsinEau Claire. But the experiments, led by Christopher Chyba, a physicist at Princeton University in New Jersey, are very carefully done, he adds. I find it very convincing and remarkable.Others agree that the results are striking, but remain sceptical. Rinke Wijngaarden, a retired physicist previously at the Free University of Amsterdam, has followed the authors assertions since 2016 and failed to find the effect in his own experiments in 2018. He finds the work very interesting, but is still convinced that the theory of Chyba et al. cannot be correct.Planet powerIn theory, the device would work in a similar fashion to an electrical power station, in which passing a conductor through a magnetic field causes electrons to move, creating a current. As Earth rotates and part of its magnetic field remains static (at least according to a 1912 proof), a conductor on its surface would move through some components of the field.Normally, this would not create a current, because in a uniform field such as Earths, electrons feeling this push would rearrange themselves to create an opposing electric force, ultimately leaving charges static (this does not apply in places where the force a conductor feels is constantly changing, as in a generator).But Chyba and his colleagues say that they have found a loophole. Using a complex calculation, they showed that certain materialswith unusual properties and when shaped into cylindrical tubecould channel Earths magnetic field into a strange configuration. This, they argue, would create a magnetic push that the electrostatic force inside the device could not cancel out, generating a current.To demonstrate their theory, the researchers crafted a hollow cylinder made of a soft magnetic material containing manganese, zinc and iron. While controlling for other effects, they looked for any voltage and current running through the device. The result verified their predictions: they observed a tiny 17-V voltage that depended on the set-ups orientation with respect to Earths magnetic field. The voltage was zero when they used a solid chunk of the conductor, rather than a hollow tube.The observed voltages are so small that there are many potential spurious causes available, says Wijngaarden, but he points out that Chybas team has gone to great lengths to try and avoid other effects that could mimic their predicted phenomenon, such as temperature variations.Verification neededMore evidence is needed before anyone can conclude that the voltage truly results from Earths rotation, says Wijngaarden. Physicists could test whether the experiment gives different results at different latitudes, as predictions suggest. These comparisons would not be easy, but are really needed in view of the surprising result, he says.If another group can verify the results, Chyba says that the next step will be to try and scale up the device enough to generate a useful amount of energy. Our equations show how such scaling might be done, but that is very different from a demonstration that it is actually possible, he says.Even if it works, the method will not generate energy from thin air. It would tap Earths kinetic energy and, in doing so, cause the planets spinning to slow over time although only slightly. If the technique provided all of Earths electricity needs, which was around 11 trillion watts in 2022, this would slow the planets spin by 7 milliseconds over the next century, the authors calculate. This is similar to the change in speed caused by natural phenomena such as the Moons pull and changing dynamics inside the planets core.This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on March 19, 2025.

Valve's Steam Deck pushes out impressive frame-rates in a wide range of software - up to and including a range of current generation exclusives. A broad array of demanding games are at least playable on the portable and many cross-gen or last-gen games excel. However, the steady drumbeat of progress gets pounded every day and we're seeing an increasing number of games that truly push current-gen consoles - and mainstream PC systems - hard. It stands to reason that if desktop computers are struggling, the Deck will be impacted to an even greater degree. With that in mind, we decided to look back at some of 2024's biggest triple-A games. Which games work well - and which are indeed "too big" for Steam Deck?Of course, the scale of ambition for any given game varies and a number of less demanding 2024 games still fare well on Steam Deck. Foremost in my testing was Lego Horizon Adventures, a beautiful UE5 title that runs at a high performance level on Valve's handheld. With high settings dialled in and TSR upscaling set to 50 percent scale, we're well within the range of a solid, stable 30fps experience - with 40fps a good target in many situations as well. We could cut settings down a peg to hit a higher refresh rate, but the visual target established here looks great. Image quality is solid with TSR and the game's Lumen-powered lighting is perfectly intact as well.Compared to PS5, image quality obviously takes a big hit, along with the quality of the shadow maps. However, outside of those changes - and some simplified water - it's a broadly comparable visual experience. That's really what we want to see on devices like the Steam Deck and Series S: broadly similar lighting and assets, with compromises coming mostly down to resolution. I don't really have any objections to how Horizon Adventures looks here, and it operates at a really stellar performance level given how the game looks. Perhaps optimisation for the low-power Nintendo Switch yields some dividends here, though the visual outcome on Steam Deck is well beyond Nintendo's last-gen machine. The article lays out the facts but if you want to see how far we have to go to make some games playable on Steam Deck, this video should prove illuminating.Watch on YouTubeA lot of other games run reasonably well, if not quite at that level. Sony's PC ports continue to come in at a pretty rapid clip, and 2024 saw the release of God of War: Ragnarok. I ran Sony Santa Monica's epic with FSR 3.1 in its performance preset with low settings across the board to keep the game running at a reasonable frame-rate. Low settings isn't the end of the world as the game isn't stripped of any basic lighting systems - volumetrics are still intact, for example, and the shadow maps look reasonable enough in typical play. It looks broadly like the console code, if obviously degraded in quality.The game's performance level is solid and relatively stable, usually reaching or exceeding 40fps. It actually lands on 40fps exactly a curious amount of the time, often hugging that specific frame-rate for extended periods. I couldn't pinpoint an exact cause here, but Ragnarok's performance does oscillate up and down somewhat depending on load, just less than you'd normally expect. It's a reasonable, if unexciting, turnout for a cross-gen title. Image quality takes more of a hit than I'd like as FSR struggles with particle effects and other complex content, though it doesn't look too bad on the Steam Deck's actual display. Metaphor Refantazio is another title that basically works well enough on Valve's handheld. I ran the Atlus RPG with some pretty normal settings selections at native 720p. Metaphor has somewhat lopsided performance as 60fps is easily achieved in dungeons and fights, while more complex city scenes bring us into the twenties. It's not exactly the most visually complex game - or a particularly performant one, considering its visuals - but we can score a decent enough 30fps experience here. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. However, more demanding titles stress the Steam Deck's capabilities in a more fundamental sense. Black Myth: Wukong benefits from minimum settings across the board to work acceptably, though I did bump shadows to medium to avoid some distracting artifacting that was present with low shadows. The visual outcome is less than satisfactory, with lower quality indirect lighting, odd-looking enemy fur, and artifact-ridden imagery. Frame-rates though are reasonable, considering the game's pedigree. We're in the 30-50fps range typically, with occasional stutters but no real extended frame-rate drops outside of the game's introductory sequence, which remains very demanding. Later stages in the game are reported to have bigger stuttering issues on PC though, so performance may flag in other areas. Dragon Age: The Veilguard rounds out our selection of 'playable' Deck games, but only barely in my opinion. To get acceptable performance, I had to dial in the low settings preset, using the game's well-calibrated DRS system pegged to 30fps with FSR 2, with a minimum value of 20 percent of 720p, or 144p (!!). Using DRS gives us the crispest visuals realistically possible, though certain intense moments can appear a little abstract towards that lower resolution bound. I generally don't mind FSR 2 in Veilguard, but the low res rendering doesn't flatter this game's detailed artwork. Frame-rates are sort of reasonable. Despite using DRS, there's a wide variance between scenes, with the game floating from 30fps to 60fps in typical play. It doesn't really drop beneath 30fps though, which is the metric we're looking for. Again, image quality is the major sacrifice - the game really doesn't look like itself at the resolutions contemplated here. Unfortunately, a large contingent of recent AAA fare runs extremely poorly on Steam Deck, to the point where I'd deem the games broadly unplayable. Some games are borderline, like Final Fantasy 16 where performance is a bit lopsided. In lighter scenes with the onscreen settings, there's a decent turnout, holding in the 40-60fps range. However, more intense content - including most cutscenes - drop beneath 30fps. That reflects the game's performance on PC and consoles, where the game is unusually heavy, with somewhat spiky GPU-bound frame-times. I'd say this is not quite there in terms of playability, and Valve agrees: like all of the games we'll be discussing after this point, it earns the "unsupported on Steam Deck" label on Steam. LEGO Horizon Adventures runs well and looks good on Steam Deck. Meanwhile, God of War Ragnarok, Black Myth: Wukong and Dragon Age: The Veilguard are playable - but the visual deficits required to get good frame-rates can severely blunt the quality of the experience.Horizon: Forbidden West is technically a cross-gen title, but its PC iteration is based firmly on the PS5 code - and it runs rather poorly on Deck. The game has a pretty handy DRS system here, which helps to salvage image quality and keep performance in check, but spiky frame-times and sub-30fps stretches are still common on the very low preset. Moving on, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 actually manages to hold up a lot of sequences, as long as we dial settings quite low. The problem is that the issues emerge in bigger fights, where the large number of foes seems to overwhelm the Deck's four core CPU. Performance figures here aren't great and as such, I'd deem the game basically unplayable. Dragon's Dogma 2 is similarly fated. Low settings with FSR 3 in ultra performance mode produces inconsistent gameplay with long stretches below 30fps. That includes the now-infamous city run that pushes up CPU load, as well as stretches in the wilderness, where we can hit frame-rates around 15fps. This is Dragon's Dogma 2 at its lowest settings, without ray tracing, but it's still substantially too heavy for Valve's handheld. That extends to a due or Unreal Engine 5-based epics from last year. Unsurprisingly, Silent Hill 2 is a pretty miserable experience here, with poor frame-rates even at the lowest settings I could configure. The trifecta of Lumen, Nanite and heavy volumetrics is likely killing performance here, as the Deck is just nowhere near where it needs to be. I also gave STALKER 2 a brief shot, which lets me configure a static 25 percent resolution scale with TSR - just 160p. The visuals are rather 'painterly' and the game has some obvious CPU issues, though GPU-wise it's lighter than Silent Hill, at least as it can be configured here. Some games just require too much from a PC to function well on a resource-constrained device like the Steam Deck. Clock-wise from top, Space Marine 2, Silent Hill 2, Horizon Forbidden West and Dragon's Dogma 2 just aren't really playable on the Valve handheld. More horsepower from something like a ROG Ally is needed.Star Wars Outlaws and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were also part of my preliminary testing list, but neither made the grade during my testing, as neither can progress past the splash screen. Outlaws seems to have a longstanding controller issue, while Great Circle seems to have a problem in a recently introduced patch. I wouldn't expect good things out of either game though, even if they were running correctly.Overall, the Deck just isn't up to the task with a pretty wide range of current-gen software. But the Deck isn't the only portable we have at our disposal, so I decided to take out my Bazzite-equipped ROG Ally in its high TDP turbo mode and see if I could log any decent, playable results. Silent Hill 2 provides a good idea of the upper bounds here in terms of the performance differential, with around double the performance of the Deck. Space Marine 2 just cruises along, with performance usually hovering between 40fps to 50fps - even in intense sequences. Dragon's Dogma 2 clocks a big uplift, from the low 20s on Steam Deck to the mid 30s on Ally. And STALKER 2 runs at a higher performance level with somewhat less obtrusive stutter, though it is the most variable of the games tested here. Keep in mind that we're running both systems with Linux and Proton, so any differentials with the Steam Deck here should come down to raw hardware power and not because of any operating system divergence. I think my big takeaway from this whole exercise is that more games than ever are a poor experience on Steam Deck. You really have to pick and choose: last-gen ports should mostly be OK, while a limited grouping of current-gen software pass muster, often by small margins. However, the reality is that ambitious current-gen titles often run very poorly, if they run at all. It's no longer a reasonable assumption to think that the vast majority of games will be at least okay on Steam Deck, which was generally true earlier in the system's lifecycle. Our last investigation into Steam Deck's potential for 'future-proofing' focused exclusively on Unreal Engine titles - the technology that looks set to dominate the current generation.Watch on YouTubeFor a lot of games, we really need to see a generational uplift in Steam Deck capability - and there are some promising signs on the horizon. AMD's Strix Halo can achieve excellent performance at TDPs that are similar to some portable gaming handhelds, and FSR 4 seems poised to greatly improve on FSR 2 and 3, which we tend to rely on heavily in Deck software. Perhaps a next generation device, packing an eight-core CPU, a meatier GPU and additional RAM and memory bandwidth could deliver transformative results in some of the titles we've surveyed today. I think testing on the ROG Ally in turbo mode gives us some positive signs. There's generally decent performance in the games I declared unplayable on the Steam Deck OLED. More demanding games seem to like the Ally in particular, especially with its much larger CPU. Meanwhile, the ROG Ally X offers a lot more memory to conquer the last spec point that can impact some games running on PC handhelds - Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora first and foremost amongst them. For newer games, a Steam Deck 2-like device needs to come closer to a Series S-level spec, to reach that minimum most developers are aiming for this generation. Getting something like ROG Ally turbo performance at a reasonable TDP would be a good point to shoot for, especially if the screen resolution remains an easier-to-hit 800p or 720p. That's the challenge for Valve going forward, and for any other OEMs operating in the PC handheld space. But for now, the outlook for running the latest games on the Valve handheld isn't so rosy anymore. Unfortunately, a raft of modern PC games are indeed 'too big' for Steam Deck.

Sundays Movie Night Outdoor 4-Piece Modular SectionalReviewer: Will Porter, contributorModel tested: Sundays Movie Night Outdoor Modular SectionalThe details: Founded in 2019, Sundays is still a relatively new player in the furniture world, but its evident that they know what theyre doing. The brand has a simple, laid-back West Coast approach to furniture, creating pieces that beg to be lived in, on, and around.Ordering ProcessHow much does it cost? Are there payment plans available?The Movie Night Outdoor Sectional (the weather proof version of Sundays best selling indoor design) starts at $3,280 for a two-seater and goes up to $5,990 for a four-piece sofa with an ottoman. You can pay in installments with ShopPay (via Affirm).What are the upholstery or customization options? Did you choose any?The sofa can be configured in a bunch of ways, from a two-seat couch made up of two pieces to a full four-piece sofa that has an ottoman and room for an entire family. For upholstery, you can choose between two colors, ivory and desert, each of which are made with the brands premium outdoor fabric.What is the lead time for customization, manufacturing, and delivery?Delivery takes 23 weeks once you place the order.Delivery & AssemblyThe Sundays outdoor sofa in contributor Will Porters California space.Photo: Will PorterWhat was the delivery process like?The delivery was white glove, so there wasnt anything on my end that needed to be done other than find a place to put the couch. The rest was taken care of by the delivery team.What was the assembly process like? How long did it take and how many people?Assembly was handled by one delivery person and only took about 30 minutes.Is the outdoor sofa suitable for particular decor styles, and if so, which?The couch is extremely versatile. Its plush, comfortable, and easy on the eyes but doesnt have any distinct features that would limit the ways you could style it. I think it fits a coastal patio aesthetic super well, but I could also see it paired with less traditional setups too.

Perks:Pool, Sonos sound system, valley views, indoor fireplace, pet-friendlyA dreamy infinity pool is the jewel of this luxe seven-bedroom villa in Joshua Tree. With views of the nearby mountains and sleek interiors that evoke a swanky gallery, the wedding photos (and the after party) are bound to turn out beautifully. Full-length sliding doors fully encourage indoor-outdoor flow and fresh air, making it an ideal spot for a sunset wedding dinner. For the day-after activity, head to Joshua Tree National Park to stretch your legsthen soak in the posh standalone tub. From $1,917 per night.BOOK NOWBest for Photo Ops: The Castle in Los Angeles, CaliforniaPerks: Rooftop jacuzzi, spacious bedrooms, city and mountain viewsLive out your fairy tale dream wedding in this LA castle that looks like something out of a Disney movie, complete with butter-yellow sofas, a glass-enclosed upper balcony fit for Sleeping Beauty, and lots of private nooks and sleep spaces. Between the sprawling living spaces and six bedrooms that accommodate up to 16 guests, its the perfect rental for housing close friends and family in the same magical spot you aim to tie the knot. Views of the city belowand the Hollywood Hillswill heighten the drama for a next-level wedding. Plus, theres a special bedroom in the tower turret that the newlyweds can retreat to after the reception has died down. Note that DJs and rowdy parties are not allowed, so if you aim to celebrate with some light debauchery, you may want to book elsewhere. From $2,111 per night.BOOK NOWBest for Long Guest Lists: Loft606 in Chicago, IllinoisPerks: Chefs kitchen, full-size bar, rooftop deckWhat was once a factory space is now a massive loft near Chicagos Logan Square, Wicker Park, and Bucktown neighborhoods that can easily serve as an indoor reception hall thats all yours to commander for a wedding weekend. With sleeping space for at least 20 guests and plenty of room for long tables, the industrial-style interior is decked out with a timber-beamed ceiling and skylights that let light stream in during the day. Theres also an outdoor space (which is equipped with a grill), for when you want to take in fresh air during the post-wedding cookout brunch. From $750 per night.BOOK NOWBest for Laidback Lake Vibes: The Boat House on Fourth Lake in Old Forge, New YorkPerks: Outdoor kitchen, lake access, dock, three waterview bedroomsWe hope you and your soon-to-be betrothed have your sea legs, because theres a boathouse on a New York lakefront with both of your names on it. This three-bedroom is a haven for those who appreciate the outdoors and low-key gatherings. After getting hitched at a golden hour ceremony down on the dock, you and your guests can light up a bonfire by the water or make some celebratory toasts under the partially enclosed hut in the yard. Post-nuptials, spend a blissful weekend canoeing and kayaking on the lake, or exploring the local forests on a hike. From $294 per night.BOOK NOWBest for Adventurers: Aprs-Ski Black Diamond Lodge in Calabogie, CanadaPerks: Ski-in/ski-out, beach access, hot tub, record player, fire pitThose who are married to the mountain lifestyle may as well immerse themselves in it for a wedding to remember. This five-bedroom, ski-inski-out home near the Madawaska Nordic Ski and Recreation Trails will speak to anyone who has dreamed of having a snowy wintertime wedding. With an indoor wood-burning stove and a jacuzzi, you can rest assured that things will feel extra cozy for you and your nearest and dearest. Sure, it may feel a bit unconventional, but just think of the convenienceski to a nearby peak for your wedding ceremony and retreat back home for celebratory aprs-ski cocktails and dinner cooked up by a private chef. From $294 per night.BOOK NOWBest for Summer Camp Vibes: Cabin Creek Lodge in Easton, Washington

On the PeripheryPeriphery and Warframe 1999 come together with a new guest track, but how on earth did that happen?We speak to the crew behind the latest music collaboration to find out what went into the new track: Lamenting the daysImage credit: Digital Extremes Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on March 21, 2025 Warframe 1999: Techrot Encore is out, and it's a lot of fun. But, one thing you may not have noticed as a player or a far-flung spectator is that progressive metal band Periphery worked alongside Digital Extremes on a special guest track for the update. It all fits within the rock band vibe that came with Temple and the new defence mission.But how did this actually come to be? How did Periphery end up working with DE on Techrot Encore, and what went into creating the track? To find out, I sent over a few questions to Periphery's Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb, as well as Elliot Coleman from Good Tiger who worked alongside the group on lamenting the Days.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. VG247: How exactly did this collaboration come about? When did work start on the track?Holcomb: It came together very organically. Ive known Megan, Rebb, and Steve since 2016 or so, and we had always discussed doing something together. Jake and I hung out with them at a Periphery gig back in 2024, and thats when the wheels officially started turning on this project. We began working on the track in earnest during the summer of 2024.Bowen: We have been friends with the Warframe team for a while, and it came up pretty casually, I think. It just started as a Hey, wouldnt it be cool if we collabed? and it just started to coalesce from there. I know they were working on a music/guitar-based character and were looking for a band that might be able to contribute music and consult on what the character's sound could be. Coleman: Jake originally reached out to me to gauge my interest in working with them on an original song for the game. The three of us have worked on music together in the past, so it was a no-brainer for me. The three of us have great chemistry!Check out the song, Lamenting the Days here!Watch on YouTubeVG247: How long did you have to make this new song for the Warframe 1999 update?Holcomb: We were given the opportunity of having months of runway to finish the song, but Jake and I met at his place in Jersey City to get the bulk of the song written and recorded only in a couple days. We spent months tweaking afterward, and that allowed us to have the Warframe team bounce ideas and suggestions off of us in no hurry, in order to mold the song even further into something they felt fit their vision. Bowen: I dont know much about video game development but it seems to me that you cant make a video game, much less a video game on Warframes scale without lots of time and precision planning so we had a few calls with Rebb and Megan and they helped us lay out the plan and gave us ample time to come up with the best thing we could. So while the bulk of the song's arrangement came together in about two days in the studio we had quite a bit of time to hone the track and get it sounding right.Coleman: I had a lot of melodies come to my head pretty quickly when I heard the instrumental they were working on. I fired up the game and would listen to the song on repeat for a few days to get a feel of how I wanted the vocals to sound.VG247: Periphery has composed for video games a few times, including a track for Deus Ex in 2016, the Halo 2 anniversary OST, and Homefront all the way back in 2011! What inspired this return to the medium? Is video game work something the band is always keen to do?Holcomb: Since our bandmate Misha primarily handled the music lent to those aforementioned games, this was a golden opportunity for me to dip my toes into this world. Ive done voice-acting in video games dating back to 2017, but Ive never composed music for one, so I jumped at the chance to do this with Jake and Elliot. Im a life-long gamer, and Id climb mountains to be involved in that world, be it through voice-acting or music composition.Bowen: The interesting thing about some of that previous work is that was all handled by one member of Periphery, Misha Mansoor, so for me this was a chance to really get into that side of things, I find the idea of composing for someone elses project very intimidating but the Warframe team being fans of Peripherys music gave a sense of comfort because at least I know they like this other thing I do.VG247: What unique considerations are there for composing for a video game rather than creating a song for an album? What does the band have to keep in mind that differs from the regular process?Holcomb: Id say the biggest consideration is making sure youre adhering 100% to the vision of the developer. When Periphery records an album, its an absolute free-for-all in that we are creating art for arts sake, and priority number one is making something that makes us happy, with as few concessions as possible. For projects like this, we had boundaries within which we needed to stay in order to satisfy Digital Extremes vision. But that was supremely exciting in its own way since their vision was so specific and well-thought-out from the beginning. Bowen: I think the number one thing I was thinking about when writing the music was does this fit within a 1999 theme, there was talk of touching on a lot of the more iconic musical voices from that era, bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Deftones were always in my head when trying to come up with the riffs. Other than that, I wanted to create a song an actual band might write, Verse/Chorus/Verse/Bridge/Outro, or something resembling that. I even added sound elements from the game to help it fit better within the game's world.Coleman: When Im working on a Good Tiger record, the overall tone of the album usually takes shape pretty quickly. We know what our band sounds like and what its strengths are. Working on this song, I had to keep in mind the vision Rebb and Megan had for it, and that was easy because they gave great direction! The song comes alongside Temple, a new Rock 'n Roll themed warframe. | Image credit: Digital ExtremesVG247: In Warframe 1999 the audio team has established the setting firmly in the late 90's grunge era music-wise. Periphery was founded back in the early 2000's! Can we expect a music style more aligned to the band's original sound, more aligned to your contemporary work, or something vastly different?Holcomb: I think by nature of Jake and I being in Periphery, youre bound to get a bit more of that modern metal sound, but yes, we really tried to get that 90s sound captured in the song. It was a natural fit since I grew up on 90s-era grunge.Bowen: I think that was the other half of the song's equation, in addition to paying tribute to our 90s inspirations we also had to make room for some of that Periphery sound which can sound a bit more modern. To me, that was the most fun part of this project. I loved music from the 90s, so being able to channel that while doing a style that is naturally more current was a lot of fun.VG247: In an interview with Tuonela Mag last year, Misha stated that "musical motifs and abstract concepts from just a purely musical standpoint" and that the process of making new music for you guys is largely intuitive. Was the creation process for this song the same? Did Digital Extremes provide any guidelines or requirements that made you approach this song differently?Holcomb: I would say it was still largely intuitive, and it didnt differ too much from how I operate in Periphery, but the main difference was the set of criteria Digital Extremes laid out for us. The idea of writing a song that would feel at home in the late 90s was the overarching idea behind every detail in the song, so we had to throw some of that raw, unfiltered thread-chasing we do so much in Periphery. But I have to say, it was rewarding because we rarely ever get to write within guidelines in Periphery, so it was a fun exercise in creativity.Bowen: Weve definitely tried to constrain this process with the guidelines set forth by Digital Extremes. When Periphery is in the studio, we get to call all the shots, and thats a lot of fun. But when someone is asking you to write a song for their video game you obviously have to make sure youre in line with their vision and this is exactly why I found this process so much fun it made me approach the writing and production in a different way, but it wasnt at all unfamiliar. If youre a musician, you might relate to this. Its always scary to try new things and be in new musical projects, but once it gets rolling and it feels like you know what to do, it feels really good.Coleman: I wasn't given any hard guidelines to follow, but they did reference a few different singers for vibe. Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Eddie Vedder, etc. They werent looking for an exact copy, so I was still able to be myself. There's a gaggle of new protoframes to meet too in Warframe 1999: Techrot Encore | Image credit: Digital ExtremesVG247: In that same interview Misha stated that the band doesn't get many chances to play together (aside from tours) as you all live far apart. How challenging is it to create a song on deadline without being able to sit in the same room and figure it out?Holcomb: It definitely isnt ideal, but as a band, we spend a lot of time on planes and Zoom calls, haha. It wasnt too difficult this time since Jake and I were able to write and arrange the song in person, and then we were able to do most of the tweaking remotely. Bowen: It certainly presents a few challenges for the band to be spread out all over the United States. Usually, we all will just fly to one place for a few weeks and craft what we need in that time. When it comes to touring, we usually will rehearse together a few days before a tour starts.Coleman: One of the most important things when collaborating with your bandmates, or peers, or friends, is that you all agree that youre working towards the same goal. I have a lot of trust in their constructive criticisms.VG247: Mark, you're also a voice actor in video games! Can we expect your voice to pop up in a future Warframe update?Holcomb: Yes! I voiced Flare in the new update. It was insanely fun getting to explore that character and tread some ground Ive never tread in my voice-acting career. A massive thank you to Digital Extremes for writing such an interesting, fun character for this and trusting me to help bring him to life. Bowen: I know this question isnt directed at me, but I also did some voice work for Warframe as a new villain character, youll be hearing some pretty brutal sounding stuff!Warframe 1999: Techrot Encore is out right now, and while Periphery's track Lamenting the days isn't out on Spotify as of writing, you can check it out on YouTube right now!

Chinese auto maker BYD made waves this week when it announced its new Han L sedan could add as much as 248 miles of range in as little as five minutes.Unfortunately, the company was light on details, and it did not respond to TechCrunchs request for clarification. So instead, weve scoured the web for information, filling in the gaps to determine exactly how BYD was able to make an EV that apparently can recharge as quickly as it takes to refill a gas car.What we found mostly supports the auto makers claims, with a few caveats.Battery packCentral to the Han Ls fast charging is its internal electrical infrastructure. It starts with the battery, which according to CarNewsChina citing regulatory documents, is an 83.2 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) pack that operates at 945 volts. (In its marketing materials, the company appears to have rounded up and lists it at 1,000 volts).The battery chemistry is likely central to the cars fast charging capability. LFP batteries have long been regarded for their stability and safety; they dont catch fire nearly as readily as other types like nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). They can also charge faster because of some electrochemical quirks inherent in the cathode-anode design of an LFP cell. (Theres a great slide deck from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that explains why in more detail.)To top it off, BYD has been working with LFP for years, and its latest battery architecture, known as Blade 2.0, is expected to debut in the new car. That experience has probably given the companys engineers a good sense of how far they can push both the batteries and the electrical architecture.Electrical systemFeeding the battery pack is a high-voltage electrical system that runs at 945 volts. Automakers have been pursuing ever higher voltages because higher voltages generates less heat, allowing more power to be delivered safely and efficiently. Currently, Lucid runs a 900-volt architecture in its cars, and several others like Hyundai Kia and Porsche operate 800-volt in many of theirs. With Teslas, it depends on the vehicle: The Cybertruck uses an 800-volt architecture while the remainder operate at around 400 volts, give or take, depending on the model.Add it all up and the Han L can charge at up to 1 megawatt, or 1,000 kilowatts. The fastest widely available EV chargers in the U.S. today deliver only 350 kilowatts.But even when running at 945 volts or 1,000 volts, the amount of heat generated by 1 megawatt charging is significant, and the cables to support it would have to be incredibly thick. Even slower, fast, charging cables like the ones that are attached to 350 kW chargers are wrapped in liquid cooling, further increasing their bulk.Perhaps in an effort to make the charging cables more manageable, BYD has adopted what it is calling a dual gun approach: The car has two charging ports, each of which can plug into a 500 kW charger simultaneously.Together, they deliver one megawatt. Range shenanigansAccording to BYD, that allows the car to add 248 miles of range (400 km) in five minutes.Unfortunately, drivers are unlikely to travel that far after such a quick charge. Thats because the Chinese equivalent of the EPA test cycle, the CLTC, is notoriously optimistic. Its about 35% higher than EPA ratings, according to InsideEVs, which themselves are either spot on or optimistic depending on how much highway driving is involved.Realistically, drivers can probably expect around 160 miles of range from a five-minute charge and around 280 miles from a full battery. For a more apples-to-apples comparison, its helpful to look at how long it takes to charge from 16% to 80% (in 10 minutes) or from 16% to 100% (in 24 minutes). No matter how you slice it, thats pretty fast.Charging strategyBut an EVs charging speed is only as good as the chargers and how widely available they are. To that end, BYD is pledging to install more than 4,000 of them throughout China. Each charging station will require significant grid upgrades, though, as a 1-megawatt power draw would likely strain the existing infrastructure.When will we see this in the U.S.? Dont count on being able to buy a BYD Han L anytime soon, even if the approximately $37,000 starting price would give the market a welcome jolt. Chinese made EVs are currently subject to a 100% tariff, raising prices to the point where theyre not competitive.But that doesnt mean similarly fast charging will remain out of reach for Americans. Cars for sale today already can charge from 20 to 80% in 18 minutes, so its only a matter of time before automakers bring those times down.

In BriefPosted:12:58 PM PDT March 21, 2025Image Credits:TechCrunch/ScreenshotValve removes video game demo suspected of being malwareValve removed a video game from its online store Steam after users reported that a free demo for the game was installing malware on their computers.The game was called Sniper: Phantoms Resolution, and promised to give players realistic [first-person shooter] mechanics, dynamic storytelling, and high-stakes missions, according to an archive of its Steam page.The first reports that the free demo for the game may actually be malware came earlier this week from several users on Reddit who downloaded it and analyzed it.The games removal from Steam was first reported by TheGamer.Last month, Valve had to deal with a similar situation, when it removed a game called PirateFi, which turned out to be a plant for malware designed to steal players passwords, a type of malicious software known as an info-stealer.Valve did not respond to a request for comment.Topics

Step into the world of The Electric State with this really cool Netflix Behind the Scenes video, revealing how cutting-edge visual effects (made by Digital Domain, Industrial Light & Magic, Storm Studios, One of Us, Lola VFX, D-bond) brought this futuristic world to life! Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025The post The Electric State: Behind the Scenes by Netflix appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Leading desktop 3D printer manufacturer Bambu Lab has released new information regarding its upcoming H2D 3D printer. The Shenzhen-based company will officially reveal the H2D on Tuesday, March 25 at 15:00 CET.Since March 18, Bambu has released daily teasers for the new system, confirming it will incorporate dual extruders and servo motors. This corroborates previous reports that the new FDM 3D printer will feature a more industrial focus than Bambus previous offerings. It is set to supersede the companys flagship X1 system, catering to prosumer users demanding cutting-edge performance.Hype beasts, vloggers and those in the influence arena have lapped up each itoa of limited detail in a frenzied marketing coup the 3D printing industry has not witnessed since the heydays of Will.I.AM extolling the virtues of warm plastic from the chilly hills of Davos in 2015.Bambu Labs H2D has been the subject of extensive industry speculation, which began to thaw when the H2Ds launch was postponed last October. Leaks and rumors suggest the 3D printer will feature Bambus largest-ever build volume (reportedly 350 x 320 x 325 mm), a new AMS system, a heated storage unit, and even an integrated laser cutter. Additionally, while the official H2D price is yet to be confirmed, many expect it will significantly exceed anything already offered by Bambu Lab. Time will tell whether these predictions are correct.Bambu Labs teaser for the Bambu Lab H2D dual extruder. Image via Bambu Lab.Bambu Labs reveals new 3D printer features Bambu Lab claims that the H2D will rethink personal manufacturing. Bambus series of teaser images include a close-up of the new 3D printers dual nozzle and a cross-section of its real servo motors. The latter will see a departure from Bambu Labs use of stepper motors in its CoreXY offerings, potentially increasing precision during high-speed 3D printing.Dual nozzle extrusion will also offer benefits over previous Bambu Lab 3D printers. For instance, it limits material waste by minimizing the filament purging requirements of Bambus single nozzle offerings. By reducing the need to switch between filaments, the H2Ds dual nozzle setup will also likely increase efficiency and speed when fabricating parts with multiple materials. This, combined with the extended build volume and servo motor integration, positions Bambu Labs new 3D printer for industrial manufacturing applications.The launch comes amid Bambu Labs growing market share within the 3D printing industry. In Q4 2023, market intelligence firm CONTEXT found that the Chinese company had outpaced all other desktop 3D printer OEMs. Bambu Lab shipped nearly 1 million units in Q4 2023, up 35% YoY in Q4 2023. That year, the firms sales grew by a staggering 3000%.This growth trend continued into 2024, as Bambu Lab cannibalized the sales of more professional-scale offerings. In Q1, global shipments of Bambu systems increased by 26%, while Midrange and Professional 3D printers fell by 7% and 34%, respectively.By Q3 2024, Bambu had again experienced market-share gains, as 24% and 8% declines were reported in the Industrial and Midrange markets, respectively. While this data highlights a pertinent trend in the shifting 3D printing Landscape, CONTEXT noted that the entry-level 3D printer market had slowed from its previous super-accelerated pace. Despite this, the report predicted that the entry-level segment would finish 2024 with a 30% YoY increase, while global midrange 3D printer shipments were set to be down by 8%.The teaser for the Bambu Lab H2Ds real servo motors. Image via Bambu Lab.New 3D FDM printer announcementsBambu Labs new 3D printer seems poised to compete with prosumer and professional 3D printers. One recent addition to this market has come from Netherlands-based 3D printer manufacturer UltiMaker. Earlier this month, the firm launched the S8, its new high-speed FDM 3D printer for industrial manufacturing. This system, which features dual extruders, boasts 500mm/s 3D print speeds and up to 50,000mm/s2 acceleration.According to Ultimaker, the 3D printer is 4x more productive than its predecessor, the UltiMaker S7. Notably, the new system, priced at around $9,000, features the companys new Cheetah motion planner. This is said to enhance motion control, elevating precision and reducing defects like ringing. It seeks to unlock high-speed fabrication without sacrificing part quality.Elsewhere, LOOP 3D, a Turkish industrial 3D printer manufacturer, recently revealed the LOOP PRO X+ TURBO. This high-speed FDM system is optimized to leverage LOOPs DYNAMIDE industrial-grade composite 3D printing filaments. Operating up to five times faster than previous models, the LOOP PRO X+ TURBO can reportedly fabricate large, complex parts in under two days. The system is also designed to minimize vibrations to optimize dimension accuracy and a consistent surface finish, making the system ideal for industrial manufacturers.Who won the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards?Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news.You can also follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content.Featured image shows Bambu Labs teaser for the Bambu Lab H2D dual extruder. Image via Bambu Lab.