Leading up to the upcoming release of Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4, publisher Activision and developer Iron Galaxy have begun highlighting some of the young, new skateboarders that will be available to play as in the games roster. The first one we get to look at courtesy of a new behind-the-scenes video is Margielyn Didal. Check it out below.Margielyn Didal is a skateboarder from the Philippines, specifically from the city of Cebu. Throughout the video, we get to look at Didal in action in real-life, as well as in the game. She talks about her biggest influences in the world of skateboarding, as well as how she is looking forward to being play as herself in the upcoming Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4.Interestingly, through this video, we also get our first glimpse at the Kona and Suburbia stages of the game. While not comprehensive deep dives into the stages, we do get to see that that not much has changed since the two stages made their debut back in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 (for Suburbia) and Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4 (Kona).Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4 was officially announced earlier this month. The game is being developed for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, and will be hitting store shelves on July 11. As its name might imply, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4 will consist of remakes of the classic third and fourth mainline games in the Tony Hawks Pro Skater franchise.It is worth noting that Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4 will not be recreating the free-roam campaign of THPS 4. Rather, it will be converting that campaign into a level-based affair where players will have to finish a set of objectives within a time limit. This puts the remakes take on the THPS 4 campaign in line with the campaign for 3, as well as the campaigns for 1 and 2 that we saw in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 + 2.The title will also feature a large roster of skateboarders to choose from, including legends like the eponymous Tony Hawk, to newer skateboarders that have hit the scene in more recent times like Margielyn Didal.Recent rumours have indicated that Bam Margera might be also be part of the roster. The decision is reported to have been made at the last minute at the behest of Hawk. According to The Live Club podcast co-host Roger Bagley, Hawk told Activision to include Margera in the games roster.Well, heres what happened, said Bagley in a recent episode of the podcast. The game was already done. Tony called up Activision and was like hey, were putting Bam in the thing, and they were like hey, we cant. He goes no, youre gonna do it, and basically made them fly Bam back out there to get body-scanned and everything else, and get him back in the game.For more details about Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4, check out our coverage of its various editions.

The latest update for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Nightmares and Visions, is live on all platforms. It adds the Mortis Trails, found in the Theatres of Mortification, and involves battling waves of enemies. Check out the release trailer below.There are 12 waves of enemies in each Trial and different difficulty options, though you can also select an Indulgence for a buff beforehand. These include Pyrokinetic for fire damage dealers, Voltaic for electric damage, Fulminator (which combines the two), Colossus for survival, and Death Dealer for close-quarters combat.In addition to regular waves, some objectives pop up every three waves, providing ammo and supplies alongside an extra buff upon completion. These buffs become stronger with each subsequent wave cleared, making them invaluable.Other new content with the update includes A Day At The Theatre, a limited-time event focused entirely on the Mortis Trials, Havoc mode changes, and new Mutators. Head here for more details. You can also read our review for the PS5 version.

Winning proposal of the 2025 Interuniversity Charrette: Moralisation de la place publique,by Vincente Levesque and Sara Deslauriers (Universit de Montral)The winners of the 2025 Interuniversity Charrette were recently announced during an awards ceremony held at the CCA.The annual competition, which was initiated in 1995 by the CCA, is open to students and recent graduates in architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism, environmental design, urban design, industrial design, and graphic design.This years edition, called Cartography of the Invisible, was organized by the CCA in partnership with the Universit du Qubec Montral, the Universit de Montral, and McGill University. This edition challenged participants to uncover the hidden narratives within urban spaces through the lens of cartography and design.At a time when social inequalities, homelessness, and the erasure of marginalized histories continue to shape cities, this years competition invited participants to make the unseen visible. Using mapping as a design tool, interdisciplinary teams selected a public space such as a square, park, street, or station, and revealed its underrepresented stories. By tracing networks, flows, and overlooked activities, teams exposed the complexities embedded in the urban environment. Digital tools, GPS data, and innovative cartographic techniques played a crucial role in this process.The competition encouraged all students currently registered in Canadian universities and recent graduates, to rethink public space through spatial storytelling. Their proposals offered new ways to understand, interpret, and design the city, engaging with history, social justice, and the built environment.Members of the jury for this edition included architect, landscape architect and urban planner Peter Soland; curator and independent researcher Ji-Yoon Han; and Lola Sheppard, Professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and a founding partner of Lateral Office.The jury evaluated a total of 68 submitted proposals. A total of 94 teams consisting of 258 students from 17 different universities registered for this edition.The winners will receive a selection of recent CCA publications as well as Friends of the CCA memberships with numerous benefits.The winners of the 2025 CCA Interuniversity Charrette include the following.First place:Moralisation de la place publiqueVincente Levesque and Sara Deslauriers (Universit de Montral)Moralisation de la place publique. Credit: Vincente Levesque and Sara Deslauriers (Universit de Montral)Moralisation de lespace public impressed the jury with the clarity and evocative power of its proposal on the history of Montreals Red Light District and the successive layers of erasure the neighborhood has undergone. Both subtle and playful, the sculptural installation engages with the shifting temporalities of urban experience, transforming a mirrored glass cube by day into a red-lit display window by nightrevealing the dynamics of visibility and invisibility, past and present, in the public space, said the jury.Second Place:Watching the watchersBadr Echchihab (McGill University) and Tho Hovsepian (McGill University)Watching the watchers. Credit: Badr Echchihab (McGill University) and Tho Hovsepian (McGill University)The project deals elegantly with the question of urban surveillance. Using the McGill campus as a site, the map documents the areas of digital visibility and invisibility, in relation to a network of surveillance cameras. The proposal of a gold-coloured protective cloth canopy, which weaves through the campus, makes legible where bodies can travel in order to avoid cones of surveillance. The jury appreciated the play of a very visible canopy which offers invisibility, said the jury.Third place:Almanac of Moving AppearancesJia Chen Mi (University of Toronto), Mam Lam Cheng (University of Michigan), and Patricia Ku (Harvard Graduate School of Design)Almanac of Moving Appearances. Credit: Jia Chen Mi (University of Toronto), Mam Lam Cheng (University of Michigan), and Patricia Ku (Harvard Graduate School of Design)This project reimagines the interior of the tramway as a public spacea civic space in motion, tracing a path through the city of Toronto. Its mapping seeks to reveal the intangible layers of the transit experience: conversations, digital screens, and scents. Through the tramway windows, citizens are invited to recognize programmed actions within the urban space, creating a scenography of everyday life. The plan and section of the tramway present it as an architectural element of the city. The jury was captivated by this perspective on urban life, said the jury.Two Special Mentions were also named:A fractured cartographyJana Gineina, Myvel Ibrahim, Sarah King, Marcus Yuen, and Michael Conway (Carleton University)The project documents the registration of pavement cracks in Ottawa as evidence of the socio-economic divide between wealthy areas of government institutions and areas of neglect and marginalization. An innovative map of urban pixels reveals this registration of pavement cracks, while an evocative model documents two seminal urban thoroughfares in the Capital, as sites, in which to legible these divides, said the jury.Cartographie de linaccessibleLauriane Rioux (Universit de Montral), Vincent Morrier (Universit Laval)This project explores the mental mapping of urban space by citizens with physical and visual impairments. Addressing a timely issue, it proposes minimalist interventions in Montreals Baldwin Park to improve navigation for individuals with visual impairments. Speculative before-and-after illustrations translate the research into making the invisible experiences of this population more tangible, said the jury.The post 2025 CCA Interuniversity Charrette winners announced appeared first on Canadian Architect.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Autodesk has released Maya 2026, the new version of its 3D modeling and animation software.Unlike Autodesks recent annual updates to Maya, it does not introduce any complete new toolsets, but there are updates throughout the existing core functionality, including 3D modeling, retopology, shading, animation and simulation.There are also updates to Mayas integration plugin for Autodesks Arnold renderer, and a new Animate in Context feature for users of Autodesks Flow Production Tracking platform.Autodesk has also released Maya Creative 2026, the corresponding update to the cut-down edition of Maya for smaller studios.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250326_Mayas2026_Booleans.mp43D modeling: New Volume mode for Booleans, and updates to STL exportFor asset development, Mayas Boolean node gets a new Volume mode.Unlike the existing Mesh mode, the source objects are converted to volumes before computing the Boolean operation, then the output is converted back to polygonal geometry.Autodesk pitches it as a quick way to block out organic models like creatures and characters.Other changes to the modeling toolset include the option to set scale units when importing or exporting models in STL format for 3D printing.Retopology: Monthly limit on Flow Retopology jobs increasedSince Maya 2025.1, released last May, Maya subscribers have had access to retopology plugin Flow Retopology.It mimics the functionality of the existing Retopologize tool, but makes it possible to submit retopology jobs to run in the cloud, rather than on the users machine.The current version, Flow Retopology for Maya 1.3, is now bundled with Maya 2026, and the usage limit has been raised from 30 to 50 cloud retopology jobs per month.Shading and texturing: Default surface shader switched to OpenPBRFor texturing, the main change in Maya 2026 is that OpenPBR is now the default surface shader.Support for the open material standard, intended as a unified successor to the Autodesk Standard Surface and Adobe Standard Material, was originally added in Maya 2025.3.In addition, LookdevX, Mayas plugin for creating USD shading graphs, has been updated.LookdevX for Maya 1.7 features a number of workflow improvements, particularly to publishing, and support for relative file paths when exporting MaterialX documents.Other changes include an experimental new generative textures API, making it easier for TDs to integrate third-party generative AI services into LookdevX by creating C++ or Python plugins.Mayas Substance plugin, for editing procedural materials in Substance format inside Maya, has also been updated, although there arent many details about whats new in Substance 3.04.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250326_Mayas2026_MLDeformer.mp4Rigging and animation: Performance updates to the AI-based ML DeformerMaya 2026 also features performance and workflow improvements to the new ML Deformer.Introduced in Maya 2025.2, it uses machine learning to create a fast approximation of complex deformations, enabling users to take characters with complex, slow-to-process rigs and train the deformer to represent the deformations they generate in the character mesh.In Maya 2026, it is possible to visualize the difference between the source and target meshes as a heat map to help troubleshoot output, using a new display option, Apply Mesh Compare.The update also makes the training process more customizable, makes output less noisy, and improves performance: load times are 40 times faster, and disk space usage is 80% reduced.Other changes relevant to animators include the option to export Playblasts in .webm format.Simulation: Better liquid simulation in Bifrost for MayaBifrost for Maya, Mayas multiphysics simulation plugin, gets a significant update in Maya 2026.It was already possible to use it to simulate liquids by meshing the output of the MPM solver, but Bifrost for Maya 2.13 makes it possible to simulate liquids directly in the graph.Bifrost for Mayas FLIP solver is described as largely similar to Bifrost Fluids, the older liquid simulation plugin included with Maya, but shares the same underlying framework as other simulation types, like smoke, fire and granular materials; and the node graph provides more flexibility than Bifrost Fluids menu-driven interface.The FLIP solver is described as currently best suited to large-scale, non-viscous fluids, and lacks some of the functionality provided by BOSS, Bifrost Fluids ocean surface toolset.Other changes in Bifrost for Maya 2.13 include updates to its work-in-progress procedural character rigging system, updates to texture baking, and 20 new node types.Rendering: Updates to Arnold for MayaMaya 2026 also ships with an updated version of the integration plugin for Autodesks Arnold renderer, with MtoA 5.5.0 introducing support for the Arnold 7.4.0.0 core.Key changes since the release of Maya 2025.3 include a new transmission_shadow_density parameter in the OpenPBR Surface and the Standard Surface shaders, to control the look of shadows cast by transparent objects, as shown in the image above.Global Light Sampling (GLS) now takes material glossiness into account, which greatly enhances render quality, especially in scenes with many small lights.Arnolds support for ID matte-generation system Cryptomatte has also been improved, with a new internal implementation adding GPU support, and improving performance on CPU.Other changes include improvements to MaterialX and USD support, to the implementation of OpenPBR, and to the MtoA plugin itself and the Arnold RenderView in Maya. However, Arnold 7.4 is a compatibility-breaking update, so shaders, procedurals, and other plugins compiled against older versions of Arnold will need to be recompiled.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250326_Mayas2026_USDForMaya.mp4Pipeline integration: USD for Maya now supports light linkingUSD for Maya, Mayas Universal Scene Description plugin, has also been updated.USD for Maya 0.31 improves lighting workflows, adding support for light linking, and the option to control lighting by looking through a selected light source.Other changes include support for USD cameras in Render Sequence, the option to search for USD prims in the Outliner, and to add or remove USD schemas in the Attribute Editor.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/250326_Mayas2026_FlowProductionTracking.mp4Pipeline integration: Animate in Context system links Maya to Flow Production TrackingMaya 2026 also integrates more closely with Flow Production Tracking, Autodesks production-management platform, previously known as ShotGrid. Originally announced last year, the new Animate in Context feature makes it possible to view shots surrounding the active scene directly in Maya.Animators and other shot-based artists can now scrub between their own work and that of other artists, helping to ensure that the changes they make preserve the continuity of the edit.The feature is available on Windows and Linux only, and is still officially in beta.Maya Creative 2026 also releasedAutodesk has also released Maya Creative 2026, the corresponding update to the cut-down edition of Maya aimed at smaller studios, and available on a pay-as-you-go basis.It includes most of the new features from Maya 2026, with the exception of the updates to Bifrost for Maya.Related software: Golaem added to Autodesks Media and Entertainment CollectionIn related news, Golaem, the Maya crowd-simulation plugin that Autodesk acquired last year, is now commercially available again.Autodesk includes it in the release notes for Maya 2026, but its a separate purchase, and requires a subscription to the full Media and Entertainment Collection, not Maya alone.You can find more details in our story on Golaem 9.2, the current release.Price and system requirementsMaya 2026 is available for Windows 10+, RHEL and Rocky Linux 8.10/9.3/9.5, and macOS 13.0+.The software is rental-only. Subscriptions cost $245/month or $1,945/year, up $10/month or $70/year since the previous update.In many countries, artists earning under $100,000/year and working on projects valued at under $100,000/year, qualify for Maya Indie subscriptions, now priced at $320/year, up $15/year.Maya Creative is available pay-as-you-go, with prices starting at $3/day, and a minimum spend of $300/year.Read an overview of the new features in Maya on Autodesks websiteRead a full list of new features in Maya 2026 in the online documentationHave 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.

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A digitization of a draft from the Wren Library (above) and amultispectral image processed by Michael Sullivan from raw imaging by Andrew Beeby (below) Master and Fellows of Trinity College, CambridgeLike most writers handwritten drafts, the papers of Alfred Tennysonthe 19th-century English poet known for nuggets such as, Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at allare littered with inkblots, crossed-out words and other markings.Researchers at the University of Oxford recently set out to read some of Tennysons indecipherable scribbles using advanced imaging techniques. According to a paper published in theReview of English Studies, their research has recovered previously unreadable variants in Tennysons work.Whether from environmental damage, redaction or authorial revision, many factors affect how much of modern literature survives for us to read today, lead authorMichael Sullivan, a literary scholar at Oxford, says in astatement from the university. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) Julia Margaret Cameron via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0In 2021, Sullivan founded Recovery of Literary Manuscripts in collaboration with chemistAndrew Beeby of Durham University. The project merges English literature withmultispectral imaging, a technology that analyzes an image at specific wavelengths.Our project is developing new digital techniques to restore lost literature that has remained beyond the reach of readers, Sullivan says.Tennyson served as the United Kingdoms poet laureate from 1850 to 1892, making him the official poetic spokesman for the reign of Victoria, according to thePoetry Foundation. He was also a prolific reviser, who frequently blotted out his words with ink, per the study. By digitally stripping away inkblots, his lost literary draft text may therefore be recovered, retrieving traces of the authors creative process.In addition to multispectral imaging, the researchers also used X-ray fluorescence, which surveys elemental composition, andfiber-optic reflectance spectroscopy, which analyzes pigments. They then digitally processed the imaging results, revealing words that had been lost. A processed multispectral image of a Tennyson notebook from the Wren Library, imaged by Andrew Beeby and processed by Roger Easton Jr. Master and Fellows of Trinity College, CambridgeOne of the manuscripts they studied contains Tennysons 1847 poem The Princess. A line from the published version reads, She said you had a heartI heard her say it / Our Ida has a heartjust ere she died. But in the newly imaged manuscript, the researchers saw the line, She said you had a heart , then, crossed out, Just ere she died. / Our Ida has a heartan hour before.Though he crossed it out in this manuscript, Just ere she died, was brought back before publication. According to the study, Tennysons deletion of the other words removed a heavier characterization of a mother judging her daughter.The notebook containing The Princess was also water damaged, reportsArtnets Min Chen. Through imaging, researchers were able to decipher parts of pages once made unreadable, discovering that Tennyson had changed us to me and our to my.Another notable revision was found in Tennysons 1859 poem Lancelot and Elaine, published inIdylls of the King, a 12-poem series inspired by the legend ofKing Arthur. According to the study, Tennyson originally wrote Till Arthur came before replacing the line with the King / Came girt with knights. Processed multispectral image of lines from "The Princess" Syndics of Cambridge University LibraryThe imaging also revealed several non-literary details, including ink bleeding through from the opposite side of a page, the indentation left by a pens tip and simple sketches. The drawings are material traces of [Tennysons] visual imagination, write the researchers.Tennysons revisions show recurrent patterns of thought that are important to modern scholars study of his work, per the study. As Sullivan says in the statement, Reading this recovered text helps us to illuminate the creative process behind works of art, but also to restore valuable parts of the worlds cultural heritage.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art Meets Science, Arts, British Writers, Cool Finds, Literature, New Research, Poetry, Queen Victoria, Technology, Writers

Game Informer returns after being shut down by GameStopGunzilla Games purchases publication, will operate independently from studio under entity Game Informer Inc.Image credit: Game Informer News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on March 26, 2025 Game Informer has returned after being shut down by GameStop in August 2024.In a letter from editor-in-chief Matt Miller, he revealed that the publication had been purchased by Gunzilla Games.The firm secured the rights to the brand, with Game Informer operating independently from the studio under the entity Game Informer Inc.The whole team who were previously laid off has returned, and the website has been reinstated with its back content. When it was shut down, the site was completely stripped of articles which prevented staff from saving their work."From the start, the new owners insisted on the idea of Game Informer remaining an independent editorial outlet," wrote Miller. "They felt just as strongly as our team did that the only path forward for us with an editorial group that made 100% of the decisions around what we cover and how we do so without any influence from them or anyone else.""Our intent is to focus on highlighting the coolest games, celebrating the history and legacy of the gaming industry, and shining a spotlight on the creators and players who are charting its future."Miller concluded: "I am deeply grateful for the trust and enthusiasm from the team at Gunzilla Games; they see the same potential in Game Informer as our team does, and their encouragement to do so ethically and free of outside pressure is laudable."

While the games industry patiently waits for the proper reveal of the Switch 2 on April 2nd, Nintendo isnt quite done with its current console. The company announced that it will be holding a Nintendo Direct on March 27th at 10AM ET, which will feature around 30 minutes of news about upcoming Switch games. Notably, Nintendo says that there will be no updates about Nintendo Switch 2 during this presentation.With the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition last week, there arent a lot of first-party games currently on the Switch calendar. But there are still some notable titles in the works including the long-in-development Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokmon Legends: Z-A. Its also possible well see a few more remasters for the Switch, like the much-rumored Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.Given that backwards compatibility has been confirmed for the Switch 2, whatever Nintendo does announce tomorrow will also be good news for its upcoming platform.

The latest update for No Mans Sky is going back in time. Called Relics, the expansion launches today and introduces paleontology and archaeology elements to the sci-fi exploration game; players can now unearth the bones of alien creatures, piece them together, and even erect museums.Perhaps most interesting is that players will be able to assemble the ancient creatures however theyd like. Heres how developer Hello Games explains it:There is a truly huge variety of procedural prehistoric bones, in all shapes and sizes, to excavate and collect. Its up to you how you reassemble them and theres a lot of fun to be had building ever-more outrageous skeletons to put on display in your bases-turned-museums or share with your fellow Travellers.Fossils out there to be discovered vary hugely in rarity, so you never quite know what youre going to unearth. Theres a real buzz when you find something truly rare. The most uncommon finds hold huge value. For those trying desperately to finish their collection, we introduced a specialist who can be bartered with at the Space Station.Naturally, since this is No Mans Sky, theres also an element of danger. Certain bones and underground treasures will be guarded by golem-like creatures and a giant new type of worm.As with all of the games major updates, Relics is free to download, and it joins an increasingly massive list of new content for the game since its launch in 2016. Most recently, that has included big changes to the games graphics, the addition of trillions of new planets, and just as important: fishing.

Wouldnt we all like to know what our future looks like? Well, I decided to take a sneak peek at mine and walk in the shoes of 50-year-old me for a day via InZoi, the new life sim competitor out of Korea looking to take The Sims on at its own game.Join me as I get accustomed to a new city, try new foods, attempt to make new friends, and even chart a new career. Fair warning, though, that things may get dark quickly as I ignore my stomach's wishes, let cryptocurrency get in the way of a fledgling romance, and go on a journey of self-discover at an empty wedding venue. It's far less interesting for me to describe the video, though, so I think you should just watch is instead. You can do that below!PlaySimon Cardy is a Senior Editorial Producer who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.