html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/250418_LightWave2025.mp4 LightWave Digital has released LightWave 2025, the next major version of the 3D animation and rendering software for VFX, animation, motion graphics and visualization work.Key changes in LightWave 2025.0 include new real-time preview rendering system RIPR, a new Toon Filter for cel-shading-style effects, and updates to the character rigging toolset. There are also new modeling tools, a new procedural staircase-generation system, and several of third-party developer Denis Pontonnier’s tools have been integrated into the software. The third major release from LightWave’s new owners LightWave 2025 is the third major update to the software since late 2023.It follows a three-year hiatus during which development was suspended by previous owner Vizrt, which acquired NewTek, LightWave’s long-time developer, in 2019. The software’s current owner, LightWave Digital, is a start-up whose management team comprises people who were closely involved with the software in its NewTek days, including former NewTek staff, plus key add-on developers and LightWave users. Viewport: RiPR provides path traced viewport previews on NVIDIA GPUs Major changes in LightWave 2025 include RiPR (Real-time Path Rendering).The GPU-accelerated path tracing system is available for viewport previews as an alternative to the standard VPR (Viewport Preview Renderer) or GL previews. RiPR is intended to provide more visually realistic previews for look development or visualization work, supporting HDR lighting, depth of field, and better handling of transparent materials. It’s built on NVIDIA’s OptiX ray tracing framework, so it requires a NVIDIA GPU – a GeForce 10 Series or Quadro Pascal card or newer – and is currently limited to a single viewport. LightWave 2025’s new SuperNormals system lets users edit normals on a per-model basis. 3D modeling: new SuperPatcher tool, Displacement Brush and SuperNormals system New 3D modeling tools include SuperPatcher, for capping holes in quad meshes.The Displacement Brush makes it possible to paint surface details like wrinkles or cracks, at least onto polygonal geometry: it doesn’t work with SubPatch models. It is also now possible to edit the normals of meshes on a per-model basis via the new SuperNormals system. Suggested use cases including fixing model-specific shading artefacts, creating custom edge styles, or for exporting game assets that require specific shading in different game engines. Procedural modeling: Construct generates 3D staircases LightWave 2025 also includes Construct, a new procedural tool for generating structures like “stairs, decks [and] bridges” for architectural visualization or set design work.Its Stair Calculator can be used in both Modeler, LightWave’s modeling application, and Layout, its scene layout application. (Left) New rig picking system PickkIt! and (right) hand animation system HanddIt! Rigging and animation: new walk cycle, hand animation and rig picking tools inside RHiggit RHiggit!, the modular character rigging system integrated into LightWave in LightWave 2024, gets three new tools: Steppit!, Handdit! and Pickkit!.Steppit! is an automated walk cycle generator. It works for both biped and creatures, and its output can be combined with standard keyframe animation, to modify the motion cycles generated, or to add secondary animation. Handdit! is a dedicated hand- and finger-animation system. It provides controls for posing hands, either globally or finger-by-finger, and can be accessed within its own tab, or in the RHiggit! and Steppit! menus. Pickkit! is a rig picking interface. It provides quick access to commonly adjusted rig points like shoulders and knees, and is “fully compatible” with the Steppit! and Handdit! interfaces. Rendering: updates to OctaneRender The LightWave integration for OctaneRender, included with LightWave since LightWave 2023, has also been updated.Changes include three new gradient nodes, and workflow improvements including updates to the Render Layers panel. Post effects: new Toon Filter for anime and cel-shading-style output Another headline feature in LightWave 2025 is the new Toon Filter, a “comprehensive post-shading tool” for viewport previews and final renders.It generates outlines around objects, or polygons within an object, and can be combined with the existing Cel Shader to create cel-animation-style looks. Users can control the thickness of the outlines, how they are layered, and how they scale with depth in the scene; and can shade and animate individual outlines independently. Tree-generation tool DP Verdure, showcased in a 2013 video by Erik Alstad (erikals). It and several of developer Denis Pontonnier’s other add-ons are now integrated into LightWave. DP Tools: Denis Pontonnier’s utility add-ons are now integrated into LightWave As with the previous LightWave Digital releases, LightWave 2025 integrates legacy third-party plugins from the NewTek era: this time, from developer Denis Pontonnier.The integrated DP Tools include four of Pontonnier’s add-ons, including DP Verdure, for creating polygonal trees, foliage and grass. The Rman collection is a set of shaders and textures ported from Pixar’s RenderMan renderer, DP Filter provides post-processing effects, and DP Kit is a set of nodes for the node editor. Pipeline integration: Python 3 support Other changes include support for Python 3 for scripting.Python 2 is still supported, although it has been deprecated since 2020, with most other CG applications moving to Python 3 several years ago. Price, system requirements and release date LightWave 2025.0 is compatible with Windows 10+ and macOS 10.15+ (macOS 11.0+ for Apple Silicon Macs, and macOS 13.3+ to use the Octane renderer).New licenses cost £795 (around $1,055). Read an overview of the latest features in LightWave 2025 on the product website Read a full list of new features in LightWave 2025 in the online documentation Have 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 don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

After 24 hours with Huawei’s Mate XT — a.k.a. the world’s first trifold smartphone — I have this to say for it: the novelty hasn’t worn off.I’ve tried the Mate XT twice before, first shortly after it launched last September, and then again in February after it was released outside of China. But now Huawei is ready to actually let me review its one-of-a-kind hardware, which at today’s exchange rates would set you back just under $4,000.I’ll be spending the next week with my SIM card in the Mate XT, as I get used to life with triple the usual space and none of the usual Google Mobile Services support, but one day in, I figured I’d share my first — or is it third? — impressions and a bunch of pictures.There are really three ways to use the XT: as a regular-ish phone with a 6.4-inch display, in a square shape that resembles other foldables and measures 7.9 inches, or fully opened into what’s essentially a 10.2-inch tablet.It feels a little unnatural to open at first. Since each segment folds in a different direction, it took me a few hours to get used to where I push and where I pull, and I spent most of that adjustment period worrying I was about to snap something. Once you have it figured out though, the process is pretty satisfying, even if opening the phone is absolutely a two-handed job.The three segments attach magnetically when closed, and they at least feel sturdy, even if I wouldn’t trust this thing to survive being sat on. You’ll also have to live with part of the display being permanently exposed on the phone’s right edge, and the front screen doubling as the phone’s back when it’s halfway open. Scratches — and fingerprint smudges — are an inevitability.Unsurprisingly, it’s thicker than your average phone, and heavier, but it’s more comfortable than you’d think. It’s also thinner and lighter than your average 10-inch tablet, so it’s all a matter of perspective.It’s hard to tell from looking, but Huawei has tapered the body: at its thinnest it’s actually slimmer than even Oppo’s Find N5, but the third of the phone with a USB-C port is a hair thicker.Let’s get the software question out of the way: no, this doesn’t have any official support for Google Mobile Services, which means no Play Store and no Google apps — at least not out of the box. Sideloading all things Google is easier than ever, which is to say it takes an hour and is a bit of a headache, but if you can get through that then you’ve essentially got a regular Android experience.With the help of open source tools like Aurora Store and microG, I got every Android and Google app I tried up and running, with the sole (and understandable) exception of Google Wallet. I’ll miss NFC payments, but everything else works.Will they work forever? I don’t know. Will they update properly? I also have no idea. Does sideloading every single app introduce a whole new set of exciting security vulnerabilities into my life? Almost certainly!I also don’t know how long even Huawei will let this sort of setup work. My Mate XT is running on HarmonyOS 4.2, which still has a little Android at its heart. But the company is slowly moving towards HarmonyOS Next, which isn’t compatible with Android apps at all, so the Mate XT’s next iteration — or simply its next software update — might kill off Android support for good.These are mostly the default apps the Mate XT ships with……and this is everything I was able to sideload.Just like on an Android tablet, some apps make better use of the full display than others. It’s just about the perfect size for streaming, but Instagram has no idea what to do with all the extra space.Multitasking is a bit basic, too. Three screens should mean three apps, right? Wrong. The split-screen mode only supports two at a time, and if you want a third, it’ll have to be an awkward “Floating Window” getting in the way of something else.24 hours in, I can confirm that the Mate XT feels like an engineering marvel. Whether it’s a phone anyone should drop four grand on is what I’ll spend the next week figuring out.Photography by Dominic Preston / The VergeSee More:

Star Wars Celebration 2025 has seen a slew of new announcements so far, including a theatrical film starring Ryan Gosling that will hit theaters in 2027. And now, fans of the Star Wars animated universe have something to look forward to: a brand-new series featuring fan-favorite villain Darth Maul. Revealed as part of the Lucasfilm Animation panel at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is coming to Disney+ and features Sam Witwer returning as Darth Maul. Witwer previously voiced the iconic villain in both Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Witwer's voice was also featured in the closing scene of Solo: A Star Wars Story. The new series is set after after the final season of The Clone Wars and will see Maul "plotting to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire."The Star Wars Celebration panel featured new footage revealing the show as dark and gritty. In the clip, we see Maul break a force sensitive Twi'lek out of prison and offer to train her. We also see Maul slice up multiple characters with his double-ended lightsabre.Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord debuts on Disney+ in 2026.

Four heroes, each with amazing powers. One with remarkable strength; another can turn herself invisible; the next has a body that can stretch in odd configurations; and the last leaves a trail of flames as he zooms by. Remarkable as these abilities certainly are, the quartet’s most important quality is the love they share for one another. Because, more than superheroes, these four are family. That description applies to Marvel‘s first family the Fantastic Four, whose shared affection (and occasional antagonism) is on full display in the latest trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. However, it also describes Disney‘s first superhero family, as seen in the Pixar film The Incredibles. Although some people might prefer the red-attired quartet over the group in blue, the similarities between the two superhero teams is a good thing. First Family? Voiced by Craig T. Nelson, Mr. Incredible introduced himself to the world in a teaser released in 2003. The two-minute clip opened with nostalgic shots of the hero in his glory days, inspirational images matched by a soaring score. We see Mr. Incredible suiting up, proudly pulling on his gloves and mask. But the tone changes abruptly when he gets to his belt, which no longer fits over his protruding gut. That short clip identifies the central emotional spine of the finished movie. Written and directed by Brad Bird, The Incredibles finds Bob Parr in the midst of a midlife crisis. Worried that his glory days are behind him and dissatisfied by his dull office job, Bob puts his own needs above those of his wife and children when an alluring stranger allows him to recapture his youth. Of course all of this suburban strife plays out less in the form of troubling self-medication and more as superhero adventurism, complete with discovering a volcano lair and a rampaging robot. Remembering that teaser and the focus on a midlife crisis does a lot to dissuade folks convinced that The Incredibles ripped off the Fantastic Four, despite having a family of superheroes, three quarters of whom share similar power sets. Bird claims the similarities between his team and the FF were entirely unintentional, stating that he drew more overtly from James Bond movies (thus the ’60s setting, the volcano lair, and Michael Giacchino’s jaunty Monty Norman-inspired score). In fact, the only comic book Bird acknowledges is Watchmen, which also has a plot about the government outlawing superheroes, and even then calls it a coincidence. That said, The Incredibles felt similar enough to the Fantastic Four that producers at 20th Century Fox were compelled to rework their 2005 take on the Marvel heroes. In particular, they found Bird’s depiction of Elasti-Girl’s (Holly Hunter) stretching powers so impressive that they needed to reimagine the way their Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) used his abilities. Obviously, it wasn’t enough as The Incredibles remains one of the greatest superhero movies of all time while 2005’s Fantastic Four is only defended by contrarians or victims of nostalgia. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter if Bird took direct inspiration from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or if he just happened on the same territory. What is important is how The Incredibles highlights the best parts of the Fantastic Four. Family First. Late in The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible snaps. A shadow covers his face and he grabs Mirage (Elizabeth Peña), the assistant of supervillain Syndrome (Jason Lee), and threatens to kill her. What accounts for this sudden change in tone? Simple. He just overheard a message from his wife Helen, stating that she and her children (Sarah Vowell and Spencer Fox) were flying in a plane over Syndrome’s island, a plane that was just destroyed. Without his family, Mr. Incredible turned into a violent monster. Early in Jonathan Hickman’s influential run on Fantastic Four, Reed Richards uses a multiversal bridge to encounter the Council of Reeds, an organization filled with all of his variants. While the Reeds initially help one another to solve every problem, the main Reed soon gets unsettled by their utilitarian coldness. They reveal a willingness to sacrifice innocents in pursuit of their goals. Eventually, Reed realizes the difference between himself and these other selves; the thing that makes him caring and them as cruel as Doctor Doom. This Reed still has his Sue, still has his brother-in-law Johnny, and his best friend Ben. He has two children in Franklin and Valeria while the other Reeds considered their families a distraction from the real work. In Hickman’s hands—and indeed those of the great Fantastic Four creators, starting with Lee and Kirby—Reed’s family is the source of his heroism, not a distraction. It leads to a wonderful conclusion in which the mere existence of Franklin and Valeria allows Earth-616 Reed to succeed where the others failed. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! However, with the exception of the unreleased 1996 movie, none of the Fantastic Four movies that came before emphasized the family element. Neither Gruffudd nor co-star Jessica Alba had the chemistry to make Reed and Sue feel like a loving, supportive couple in 2005’s Fantastic Four or its 2007 sequel. Worse the 2015 movie leans hard into darkness, so that even brother and sister Johnny and Sue (Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara) feel like enemies. The Incredibles foregrounds heroes as family, setting a high bar that no Fantastic Four film to date has cleared. Family Forever The latest trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps features lots of intergalactic adventure, including our first look at Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer and Galactus’ foot, stomping through the city like he’s Godzilla. But the center of the trailer is on more mundane issues, namely the quartet’s excitement over Sue’s pregnancy. That combination of the mundane and the superheroic certainly exists in the comics. But it took The Incredibles to put the mixture on screen, opening the way for the Fantastic Four to take its next steps and become the legendary team they’re meant to be. The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 25, 2025.

Apr 18, 2025The Hacker NewsSaaS Security / Shadow IT Your employees didn't mean to expose sensitive data. They just wanted to move faster. So they used ChatGPT to summarize a deal. Uploaded a spreadsheet to an AI-enhanced tool. Integrated a chatbot into Salesforce. No big deal—until it is. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Most security teams are already behind in detecting how AI tools are quietly reshaping their SaaS environments. And by the time an alert is triggered—if it even exists—damage may already be done. This Isn't a Hypothetical Problem. It's Happening Now. AI adoption inside organizations is no longer strategic. It's spontaneous. Employees are experimenting, connecting, automating—and bypassing security while doing it. AI systems are becoming embedded in your SaaS stack without visibility or oversight. And it's creating a new class of shadow integrations—ones that don't show up in traditional threat models. If your current defenses rely on manual tracking, policy enforcement, or user education alone, you're not keeping up. Learn How to Adapt—Before Your Next Blind Spot Becomes a Breach Join Dvir Sasson, Director of Security Research at Reco, for "Your AI is Outrunning Your Security. Here's How to Keep Up" — an unfiltered session on what it really takes to maintain AI Security Readiness. You'll walk away with: Clarity on emerging AI-driven threats inside SaaS tools you already use Real examples of breaches caused by unmonitored AI integrations Actionable detection and response strategies that forward-thinking companies are using right now AI is no longer just a tool—it's a moving part of your operational fabric. The more decentralized and dynamic it becomes, the less your traditional security playbook applies. If you're not accounting for AI's growing presence across your SaaS apps, you're not seeing the full risk surface. Watch this Webinar And when a breach hits your CRM, your boardroom doesn't care how it happened. Just that you didn't see it coming. Save Your Seat: This session is for security leaders, IT owners, and SaaS risk managers who want to evolve beyond reactive security—and take proactive control in an AI-powered world. 👉 Register now to reserve your spot. Spaces are limited. Found this article interesting? This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners. Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

The quest for long, healthy life—and even immortality—is probably almost as old as humans are, but it’s never been hotter than it is right now. Today my newsfeed is full of claims about diets, exercise routines, and supplements that will help me live longer. A lot of it is marketing fluff, of course. It should be fairly obvious that a healthy, plant-rich diet and moderate exercise will help keep you in good shape. And no drugs or supplements have yet been proved to extend human lifespan. The growing field of longevity medicine is apparently aiming for something in between these two ends of the wellness spectrum. By combining the established tools of clinical medicine (think blood tests and scans) with some more experimental ones (tests that measure your biological age), these clinics promise to help their clients improve their health and longevity. But a survey of longevity clinics around the world, carried out by an organization that publishes updates and research on the industry, is revealing a messier picture. In reality, these clinics—most of which cater only to the very wealthy—vary wildly in their offerings. Today, the number of longevity clinics is thought to be somewhere in the hundreds. The proponents of these clinics say they represent the future of medicine. “We can write new rules on how we treat patients,” Eric Verdin, who directs the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, said at a professional meeting last year. Phil Newman, who runs Longevity.Technology, a company that tracks the longevity industry, says he knows of 320 longevity clinics operating around the world. Some operate multiple centers on an international scale, while others involve a single “practitioner” incorporating some element of “longevity” into the treatments offered, he says. To get a better idea of what these offerings might be, Newman and his colleagues conducted a survey of 82 clinics around the world, including the US, Australia, Brazil, and multiple countries in Europe and Asia. Some of the results are not all that surprising. Three-quarters of the clinics said that most of their clients were Gen Xers, aged between 44 and 59. This makes sense—anecdotally, it’s around this age that many people start to feel the effects of aging. And research suggests that waves of molecular changes associated with aging hit us in our 40s and again in our 60s. (Longevity influencers Bryan Johnson, Andrew Huberman, and Peter Attia all fall into this age group too.) And I wasn’t surprised to see that plenty of clinics are offering aesthetic treatments, focusing more on how old their clients look. Of the clinics surveyed, 28% said they offered Botox injections, 35% offered hair loss treatments, and 38% offered “facial rejuvenation procedures.”  “The distinction between longevity medicine and aesthetic medicine remains blurred,” Andrea Maier of the National University of Singapore, and cofounder of a private longevity clinic, wrote in a commentary on the report. Maier is also former president of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society, an organization that was set up with the aim of establishing clinical standards and credibility for longevity clinics. Other results from the survey underline how much of a challenge this will be; many clinics are still offering unproven treatments. Over a third of the clinics said they offered stem-cell treatments, for example. There is no evidence that those treatments will help people live longer—and they are not without risk, either. I was a little surprised to see that most of the clinics are also offering prescription medicines off label. In other words, drugs that have been approved for specific medical issues are apparently being prescribed for aging instead. This is also not without risks—all medicines have side effects. And, again, none of them have been proved to slow or reverse human aging. And these prescriptions are coming from certified medical doctors. More than 80% of clinics reported that their practice was overseen by a medical doctor with more than 10 years of clinical experience. It was also a little surprising to learn that despite their high fees, most of these clinics are not making a profit. For clients, the annual costs of attending a longevity clinic range between $10,000 and $150,000, according to Fountain Life, a company with clinics in Florida and Prague. But only 39% of the surveyed clinics said they were turning a profit and 30% said they were “approaching breaking even,” while 16% said they were operating at a loss. Proponents of longevity clinics have high hopes for the field. They see longevity medicine as nothing short of a revolution—a move away from reactive treatments and toward proactive health maintenance. But these survey results show just how far they have to go. This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.

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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 here The reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 may have been criticised for its launch price, but the hype is real. In the week after the console’s true reveal, gamers are quickly buying up MicroSD Express cards to expand the new device’s storage.  Unlike the original Nintendo Switch console, the upcoming successor requires a much faster MicroSD Express card for games exclusively on the new console. In preparation for the console’s launch, players are quickly nabbing the faster memory cards to prepare for release.  Nintendo Switch 2 causes MicroSD Express cards to sell out  Via Tom’s Hardware, MicroSD Express cards are selling like hotcakes following the new console’s reveal. While supplies are quickly being resupplied, many stores are quickly running out of the newer memory cards.  In Japan, the new memory cards were quickly sold out in both physical and digital stores across the region. Despite their expensive price, Japanese store Hermitage Akihabara sold 337 memory cards every hour, and they’re still selling.  Impressively, stores are finding that the massive sale of MicroSD Express cards are organic sales. Instead of being boosted by scalpers, 80% of sales only include a single memory card instead of scalpers grabbing dozens of them to resell at a higher price.  Nintendo’s surprisingly cheaper version of the new MicroSD standard is also selling well with the My Nintendo Store frequently selling out of MicroSD Express cards worldwide.  Of course, traditional MicroSD cards will also work on the new Nintendo Switch console. However, these memory cards will only be able to play games for the original console as Switch 2 games require faster storage speeds than their predecessor.  For more Nintendo Switch 2 coverage, read about how developers are very happy with the new console’s power. Additionally, check out why the console can’t play every Switch 1 game on launch.    Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

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Following a small extension to Diablo 4’s currently-ongoing Season 7, Blizzard will officially kick off the game’s eighth season. We’ve known much about what to expect from this coming season - thanks to the PTR - but the developer never properly revealed it. Read more