A single-player narrative-driven action-adventureIndiana Jonesgame made by MachineGames sounds like a match so perfect on paper, its almost surprising it took this long for it to happen. Regardless, here we are, less than a month away from the launch ofIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, with MachineGames, Bethesda, and Microsoft continuing to reveal more of the game, the game continuing to look promising, and the excitement surrounding it continuing to build. To prepare for its approaching release, then, here, well talk about crucial details that you should know aboutIndiana Jones and the Great Circle.ORIGINAL STORY BY TODD HOWARDWeve always associated Todd Howard with all things Bethesda Game Studios, from Elder Scrolls toFallouttoStarfield, but this is him taking up an important role in a non-BGS Bethesda-owned studio.Wolfensteindeveloper MachineGames is, of course, the team responsible for crafting this adventure, but Howard has served as an executive producer, and more importantly, also conceptualized the original story that will be told in the game. And what exactly is that story?STORY DETAILSIndiana Jones and the Great Circleis set in the year 1937and begins with the theft of a valuable artifact from Marshall College, Professor Jones place of work. An investigation of the theft leads Indy on the trail of the Great Circle, a circle perfectly aligned around the globe along the locations of a number of different locations of spiritual and historical significance. On his adventure, Indy will be joined by Italian journalist Gina Lombardi, and as always, will be locking horns with plenty of Nazis and fascists, led by the enigmatic psychological mastermind, Emmerich Voss.LOCATIONSThe globetrotting nature ofIndiana Jonesstories is always one of their most crucial components, and sure enough,The Great Circlewont disappoint on that front. The games very premise will obviously demand as much, as Indy travels to different locations across the world as he investigates the titular Great Circle. Included among the many locations that players will visit in the game are the Vatican City, the Sukhothai temples in Thailand, the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, and the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas.NOT A SHOOTERMachineGames has made its name as an accomplished developer of first-person shooters on the back of theWolfensteinfranchise, butIndiana Jonesis taking a different approach. It is first-person, and it will allow for gunfights, but the focus is instead going to be either on improvising to the best of your abilities amidst deliberately chaotic hand-to-hand combat, something that should ideally capture the spirit ofIndiana Jones.COMBATCombat is going to allow players to tackle situations in a variety of ways. Indy will, of course, have access to his revolver, but players arent going to be encouraged to shoot, unless absolutely necessary. You can, however, use pretty much anything else you can get your hands on for melee combat purposes. Indy can pick up all manner of objects to whack enemies with, and can even use the butt of his gun pistol-whip foes. And of course, his whip will also have a crucial role to play, as youd expect from an Indiana Jonesgame. Other than that, there will be plenty of regular fisticuffs to go around, where players will be required to pay careful attention to blocks, parries, and attacks of their own.STEALTHOutside of out-and-out combat, stealth will often be the way to go. You can, of course, expect the basic mechanics, whether thats distracting enemies by throwing objects, silencing them with stealth takedowns, and what have you. More interestingly, however, the game will also feature social stealth sections that will see Indy heading into the heart of enemy territory while disguised as one of them and having to blend in in order to avoid attention.ADVENTURE POINTSIndiana Jones and the Great Circleclearly isnt going to be the sort of game that lets players heavily customize their builds, and for good reason, though you obviously expect light progression mechanics nonetheless. These will come in the form of Adventure Points, which you will earn throughout your journey to then spend on unlocking a variety of different upgrades that will allow you to customize Indys abilities. Oh, and speaking of abilitiesABILITIESAs the famous fedora-wearing archaeologist, players will be able to use a number of different abilities throughout the course of the experience, and the ones that have been revealed certainly sound interesting. Theres Lucky Hat, which will allow players a second shot at life after a fatal blow if they are able to crawl to Indys hat and put it back on within a limited window. Then theres Bear Hands, which will appeal to those who wish to prioritize melee combat, thanks to the harder hitting blows it will enable.OPEN AREASAmidst the games steady stream of scripted linear sections and cinematic set piece sequences, players will also be able to explore a variety of different open areas. No,The Great Circleis not an open world game, but there will be a number of these scattered throughout the game, where players will be encouraged to explore at their own pace. Interestingly enough, MachineGames has also said the game will implement immersive sim elements in these areas, with players being encouraged to experiment and approach situations in a variety of different ways.SIDE CONTENTThe aforementioned open areas are going to feature plenty of optional content for players to dive into, from enemy camps to infiltrate and hidden puzzles and secrets to find and more. Of particular interest to many will likely be underground fight clubs, where players will be able to enter illegal fighting tournaments to get into brawls with Nazis (and other kinds of scum) for monetary rewards.INDYS JOURNALExploration and puzzles will be heavily emphasized inIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, and you can expect Indys journal to be at the forefront with both. Not only are you going to be looking at your journal to keep track of puzzles and clues, its pages will also be continuously filled throughout your journey with new details and tidbits. The journal will contain maps, images, letters, sketches, and much more for players to peruse, serving not only as an archive of past events, but also as a tool to set up potential future story threads.INDYS CAMERAAnother tool that Indy will be making plenty of use of in the game will be his camera. Taking pictures of objects, landmarks, or points of interest in your surroundings will reveal important clues and historical details, while during puzzles, you can also use the camera to get hints about how to proceed. Seemingly, the camera isnt going to be as important of a part of Indys toolkit as something like, say, his whip, but clearly, there will be times where players will be encouraged to make use of it.CINEMATICSMachineGames has always prided itself on crafting heavily story-focused games, which is exactly whatIndiana Jones and the Great Circleis expected to be as well. For instance, the studio has confirmed that the game has over three hours of cinematics- which is par for the course for a MachineGames joint. In fact, 2017sWolfenstein 2: The New Colossusalso had over three hours of cutscenes, which means we should be expecting something in that same range.PERFORMANCEFull details onIndiana Jones and the Great Circlesperformance and resolution targets across platforms havent yet been revealed, but some pertinent things have nonetheless been confirmed. For instance, speaking withWindows Central, creative director Axel Torvenius confirmed that the game is expected to target 60 FPS on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. It might be that we will release even more details in terms of specifics, technical details, as we get closer to launch, once we see all the telemetry on performance, he said. But what I can tell you is that the ambition is that the game runs at 60 FPS on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and that, you know, it shouldnt be compromised in the visuals or the experience of the product. It should feel cohesive, running smoothly at 60 on both.Presumably, we can expect the same from the PS5 version when it launches next Spring.MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTSMachineGames hasnt yet revealed the full recommended specs forThe Great CirclesPC version, but its minimum requirements are known, at the very least- and theyre pretty demanding. To play the game on PC, youre going to need either an i7 processor at 3.3GHz or better or a Ryzen 5 processor at 3.1Ghz or better, along with either GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER or a Radeon RX 6600 (with 8 GB of VRAM), an SSD, and 16 GB of RAM.

There arent a lot of studios out there who have the kind of track record with building and management simulation games that Frontier Developments does. 2016s Planet Coastersaw the developer returning to the fan-favourite genre with great success, and now, eight years later, Frontier has returned with a sequel. From water parks and more expansive coaster customization and various other iterative improvements, Planet Coaster 2attempts to build on its predecessors formula in a number of ways. In a recent interview, we were able to speak with the games developers about some of its biggest changes and improvements. Below, you can read our interview with principal lead designer Dave Bamber and tech lead Simon Jordan.NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the games launch."We had great enthusiasm from the community of the original Planet Coaster for making waterparks and we were excited to add it as part of the sequel."Going into the development of this game, what was the primary guiding principle for the development team, especially coming off of the success of the first Planet Coaster?Dave Bamber (Principal Lead Designer): As a returning developer from Planet Coaster, there was so much to consider during pre-production, with literal years of suggestions and ideas from inside the company and the community beyond. The guiding principle at this early stage was to enhance and expand upon as many features as we could to re-examine what players enjoy about the game, and double down on that feeling. We had great enthusiasm from the community of the original Planet Coaster for making waterparks and we were excited to add it as part of the sequel.For Design as a discipline, we used that principle to break down the gameplay into Coasters, Guests, Economy, Staff, Beauty, Story, and Online Interaction. Looking at the concepts of Simplicity, Guidance, Depth, Effort, Breadth, Charm, Community and Immersion as they applied to the gameplay allowed us prioritise features and ideas we want to pursue.The addition of water parks is among the biggest highlights in Planet Coaster 2, but much variety can players expect in the options available for rides and attractions?Bamber: Weve worked hard to give players a wide variety of things to build for standalone theme parks. There are over 60 coaster and tracked ride types to build, and over 50 amazing coaster blueprints ready to use right away. A brand-new feature is the ability to customise the coasters cars with scenery items, expanding creativity in a whole new creative direction providing players with incredible potential for customisation. Its a great example of doubling down on the gameplay players love, and were so excited to see what players do with it next, weve seen such wonderful (and weird!) examples in the office.Flat Rides are making a return in a huge way. Players loved the heavily themed flat rides in the original Planet Coaster but wanted more flexibility and controls over that theming to allow them to have more versatility on where they could be placed in their parks. Weve revolutionised the flexicolour options by introducing pattern choices, too. There are over 30 flat rides, some of which were remade from ones from the original game to a more stripped-back feel ready for players to customise with scenery items that animate with the rides.Our community will also now be able to tinker and share Flat Ride Blueprints to their hearts content via the Frontier Workshop, and weve included 25 Flat Ride Blueprints for launch. From a coaster Blueprints point of view, were excited for players to discover that paths and queues are included now.What are some of the biggest improvements and changes that Planet Coaster 2 is making in terms of coaster customization options?Bamber: Aside from an unparalleled level of customisation for the overall look of the coaster as weve touched upon, the headline feature has to be the animated coaster pieces, these complex track pieces are a high point of modern rollercoaster design.Less flashy, but just as important is how coasters are made. Weve overhauled how the twist value is stored for coasters, the results are the smoothest coaster rolls weve seen, before the player even opens the smoothing tools. Speaking of smoothing tools, weve made quality of life enhancements to adjust the strength and direction of the smoothing, to allow for more power and precision.Dedicated players will also notice that selecting, moving and banking sections of built track is easier and more flexible than before, applying to swathes of track with smooth ins and outs (check out the Setting tab for move Track settings!)."Aside from an unparalleled level of customisation for the overall look of the coaster as weve touched upon, the headline feature has to be the animated coaster pieces, these complex track pieces are a high point of modern rollercoaster design."Diving into the weeds with guest management is a big part of the experience for many genre fans. The first Planet Coaster already had plenty going on that front, but what are some of the most interesting improvements players can expect here?Bamber: We saw that players wanted more detail in the guest simulation, and more understanding of how guests acted, leading to a range of enhancements.Weve overhauled guest happiness into Guest Moods, which feeds into the overall Guest Experience. Moods allow guests to build up a bigger picture of the things which make them happy and sad over their whole park stay, beyond a simple happiness meter.Guests now arrive in the park in organised waves, giving you peaks and troughs of behaviour for guests en masse with an ebb and flow as guests move around your parks. This also gives us tighter control of guests and the economy if a guest leaves the park early, they take their dollars with them until the next wave.Weve made a Luxury guest need which controls buying souvenirs from the gift shop, an Entertainment need for going on rides, and a Panic need for high fear rides.Weve given guests Dietary Restrictions, so you need to think more about the variety of shops you are placing.Additionally, weve given guests new Ride Tolerances for height, speed and g-forces that benefit from a wider selection of ride types.This means players will have some interesting new challenges and decisions to make as they build and expand their park with all the incredible enhancements weve added in the game.With simulation and builder games like these, a lot of the experience lives in the details, the smaller things like the menus and the building and pathing interfaces. What kinds of improvements can players expect to those areas in the sequel?Bamber: Weve made feature and tool access easier, for example, double clicking or holding A on controller will open the editing tools for that feature, and the radial menus from Planet Coaster Console addition have been expanded and are even available to players on keyboard as well.Alongside the tutorials on teaching you how to run a theme park, weve also made the game easier to pick-up for newcomers by making sure that useful keyboard shortcuts in the original Planet Coaster are visible in the UI too, to make it more intuitive to learn as they play.Being heavily involved in the path system, I can tell you it wasnt a simple interface to make! A lot of work went into the system itself to let the player be able to build more often without being obstructed. But from the players point of view, the path and pool interfaces are organised into useful tools that can be used immediately building a plaza is as simple as placing a single stamp of path! For players that want more, the path tool options let you customise to an amazing degree, and we really do expect some players to use them!From a feature point of view, being able to scale scenery is also a game changing improvement. As a result, the scenery menu is cleaner with fewer duplicates for sizes, and the player can adapt scenery on the fly to multiple situations.What can you tell us about the event sequencer tool? What kinds of things can players pull off with this?Bamber: The Event Sequencer is a timeline with a visual interface for organising animated scenery, visual effects, audio effects and lighting changes. It can be standalone, or can link with flat rides, coasters or tracked rides, and the visual interface makes it easy to trigger elements in sequence or in parallel. This visual way of understanding how your effects, scenery and speakers are working in tandem makes it incredibly powerful to construct amazing sequences of events to delight your guests.On the simple side of examples, players can trigger a flamethrower effect when a coaster goes over a track section, or when a flat ride begins a movement. A common example of something more detailed is to build a Dark ride, where a richly decorated tracked ride progresses through an indoor series of animated scenes that make up a whole story, such as an undersea adventure constructed using our Aquatic theme, complete with sea monsters and water jets!Collaborative cross platform saves for the sandbox mode sound like a great addition. Will there be any limitations to the feature, in terms of save file sizes, the use of mods or platform specific features, and so on?Simon Jordan (Tech Lead): Cross-platform play in the new Franchise mode, as well as collaborative Sandbox saves, presented an interesting technical opportunity, with the need to ensure a seamless experience between console and PC as players jump one at a time into a shared save or compete in a Franchise challenge together.If you played Planet Coaster 1 on console, you may remember the Oswald Eugene Counter. Similarly, Planet Coaster 2 features a helpful Complexity Meter on consoles, which ensures a smooth experience regardless of platform. When sharing across platforms, PC players will also be able to see how their park stacks up against the Complexity Meter, to ensure their friends can open and build/manage the park seamlessly on their consoles.Are there any plans to make the game PS5 Pro enhanced?Jordan: Planet Coaster 2 will be PS5 Pro enhanced on launch. We are using the enhancements to push more pixels at a native 4k resolution for even more incredible visuals."Players will have some interesting new challenges and decisions to make as they build and expand their park with all the incredible enhancements weve added in the game."As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?Jordan: It is great to see advancements in hardware, as it gives developers unique opportunities to push the envelope of what is possible in games. We are always keeping a close eye on developments in both console and PC technology, and with the PS5 Pro, well be researching this technology as it rolls out.What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?Jordan: Sony have achieved a console first with AI-enabled upscaling and itll be interesting to see how this evolves. In the past weve seen advancements in the core set of hardware technologies pushing the envelope of what is possible, now were seeing AI being driven by custom hardware changing this landscape. Its an exciting time to be making games; I think were about to start seeing a new era of console innovation.What resolution and frame rates will the game target on the Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PS5 Pro?Jordan: We run at a stable 30 fps across all consoles to ensure a smooth and consistent gameplay experience. The base PS5 and Xbox Series S runs at 1440p upscaled to 4k. On Series S its 960p scaled up to 1440p and PS5 pro it is native 4k.

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Saturday, November 16th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerCreate perfect topology for animated charactershtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"The Gnomon Workshop has released Topology for Animated Characters, a guide to creating models with clean topology for production, recorded by Freelance Character Artist Joo Victor.The workshop provides over an hour and a half of video training on 3D modeling and retopology work in Maya and ZBrush.Create 3D characters with clean, animation-friendly, production-ready topologyThe work done by modelers is critical to the success of 3D characters as they move through the production pipeline in professional animation projects. In the workshop, Victor focuses on the technical aspects of character modeling, setting out how to produce models with clean topology that deform correctly when animated.He begins with the basics of 3D modeling and retopology work using Maya and ZBrush, moving on to more advanced techniques with the aim of creating unique solutions for characters.Topics covered include edge flow, poly counts, n-edged vertices and n-sided polygons (n-gons), and the location of pole vertices.The workshop sets out techniques and production tips for creating both facial and full-body topology that can be applied to both studio and personal projects.About the artistJoo Victor is a freelance character modeler and sculptor.He has worked on movies, ads and TV, for clients including Pixar, Paramount and Skydance Media, on projects including Inside Out 2 and Saving Bikini Bottom: the Sandy Cheeks Movie.Pricing and availabilityTopology for Animated Characters is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.Read more about Topology for Animated Characters on The Gnomon Workshops websiteHave 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.Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.Latest NewsDownload VFX Assets' free 2D Cloud Textures PackGet 125 free cloud textures on black backgrounds for background compositing in VFX or motion graphics projects. Commercial use.Sunday, November 17th, 2024Create perfect topology for animated charactersNew Gnomon Workshop tutorial reveals how to create 3D characters with animation-friendly, production-ready topology in Maya and ZBrush.Saturday, November 16th, 2024Ephere releases Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4DHair and fur plugin gets new tools for 'grafting' procedural hair grooms onto a character, and 'boxing' operators into single modifiers.Friday, November 15th, 2024Maxon releases Red Giant 2025.2 and Universe 2025.1Check out the new features in the suite of motion graphics and VFX plugins and the online library of effects and transitions.Friday, November 15th, 2024Nekki releases Cascadeur MobileNew mobile edition of Nekki's AI-assisted character animation software is now available for iPad and iPhone users.Thursday, November 14th, 2024Unreal Engine 5.5: discover 10 key features for CG artistsRead our pick of the features in this huge update to the game engine, from MegaLights to character rigging, animation and rendering.Thursday, November 14th, 2024More NewsBlackmagic Design releases Fusion Studio 19.1Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 19.1Get the Blender Studio's free Brushstroke Tools for BlenderFoundry releases Mari 7.1 in betaScene Group releases Cavalry 2.2Maxon releases ZBrush for iPad 2025.1Foundry discontinues ModoEpic Games to share new free assets on Fab every two weeksGet 100+ free modular airport assets for Unity and Unreal EngineReallusion adds AI Smart Search to Character Creator and iClonePoly Hammer unveils MetaHuman DNA add-on for BlenderAcademy Software Foundation adopts OpenAPVOlder Posts

Hosting Thanksgiving dinner is fun and all, butthe amount of cleaning you have to do afterward can be exhausting. The Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum / mop hybrid can help speed things up, though, and its currently down to an all-time low of $849.99 (about $690 off) at Best Buy and Amazon (when you apply the on-page coupon).RelatedThe Narwal Freo X Ultra is one ofour favorite robot vacuums for mopping. It features a commendable 8,200Pa of suction power and a host of welcome features, including a set of spinning triangular mops that allow it to clean hard surfaces exceptionally well. It can adjust the amount of pressure applied by its mop based on floor type, too, and can even make its own cleaning decisions, one of which will prompt it to remop your floors if they remain dirty after its initial pass. It can also clean its own mop pads and offers support for several voice assistants, including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.Additionally, the Freo X Ultra can accurately map your home and touts a disposable onboard bin that can compress dust, so theres no need to contend with a noisy auto-empty dock. Narwals accompanying mobile app isnt the best, nor is the vacuums onboard obstacle avoidance, but youd be hard-pressed to find a more balanced option for the price. Narwal Freo X Ultra $850$154045% off$850$850$154045% offA superior mopping bot with a superior price tag, the Narwal is smart enough to know when it needs to go back and mop more. Its vacuuming is good, and its unique onboard compression bin means no loud auto-emptying.A few more ways to save this weekendSonys last-gen WH-1000XM4 headphones are available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Sony starting at $196.01 ($154 off). The older XM4 remain a great pair of headphones with terrific active noise cancellation and sound, even if the slicker XM5 offer slightly better ANC and improved voice call quality. Plus, unlike the latest model, they fold up for easy transport, meaning you dont have to rely on Sonys oversized carrying case. Read our review.Hotos 3.6V Screwdriver Kit is on sale for $34.99 ($15 off) at Amazon, which is one of its better prices to date. The lightweight tool is small enough to maneuver in tight workspaces and includes 25 commonly used steel bits, which allow you to tackle a variety of projects that dont require a hefty amount of torque. It even packs an integrated LED light to help you line up your screws.Logitechs wired G203 is on sale for $18.99 ($21 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon, which is $4 shy of its best price to date. If all you need are the basics,Logitechs inexpensive gaming mouse is a good pick with a comfortable design and several nice perks for the price, including customizable RGB lighting and six programmable buttons.

Unsurprisingly, yesterdays big Half-Life release wasnt the sequel to Half-Life 2 or even the third Half-Life 2: Episode entry, but a 20th-anniversary update to Valves legendary 2004 game. And given what studio co-founder Gabe Newell has to say on the subject in a 2-hour documentary that the company released in tandem with the update, it seems less likely than ever that well be seeing either follow-up anytime soon.Newell explains what he calls his personal failure near the end of the video:You cant get lazy and say, oh, were moving the story forward. Thats copping out of your obligatiion to gamers, right? Yes, of course they love the story. They love many, many aspects of it. But sort of saying that your reason to do it is because people want to know what happens next... you know, we couldve shipped it, like, it wouldnt have been that hard. You know, the failure was my personal failure was being stumped. Like, I couldnt figure out why doing Episode 3 was pushing anything forward.Thats not to say the company didnt try. One idea for Episode 3 included an Ice Gun that Engineer David Speyrer says in the documentary wouldve let players spray amorphous shapes that could serve as barriers, platforms, or even Silver Surfer mode paths that they would shoot in front of themselves to cross gaps. Speyrer also talks about blob enemies that could move through grates or split into smaller head-crabby things. RelatedBut Speyrer and other Valve employees featured in the video echo Newells sentiment that they just couldnt come up with ideas that seemed worth a new Half-Life game. One of its level designers said something similar in a 2020 IGN interview. He also blamed scope creep the tendency of a project to slowly grow beyond its original plan and the company wanting to get going on developing the Source 2 engine that drives VR prequel Half-Life: Alyx. Newell sees Half-Life 2 as an engine, a platform, or at best a whole industry unto itself, gaming journalist Geoff Keighley, who Newell once gave a key card for Valves studios and told to do whatever you want, wrote for Gamespot.