November 20, 20245 min readSpaceXs Starship Soars in 6th Test Flight but Skips Booster CatchThe sixth test flight of SpaceXs giant rocket ended with a fiery splashdown rather than a clean chopstick catchBy Mike Wall & SPACE.comSpaceXs Starship rockets into the skies near Boca Chica, Texas on November 19, 2024 for the Starship Flight 6 test. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty ImagesThe biggest and most powerful rocket ever built now has a half-dozen launches under its belt.SpaceX's 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship megarocket lifted off for the sixth time ever today (Nov. 19), rising off the orbital launch mount at the company's Starbase site in South Texas at 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT; 4:00 p.m. local Texas time).SpaceX landed Starship's huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, back at the launch tower on the vehicle's most recent flight, which occurred on Oct. 13. The company aimed to repeat that feat which the tower achieved with its "chopstick" arms today, but the flight data didn't support an attempt.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."We tripped a commit criteria," SpaceX's Dan Huot said during the company's Flight 6 webcast. So Super Heavy ended up coming down for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico instead, hitting the waves seven minutes after liftoff.Anticipation for Flight 6 was high, in part because of the planned booster-catch attempt. For example, President-elect Donald Trump made the trip to South Texas to watch Flight 6 in person.Trump's support for Musk and Starship isn't terribly surprising; the two billionaires have apparently grown quite close over the past few months.Musk campaigned hard for Trump's election and put more than $100 million of his own money toward that effort. And Trump has appointed Musk to co-lead the "Department of Government Efficiency." This advisory group, Trump said, will help his administration "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies."An action-packed flightToday's mission aimed to do far more than just bring Super Heavy back to Earth in one piece. SpaceX also wanted to put Starship's upper stage a 165-foot-tall (50 m) spacecraft called Starship, or simply "Ship" through its paces.The launch sent Ship on the same semi-orbital trajectory that it took on Flight 5, targeting a splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the northwestern coast of Australia about 65 minutes after liftoff. But Ship also achieved some new milestones along the way this time.For example, Flight 6 carried the first-ever Starship payload a plush banana onboard Ship, which served as a zero-gravity indicator. (It was not deployed into space.) In addition, Ship briefly re-lit one of its six Raptor engines about 38 minutes into the flight. (Super Heavy also employs Raptors a whopping 33 of them.)This burn helped show that Ship can perform the maneuvers needed to come back to Earth safely during orbital missions. Indeed, Ship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, just like Super Heavy; SpaceX eventually intends to catch it with the chopstick arms as well, and will likely try to do so on a test flight in the near future. (Landing directly on the launch mount, rather than on a ship at sea or a designated touchdown pad, will enable quicker and more efficient inspection, refurbishment and reflight, SpaceX has said.)Flight 6 also tested modifications to Ship's heat shield, which protects the vehicle during reentry to Earth's atmosphere."The flight test will assess new secondary thermal protection materials and will have entire sections of heat shield tiles removed on either side of the ship in locations being studied for catch-enabling hardware on future vehicles," SpaceX wrote in a mission description. "The ship also will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, purposefully stressing the limits of flap control to gain data on future landing profiles."SpaceX also shifted the launch time for Flight 6, to allow for better observation of Ship's reentry and splashdown. Flight 5 (and all four of its predecessors) lifted off from Texas in the morning, and Ship came down in darkness on the other side of the world.So we all got great views of Ship's return to Earth today, which went swimmingly. The shiny silver vehicle survived its scorching-hot trip through the planet's atmosphere, fired up three of its six Raptors to flip itself into a vertical position as it approached the water, and hit the waves base-first as planned 65.5 minutes after liftoff."Incredible! We really pushed the limits on Ship, and it made it all the way back down to Earth," Jessica Anderson, SpaceX manufacturing engineering manager, said during today's webcast."I am shocked, to be honest," added webcast co-host Kate Tice, a senior quality engineering manager at SpaceX. "I think many folks are. The fact that it survived all the way through while flying a lesser-gen heat shield is just absolutely incredible."SpaceX is developing Starship to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, and to perform a wide variety of other spaceflight tasks, such as building out its Starlink broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.NASA has a serious stake in the vehicle, selecting Starship to be the first crewed lander for its Artemis program of moon exploration. If all goes according to plan, Starship will put NASA astronauts down on the moon for the first time in late 2026, on the Artemis 3 mission.SpaceX is working to get Starship up and running as soon as possible, and test flights are a big part of this effort. The megarocket has now flown six times in April and November of 2023, and March, June, October and November of this year and the cadence is likely to increase greatly in the near future.Musk is apparently targeting 25 Starship launches in 2025 and 100 a few years after that. Those numbers may seem optimistic, but SpaceX has already launched 113 missions of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket so far in 2024. And the regulatory environment which Musk has railed against repeatedly in recent months could soon relax considerably, given Trump's stated goals and his apparently closeness with the SpaceX founder and CEO.These test missions are designed to pave the way for more ambitious jaunts and soon, if all goes according to plan."Every one of these flights is a step closer to a fully operational Starship that will take us beyond Earth orbit, and with our pace of rapid iteration here, the moon and Mars are not nearly as far in the future as you may think," Tice said today. "In fact, we're planning to send Starships to Mars as soon as 2026, which is when the next Mars transfer window opens."Copyright 2024 Space.com, a Future company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can now stream "select" games from their own library via Cloud Gaming50 titles currently supported.Image credit: Microsoft News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Nov. 20, 2024 Five years after announcing the feature was on the way, Microsoft has finally launched the ability for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to play "select" games they already own outside the Xbox Game Pass library via cloud streaming.Microsoft originally announced the feature back in 2019, with the goal of launching it alongside Xbox Cloud Gaming (then known as Project xCloud) the following year. It was then re-announced for launch in 2022, but again failed to materialise, with The Verge later reporting its arrival had been "complicated by having to prepare key infrastructure for thousands of games" .However, word began circulating last month that the long-in-the-works feature was finally almost here - and those reports have now been proven true. Microsoft has announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can use Xbox Cloud Gaming to stream games they own starting today - albeit only if they appear on its 50-strong list of currently compatible titles.Microsoft's Stream Your Own Games trailer.Watch on YouTubeThat's not, admittedly, a huge number of games when you consider the size of the Xbox catalogue, but it's a pretty solid list, mixing blockbuster titles old and new with acclaimed indie games. Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Outlaws, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Warhammer 4K: Space Marine 2, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure all feature, as do Balatro, Hades, Animal Well, Dredge, Phasmophobia, The Plucky Squire. The full list, as it currently stands, is available at the bottom of this story, and Microsoft adds its "library of cloud-playable titles will continue to grow, as we work with our partners around the world". It also notes it'll only be possible to stream games through TVs and browsers on supported devices such as tablets, smartphones, and Meta Quest headsets to begin with, but says the feature will expand to Xbox consoles and the Xbox app on Windows sometime next year.You'll find instructions and a list of supported devices for Microsoft's new Xbox Cloud Gaming feature (which coincidentally arrives just as PlayStation expands its own cloud gaming options) over on Xbox Wire. Additionally, that 50-strong list of currently compatible titles is below:Animal Well Assassins Creed Mirage Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Balatro Baldurs Gate 3 Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) The Casting of Frank Stone Cyberpunk 2077 Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake DredgeDying Light 2 Stay Human Farming Simulator 25 Fear the Spotlight Final Fantasy XIV Online Final FantasyFinal Fantasy II Final Fantasy III Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy V Final Fantasy VI Hades Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions High On Life Hitman World of Assassination Hogwarts Legacy House Flipper 2 Kena: Bridge of Spirits Lego Harry Potter Collection Life is Strange: Double Exposure Metro Exodus Mortal Kombat 1 NBA 2K25 PGA Tour 2K23 Phasmophobia Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Rust Console Edition 7 Days to Die Star Wars OutlawsStray The Crew Motorfest The Outlast Trials The Plucky Squire The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Tom Clancys The Division 2 TopSpin 2K25 UndertaleVisions of Mana Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 WWE 2K24

CD Projekt says "no plans" for Cyberpunk 2077 upgrade on PS5 ProV disappointing.Image credit: CD Projekt Red News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Nov. 20, 2024 If you were hoping CD Projekt's already eye-catching Cyberpunk 2077 might be getting an PlayStation 5 Pro-specific spruce-up, there's some bad news; the studio says it has "no plans" to release an update for Sony's shiny new console.Sony, of course, proudly trumpeted "about 40 or 50 games" would be getting PlayStaton 5 Pro upgrade patches to coincide with its launch earlier this month, introducing everything from frame rate boosts to graphical refinements when played on the new machine.So far we've seen the likes of Horizon Forbidden West, Alan Wake 2, Demon's Souls, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, The Callisto Project, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, No Man's Sky, and Silent Hill 2 all add support for the PlayStation 5 Pro, but one company that won't be following suit any time soon, we now know, is CD Projekt with Cyberpunk 2077.Digital Foundry discusses Alan Wake 2 on PS5 Pro.Watch on YouTubeThe studio shared the news on social media in response to a fan query, simply stating, "We currently have no plans for PS5 Pro patch". That's perhaps not entirely surprising given development of the game ended quite some time ago - with the bulk of the studio now working on a new Witcher title - but it'll doubtless be disappointing news for fans hoping to see the already stunning game get an extra glow-up on their new 700 console.That said, it's been a uneven start for PlayStation 5 Pro upgrade patches so far, with the likes of Silent Hill 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Alan Wake 2 all having delivered mixed results in Digital Foundry's tests, while other titles have fared better. As for the console itself, Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter recently concluded, "The standard PS5 is still the best choice for most people... but for the core enthusiast looking for the best possible experience, the Pro option is there for you, albeit with a substantial premium."

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 hereAfter 15 years, Stalker 2 is finally here, although the game is rougher than many would expect. In our review, we called the new survival game Stalker through and through with the same strengths but also weaknesses as its predecessors, and developer GSC Game World are aware of that.In an open letter to fans, the developer explained that there are rough edges present in the game on launch, but the studio is dedicated to improving the title long into the future. Alongside the usual fixes, the team is also committed to bringing free content to the game in a host of future updates.Stalker 2 devs admit rough edgesIn the letter to fans, GSC Game World explains that the massive world of its survival game sequel still has rough edges that fans will encounter.We literally havent released anything of this scale before. Were absolutely committed to being here, monitoring your feedback, and quickly fixing any issues that need our attention. In the first days after release, well be working with hotfixes, rolling them out as precisely as possible, but as frequently as we can.The studio explained that after these upcoming fixes, the team will shift to larger updates that include constant improvements. In December, fans will get access to a content roadmap that includes new features, massive improvements and free in-game content for players.This is a project of endless love and passion from the entire team, the developer said. We genuinely believe this is felt throughout youll feel it in the handcrafted world, youll feel it in the laboratory and in the poppy fields, or during your first emission, or intense battle with a bloodsucker, or the stylish reload of your new fun, or first seeing Pripyat under the moonlight. There are so many things in the game that we are incredibly proud of.Now available on PC and Xbox Series, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is undoubtedly a mixed bag of a game, but its also going to be a love it or hate it title, and undoubtedly will be a cult classic years into the future. Its far from hyper-polished, but the team is right: the love can be felt.S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of ChornobylPlatform(s):PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Action, Adventure, RPG, Shooter, Survival HorrorSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

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 hereA Call of Duty player enraged by their internet provider threatened its owner to a 1v1 outside a Lidl supermarket. Much to everyones surprise, the Internet billionaire not only accepted the gamers match, but rocked up to the fight outside a Lidl supermarket. It really is a Warzone out there.Internet Billionaire vs Call of Duty playerCall of Duty gamer JimmyBLLT took to Twitter to propose a fight between themselves and Xavier Niel, the French billionaire mogul owner of telecoms giant Iliad. In the translated post, the gamer threatened to 1v1 the owner outside of a Lidl in Paris.Xavier Niel, I hate you, the CoD player said on Twitter. I propose a 1v1 in front of the Lidl on rue Sainte in Marseille.The gamer later explained that he called out the internet mogul because he was lagging in Call of Duty and lost his temper. However, Niel a man that presumably had better things to do took up the challenge.The billionaire, months later, turned up outside of the supermarked waiting for the gamer to turn up. Im waiting, the businessman simply put on Twitter, posting a poorly-framed selfie outside of the Lidl Sainte Bienvenue.After the gamer issued a quick apology, Niel posted a video of himself outside the supermarket saying: Where are you?! Come on! Do you want to meet me in the car park?!Unfortunately, for spectators, the battle between CoD player and billionaire never happened with the gamer citing 34.2 temperature + stomach ache + headache as reasons why they couldnt attend the battle.Via Dextero, even the Lidl supermarket got into the drama, tweeting: Please come and pick up the man who has been tweeting since this morning in front of the store on rue Sainte in Marseille.For more Call of Duty news, read about the new movement changes to Warzone or the huge player count drop for Black Ops 6.Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Behind the Scans: Namaqualand By Bart on November 20, 2024 3D News Polyhaven shares an amazing library of HDRis, Textures and 3D Models - all for free under a CC0 license. For their latest project, Namaqualand they traveled to the desert for a week to capture as many assets and environments as they could. See how they did it in this video!In September 2023, the Poly Haven team embarked on a journey to an arid desert near the West coast of South Africa: Namaqualand.The goal? Build a free 3D asset collection to recreate what we saw there.It took more than a year to process all the data we captured and turn it into high quality 3D assets for everyone. Support more trips and assets like this by joining our Patreon!

Here's an overview of the most recent Blender jobs on Blender Artists, ArtStation and 3djobs.xyz: Blender Pros Needed: Character Animators & Artists For more jobs, look here.Source

Don't forget itHoYoverse teases Honkai Star Rail 3.0 characters, and oh by the way, Remembrance is a new playable pathHow's that for character drip marketingImage credit: HoYoverse News by Josh Broadwell Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 HoYoverse might be gearing up to set Sunday and Tingyun Fugue, whom I affectionately call Fugueyun or Deadyun (IYKYK), loose in Honkai Star Rail, but that hasnt stopped them from teasing HSR 3.0s characters already. First up was The Herta, a 5-star variant of the Herta puppet thats been present at launch with an impressive hat and, surprisingly, the same path and element as her 4-star version Ice and Erudition. Thats exciting.More exciting is Aglaea, a 5-star Dressmaster on Amphoreus, HSR 3.0s newest planet. Its the first confirmation weve had of Amphoreus being next in line. Oh, and Aglaea walks the path of Remembrance. HoYoverse casually slipped that in Aglaeas character art like it was no big deal, just a normal thing to reveal on Twitter on a Tuesday night. No official mention, no nothing. But Remembrance is definitely coming.The more perceptive among you probably find this information unsurprising. With as much attention as HoYoverse started giving Erudition lately, including teasing 5-star Herta in the previous update, I assumed Erudition would be the big thing on Amphoreus. However, after a friend reminded me of Black Swans role early in HSR 2.0 and how prominent Fuli and The Remembrance were in those conversations, I realized HoYoverse was actually setting up for this all along. How Remembrance will play is anyones guess. In Hertas Simulated Universe and its various iterations, Remembrance blessings are tied to the freeze effect and freeze-specific debuffs. Any Ice-aligned character can inflict freeze when they break an enemy, regardless of path. Star Rails other paths are more broadly defined based on playstyle support with Harmony, health in Abundance, damage-over-time and debuffs with Nihility which seems oddly specific for an entire path, not to mention odd in general for an Electric character such as Aglaea.In short, expect something unexpected that probably shakes up the meta, perhaps something to do with the summoned help some Star Rail leakers have posted about for the past few months.Honkai Star Rail 3.0 should go live around Jan. 14, 2025. Meanwhile, brush up on your Acheron and Aventurine knowledge if you're planning any pulls in the near future, and grab some HSR codes if you need a few freebies.

With ChildThe latest Alien: Earth teaser trailer doesn't tell us much other than the fact our planet is pregnant, but it did offer up a release window at leastBaby steps.Image credit: Fox News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 Another Alien: Earth teaser trailer has been released upon the world, and there's not much to see, so let's be thankful there's a release window.It seems like with every Alien: Earth tease we get we don't really get any closer to actually seeing the damn show. The first one mostly just showed the titular Alien and Earth, and the most recent one is so short that you really could blink and miss it. This latest one, released earlier today, is almost a remix of the original one, with that same shot of the Earth reflecting in the titular xenomorph's big ole black chrome dome, though there is a trailer voice person there to relay a very silly joke: "In 2120, mother Earth is expecting." Expecting what? Well, the joke is a play on that whole pregnancy thing, but it's actually an alien, which feels a little out of place with the series' quite dark tone, but hey ho, I'm not a marketing person, what do I know?Watch on YouTubeThe rest of it is glitchy shots of alien-looking things that aren't necessarily That alien, and someone screaming, so there's really not that much you can get from it, but it did have one helpful detail: Alien: Earth will be screaming summer 2025 on Hulu. All that was known previously is that it would be out next year, so this does narrow it down a smidge which is nice. We'll just have to keep waiting for that full trailer and concrete release date in the meantime. With it being a Hulu release, over us in the UK and elsewhere can probably assume that it'll be coming to Disney+, though I imagine you'll need the family friendly filter switched off.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Alien has been doing quite well for itself recently, with the latest entry in the series Alien: Romulus proving itself to be enough of a hit to warrant a sequel being greenlit. There might even be another Alien vs. Predator somewhere along the line, with the Predator series also having a bit of a comeback - the next one, Badlands, is out next year, and it'll put the titular alien in the hot seat.

New In PlusNearly 500 New Assets Curated for Product Viz and More!by Greyscalegorilla Use Studiothe Greyscalegorilla desktop appto download almost 500 new high-quality materials, textures, and models for your next 3D project. Introducing the latest assets available to Greyscalegorilla Plus members494 superior-quality materials and more designed with your product viz needs in mind. (We tried to get the product team to make six more so we could say 500, but whaddayagonnado?) These carefully crafted assets integrate seamlessly with the growing Plus Library through the Studio desktop app. In this new drop, youll find cyc wall models, product photography props, terrazzo and concrete materials, and more, all built to help you create with ultimate confidence. Lets take a closer look at everything youll get in this new release. PRODUCT VIZ RENDER ESSENTIALS 70 Product Photography Props This set of models features elegant plinths, stands, and stairs designed to perfectly showcase rendered jewelry, electronics, and cosmetics. 20 Geometric Stone Models Add a trendy touch to your designs with this fun set of geometric pebbles. Perfect for set dressing in product renders or as dynamic elements in motion design. 8 Cyc Wall Models Perfect for showcasing products both small and large , this model collection offers versatile backdrops for seamless, professional studio renders. 10 Concrete Block Models These expertly crafted concrete block models are the secret to creating a realistic industrial aesthetic. A smart choice for product displays, arch viz, and motion design. 40 Concrete Materials Real-world scans of hand-poured concrete (created in collaboration with the experts at Chicago Concrete), these materials offer an industrial edge with unmatched quality. Made with this CollectionProduct viz artist Mike DiCola shows off the product photography props and concretes alongside other Greyscalegorilla models, materials, and light textures. SOPHISTICATED LOOKS 10 Limewash Materials Give your renders timeless artisanal charm with meticulously hand-painted limewash wall textures in six color variations. 18 Stone Terrazzo Materials This collection of precision-scanned stone terrazzo textures features vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and undeniable authenticity. UNIQUE RENDERS 30 Grid Pattern Textures This set of alpha maps features a variety of grid patterns, perfect for adding visual interest to motion-design animations, creating unique backgrounds, or adding texture to graphic-design projects. 40 Area Light Maps: Abstract Featuring organic blobby light shapes, use these light maps to create striking gradient reflections in metallic product renders and add depth to any design. 197 Bio Forms Models These models by boundary-pushing multidisciplinary designer Vincent Schwenk add an organic, artistic vibe to any 3D project. DOWNLOAD IT ALL NOW IN THE GREYSCALEGORILLA STUDIO APP The Greyscalegorilla Studio desktop app connects the entire Plus library to your favorite 3D tools. All of your materials, textures, 3D models, everythinginstantly available at your fingertips so you can work faster. New Asset FAQ What is Studio?The Greyscalegorilla Studio desktop app connects the entire Plus asset library to your favorite 3D tools. All materials, textures, 3D models, and HDRIinstantly available at your fingertips so you can work faster. Connect to Cinema 4D, Blender, Houdini, or Unreal Engine and send all of your assets with ONE CLICK! Do these assets work in Cinema 4D?Yes! With the Studio app you can send assets directly into Cinema 4D with one click. Can I still use the HUB in Cinema 4D?Yes! You can find all your new collections in the latest version of the Greyscalegorilla HUB for C4D. Check your Stock Assets library, and download your new collections. HUB users must download the entire collection at once, but Studio users can pick and choose any individual asset to download. Are these assets only available with Plus?Yes. These assets are all exclusive to Greyscalegorilla Plus members. Plus members have unlimited access to download as many assets as they want. Do these assets work in Blender?Yes! With the Studio app you can send assets directly into Blender with one click. Do these assets work in Houdini?Yes! With the Studio app you can send assets directly into Houdini with one click. Do these assets work in Unreal Engine?Yes! With the Studio app you can send assets directly into Unreal Engine with one click. Do these assets work in Maya / 3ds Max?No. Studio does not currently support Autodesk Maya or 3ds Max. Improve your workflow with StudioGet Greyscalegorilla Studio, the desktop app that helps artists stay in the flow and puts the entire Plus library at your fingertipsinstantly. Learn More Leave a Comment:Cancel This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.