NG2Xboxs big Developer Direct surprise is a modern Ninja Gaiden from the makers of PlayStations Nioh series and Platinum GamesNinja Gaiden is making a triumphant return. Original creator Team Ninja looks to be cooking up something only it could make.Image credit: Team Ninja News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Additional contributions byConnor MakarPublished on Jan. 23, 2025 The identity of the mystery game being revealed on todays Xbox Developer Direct has been the subject of much speculation. While most agreed it would come from a Japanese studio, very few actually managed to guess what it could be.Well, we now know that its none other than a new Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden 4 in fact, a game created in a joint effort between Team Ninja and Platinum Games!To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As part of Xboxs January Developer Direct livestream, we got to take a trip to the legendary Team Ninja studio, the developer of the upcoming Ninja Gaiden. This is the teams next big project, and today brought us a first-ever look at it. Setting aside how unusual for it not to have leaked, its even more surprising that it got revealed on an Xbox stage.What we see is exactly what any Ninja Gaiden fan would want. A lot of fast paced combat, gory action, and slick melee combat. All with a rain-slocked aesthetic to boot. Even Ryu Hayabusa is back, seemingly in somewhat of a rival role! All of this comes with a nice talk-through on what the game will be like, courtesy of the development team. You can watch the reveal trailer yourself below!Check out the Ninja Gaiden 4 trailer here!Watch on YouTubeThe Ninja Gaiden series has a storied history with Xbox, of course, but Team Ninja has mostly been associated with the Sony side of the business. Since the original Nioh, and later with its sequel, Nioh 2, Team Ninja has been thought of recently as a PlayStation studio. The Nioh games ended up coming to PC, but never Xbox. While Team Ninja did release Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty on Xbox, the studios major project to follow, Rise of the Ronin, remains a PS5 exclusive.Rise of the Ronin had a lot of interesting ideas of its own, but ended up learning the wrong lessons from Western open-world games. It delivered a diluted experience that couldnt satisfy longtime fans of the studios exceptional combat mechanics, nor newcomers looking for a breezy Samurai-ish simulator.Outside of this new project, the Ninja Gaiden series appears to be having something of a renaissance. Just recently, at the 2024 Game Awards, publisher of retro-inspired games, Dotemu, announced Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a new 2D action game from the studio behind the Blasphemous series.

In the NaoeIf you liked Shogun, youre going to love Assassins Creed Shadows' intriguing new Immersive ModeHot off the back of one of 2024s best TV shows, Ubisoft is aiming to swaddle you in late Sengoku period Japan just as wholly as any prestige series.Image credit: VG247 Article by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Published on Jan. 23, 2025 There are plenty of ways of making games more immersive, if thats what youre into. You can head into the options menu and turn off the HUD. You can elect to play on realistic modes that have you die from one bullet wound. You can toggle cinematic cameras when wandering around towns, or riding your horse into the sunset - maybe even playing some Ennio Morricone through your music streaming service of choice to really amp things up.Typically, especially in the Assassins Creed series, these methods are player-directed. Things you can choose to do yourself to try and eke a bit more immersion out of the title, to try and offset the salad of icons, HUD elements, and game-y visual language that chokes out the screen. Sure, Assassins Creed has the excuse of your protagonist (and, therefore, you the player) interfacing with the world via the Animus, explaining away why there are so many overlays, graphs, stats and numbers.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. But its a lot. Given that Ubisoft intentionally develops Assassins Creed games to be as historically accurate as it possibly can (see: the Discovery Tour mode you can access in Origins and Odyssey) its a real shame. Wandering along the banks of the Nile in 43 BC Egypt and watching the wading birds snatch fish out of the river would hit so much better if you werent keenly aware of a Level 23 bruiser watching you from a skiff on the open water. Wandering around the muddy fields of Britain in 872 AD having constant reminders about sub-quests, collectibles, and a powerful hallucination youre waiting to have constantly interrupt your drunken game of knucklebones is a bit of a turn off.I am not the only person that thinks so, either. Its a fairly well-documented phenomena at this point: Assassins Creed games have a problem with immersion. Whats the point in sinking hundreds of hours into making the clouds look absolutely stunning if people are going to have their eyes on the bastard mini-map the entire time?At least with the newest title in the series, Assassins Creed Shadows, Ubisoft is trying to do something a little different. The developer - as well as letting you fiddle around with all the usual guff like HUD settings, camera preferences, and so on - makes you choose something at the start of the game that I cannot believe it hasnt thought to add before: Immersive Mode.Essentially, Immersive Mode defaults to having characters speak in their native tongue. If youve watched any Shogun (or know much about the Sengoku period of Japan at all), youll know this includes mostly Japanese, with a generous helping of Portuguese, thanks to all those Catholic missionaries cutting about on the island. Given that the story of Shadows closely follows the actions of Oda Nobunaga and his attempts to unify the nation, the Portuguese crop up a lot; it was the Catholics of the nation that first introduced Japan to firearms and other goods, drastically altering the political and military trajectory of Japan throughout the late 1500s. It's an Assassin's Creed Game, so of course you've got a hidden blade in there. | Image credit: UbisoftNow, I know a lot of people like their games to be in English, no matter where theyre set. Often with comical results. Remember when the Dynasty Warriors games pronounced the revered military leader Cao Cao as Cow Cow rather than the correct Tsao Tsao? Heady days. But Ubisoft is trying to tell a serious, romantic tale of historical intrigue here - not have us kill 1000 dudes at the same time with a massive naginata before shredding a riff and delving into some anime-inspired nonsense.The result, for such a seemingly small option, really is more immersive. In just a few hours of playing, Immersive Mode paid off massively in a couple of ways. First, the voice talent is good (weve come to expect that from Ubi). Second, I was really taken aback by how natural it was to hear the Japanese peasantry talking amongst themselves, and then a line of Portuguese would immediately grab my attention - and Id end up walking towards a group of churchmen to see what the craic is.As well as being a more authentic historical experience, using your ears as well as your eyes to explore feels like it adds to the gameplay flow in a really natural way. Three of the main pillars Ubisoft has been targeting for this game, when it comes to immersion, are: scale, culture, and diversity. In this mode alone, you can see how these three strands intersect and make something more complete - like a helix of DNA the Assassins Creed series loves to riff on so much. Authentic dialogue makes scenes like this hit even harder. | Image credit: UbisoftLittle touches like this make me excited for Shadows. By all accounts, this game really is make or break for Ubisfot, so enhancing the experience weve come to know over the past 17 years like this is a sure-fire way to keep people interested. Lets hope it works as well in the main game as it did at preview, then.Assassins Creed Shadows comes to Xbox Series, PS5 and PC on its new release date of March 20, 2025, after catching a last-minute delay earlier this year.

Image: The Pokmon CompanyIt must have been tough for chocolate lovers to get any chocolate when Willy Wonka was hiding golden tickets inside the wrappers.Joking aside, that's more or less been the vibe from Prismatic Evolutions, the just-released, mega-hyped Pokmon card set thats memorable for its heavy representation of the fan-favourite Pokmon Eevee, and all its evolutionary forms. The 180+ card set was smoke-signaled by The Pokmon Company a little under four months out from its January 2025 release, and fans have anticipated it as the de facto set to look out for, largely due to its similarity to the most popular TCG expansion from the companys previous card generation, Evolving Skies.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kWatch on YouTube Not only has this made the set impossible to find on the shelves, but a confluence of issues has made opening them feel awful, and way less fun than youd think, even if youre lucky enough to find any packs in the wild.How Prismatic Evolutions intensified Pok feverTo understand why this particular set has started in-store riots and website crashes, here are the key details to know.Broadly, Pokmon trading cards have experienced a resurgence after COVID lockdowns in 2020 inadvertently reignited the hobbys popularity. This, in turn, created a strong re-seller market, which continues to this day.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kIn short, The Pokmon Company loves to make cards (it released six expansions in 2024), and people still love to buy, play, and resell them (they bought 12 billion of them last fiscal year).MSRP packs are basically free money at a scale never before seen in this hobbyWhats pertinent to note here is that in between each generation of Pokmon video games (roughly every three to four years), The Pokmon Company likes to make structural changes to the card game. And in between every card expansion release (roughly every two to four months), it is known to tinker.Hidden among those subtle changes are the reasons why this new set is growing in infamy.The Alt Art explosionDuring the 2020-2023 Sword & Shield-era of cards (eras are typically named after the most recent video game in the series), Pokmon revitalised a type of rare card referred to as Secret Illustration Rares (SIRs), but which are often colloquially referred to as Alternate Arts, or 'Alt Arts'.The most sought-after of these textured, artistically bold cards can fetch hundreds of dollars straight out of the pack, with one notable standout going for almost triple the price of the next most valuable: the Umbreon Vmax, or 'Moonbreon', as many refer to it. Though the price fluctuates a lot, its a card thats consistently reselling at over $1,400 (as of the beginning of 2025)!Image: The Pokmon CompanyGenerally though, the existence of expensive cards is nothing too out of the ordinary, right? While $1,400 is a wild price for a relatively new trading card, keep in mind that it took years of supply and demand cycles for it to reach that height; it spent the majority of its existence hovering around the $150-$350 range when the set was more readily available. And in general, Id argue a sign of a healthy collecting hobby is a culturally-agreed-upon 'main chase'.But the compounding problem is that Alternate Arts have set the new standard for what people want to chase, and how they want to do it. Both fans and The Pokmon Co. have caught on big time.While youd be a fool to cite pre-release card prices a measure you could set your clock to crashing within days (if not hours) upon release the most sought-after Umbreon in this new set has already sold a few dozen times on eBay at a ludicrous range of around $1,200-$2,100 raw and that resale price has been growing, not falling.And thats only Umbreon; many other cards in this set are selling for hundreds of dollars apiece, as well. Its clear people feel they previously missed the boat on these special rarity cards. And unfortunately, thats creating massive waves not only on the resale prices of each card, but more vitally, on all sealed products.Image: The Pokmon CompanyWhile a single Pokmon card pack retails for $4.49, Prismatic packs have spent nearly a week fluidly reselling for around $10-$20 and for much longer, if you count illegal pre-release sales. The Elite Trainer Boxes (a box that contains nine packs, plus additional playing materials) retail for $49.99, but are selling for well over $100 apiece. Plus, given that Prismatic is whats known as a 'special' set, there are no traditional 36-pack booster boxes available to buy to offset demand.Put another way, MSRP packs are basically free money at a scale never before seen in this hobby. Right now, you can easily double, triple, maybe quadruple your money if you were to find some at the store for MSRP.Its so lucrative, that more people than ever are not even thinking about collecting Pokmon cards as a hobby; sealed items are being treated as a speculative currency. (More on the reseller market in a minute.)Pokmon Co. has clearly switched up pull-rate logicGiven all these big chases, it seems like this would still be an exciting set to open up if you only had some, right? Maybe, but TPC has made changes that have made this set, for lack of a better word, feel worse:Illustration Rares are alternated out, in favour of "Master Ball" reskinsPull rates are seemingly similar to those of non-Special setsThere are nearly triple the amount of cards in the rarest tier compared to Evolving SkiesAn extraordinarily rare tier has been added, wreaking havoc on pricesFirst, this important tidbit: between the Sword and Shield and Scarlet and Violet (SV) card generations, The Pokmon Company added another opportunity 'slot' among the 10 additional cards you get in a pack. (A slot simply means the placement inside the pack where you can expect to see a certain type of hit among the 10 cards.) Adding this was also how TPC justified an increase from $3.99 to $4.49 a pack, MSRP.This change was met with a bit of scepticism at first, but it was a smart move. You now drastically feel the difference when opening up older packs, which feel brutally stingy, while SV sets feel brimming with potential.However, Prismatic Evolutions has ditched a lot of the rare card types in favour of relatively straightforward 'reskinned' versions of common cards, meaning that instead of a full-surface, unique artwork coming up in a rare slot, your extremely lucky pull might look identical to a common card, but with added texture. And sure, the Master Balls are a great addition, but the packs feel far more muted.Meanwhile, the fact that this is a 'special' set heavily implied it would stick to standards from special sets prior; not only that it wouldnt be sold by the booster box (it isnt), but that it would dispense hits at higher, or at least more varied rates.Well, it doesnt. Pull rates of all rarities appear to be no better than any regular SV set before it. If you really want to get into the weeds, and then some, Youtuber Danny Phantump has a great analysis of Prismatic pull rates.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kWhich cascades into the next problem: there are 32 freaking Alt Arts in Prismatic Evolutions!For reference, the Pokmon set the famous Umbreon VMAX hails from, Evolving Skies, featured a then-hefty 11 cards of the highest rarity tier, which was nearly the most of any SW:SH set; most feature around half a dozen or fewer Alt Arts. SV sets have been increasing the Alt Art totals ever since, but Prismatic takes the cake.The vast majority of people are hunting the nine Eevee cards. But factoring the math of pulling any Alt Art shaking out to be very roughly a 1:50 gamble, that means youd expect to find between only three to five Alt Arts per the equivalent of a case of booster boxes (thats six boxes). You could easily open up one hundred packs and get one, two, or zero Alternate Arts, let alone any Eevee ones. Thats currently an average of $1,500 of pack value. Yikes.And finally, one of the coolest additions in Pokmon card history has so far rendered the whole set prohibitively expensive: 'god packs'. For the first time in English, borrowed from Japanese sets before it, any Prismatic Evolution pack has the potential of being stuffed with only the nine Eevee Alt Arts inside, plus an Eevee Master Ball. (There also exist 'demi-god' packs, which will net you three random Alt Arts in one pack.)Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kBecause we cant have nice things, the still-very-early resale value of all the Eevee SIRs combined (plus Eevee Master Ball) is fluctuating near or above $5,000. To put that into gobsmacking perspective, that's the same price-neighborhood as a first-edition base set booster pack, the literal first print of the first set of Pokmon cards ever made.So, whats $20 to buy a pack if you might make $5,000? You almost certainly wont, but the possibility is what dictates the price.A perfect stormThere are other reasons this set is blowing up, the most obvious being that Prismatic, along with Surging Sparks before it, is (almost) the first SV sets to highlight the most popular Pokmon, as opposed to introducing newer ones.But consider these things, too: the Pokmon TCG Pocket app released in October, and has been a runaway hit, bringing many back to the hobby. Crypto is also broadly rising, which traditionally inflates hobby markets as it goes up (not to mention a million other socio-economic, globalisation factors). And if you think demand is high now, wait until a Pokmon game is announced for something called the 'Switch 2'.The signs this was going to be an issue are so plentiful, its enough to make you think The Pokmon Company is creating this problem on purpose. Yet for its part, the company issued a very rare public statement vaguely declaring they would fight the supply problems:Image: The Pokmon CompanyAll of this leaves the hobby in a seemingly unforced, delicate spot.Sure, business from sales will be amazing short-term, and artistically, we now have this very cool set that features the original 151 Pokmon in a Mucha-esque art style. But it costs so much money to play, it leaves you with an existential crisis over opening even a single pack. If you find a three-pack at the store for $15, why not sell it for $30-$50? Let alone if you find several.And the set has pull rates so pedestrian that it feels ruinous to open what equates to hundreds of dollars worth of packs just to hit absolutely nothing, which is quite common. Would you rather have 20 packs, or a Switch 2? In this way, Pokmon cards no longer feel like a raffle, they feel like a lottery.Thats a fundamental problem so bad, its unsustainable. There is no such thing as an 'average' demographic for $20 packs and $5,000 chases. For certain, there arent tons of people building decks using cards from packs with those prices. And even if prices fell some, which they will, thats still way too high. The Pokemon Company is looking down the barrel of a permanently shifted demographic.Image: Gemma Smith / Nintendo LifeAnd look, its one thing to simply point at high prices and say, Bad! I understand a successful game and business realistically allow for people to chase cards and create hype. Rare chases are good, and fun. However, manipulating and maintaining a demand thats so much higher than supply, over a product with utterly dejecting hit rates?Well, lets put it in a way Pokmon fans will appreciate: what would happen if the next mainline video game cost $150 and the only monsters findable were the 1-in-4,000-chance, shiny Pokmon? Its simple: people would get bored of looking and stop playing. "The technology is not going away, and people know what it can do"Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Alan is a feature writer who has contributed to Kotaku, Nintendo Life and other prominent gaming sites. He has a background in psychology research, the science of creativity, and over 30 years of Nintendo gaming behind him. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesPokmon TCG Pocket's New Expansion And Trading Feature Arrive Next WeekBring on the Smackdown

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kAfter first catching our eye at the 2023 Gamescom Future Games Show, musical platformer Symphonia has finally finished tuning up and is ready to make some noise on Switch today.Developed by Sunny Peak and published by Headup, Symphonia is a non-violent platformer where you play as an adorable little violinist, determined to bring life to the musical machinery of the realm. Looking at the above launch trailer, the musical themes go deep, with instruments being integral to your exploration and puzzle-solving.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kWatch on YouTube It's an interesting-sounding concept and one that is all the more appealing thanks to the game's hand-drawn art style. Those Hollow Knight thorns/spikes feel a little overused by this point, but it's increasingly becoming an indie shorthand for 'do not touch this ledge' and we're okay with that.You can find a rundown of the game's key features and a handful of screenshots below.- Experience and overcome great platforming challenges with all of Philemon's abilities- Discover various environments that combine music and machinery- Enjoy the performance of the Scoring Orchestra Paris, recorded specifically for Symphonia and written by composers Olivier Esman and Alexandre Bucas-Franais- Play the violin to activate level elements and bring life to the realm- Gather musical Prodigies and play breathtaking concerts to bring music, joy, and glory back to the landImages: Headup GamesSymphonia is now available on the Switch eShop for 16.99 / $19.99. AK-xolotl! Bloomtown! Dome-King Cabbage!Does this one look up your street? Let us know in the comments.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesThe Switch eShop Is A Nightmare, So We've Made Our Own "Better eShop"Fixing what Nintendon'tStardew Valley Creator Releases New Patch For Nintendo Switch VersionKicking off 2025 with some bug fixesTeam Cherry Reconfirms Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Actually Real In Small Development UpdateAfter weeks of rumoursCeleste Dev Makes "Difficult Decision" To Cancel New Game EarthbladeFollowing "a disagreement about the IP rights of Celeste"

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free just click TechCrunch Mobility!Were just a few days into a new Trump administration, and its already a firehose of executive orders, declarations, and even pardons. A few have crossed into the future of transportation world.Now, first lets be clear about executive orders. Regardless of who is president, executive orders can be political theater and often conflict directly with constitutional law. But they can be helpful signals into the priorities of the person sitting in the Oval Office.For President Trump, its clear he is not a fan of EV incentives of any kind.Among the slew of executive orders he signed on the first day of his second term, Trump ordered all agencies to immediately pause disbursement of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He specifically called out funding for EV charging infrastructure from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program. It should be noted that Tesla led by Trump ally Elon Musk has benefited from these programs.Well be watching and reporting on how this plays out and which companies are most at risk.A little birdImage Credits:Bryce DurbinOh, Canoo! What you could have been. Canoo filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has ceased all operations. Well be following this as it winds through bankruptcy court.Heres some detail you might not know: A few months before Canoo went kaput, the company shuttered its former headquarters in Los Angeles. A few little birds told us that, in the months before Canoo filed for bankruptcy, multiple employees relocated from California to the companys offices in Oklahoma and Texas leaving them jobless in a new location.Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean OKane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.Deals!Image Credits:Bryce DurbinTalk about locking in a deal at the 11th hour.Rivian and the Department of Energy (DOE) finalized a $6.6 billion loan announced in November just a few days before Trumps inauguration. The company will use the loan to help build out its planned factory in Georgia, east of Atlanta, with construction beginning in 2026. The first R2 SUVs are scheduled to come off the line in 2028.The loan comes from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program, part of the DOEs Loan Programs Office. ATVM is most well-known as the program that gave Tesla a $465 million lifeline in 2009.Other deals that got my attentionAti Motors, an Indian autonomous robotics startup, raised $20 million in an all-equity Series B funding round co-led by Walden Catalyst Ventures and NGP Capital. It also featured existing investors, including True Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, Athera Venture Partners, and Blume Ventures.Lyteflo, a Canadian EV software sales startup, raised $3 million in seed funding led by Diagram. Whitecap Venture Partners and Amplify Capital also participated.Metafuels, a Swiss aviation fuel startup, raised $9 million in a round led by Celsius Industries.Other new investors include RockCreek, Fortescue Ventures, and Verve Ventures, with existing backers Energy Impact Partners and Contrarian Ventures also participating.Moment Energy, an EV battery repurposing startup, raised $15 million in a Series A round co-led by Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures. In-Q-Tel (IQT), Version One Ventures, Overture Ventures, WovenEarth Ventures, Fika Ventures, MCJ, One Small Planet, and Climate Capital also participated.Netradyne, which provides fleet owners with AI-enabled dash cams that collect vehicle data and video to improve driver safety, raised $90 million in a Series D round at a pre-money valuation of $1.35 billion. The round was led by Point72 Private Investments with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital.Voltpost, the lamppost EV charging company, secured $2.6 million in grant funding from the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and the Communities Taking Charge Accelerator to deploy 75 chargers across the tri-state region New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.Notable reads and other tidbitsImage Credits:Bryce DurbinADASThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations Office of Defects Investigation upgraded its investigation into Fords hands-free advanced driver-assistance system known as BlueCruise a required step before a recall can be issued.Autonomous vehiclesTorc Robotics, the independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, is closing its original testing location in Albuquerque and tech hub in Stuttgart while expanding elsewhere. The company is building out an autonomous truck hub in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, specifically inthe Hillwood AllianceTexas development. The company said the Texas location will be a hub for autonomous testing, customer freight pilots, and future commercialization slated for 2027.Electric vehicles, charging, & batteriesUBCO, the New Zealand-based electric motorcycle startup, has gone into receivership. The startup, which recently signed a deal with Australia Post to provide a new fleet of custom electric motorbikes, has ceased all operations due to the lack of available funding.In-car techThe Federal Trade Commission issued a proposed order to ban GM and its subscription-based in-vehicle safety and security system known as OnStar from selling such data to consumer reporting agencies for five years. The proposed order stems from allegations that GM collected, used, and sold drivers precise geolocation data and driving behavior information from millions of vehicles without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their consent.Two security researchers (hackers) found a way to remotely unlock, start, and track millions of Subarus. The Japanese automaker has since fixed the vulnerabilities.Space and future of flightOK, space isnt transportation really. But I will occasionally include space stories of note because there is some overlap with the industries. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration had to briefly slow and divert a number of aircraft in the airspace near Puerto Rico, where debris was seen falling after SpaceXs Starship exploded during a test flight last Thursday.Meanwhile, in other air-related matters, Amazon paused testing of its delivery drones following a crash involving two of its models.This weeks wheelsImage Credits:Sean O'KaneWhile I was running around Las Vegas during CES 2025, I spotted a social media post from Lucid. The EV maker was in Vegas and offering rides in its all-new Lucid Gravity SUV.I spent about an hour with the Lucid Gravity SUV, which just went into production last month. I have a longer review coming in the next few days, but heres a sneak peek: Lucid nails the interior. Its roomy, its luxurious, and it has lots of details that reflect the progression of Lucid. The company, it seems, is maturing.Here is another curious impression. When I stood outside the vehicle, it didnt quite feel or look like an SUV. Nor did it feel big. And yet, as soon as I climbed inside this third-row EV, the spaciousness was hard to ignore. More to come!What is This weeks wheels? Its a chance to learn about the different transportation products were testing, whether its an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.

In BriefPosted:10:00 AM PST January 23, 2025Image Credits:Nuthawut Somsuk / Getty ImagesAfter pivoting from crypto to payroll, Rollfi gets acquiredKirubha Perumalsamy co-founded Rollfi during cryptos heyday in 2021 to help companies process digital payments.When crypto crashed, Rollfi pivoted to become an embedded payroll company, partnering with financial services companies to offer payroll and benefits services to their clients.The pivot was enough of a success for Rollfi to be acquired for an undisclosed amount by Priority Tech Ventures, a unit of the publicly traded consumer banking company Priority Technology Holdings. Rollfi had raised $3.25 million before its exit. Speaking to TechCrunch, Perumalsamy said that the company was in the middle of a fundraise when the opportunity to sell came about.We realized we would be much more successful at winning this market if we can combine the focus, speed, and obsession of a startup with the institutional strength of one of Priority.He said the whole team will remain at PTV after the transaction and will remain an independent entity under Priority.Topics

InterviewsThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2: Greg Butler VFX Supervisor DNEGBy Vincent Frei - 23/01/2025 Back in 2019, Greg Butler shared insights into MPCs visual effects for X-Men: Dark Phoenix. He went on to work on 1917 before bringing his expertise to Method Studios in 2020, contributing to A Babysitters Guide to Monster Hunting, Loki, and the first season of The Rings of Power. By 2022, he had moved to DNEG, where he worked on season two of The Rings of Power.How did you and DNEG get involved on this show?Before joining DNEG, I was VFX supervisor for Method Studios work on the first season of The Rings of Power. DNEG also worked on Season 1 and was already in discussions about Season 2 when I arrived there in Fall 2022.What was your feeling to be back into this iconic universe?I thoroughly enjoyed my time on Season 1. It was a great feeling knowing that Season 2 would be very familiar creatively and have the same filmmaking sensibilities. I knew there would be changes given the production move from New Zealand to the UK, but with Jason Smith still overseeing the visual effects, I was confident that we were in good hands. We were also coming out of COVID-19, so there would be more opportunities to work closer together and the whole production would be less disrupted.The Lord of the Rings has been a big part of my career over the years. I was one of the first international hires for The Fellowship of the Ring in 1999 and worked on all three of the original Peter Jackson films. One of the last shots I was ever assigned as a hands-on digital artist was the last shot to final on The Return of the King, Gollum falling into lava. Mentally inhabiting Middle Earth for a living again after all these years is a constant source of enjoyment and satisfaction. I feel very lucky that Im able to contribute to the visual lore in a new way. I also enjoy bringing new generations of VFX artists into this kind of work. There are lots of similarities between the projects, a big one is how much people care about the images were creating. I remember very well the pressure we felt working on the original films, knowing that the fans of the books would study everything we did, though we didnt realize for how long! Now we have similar pressure, but for First Age material. And on top of that, people will constantly compare us to the great work done on the original film trilogy.How was the collaboration with the showrunners and VFX Supervisor Jason Smith?Working with Jason has been great from day one. We have very complimentary backgrounds and skills. Jason takes his responsibilities very seriously and is a great role model for everyone else in the VFX teams. He is endlessly enthusiastic about supporting the stories Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne want to tell. He has earned their trust over the years and the creative briefs and vision are always very clear. His top priority is creating compelling and realistic images that live up to the standards we all have for portraying Tolkiens world. Second to that though is making sure that the global VFX crews enjoy their time on the project. He is very complimentary to everyone when he sees good work and is always ready to help solve problems as they come up. Im constantly amazed at how Jason can keep his eyes across so much varied work and maintain a consistent level of energy and quality. I feel my job is to dig in deep to the portion of work assigned to my team. I became an expert in the geography in and around Eregion, Orc costumes, Elven attitudes, and many other details in the DNEG scope of work. Its been a lot of fun to throw ideas around and see many of them grow into shots or gags within shots. For example, we came up with a quick insert shot in Episode 3. The showrunners wanted to give Damrods entrance a little more time and set a mood. We added a long lens shot of the skulls hes woven into his skirt. It shows hes the kind of mercenary that carries around souvenirs of past victims, maybe as a warning to others or some kind of score keeping. Its a creepy little shot we got to invent and give Damrod more screen time.How did you organize the work with your VFX Producer?I was very lucky to work with Michelle Teefey-Lee again. She was my VFX Producer on Season 1 at Method Studios and joined DNEG just in time to kick off Season 2 with me. Michelle and I both worked in London during the great Harry Potter years. Weve seen a lot of VFX facility work get into trouble over the years, we made sure to stay on top of everything and avoid the usual traps. As we often said in our management check-ins, we plan for the worst so that it never happens. In addition to our shared background in the UK industry of the late 2000s, we have very similar instincts and attitudes about VFX work. Casting, supporting and holding onto a great crew, being up front with our client, always pushing forward, never leaving the hard stuff until later. We have lots of mantras and battle tested ideas. On a typical day, we quickly go over the big topics internal and external and then divide and conquer. We occasionally show up in each others meetings in support or to keep aware of the others challenges. We always have one voice in front of the client and crew, keeping our debates in the background. After two successful seasons together, we know we can count on each other, which makes everything much easier.What are the sequences made by DNEG?DNEG worked on 80 sequences across Season 2. Some sequences were only 1 shot, but a few were around 100, especially in Episodes 7 and 8. Our work was mostly a clean split from the other vendors. The Siege of Eregion was our main assignment and we were generally given anything that happened in or around the city. We also did a couple of unrelated moments, such as the brief scene in Episode 1 where we see Sauron using black speech to befriend a warg.Eregion is a stunning Elven city with immense visual detail. Can you describe the creative vision and challenges behind designing this environment?My involvement with Eregion goes back to Season 1 when my team and I were asked by Ron Ames and Jason Smith to take on the building of this new environment halfway through our production schedule. It was needed for under 10 shots, some wide establishers and some one-off closer views. It was a huge, but exciting challenge. Ron and Jason would mention occasionally that our work on the city would very likely continue into the next season, and that we should put some thought into how the city could be defended if it were ever attackedWe were given two critical starting assets by the production; an Unreal city model from the virtual art department led by Peter Baustaedter, and a beautiful production design PDF created by the Season 1 Production Designer Ramsey Avery. The client had already worked out a great location for the virtual city to exist, a bend in the Dart River located near Queenstown, New Zealand. They placed the city in the shadow of a large granite cliffside. My long time Environment Supervisor Jules Bodenstein, studied Ramseys design documents intensely and briefed his small generalist environment team on the build. He worked on multiple fronts at the same time. We needed an environment that could be ready for shot work in a few months, but that was built well enough to still be viable for another few years. We had no way of knowing at the time that our Season 2 work would be at a different company and on a different pipeline. One of the key design concepts we always followed is that Eregion was designed and built by Celebrimbor over hundreds of years. It had to embody a mix of clever technology, simple architectural beauty and integrate with nature, especially trees. One of the features that makes Eregion unique is that it was built with cooperation from the Dwarves of Khazad-dm. In the areas of the city closer to the cliffs, there are fully dwarven structures. In front of this area, some buildings have dwarven foundations with Elven towers resting on them. Closer to the water, there is more influence of Elvish designs, like those of Lindon. This includes large areas of trees and gardens.In both seasons, Jason was able to give us aerial photography as a base for most of our wide shots. This was a tremendous help in achieving realism and reducing the variables of shot design. Ironically, most of the plates used for Season 2 were the rejected takes from Season 1 that werent sunny enough. Once we got into Season 2, we realized the overcast plates from Season 1 were perfect for the mood and story of the new season.For Season 2, I was lucky enough to be joined by many of the key players from the Season 1 team. Knowing the city so well, both creatively and technically, was a huge jump start for the year of work it would take to rebuild it bigger and better for Season 2. There were very few specific changes needed for the citys initial role in Season 2. We added a defensive curtain wall around the city and found ways to incorporate the new sets being built for the shoot. We also designed and built Celebrimbors completed Artisan tower. The biggest new feature to integrate was the live action battle set. We ended up narrowing the virtual river to match the Windsor, UK location known as Buttersteep Rise. Most of the build work went into upgrading the complexity and quality of the city overall. We would have hundreds of shots this time, with multiple times of day, and levels of destruction.Our Season 2 methodology was about maintaining a complex and robust master asset, and we avoided cheating for specific shots as much as possible. Environment Technical Lead Yordan Petrov took on the role of city manager from the beginning. Any addition or change to the city went through him. He would resist whenever possible doing something that would result in a custom version of the environment just to solve a specific shot issue. This paid off many times over the course of the production, especially when it came time to build destroyed versions of the city. It also made it possible to maintain a much more stable and predictable asset in the pipeline. Jules also worked with our other Environment Supervisor Gauresh Churi. In addition to building the digital versions of the sets, Gaureshs team also looked after the building of the collapsing cliffs across the river and the revealed muddy riverbed. The design of the cliff structure had a very long development phase. Rather than designing a specific series of tooth-like rocky towers and forcing an FX simulation to create a chain reaction collapse, we bounced back and forth between the two departments, always giving FX the final word on the placement and shapes of the objects they were being asked to collide.Jules, Yordan, and a small core team of generalists in Montral focused on solving specific design and technical issues as they arose, destroyed buildings in particular. The destruction also required a strong collaboration with our FX Supervisors, Sbastien Quessy and Shal Joseph, as well as our Lighting Supervisors Ian Cooke-Grimes, Aleks Saraev, and Vishal Shah. The FX involvement started with the addition of small fire torch caches throughout the city that were mainly seen at night. Eventually the teams added lots of other destruction related caches such as smoke plumes and burning trees. Lighting was testing the city in parallel to make sure it was staying under memory limits and giving lighting artists enough control in shot production. Finally, the compositing team constantly fed back to everyone else on what was working and often helped decide when to cheat the last steps and when to go back to 3D. My DFX Supervisor, Marc Rice, had comped the main development shot on Season 1, so he was very familiar with the city from a 2D perspective. For Season 2, Filip Sustek looked after all of the big establishing shots of Eregion as our Compositing Supervisor.How did you balance the ethereal beauty of Eregion with the practicality of creating it as a believable, living city for the series?Working in the fantasy genre is always interesting when it comes to images of ethereal beauty and other concepts that can work against realism or believability. You want to take the audience with you to a new place, but dont want to lose them on the journey. If everything is working well acting, writing, music, photography, etc. you can stretch a little further into looks that go beyond whats familiar in the real world. The best starting point is to stay within photographic reality, but push all the tools available. Bright warm backlight, a little slow motion, some floating pollen in the air, maybe even a touch of glow on highlights. We had to be very sparing with using too many enhancements that would make the images look forced and cause the audience to question the reality of the world or notice any single technique. One of the most interesting aspects of visual effects is reality versus filmic or photographic reality. Theres no set formula for this and audiences tastes are constantly changing and evolving. The moment in Eregion that I think about here is when Celebrimbor walks out of his tower while under Annatars illusion and sees a courtyard full of his people doing idyllic Elven things; painting, drawing, reading, playing. This was our moment to show life in Eregion as it had been for centuries, working with nice photography and adding CG backgrounds full of nature and classic Elven towers. We called this pristine Eregion and it was the first version of the asset we completed.We return to this same place later when the illusion is broken and Celebrimbor sees the city as it really is under siege with its beauty being buried in smoke and rubble. Hopefully both of these looks have a believability to the audience. Our other DFX Supervisor Nihal Friedel worked with his team to create these courtyard scenes, using the same master asset as the big wide shots. Compositing Supervisor Sneha Amin was in charge of the comp work, and she made sure that we never went too heavy on any treatments that would push us into too dreamy a look.Id also like to mention something about the citys population. It sometimes seems like theres not many people around for how large a place it is. Ive always felt that Elves dont live in crowded environments. As an almost immortal race, they dont have large families and spend much of their time in pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. They prize large spaces where they can wander in thought and spend whole days on various projects. We didnt want to put crowds of Elves scattered throughout the city just for the sake of making it look lived in.Can you walk us through the technological processes used to construct the city digitally? Did you incorporate any physical sets or miniatures for reference?At the start of our Season 2 work, Yordan Petrov went through the whole Season 1 asset and ingested all the usable components into DNEGs new USD pipeline. There were a lot of things to re-do, restructure, and optimize. One of the biggest optimizations was to use a games technique to texture all the assets. We had one material per texture type which was then used over all assets using UV layouts instead of projections such as triplanar/pxr round cube. This enabled every single asset/building to access a single brick marble texture, drastically minimizing memory and texturing time. The rebuild was a lot of work, but it allowed us to make a fresh technical start, with the advantage of having finaled Season 1 shots to match. We didnt have as many variables to consider since we werent building it for the first time. The city was structured with twelve independent zones so we didnt have to load everything for shots that didnt have a full city view. Season 2 needed more CG zones as we previously relied on photography or digital matte paintings (DMP) for the environment around Eregion. There was also a lot of work done to improve the amount of instancing Renderman could give us and culling geometry not seen in the camera frustum. As usual, we had to be careful with this as items outside the view often affect scene lighting. While the rebuild was under way, Jules Bodenstein had his team refining many of the structures as well as building new ones to support more hero views and previously unseen areas of the city. Gauresh Churi was assigned the task of creating digital versions of all the live action sets. These needed to be merged into the existing city and look the same in wide fully digital shots as they did in live action closer shots. It was fun trying to find the right place to put the various courtyards and wall sets. Jules would find a good location, then see how it played in various shots before getting me and Jason to approve it as a final position. Then a pass of digital set dressing would be done to make it look like that area had always been there. This often involved adding trees, paths, and benches. As an additional layer, the environment team scattered and placed braziers and torches all around the city and within each building. Inside all these torches were locators that were swapped for FX simulated fire caches at render time. For the various versions of city destruction, building damage was controlled through a Houdini setup using simple intersecting shapes to create highly art-directable damage whilst also generating broken edges with procedural scorch marks. Much like the buildings, the tree damage was also controlled in Houdini using simple shapes to burn off leaves and smaller branches whilst also discolouring the surrounding leaves to give a realistic burnt look.Damrod the troll is a standout character. What went into designing his look, and what inspirations guided his visual style?Jonathan Banks portrayal of Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad became our primary attitude reference. It became such a good fit for the character. We also looked at tall actors with a lot of screen presence, like Ron Perlman and Andr the Giant, for their powerful lumbering strides and balancing arm swings.We came up with these ideas while working out his Episode 3 introduction scene. There is very little Damrod needs to do here walk into the Orc camp, push a beam out of his way, and then say a line back to Adar. I dont come from an animation or acting background and I was really struck by how much is actually conveyed in this short scene due to the acting choices we made. Its his lack of movement and his seeming disdain for even having to say his line that portrays how misanthropic and world weary he is.When we got to the battle, that short character sketch gave us a lot to work with. Once he is sent into the battle, he is single minded and just wants to find the quickest way into the city. The Orcs arent his teammates, theyre just something else in his way.How did you blend practical effects with CGI to create Damrod? Was motion capture used for his movements, and if so, what challenges arose in animating his size and weight convincingly?There were only a few moments where Damrod interacted with the real world. The rest of the time, we just left a wide enough area clear and an eyeline pole moved through the set at an appropriate pace. We spent a lot of time in shoot prep working out which would be practical interaction moments and when wed just keep it loose and handle all the interaction in post. When Damrod first enters the battlefield, he grabs an Orc, bites off his head and tosses him away. Thats obviously a digital double and we had the Elves and Orcs on-set fighting with a Damrod-sized hole left in their midst. We cut to close-ups of his feet stomping through the mud and theres two choreographed SFX moments that we added CG feet to. For those shots, a stunt Elven warrior is lying on an airbag that quickly deflates so that he appears to be pushed into the mud by a troll foot. We even got some usable FG mud splashes from the proxy troll foot that our SFX Supervisor puppeteered in camera. I find it works really well to have a combination of shots that lock you into what was shot and some that are left loose enough that the action can be resolved in post. After a rough cut of the sequence was put together, there were some additional beats shot on a bluescreen stage. The most significant ones Jason named the inhuman shield and the guitar solo. The shield moment is when Damrod gets annoyed by all the arrows Arondir is sticking in him and he pulls two Orcs up to soak up the attack. The Orcs were practical and we reverse engineered the troll animation into the footage. We had to jump through some hoops in terms of their movement and lighting, but it was nice to have real stuntmen in the shot reacting to the virtual arrow hits. The guitar solo is a big panning shot that connects Damrods entrance with the city wall and the fight going on in front of it. It was done with multiple motion control passes to capture a number of stunt events. These were all stitched together and then massaged into place once we had some good Damrod lumbering and kicking animation. We filled up the mid and background with lots of digital fighting vignettes.We never really considered motion capture for Damrod. We felt that, in addition to finding a performer and getting the right recipe for motion re-targeting, we would also owe a lot of motion editing for ground interaction and contact with real and virtual objects. It took a while to find the right key frame balance of stride, hip rotations, arm swings, and other indications of size and weight. But, once we had an approved cycle, the animators could branch off from there for the specific shot moments.Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of?What Im really the most proud of is that everyone on our global team of hundreds enjoyed the experience and worked so well together. Ive been doing visual effects for a long time now and I dont ever take for granted that a project will be a good experience for the crew. Im still getting positive feedback from the Season 2 crew today and everyone is hoping that we can all work together again soon. I want to first thank my Amazon clients, the showrunners and Producers Jason Smith, Tim Keene, James Yeoman, and their whole team who gave us so much trust, support and friendship. Michelle and I made sure that our crew were aware of that positive relationship and the importance of holding up our end of it by keeping up our effort and care at all times. The DNEG senior management team, especially Puja Parikh, Amit Sharma, Emma McGuinness, Adriano Rinaldi, Merzin Tavaria and Rohan Desai, really let us run the project using our instincts and experience. They left us to it, but were ready to help whenever we asked. We couldnt have done it this way without a great supervision and production team. From the very beginning we made sure that all departments looked up and down the pipeline and always talked to each other, never just throwing their work over the fence without making sure it worked for the next person. Attending internal reviews was very gratifying when I saw evidence of that attitude and saw the quality and efficiencies that resulted. Of course, creating great images that add to the visual history of Tolkiens work brings me great joy, but if it had come at the cost of artists that never wanted to do it again it would have been a great disappointment.Which sequence or shot was the most challenging?Our biggest shot was definitely the opening of Episode 8. We start by looking into a dramatic sky and follow smoke plumes down to see across the battlefield as the remaining trebuchets fire into the heavily damaged city. We blend from fully digital into a minute long single camera take and hand back to digital at the end. The camera is led through the city first by invading Orcs, then by an Elven archer, and finally by Galadriel leading refugees to safety.This shot was turned over soon after it was shot and we only finished it in our final weeks. It wasnt worked on every day but one steadfast Compositor, Kuba Pruszkowski, did have it on his plate the whole time and would build up the layers as they came in. It wasnt just the man hours necessary to create and blend all the pieces, it was also the creative decisions that needed to go into this scene. Every department contributed elements after having built up looks and techniques in other smaller shots. Its a true kitchen sink shot!The final look of the whole shot came together once we had worked out how the world would look from the cliffs above, where Galadriel and Sauron are duelling. We got some great concept frames from the client VFX Concept Artist, Einar Martinsen, that showed how this big opener could link to the later scene and emphasize areas of the frames dramatically as we moved through the city environment.Is there something specific that gives you some really short nights?Nothing specific. Throughout post-production we faced creative and technical challenges; a single shot or effect we couldnt make work, a sequence that was still in search of a look, a sudden trailer deadline. I had such a good crew that we planned for those things constantly. Not knowing what or when, but having built in spare time and resource for the inevitable surprises. Our Senior Production Managers, Val Kenol and Stefan De Souza, were always reviewing resources and schedules to make sure we werent caught short. Despite all the planning, the thing I can never shake off is the fear and apprehension of that last minute phone call. When someone high up in the food chain suddenly decides that what weve been doing isnt right, doesnt work, etc. Its almost never happened in my career and has yet to happen on The Rings of Power. But that background fear keeps me pushing. If I get complacent, thats when it will happen.What is your favorite shot or sequence?I never got tired of reviewing our big Eregion establishing shots. Theres so much detail and history in each frame. By history, I mean the years of building and evolving the city asset across the two seasons. Though I could easily pick from a number of them, the very last shot of Episode 1 is a helicopter flying right to left, looking at the city as foreground trees interrupt and eventually wipe the frame. Our layout team, supervised by Florian Mignet, did many iterations of the FG trees to get just the right visual rhythm that Bear McCreary could cue off of and take us into the episode credits. I didnt know until I was watching Episode 1 with my family that the shot would end that weeks episode. It was a great surprise.What is your best memory on this show?For specific moments, its hard to beat the sensory experience of being on-set for the filming. I was present for two months of the second unit battle work. We had a great VFX on-set crew, led by Richard Bain. Everyone on that shooting crew was great and I soaked up all the information and memories I could to inform and inspire our post work. The Second Unit Director was the legendary Vic Armstrong and it was a great privilege to watch him design shots and lead the unit. I had wanted to work with Vic ever since I heard stories from friends who were with him on the 1996 Starship Troopers shoot in South Dakota. We spent a lot of our time on-set standing in thick mud, usually the cold and gooey variety.One particular night I remember really well was when our last shot was the big explosion at the siege machine (called the Ravager). Earlier that night we completed great shots of Selina Lo (as the Elven archer Rian) being hit with Orc arrows and collapsing into the mud. I was really impressed with her stoic performance and level of tolerance for the cold and wet conditions. When it was time for the big stunt/SFX shot where she fires off her last arrow at the oil barrels, it began to rain so heavily everyone went under shelter to wait it out. The rain eased up and Vic decided we could still get the last shot. SFX set up the charges and a group of stunt performers prepared safety gear and slathered on fire gel. The crew pulled back to safety and then we rolled on a single amazing take. The Rian stunt double is silhouetted by fire as stunt Orcs fly through the air covered in flames. In post, we realized that the rain in the shot was very visible and there wasnt rain in surrounding shots. We embraced the added drama of the sparkling rain and added digital rain to the following shots. Its hard to recreate these organic and spontaneous live action moments when youre in post just using computers.How long have you worked on this show?I started in November 2022 and we completed our final shots at the end of August 2024.Whats the VFX shots count?DNEG completed 936 shots across the 8 episodes. Most of our work was in episodes 6-8.What is your next project?Were currently discussing work for Season 3 of The Rings of Power and Im looking forward to finding out how we can contribute to another exciting installment.A big thanks for your time.WANT TO KNOW MORE?DNEG: Dedicated page about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 on DNEG website. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025

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The Facades+ conference series returns to South Florida on February 4. Hosted at the Le Meridien Dania Beach, the program features case studies of some of the most exciting projects in the region, as well as topical conversations related to climate resiliency, and coastal subsidence. AN collaborated with Margi Glavovic Nothard, founder and design director of Glavovic Studio, to assemble the symposium.Click here to find more information and register. Youth Sports Complex: A Community Porch for Pompano BeachThe day begins with a presentation of the Field House at the Youth Sports Complex in Pompano Beach, Florida. This small, 4,100-square-foot structure supports 10 acres of recreational facilities. Mason Millner, project designer at Brooks + Scarpa, will describe the envelope design of the new facility, which features a street-facing elevation formed from a yellow aluminum lattice while the remainder of the building is contained within a shell of board-formed concrete. Through its eclectic facade, the field house is unsubtle in its references to South Floridas tradition of colorful modernism. Coastal Subsidence on Miamis Barrier Islands from Satellite InSARNext, Falk Amelung, a professor of geophysics at the University of Miami, will share his teams discovery of coastal subsidence in South Florida, impacting the regions many hotel and condo high-rises. Amelung will explain the use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), which identified displacement in the coastlines limestone bedrock, while also focusing on takeaways relevant to AEC professionals.Glavovic Studios reclad an existing brick building with green resin panels for the Girls Club headquarters. (Robin Hill)Girls Club: Materiality, Lightness, and Color for Adaptive ReuseIn the following session, Margi Nothard will present her design for the headquarters of Girls Club, an arts nonprofit based in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Beginning with an existing 2-story masonry structure, Glavovic Studio completely transformed the appearance of the building, recladding the exterior with green resin panels. To create a sense of depth and visual complexity, the exterior is draped in fishing nets produced by local craftsman and illuminated from below. The result of these interventions is an aesthetically unique expression that reflects the artistic mission of the client.Grove Central is a mixed-use development located along Miamis Underline. (Robin Hill)Grove Central: Designing for Climate Resilience and Urban ConnectivityAfter lunch, Jacqueline Gonzalez Touzet, founding partner of Touzet Studio, will present Grove Central, a new transit-oriented and mixed-use development located in Miamis Coconut Grove neighborhood. Focusing on design strategies that respond to South Floridas increasingly volatile climate, Touzet will discuss how podium cladding can be used to combat flash flooding, and other storm related threats. In addition, she will share two of the firms in-progress projects that use a terra-cotta rainscreen across their podium as a means of storm water retention. Enclosure Strategies for Damaging Winds, Tropical Storms, and HurricanesConversations related to Floridas unique climate challenges continues in the next session, where Heather Anesta, founder of Anesta Consulting, and Dr. Jon Galsworthy, managing director of CPP Wind Engineering, take the stage to discuss envelope design strategies to combat high winds. Anesta, who regularly works with FEMA, will share images of cladding failures that have occurred during recent tropical storms, while Galsworthy will impart how these catastrophes can be avoided during the design process.garciastromberg were tasked with adding contextually sensitive additions to the historic Pier Sixty Six hotel in Fort Lauderdale. (Barry Grossman)Pier Sixty Six: Reinterpreting Iconic Mid-Century DesignIn the days final session, Jorge Garcia and Roger Grave de Peralta, CEO and vice president respectively at garciastromberg, will be joined on stage by Chris Gandolfo, senior vice president at Tavistock Development, to discuss the expansion of Pier Sixty Six in Fort Lauderdale. Because the resorts original midcentury tower has long been an architectural landmark in Fort Lauderdale, the project team set out to design new buildings that complement the tower stylistically. This was achieved primarily through the design of geometrically expressive balcony spaces which distinguish each of the new structures.

ZDNET's key takeaways HP's 16-inch Envy x360 2-in-1 (2024) comes in a variety of configurations, but the version with 1TB of storage and an OLED display is on sale for $949.It sports one of the most gorgeous displays I've seen on a convertible laptop in this price range.It's a little on the heavy side, and the configuration swapping can be buggy. View now at HP What's the deal?HP is selling multiple discounted Envy x360 models on its online store. Prices start at $620 and go up to $1,300 for high-end configurations. Keep in mind that the cheaper units lack the more impactful features, such as OLED touchscreens.A host of great 2-in-1 laptops launched in 2024, forcing more and more laptop diehards (myself included) previously unwilling to commit to the form factor to switch to convertibles, which give you the best of both worlds.TheHP Envy x360 16" 2-in-1shows up to the party with all the features that consumers actually want in a convertible: a gorgeous display, beefy speakers, and a suite of hardware to back it up. This results in a solid performance and a satisfying media experience at a mid-range price point.Also: HP shows off three next-gen laptops and revamps its desktops at CES 2025Yes, a 16-inch screen is large when used as a tablet -- a little unwieldy, even. However, the OLED display on this laptop is so good that it doesn't matter to me. In fact, it could be bigger, and I would still happily tote it around. details View at Hp The Envy x360 features a 2.8K (2880 x 1800) resolution OLED touchscreen with a variable 120Hz refresh rate and edge-to-edge glass that results in a smooth-as-silk visual experience. The 500-nit brightness is more than enough for normal use, and the glossy finish looks gorgeous (although it may not be for everyone, because fingerprints are a thing).Also: This Lenovo laptop handled my various workflows with grace - and it's surprisingly affordableVideo playback is vibrant, smooth, and sharp, with a realistic depth of color and contrast. HP also advertises the Envy x360 as an "IMAX certified" laptop, one of the first of its kind. It earned this certification for its ability to display IMAX-formatted content in its original 1.43:1 or 1.90:1 aspect ratio. While a flashy designation, this is a laptop we're talking about here; it's still a 16-inch screen. It does look good, though -- I'll give it that.The audio is also decent. While it may seem that the two vents on either side of the keyboard are speakers, audio actually originates from the dual DTS:X Ultrabar-shaped speakers on the back of the device. There isn't a lot of bass, but mid-frequency audio and dialogue sound crisp and clear and held their own when I played Netflix in a noisy kitchen. Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETThe previously mentioned vents on either side of the keyboard are actually for expelling heat, something my colleague Cesar Cadenas will appreciate, as this is a laptop you can actually place on your lap without getting first-degree burns on your legs.The Envy x360 is positioned just below HP's Spectre line of laptops to provide great performance that serves most users' needs. We reviewed the 2024 Spectre x360early last year and found it has top-notch hardware thanks to the "Meteor Lake" AI processor, but it will run you hundreds of dollars more.The Envy x360 model that I tested, however, came with an integrated AMD Radeon GPU that, coupled with the AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor, can run both CPU-intensive and graphics tasks well. This aligns with its targeted creator/freelancer consumer demographic, allowing visual apps like DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Photoshop to run smoothly, with an eye toward generative AI capabilities.I found that the battery life was better than average -- especially for an OLED-equipped laptop -- thanks to the efficiency gains of the Ryzen 7 8840HS processor. With only intermittent use, the laptop lasted me several days, while sustained activity resulted in over 10 hours of battery life, more or less equivalent to what is advertised. Even better is the fast charging feature, which I found even faster than HP's 50% in 45-minute claims.Also: My favorite lightweight laptop for work is not a ThinkPad or MacBook - and it's on saleThe 2-in-1 form factor requires a certain degree of physical fortitude, and its hinge-style design (which is almost identical to the Lenovo 7i 2-in-1) supports a sturdy build that's up to the task. It has minimal screen wobble, yet enough resistance to stay in place as a touchscreen.That said, this is not a particularly light laptop, weighing in at around four pounds, with most of that weight coming from the 16-inch OLED. Despite the weight, it's very thin -- only 0.72 inches -- which results in a laptop that still feels sufficiently portable. Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETPort selection on the 2024 Envy x360 will also be sufficient for most users, with two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an HDMI port. The keyboard is particularly unique: the keys are big and chunky, in a matte gray color, with oversized letters in a distinct sans serif font. It looks good but lacks a right-side number pad, which I prefer to have on a laptop -- especially one of this size.Also: This 11-in-1 docking station is the office productivity gadget I didn't know I neededIf you can't tell already, I'm a big fan of the Envy x360, and out of all the 2-in-1 laptops I've tested, I prefer this one. My main critique of this laptop is the bugginess that can occur when swapping between the different orientations. Going from tablet to laptop can result in delayed or glitchy keyboard response, and the screen orientation can stick in one position or another, requiring a deliberate re-positioning of the laptop to reset the internal gyroscope.These issues are prevalent across all 2-in-1 laptops I've tested and are (usually) intermittent enough to not be problems -- but in certain moments, facing non-functioning hardware can be frustrating, and you should keep that in mind.ZDNET's buying adviceThe HP Envy x360 16 (2024) is priced well for an upper-mid-tier device with a gorgeous display and solid performance. Creators will love this laptop's flexible form factor and impressive battery life. After using it for a few weeks, I can say that it's my favorite big-screen 2-in-1, despite its quirks. This is a laptop for work as much as it is for entertainment, and if you're looking for a 2-in-1 laptop, you have to consider the Envy x360.Compared to its rivals, HP's model offers a more complete package. Take a look at Lenovo's Yoga 7i. It's also a great machine worth consideration, but the Yoga is heavier with a duller screen. Microsoft's 11th-Gen Surface Pro arguably has better hardware, but it is much smaller, sporting a 13-inch touchscreen.If you're looking for a smaller option, considerHP's 2024 Spectre x360, which has a 14-inch display. For something more adventurous, check out the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, which has two displays.Featured reviews