Nature, Published online: 24 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00247-4Scientists are defecting to Bluesky from X en masse. Plus, the bumps in the road that led to 23andMes downfall.

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3D Artist Jesse Miettinen, also known as Blenderesse, has unveiled a fantastic new work-in-progress procedural birch tree generator created with Blender using the softwares Geometry Nodes toolset.Featuring superfast canopy calculations, wind, and root deformations, the setup calculates Proximity to determine branch lengths for each main branch to keep things lightweight, passing the information to sub-branches and twigs to enhance the effect. Im also doing a clever trick to pre-calculate the end position of each branch(single point) for the proximity. So instead of doing proximity for the whole branch, I do it before instancing on points and scale the instances with the attribute, the artist explained.Going forward, Jesse also plans to introduce several simple setups for creating stylized root shapes, we highly encourage you to follow the artist on Twitter so as not to miss any future updates.Previously, the creator experimented with layering multiple rain effects based on geometry:And prior to that, Jesse made all of his Blender add-ons yes, literally all of them available for free.Dont forget to join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Check Out This Geometry Nodes-Powered Birch Tree Generator appeared first on CG SHARES.

Ropukas Idle Island is a casual game working as a playable sticker for your desktop. You can place the island where frog Ropuka lives anywhere on your desktop while you work or relax.Ropukas life is simple and relaxing. When not sleeping on the deck chair in front of its little house, Ropuka is always busy cutting grass, which will swing in waves in a pretty relaxing vibe. The grasses collected will be the currency that can be used to upgrade its tools and customize the islands with a variety of decorations, like buildings, cosmetics, fences, trees, or new species or grasses with better quality. Or some fancy and funny hats and accessories for the lonely frog could be a great idea. What do you think?Although cutting grass takes much of its time, little frog also has a hobby of collecting stamps to complete the collection book:As your perfect companion for multitasking, Ropukas Idle Island can be adjusted to any size you like it can be shrunk to thumb size so it barely attracts your attention when you need to focus, or you can share half of the screen while you use the other half. Best of all, you can switch to the custom-made lofi track and ambient sound of nature when focusing.Ropukas Idle Island is set to launch in just two days, on January 29. The development team announced that they will also release some wallpapers alongside the game. Whats more, the Mac version of the game will arrive in February following the Windows launch.Wishlist Ropukas Idle Island on Steam and follow the developer on X/Twitter to receive more future updates.Also, join our 80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Meet A Frog Companion Who Loves Cutting Grass & Collect Stamps In This Casual Game appeared first on CG SHARES.

Nvidia remains one of the world's largest companies by market cap, but the chip-maker is having a tough day on the stock market today. The company's share price slid by nearly 17% today, wiping out more than $500 billion in market cap. Should this hold through the end of the trading day, it would be far and away the biggest single-day trading loss for a company in history. Nvidia's previous $279 billion one-day dip is the existing record-holder.Why is Nvidia stock tanking? The stock price had been surging for the past two years as investors felt bullish on the company's fortunes due to excitement in the market about artificial intelligence. Nvidia sells the necessary GPUs to train large-language models and for general AI use, after all.But at the end of last week, Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek launched a new model, R1, that the company claims is far cheaper than other models out there, including Open AI's o1. The fear from investors, it seems, is that AI companies may not actually require as much computing power as it was once believed. This, in turn, could have spooked investors and sent Nvidia's stock price down.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Red Dead Redemption 2 is breaking its Steam concurrent player record five years after its release on Valve's platform, all thanks to a huge Rockstar Games publisher sale that sees the western epic at its lowest price yet.A number of Rockstar's games are currently steeply discounted on Steam, but it's the 70% off Red Dead Redemption 2 that is helping Rockstar's most recent title achieve its highest Steam concurrent player numbers ever. According to data from SteamDB, Red Dead Redemption 2's player numbers have been steadily climbing since the start of the sale on January 24, when the game became discounted to just $15. The game's concurrent players peaked at 86,717 on January 26, a bump of more than 10,000 players compared to the same time in 2023 and 2024. It's an impressive resurgence for what is still one of the most critically-acclaimed games of all time. Red Dead Redemption 2 currently sports a 98 on review aggregator Metacritic, and in GameSpot's Red Dead Redemption 2 review, we called Rockstar's return to the Wild West "a thought-provoking" prequel with a rich, detailed world we didn't want to leave. We even awarded it as GameSpot's GameSpot's Game Of The Year 2018.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Mikasa Ackerman is the poster girl of Attack on Titan and Eren's love interest. Throughout the course of the story, her actions and behavior towards Eren sparked the interest of Ymir, the young enslaved girl from 2,000 years-ago, who was unsure of her own feelings towards her captor.

The Terminator franchise has been a staple of the action blockbuster world for just over four decades. 1985's The Terminator was met with mixed reviews at the time of its release, but it's since become heralded as an all-time Sci-Fi great, and its 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is still widely considered to be one of the greatest action movies ever made. Arguably, there hasn't been a genuinely great Terminator movie since T2, but the franchise has remained in the public conscious thanks in no small part to its references and cameos in other media.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says hes really looking forward to supporting Nintendo with the companys Xbox games, a strong indication that more previously exclusive titles from Xbox Game Studios are bound for Nintendo Switch 2. Spencers comments, from a recent episode of the Gamertag Radio podcast, appear to lend further credence to reports that games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are bound for Nintendos next-gen console.During his appearance on Gamertag Radio, Spencer praised Nintendos innovation and its success with the original Switch, saying that he believes the Switch 2 will also be successful for the company. And while he didnt outright announce any Xbox games for Switch 2, Microsoft has already set a precedent that its quite comfortable bringing previously Xbox-exclusive software to what are ostensibly rival platforms.Microsoft already publishes Minecraft on a wide variety of platforms, including Switch, and has released two Ori games, Pentiment and Grounded, for Nintendos console. With the more powerful Switch 2 coming in 2025, Microsoft could more easily bring over some of its more technically demanding games, like its Halo collection and games that were previously only released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.Of course, Microsoft has already committed to bringing the Call of Duty franchise to Nintendos platform. Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard already has some its games (e.g., Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1&2, Diablo 3, Overwatch 2) on Switch, and its likely that those titles (or their sequels) could be Switch 2 games. Spencer said to expect Microsoft games will show up in more and more places, a strong hint that more of 2025s Xbox strong lineup might show up on Switch and PlayStation consoles.But Spencer didnt announce specifics around Switch 2 support, possibly out of respect for how Nintendo is rolling out news about its next console. Outside of a new, currently untitled Mario Kart game, Nintendo hasnt officially announced games for Switch 2. That will likely happen in April, when the company plans to hold a Switch 2-focused Nintendo Direct presentation. Once Nintendo starts to reveal next-gen games, third parties like Microsoft are sure to follow.Were not yet ready to call Switch 2 an Xbox just yet, not in the way that Microsoft is calling phones, laptops, desktops, tablets, and handheld PCs an Xbox. Those platforms are capable of streaming Xbox games from the cloud and supporting Game Pass subscriptions. And while Spencer has expressed a desire to bring Game Pass to platforms made by Nintendo, PlayStation, and every other device that will have it, Microsoft may have to settle for bringing its catalog of IP to non-Xbox consoles for now potentially exposing Master Chief to an all-new, much bigger audience.

Its new-on-TV time! And if you like strange twisty mysteries, then boy does this week deliver, in the form of Sterling K. Brown as a Secret Service agent. Theres more to his story and that of Paradise, the show hes the lead of but its flashback-filled riddles make it a perfect pulpy watch for the moment. But thats not all! Theres also new Spider-Man as in, a new Spider-Man show featuring a new version of Peter Parker. And not for nothing, its another great week to watch new episodes of Severance and Harley Quinn. Heres all the best new TV premieres of the week.New shows on NetflixThe Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse season 2Genre: FantasyRelease date: Jan. 30, with all episodesStudio: TMS EntertainmentThe long-awaited second season of Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse is picking up where the first season left off (some 78 chapters or so into the plot of the manga). As you may recall, season 1 ended with Arthur descending from the sky to assess the Four Knights strength and effortlessly deflecting and immobilizing his opponents. Perhaps important to note: Episode 1 is called The Power of the King. New shows on Disney PlusYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-ManGenre: Animated superheroRelease date: Jan. 29Showrunner/creator: Jeff TrammellCast: Hudson Thames, Charlie Cox, Colman Domingo, and moreSpidey is back. But, as weve come to expect from Spider-Man stories at this point, in a totally different universe than weve seen him in. Animated in a style paying homage to the early Spider-Man comics, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man follows an alternate-timeline Peter Parker (Hudson Thames), allowing the show to be whatever it wants to be like, for instance, letting Norman Osborne (Colman Domingo) be his mentor.New shows on HuluParadiseGenre: Mystery boxRelease date: Jan. 28, with one episodeShowrunner/creator: Dan FogelmanCast: Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden, Julianne Nicholson, and moreIts a gorgeous day in paradise, with Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) going for a run, making breakfast for his children, and then showing up for work protecting a past president (James Marsden). And then he finds the president murdered, and all hell breaks loose, leaving Xavier to think fast as he tries to suss out why someone wanted the president dead. New shows on MaxCommon Side EffectsGenre: Conspiracy comedyRelease date: Feb. 2 at 11:30 p.m. EST on Adult Swim; next day on MaxShowrunners/creators: Joseph Bennett and Steve HelyCast: Dave King, Emily Pendergast, Mike Judge, and moreFrances Applewhite (Emily Pendergast) is getting along as an employee of Reutical Pharmaceutical, Inc. when she reconnects with her high school labmate Marshall (Dave King). Things are going well for him hes found a new kind of drug that can allegedly cure all illnesses. Of course they dont want people to know about it, leading Marshall (and Frances) down the road of conspiracy, cover-up, and potentially danger. New shows on Apple TV PlusMythic Quest season 4Genre: ComedyRelease date: Jan. 29, with two episodesShowrunners/creators: Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenneyCast: Rob McElhenney, Charlotte Nicdao, Ashly Burch, and moreEveryone is back together under the lights (and maybe HR protocols) of the Mythic Quest building. And Ian (Rob McElhenney) has some competition for being the face of the company. Will he handle it well? (Its no spoiler to say: probably not!)