DeepSeek-R1, a new reasoning model made by Chinese researchers, completes tasks with a comparable proficiency to OpenAI's o1 at a fraction of the cost.

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PLATEAUPLATEAU SDK is a Japanese government-led initiative focused on developing 3D digital twins of cities and promoting their use across various applications. It also ensures that the data is publicly available, allowing anyone to access and use it within DCC software.The newly released PLATEAU SDK for Unity v3.2.0 beta includes a feature that automatically generates road networks, representing the layout of roads, including connections between roadways and intersections. Additionally, it now supports the generation of road markings such as crosswalks, lanes, and directional arrows for vehicles, as well as stepped sidewalks. Users can also freely edit the number and shape of lanes and use them in traffic simulation.PLATEAUPLATEAUPLATEAU provides high-resolution 3D city model data that can be imported into the engine, supporting high-quality rendering. It also offers tools for implementing pathfinding and running various simulations within the city. You can take advantage of other Unity features to customize 3D models based on specific needs and seamlessly integrate them with other systems and APIs.Theres also a similar toolkit for handling PLATEAUs 3D city model data in Unreal Engine, you can check it out here. Get PLATEAU SDK for Unity by clicking this link and join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us on Instagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Build Realistic Japanese Cities In 3D With This Unity Tool appeared first on CG SHARES.

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Catan, and the tabletop game is set to get its sixth edition this April. This is the first update to the settler-oriented multiplayer board game in about a decade, with the fifth edition--the version that transformed the name of the game from The Settlers of Catan to just Catan--releasing in June 2015. As the game celebrates its 30th birthday, the designers are hoping to maintain the game's place as a major go-to onramp for people discovering the joy of playing tabletop games."How do you keep an old game relevant even after 30 years, right? Especially when gaming has developed," managing director and game designer Benjamin Teuber told me. "The hobby continues to develop and grow, and there are so many great games. Every year, I have three new favorite games, and next year there [will be] three more and that's awesome, that's beautiful. But there is apparently still something to Catan because we still have very good sales numbers. ...There are always new people joining this hobby, and Catan still seems to be the entry level product, [the game] for many to find."The artwork for Catan Sixth Edition is far more vibrant than previous editions.For Teuber, it doesn't matter that Catan is 30 years old. Even if many who tried the game and loved it may eventually move on to more complex or niche tabletop systems, Catan is going to keep being a new experience for someone. Teuber told me a story about how Village Romance developer Michael Palm recently messaged him about playing Catan with his kid, who screamed, "Klaus Teuber is the coolest game developer!" during the game (Klaus is Benjamin's father and the creator of Catan).Continue Reading at GameSpot

Microsoft's next big game, the RPG Avowed from The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian, is coming out in February. Unlike some of Obsidian's other RPGs, Avowed is not an open-world game. This serves the game best, Avowed region director Berto Ritger said.Avowed features large "defined zones," as opposed to taking place in an open world. Ritger said having established and distinct zones is a "good pacing mechanism" for the choices players make."We know roughly what you've done before you've gone to the next thing. It's still a very open structure within those zones, where you can do whatever you want for the most part, but it's not one contiguous area where you could be anywhere at any moment," Ritger said in an interview with Xbox Wire.Continue Reading at GameSpot

When a cherished movie, TV show, or book is merged with another form of media, it can create an experience that is thrilling yet refreshingly familiar. Fortunately, as versatile as they are, strategy games have a long and proven history of successfully adapting or recreating licensed IPs, at least more so than most other gaming genres. They have the ability to seamlessly blend the intricacies of strategic planning with narratives that fans already adore.

Hollow Knight is well known for the plethora of bosses that it has to offer for players. While the base game has a ton of notable boss fights, the four DLCs that were introduced over the years introduced thirteen bosses that were either brand new or variations of existing boss fights.

Customized Angel Customized Angel is a first-person mystery-solving game with a unique perspective: you play as a stalker trying to save Melanie, the woman you secretly admire, from being murd

The blowout success of 1999s The Blair Witch Project really did a number on the horror genre. It wasnt the first faux-found-footage movie, or even the first found-footage horror movie. But it landed during a period where handheld cameras were increasingly small and cheap, horror was becoming more popular and mainstream, and internet-based marketing let the creators target their ideal audience, effectively turning their film into viral creepypasta.Between its massive box-office success and the seeming ease of duplicating it cheaply, The Blair Witch Project launched a fad for found-footage horror that peaked and ebbed over the course of decades, and still occasionally resurfaces in projects like 2023s underground sensation Skinamarink. In Steven Soderberghs hypnotic, minimalist ghost story Presence, though, the found-footage movie style may have found its final form.Presence centers on a haunting in a luxuriously modernized century-old home, newly occupied by a troubled family full of fault lines. Waifish teen daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) is reeling after the death of her best friend. Her smug, arrogant older brother Tyler (Eddy Maday) is unsympathetic; the family has just moved entirely so he can get into a better school district, where his swim-team stardom might take him further. Their parents, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) are at odds about everything, particularly how to deal with Chloes depression and possible substance abuse, and how to moderate Rebekahs clear and absolute favoritism for Tyler. As they all navigate their own emotional trials, an invisible, intangible presence represented by the camera stalks through the house, observing them all even in their most private moments.Technically speaking, Presence isnt really a found-footage movie in the Blair Witch Project vein. Theres no pretense that Soderberghs first-person narrative is actual camera footage, let alone lost camera footage unearthed sometime after the camera operator met a terrible fate. But everything about the movie plays within the visual style that came to be broadly known as found-footage horror: The audience sees the entire movie through Soderberghs lens, representing the one witness that connects all the narrative threads.In this case, though, the camera isnt a jumpy, queasy handheld device, as in The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, or Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. It isnt a series of sources like security systems or static cameras, as in [REC] or Paranormal Activity. Its a warmly lit, crisply realized eye moving through the story, gliding around the house and the new inhabitants with inhuman smoothness that gets across the alienness of the entity. Presences entire premise is that the story is framed by a ghostly voyeur hovering over the cast, taking in their needs and fears, but initially unable to communicate its own.Soderberghs approach taps into the found-footage horror idea of a story being experienced by whoevers behind the camera, except in this case, the question of whos behind the camera is part of the horror. From the start, Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp (who also wrote Soderberghs simple, efficient 2022 action-thriller Kimi) imply that the presence is a ghost but until the action fully plays out, the audience is left to wonder whether its something else entirely, along with what it wants and how and whether it will eventually make its needs known. The filmmakers inevitably build in a few small jump scares, but for the most part, Presence is about low-key, slow-burn curiosity rather than lurking terror.For audiences expecting breathless tricks out of the usual found-footage horror playbook the kinds of barely glimpsed threats and dimly lit shocks a fast-moving, low-fidelity camera enables Soderberghs approach may seem perverse. The houses bright, open airiness and richly appointed rooms make it seem like an unlikely and even ill-suited space for a haunting. Theres no chance the camera will ever abruptly capture some unexpected, horrifying specter, because the camera is the specter.Where another story might have made the ghosts looming presence and intimate proximity to the characters into a constant eerie threat, Presences ghost seems benign, even distanced. Like the lonely, faceless ghost in David Lowerys A Ghost Story, it seemseither incapable of affecting the family, or uninterested. Until it isnt.But the uniqueness of that approach is part of the appeal. Presence is more intellectual than visceral, more engaged with raising questions than pinning viewers to their seats. Which makes it feel like a more grown-up take on the found-footage movie. If The Blair Witch represented the subgenres wiry adolescence, then format extensions like Unfriended and similar screenlife horror movies were its experimental young adulthood, and Presence is its full adult form.In growing up, though, the genre has lost a lot of its startling, engaging rawness and vrit energy. Presence is more sedate, sophisticated, and polished than its found-footage predecessors, but its also less emotionally engaging, in spite of its committed performances and the raw, aching feelings of grief, anger, resentment, and loneliness the central family is navigating. Bringing their story in at a slim 85 minutes, Soderbergh and Koepp dont give the premise or the format enough time to get predictable, but they also only rarely give their story a sense of urgency or excitement. Its found-footage horror as an intellectual exercise rather than a heart-racing emotional one.All of which suggests Presence is just one more in Soderberghs endless line of cinematic experiments with form than it is a fad-launching phenomenon in the vein of The Blair Witch Project. This is one end stage for a still-evolving subgenre, not the beginning of a new one. For Soderbergh, whos always been interested in innovating and pushing movies to the next stage, then moving on, thats probably enough. For deep-in-the-weeds horror fans expecting a more familiar brand of scares, though, Presence may feel like an odd iteration on a familiar trope something that feels more grown-up and more singular than all those increasingly samey racing-around-with-a-camera horror movies of decades past, but still not quite as much fun.Presence is in theaters now.

Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.This week, Nosferatu, the gothic horror film from director Robert Eggers starring Bill Skarsgrd and Lily-Rose Depp, emerges from the shadows and onto VOD. Thats not all; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also hits VOD this week alongside Paul Schraders new drama starring Richard Gere (Chicago) and Jacob Elordi (Saltburn). Theres plenty of new releases on streaming as well. Saturday Night arrives on Netflix, the Korean horror thriller Sleep on Hulu, Gladiator II on Paramount Plus, and Oscar-nominated animated film The Wild Robot on Peacock.Heres everything new thats available to watch this weekend!New on NetflixSaturday NightWhere to watch: Available to stream on NetflixGenre: Comedy dramaRun time: 1h 49mDirector: Jason ReitmanCast: Gabriel LaBelle, Cooper Hoffman, Rachel SennottThis biographical comedy follows the 90 minutes leading up to premiere of Saturday Night Live, with an ensemble cast playing some of the iconic comedians in the inaugural SNL lineup. Weve got Gabriel Labelle as Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan OBrien as Dan Aykroyd, and more. The movie comes fromGhostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empireduo Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, but critic reviews indicate its much better than those two.New on HuluCity of DreamsWhere to watch: Available to stream on HuluGenre: DramaRun time: 1h 54mDirector: Mohit RamchandaniCast: Adriana Paz, Jason Patric, Paulina GaitanInspired by a true story,City of Dreamsis about Jess, a young Mexican boy who dreams of becoming a soccer player. His father promises him the chance to attend a soccer camp in Los Angeles but instead, Jess is sold to a sweatshop. He finds comfort in his friendship with another worker, but when she goes missing, he has to plan a daring escape from his brutal boss.SleepWhere to watch: Available to stream on HuluGenre:Horror mysteryRun time:1h 35mDirector:Jason YuCast:Jung Yu-mi, Lee Sun-kyun, Kim Gook-heeThis Korean horror mystery follows Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) and Hyeon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), a newlywed couple whose domestic life is threatened by the latters bizarre behavior while sleepwalking. Fearing for the life of their newborn child, Soo-jin must search for a cure for her husbands condition before something terrible happens.New on MaxYour MonsterWhere to watch: Available to stream on MaxGenre:Rom-com horrorRun time:1h 43mDirector:Caroline LindyCast:Tommy Dewey, Melissa Barrera, Edmund DonovanMonster lovers out there this ones for you. A soft-spoken young actress going through a rough time in her life ends up falling for the literal monster in her closet. Well, at first, hes a bit of a prickly asshole la Beast fromBeauty and the Beast, but the two eventually become confidants before a romance sparks between them. Its based on director Caroline Lindys short film of the same name.New on Paramount PlusGladiator IIWhere to watch: Available to stream on Paramount PlusGenre:Period epicRun time:2h 28mDirector:Ridley ScottCast:Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro PascalRidley Scott finally returns with a sequel to his Oscar-winning historical epicGladiator. Paul Mescal (Aftersun) stars inGladiator IIas Hanno, a Numidian warrior who is enslaved and taken to Rome after his home is sacked and conquered. After being discovered by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former gladiator turned nobleman, Hanno is promised hell be granted his revenge against General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) in exchange for his victories in the arena.New on PeacockThe Wild RobotWhere to watch: Available to stream on PeacockGenre:Sci-fi adventureRun time:1h 42mDirector:Chris SandersCast:Lupita Nyongo, Pedro Pascal, Kit ConnorThe Wild Robotis probably the best and certainly the most gorgeous animated movie of the year. Its deeply emotional without ever being overly didactic, and the animation style is so evocative and distinct that I want to touch it and cry. FromLilo & StitchandHow to Train Your DragondirectorChris Sanders,The Wild Robotfollows a robot named Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyongo), who finds herself stranded on a remote island, as she takes care of a young gosling through the seasons.From ourreview:Beautiful animation is one thing, butThe Wild Robotis built on a damn good story. Robots going against their programming and unlikely parent-child-esque relationships are common tropes, but Sanders isnt afraid to drill down to the emotional core, even if that means not flinching away from sadder moments. His script homes in on Roz and Brightbills connection, threading in moments like Roz letting the little gosling help build shelter, even though the tiny branches he carries dont really assist her current directive, or Brightbill curling up right under Rozs neck joint when she powers down and he falls asleep. But it also pulls back to show how their blossoming dynamic impacts the rest of the forest. For a story thats so intrinsically tied to its environment, thats a necessity.New on MubiThe Girl with the NeedleWhere to watch: Available to stream on Mubi USGenre: DramaRun time: 2h 3mDirector: Magnus von HornCast: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm, Besir ZeciriThe Girl with the Needle centers on Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a newly pregnant factory worker struggling to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. After being taken in by Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), the charismatic leader of an underground adoption agency, Karoline is given the chance to work as a wet nurse. Its not long after, however, that she begins to suspect that something sinister is afoot at the agency.New to rentSonic The Hedgehog 3Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Action-adventure comedyRun time: 1h 50mDirector: Jeff FowlerCast: Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Krysten RitterEvery Sonic movie has just gotten better, because each Sonic movie addsa new Sonic characterto the lineup. This timeedgy Shadow the Hedgehogjoins the cast,perfectlyvoiced by the equally awesome Keanu Reeves. Hes got a wonderfully tortured backstory and theres just something deeply charming about having a four-foot tall hedgehog with red highlights talking about his deep pain and anguish. The rest of the gang Knuckles, Tails, and Sonic himself are brilliant as ever.Jim Carreyalso pulls off some impressive acting with himself as he plays both Dr. Ivo and Gerald Robotnik. Its just a delightful time!From our review,Sonic the Hedgehog 3is still a speedrun through the franchise scrapyard. Theres some abbreviated Marvel-style mythology (including, yes, multiple credits scenes), a discount Mission: Impossible break-in sequence that makes an obvious Tom Cruise joke, and all of those third-tier DreamWorks cartoon wisecracks that issue from Sonic himself. James Marsden and Tika Sumpter, as the human guardians of Sonic and company, still have thankless jobs to do, and the way the movie needlessly incorporates additional past human cast members is confusing at best. For that matter, what newcomer Krysten Ritter is doing in this movie seems unclear, even (or especially) to the filmmakers. But director Jeff Fowler, who also made the first two movies, has further streamlined the pacing, and the film flies by in a silly, agreeable blur.NosferatuWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Gothic horrorRun time: 2h 12mDirector: Robert EggersCast: Bill Skarsgrd, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose DeppDirector Robert Eggers (The Witch) returns with his most ambitious project to date: A remake of F. W. Murnaus seminal vampire horror film, based unofficially on Bram Stokers novel Dracula. Set in 1830s Wisburg, Germany, Eggers film centers on Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a newly-wed couple who are ensnared in the machinations of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgrd), a reclusive nobleman and vampire who lusts after Ellen.From our review,The key creative pact in any Dracula movie, though, is between the director and his vampire. (E. Elias Merhige playfully explored this topic in his 2000 filmShadow of the Vampire, in which John Malkovich plays a fictionalized Murnau, with Dafoe as a version of Schreck who might actuallybea vampire.) This is the one area where Eggers and Skarsgrd diverge sharply from the original film. Skarsgrds Orlok is still ancient, corpse-like, and heavily taloned. But where Schreck was twisted and withered, Skarsgrds version is towering and hairy, swathed in furs, with a long mustache and a barbaric aspect. Even his looming physicality is dwarfed by his voice; Skarsgrd speaks outrageously slowly in a cartoonish Transylvanian accent, rolling his Rs for days, and the sound mix gives his every utterance a booming, subsonic resonance that rattles the theater. Its achoice; it may be too much for some, but it couldnt be any more Gothic.Oh, CanadaWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: DramaRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Paul SchraderCast: Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Uma ThurmanPaul Schraders latest film stars Richard Gere as Leonard Fife, a beloved yet ailing filmmaker who reminisces on his formative experience as a draft dodger and his assorted love affairs in a tell-all documentary of his life and career. Jacob Elordi plays Fifes younger self, a man whose past is rife with secrets and long-buried regrets.