States are using higher registration fees for electric cars to make up for declining fuel taxes, but some are punitive, environmentalists say. A federal tax could be coming.

On January 8, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang jolted the stock market by saying that practical quantum computing is still 15 to 30 years away, at the same time suggesting those computers will need Nvidia GPUs in order to implement the necessary error correction.However, history shows that brilliant people are not immune to making mistakes. Huangs predictions miss the mark, both on the timeline for useful quantum computing and on the role his companys technology will play in that future.Ive been closely following developments in quantum computing as an investor, and its clear to me that it is rapidly converging on utility. Last year, Googles Willow device demonstrated that there is a promising pathway to scaling up to bigger and bigger computers. It showed that errors can be reduced exponentially as the number of quantum bits, or qubits, increases. It also ran a benchmark test in under five minutes that would take one of todays fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. While too small to be commercially useful with known algorithms, Willow shows that quantum supremacy (executing a task that is effectively impossible for any classical computer to handle in a reasonable amount of time) and fault tolerance (correcting errors faster than they are made) are achievable.For example, PsiQuantum, a startup my company is invested in, is set to break ground on two quantum computers that will enter commercial service before the end of this decade. The plan is for each one to be 10 thousand times the size of Willow, big enough to tackle important questions about materials, drugs, and the quantum aspects of nature. These computers will not use GPUs to implement error correction. Rather, they will have custom hardware, operating at speeds that would be impossible with Nvidia hardware.At the same time, quantum algorithms are improving far faster than hardware. A recent collaboration between the pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim and PsiQuantum demonstrated a more than 200x improvement in algorithms to simulate important drugs and materials. Phasecraft, another company we have invested in, has improved the simulation performance for a wide variety of crystal materials and has published a quantum-enhanced version of a widely used materials science algorithm that is tantalizingly close to beating all classical implementations on existing hardware.Advances like these lead me to believe that useful quantum computing is inevitable and increasingly imminent. And thats good news, because the hope is that they will be able to perform calculations that no amount of AI or classical computation could ever achieve.We should care about the prospect of useful quantum computers because today we dont really know how to do chemistry. We lack knowledge about the mechanisms of action for many of our most important drugs. The catalysts that drive our industries are generally poorly understood, require expensive exotic materials, or both. Despite appearances, we have significant gaps in our agency over the physical world; our achievements belie the fact that we are, in many ways, stumbling around in the dark.Nature operates on the principles of quantum mechanics. Our classical computational methods fail to accurately capture the quantum nature of reality, even though much of our high-performance computing resources are dedicated to this pursuit. Despite all the intellectual and financial capital expended, we still dont understand why the painkiller acetaminophen works, how type-II superconductors function, or why a simple crystal of iron and nitrogen can produce a magnet with such incredible field strength. We search for compounds in Amazonian tree bark to cure cancer and other maladies, manually rummaging through a pitifully small subset of a design space encompassing 1060 small molecules. Its more than a little embarrassing.We do, however, have some tools to work with. In industry, density functional theory (DFT) is the workhorse of computational chemistry and materials modeling, widely used to investigate the electronic structure of many-body systemssuch as atoms, molecules, and solids. When DFT is applied to systems where electron-electron correlations are weak, it produces reasonable results. But it fails entirely on a broad class of interesting problems.Take, for example, the buzz in the summer of 2023 around the room-temperature superconductor LK-99. Many accomplished chemists turned to DFT to try to characterize the material and determine whether it was, indeed, a superconductor. Results were, to put it politely, mixedso we abandoned our best computational methods, returning to mortar and pestle to try to make some of the stuff. Sadly, although LK-99 might have many novel characteristics, a room-temperature superconductor it isnt. Thats unfortunate, as such a material could revolutionize energy generation, transmission, and storage, not to mention magnetic confinement for fusion reactors, particle accelerators, and more.AI will certainly help with our understanding of materials, but it is no panacea. New AI techniques have emerged in the last few years, with some promising results. DeepMinds Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNoME), for example, found 380,000 new potentially stable materials. At its core, though, GNoME depends on DFT, so its performance is only as good as DFTs ability to produce good answers.The fundamental issue is that an AI model is only as good as the data its trained on. Training an LLM on the entire internet corpus, for instance, can yield a model that has a reasonable grasp of most human culture and can process language effectively. But if DFT fails for any non-trivially correlated quantum systems, how useful can a DFT-derived training set really be? We could also turn to synthesis and experimentation to create training data, but the number of physical samples we can realistically produce is minuscule relative to the vast design space, leaving a great deal of potential untapped. Only once we have reliable quantum simulations to produce sufficiently accurate training data will we be able to create AI models that answer quantum questions on classical hardware.And that means that we need quantum computers. They afford us the opportunity to shift from a world of discovery to a world of design. Todays iterative process of guessing, synthesizing, and testing materials is comically inadequate.In a few tantalizing cases, we have stumbled on materials, like superconductors, with near-magical properties. How many more might these new tools reveal in the coming years? We will eventually have machines with millions of qubits that, when used to simulate crystalline materials, open up a vast new design space. It will be like waking up one day and finding a million new elements with fascinating properties on the periodic table.Of course, building a million-qubit quantum computer is not for the faint of heart. Such machines will be the size of supercomputers, and require large amounts of capital, cryoplant, electricity, concrete, and steel. They also require silicon photonics components that perform well beyond anything in industry, error correction hardware that runs fast enough to chase photons, and single-photon detectors with unprecedented sensitivity. But after years of research and development, and more than a billion dollars of investment, the challenge is now moving from science and engineering to construction.It is impossible to fully predict how quantum computing will affect our world, but a thought exercise might offer a mental model of some of the possibilities.Imagine our world without metal. We could have wooden houses built with stone tools, agriculture, wooden plows, movable type, printing, poetry, and even thoughtfully edited science periodicals. But we would have no inkling of phenomena like electricity or electromagnetismno motors, generators, radio, MRI machines, silicon, or AI. We wouldnt miss them, as wed be oblivious to their existence.Today, we are living in a world without quantum materials, oblivious to the unrealized potential and abundance that lie just out of sight. With large-scale quantum computers on the horizon and advancements in quantum algorithms, we are poised to shift from discovery to design, entering an era of unprecedented dynamism in chemistry, materials science, and medicine. It will be a new age of mastery over the physical world.Peter Barrett is a general partner at Playground Global, which invests in early-stage deep-tech companies including several in quantum computing, quantum algorithms, and quantum sensing: PsiQuantum, Phasecraft, NVision, and Ideon.

Given everything still to come this year, its impressive that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 could command such attention early on, given the circumstances. Not out for several more weeks, launching in the same month as heavy hitters like Avowed and Monster Hunter Wilds even with so much stacked against it, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is still heading into February quite strong. Thats even remembering all the other games that remain in January.However, the most defining aspect of the sequel is that its more of the same. Thats not meant as a dig or detriment. Perhaps the highest praise that many have offered Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is that its ever so much closer to realizing the studios ambitions for fully simulating a medieval world on this scale.The open world has remained the same in many respects, embracing a more methodical pace and tone while highly favoring realism over the usual video game contrivances. Those contrivances would often be classified as conveniences in more traditional titles. Their absence could thus lead to tedium for those who prefer quality-of-life and theres nothing wrong with it. However, placing more emphasis on certain actions and making every little nuance leads to a more worthwhile role-playing experience.Of course, the improvements to the world go far beyond that. This rendition of 15th-century Bohemia, which ventures to the city of Kuttenberg, isnt just aiming to look good. Its not even about packing in more NPCs or things to do, though fans of the original can expect a hefty amount of content. The emphasis is on fleshing out. Bringing it to life, if you will.Quests, both main story and otherwise, play a role in that, but the complex web of systems in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is what really seals the deal. Theres a symbiotic relationship between the environment and its people one influences the other and vice versa. Add social aspects like reputation, status, literacy, and so on, and the fun begins.For example, you may be responsible for many heroic deeds in the first game, but that doesnt matter in the sequel, especially when Henry loses his armor at the beginning.On the other hand, dress fancier and clean yourself up and suddenly theyre singing a different tune, sometimes. Their own position thus becomes the outlier and youll need to think of some fancy ways to win them over. Or you could go another route and sabotage their wardrobe before important talks take place to gain the advantage. Alls fair in a proverbial war of words.Thats only one example of the world judging your presence and reacting accordingly. Other notable examples include people being suspicious of you if a crime occurs in a location, even if they dont directly see you. If they did see you stealing or doing something fishy, they may try to get the local guards and arrest you.Escaping and returning later will see them actively wary of you. All of this combines to create a more reactive world but its still just as alive without your input with all the random goings-on. Once again, how you choose to get involved in events like two villagers fighting or a caravan passing by could have long-term consequences.Whats even more impressive is how your playstyle will influence Henrys way of life. If youre someone who prefers collecting herbs to concoct solutions, then dont be surprised if the townsfolk avoid you due to messy clothes and the smell of dirt. On the other hand, becoming a powerful sword fighter may command fear, especially if Henry walks around with blood on his face. Theres no inaccurate way to play either if you dont want to pursue the main quest and instead hang around, making an honest living as a blacksmith, thats also possible.Its astonishing because weve seen titles that offer an extensive amount of branching and reactivity, not to mention sandboxes offering an incredible playground to live out ones fantasy. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 provides the same, at least on a laser-focused scale. The first game showcased shades of the same approach, though not with this level of attention and detail.We still dont know how all these different playstyles and decisions will affect the world. Can it stay the same without your expressed driving of the story? Will slaying certain NPCs render them dead for the remainder of the experience and what consequences could that potentially have?Its not likely that Henry will grow old as players choose to remain in a village for the remainder of their lives, making an honest livingis it? All of these sound like they would be far-fetched, especially within the context of a story thats just as much about the medieval civil war and Henry transitioning from a man to a warrior as it is about personal freedom.Then theres the whole technical aspect of it all. Can the team pull it off while ensuring better stability and performance? What kinds of odd interactions could emerge from all these different systems tussling with each other? Early impressions of performance on PC seem relatively positive, though there will be a patch, but thats only for the initial two dozen hours or so. How the rest of the experience fares at launch (see: Baldurs Gate 3) is a different matter.If Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 can deliver a compelling story and characters to go with this current open-world approach, that would be more than enough. Going even further makes it seem like the skys the limit, especially with this level of presentation and fidelity. Its incorporation of all the nitty gritty that would make for a proper medieval simulator is just another level.And while this wont be an experience for everyone, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 could be one to remember. A standout in a year of titles aiming to cement their legacy on their terms like Grand Theft Auto 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, the list goes on.Perhaps the most exciting prospect is that all impressions of the sequels world are based on early previews. These dont represent the game as a whole, much less the goings-on of bigger cities. And yet, the commitment to being ones version of Henry through thick and thin, even if it doesnt feel like the right way to play, is lovingly dedicated and detailed. It doesnt feel like it should necessitate that much attention or resources from the development team, and yet it does and works well. Heres hoping it doesnt collapse at launch and offers some enjoyable combat.Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Multiple delays, high-profile departures and revamps later, the role playing game Avowed is finally on track to launch on February 18th for Xbox Series X/S and PC. This is nearly five years after its initial announcement in 2020, and given the genres popularity, expectations are high. At $69.99 for the Standard Edition ($89.99 for the Premium Edition granting five days of advanced access), here are 15 things you should know before pre-ordering.SettingSet in the world of Eora, similar to Pillars of Eternity, Avowed takes players to the Living Lands, where a mysterious plague called the Dream Scourge is wreaking havoc. As an Envoy, you seek to discover whats going on and ultimately stop it, but it turns out theres also a specific connection to the land. Despite the familiar setting, you dont need to play the Pillars of Eternity series to understand the plot.CompanionsYou wont be doing it alone, though, with four different companions to recruit throughout. These include the science-focused Giatta, the soldier Kai, the hunter Marius, and the scholar Yatzli. Up to two companions can travel and fight alongside you, and along with unique abilities and skills, they also have separate side quests.FactionsIt wouldnt be an RPG without factions, and thus far, there seem to be at least three notable options. The first is seemingly tied to your duties as an envoy to stop the Dream Scourge, while the second believes its a symptom of a threatening rot. Then theres Giattas side, seemingly suggesting to open yourself to its mysteries and become the protector of the Living Lands. Regardless of which you choose, your destiny will significantly change.Interconnected ZonesThus far, the world of Avowed is shaping up pretty nicely, with extensive attention to detail and varied environments to explore. Various previews have noted all the little things you can discover like secret areas with chests, puzzles, and side quests on top of varied enemy types (including the Xaulip from Pillars of Eternity). Its not quite an open world, but there are several open zones to explore which are interconnected.Starting QuestsQuests are a major part of the experience as well, and whats especially interesting is the various ways you can begin them. In Avowed, most quests have more than one way to initiate them. There is full flexibility on how you want to decide the order, terminate an NPC, give specific items to them and soon. You are in complete control at times. Its even possible to approach dungeons from different paths. The objective is for players to make through the world in an organic manner and continuously focus on exploration and finding every nook and cranny of the world.Choices and ConsequencesOf course, you also make plenty of choices where many consequences wont be immediately obvious. There are choices that youre going to make that are going to have immediate effects, choices that youll make that will have effects that youll see maybe hours later, and some that youll make that youll come to see at the very end of the game, kind of how those play out further on into the future, said the developer to Game Informer.But along with that, youve got choices that are very intimate and impactful for specific characters, and some that affect the state of entire settlements of the Living Lands and the Living Lands at large.Said choices will also affect your bonds with companions, which can come back to reward or haunt you, or likely a bit of both a few hours later when you meet those characters allies and adversaries. Depending on your decisions, it may even be more challenging to earn an allys trust.CombatAs showcased since its reveal, combat in Avowed is real-time, with players free to mix and match weapon types, skills, and more with relative freedom. So you can wield a weapon in one hand and cast magic with the other or dual-wield certain weapons, leading to ridiculous combos. Its even possible to switch between different options depending on the situation.Weapon TypesSaid combos include dual pistols, but you can also wield two wands at a time (which makes spell-casting faster). Otherwise, the usual swords, shields, axes, bows, and whatnot apply. Weapons can also be enchanted, adding elemental damage and upgrading over time.Weapon ImprovementsWhen Avoweds combat was first revealed, it didnt exactly set our expectations ablaze, mostly due to the weapon reactions. Fortunately, things on this front have been improved significantly, with much praise heaped on senior combat designer Max Matzenbacher.Speaking to PC Gamer, the developer said, Max has a superpower of looking at an animation and deciding how much hitstop there should be for it to feel good. He has tweaked every weapon with hitstop differently. Like the hammer: The Special attack kind of lodges the hammer into the enemy and then brings it down for an area-of-effect attack. All the tweaking, all the animation timing, all the times when I send him a particle effect and hes like Im going to play it right at this instant, hes done such a fantastic job. And hes done it with every weapon. The result is more weighty and visceral combat that feels more realistic, to the extent that weaker weapons may even bounce off instead of slicing through.PC RequirementsIn terms of PC requirements, Avowed will be slightly heavier than your average RPG. Minimum hardware includes an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400, 16 GB RAM, and a Radeon RX 5700, GeForce GTX 1070 or Intel Arc A580. The recommended requirements include a Ryzen 5 5600X or Core i7-10700K, 16 GB RAM, and a Radeon RX 6800 XT or GeForce RTX 3080. The performance and settings in both cases are unknown. At least the required installation space is only 75 GB across the board.Ray Tracing and DLSS 3 SupportFortunately, Nvidia DLSS 3 is supported on PC at launch, which should help with performance. RTX is also available, resulting in ray-traced reflections and improved global illumination. You can also toggle Nvidia Reflex for lower latency responses.Accessibility FeaturesRegarding accessibility features, Avowed offers the usual, like toggling head bobbing, field of view customization, adjusting the text size of the UI and subtitles, turning off camera shake, and so on. However, the controls are also fully remappable, and localization is available for 12 languages (though voice acting is only in English). You can also switch toggle hit flash in different scenarios (like when staggering enemies) and even enable companions to manage their own skills.Hiding Dialogue ChecksHowever, perhaps the most intriguing option for the UI is the ability to hide failed dialogue checks. As PC Gamer noted in their preview, this means not being able to see the stats required for certain choices. Its an intriguing option and one that adds to the role-playing experience like few other titles.Xbox Series X/S Frame RateWhen it comes to the games performance on Xbox Series X/S, there have been some mixed messages. The developer first told the Iron Lords Podcast that you dont necessarily need that 60 frames and that it allowed the team to get a lot juicier with VFX and lighting and all this other stuff. Its a trade-off we opted to make relatively early, and were really happy with that. The games running pretty smoothly for how visually dense it is, and that was always our goal.However, the developer later told Parris Lilly that 30 frames per second, at least on Series X, is not our target. We will hit that at the very least. We are fully into performance optimization and want to deliver a beautiful world at the best frame rate we possibly can. Were working on that right now.Scope and PlaytimeThe Original plan was for Avowed to be Skyrim like and also implement co-op. Neither went as planned but the experience is still fairly sizable. The developer compared the scope to The Outer Worlds when speaking to Game Informer Last year. Players can expect a roughly similar experience, just like The Outer Worlds, depending on what kind of difficulty they play on, and how thoroughly they explore and invest inside content, versus just sticking to the main critical path missions, she said. If you decide to opt into all the extra content, then this could mean about 30 hours of gameplay, but for those keen ona story-focused experience, it may last 15 hours like The Outer Worlds. Its All up to how you want to play.

Monday, January 27th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerJangaFX teases IlluGenhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Real-time simulation tools developer JangaFX has announced IlluGen, a new application for creating the majority of assets used to assemble the illusions for visual effects in games.The software, which had previously been teased on JangaFXs Discord server, gets its own section of JangaFXs new public roadmap, along with a brief, enigmatic product description.The roadmap also shows the upcoming features in JangaFXs other tools, smoke and fire simulator EmberGen, liquid simulator LiquiGen and terrain generator GeoGen.A better way to create the assets needed for the illusions in gamesThe entry in the online roadmap is effectively the official announcement for IlluGen: its certainly the first time that we can recall seeing a logo for the software.However, the title of the entry is simply, IlluGen is an illusion, while the description reads, not much more helpfully:Visual effects in games are [composed] of a bunch of smoke and mirrors. If only there were a better way to create the majority of assets used to assemble these illusions.Thats nice. So what does IlluGen actually do?However, JangaFX has mentioned IlluGen before on its Discord server, which prompted the following comment from one user:I hope its a procedural material creation tool. Having ways of generating 2D simulations would be really interesting there [like] having frost structures form procedurally in a 2D space.In response, JangaFX CEO Nick Seavert replied: Thats more or less the idea for IlluGen.Seavert describes IlluGen as being like Adobes Substance 3D material-authoring tools plus unique sims and growth structures but more for in-game FX than environment art.Price, system requirements and release dateJangaFX hasnt officially announced what IlluGen is yet, never mind its system requirements, release date, or how much it will cost.Read the announcement of IlluGen on JangaFXs public roadmapHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Related Topics # 2D effects # EmberGen # game art # game development # GeoGen # IlluGen # LiquiGen # material authoring # price # procedural material # release date # Substance 3D # system requirements # vfx # visual effects # what is IlluGen Latest NewsJangaFX teases IlluGenThe EmberGen dev's new app will be a 'better way to create the majority of assets' for VFX in games. Here's what we know about it so far.Monday, January 27th, 2025Check out the new features due in EmberGen 2.0Next major update to the real-time smoke and fire simulator to feature sparse sims, simulation retiming, USD support and a macOS edition.Monday, January 27th, 2025Tutorial: Creating Runtime Cinematics in Unreal Engine 5Master key workflows for integrating character animation into interactive gameplay in UE5 with The Gnomon Workshop's new tutorial.Saturday, January 25th, 2025PhotoLine 25 now reads Cryptomatte dataCheck out the new features in the sub-$100 image editing app, including support for Cryptomatte data when retouching 3D renders.Friday, January 24th, 2025Polygonflow releases Dash 1.8.5Promising Unreal Engine 5 world building toolset gets new options for creating terrain and layering effects. Cost of subscriptions down, too.Thursday, January 23rd, 2025After Effects' latest beta lets you preview HDR compsCheck out the latest beta features in the compositing and motion graphics app, including the option to preview HLG and PQ video.Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025More NewsNew version of iOS and Android scanning app Kiri EngineRE:Vision Effects launches Twixtor StandaloneSee the new features due in Unreal Engine 5.6 and beyondLeft Angle releases Autograph 2025Check out this GPU-accelerated Houdini Skin Slide DeformerCheck out this free 2D Rim Light Tool for NukeCreate motion graphics in Nuke with the new Screen FX pluginMaster Cinematic Sand & Dust Simulations Using HoudiniGet the new free version of ZibraVDB for Unreal EngineChaos releases V-Ray 7 for Cinema 4DThese simple free tools convert Maya shaders to BlenderGet 75+ free modular shop assets for Unreal EngineOlder Posts

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"JangaFX has posted a new public roadmap for EmberGen 2.0, the next major version of the real-time volumetric fluid simulator for game development, VFX and motion graphics.Major changes in the release, which is due out some time in 2025 or 2026, include a new sparse simulation system, simulation retiming, and the option to cache and resume simulations.The update will also introduce a new path tracing renderer, USD support, and a macOS edition.The new roadmap a much more detailed replacement for JangaFXs old Trello board also shows the firms other key products, liquid simulator LiquiGen and terrain generator GeoGen.A popular real-time volumetric fluid simulator for games and VFXPublicly available since 2020, and officially released in 2023, EmberGen is a GPU-based volumetric fluid simulator that makes it possible to create fire and smoke effects of a complexity previously only seen in offline tools in real time.Data can be exported to other DCC apps in OpenVDB or Alembic format, or rendered in EmberGen as flipbook image sequences for use in game engines like Unity and UE5.The software is GPU-agnostic, and has fairly low minimum hardware requirements: a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD equivalent.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/250127_EmberGen2_SparseSimulation.mp4Simulation performance: new sparse simulation systemOne major change planned for EmberGen 2.0 is a new sparse simulation system, confining simulations to the region of the scene that contains active voxels, not surrounding empty space.The roadmap describes it as effectively a 8,192 x 8,192 x 8,192 adaptive simulation domain that follows the simulation.The change should make it possible to fit much larger simulations into GPU memeory: JangaFX estimates that it will be possible to simulate around 200 million active voxels on a 6GB GPU, rising to around 2 billion active voxels on a 48GB card.For comparison, EmberGen 1.0 tops out at around 400 million dense voxels, equivalent to around 100 million sparse voxels.Simulation performance: reworked GPU particle systemEmberGen 2.0 will also feature the second major rewrite of the softwares GPU particle system.It should improve performance over the current implementation, making it possible to simulate over 500 million GPU particles on a 24GB GPU.Simulation workflow: scrubbable, retimable simulationsOther key changes include a new simulation caching system, making it possible to scrub back and forward through sims, as shown in the video above.The update will also make it possible to import animated VDB files, which will make it possible to resume cached simulations, including those generated in other software like Houdini.It will also be possible to retime simulations, with a curve-based control system to make it possible to vary frame rates over time.Other simulation changesOther changes to the simulation toolset will include the option to instance meshes to particles: for example, to simulate larger chunks of debris thrown up by a ground explosion.Support for what JangaFX terms variable component injection will make it easier to create simulations with multiple voxel properties: for example, different colors of smoke.Rendering: new path tracer and better mesh renderingChanges to EmberGens rendering toolset include a new path tracing renderer, due to be rolled out across all of JangaFXs other software.The update will particularly improve the quality of mesh rendering, with EmberGen 2.0 rendering properly shadowed polygonal meshes, rather than a volumetric approximation.EmberGen 2.0 will also introduce HDRI support, enabling the indirect lighting in a render to be generated by sampling a HDR environment map, improving visual quality. Viewport: selectable viewport items and new Spline toolWhen creating or editing simulations, users will be able to select and manipulate items directly in the viewport, with shapes, emitters and colliders all due to get new viewport gizmos.There will also be a new Spline tool for creating custom shapes and force fields.Pipeine integration: new macOS edition, USD import and API updatesEmberGen 2.0 will also make a number of important pipeline-related changes not least, a long-awaited new macOS edition. You can see a very early preview of its UI in the image above.It will have native Apple Silicon support, and run on compatible M-Series devices.Visual effects artists will also be able to import and export data in USD format, and games FX artists will be able to export 4D volume slice textures. Other changes include a new scriptable API, making it possible to use a scripting language of your choice to automate common tasks, or to create custom functionality.Further off: granular fluid simulation and DeepEXR supportThe roadmap also includes a Future Features section, although it isnt clear whether they will be part of the 2.x releases, or EmberGen 3.0 and beyond.They include support for granular fluids, making it possible to simulate sand or snow, and DeepEXR support, making it easier to use EmberGen sims within VFX compositing workflows.Price, system requirements and release dateEmberGen 2.0 is due for release in 2025/2026. JangaFX hasnt announced an exact date.The current stable release, EmberGen 1.2, is compatible with Windows 10+ and Linux.Indie subscriptions, for artists earning under $1 million/year, cost $19.99/month, with users getting a perpetual licence after 18 months. Indie perpetual licences cost $299.99.For studios with revenue up to $100 million/year, perpetual node-locked licences cost $1,400; floating licences cost $2,300. See more pricing options here.Read a full list of new features in EmberGen 2.0 on JangaFXs public roadmapHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

Soviet soldiers lead liberated prisoners out of Auschwitz in the winter of 1945. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsWhen the Red Army liberated the Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945, the soldiers encountered unimaginable horrors, including mass graves, the smoldering remains of gas chambers and prisoners starving to death.Liberating camps wasnt a specific objective of Allied troops. However, Soviet, American, British and Canadian soldiers found themselves freeing thousands of prisoners as they moved across Europe toward the end of World War II. This included Auschwitz, located in southern Poland. A complex of more than 40 subcamps, it was the largest of all the Nazi camps.Concentration camps and extermination centers were part of the Nazi Final Solution, a plan for the genocide of anyone its leaders defined as Jewish. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis and their Allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites throughout German-occupied Europe between 1933 and 1945.Approximately 1.3 million people (mostly Jews) were sent to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945. Over those years, 1.1 million of themmen, women and childrenlost their lives, making Auschwitz the site of the largest mass murder in human history. Among the dead were 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners and about 15,000 people of other nationalities.The Days of Liberation | Holocaust Education | USHMMWatch on In August 1944, more than 135,000 prisoners had been spread across the Auschwitz complex. But when the Red Army arrived in early 1945, the majority of these prisoners were gonerushed out of the camps on death marches designed in part to prevent large numbers of prisoners from being rescued by the Allies.During the death marches, nearly 60,000 Auschwitz prisoners walked toward train stations in either Gliwice (a 30-mile distance) or Wodzislaw (a 35-mile distance). From there, they were transported to other camps. Facing freezing temperatures, starvation and threats from the armed guards who accompanied them on the march, as many as 15,000 prisoners died en route. Another 7,000, the majority seriously ill, were left behind in the Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz camps.Once they arrived at Auschwitz, the Red Army and the Polish Red Cross worked to provide food and medical care to the emaciated survivors. Upon seeing Auschwitz, Soviet General Vasily Petrenko, commander of the 107th Infantry Division, reportedly remarked, I, who saw people dying every day, was shocked by the Nazis indescribable hatred toward the inmates who had turned into living skeletons. Child survivors of Auschwitz Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsBy June 1945, about 300 survivors who were still too weak to be moved remained at the camp. Auschwitz continued to be used as a prison for the rest of the war, holding Poles who had declared ethnic German status and German prisoners of war who performed forced labor at the camp. World War II officially came to an end on September 2, 1945.Over the following decades, Auschwitz survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl and Elie Wiesel wrote about their experiences within the camp.In 1947, prompted by the stewardship of former prisoners who wanted the world to know about Nazi crimes at Auschwitz, Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It serves as a memorial to the 1.1 million people who died there.Sometimes instead of focusing on the end, we need to look at how it got there, Steven Luckert, senior program curator at the Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, told Smithsonian magazine in 2020. What was it that led Nazi Germany to create such a symbol of inhumanity, a place of infamy? In a matter of a few short years, it transformed a sleepy Silesian town into the greatest site of mass killing the world has ever known.The United Nations and the European Union have honored January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Death, Holocaust, Judaism, Murder, Nazis, On This Day in History, Soviet History, World War II

The advancements in large language models (LLMs) have significantly enhanced natural language processing (NLP), enabling capabilities like contextual understanding, code generation, and reasoning. However, a key limitation persists: the restricted context window size. Most LLMs can only process a fixed amount of text, typically up to 128K tokens, which limits their ability to handle tasks requiring extensive context, such as analyzing lengthy documents or debugging large codebases. These constraints often necessitate workarounds like text chunking, increasing computational complexity. Overcoming these challenges requires models that can extend context lengths efficiently without compromising performance.Qwen AIs Latest ReleaseQwen AI has introduced two new models, Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct-1M and Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct-1M, designed to support context lengths of up to 1 million tokens. Developed by the Qwen team at Alibaba Group, these models also come with an open-sourced inference framework optimized for handling long contexts. This advancement enables developers and researchers to work with larger datasets in a single pass, offering a practical solution for applications that demand extended context processing. Additionally, the models feature improvements in sparse attention mechanisms and kernel optimization, resulting in faster processing times for extended inputs.Technical Details and BenefitsThe Qwen2.5-1M series retains a Transformer-based architecture, incorporating features like Grouped Query Attention (GQA), Rotary Positional Embeddings (RoPE), and RMSNorm for stability over long contexts. Training involved both natural and synthetic datasets, with tasks like Fill-in-the-Middle (FIM), paragraph reordering, and position-based retrieval enhancing the models ability to handle long-range dependencies. Sparse attention methods such as Dual Chunk Attention (DCA) allow for efficient inference by dividing sequences into manageable chunks. Progressive pre-training strategies, which gradually scale context lengths from 4K to 1M tokens, optimize efficiency while controlling computational demands. The models are fully compatible with vLLMs open-source inference framework, simplifying integration for developers.Results and InsightsBenchmark results demonstrate the capabilities of the Qwen2.5-1M models. In the Passkey Retrieval Test, the 7B and 14B variants successfully retrieved hidden information from 1 million tokens, showcasing their effectiveness in long-context scenarios. In other benchmarks, including RULER and Needle in a Haystack (NIAH), the 14B model outperformed alternatives like GPT-4o-mini and Llama-3. Sparse attention techniques contributed to reduced inference times, achieving speedups of up to 6.7x on Nvidia H20 GPUs. These results highlight the models ability to combine efficiency with high performance, making them suitable for real-world applications requiring extensive context.ConclusionThe Qwen2.5-1M series addresses critical limitations in NLP by significantly extending context lengths while maintaining efficiency and accessibility. By overcoming constraints that have long hindered LLMs, these models open new possibilities for applications ranging from analyzing large datasets to processing entire code repositories. With innovations in sparse attention, kernel optimization, and long-context pre-training, Qwen2.5-1M offers a practical and effective tool for tackling complex, context-heavy tasks.Check out the Paper, Models on Hugging Face and Technical Details. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our70k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

Fans of Rebecca Yarross Empyrean Saga are devouring the newest book, Onyx Storm, which released on Jan 21. This installment continues the romantasy drama of Violet Sorrengail, a former scholar aspirant forced into becoming a dragon rider by her mother, a general in Navarres military. In the first book, Violet realizes that much of what shes been told about Navarres history and the threat lurking beyond its border, is untrue. The rebels shes been raised to hate are actually the people who were trying to fight a dangerous enemy to save their nation. One of the children of the rebel faction, Xaden Riorson, is also a dragon rider, and its through her enemies-to-lovers romance with him, and help from the dragons she has bonded with, that she begins to understand the stakes.The series, which hit the top of the bestseller lists when it launched with Fourth Wing in 2023, is expected to continue the trend in huge sales, with some in publishing pinning their hopes on Onyx Storm as the bestselling book of the year.Its no surprise that a series with such an avid fandom would be optioned for television, but while Amazon Studios optioned the book in late 2023, theres little information about what that television adaptation will look like. That means theres still a chance that Amazon Studios will make good on the opportunity to make Fourth Wing the adaptation it deserves to be: an adult animated series.Costly CGI Dragons and Inner MonologuesWhile some fans are sure to crave a live-action adaptation of the series, there are huge hurdles to truly bringing Fourth Wing to life. The biggest hurdle is, of course, the dragons. Game of Thrones is known to have limited the amount of screen time its dragons had due to the sheer expense of creating convincing dragons with CGI. The original series began with a cost of about $5 to $6 million per episode; with the increased presence of dragons in the sequel series, House of the Dragon costs $20 million per episode. While House of the Dragon is a success on HBO (though it isnt quite as highly rated as its predecessor), its an established world with an already built-in television fandom, established over Game of Thrones eight seasons. HBO can afford to spend $200 million on a single season. Would Fourth Wing be able to establish itself with the same size audience fast enough to justify that type of expense?The relationships of the riders and their dragons are focal to the series. While there are many scenes that dont feature them, their presence is vital in exploring both Violets dangerous training and her growing understanding of the world shes trying to save. Violet bonds with two dragons, both of whom she communicates with telepathically. Speaking mind-to-mind works well on the page, but how would those lines be delivered in a live-action setting? Would they be voiceovers, without the actors moving their lips?Beyond that, there are other elements in Fourth Wing that may just not translate well to live-action. The series leans heavily on protagonist Violets inner monologues to explain the world to readers. In one early scene in the first novel, she actually recites history to herself to keep her focus as she crosses a dangerous bridge into the dragon riding academy. That type of tell-not-show storytelling may have gotten a pass in the novel, especially as Yarros leaned into that quirky character trait of Violets scholarship as a coping mechanism, but in live-action, such delivery would be more likely to seem cheesy.Violet also has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a condition that makes her joints super flexible and prone to injury. That chronic pain is brought vividly to life in the novel as readers experience her inner thoughts. Amazons adaptation will need to pay close attention to providing the right representation while showing this core part of Violets character.Streaming Hasnt Figured Out Epic Fantasy YetRecently, famous fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson talked about why he hadnt optioned the rights to his fantasy novels for screen adaptation. Streaming has a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me worried, he said. Rings of Power and Wheel of Time have not gone as well as I wouldve hoped. Shadow and Bone lasted only two seasons, after a very strong first season. Streaming hasnt figured out epic fantasy yet.Sanderson does point out, however, one excellent fantasy show: Arcane. This League of Legends television series is certified 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and those ratings prove that theres an appetite for truly well-made animated series for mature viewers. While Arcane is the most expensive animated TV show ever made, it still comes in well under House of the Dragons budget, with higher audience and critic ratings.But say that budget still isnt in the picture? Other animated fantasy series aimed at adults have been hugely popular in the last few years. The Legend of Vox Machina broke Kickstarter records for an animated special before it was picked up by Amazon Prime Video, and it was renewed for a fourth season in 2024 (beating out Shadow and Bone for longevity). While The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim came out to mixed reception, the criticism was more due to its inability to stand on its own as a film, not its gorgeous animation.When looking at the reception of Netflixs Avatar: The Last Airbenders live action adaptation of its excellent cartoon, its clear that most viewers prefer the original series. (The panned live-action films also showed that the characters had more life when animated than in live-action.) Reviews of Disneys live-action adaptations of their cartoon movies have likewise been mixedwhich shows that animation has a value beyond what live-action can offer. And elements like the telepathy between dragons and their ridersas well as the dragons themselveshave a shot at coming off more naturally in an animated series.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!So while readers finish Onyx Storm and eagerly await books four and five of the saga, Amazon needs to put some thought into why animationand not live-actionis the best vehicle to tell Violet and Xadens romance. Its the adaptation fans deserve.

Jan 27, 2025Ravie LakshmananCyber Espionage / Threat IntelligenceA previously unknown threat actor has been observed copying the tradecraft associated with the Kremlin-aligned Gamaredon hacking group in its cyber attacks targeting Russian-speaking entities.The campaign has been attributed to a threat cluster dubbed GamaCopy, which is assessed to share overlaps with another hacking group named Core Werewolf, also tracked as Awaken Likho and PseudoGamaredon.According to the Knownsec 404 Advanced Threat Intelligence team, the attacks leverage content related to military facilities as lures to drop UltraVNC, allowing threat actors to remotely access the compromised hosts."The TTP (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) of this organization imitates that of the Gamaredon organization which conducts attacks against Ukraine," the company said in a report published last week.The disclosure arrives nearly four months after Kaspersky revealed that Russian government agencies and industrial entities have been the target of Core Werewolf, with the spear-phishing attacks paving the way for the MeshCentral platform instead of UltraVNC.The starting point of the attack chain mirrors the one detailed by the Russian cybersecurity company wherein a self-extracting (SFX) archive file created using 7-Zip acts as a conduit to drop next-stage payloads. This includes a batch script that's responsible for delivering UltraVNC, while also displaying a decoy PDF document.The UltraVNC executable is given the name "OneDrivers.exe" in a likely effort to evade detection by passing it off as a binary associated with Microsoft OneDrive.Knownsec 404 said the activity shares several similarities with Core Werewolf campaigns, including using 7z-SFX files to install and execute UltraVNC, port 443 to connect to the server, and the use of the EnableDelayedExpansion command."Since its exposure, this organization has frequently mimicked the TTPs used by the Gararedon organization and cleverly used open-source tools as a shield to achieve its own goals while confusing the public," the company said.GamaCopy is one of the many threat actors that have targeted Russian organizations in the wake of the Russo-Ukrainian war, such as Sticky Werewolf (aka PhaseShifters), Venture Wolf, and Paper Werewolf."Groups like PhaseShifters, PseudoGamaredon, and Fluffy Wolf stand out for their relentless phishing campaigns aimed at data theft," Positive Technologies' Irina Zinovkina said.Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE