Data Privacy Week 2025 is all about taking control of your data. On this page, we put together all the best explainers, tips, and tools to help you exactly do that.

Dutch social venture Shift has launched a 250,000 competition calling for designs for "a new wonder of the world" to promote action against climate change.Shift's ambition is to build a new world wonder on all seven continents, with the first planned for the Netherlands.Dutch entrepreneur and Shift founder Don Ritzen envisions this world wonder as a cutting-edge example of sustainable materials and construction.He believes it should create awe on a par with structures like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Petra Temple in Jordan."A beacon of hope for human ingenuity""The goal is to create a landmark that breaks from traditional notions and functions, and exists as a beacon of hope for human ingenuity and collective action," said Ritzen.The competition brief calls for an architectural landmark that inspires and educates people to join the fight againstthe climate and biodiversity crisis."While 75 per cent of Europeans are concerned about climate change, only 10 per cent are taking meaningful action," stated Ritzen, citing stats from the European Commission and Dutch research institute PBL."I truly believe that it is going to take a new wonder of the world to grab people's attention and inspire them to action," he said.Shift is a social venture founded by Dutch entrepreneur Don RitzenThe 250,000 prize fund will be shared among five shortlisted entrants; each will receive 40,000, with an additional 50,000 awarded to the winner.Two of the shortlist spots will be awarded to invited entrants one major architecture firm and one emerging studio while the other three will be selected from the open call.A group of Dutch investors are funding the competition, while the judging panel includes Nieuwe Instituut director Aric Chen, UNStudio founder Ben van Berkel and Hot or Cool Insitute director Lewis Akenji.Shift intends to realise the design somewhere in the Netherlands but there is no fixed location at this stage. By keeping this open, the company hopes to encourage a wider range of ideas.Read: Three designs addressing housing shortages revealed as Davidson Prize finalistsThe design could take the form of a building or another type of installation. It could be a new build or a reimagination of an existing structure.Once built, it would host a programme curated by Shift with the aim of engaging up to one million visitors a year.Ritzen thinks that human behaviour is the main obstacle to reversing climate change. He believes the required solutions have already been developed; they just need to be adopted at scale."We have choices that can be adopted and massively scaled up," he said."Create the sense of urgency needed"Ritzen previously co-founded investment company Rockstart and has experience guiding tech startups to success.Although Shift is set up as a steward-owned social venture, Ritzen intends for it to be similarly disruptive."With Shift, I have created a platform dedicated to giving these solutions, and the people behind them, the same amount of positivity, energy and attention often given to the typical tech startup," he said."By consolidating the most promising climate initiatives, activists and entrepreneurs onto a single platform and space, we can shift the conversation from complacency and powerlessness to create the sense of urgency needed for massive climate and sustainable action."The deadline for competition entries is 5 March, with the shortlist set to be announced in April.Climate initiatives were also at the forefront at the most recent Dutch Design Week, as seen in our roundup of its six main trends.In the US, Madrid architecture studio Ecosistema Urbano created a modular tower withstacks ofnative plantsto mitigate the effects ofclimate changein urban areas.The post Architecture competition calls for designs for "a new world wonder" appeared first on Dezeen.

Paris-based Atelier du Pont has teamed up with Menorca-based Aru Arquitectura to convert a pair of dilapidated old farm buildings into a summer house with a surprising mix of colours and textures.Estancia San Jos is the vacation home of a mother and daughter, set amidst 76 hectares of Menorcan countryside.The renovation involved converting a traditional stone barn and the adjoining farmhouse.Pivoting glass doors replicate the arched shape of an original windowThe result is a four-bedroom home with a rustic aesthetic and contemporary details including pivoting doors and an acid-yellow kitchen."It was a complete ruin and we brought it back to life," said Atelier du Pont's founders, Anne-Ccile Comar and Philippe Croisier."We preserved the character of both buildings but reimagined the entire space," they told Dezeen.A light-filled living room was created in the former barnThe owners approached Comar and Croisier after seeing theirdesign for Son Blanc, a Menorcan hotel that also involved converting a former farm building.Both mother and daughter have spent most of their lives moving around the world. They wanted to create a base where they could spend their holidays together.Acid-yellow tiles feature in the kitchenKeen to work with a local partner, Comar and Croisier invited Aru Arquitectura to collaborate.Their design draws on the traditional materials and craft techniques of the Balearic island while also referencing some of the other places its owners have called home, including Africa, the Middle East and Patagonia.The stone walls and terracotta flooring offer texture"The owners gave us carte blanche to imagine the interior concept and the different atmospheres in keeping with the spirit of the place," Comar and Croisier explained."We were keen to pay homage to Minorcan savoir-faire and incorporate typical elements such as different types of rendering, textures and wall finishes," they said.Textile details include handwoven headboardsIn the new layout, the former barn becomes a light-filled living space with bedrooms slotted in behind.This barn originally had just one window, an arched doorway that would have been used to bring livestock in and out.The architects added a series of matching openings along the rest of the facade, incorporating the pivoting doors.Read: Emma Mart celebrates Menorca's architectural heritage in Hevresac HotelIn the old house, three small rooms were opened up to create a generous kitchen.The property also includes a hammam and a large outdoor swimming pool.The property includes four bedroomsNatural materials and textures feature throughout, from the rough stone walls of the old barn to the terracotta brickwork that provides internal flooring and external patios.Much of the material palette takes cues from existing colours and details for instance, the acid-yellow tiles in the kitchen reference a faded yellow ceiling from one of the old rooms.The architects favoured handmade fixtures wherever possibleOther key details include iroko wood joinery, handwoven headboards and custom-designed bedside tables and side tables in terracotta and rope."The work of the hand is also always present and deliberately left visible," said Comar and Croisier.A swimming pool was installed as part of the worksMenorca is less established as a tourist destination than Mallorca and Ibiza, the two larger Balearic Islands, but has been increasing in popularity since major art gallery Hauser & Wirth opened an outpost here.Other recent homes built here include Shift House and Bundle House, both by locally based Nomo Studio, and the minimalist Casa E, designed by Marina Senabre.Estancia San Jos's owners plan to rent their house to holidaymakers when they are not using it.The photography is by Maria Missaglia.The post Menorca farmhouse converted into vacation home with acid-yellow kitchen appeared first on Dezeen.

Even before turntables and instant cameras became fashionable again, the gaming industry has already been obsessed with old-school design. Whether its actually playing those classic titles or creating new games in a pixelated retro style, both gamers and designers have been harnessing the power of nostalgia to craft products that connect generations of people and keep the history of gaming alive.Sometimes its not just the games themselves but even the merchandise that pulls at the heartstrings of fans of these cherished games. This watch, for example, might not actually let you play the iconic Asteroids game (which sounds like an idea for a smartwatch app), but it does bring not only the charm of those amorphous objects representing colliding asteroids, it even recreates the rather chaotic atmosphere of the game as well.Designers: Atari x NubeoAfter Pong, Asteroids was arguably one of the most iconic first titles that graced the gigantic arcade cabinets in the youth of the gaming industry. Its graphics and concept were simple, but its mechanics could be unforgiving. You basically shoot down asteroids and UFOs passing by that may collide with you, all with very limited moving capabilities. It can get pretty messy quickly, with a random assortment of objects filling the large screen. Now imagine all those in a circle small enough to sit on your wrist.Thats the adrenaline-pumping atmosphere that the limited edition Ventana Automatic watches are trying to convey every time you try to look at the time. Celebrating the games 45th anniversary, this Atari Asteroids watch brings all the familiar elements of the game and shrinks it down to a scale that, if it were actually a game, would be a sordid mess.The triangular ship in the center moves to track the passing of each second, while two UFOs, colored differently from the asteroids, mark the minutes and hours using a unique layered disc system that rotates concentric circles instead of moving hands. This element adds a distinctive flair to the watch that easily sets it apart from more serious-looking timepieces.The Ventana Automatic Atari Asteroids watch is powered by a Japanese automatic movement. The graphic elements are printed with Swiss Super-LumiNova, giving the watch an eerie glow in the dark. Available in Nova Nightfall, Plasma Pumpkin, Nebula Blue, Supernova Red, and Celestial Citrine colors, the limited edition watch will be something that gaming history fans and collectors might want to quickly reach for while supplies last.The post Atari x Nubeo limited edition Watches bring the chaos of Asteroids to your wrist first appeared on Yanko Design.

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.