For the past few months, weve been closely following the development of a level scripting tool for Unreal Engine 5 that incorporates an input/output system similar to the one used in Valve Softwares Source Engine. This tool, called Actor I/O, is now available in beta for free on GitHub, with documentation arriving soon.At its core, Actor I/O is an event-binding system that triggers actions in response to specific events. Using the Unreal Engines C++ reflection system, it can react to any dynamic delegate, whether its C++ or Blueprint, and essentially invoke any function by name with parameters. You might be asking, why choose this over Blueprint interfaces?Although the system may appear similar to regular interfaces, they are fundamentally different behind the scenes. As Roland STRiFE Balogh, the creator of Actor I/O, explained, this tool is more aligned with event binding than with interfaces. While using interfaces to connect game logic isnt wrong, it often demands a fairly robust system to provide the flexibility needed.The main advantage of this approach is reduced memory usage, as the I/O system eliminates the need for Blueprint casting. This can significantly decrease memory consumption since casting in Unreal Engine 5 causes the selected class to be loaded into memory alongside the Blueprint. In larger projects, this can quickly become overwhelming if not managed correctly. The I/O system helps minimize the need for Cast nodes by using the C++ reflection system to access class members without requiring a cast.Check out Actor I/O by clicking this link and join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Source Engine-Inspired Level Scripting Tool For Unreal Engine 5 Released In Beta appeared first on CG SHARES.

3D Artist Jo Yongseok showcased this impressive artwork, Alien Flesh material, created with Substance 3D Designer and Marmoset Toolbag.The take shows realistically looking flesh of fantastic creatures we can meet in sci-fi movies and video games. The artist presented high-quality texturing, creating a distinct image of flesh and veins.Check out some other works created by the artist using Substance 3D Designer:A Realistic Stone Material:Antique Bookshelf:A Wall:Animated Procedural Lava:If you wish to learn more about material art, you might find a presentation given by The Last of Us Part Is Senior Environment Texture Artist Jonathan Benainous and Principal Environment Texture Artist Jared Sobotta during GDC 2023 interesting and useful:Also, Principal Material Artist Vincent Drozier presented an insightful talk covering the fundamentals of material production and catering to junior and aspiring material artists.Before, 3D Environment Artist Eymen Akmaz joined 80 Level to talk about the process of creating the brick wall material using Substance 3D Designer, showing how the natural aging effect with deformations and cracks has been achieved with the help of various nodes:Visit Jo Yongseoks ArtStation page anddont forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Check Out This Alien Flesh Material Made with Substance 3D Designer appeared first on CG SHARES.

The recently released Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set is on sale for just $60 at Amazon. Released last November, this three-volume set contains gorgeous hardcover editions of the three volumes comprising J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy novel. You can pair the box set. with matching editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion at nice discounts, too.The Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set -- $60 ($105)The Fellow of the Ring Collectors Edition -- $22.50 ($35)The Two Towers Collector's Edition -- $20.80 ($35)The Return of the King Collectors Edition -- $17.50 ($35)The Hobbit Collectors Edition -- $20.82 ($35)The Silmarillion Collectors Edition -- $20.42 ($35) See Tolkien Collector's Editions at Amazon After you're done reading about the new editions of Tolkien's books below, check out the upcoming Middle-earth 6-Film Box Set, which contains Peter Jackson's LOTR and The Hobbit Trilogies on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and digital. The collection releases March 18 and is available to preorder at Amazon for $206. The Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set (2024) $60 (was $105) The Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set contains hardcover editions of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The collection also includes an exclusive fold-out map of Middle-earth and a display box.Each book has foil-stamped cover art and stained edges. The interior covers have detailed maps of Middle-earth, and you can mark your progress to Mordor with the built-in ribbon bookmarks.Amazon's current deal on The Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set ($60.12) is priced almost exactly the same as the cost of buying all three volumes individually ($60.80). See at Amazon See at Target ($62) The Fellowship of the Ring Collector's Edition (2024) $22.50 (was $35) The Fellowship of the Ring Collector's Edition is available for only $22.50 at Amazon and Target. See at Amazon See at Target The Two Towers Collector's Edition (2024) $20.80 (was $35) The Two Towers, the second volume of The Lord of the Rings, is currently discounted to $20.80 at Amazon and Target. See at Amazon See at Target The Return of the King Collector's Edition (2024) $17.50 (was $35) The Return of the King Collector's Edition has the most substantial discount at the moment; you can purchase the final volume of LOTR for $17.50, a full 50% discount. See at Amazon See at Target ($21) The Hobbit Collector's Edition (2024) $20.82 (was $35) If you want to match your new Lord of the Rings Collector's Editions with the prelude to the series, you can get The Hobbit's 2024 Collector's Edition for $20.82 (was $35) at Amazon and Target.For a different high-end edition of The Hobbit, check out the Tolkien Illustrated Edition, which includes 50-plus sketches, paintings, and other pictures created by Tolkien. The Deluxe Special Edition of The Hobbit Illustrated released in October and is on sale for a massive discount.The Hobbit, Illustrated by J.R.R. TolkienThe Hobbit (Tolkien Illustrated Edition) -- $41.84 ($75)The Hobbit Deluxe Special Edition (Tolkien Illustrated Edition) -- $97.50 ($195) See at Amazon See at Target The Silmarillion Collector's Edition (2024) $20.42 (was $35) In addition to the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, publisher William Morrow also released a matching hardcover Collector's Edition for The Silmarillion in 2024. It's available for $20.42 at Amazon and Target.The Silmarillion is the most popular book about Middle-earth not named The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit.It provides important background history on the First Age of Middle-earth, known as the Elder Days. The Silmarillion is one of the 12 volumes in exhaustive History of Middle-earth series. The series, which was compiled by Christopher Tolkien, was reissued in 2023-24 in a series of stunning hardcover box sets. All four History of Middle-earth Box Sets are on sale for steep discounts at Amazon.Alternatively, you can purchase The Complete History of Middle-earth Box set--a mammoth three-volume, 5,440-page collection--for $137 (was $250) at Amazon.The History of Middle-earth Box Sets:The Complete History of Middle-earth Box Set -- $137 ($250)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 1 (Hardcover) -- $69 ($125)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 2 (Hardcover) -- $48 ($100)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 3 (Hardcover) -- $74 ($125)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 4 (Hardcover) -- $69 ($125)The Silmarillion, Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien:The Silmarillion (Tolkien Illustrated Edition) -- $39.78 ($75)The Silmarillion Deluxe (Tolkien Illustrated Edition) -- $148 ($195) See at Amazon See at Target The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set (2024) $206 (was $325) The Lord of the Rings Collector's Editions weren't the only premium hardcover editions of Tolkien's classic fantasy novel published in 2024. Last October, William Morrow published The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set with an eye-watering $325 price. Amazon currently has this beautiful collection for $206, which is still quite pricey, but over $100 less than list price.Not to be confused with the series of Tolkien Illustrated Editions--which we'll link to below--this box set is a remastered version of the 1992 hardcover edition featuring artist Alan Lee's iconic artwork of Middle-earth.The set includes over 50 new paintings and drawings. It's split into three volumes, one for each novel in the trilogy, and has a page count of 1,332. The hardcovers are made from cloth and leather and are adorned with silver typescript and stamped emblems. It also comes with a decorative slipcase, three art cards, and two fold-out maps drawn by Christopher Tolkien.The Tolkien Illustrated Edition of The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, features 30 full-color drawings and maps by the author. It's a wonderfully designed hardcover book with red-stained edges with decorative Elvish script, two fold-out maps, a ribbon bookmark, and gold-foil trim on the cover. Collectors may also want to check out the pricey Deluxe Special Edition of the Tolkien Illustrated Edition.The Lord of the Rings, Illustrated by J.R.R. TolkienThe Lord of the Rings (Tolkien Illustrated Edition) -- $47.49 ($90)The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Special Edition (Tolkien Illustrated Edition) -- $139.49 ($250) See at Amazon The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien Box Set (2024) $79.83 (was $125) The 2024 Lord of the Rings Collector's Editions released alongside the first-ever publication of Tolkien's collected poems. This massive 1,728-page, three-book set contains work written across seven decades. Tolkien had a lifelong love of poetry, and he initially aspired to be a poet, not a fantasy novelist.All told, there are 200 poems in the box set, some of which center on Middle-earth. Over 60 of these poems had never been published until now, so this is a rare opportunity to read previously unseen writing by Tolkien. The poems are accompanied by commentary from two leading Tolkien scholars about the poems and the author's life.You can get the three-volume collection for $80 (was $125) at Amazon. See at Amazon Continue Reading at GameSpot

Gaming peripheral manufacturer SteelSeries is running a limited-time Buy One Get One 50% Off deal for Valentine's Day at its official online store. All SteelSeries accessories are eligible for the deal, including the company's new Arctis GameBuds wireless gaming earphones, making now a great opportunity to upgrade your gaming setup for you and your partner. To get the B1G1 50% Off deal, you need to add two SteelSeries products to your cart, then use the promo code VALENTINE50 at check out, and you'll receive a 50% discount on the lowest-price item.Shop all SteelSeries products:HeadsetsSpeakersKeyboardsMiceMicrophonesMousepadsControllersIf you're looking for some recommendations, we would start with the Arctis GameBuds mentioned above. The $160 GameBuds are the newest addition to SteelSeries' Arctis line of gaming headsets and audio devices. They're the company's first set of true wireless gaming earbuds, and this B1G1 50% Off deal is the first time they've been available at a discount. Granted, you have to pick them up with another SteelSeries accessory to unlock the deal, so you'll be paying more than you normally would for just the GameBuds by themselves, but you'll still save quite a bit on your order--especially if you pair it with a product that's already discounted. For example, you can grab the GameBuds and the Aerox 3 2022 Edition gaming mouse that's on sale for $40 (was $60). With the B1G1 50% off discount, you'll pay just $180 total for both items.Some other worthwhile accessories to pick up in the sale include other Arctis audio devices like the stellar Nova Pro and Nova 7 wireless headsets. If you prefer a speaker setup, there's the SteelSeries Arena 7 Speakers. And if you need a new keyboard, there's the Apex Pro Mini Wireless that's just $190 (was $240).Continue Reading at GameSpot

Marvel Rivals has over 30 heroes on its roster, with more to come soon. As a result, many players often wonder how they can counter specific characters which are strong in the meta - especially when one hero in particular is comparatively overpowering and stopping you from grabbing the win.

Not every great video game needs fantasy and flashy storylines of the world almost ending; sometimes the story of leaving the city behind and taking the plunge into a new humble farm life is all players need to have a good time. Stardew Valley doesn't need all the bells and whistles to be considered a great title; the mundane feel of everyday farm life is its main appeal.

Amassing a varied network of resources is an essential part of Civilization 7. That said, the games tutorials leave some big gaps in how resources actually work. Acquiring resources for your settlements is one thing, though Civilization 7 throws up several instances where you cant slot them and doesnt tell you why.Below, weve broken down everything you need to know about resources in Civilization 7, including tips on how they work, how to get them, the circumstances under which they work correctly, and how to fix issues where the game wont let you slot items to towns and cities.How to get resources in Civilization 7You have to actually obtain resources before you can slot them, and Civilization 7 gives you a few methods to get them:Establish a settlement in the best locationCreate trade routesConquer other settlementsLets break those down a bit.The first way is establishing a settlement near enough to a resource node so that the town or city limits encompass it. Doing so automatically adds the resources to your network, and as your settlement grows, any additional resources that get caught up in your settlements area of influence will also become available.The other method involves creating trade routes with the merchant unit. Each merchant can establish one route to another civilizations city, and you get any resources that city has nearby for a small sum of Gold each turn but only nearby resources. Anything that city imports for itself is out of your reach. The amount of gold you pay depends on how many resources the target city has, but you can expect between eight and 12 Gold per route, per turn in most cases. Civilization 7 doesnt let you cancel trade routes, so these transactions are permanent.Building a strong and varied supply of your own resources attracts merchants from other civilizations as well and helps balance the flow of gold leaving and entering your coffers.The final way is conquering other settlements, which adds their goods to your pool of available city and bonus resources. If you keep the city, its a good idea to leave any happiness resources where they are until unrest dies down and you can construct happiness buildings there. Otherwise, the level of unhappiness might cause the settlement to defect or drag your surplus happiness down across the empire.All types of resources in Civilization 7Resources are items that offer bonuses, either for specific yields in the settlement where you allocate them or for your civilization more broadly. Civilization 7 uses little pictures of the source to show which tile theyre on, like a little horse picture or a jar of spices, and you can hover over it to see what benefits it offers.Some increase Food production, which helps settlements grow more quickly. Others increase Production or add a small Gold multiplier to a settlements output, and a few provide bonus Happiness, which is an excellent way to offset unrest in newly acquired settlements or if things just go sour unexpectedly.[civilization-7-resources-3]Civilization 7 divides its resources into three types city, bonus, and empire with a fourth, factory, that emerges during the Modern Age. As the name suggests, city resources are only for cities, so you cant slot them into towns. You can allocate bonus resources to any city or town connected to your trade network, though. Thats vague Civilization 7-speak for a settlement on a continent where you have at least one trade route or a coastal settlement with a port.Empire resources are things such as marble, gold, or tea. Their benefits apply across your civilization, perks such as additional damage for cavalry troops or extra gold, and you dont have to allocate them.Most bonus resources from the exploration age turn into factory resources in the modern age, including chocolate, fruit, and cotton. You can only allocate factory resources in a city that has a factory, which is a process in itself. Civilization 7 lets you build factories only in settlements with a rail station that are also connected to your capital. Most towns and cities in your civilization automatically have roads connecting them after you have a trade route established, but if your network has gaps, create a merchant unit and use their build road command to lay a rail line between two settlements with a rail station.You can only slot one factory resource into a city with a factory, regardless of where it is or how big the city is. Factory resources are helpful to have, whether youre pursuing an Economic victory or not, since they provide more specialized bonuses citrus contributes to naval production, for example or perks that resources didnt offer in earlier ages, including increased science yields.For more, see our full list of all resources in Civilization 7.How to slot resources on a city in Civilization 7Select the icon with the leaf symbol to open the resource menu. There, pick which resource you want, and decide which settlement you think should have it. The resource screen shows each settlements current yield outputs, so use those numbers to inform your decision. If your capital already has 80 production but youre struggling to make gold, for example, it might be worth slotting bonus production resources into a town with the growth specialization instead, since production converts to gold in those settlements.Civilization 7 always throws up a leaf icon notification in the bottom right when you obtain a new resource, so theres no chance of accidentally missing it.How to increase resource slots in Civilization 7Civilization 7 is a bit murky about which settlements get how many slots and what you can do to boost their number of available resource slots. The only surefire way to do it is to add camels as a resource, which increases the number of slots by two in the settlement where the camel is or one, technically, since the camel takes up a slot. Camels are a city resource, so this method wont work for towns. Its also not available in the modern age, when camels stop existing as a resource.Aside from your capital city, which ends up with multiple resource slots as the game progresses, most towns will have between one and three slots, while cities get three to five. Growth capacity seems to be how Civilization 7 determines the number of slots, rather than trade routes or available resources. For example, in several games, our cities with populations over 40 that generated food over 80 had four or five resource slots, while those with populations of 30 or so had fewer.Why wont it let me slot resources?If Civilization 7 wont let you slot a city or bonus resource to a settlement, and youre not trying to stuff a city resource into a town, the issue is almost always the result of that settlement having no connection to an existing trade route. It might be on an island, surrounded by rival civilizations, or just further out than where your merchants currently travel.The easiest way to fix that is to purchase or create a merchant unit and establish a trade route to the settlement closest to the town or city where youre having the trouble. If the settlement has access to navigable water, you should be able to bypass the merchant solution by just building a port.Empire resources show up as resource nodes on the map like any other, but they apply to your entire civilization and require no management. You can hover over them at the top of the resource screen to see what they do, but you cant move them around. Factory resources are only for settlements with a factory, but if you cant slot those in a city with a factory, check your rail network. Theres a good chance a settlement between the factory city and your capital doesnt have a rail station, or the game forgot to build a road between it and your capital.For more Civilization 7 guides, see how to set up trade routes, how to reach distant lands, and how to use treasure fleets. Plus, heres our leaders tier list and a list of all resources.

The list of resources in Civilization 7 long and, technically, winding. Some resources come and go as time passes, while others change categories and provide different bonuses depending on the age.Resources can make a serious difference in the life of your civilization, providing additional Food for population growth, boosting Production for other types of growth, and generally making it easier to keep your society stable while you expand.This guide lists every Civilization 7 resource and what it does across each age. If youre stuck trying to get these items to actually work, our guide for how to slot resources has what youre looking for.All Civilization 7 resourcesThe table below lists all resources in Civilization 7 that weve come across in each age, divided by type. Some are timeless, such as Gold. Others, like hides or oil, are present only for an age, and some change function as time passes.For example, horses provide a passive military bonus for all units during antiquity and exploration, but in the modern era, they turn into a bonus resource that provides happiness for a single settlement, while oil fulfills the same military function instead.Resource NameResource TypeAntiquity BonusExploration BonusModern BonusPearlsCity2 happiness in capital, 4 happiness in any other city3 happiness in homeland cities, 6 happiness in Distant Lands cities6 happiness in capital, 3 happiness in other citiesFursCityN/AEmpire resource6 happiness in a city with a rail station, 3 happiness in other citiesGypsumCity2 production in capital, 4 production in other cities3 production in homeland cities, 6 production in Distant Lands citiesN/ACamelsCityAdds two extra resource slots for a cityAdds two extra resource slots for a cityN/ATobaccoCityN/AN/A6 production in a city with a rail station, 3 production in other citiesSilkCityExtra 10% cultureExtra 10% culture6 culture in capital, 3 culture in other citiesSaltCityExtra 20% production toward training unitsN/AN/AKaolinCity2 food in capital, 4 food in other cities3 food in homeland cities, 6 food in Distant Lands citiesFactory resourceIncenseCityExtra 10% scienceExtra 100% production toward missionaries and templesN/AJadeCityExtra 15% goldExtra 15% goldN/ATrufflesCityN/AExtra 20% production toward training units6 food in a city with a rail station, 3 food in other citiesLapis LazuliCity4 production, 5% goldN/AN/ACottonBonus2 food, 2 production3 food, 3 productionFactory resourceDatesBonus2 food, 2 happiness3 food, 3 happinessN/AFishBonus3 food5 foodFactory resourceDyeBonus3 happiness5 happinessN/AIvoryBonusEmpire resource3 happiness, 3 production4 happiness, 4 productionHorsesBonusEmpire resourceEmpire resource6 happinessSpicesBonusN/ATreasure Fleet4 food, 4 happinessWhalesBonusN/A5 production6 productionSugarBonusN/ATreasure Fleet6 foodWineBonusEmpire resourceEmpire resource4 food, 4 productionWoolBonus2 production, 2 happinessN/AN/AHidesBonus3 productionN/AN/AGoldEmpire20% gold toward purchasing buildings20% gold toward purchasing buildings20% gold toward purchasing buildingsMarbleEmpire10% production toward Wonders built on marine, tundra, or grassland tiles10% production toward building Wonders10% production toward building WondersIronEmpireExtra 1 combat strength for infantry unitsExtra 1 combat strength for ranged and infantry unitsN/AIvoryEmpire10% production toward building Wonders on desert, tropical, and plains tilesBonus resourceBonus resourceCoalEmpireN/AN/AExtra 100% production toward building rail stations, extra 1 combat strength for light naval unitsFursEmpireN/AN/AN/AOilEmpireN/AN/AExtra 1 combat strength for cavalry and heavy naval units and an additional 1 combat strength when they attack infantryNiterEmpireN/AExtra 1 combat strength for siege and naval unitsExtra 1 combat strength for ranged and siege units and an additional 1 strength against cavalry unitsRubberEmpireN/AN/AExtra 1 combat strength for air and infantry unitsSilverEmpire20% percent gold toward purchasing units20% percent gold toward purchasing units20% percent gold toward purchasing unitsWineEmpireExtra 10% culture and 2 happiness in the capital during a celebrationExtra 10% culture and 3 happiness in the capital during a celebrationBonus resourceHorsesEmpireExtra 1 combat strength for cavalry units and an additional 1 combat strength against infantry Extra 1 combat strength for cavalry units and an additional 1 combat strength against infantry and ranged unitsBonus resourceCocoaFactoryN/ATreasure FleetExtra 3% happinessTeaFactoryN/ATreasure FleetExtra 3% scienceCitrusFactoryN/AN/AExtra 5% production toward training naval unitsFishFactoryN/ABonus resourceExtra 5% settlement growth rateKaolinFactoryN/ACity resourceExtra 3% cultureQuinine FactoryN/AN/AUnits heal 1 HPCoffeeFactoryN/AN/AExtra 5% production toward Wonders and buildingsCottonFactoryN/ABonus resourceExtra 5% production toward land unitsAll treasure fleet resources in Civilization 7The Exploration Age introduces a special resource subset called treasure fleet resources. Our treasure fleet guide goes into greater detail, but the gist is that these are required to progress through this ages Economic Legacy Path and provide no bonuses to cities or towns. However, once you unload a treasure fleet ship at any town or city of yours with a port, you instantly get an extra 100 Gold.These are all the treasure fleet resources:GoldSugarSilverSpicesCocoaTeaSome treasure fleet resources overlap with regular ones, including gold and silver. In the lands where you begin, these are just regular resources and provide the same bonuses as normal. In distant lands, they only count as treasure fleet resources.For more Civilization 7 guides, see how to set up trade routes, how to reach distant lands, how to use treasure fleets, and how to slot resources. Plus, heres our leaders tier list.

Fans of Apple TV+'s Severance, your day is about to be improved: Apple has released eight chapters of The You You Are, the fictional self-help book by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale that is central to the plot of the show. If you want to read it, you can even download it for free, or listen to the audiobook version, narrated by Ricken himself (actor Michael Chernus).The brief excerpts from The You You Are that have appeared in Severance are among the funniest bits in the show, but the book as released isn't just for laughs: It's also a great representation of how propaganda works, both in the Severance universe and in real life. In the "outie" world of the show, The You You Are is a joke, a pretentious self-help book only fools take seriously. But in the world of the innies, an ill-gotten copy of The You You Are is seen as a work of towering genius with the power to change lives and change the world. This is only because the sole other book in the Lumon office is The Compliance Handbook, a ponderous, quasi-religious text that exists only so Lumon can keep control of its employees. The innies' reaction to Ricken's work reminds me of those people who read half a book (or a single headline) and suddenly think they know everything about a complex topic, and who hasn't met a few of them?What is The You You Are about?Ricken's book excerpt is hilarious and in keeping with the show's darkly comic style. It opens with, Its said that as a child, Wolfgang Mozart killed another boy by slamming his head in a piano. Dont worry. My research for this book has proven the claim untrue, and continues in that vein. Ricken's book purports to be a practical guide to self-improvement, where readers are meant to gain self-knowledge by following a series of steps:Figure out your YouType (more on that below), write it on a piece of paper and affix it to your vanity.Write your name on another post-it and tape it next to your YouType.Choose a theology and add a "totem" of it to your YouShrine. This could be a Christianmans cross, an An-Ra Scarab, or a Masonic square and compass," Ricken writes, also suggesting you can "use a photo or etching of me."Add something you consider sexy. As the author puts it: "Something that whispers to your nethers in a voice only they can hear. This may be a pinup photo from wartimes of yore, a beloved undergarment, or a still life of a sinewy gourd." Ricken also suggest you can use a picture of him for this step.Think of an insult you've heard. Write an acrostic poem using the letter of each word of the insult and add it to your vanity. Ricken goes with "Everyone laughs at you the second you walk out of the fucking room," which was once said to him by Severance main character Mark S. Print out a copy of a poem that Ricken wrote and paste it to your vanity. Conceive and found a charitable organization based on a cause that you hold dear...Whether you wish to curtail bear populations, bathe the infirm, or send bottled water to astronauts, stay the course until the organization is procedurally viable. Then, once your licensing paperwork comes in, affix it to the vanity amongst your other totems.This is where the excerpt ends. Too bad; I hear page 197 slaps. Does The You You Are include any clues about the plot of Severance?In Chapter 3, Ricken mentions going to a theater to see "an American religious satire film which I consider to be the most over-celebrated piece of commercial cinema ever produced," a film we know as Sister Act. There's other evidence in the show, but the Sister Act bit confirms that Severance takes place somewhere around now in something like our world, despite the ancient computers and everyone driving cars from the '80s and '90s. The You You Are also gives us a ton of backstory about Ricken's character and history. For instance, he was conceived and born as part of a "nine-month performance art piece originated by [his] parents titled 'Smells Like Afterbirth, F**ker.' There's no information about how, exactly, Ricken has enough money to afford his relatively lavish lifestyle. It certainly isn't from sales of his books, and his parents were performance artists, so it's not likely to be family money eitherunless, as some have theorized online, that Ricken is actually a black sheep member of the Eagan clan. Maybe the most important thing in The You You Are are the passages where we learn about Ricken's feelings toward Mark's (maybe) dead wife Gemma. When Ricken writes about Gemma, he seems to be in love with her. This could be a red herring, but as Severance unfolds, I wouldn't be surprised if Ricken's feelings toward Gemma become a major plot point.The deeper meaning of The You You Are within the Severance universeThe "big idea" behind Ricken's book is the "YouType," the kind of made-up psychological concept common to self-help books, pseudo science, and cultsthink "love languages," the Myers-Briggs personality inventory, and Scientology's "emotional tone scale."According to Ricken, everyone fits into one of five YouTypes: The Coward, The Warrior, The Dove, The Scribe, and The Vestal. This mirrors the idea behind Lumon's Compliance Manual. According to Kier Eagan, there are four "tempers," Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice, and everyone else are defined by the ratio of each within themselves. Kier's ponderous religiosity and Rickens' brain-dead aphorisms seem like two sides of the same coin. In the show, when the "powers that be" at Lumon discover the book has inspired the innies to revolt, their reaction isn't to ban or discredit The You You Are. Instead, they approach Ricken with an offer to write a new version of the book, specifically for innies. Ricken, ever the egotist and attention seeker, is eager to go ahead with the project so at least someone will take his book seriously. Lumon's plan is no doubt to coopt the (unintentionally) subversive ideas in Ricken's book and twist them to support the Lumon status quo. It's not a heavy lift, given the book contains passages like, "A society with festering workers cannot flourish, just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip.This is all a sly commentary on how revolutionary ideas are routinely manipulated and co-opted to serve the ruling class, and how easily people can be tricked into feeling like they're "sticking it to the Man," even when the Man is at once profiting and protecting itself by taking the teeth out of dangerous ideas. Think Wal-Mart selling Che Guevara t-shirts, or one of the richest corporations in the world making a TV show about the dehumanization and misery of corporate drudgery.

YouTube's Android app is cluttered, slow, and full of ads. Even worse: It tracks every video you watch. NewPipe is a free and open source Android alternative interface for YouTube that's fully private and doesn't show ads. We've talked about ways to watch ad-free YouTube videos, and NewPipe is arguably the best one for Android users.Even better: NewPipe plays the audio from videos in the background, making it perfect for multitasking. You can listen to music, podcasts, or video essays on YouTube while doing chores, all without the need to keep the screen on. It also offers picture-in-picture mode, so you can watch videos while using another app, and downloads videos so you can watch them offline. These are features you'd otherwise need a paid YouTube Premium subscription for to get in an app. Credit: Justin Pot There are a few potential downsides. You can't sign into your Google account, meaning your subscriptions won't be in the application. There also isn't an algorithm. This is inevitable for any app built around privacy but is worth thinking about.The good news is that you can add subscriptions inside the application, allowing you to build a steady stream of videos from creators you trust. There's also a bookmarking feature, allowing you to mark playlists or videos you'd like to watch later. In short, you're going to have the opportunity to be a little more proactive about which videos you want to watch. There is support for exporting and importing your subscriptions and playlists, which is useful when switching devices.Another potential downside is that you can't get in Google Playyou'll need to either install the .apk file from the website, which is going to require that you allow your device to install software from "unknown" sources. An alternative, which would also make installing updates easier, is to install NewPipe using F-Droid, which is a dedicated app store for open source Android publications.