February 28, 20254 min readHow Bad Air Quality Slows Down Marathon RunnersEven modest amounts of air pollution may affect athletic performance, a new study findsBy Claire Maldarelli edited by Tanya LewisParticipants run during the 2014 Beijing International Marathon in heavy smog. Even moderately poor air quality can affect finish times, a new study shows. Imaginechina Limited/Alamy Stock PhotoAsk any marathon runner a week before their big race what they are doing, and theyll almost certainly be refreshing the weather app on their phone. Thats because humid conditions, freezing rain or even a day that is too sunny and hot can cause them to be slower during a race than they were in training. Runners spend months training for marathons, and it can be crushing if their hard-earned performance is affected by something that is completely out of their control, such as the weather. Now these athletes might have another factor to obsess over in the days leading up to their race: air quality.A new study published last December in Sports Medicine found an association between air pollution at higher levelsalbeit below those set by current Environmental Protection Agency standardsand slower marathon finishing times. The results suggest that even modest amounts of air pollution may be affecting athletic performance.The researchers zeroed in on the levels of a type of air pollution known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5. These are microscopic particles that accumulate in the air from a variety of pollutants such as forest fires, agricultural waste and car exhaust. The particles are so small that they can easily make their way deep into the lungs and can even enter the bloodstream. Previous research has long implicated these tiny air particles in various medical issues. Studies have found correlations between increased exposure to PM2.5, both for short and extended periods of time, and a variety of health issues, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung conditions.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Studies have also shown that exercising during times of poor air qualityfor instance, when there is a high level of these fine particulates in the airis detrimental to our health. But little is known about the effects this type of air pollution can have on performance in endurance events such as marathons, which require athletes to be outside exercising and breathing heavily for hours at a time.To better understand this, the researchers used a machine-learning model to estimate how much fine particulate matter was in the air at every mile marker on the course of nine marathons located across the U.S. between 2003 and 2019. This learning model combined data from various sources, including air sensors, with longitude and latitude coordinates, weather and topography. Using this modelrather than relying on monitoring stations, which can often be miles away from a marathon courseallowed the researchers to more precisely estimate what the air quality was like throughout each course, often down to the mile.They then compared these data with corresponding finishing times for the marathon events from more than 1.5 million finish times for male runners and slightly more than a million finish times for female runners. The researchers adjusted for other weather factors that could influence times, such as high heat or high humidity.The results showed that an increase of just one microgram per cubic meter in PM2.5 levels correlated with a 32-second-slower finishing time for male marathoners and a 25-second-slower finishing time for female ones. Further, these effects were the most profound on what the study called faster than median finishersin other words, runners who were fast but not necessarily elite-level.Elvira Fleury, a doctoral student at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study, says that marathoners should think of air pollution in a similar way to other weather conditions, such as heat and humidity, on race day. When evaluating your performance, think about it the way you might think about heat. If it was really hot on the day of the marathon, you might tell yourself, Its okay that I ran a little slower because it was hot, says Fleury, who is an endurance athlete herself. Thats what you can do with this data and say, It was really polluted; maybe I ran a little slower than I perhaps could have.These results highlight the need to look at how the effective dose of a certain pollutant might change in exercise conditions and what that might mean for health, says Matthew Ely, an assistant professor of human physiology at Providence College, whose work focuses on cardiovascular physiology and the influence of environmental factors on exercise performance. Ely wasnt involved in the current study.While there hasnt been much research on the connection between air quality and race performance in endurance events in general, this new study is in line with what is currently available. A small study published in 2023 in Scientific Reports tracked 334 male college athletes from 46 universities across the U.S. and measured their exposure to air pollution and ozone during a 21-day training period leading up to a five-kilometer (3.1-mile) championship race. The researchers found those exposed to higher levels of both PM2.5 and ozone during the training period had, on average, slower race finishing times.Beyond race times, the results open up new questions about exercise, air pollution and runners safety. For one, the researchers want to better understand what is happening on a physiological level when people run in poor air quality. Because this study only found a correlation between running performance and air quality, a fundamental next step for research, Fleury says, would be to understand what is going on in the body to cause worse performances. The researchers speculate that increases in fine particulate matter could be reducing running performance by constricting blood vessels, increasing inflammation, and impairing lung and brain function, but further research is needed to pin down the exact mechanisms at play.The findings also suggest that air quality may be having a more profound effect on exercise than previously thought. Importantly, the study found that even modest increases in fine particulate matterat levels below current ambient air quality standards set by the EPAresulted in reduced athletic performance.Most major marathons, such as those in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and London, are in large urban areas, Ely notes. We all know that exercise is important for us. We also know that environmental pollutants are present in big cities, he says. Is this something that we have to pay more attention to?

Monster Hunter Wilds - we can't recommend the PC versionSubstantial technical problems must be addressed.Image credit: Digital Foundry Feature by Alex Battaglia Video Producer, Digital Foundry Published on Feb. 28, 2025 Monster Hunter Wilds makes for a confusing PC release, with staggeringly poor performance on lower-end graphics cards - to the extent that we don't recommend the game at all on these systems - and relatively meagre visual rewards given the performance requirements. That's a harsh assessment, but it's unfortunately a justified one based on the profound performance problems here that must be addressed. That's a surprise when our initial impressions of the game on PC are fairly positive. The game uses a long shader compilation step on first launch, taking around six minutes on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and more than 13 minutes on a Ryzen 5 3600. The graphical settings menu is also nicely designed, with fine-grained options, a VRAM metre, component-specific performance implications and preview images for particular settings. However, there's some weirdness too. The game prompts you to enable frame generation before it even starts with a pop-up, even on low-end machines where frame generation doesn't really make sense. (Neither AMD nor Nvidia recommends using frame-gen with a low base frame-rate - 30fps, for example.) If you decline this offer, the game makes sure to tell you that you can turn it on in the settings menu, which as a reviewer paints a poor picture of the game's potential performance. Here's Alex with the full lowdown on Monster Hunter Wilds. Watch on YouTubeAfter all the pop-ups, like any casual user I used the game's default detected settings and set DLSS to balanced mode at 1440p on the RTX 4060. Loading up the game presented more issues, with PS3-level texture quality in many shots and many textures that looked like they had loaded incorrectly - one character's white coat was rendered multi-colour by mosaic artefacts due to poorly configured texture compression. After getting character control following the intro cutscenes, each turn of the camera was greeted by noticeable stutters. This sort of stutter is often triggered by streaming textures into VRAM, but the VRAM metre in the settings was showing good performance - making it far from a helpful indicator for a casual user. Turning down the setting from the default high to medium solved the camera turn stutter issue on the RTX 4060 8GB, but I saw similar texture quality problems on the RTX 4070 12GB too. It's also worth noting that users of higher-end GPUs can download "highest" quality textures as separate DLC, but this wasn't available during our testing before release. Back on the RTX 4060 with medium textures in place, despite lacking the huge stutters we had before, the results still aren't great. The actual texture quality is now reminiscent of games from the early 2000s, and the frame-rate was still dipping noticeably with a hit to frame health when standing in place and turning the camera. If we turn the camera extremely gradually, the sinusoidal rhythm we experienced previously becomes smoother as frame health improves. This is a very odd performance characteristic in what is essentially an empty desert with tiled sand textures, and not something we expect to see in any game, let alone a triple-A release in the year of our lord 2025. This performance isn't normal - especially in a scene where the character is stock-still and we're just turning the camera at a reasonable pace. | Image credit: Digital FoundryI've seen similar behaviour before with games that exhbited occlusion culling issues on slower CPUs, but this game is running on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Otherwise, I've only seen this sort of issue when the game is doing something noticeably suboptimal when streaming things onto the graphics card, and this is true even when dropping the texture resolution to its lowest setting. This could be a problem for the RTX 4060 in particular, but the 4070 shows similar issues, albeit with higher base frame-rates. This is where I have to start theorising. I can't be 100 percent sure, but if I had to guess, I would say that this behaviour is due to DirectStorage GPU decompression. The game's files do include DirectStorage DLLs, so it's possible that the game is streaming (and potentially decompressing) textures on the GPU in an overly aggressive manner when turning the camera, despite the VRAM headroom shown by RTSS and CapFrameX, leading to the frame-rate impact that's felt most strongly on compute-challenged cards like the RTX 4060. This is all theoretical, of course, but the measured behaviour is sufficient for us to simply not recommend this game to anyone with a graphics card with 8GB of VRAM or less. Having to decide between high textures that cause stutters while looking sub-par and medium textures that look even worse, neither is a choice we can particularly recommend. I also saw similar issues on the RTX 2070 Super, RX 5700 and Arc A770, with Intel's GPU in particular running extremely poorly, at around 20fps with non-loading textures despite similar settings. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. For higher-end GPUs I would also advise caution. Playing through the introduction on the RTX 4070 I saw consistent stuttering even on the high texture setting, so it would be logical to assume this could get even worse with the higher-res texture pack installed - and that's backed up by results from the benchmark tool. Based on my measurements in the base game, I believe the stutters are not related to running out of VRAM, but could in fact be related to constant streaming and perhaps real-time decompression. Like previous disaster launches such as The Last of Us Part 2 and Forspoken, there's also a fundamental disconnect here between the level of graphical fidelity and the performance we're getting. I have no idea why an arid, nearly featureless desert would run this poorly on a range of hardware when other games look and run significantly better. To sum up, lower-end graphics cards with lower VRAM allocations should avoid Monster Hunter Wilds until these issues are rectified. Higher-end hardware can brute-force the game's shortcomings to some degree, but it's still hard to recommend such a flawed technical outing - or even derive optimised settings. For now then, we'll leave things there, but I hope we see some much-needed improvements before too long.

Official Witcher prequel novel will focus on a teen GeraltYouth Rivia-d.Image credit: CD Projekt Red News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on Feb. 28, 2025 A new Witcher novel is due out later this year, from original author Andrzej Sapkowski, which will follow a teen Geralt.The prequel will be called Crossroads of Ravens in English (Rozdroże Krukw in Polish) and focus on an 18-year-old Geralt setting out from Kaer Morhen on his first mission where he'll "discover monsters, traitors, some new friends and some familiar faces, and just how deeply feared and despised Witchers can be".Yes, Sapkowski stated he'd finished the Witcher saga back in 1999, but he returned in 2013 with Season of Storms, and now will return once again.The Witcher 4 cinematic reveal trailer - behind the scenes.Watch on YouTube"In Rozdroże Krukw I return to the roots of Geralt's journey - not the fearless monster slayer we know, but a young Witcher just beginning to understand the burden of his destiny," said Sapkowski."Imagine Geralt, but younger, with fewer scars and a bit more haughtiness. This is a story of growth, of idealism meeting harsh reality, and of choices that forge a legend. It's about finding your place in a world that's constantly challenging you to be more than you thought you could be. As this new story finds its way to readers across the globe this year, I can't wait for them to walk alongside a younger Geralt - experiencing the trials that forged him and the journey that set him on the road to his destiny."The novel will be released on 30th September in an English translation by David French, responsible for translating 6 of the last 8 Witcher books. For non-English speakers, it will be translated into more than 19 other languages.The novel will differ from CD Projekt Red's recently revealed The Witcher 4. Instead of going backwards, the next game will follow the previous games as sequels to the books and has Ciri as its protagonist instead of Geralt.Don't worry gruff hero fans, Geralt will still make an appearance in The Witcher 4. But will he be playable? The developers remain coy.Witcher 4 will compete with The Blood of Dawnwalker, a new game from The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz's new studio Rebel Wolves. The game received its first trailer at the start of the year.The studio is supported by NetEase and recently confirmed it hasn't been affected by the Chinese conglomerate pulling funding.It also won't be the first time we see a young Geralt, as he features in Netflix anime Nightmare of the Wolf.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide The First Descendant Season 2 Episode 2 is only a few weeks away. Before it launches, TFD fans will want to make sure they get all the free rewards available until the start date. Theres a lot to anticipate for the upcoming episode, and here is The First Descendant March 2025 roadmap including Serena and everything confirmed for Season 2 Episode 2.The First Descendant March 2025 roadmapThe First Descendant March 2025 roadmap includes the release of Season 2 Episode 2 on March 13th. Below is everything Nexon has announced to arrive in March for TFD:MarchMain Story (S2 Ep2)Vib Abyss Skin & ColotoysNew Field: Sigma SectorSeason 2-2 Inversion ReinforcementNew Monster + Named BossNew Fellow: RetrieverDescendant Growth: Arche Tuning (Node)New ModuleNew Descendant: SerenaNew Ult Weapon X4New External ComponentsVoid Intercept Battle Abyss: TormentorS2 Ep2 Battle PassPhoto ModePaint Improvements & Eyebrow And Beard Dye AdditionCustomization PresetUltimate Transfer1st Reactor Opt Condition IntegrationLimited Weapon Trade Addition: ExcavaNew SkinAll of the above should come out with the Season 2 Episode 2 update. There will be a developer livestream in the first week of March to highlight new skins and other new content for S2E2.Beyond March, below is what Nexon has planned for the remainder of Season 2 Episode 2 in April and May:AprilExternal Components Core SystemParty Finder SystemReactor, External Component Option ReadjustmentNew Ultimate: BlairUltimate Blair Skill ModuleBlair StoryNew External ComponentsView Other DescendantsStory Quest Route ImprovementsBeginners Support QuestEarly Gameplay & Guide ImprovementsIn-game Web GuideVoid Erosion Purge Stage AdditionNew SkinMayDescendant Growth: Arche Tuning (Socket)Vib Abyss: Ice MaidenVibabyss Skin + Colotoys(Jiggle) PhysicsPhoto Mode Sticker Customization AdditionNew SkinImage credit: NexonThe First Descendant SerenaPerhaps the most exciting aspect of The First Descendant March 2025 roadmap is the arrival of Serena. She will come out on March 13h as a huge part of the Season 2 Episode 2 update.We havent learned her skills yet as we need to wait for the developer livestream. However, Nexon has said her abilities include traditional arc skills, plus the modernised arc skills. In addition, we know she has the element of fire, and in the newly released S2E2 trailer, we see her flying onto the battlefield.Ever since her reveal, fans have heavily compared her appearance to Mercy from Overwatch. While the likeness is uncanny, there should be enough to the character to make her stand out on her own, and hopefully shell be a fan-favourite the second she debuts.For more The First Descendant, we have a guide to thebest skills and loadout for Viessa, along with thebest skills, gear, and mods for the hugely popular Bunny. We also have a guide forFreynaalong with fundamentaltips for beginners.The First DescendantPlatform(s):PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Action, Adventure, RPG5VideoGamerRelated TopicsThe First Descendant Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereMarvel Rivals players are caught in the middle of a ranking drama that has the community questioning its decisions, causing a flurry of competitive chaos. The games developer, NetEase, recently made the contentious announcement of a mid-season rank reset for Season 1, which was scheduled to take place on February 21, 2025, and would result in a four-tier reduction for players hard-earned rankings.Players were quick to voice their disapproval, seeing the decision as a cruel punishment for their hard work in the games competitive mode. In response to the negative feedback, NetEase scrapped the reset and promised to keep ranks intact while adding new incentives, such as the Invisible Womans Blood Shield skin, and the free Human Torch skin.However, weeks later, a startling twist has surfaced after Season 1.5 went live as some players are remorseful about their efforts to roll back the reset. Some now see what was once celebrated as a community triumph as a lost chance to reenergize the fight and even the odds.Marvel Rivals fans regret pushing NetEase to roll back half rank reset in Season 1.5In a shocking twist, Marvel Rivals players are now banded together to regret their decision to force NetEase for pulling back the decision to implement half-rank resets in the new mid-season update. The regret comes after players are facing high player counts and even flooded lobbies in the upper echelons of the ranks like Grandmaster and beyond.There are 9 Competitive Ranks in Marvel Rivals players can climb up to become a pro. Captured by VideoGamer.One of the users said, Look at where we are now. GM is insanely inflated. Ranks in general are heavily inflated. You can blame the devs for making such an inflationary ranked system in the first place, but they also had the foresight to try to rollback the ranks periodically, so that not everyone is in GM or higher. Im of the opinion that they should have just rolled back the ranks like they initially planned.While part of the claim by the user is true, several players have reportedly raised issues with sweatier matchmaking lobbies, including the broken skill-based matchmaking. Players who once demanded stability are reconsidering, lamenting a missed chance to shake up a meta favoring seasoned veterans.On the other hand, some users are offering suggestions where one wrote, They just need to lower the win/lose ratio. You should only climb with more than 50% winrate, which, along with a seasonal rank reset, would solve the inflation issue.Still, there are some who like to sit on their ranks for months after grinding for a while, as the said, I do not regret asking at all. Im one of those busy people that doesnt have as much time as Id like to play Competitive. I needed a little extra time, and I appreciate receiving it.As the ranked drama continues to rage on, check out why Rivals players are pushing NetEase to add more Vanguards to the game and fixing hitboxes for one particular character.Marvel RivalsPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Fighting, ShooterRelated TopicsMarvel Rivals Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Behind the Scenes: Myrraissaahuakoia By Alina Khan on February 28, 2025 Behind the Scenes Discover the creative journey behind Myrrai, a unique character blending mythology, nature, and personal inspiration, as Clark brings her to life through a mix of hand-painted and semi-realistic art styles.INTRODUCTIONHi, my name is Marcus Clark, and I am a 3D artist and filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland. My introduction to Blender came from taking up LEGO stop-motion animation as a hobby when I was a kid and being inspired by other LEGO animators using Blender and other programs to enhance their short films with CG elements. From there, I was introduced to the official Blender Open Movies and YouTubers like Dillongoo, who further inspired me to take the next step into 3D.After years of developing my 3D skills during my free time, I eventually landed a job working on a video game and a film. My goal is to be able to share my own stories and characters and hopefully inspire others to pursue their own passions.INSPIRATIONMyrraissaahuakoia, or Myrrai, is a major character from my fantasy worldbuilding project that I hope to develop into something larger in the future. She is, of course, loosely inspired by dryads from Greek mythology and popular fantasy depictions of plant people, but with my own little twists to fit the lore and character Ive developed.For her design, I drew inspiration from many sources, such as the Sylvari from Guild Wars 2, along with some art by Giselle Almeida and clothing elements from different real-world cultures. For example, the overlapping beads she wears were inspired by those worn by the Krobo people of Ghana. I am also a fan of the Horizon video game series and drew some inspiration from the outfits in those games. Besides these, I also drew from my real-life experiences, such as during a trip to Hawaii, where I photographed the strange Heliconia rostrata plants (lobster-claw plants). Pretty soon after, I began thinking of ways to incorporate these into Myrrais design. In terms of art style, I pulled from many different places. I was most inspired by the League of Legends cinematics and Arcane, which have a hand-painted style. However, I wanted to incorporate these painterly textures with semi-realistic PBR materials. Two other inspirations for me were Dishonored and the Airborn showcase by Airborn Studios, both of which have a painterly PBR look that Im very fond of.PROCESSModeling and Sculpting:I began Myrrai with a human base mesh that Id created previously, since my goal was to avoid spending too much time on retopology or having to make new characters entirely from scratch for my larger project, especially since I knew this character was meant to have a very human-like appearance. Using this base mesh, I went back and forth between Blender and ZBrush to do rough concepts of how she could look. I played around with her body shape and proportions for a tall and athletic look, while also trying to emphasize a slightly more non-human body shape and face. As far as sculpting her body and face, it wasnt anything too special. I carved grooves along her skin, taking some inspiration from real muscles but making whatever changes I thought would add a nice flow to the lines and give her an organic, plant-like feeling. I tried not to go too realistic, holding back on some details and using the pinch brush to sharpen some of the edges.I then used Blender curves and placeholder meshes to block out what the leaves on her head would look like. During this process, I did test renders constantly with vertex colors painted onto the meshes to further imagine how she might look when finished. At first, the heliconias were going to be very short, but I thought this wasnt making use of how unique the real plants are. So, I experimented later on with different variations until I decided to have them fully grown on one side, both in the front and back.As stated, Myrrais leaves were originally made with curves in Blender using an edited curve circle as the bevel object. To taper the points, I did so manually using Alt-S on both ends of the curve. From here, there was no real shortcut. I went on to place each leaf individually, mirror to the other side, and then tweak the shapes for some variation.When sculpting the leaves in ZBrush, I used these curves as base meshes and as a reference for where the leaves would be in the final model. I sculpted directly onto some of the curve leaves and then copy-pasted them. I then used the bend curve deformer option in ZBrush to reshape the leaves to match the original shapes I created in Blender. This was one of the most challenging and tedious parts of the process since at the time I wasnt sure of how to make high resolution 3D leaves like this in an efficient way without them looking copy-pasted.For the heliconias and beads, the process was similar. I started with Blender curves and just used the array modifier to duplicate the meshes for the beads and heliconia parts. I used the same Alt-S scale function to have the heliconias taper toward the tip, and then capped them off with a separate mesh. For the beads, I started with a simple tubular shape and then tweaked them so that they would overlap in a convincing way like Krobo beads before adding in the individual arrayed bead meshes. Later on, I sculpted a few of these beads and used those as the high poly for each one with variations so that I didnt have to sculpt every single bead. This process took a while to wrap my head around, but Im very satisfied with the result.The rest of Myrrais clothing was also blocked out in Blender using 2D planes with subdivision and the solidify modifier to wrap them around the body before eventually bringing these pieces into ZBrush for sculpting.After finishing some retopology, I brought the high-poly and low-poly meshes back into Blender and used the shrinkwrap modifier (and some manual re-sculpting) to add some high detail back to the low-poly meshes using the Multires modifier. This was done so that I could have low-poly meshes to pose and animate, while being able to increase subdivision upon rendering so that the meshes retain the depth of the high poly that wouldnt be possible with normal maps alone. Another method would be to use displacement textures, which at the time wasnt possible in Eevee.Texturing:Since this character is meant for animation, I unwrapped her using UDIMs so that the painterly textures would still look good up close. I then brought her into Substance Painter for texturing. An important part of the process for making any animation-ready character is to bake the textures using a version of the model where the eyelids are half shut and the mouth is slightly open. This is important for sculpting as well, but while texturing it allowed me to clean up the eyelids for when her eyes are closed. Since Id already done some vertex painting in ZBrush, I baked this onto the low poly and added the rest of my texture details on top.Original vertex colors/polypaint I painted in ZBrush and baked in Substance Painter to use as a base for the color map.The curvature map that Substance bakes from the high poly was super helpful for the style, as it allowed me to use a mix of procedural and hand-painted techniques, such as filling in crevices and edges along the body using curvature generators without having to do it all by hand. I also used the blur slope filter on these to break up the uniformity, which added to the painterly look. After this, I created a new fill layer and painted brush strokes into its layer mask along the whole model. For the major brush strokes, I used my original base color texture as the fill for this layer so that the brush strokes would have the correct colors along each part of the model. Then I tweaked the layers levels to increase the brightness and contrast and make the strokes stand out, with a sharpness filter added onto the mask to make the edges of the brush strokes sharper. Finally, I decreased the opacity by about half to make the strokes blend better. Hand painted brush strokes mask.Similarly, I painted black comic style pencil lines along some of the creases, primarily on her face. These were very quick and dirty, as I felt the imperfections added more character. Pencil lines mask.Later on I exported these as a separate black and white texture to control their intensity in the skin shader.The process for the rest was mostly the same: using the curvature generator and blur slope filter as a base and following this up with manually painted brush strokes. The process on the clothing was very similar, though I did a bit more manual painting to define the wrinkles more and to add scratches to the leather parts. For the leaves, I painted brush stroke masks in Krita and blended them in Substance Painter, with the bulk of my hand painting being mostly in defining the curvature generators.When building the shaders, I mostly used the Principled BSDF shader node. To give it a bit more of a cartoon look, I connected the base color/diffuse texture directly into a Mix Shader node with the blending controlled by a Fresnel Layer Weight node. I also will sometimes use the diffuse texture as a specular map plugged into the specular IOR level of the Principled BSDF, and then crank the black and white values close together using a Color Ramp. Ive found that this emphasizes the brush strokes more on shiny surfaces and highlights. However, this isnt super noticeable unless viewed from certain angles.Rigging:I primarily used Rigify for this character, simply moving the armature bones into place and generating the rig. From there, I created separate bone layers for everything else that needed to be rigged. This was one of the most difficult parts, since different parts of the model relied on different rigging techniques. I intended to make a rig that would be usable for animation, but soon realized that this was something that would need a lot of tweaking once I start doing animation tests. I ultimately decided to prioritize making her posable for stills and then later on make necessary tweaks to make animating her easier.I used a mixture of standard weight painting and the Mesh Deform modifier for rigging her clothing. Mesh Deform was most helpful on her skirt due to how much overlapping geometry there is. For those unaware, this means I could model a simpler version (a cage mesh) of her skirt that covers the real skirt, and weight paint that. Using the Mesh Deform modifier allows the real skirt to follow the weight painting of the cage mesh. Each leaf has around 1-3 bones, each individually parented so that I can pose them manually and use an addon like Wiggle Bones to have them react to gravity when animated. I simply parented these bones to the Rigify bones they would most likely be influenced by. For example, the leaves on her face were parented to the cheek and nose bones, which allows them to move appropriately when I change her expression. For facial expressions that needed to form creases and wrinkles on her skin, plus areas like her joints needing to be corrected when her limbs bend, I created shape keys that I either sculpted or tweaked in edit mode to make the correct deformation shapes. Then I set up drivers for these shape keys so that they could be controlled by specific control bones I added to the rig. The heliconias and the beads around the waist were rigged using spline-IK techniques. For her skirt, I followed Pierrick Picauts Dynamic Cloth Rigging tutorial, with some of my own edits, so that the skirt would adjust based on the characters leg position.Rendering:My rendering and lighting process can be pretty hectic since Ill do whatever I need to make the image look good. I actually rendered out a whole set of images to post, but right as I was about to share them online I went back and redid them all since I felt I could do better. I think this was one of the positives and negatives about this project. If something didnt feel right, I would go back and change it or take a break to think it over. However, I do have a tendency to be a perfectionist. So, there were definitely times where I had to force myself to stop making changes and just finish the project.This project was rendered in Eevee, primarily because of its real-time benefits and for a shorter render time, but also because I liked the slightly less realistic look that Eevee had in comparison. This did, however, come at a surprising cost in performance compared to Cycles. Another major aspect of this project was that I started using the addon Render Raw, which adds more options to the Color Management tab. This allowed me to make use of the standard color correction, which retains the colors from the textures more accurately.After posing, I took some old plant assets and downloaded dirt textures for the environment. I then started with a 3-point lighting setup and added extra lights as I went, to boost the rim lighting in areas I felt needed it or to brighten other areas I thought were too dark. I also added a volume behind the character to give the scene more atmosphere, and added some palm tree gobo textures along the edges of the camera to add to the composition.RENDER: Myrraissaahuakoia Thank you for reading! Please check out my social media if you want to see more of my work!About the Artist Marcus Clark is a 3D artist and filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently working on a world building project with a focus on telling stories through animation.Links

Hi there,As Democracy Now! turns 29 this month, the need for independent news questioning and challenging those in power is more critical now than ever. Although this is a period of great uncertainty for news organizations like ours, we are unwavering in our commitment to continue to bring you fearless trustworthy reporting on the issues that matter most. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today in honor of our 29th anniversary. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much. Democracy Now!Amy GoodmanHi there,As Democracy Now! turns 29 this month, the need for independent news questioning and challenging those in power is more critical now than ever. Although this is a period of great uncertainty for news organizations like ours, we are unwavering in our commitment to continue to bring you fearless trustworthy reporting on the issues that matter most. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today in honor of our 29th anniversary. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much. Democracy Now!Amy Goodman

The Naked TruthMonster Hunter Wilds gets a day-one mod that lets you romp around as a "nude buff male", but you can't use it on day one, because life isn't fairYou might have taken over Steam today, MonHunners, but bare-bottomed blokes are just out of your reach.Image credit: Capcom/RoxCian/VG247 News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Feb. 28, 2025 Congratulations, Monster Hunter Wilds players. Your game's the talk of the town right now, mainly because half the population of the world is playing it. There's one thing you can't have, though, no matter how hard you try. No, it's not issue-free PC performance. It's a day-one naked man mod for Wilds, that doesn't work with day-one Wilds.Yep, this exists, and hit the game's Nexus Mods page promptly at 7:03AM UK time this morning, perfect for folks waking up and prepping to jump into a day of hunting monsters. You can't do that though, because you'll have to wait for an update.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Beta test game only. Cannot use in main game for now", reads the description of 'Nude Buff Male For Monster Hunter Wilds', a mod that lets you play at as a naked muscle man. It's the work of a modder going by >rx_cn, and has been uploaded by another modder called RoxCian on their behalf.They describe their creation - which if you haven't realised already, currently only works with a beta that it very much looks like you can no longer access, possibly unless you've left it sitting on your hard drive - as something that lets you "make your hunter performance-enhanced" by replacing some gear in the game. It does this with help from another mod called 'Ultimate Realistic Penis Rig', which is a string of words I may now never be able to scrub from my mind."Thanks to the *hard* work of Capcom, it's more easier (and somehow more harder) to create such a mod than any other Monster Hunter titles," >rx_cn writes. They add that their work has a few other hangups at the moment. For example: "due to the limitation of six weights per vertex, jiggle physics of thighs are currently not included" and , as if that wasn't enough, "only body texture can be used to fix penis model". "May have some anatomy issues", they add.I dunno about you, but there are tears in my eyes.If you're after some more Monster Hunter goodness, you can check out the array of helpful guides and tips we've got for it, so you can get the most out of your fully clothed (sigh) monster hunting.

The latest entry in The Witcher books finally has an English release date, and it'll follow Geralt on his first ever mission. Read more

Well sure, why not?Pokmon's no doubt been at the forefront of everybody's minds this week as we finally got our first proper glimpse at Pokmon Legends: Z-A ahead of its launch later this year.As part of the wider Pokmon Day celebrations, the BBC recently caught up with The Pokmon Company's CEO, Tsunekazu Ishihara, to discuss the franchise and its future. Crucially, Ishihara reckons that Pokmon has the potential to reach its 100th anniversary, so long as the company maintains focus on its mission.Read the full article on nintendolife.com