When The Fourth Wave by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel burst onto the scene in 2016, I had just started writing about XR. Scobles sweeping vision of the future shaped my thinking and fueled the enthusiasm to write my own book, Charlie Finks Metaverse, which came out just thirteen months later. But nearly a decade and one too many hype cycles later, Ive lost my XR religion. I know too much about how the sausage is made. Scoble, howevernow partnered with researcher and consultant Irena Croninwas just getting started.The cover of the new book, which features a foreword from Steve WozniakPacktReading The Infinite Retina (Second Edition), I was reminded why I enjoy Scobles breezy, conversational way of unpacking complex ideas so much. Its a perfect counterpoint to Cronins measured, analytical approach. Their combined expertise is essential for a book that attempts to map an enormous and ever-evolving landscapeSpatial Computing, AI, the Metaverse, self-driving cars, virtual beings, and the ways technology will shape the rest of our lives. Its a book that makes you want to believe.Cronin and Scoble succeed in not only explaining but contextualizing the shift from screens to the world around us. They use Spatial Computing as an umbrella term to connect AI, AR, VR, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and digital assistants, illustrating how these technologies are converging to redefine human-computer interaction. Yet, they also acknowledge the dizzying pace of changewhere bold predictions can become obsolete before the ink dries.The book is structured around seven industry verticals that the authors argue will be transformed by Spatial Computing: transportation, media and telecom, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, finance, and education. Each sector is already undergoing disruption, but The Infinite Retina suggests were just getting started. Autonomous vehicles will redefine mobility, media will shift from flat screens to immersive experiences, factories will become increasingly AI-powered, and retail will blend personalization with automated logistics. Meanwhile, healthcare will integrate real-time AI diagnostics, finance will embrace 3D data visualization, and education will transition from passive learning to immersive, interactive environments.Cronin and Scobles enthusiasm is infectious. If students read books anymore, Id assign this in a heartbeat. The Infinite Retina is an expansive, highly readable survey of the forces shaping our digital future. Thats both its greatest strength and its biggest weakness. The sheer breadth of topics covered means some ideas inevitably get broad strokes instead of deep dives. Then theres the occasional hyperbolestatements like mobile phones will soon give way to headsets made me wince. I once said things like that, too.In fairness, the book isnt trying to be a measured, cautious news story. Its a celebration of possibility. And despite my skepticism, it made me excited about my job all over again.

Escape.ai is celebrating its launch with its own awards show tomorrow. escape.aiJohn Gaetas Escape AI Launches Alternative Oscars For AI Filmmakers today at noon. Their awards show is today, Saturday, at 12 noon pacific time. Te first-ever Escape Awards, an AI-centric film festival and awards show, set one day before the Motion Picture Academys Oscars, will take place at noon pst. Instead of industry insiders, voting is exclusively done by Escapes 200+ creators, forming a peer-driven recognition system. Unlike the Oscars, the public can attend online at Escape.ai.Project Odyssey, a bi-annual AI filmmaking competition offering $78,000 in cash prizes, is put on by Lambda, Civitai, Kling, ElevenLabs, and Viggle, with a whos who of the generative ai models offering contestants an incredibly generous $800,000 in free tails from 47 industry sponsors. Winner of the first place prize in the narrative competition, One Last Wish, by Edmond Yang, is above. Key sponsors of Project Odyssesy include Hailuo MiniMax, Leonardo AI, and Curious Refuge. The winners, which included, were announced earlier this month Project Odyssey recieved a 4593 submissions totaling 190.4 hours from 2038 teams from 166 countries had access to more than $800,000 in free trials from over 47 industry sponsors, providing cutting-edge AI tools and resources to support their creative endeavors. The Winners will be celebrated at the Project Odyssey AI Film Gala, April 16th in San Francisco, where plans for the third edition of the AI Film Competition will be held.Promise Acquires Curious Refuge To Build AI-Focused Creative Talent Pipeline. AI studio Promise acquires online film school Curious Refuge to create an AI filmmaking talent pipeline, focusing on artist-led generative AI storytelling.Curious Refuge and Promise Announce AI Animation Contest. Curious Refuge and Promise Studios have launched the world's first AI Animation Competition, inviting creators to showcase their skills for a chance to win up to $7,000 and pitch their film for a development deal. Submissions are open until March 28th at midnight PT. Public voting on curator-selected finalists will occur from April 3rd to April 8th, with winners announced on April 14th at noon PT. Prizes include cash awards, free course enrollment, and unique items like an AI Filmmaking Sweatshirt and personalized gifts. Judges will determine the top three winners, while the community will choose an Audience Favorite.The Google DeepMind logo appears on a smartphone screen, and in the background, the Veo 2 page, in ... [+] this illustration photo in Reno, United States, on December 18, 2024. (Photo Illustration by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NurPhoto via Getty ImagesGoogle's Veo 2, an AI-driven video generator, is priced at $0.50 per second, totaling $1,800 per hour. Launched in December 2024, Veo 2 transforms text prompts into high-quality videos up to 4K resolution. Primarily targeting filmmakers and studios, it offers features like genre specification and cinematic effects. While competitors like OpenAI's Sora offer services at $20 to $200 monthly, Veo 2's pricing suggests it's designed for high-budget productions, who are going to be put off more by the ongoing challenges in maintaining consistency in complex scenes than by the price. "ANPU" Reimagines Egyptian Myth in AI-Enhanced Tokyo Short Film. Filmmaker Yves Dalbiez blends mythology, AI, and real-world cinematography in ANPU, a short film that reimagines Anubis, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, as an unseen presence wandering modern Tokyo. The film culminates in a ritualistic dance at Shibuya Crossing, where Anpu silently judges the hearts of passersby. Inspired by my childhood fascination with Egyptian mythology and the enigmatic power of gods with animal heads, this film explores the idea of invisible forces witnessing our world, Dalbiez said. Shot over 25 days, ANPU fuses real-life footage with AI-driven tools like Viggle, Runway ML, Kling AI, and Mago Studio to create a distinctive, stylized aesthetic. The project, originally a technical experiment, has now evolved into a larger narrative universe with behind-the-scenes content planned.Filmmaker Jas Black says his experimental short, Space Trash, explores themes of cosmic boredom, the universality of escapism, and "the chaotic beauty hidden in the digital noise of alien entertainment. The Alien characters and background stills Flux. Viggle applied my dodgy dance moves to the aliens. Klings 1.6 model animated the backgrounds. The glitch effects are produced with Magic Music Visualiser. The video was upscaled with both ComfyUI animatediff, and Topaz video AI.What Were ReadingOscar Categories AI Will Blow Up

Social Security Administration employees raised the alarm on Trump's plan to slash the agency's workforce.They warned that cuts to staff could delay payments for Social Security beneficiaries.The agency offered its employees early retirement in an effort to cut staff.Delayed payments, longer wait times: Cuts to the Social Security Administration's workforce will have a detrimental effect on the benefits millions of Americans rely on every month, several agency employees said."Put bluntly, the ramifications of downsizing SSA are enormous," an agency employee told Business Insider. "Because it'll take two to three times longer to work these cases, some people will die before a decision is reached."The Social Security Administration sent an email to employees on Thursday offering voluntary early retirements as part of a "restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions." One internal memo seen by BI on Friday listed two dozen senior staff who had already resigned.BI spoke to five SSA employees who received the emails, granting them anonymity to speak freely about changes within their agency.They said they're concerned that slashing the agency's workforce will hinder critical functions,Social Security benefits.These cuts are part of President Donald Trump and the DOGE office's larger goals to reduce government waste and slash the federal workforce. The administration has already terminated thousands of workers across a range of agencies. Elon Musk, who is leading DOGE, has criticized the Social Security system in a series of posts on X over the past week, calling out "significant inconsistencies" and saying, "No one person actually knows how it works."SSA employees said that since the buyout offer targets workers nearing retirement age, the agency could suffer from losing its most experienced employees. "The institutional expertise is invaluable," one employee said. "We are overwhelmed with calls as it is."SSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI on the impact slashing the workforce would have on the agency's functions.The employees said that the agency is already strained to meet the public's needs, and cutting the workforce even more could significantly harm Social Security recipients. Already, the average processing time for disability and supplemental income benefits, known as SSDI and SSI, has more than doubled since fiscal year 2016 to 231 days just over seven and a half months."Drastically cutting everybody and everything has the very real potential of erasing people's record of lifetime contributions and therefore their eligibility for benefits," an SSA employee said. "If they recklessly 'pulled the plug,' it would mean disaster to everyone currently collecting and future retirees and disabled claimants."'We just want to help disabled Americans and retirees'Over 73 million Americans receive Social Security benefits a number that will continue rising as more baby boomers retire. The agency said in its FY2024 report that staffing had declined to one of its lowest levels in over 50 years, which it attributed to years of "chronic underfunding" even as the number of beneficiaries increased.Phone call wait times for the agency have spiked since the fiscal year 2008, when callers would wait around four minutes to get through to the agency's 1-800 number. In fiscal year 2023, callers waited nearly 36 minutes although SSA has made some progress in cutting down wait times. One SSA worker told BI that the areas the administration is looking to cut would directly impact customer service."The people who complain about long wait times and nobody answering the phone are talking about those entities," the worker said.One agency staffer told BI that if the Trump administration follows through with cuts, "service to the public will undoubtedly suffer. We barely have enough staff now to meet the public's needs."Another employee said that for as long as they had been at the agency, it was understaffed, and a larger cut to the workforce would mean that "overpayments to beneficiaries will drastically increase because there won't be enough workers to get to those cases in a timely manner." A July 2024 report by the Office of the Inspector General found that improper payments have accounted for under 1% of total SSA payouts between fiscal years 2015 and 2022. The employee said slashing the workforce could amplify the issue."People who can't work and are waiting on a disability decision will experience immense financial hardship," they said, adding that cases subject to re-evaluation "will not be worked quickly enough to prevent overpayments and there's never a guarantee the overpayment will actually be paid."Kevin Foster, 64, receives over $3,000 a month. "I feel the pain for millions of recipients who aren't as lucky as I have been," the Illinois resident said. "Social Security must endure."Sharon Sartori, 60, who receives $967 in benefits and lives in South Carolina said, "If checks are late, it's going to put a real strain on low-income seniors for rent, their medications, and food. Utilities could be shut off. It would be a mess."It's unclear how many people will voluntarily resign following the SSA's latest email to staff. The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on February 26 requesting that all federal agencies develop reorganization plans by March 13.One staffer speculated that "once service gets bad" at SSA following any cuts, "the case will be made to privatize us." For decades, some Republican politicians and lawmakers have floated privatizing Social Security in an effort to rein in the federal deficit, but the idea lacks mass support from voters.The SSA employees BI spoke to overwhelmingly said that the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits will feel the pain from any workforce cuts."We need the people higher up to support us and build systems that work, we need HR. We need those 'invisible' people to make sure checks get paid on time, all the systems are up and running," one employee said. They added: "I don't know why we are villains. We just want to help disabled Americans and retirees get what they paid for."Have a tip about changes to the federal workforce? Contact these reporters via Signal at asheffey.97, aaltchek.19, julianakaplan.33, and tparadis.70 or via email at asheffey@businessinsider.com, aaltchek@insider.com, jkaplan@businessinsider.com, or tparadis@businessinsider.com. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.Have a story to share about living on Social Security? Email nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

8 million student-loam borrowers on the SAVE plan, intended to set cheaper monthly payments.The plan has been blocked since last summer and is unlikely to be revived.Some Trump-supporting borrowers said that they wished the administration would do more to stymy the financial strain.Natasha Stephens voted for President Donald Trump, and she said she's overall happy with his work so far except for his actions on student debt."It is disappointing that it feels like we're just getting left behind," Stephens, 35, told Business Insider. "It feels like they're just going to leave everybody to either pay it or suffer."Stephens is enrolled in the SAVE plan, which a federal court recently paused pending a final court decision. It was established by former President Joe Biden in 2023 and intended to give student-loan borrowers cheaper monthly payments with a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness.Under the SAVE plan, Stephens owed $0"If we didn't have our family support helping us with the kids and food and stuff like that, we would not be making it every month," Stephens said. "We'd be losing our house and everything, so we can't even imagine to start paying on those loans yet."BI heard from dozens of student-loan borrowers over the past few weeks who said they're worried about the SAVE plan being eliminated and are concerned with facing potentially higher monthly payments. While the legal fate of the plan is still in limbo, borrowers are stuck wondering when they'll have to resume repayment and how much the bill will be.Due to the legal challenges seeking to block the plan, January guidance from the Education Department said that borrowers enrolled in SAVE will make payments "no earlier" than December. Interest is not accruing on their balances during this time.After the recent court decision keeping SAVE paused, acting undersecretary of education, James Bergeron, told BI in a statement that the ruling "is good news for hardworking American taxpayers and the rule of law.""The Department of Education is currently working to ensure borrowers understand existing repayment alternatives allowed under the law," Bergeron said.Stephens said she doesn't see it that way and hopes the Trump administration prioritizes relief for student-loan borrowers."I think that it helped a lot of people," she said, referring to the SAVE plan, "and it's really heartbreaking that it just ended with nothing."'It's going to be very scary'Mike Rendino, 51, accrued student debt in his 30s when he went back to school to advance his career. When his job relocated and he couldn't move, he found himself out of work and deferred his loans. But interest continued to accumulate during those few years.Enrolling in SAVE allowed Rendino to pay $160 each month which he felt was affordable. Now, however, he no longer feels confident with his payoff plan, which he said is projected to be just under $1,000 a month without SAVE."It's going to be very scary to figure this out," Rendino said."This program is literally allowing me to fulfill my financial obligations back to the government for those federal loans," he said, adding that "it's not that I don't want to repay it, it's that I just cannot afford to pay the kind of money that they want."Brigitte Knudson, 56, is also struggling with SAVE's uncertain fate. While Knudson said she's still been making payments during this time to take advantage of the 0% interest rate, she's prepared to push off her retirement to afford potentially higher monthly payments."Every extra dollar that I get is going to pay down this loan because I know there's going to be no forgiveness," Knudson said. "Just tell me what the bottom line is, and I can plan for that."The GOP plan for student-loan borrowersIf a court ends up permanently striking down the SAVE plan, it's unlikely the Trump administration will create something similar to replace it. That's because Republicans have argued that SAVE is an overreach of the education secretary's authority by allowing for expanded opportunities for relief.Rather, some Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to streamline income-driven repayment plans. GOP control over both Congress and the White House could ease that legislation into passage.A memo compiled by House Republicans in January suggested repealing SAVE and proposed other measures like expanding the Pell Grant for low-income students and providing more options for borrowers who default on their loans.The College Cost Reduction Act, introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx, proposed capping certain forms of financial aid and limiting the education secretary's ability to implement new repayment and relief plans, like SAVE, in the future.Some borrowers enrolled in SAVE, though, are concerned those alternatives would not be sufficient. Rendino, an independent voter who said he previously supported some Republican policies, said the way the GOP has approached student-loan issues may be enough to turn him away from the party altogether especially if SAVE ultimately gets struck down."This is crucial to be able to have affordable payments like this for the foreseeable future," Rendinso said. "It's the only way a lot of us are going to survive and be able to keep the economy going."Do you have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.

Shanxia Cultural Station / MUFU Architectural Performance StudioSave this picture! Chen Xi StudioArchitects: MUFU Architectural Performance StudioAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:418 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Chen Xi Studio Lead Architect: Hu Zhenhang More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. Located at the foot of Maoqian Mountain in Yongkang, Zhejiang, China, Shanxia (Mountain-Foot) Village has long been celebrated for its picturesque landscapes and rich culture. However, with the advent of modernization, the village's traditional charm has gradually faded. Despite this, the folk custom of the Bench Dragon Lantern has endured, and this annual ritual performance on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month remains a significant moment that brings the community together and strengthens the village. The project site is a residential plot, just north of which lies the field for the dragon lantern performance and the rocky hill known as Houyanta (Rear Rock Pagoda). Instead of replicating the homogeneous modern-style residences, a public-oriented cultural station was envisioned, rooted in the rural land, with the aim of enhancing the dragon lantern viewing experience and serving as a hub for various cultural activities.Save this picture!The village planning, traditional customs, and site conditions presented challenges for the design, and the strategic negotiations within the design process also introduced contradiction in the architectural form. According to local customs, the building must not be shorter than the residences to its south. Combined with the planar layout requirements of the village planning, this resulted in a building with considerable height and volume, which, from its southern view, closely resembled other newly built modern-style residences. On the northern side of the building, a sectional strategy of slanted cut was adopted to alleviate the visual pressure of the building on Houyanta Hill; meanwhile, a volumetric setback design transformed the narrow passage between the building boundary line and the sheer rock face into a courtyard. While the strategies reduced the building area, they fostered a more positive relationship between architecture and nature, as well as an enhanced spatial experience. The interplay of red terracotta bricks, pebble-dash, and glass bricks not only strengthened the connection between the building and the natural and cultural environment of the village but also helped establish an intrinsic formal and functional logic for the building.Save this picture!The building features two entrances, one to the south and one to the north. The southern entrance aligns with the traditional residential layout, while the northern entrance connects to the natural hillside. The first and second floors serve as public activity spaces, including a dining hall, a kitchen, a courtyard, and a multifunctional hall. The third to fifth floors are designated as an accommodation area, offering guest rooms to host resident artists and scholars. During the dragon lantern performances, the third to fifth floors can flexibly transform into public viewing platforms and rest areas, while the first and second floors provide supporting services. As crowds gather during the dragon lantern festivities, the new spatial order jointly established by the building and the existing landscape becomes increasingly prominent. Rather than merely serving a functional role in facilitating performances, this building holds greater significance: since its completion, it has become an incubator and venue for various public cultural activities, including exhibitions, theater workshops, and academic seminars, demonstrating its feasibility as a cultural hub. As a new landmark in the village, the building is prompting people to reexamine the village's cultural value and development potential, while also shaping a more optimized planned layout. Inspired by the Bench Dragon Lantern, the Shanxia Cultural Station, situated at the foot of Maoqian Mountain and Houyanta Hill, is fostering collective wisdom, injecting deeper vitality and new possibilities into the rural community.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officePublished on March 01, 2025Cite: "Shanxia Cultural Station / MUFU Architectural Performance Studio" 01 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1027054/shanxia-cultural-station-mufu-architectural-performance-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save? / You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/@cghow/join 1 to 1 Million Particles per second spawn test in Unreal Engine 5 Niagara FAB - https://www.fab.com/sellers/CGHOW Whatsapp - https://bit.ly/3LYvxjK Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/Ashif NFT - https://opensea.io/CGHOW Twitter - https://twitter.com/cghow_ If you Liked it - http://bit.ly/2UZmiZ4 Channel Ashif - http://bit.ly/3aYaniw Support me on - paypal.me/9953280644 #cghow #UE5 #UE4Niagara #gamefx #ue5niagara #ue4vfx #niagara #unrealengineniagara #realtimevfxVisit - https://cghow.com/ Unreal Engine Marketplace - https://bit.ly/3aojvAa Artstation Store - https://www.artstation.com/ashif/store Gumroad - https://cghow.gumroad.com/

Project Files: https://www.patreon.com/posts/123371511 .This is the 6th part of the tutorial series, where we are going to implement a Real Time Strategy game using Unreal Engine and C++. Here we will reference games like Age of Empires or Total was style games that has combat elements with large groups of units that composed of a large number of characters. We will be implementing everything from scratch and I will guide you through the journey of development through each step all the way. In this episode, we are going to create a C++ interface called SelectableInterface to handle selection of actors within the game. The reason to use an interface for this is, in the game there may be buildings, characters, vehicles and many more that is not derived from the same base class. Therefore, having a common interface that is implemented by all the actors that needs to be selected by player will make things more convenient. We will make the SelectActor interface function that can be implemented in both C++ and Blueprints. Full C++ RTS Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTm9yU0zou5_PYxEdjNbAgbVRn-daOga .Unreal Strategy game with Blueprints series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTm9yU0zou4Eulmi8YIfzHiNZEzfbSMk // ! https://www.patreon.com/codelikeme Patrons will have access to project files of all the stuff I do in the channel and other extra benefitsJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClb6Jh9EBV7a_Nm52Ipll_Q/join Like my facebook page for more content : https://www.facebook.com/gamedevelopersclub/ Follow me on twitter : https://twitter.com/CodeLikeMe2 Follow me on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/codelikeme #CodeLikeMe #unrealengine #ue5 #ue4 #indiegamedev

Gaurav Gomes told us about the Archer project set up in Unreal Engine, sharing the texturing process of the multi-layered outfit and tattoos and showing the creation of the high-poly model.Read the interview: https://80.lv/articles/breakdown-detailed-3d-model-of-fantasy-archer/

.@Jose_Molfino tested nested instances in Houdini's Solaris and KarmaXPU with a large forest scene featuring 1,500 animated trees, each with 45,000 instanced leaves and 20,000 instanced plants.See more: https://80.lv/articles/testing-animated-instances-in-large-forest-scene-with-houdini-s-solaris-karma/