UHQBot

Emmett Shear is no longer the boss of Twitch. After 16 long, controversy-filled years, the co-founder and only CEO the Amazon-owned streaming platform has ever known announced he’s stepping down to spend more time with his family. Read more... View the full article

While The Last of Us’ haunting emotional beats and turbulent moral themes can sometimes be fodder for a more hopeful, reparative perspective, that’s not always the case. The Last of Us is heavy as hell, but fortunately, if the HBO series finale has left you in a dour mood, the outtakes and bloopers are starting to… Read more... View the full article

According to a report from Axios, Vince McMahon will be a playable character in WWE’s upcoming video game, WWE 2K23. This news comes after the former WWE CEO’s scandal-riddled retirement last year, when The Wall Street Journal unearthed that McMahon paid four women $12 million in “hush money” over the past 16 years,… Read more... View the full article

One of the judges at the official regional tournament for the Pokémon Trading Card Game that took place in Vancouver this weekend received a lifetime ban after he allegedly harassed transgender competitors. Read more... View the full article

This will be the first year since 1993 that there won’t be a new FIFA game after Electronic Arts abandoned the exclusive license once negotiations reportedly broke down over the renewal price. FIFA President Gianni Infantino swears the FIFA series will return, however, promising “FIFA 25, 26, 27 and so on - will… Read more... View the full article

Unless you consider watching people get up and go to work every morning to be a horrifying sight, you probably wouldn’t classify The Sims 4 as a horror game. However, its latest update brings infants to the game for the first time ever, and while they may look cute when you first load up your save file, players have… Read more... View the full article

Editor’s note: This post is part of our weekly In the NVIDIA Studio series, which celebrates featured artists, offers creative tips and tricks, and demonstrates how NVIDIA Studio technology improves creative workflows. We’re also deep diving on new GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU features, technologies and resources, and how they dramatically accelerate content creation. An update is now available for NVIDIA Canvas, the free beta app that harnesses the power of AI to help artists quickly turn simple brushstrokes into realistic landscapes. This version 1.4 update includes a new Panorama mode, which 3D artist Dan “Greenskull” Hammill explores this week In the NVIDIA Studio. The #GameArtChallenge charges ahead with this sensationally scary The Last of Us-themed 3D animation by @Noggi29318543. Nothing like kicking your week off with a Last of Us #GameArtChallenge submission by @Noggi29318543! Share your game inspired art with us using #GameArtChallenge until April 30th for a chance to be featured on the Studio or @nvidiaomniverse channels! pic.twitter.com/ticn42QMTt — NVIDIA Studio (@NVIDIAStudio) March 13, 2023 Share game-inspired art using the #GameArtChallenge hashtag through Sunday, April 30, for a chance to be featured on the @NVIDIAStudio or @NVIDIAOmniverse channels. Panorama Comes to Canvas NVIDIA Canvas 1.4 adds Panorama mode, allowing for the creation of 4K equirectangular landscapes for 3D workflows. Graphic designers will be able to apply Canvas AI-generated scenes to their workflow, allowing for quick and easy iterations. Users can select between Standard and Panorama workspace each time they open or create a new file. For 3D artist and AI aficionado Dan “Greenskull” Hammill, Canvas technology invokes an intentional change of tone. “The therapeutic nature of painting a landscape asks me to slow things down and let my inner artist free,” said Greenskull. “The legendary Bob Ross is a clear inspiration for how I speak during my videos. I want the viewer to both be fascinated by the technology and relaxed by the content.” For a recent piece, called “The Cove,” Greenskull took a few minutes to create his preferred landscape — an ocean view complete with hills, foliage, sand and darker skies for a cloudy day — with the few strokes of a digital pen in Canvas, all accelerated by his GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. ‘The Cove’ was created in NVIDIA Canvas and completed in mere minutes. The artist refined his landscape in even more detail with an expanded selection of brush-size options included in the Canvas 1.4 release. Once satisfied with the background, Greenskull reviewed his creation. “I can look at the 3D view, review, see how it looks, and it’s looking pretty good, pretty cool,” he said. https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/nvidia-studio-itns-wk48-clip1-1280w.mp4 Greenskull then uploaded his landscape into a video game within Unreal Engine 5 as the skybox or enclosed world. Now his Canvas texture makes up the background. https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/nvidia-studio-itns-wk48-clip2-1280w.mp4 “This really does open up a lot of possibilities for game designers, especially indie developers who quickly want to create something and have it look genuinely unique and great,” Greenskull said. “NVIDIA has powered both my casual and professional life for countless years. To me, NVIDIA is reliable, powerful and state of the art. If I’m going to be on top of my game, I should have the hardware that will keep up and push forward.” — Dan “Greenskull” Hammill With his new virtual world complete, Greenskull prepared to create videos for his social media platforms. “I hit record, run my DSLR through a capture card, record dialog through Adobe Audition, and grab a second screen capture with a separate PC,” explained Greenskull. Greenskull then pieced everything together, syncing the primary video, secondary PC video captures and audio files. He reviewed the clips, made minor edits and exported final videos. Using his favorite video editing app, Adobe Premiere Pro, Greenskull tapped his NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU’s dual AV1 video encoders via the Voukoder plug-in, cutting export times in half with improved video quality. Download the Canvas beta, free for NVIDIA and GeForce RTX GPU owners. Check out Greenskull on TikTok. Dan “Greenskull” Hammill. Learn more about these latest technologies by joining us at the Game Developers Conference. And catch up on all the groundbreaking announcements in generative AI and the metaverse by watching the NVIDIA GTC keynote. Follow NVIDIA Studio on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Access tutorials on the Studio YouTube channel and get updates directly in your inbox by subscribing to the Studio newsletter. View the full article

Disney Dreamlight Valley is streaming from Steam and Epic Games Store on GeForce NOW starting today. It’s one of two new games this week that members can stream with beyond-fast performance using a GeForce NOW Ultimate membership. Game as if using a PC on any device — at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second — even on a Mac. Game Different I’m a Mac, and I’m now a gaming PC. GeForce NOW gives members the unique ability to play over 1,500 games with the power of a gaming PC, on nearly any device. The new Ultimate membership taps into next-generation NVIDIA SuperPODs that stream GeForce RTX 4080-class performance. With support for 4K resolution at up to 120 fps or high-definition gaming at 240 fps on both PCs and Macs, even Mac users can say they’re PC gamers. “For Mac users, GeForce NOW is an opportunity to finally play the most advanced games available on the computer they love, which is exciting.” — MacStories.net Macs with the latest Apple silicon — M2 and M1 chips — run the GeForce NOW app natively, without the need to install or run Rosetta. GeForce NOW members on a Mac get the best of PC gaming, on the system they love, without ever leaving the Apple ecosystem. This results in incredible performance from popular PC-only games without downloads, updates or patches. “Any laptop can be a gaming laptop, even a MacBook.” — Laptop Mag MacBook Pro 16-inch laptops with 3,456×2,234 ProMotion 120Hz refresh-rate displays enable gaming in 4K high dynamic range at up to 120 fps. With NVIDIA DLSS 3 technology, these Macs can even run graphically intense games like The Witcher 3 and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide at 4K 120 fps. MacBook Pro laptops with smaller displays and MacBook Airs with 2,560×1,664 displays transform into gaming PCs, running titles like Cyberpunk 2077 in 1440p HDR at liquid-smooth frame rates. “NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW Ultimate changes everything. Suddenly, the Mac became a brilliant gaming platform.” — Forbes GeForce NOW opens a world of gaming possibilities on Mac desktops — like the Mac mini, Mac Studio and iMac. Connect an ultrawide monitor and take in all the HDR cinematic game play at up to 3,840×1,600 and 120 fps in PC games such as Destiny 2 and Far Cry 6. With Macs connected to a 240Hz monitor, GeForce NOW Ultimate members can stream with the lowest latency in the cloud, enabling gaming at 240 fps in Apex Legends, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and nearly a dozen other competitive titles. And it’s not just new Macs that can join in PC gaming. Any Mac system introduced in 2009 or later is fully supported. We’ve Got Games, Say Cheers! Oh boy! “Disney Dreamlight Valley” is streaming on GeForce NOW. Help restore Disney magic to the Valley and go on an enchanting journey in Gameloft’s Disney Dreamlight Valley — a life-sim adventure game full of quests, exploration and beloved Disney and Pixar friends. It’s one of two new games being added this week: Disney Dreamlight Valley (Steam and Epic Games Store) The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure (New release on Steam) Before you start a magical weekend of gaming, we’ve got a question for you. Let us know your answer in the comments below or on Twitter and Facebook. Which Disney character would make the best addition to your gaming squad? — NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) March 15, 2023 View the full article

Peter Ma was bored in his high school computer science class. So he decided to teach himself something new: how to use artificial intelligence to find alien life. That’s how he eventually became the lead author of a groundbreaking study published in Nature Astronomy. The study reveals how Ma and his co-authors used AI to analyze a massive dataset of radio signals collected by the SETI Breakthrough Listen project. They found eight signals that might just be technosignatures or signs of alien technology. In this episode of the NVIDIA AI Podcast, host Noah Kravitz interviews Ma, who is now an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. Ma tells Kravitz how he stumbled upon this problem and how he developed an AI algorithm that outperformed traditional methods in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The AI Podcast · Peter Ma on Using AI to Find 8 Possible Signals of Alien Life – Ep. 191 You Might Also Like Sequoia Capital’s Pat Grady and Sonya Huang on Generative AI Pat Grady and Sonya Huang, partners at Sequoia Capital, to discuss their recent essay, “Generative AI: A Creative New World.” The authors delve into the potential of generative AI to enable new forms of creativity and expression, as well as the challenges and ethical considerations of this technology. They also offer insights into the future of generative AI. Real or Not Real? Attorney Steven Frank Uses Deep Learning to Authenticate Art Steven Frank is a partner at the law firm Morgan Lewis, specializing in intellectual property and commercial technology law. He’s also half of the husband-wife team that used convolutional neural networks to authenticate artistic masterpieces, including da Vinci’s Salvador Mundi, with AI’s help. GANTheftAuto: Harrison Kinsley on AI-Generated Gaming Environments Humans playing games against machines is nothing new, but now computers can develop games for people to play. Programming enthusiast and social media influencer Harrison Kinsley created GANTheftAuto, an AI-based neural network that generates a playable chunk of the classic video game Grand Theft Auto V. Subscribe, Review and Follow NVIDIA AI on Twitter If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the NVIDIA AI Podcast on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating and review. Follow @NVIDIAAI on Twitter or email the AI Podcast team to get in touch. View the full article

Yes, Cyberpunk 2077 is already in HD—it goes way past HD for anyone playing in 2K or 4K, even—but if you ever stopped to look at the game’s ground textures and walls, you may have noticed they’re not as sharp as some of the more attention-grabbing parts of the world. Read more... View the full article

As we veer ever closer to climate catastrophe, more and more people—and businesses—are working to lessen their impact on the planet. Cars are going electric, straws have gotten organic and even video game cases have gotten slimmer. One industry that’s lagging well behind, though, is board games. Read more... View the full article

Star Citizen—a video game first announced when Gangnam Style was top of the charts—is sometimes unfairly labelled as vapourware. It’s usually called that by people who have never actually played it; if they had, they’d know that there is the framework of a game out there, which can be played, but which is also… Read more... View the full article

I bring good news for all you Lego Star Wars nerds: After a decade of multiple sets coming with a crappy, generic Lego Darksaber piece that no one likes, things are finally changing. An upcoming new Mandalorian-themed set will include a more accurate Darksaber piece instead of the current, lacking design, which is… Read more... View the full article

Earlier today, Hidekazu Tanaka, a composer whose work includes contributions to Pokémon Journeys: The Series and The Idolm@ster, admitted in court to stalking and soliciting sex from a 15-year-old girl, as well as a dozen other obscene public acts from the past 10 years. Read more... View the full article

Read more... View the full article

Nintendo is shutting down the 3DS and Wii U eShops at the end of the month. It feels premature and idiotic, but such is the world we live in. Nintendo’s 3D handheld will always live in the shadow of its more popular predecessor, but damn if the 3DS didn’t have a bunch of great and special games. Now is your last… Read more... View the full article

Brandon “Atrioc” Ewing—the Twitch streamer who in January accidentally revealed he was viewing explicit deepfake content featuring women streamers he’s friends with IRL, setting off a massive controversy—recently returned to the platform to update his fans. Read more... View the full article

Amid dozens of controversies about AI technology stealing art and denying the Holocaust, it can be difficult to think of its genuinely cool capabilities—especially when Midjourney is constantly failing to even generate the right number of fingers on a human hand. GPT-4 is the latest version of AI text generators that… Read more... View the full article

It’s been five months since Konami broke the internet with a cavalcade of video game and movie-related announcements during its Silent Hill showcase. Today, Konami announced a casting update on the upcoming Silent 2 live-action film, which will enter production next month. Read more... View the full article

Zombie-spotted action-adventure Dead Island 2 spent the last nine years pinballing between studios—original developer Techland, then Yager Development, then Sumo Digital, and finally Dambuster, which has ties to the TimeSplitters series in its former, ‘00s life as Free Radical Design. Recently, it gained enough speed… Read more... View the full article

Global leader in convenient foods and beverages PepsiCo is deploying advanced machine vision technology from startup KoiReader Technologies, powered by the NVIDIA AI platform and GPUs, to improve efficiency and accuracy in its distribution process. PepsiCo has identified KoiReader’s technology as a solution to enable greater efficiency in reading warehouse labels. This AI-powered innovation helps read warehouse labels and barcodes in fast-moving environments where the labels can be in any size, at any angle or even partially occluded or damaged. This is up and running in a PepsiCo distribution center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with plans for broader deployment this year. “If you find the right lever, you could dramatically improve our throughput,” said Greg Bellon, senior director of digital supply chain at PepsiCo. KoiReader’s AI-powered innovation helps read warehouse labels and barcodes in fast-moving environments. KoiReader’s technology is being used to train and run the deep learning algorithms that power PepsiCo’s AI label and barcode scanning system. Once near-perfect accuracy was achieved, its application is being expanded to validate customer deliveries to ensure 100% accuracy of human-assisted picking operations. At the Dallas facility where PepsiCo is testing the technology, Koi’s AutonomousOCR technology scans some of the most complex warehouse labels quickly and accurately on fast-moving conveyor belts. It also is being investigated to assist warehouse workers as they scan pallets of soda and snacks. The same AutonomousOCR technology has also been deployed to automate yard operations as tractors and trailers enter and exit PepsiCo’s distribution center in Texas. “KoiReader’s capability offers up the potential for many use cases — starting small and demonstrating capability is key to success,” Bellon says. The system is already generating valuable real-time insights, Bellon reports. Koi’s technology can accurately track regular or irregularly shaped products, with and without labels, as well as count how long it takes workers to pack boxes, how many items they are packing, and how long it takes them to retrieve items for boxes. It acts as a real-time industrial engineering study answering many questions about the influence of people, process and technology on throughput. A broad array of the NVIDIA stack is being used by KoiReader across its diverse solutions portfolio and customer workflows. NVIDIA TAO Toolkit, DALI and Nsight Systems are being used to train and optimize models on large NVIDIA A6000 GPU-powered servers. The NVIDIA DeepStream SDK, TensorRT and Triton Inference Server are used to maximize throughput and deliver real-time results on edge nodes powered by NVIDIA A5000 GPUs, and NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin module-enabled servers for larger-scale deployments. And every aspect of Koi’s applications are built cloud-native, using containerization, Kubernetes and microservices. Additionally, the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software suite promises to help PepsiCo confidently scale up and manage its applications and AI deployments. “The KoiVision Platform was built to deliver logistics, supply chain, and industrial automation for enterprise customers. Our solution suite is helping PepsiCo improve operational efficiency and accuracy in its distribution process,” said Ashutosh Prasad, founder and CEO of KoiReader. “We’re testing out object- and activity-detection capabilities and computer vision today to figure out what kind of data we want to collect with that sort of application,” Bellon said. Bellon said he’s excited for what’s next. “We’re going to be on a journey together,” he said. View the full article

Another month, another chance for Sony to convince you to keep your PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium subscription (or to sign up). And this month the lineup is solid enough that I’ll likely stick around. Over a dozen games are being added, including three classics and a few big triple-A games like Ghostwire: Tokyo,… Read more... View the full article

A major Super Smash Bros. tournament has come and gone, but not without some drama. After participating in the tournament, a bunch of Melee and Ultimate players found themselves “blowing chunks” due to a stomach bug. Read more... View the full article

With a wildly successful TV adaptation, The Last of Us has done the unthinkable and proven that it is possible to make a good show based on a video game. Add to that the recent remake of the first game smashing sales records, and surely, you must be thinking, this momentum will lead to another single player TLoU game?… Read more... View the full article

I clearly remember the first time I saw the mysterious merchant from Resident Evil 4. He pops by a window and gets Leon’s attention. You then head out and around the back of the building where he is waiting for Leon. He’s ready to sell and buy, even in this terrible place. He’s the best. But who is he and why can’t he… Read more... View the full article