Shared posts
Technical improvements
Hi everyone, this week we put Moah in the driver's seat of the Dev Diary. If you don't know who he is, he is the Tech Lead on Stellaris and today he will be talking to you about the free 2.3 "Wolfe" update that will release alongside Ancient Relics, and what it brings to the table in terms of tech!
People have been clamoring for this for a while now, and various factors have led us to finally do this for this patch. I should temper your expectations though: while many have claimed that this would be a miracle cure for all their issues with Stellaris, the reality is somewhat more tame.
What does it mean?
The one solid benefit is that Stellaris is no longer limited to 4gb of memory, and won’t crash anymore in situations where it was reaching that limit. For people who play on huge galaxies, with many empires, many mods or well into 3000s, this will be a boon.
In terms of performance, though, it doesn’t change much. Without drowning you in technical details, let’s just say that some things go faster because you handle more data at once, some things go slower because you have more data to handle. In the end, our measurements have shown no perceptible difference.
Finally, the last effect of switching to 64 bits is that the game will no longer playable on 32 bits computers or OSes. We don’t think this will affect many people, but there you have it.
I know that’s everyone’s favourite question, so let’s do our best to talk about it. First, let me dispel some notions floating around in various forums: Stellaris does use multithreading, and we’re always on the lookout for new things to thread. In fact between 2.2.0 and 2.2.7, a huge effort was made to thread jobs and pops, and it’s one of the main drivers of performance improvement between these version.
Pops and jobs are indeed what’s consuming most of our CPU time nowadays. We’ve improved on that by reducing the amount of jobs each pop evaluate. We’ve also found other areas where we were doing too much work, and cut on:
- Ships calculating their daily regeneration when they’re at full health
- Off-screen icons being updated
- Uninhabitable planets doing the same evaluations as populated planets
Modifiers
One thing that sets Stellaris apart from other PDS title is how much we use (or abuse) modifiers. Everything is a modifier. Modifiers are modified by other modifiers themselves modified by other modifiers, and sometimes by themselves. It’s quite hard to follow, and leads to every value being able to change at any time without your noticing.
“Why don’t you just compute jobs when a new one appears?” has often been asked around these parts. Well, a short answer to that is it’s really hard to know when a new job appears. You can get jobs from any modifier to: country, planet, pops. Each of these can get modifiers from ethics, traditions, perks, events, buildings, jobs, country, planets, pop, technology, etc.
Until now we were trying to calculate modifiers manually, forced to follow the chain in its entirety: when you recompute a country modifier, you then calculate their planets modifiers, and then each planet would recalculate their pops modifiers. Some of our freezes were just that tangled ball of yarn trying to sort itself out.
This is our modifier flow charts. It’s not quite up to date, but gives you an idea of the complexity of the system (Unpolished because it’s a dev tool, and not made for the article).
No More!
For 2.3 “Wolfe” we have switched to a system of modifier nodes, where each node register what node they follow, and is recalculated when used, following the chain itself. We have modifiers that are more up to date, and calculated only when needed. This also reduces the number of pointless recalculations.
This system has shown remarkable promise, and cut the number of “big freezes” happening around the game (notably after loading, for example). It has some issues, but as we continue working with it, it’ll get better and help both with performance and our programmers’ sanity.
So, what’s the verdict?
In our tests, 2.3 “Wolfe” is between 10% and 30% faster than 2.2.7 right now. Hopefully it’ll stay that way until release, but the nature of the beast is that some of these optimizations break things and fixing the issues negate them, so we can’t promise anything.
Measurements provided by sabrenity, using detailed info from the beta build. It’s worth noting the “SHIPS_SERIAL” purple line has since been eliminated.
AI
Another forum favorite, we have done some improvements to the AI. First, with @Glavius ’s permission, we’ve used his job weights to improve general AI job distribution. We’ve also done the usual pass of polish and improvements, and of course taught the AI how to use all our new features.
What else is new?
We’re also getting a new crash reporter that will send your crash report as soon as they happen rather than next time you start the game. We’ve improved our non-steam network stack for connectivity issues, etc.
All right, enough of my yammering. This has turned into a GRRM length novel, and even though there are many more areas we could cover, we’ll just turn this for your perusal.
NASA officially orders its first segment of a lunar space station
Maxar has been selected to build and fly the first element of NASA’s lunar Gateway. (credit: Maxar Technologies)
NASA has chosen its first commercial partner for a proposed space station, known as the Lunar Gateway, to be built near the Moon. On Thursday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Maxar Technologies would build the first component of the Gateway—the power and propulsion element. Like the name suggests, it will provide electricity to the Gateway and help move it around.
"This time when we go to the Moon, we're actually going to stay," Bridenstine said in making the announcement. He has characterized the Gateway, which will be positioned in a high, elliptical orbit balanced between the Earth and Moon's gravity, as a reusable "Command Module." Under NASA's current plans to land humans on the Moon by 2024, this is where astronauts will launch to from Earth before climbing aboard pre-positioned landers to take them down to the lunar surface.
Despite the fanfare Thursday—Bridenstine provided an hour-long overview of NASA's ambitious Moon plans at the Florida Institute of Technology for a relatively simple contract award—the announcement represents a continuation of a Lunar Gateway plan that was initiated under the Obama administration. The Obama space plan involved using the Gateway as a stepping stone toward Mars, but now the Trump administration is pivoting toward the lunar surface.
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
The First Trailer for STAR TREK: PICARD is Here!
The first trailer for CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Picard is here, and Picard is no longer a part of Starfleet. But why? I guess we’ll have to watch the series to find out!
[Space]
The post The First Trailer for STAR TREK: PICARD is Here! appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.
A Starwars / Labyrinth Crossover Comic
[Source: Alexiela Art | Via GG]
The post A Starwars / Labyrinth Crossover Comic appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.
World of Warcraft Classic beta testers are reporting vanilla WoW features as bugs
-
Blizzard has released a few images of World of Warcraft Classic that cater to players' nostalgia. Certainly, a select few dedicated vanilla WoW players will remember trying to take down Ragnaros. [credit: Blizzard ]
Nostalgic World of Warcraft (WoW) fans have been calling for game publisher Activision-Blizzard to release World of Warcraft Classic for years, and they're finally getting their wish. World of Warcraft Classic is now in beta, but some players have been surprised by what they've found when playing it.
WoW Classic seeks to recreate the "vanilla WoW" experience—that is, WoW as it existed before a series of seven game-altering major expansion packs from 2007's The Burning Crusade to 2018's Battle for Azeroth. To achieve this, Blizzard has rebuilt the game based on archived data from back in 2005 and 2006 (patch 1.12 is the goalpost—the current game is on patch 8.1.5). The company has committed to meticulously presenting the experience exactly as it was back then—warts and all—with only a small number of unavoidable or critical changes.
The argument for this is simple: what makes classic WoW great to one player might be different from what makes it great for another. And who are Blizzard's designers to say which old features were just good or bad design for each player? It's an approach that shows Blizzard believes (at least to some degree) that WoW doesn't just belong to its creators but to its fans. That struggle between authorial intent or game design orthodoxy and "the player is always right" is at the heart of many of gaming's big contemporary controversies. But so far, Blizzard seems committed to its plan with regard to WoW Classic.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Super Dog [Comic]
[Source: Too Many Brooms Comics | Follow “Too Many Brooms” on Twitter | Follow “Too Many Brooms” on Instagram]
The post Super Dog [Comic] appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.
Did You Know? Witches and Cowboys Are the Same!
A theory from tumblr user otherwindow that witches and cowboys are the same entity, but just separated at night and day.
[Via gg]
Click This Link for the Full Post > Did You Know? Witches and Cowboys Are the Same!
Buckle up Cause These 25 Comics About Relationships Will Take You on a Forever Alone Feels Trip
What Microsoft and Sony’s streaming partnership means for gaming’s future
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty / Hanna-Barbera)
In a rare move, console rivals Microsoft and Sony announced a major collaboration on Thursday to join forces on a potentially huge new gaming sector: the cloud. The companies announced today that they have entered into a "memorandum of understanding" to "explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services."
The surprise move is the closest sign of collaboration between two fierce competitors in the console-gaming space, but it is probably not a sign that they will stop being competitors any time soon.
As part of the agreement, Sony will still use Microsoft's Azure servers and data centers for its own game and content-streaming services. That presumably includes PlayStation Now—the Sony game-streaming service launched in 2014 after Sony's 2012 acquisition of streaming company Gaikai—and PlayStation Vue, the company's Internet-based cable TV alternative.
Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments
The dark side of technology is back in first Black Mirror S5 trailer
An impressive ensemble cast will appear in three new episodes for Netflix series Black Mirror season 5.
The first trailer for the highly anticipated fifth season of the Netflix sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror is finally here, and it looks to be as edgy, darkly satiric, and thought-provoking as ever.
(Mildest of spoilers for prior seasons and Bandersnatch below.)
For the uninitiated, Black Mirror is the creation of Charlie Brooker, co-showrunner with Annabel Jones. The series explores, shall we say, the darker side of technology and its impact on people's lives in the near future, and it's in the spirit of classic anthology series like The Twilight Zone. Brooker developed Black Mirror to highlight topics related to humanity's relationship to technology, creating stories that feature "the way we live now—and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy." The series debuted on the British Channel 4 in December 2011, followed by a second season. Noting its popularity, Netflix took over the series in 2015, releasing longer seasons 3 and 4 in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Party like it’s 2004 with WoW Classic starting August 27
Enlarge / No, World of Warcraft Classic won't look like this in-game. (Not that the modern version looks that much more polished, of course.) (credit: Blizzard Entertainment)
Rewind to those halcyon days of 2004, when cries of "for the Horde" and "for the Alliance" were still novel, with the return of World of Warcraft Classic on August 27. Blizzard announced the release date in a lengthy news post that also spells out a range of closed beta and stress-test periods over the next three months.
This release date will place the game's launch nearly two years after Blizzard Entertainment confirmed it would release and maintain the game's "vanilla" version as a live service. That decision followed years of fans doing the same "behind" Blizzard's back, though their attempt to do so was an open secret—one that Blizzard battled aggressively.
"Select WoW players will be invited" to the classic version's first closed beta period beginning May 15, though Blizzard didn't confirm what makes particular WoW fans more eligible than others (perhaps the ones who signed certain petitions get bumped to the front of the list). Meanwhile, players who want to participate in a later trio of stress tests, taking place this May, June, and July, can opt in by flipping a toggle in their official Blizzard accounts.
Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Disney takes full control of Hulu as Comcast steps aside
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )
Today, Disney takes the reins at Hulu. Disney and Comcast announced a deal saying that Disney will assume full operational control of Hulu, effective immediately. In turn, Disney and Comcast have entered a "put/call" agreement, which means that as early as January 2024, Comcast can require Disney to buy NBCUniversal's 33-percent interest in Hulu. On the flip side, Disney can require NBCUniversal to sell its interest in Hulu by January 2024 for fair market value.
Fair market value will be assessed at the time of sale, but Disney has guaranteed Comcast a minimum sale price of $27.5 billion for the remaining stake in Hulu.
As part of the agreement, Comcast has agreed to extend Hulu's licensing of NBCUniversal content until late 2024. That means, despite Disney's immediate takeover, Hulu will retain NBCUniversal content for the next few years. This goes for on-demand content as well as Hulu Live.
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
NASA reveals funding needed for Moon program, says it will be named Artemis
Enlarge / The Trump administration's lunar plan finally has a price. Sort of. (credit: NASA)
NASA revealed Monday that it needs an additional $1.6 billion in funding for fiscal year 2020 to stay on track for a human return to the Moon by 2024. The space agency's budget amendment comes in addition to the $21 billion the Trump administration asked Congress for in March.
In a teleconference with reporters on Monday evening, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the budget amendment was a "down payment" on what will be needed in future years to fund the program. "In the coming years, we will need additional funds," he said. "This is a good amount that gets us out of the gate." He and the other NASA officials on the call would not say how much that would be.
Two people familiar with NASA's internal deliberations say the agency has estimated that it needs as much as $6 billion to $8 billion a year for a lunar return by 2024. (Bridenstine has said the amounts will not be this high). These funds would be needed to design and build a lunar lander, accelerate the Space Launch System rocket so that it can perform three launches by then, design new spacesuits, build elements of the Lunar Gateway, and for related programs.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Bluetooth harvester signals hacking group’s growing interest in mobile
Enlarge (credit: ybierling.com)
A Korean-speaking hacking group in operation since at least 2016 is expanding its arsenal of hacking tools to include a Bluetooth-device harvester in a move that signals the group’s growing interest in mobile devices.
ScarCruft is a Korean-speaking advanced persistent threat group that researchers with security firm Kaspersky Lab have been following since at least 2016. At the time, the group was found using at least four exploits, including an Adobe Flash zeroday, to infect targets located in Russia, Nepal, South Korea, China, India, Kuwait, and Romania.
In a post published Monday, Kaspersky Lab researchers said they discovered a custom Bluetooth-device harvester created by ScarCruft. The researchers wrote:
Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Supreme Court ruling could threaten Apple’s 30 percent app commission
Enlarge (credit: Chesnot/Getty Images)
A narrowly divided Supreme Court is allowing a group of consumers to move forward with a lawsuit charging that Apple overcharges customers for App Store purchases. Apple had asked courts to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that the law only allowed app developers, not customers, to bring such a case.
The lawsuit has been underway since 2011 and is nowhere close to resolution. The stakes are high. Apple's iOS platform is notable for completely shutting out alternative means of app distribution. Other major software platforms—including Android, Mac OS, and Windows—offer customers the option to download and install software they acquire from third parties without paying a commission to the platform owner. But ordinary iPhone users—those who are unwilling or unable to jailbreak or use developer tools—have no way to install apps other than through the official App Store.
Plaintiffs in this case argue that Apple's 30 percent commission on app sales wouldn't be viable in a competitive app distribution market. The class-action lawsuit seeks refunds on behalf of millions of users who have paid inflated prices for apps as a result of Apple's exclusionary practices.
Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments