Incestfllix

Microsoft’s research division has been hard at work trying to make ray tracing a more accessible feature for games of the future. A new patent from one of the team’s senior architects describes how the memory and cache load for bounding volume hierarchies (BVH)— structures used to speed up ray tracing—can be reduced by using a similar approach to texture Level of Detail (LOD) application. 

While Microsoft’s Xbox consoles would be the main beneficiary of this technique, AMD’s traditionally ray tracing weak GPUs, and graphics cards that aren’t blessed with a ton of VRAM are also a potential winners.

As with all such patents, the details within it are complex but also broad in terms of where they could be used. Its author, Mark Grossman, is a senior architect i…

Terra Nil is kind of like a reverse city builder—instead of planning and managing a bustling town, you expand its base into the wilderness that surrounds it, bringing nature back to a desolate wasteland, trying to restore dead biomes as you go. There’s already a lot to love with this strategy game, but now developers Free Lives are getting ready to add even more. 

An upcoming major update will be the first of its kind for Terra Nil and will expand “on its deeply satisfying nature restoration gameplay… and a dramatic overhaul of the wildlife system,” according to a press release. 

“New levels include Polluted Bay, a dead landscape carved in half by a badly polluted river, and Scorched Caldera, a vast volcanic crater that you must terraform into a life-f…

It’s the calm before the storm in Helldivers 2. Operation Swift Disassembly was a success and the Automatons have literally been wiped off the map. For as much as we’re enjoying our victory and Arrowhead is faithfully sticking to the bit that robots are now extinct, we know by now that something is coming. We might’ve gotten a first glance at that something today in the form of a “rogue” ship upgrade that briefly appeared for players.

Called the “Catalog Expansion” in the Ship Modules menu, this is the first time a new ship upgrade has been discovered in Helldivers 2. Before it disappeared, players captured its description and the upgrade’s effect:

“New stratagem permits added to the ship management terminal for purchase,” the description reads. The effect field add…

Keep your Wordle win streak on the right path with a helpful combination of today’s clue and a range of tips that’ll make sure you squeeze the most out of every guess. Still not enough? Then keep scrolling, because the answer to the March 14 (999) Wordle is waiting below.

This was one of those Wordles that went from a useless scramble of yellows to today’s answer in a flash. All of the guesses that didn’t go the way I hoped they would did at least nudge my stubborn letters a little closer to the right word every time, even if I couldn’t see it happening until I was halfway down the board. Hurray for wrong guesses, I suppose.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, March 14

You’d use today’s answer to compare two different points in…

Sony says it is investigating a claim by a ransomware group that says it has hacked the company’s systems and is now trying to sell the data it accessed.

The hack was reported by Cyber Security Connect, which said that a group calling itself Ransomed.vc claimed to have breached Sony’s systems and accessed an unknown quantity of data. “We have successfully compromissed [sic] all of Sony systems,” Ransomed.vc wrote on its leak sites. “We won’t ransom them! we will sell the data. due to sony not wanting to pay. DATA IS FOR SALE … WE ARE SELLING IT.”

The site said the hackers posted some “proof-of-hack data” but described it as “not particularly compelling,” and also said that the file tree for the alleged hack looks small, given the group’s claim that it had compromised “all …

Blaze through the Wordle of the day at… whatever speed you like, actually. Take it nice and slow with a fresh clue for the March 31 (1016) game if that’s your kinda pace, or rush your way to today’s answer if that’s more your style. As always, we’re here to help you win Wordle, your way.

Technically this Wordle went very much the same as yesterday’s, sending me running through the alphabet until there was nothing left other than today’s answer. The only problem was I reached that point early on and still couldn’t see the right word until I’d gone and had a quick break, giving my eyes a chance to come back to today’s puzzle from a fresh angle. 

Wordle today: A hint

Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, March 31

Anything that is fro…

Flesh Pit. Scavenger Hut. Slaughter House. Spirit Void. These are just some of the exciting locations you can excavate in The Deadly Path, a game about digging out a dungeon to appease an elder god while adventurers periodically appear to ruin your day.

In terms of vibes it’s half Dungeon Keeper and half Graveyard Keeper, as demonstrated in a trailer set to the version of In the Hall of the Mountain King from The Social Network. But unlike those games it plays on a grid of tiles representing the earth you’re carving out to form your unholy domain, which you flip to reveal what might be a handy vein of gold or an opening to the surface raiders will use to access your store of precious minerals and meat.

That’s why you need to balance expansion with building an army, re…

Valve has released a new update for Left 4 Dead 2 showing that, whatever the fans may think, someone over there is certainly paying attention to all their complaints. It makes substantial, not-so-substantial, and in some cases slightly bonkers changes to the game. Try this on for size: “Restored the knife’s original horizontal swing trajectory.” Knife is once more the best! Though the skillet will always hold a special place in my heart.

Some of the fixes seem like things that should always have been the case, such as only the original attacker being credited for damage caused by exploding props. Others are clearly in response to community requests, such as the addition of a bunch of new script functions, including “GetClosestCharacterWhoIsIT” which will return the closest charact…

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide released in a bashed-up state thanks to performance issues, an unfinished crafting system, a not-so-great cash shop, and wonky progression. The game clawed its way back into the good will of its players, though, especially since its recent talent tree overhaul, its recent reviews “Very Positive” on Steam at the time of writing. Fatshark is starting as it means to go on: announcing a two-part free update to celebrate its one year anniversary that’ll send you to the Carnival. No, really.

Announced Friday last week, The Traitor Curse will be released in two parts. The first arrives this month, while the second half will drop “before the winter holidays.” According to the announcement, here’s what’s promised for the first slice:

• New Ci…
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