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Fortnite Chapter 4 Released, With Significant Graphic Improvements Using Unreal Engine 5.1

By
Avinash A
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Fortnite Chapter 4

Epic Games has announced Fortnite Chapter 4, the start of a new season for its popular free-to-play battle royale game. An all-new island has been created, featuring key locations such as The Citadel, Anvil Square, Brutal Bastion, and Frenzy Fields.

Added to the gameplay is the dirt bike Trail Slasher, the ability to bounce obstacles by sprinting towards them, reality augments given randomly at regular intervals and, of course, new weapons and healing items. As you can see from the trailer, there will also be popular new characters like the Doom Slayer and the Witcher’s Geralt of Rivia.

Epic Games has also improved the game’s graphics by updating Fortnite Chapter 4 to Unreal Engine 5.1. The game was already running on Unreal Engine 5, but they decided to take full advantage of its key features, mainly Nanite and Lumen.

https://youtu.be/XXYxZySYeFU

Nanite

Nanite provides high-definition architectural geometry. Specifically, the building is rendered in real-time with millions of polygons, modelling each brick, stone, wood plank, and wall decoration.

The natural scenery is also highly detailed. About 300,000 polygons were used for each tree, modelling each stone, flower and blade of grass.

Lumen

Reflections in Lumen provide high-quality ray-traced reflections on glossy materials and water surfaces.

The Lumen can also run real-time global illumination at 60 FPS. Reflective lighting makes the building space beautiful, and the surrounding lighting affects the character. In addition, radiant (shiny) textured costumes diffuse light onto nearby objects and surroundings.

Virtual Shadow Map

Virtual shadow maps allow for highly detailed shadows. Each brick, leaf, and modelled detail now casts a shadow, and the character’s shadow is extremely accurate. This means that the character’s hat and other details will also cast shadows.

Temporal Super Resolution (TSR)

In Fortnite, Temporal Super Resolution is an upgraded version of Temporal Antialiasing that delivers high-quality visuals at high framerates.

Of these tech improvements, only Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) has been added to Fortnite Save the World and creator-made islands. To enable hardware raytracing for Lumen GI and Reflections on PC, GI and Reflections must be set to Lumen High or Lumen Epic, and Nanite must also be enabled. Please note that NVIDIA DLSS is currently disabled to ensure Epic works properly with this new build.

On the latest consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X), Fortnite Chapter 4 players can get Nanite, Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps, and Temporal Super Resolution (TSR).

What are the Best Cities for Tech Jobs in 2023?

By
Nethra Gupta
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Technology influence

Tech is one of the highest-paid industries in the world thanks to its high growth rates and venture capital firms throwing cash at companies. However, breaking into tech can be challenging due to the competitiveness and demand for specific skills. To increase your chances of landing a role, check out the best cities for jobs in tech below!

1. Austin, Texas

Austin is the new San Francisco! Thanks to high taxes, increased crime, and out-of-control cost of living, many tech companies, have started abandoning Silicon Valley and looking for greener pastures. One city that has caught the eye of many tech darlings is Austin.

When people think of Texas, they often think of BBQ, Southern accents, and cowboy boots. However, Austin is a diverse city with a thriving student population, great restaurants, bars, and parks. The weather is also amazing, with warm summers and mild winters.

Some of the tech companies that have set up shop in Austin include Apple, Amazon, Tesla, AMD, and Adobe. All of these tech giants offer a variety of roles, from senior to junior at their offices and facilities in Austin.

Another massive advantage of moving to Austin is the cost of living and lower taxes. Texas does not have a state income tax, and the cost of living is significantly lower than in other major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and San Francisco. In fact, the cost of living in Austin is only slightly above the national average, which is amazing considering how livable the city is. This city is also included in the list of best cities for work in 2022 by the version of SignalHire – a company that provides recruiting, marketing, and sales solutions.

2. Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh in North Carolina has transformed into a tech hub over the last 10 years. The metro has a population of just 1.5 million, while the city proper has a population of just under 500,000. It offers a small-town vibe with all the amenities of a massive city.

Tech companies are thriving in Raleigh thanks to the city’s close proximity to a number of top universities, including the University of North Carolina and Duke, two of the most prestigious colleges in the whole of the US. Raleigh is also 35% less expensive than New York, making it very affordable!

The biggest tech employers in Raleigh are ServiceNow, BitSight Technologies, and Adwerx, and the average salary is just over $100,000. Many tech firms in the city are growing and are constantly looking for talented developers, systems analysts, support specialists, and software testers.

3. Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte, just like Raleigh, has seen an explosion in the tech scene over the last 10 years, and tech jobs have increased by almost 70%. Charlotte offers many of the same benefits as Raleigh. The city is the perfect size at just under 1 million people, has lots of great restaurants, and people tend to be much friendlier compared to other big cities.

If you are looking to escape the hustle and bustle of New York or avoid the crazy high living costs in Silicon Valley, then Charlotte is a great option. It has everything you need to live an amazing life and have an NBA and NFL team!

Some of the top tech companies in the city are IBM, Red Ventures, Credit Karma, Microsoft, and Lending Tree. The most common tech jobs in Charlotte, North Carolina, are software developers, testers, and system analysts. All of these roles have an average salary of $100,000. As the average cost of living is less than $1000, excluding rent, that money goes a long way.

4. San Francisco, California

San Francisco may have its downsides, but it is still the mecca of tech! San Francisco is where the tech scene in America started way back in the 70s and has been the driving force behind massive amounts of economic growth and has seen so many huge fortunes created.

San Francisco is home to so many successful tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Netflix, Linkedin, Slack, and more! A huge number of tech firms have their head offices based in San Francisco which means there are massive amounts of jobs on offer, and it is the best place to work if you want to break into senior roles and management.

The downside to living in San Francisco is the high taxes and crazy high cost of living. However, to offset this, tech firms pay on average $150,000 per year, which is much higher than other tech hubs around the country. Despite some tech companies jumping ship, many of the biggest tech companies on the planet are firmly rooted in San Francisco!

5. San Jose, California

San Jose, California, is San Francisco’s smaller cousin. It is just over 1-hour drive away and is a much more affordable option. To take advantage of cheaper rents, some big tech companies like Adobe, Sage Intacct, and Calyx Software are based here. Currently, over 150,000 people in San Jose work in the tech industry, and the average salary is over $140,000!

San Jose offers the great California lifestyle with the gorgeous weather without the hustle and bustle of San Francisco and at a much lower price bracket! Unfortunately, the taxes are still very high. 

6. Seattle, Washington

Did you know the average tech worker in Seattle, Washington, earns $120,000 per year? Actually, over 160,000 people in Seattle work in the tech industry! Seattle has long been a tech hub since Microsoft set up its headquarters in Redmond in 1986. Other major tech companies in the local area include SalesForce, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Tableau.

Seattle is considered one of the 10 best places to live in the US thanks to its amazing schools, universities, low crime, and strong environmentally conscious movement. Seattle has a thriving restaurant scene and is the perfect-sized city at just under 800,000. If you are looking for a break from California but still want to stay on the west coast, then Seattle could be the perfect city to start your tech career. By the way, this city is also in the top of rating by SignalHire, which means this city is undoubtedly ideal for work. However, be prepared for the rain; in an average year, it rains 150 days!

Wrapping Up

Tech companies tend to cluster in certain cities, which are optimal for finding talent, reducing their tax burden, and living. If you are already in the tech industry and looking for a change of scenery or trying to break into the industry, then we recommend moving to:

  • Austin, Texas
  • Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • San Francisco, California
  • San Jose, California
  • Seattle, Washington

These cities are home to massive tech companies, offer average salaries of $100,000 or more, and have lots of opportunities in various tech roles including devs, analysts, and testers. 

AirJet Cools The Chip Without A Fan And Will Be Installed In Future Intel Products

By
Vishak
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Frore Systems AirJet

Cooling device startup Frore Systems has announced the world’s first solid-state cooling chip, AirJet, aimed at cooling CPUs, GPUs, and SoCs operating in devices such as laptops, handheld game consoles, and tablets.

The cooling chip, AirJet, sits on top of the heat-generating chip and cools the target chip without using a mechanical fan. With a thickness of 2.8mm, the air is drawn in through the slits at the top. Heat is removed from the chip and discarded from the sides. It is said that a vibrating membrane that vibrates ultrasonically is used for intake and exhaust. Inside the AieJet, the air is converted into a pulsating jet as it draws heat from the heat spreader. And finally, it is discharged from the ejection port provided on the side surface.

The company claims that this solid-state cooling solution can double CPU performance compared to traditional methods. The startup raised $100 million in investment and is now collaborating with Intel to use its technology in the Evo line of laptops.

CPUs usually have a Tau value that indicates how much they can boost at maximum power consumption. This is called the PL2 state and is compared to the PL1 state, which is the normal power consumption. Once the CPU reaches PL2, it cannot remain in that state without proper cooling. For example, Intel’s Core i9-10900K CPU can maintain Tau for 56 seconds before being throttled down. 

According to Frore Systems, AirJet can maintain Tau’s state indefinitely, depending on the scenario. A 1.8GHz ARM CPU coupled with four AirJet Minis can operate at 3.5GHz indefinitely. An x86-based AirJet Pro can run at PL1 at 2.1GHz, rather than 1.4GHz with a fan. Furthermore, AirJet in a 15-inch laptop may create a noise of just 29 dBA instead of 42 dBA with a fan.

For now, the company is also targeting thin portable devices such as tablets, laptops and VR headsets for its AirJet Mini products. The AirJet Mini is about the size of a credit card, measuring 41.5mm long, 27.5mm broad, and 2.8mm thick. Power consumption is only 1W, noise is 21 dBA, which is very quiet, and 5.25W heat can be removed. 

The AirJet Pro for x86 is naturally a little bigger. The size is 71.5mm x 31.5mm, and the thickness is the same, 2.8mm. It can dissipate 10.75W of heat and consumes only 1.75W.

Frore Systems has started an engineering collaboration with Intel. While this doesn’t involve monetary exchange, Intel will use its vast resources to help Frore.

BOE Announces Ultra-High Refresh Rate Display That Achieves 600Hz

By
Vishak
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BOE Ultra-High Refresh Rate Display 600Hz

BOE (Beijing Oriental Electronics Group) has launched the industry’s quickest display panel with a refresh rate of 600Hz.

BOE exhibited next-generation display panels at the World Display Industry Conference 2022. Although the hardware is not disclosed, this panel was installed in a working notebook PC equipped with AMD Ryzen and NVIDIA GeForce RTX logos. This display is aimed at hardcore gamers who demand top performance. It’s designed for laptops.

Technically, the BOE 600Hz refresh rate display panel is a real marvel. The laptop itself has a 16-inch form factor with what appears to be a 16:10 aspect ratio. Currently, Dell’s Alienware x17 R2 laptop has the highest refresh rate for a laptop display, at 480Hz. Like previous high refresh rate panels, BOE’s 600Hz display also seems to target 1920×1080p FHD resolution.

So, what kind of effect can professional gamers get from using a monitor that supports a refresh rate of 600Hz? A typical competition 240Hz monitor has a frame time of 4.16ms, but the more professional 360Hz LCD has a frame time of 2.7ms, which is 50% shorter. At a refresh rate of 600Hz, the frame time drops by 1.66ms.

Various studies have indicated that most individuals can see between 30 and 60 frames per second. However, there is no universally accepted definite limit to the number of FPS the eye can see. If a professional athlete can see 60 frames per second, the frame time is 16.66ms.

It’s unlikely that pro gamers can see more frames per second than other sportsmen, but at really high FPS and refresh rates, they tend to perceive the game environment better than their lower FPS counterparts.

Since the focus is on eSports professionals and competitive gamers, games like CrossFire, Fortnite, and PUBG can hit hundreds of frames per second without the best GPUs and CPUs. So, such extreme display panels might make sense for these games and pro gamers. Perhaps not because the 600Hz panel cuts the frame time from 4.16ms to 1.66ms, but because it offers a more immersive competitive experience for them, which could lead to better results. A refresh rate of 600 Hz is something that the top graphics cards may require to exhibit their maximum potential in games.

How to Choose an HR Director: A Reminder for a Business Owner

By
Jenna Jose
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business meeting

HR Director is a rather young position that appeared in our business 15-20 years ago. Until now, not all top managers and business owners are sure that the company needs it. Some hire an HR director because it’s trendy. Some hire an offshore team for their business. And this is a real option. You can read about the pros and cons of offshoring and yourshoring for software development with the help of Turnkey Labs company. They provide the best development teams around your business needs. In such a way, you can decide which option is better to choose.

Let’s talk about the top 5 criteria for hiring the best HR director for your business which can include:

  • KPIs;
  • the same language;
  • the ability to become a mediator;
  • decision-making.

The HR director is not just a position, it is a game-changing role in your business.

You Communicate with the HR Director in the Same Language

The language of business is the language of numbers. We cannot manage what we cannot measure. And in working with people, almost everything can be measured, from the hiring plan for the needs of the company for the future and ending with an assessment of the reasons for the dismissal of employees.

Therefore, for successful interaction with the HR director, it is necessary to agree on and then fix quantitative and qualitative indicators, a work plan, and an assessment of the results.

The choice of numbers and indicators is dictated by the development strategy. The planning system is proposed by the HR director and approved by the first person in the company.

You Are Satisfied with the Result of the Actions of the HR Director

If the performance of the HR director is in the range of 80% to 100% of the planned, this is an acceptable indicator.

Do not forget that additional tasks that have arisen after the action plan has been drawn up can only be added taking into account its adjustment. It is impossible to add water to a full glass.

HR Director Is Involved in Strategic and Tactical Decision-making

He is an assistant in making key decisions, the owners and top officials can give him the right to “veto”. An effective HR manager is like a doctor who knows what medicine is best for the company at the moment. Like any doctor, he must be guided by the principle of “do no harm.”

Choose an HR Director

The HR Director Is a Translator From the Language of the Owner to the Language of the Employee 

Often, the owners and top managers of the company make certain decisions because they are convinced that all employees treat their business as if it were their own. Also, because of this belief, the first persons have the feeling that they have created the best and unique conditions for work.

In practice, this may not be the case. Therefore, the ability to substantiate a different point of view, to offer solutions based on a more objective assessment of the situation, is a key competence of the HR director.

HR Director Solves Non-standard Tasks From the Owner Personally 

It is in such situations that compatibility is best manifested. In my practice, for example, it was the hiring of 30% of the staff of a large retail enterprise within 2 months.

The assignment may be related to major transformations in the company. For example, the organization of a training center for top management, in which the head coach is the owner of the company.

We hope, our tips will help you hire a professional HR who will drastically change the successful rate for your company.

Disney Develops AI That Can Make Actors Look Younger Or Older

By
Vishak
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Disney AI FRAN

Disney researchers have announced that they have developed an AI system called FRAN that makes it much easier to make actors look younger or older.

Until now, it has been possible for artists to hand-tune and uses CGI to make things look as realistic as possible, but this new AI tool could do most of the heavy lifting. This AI takes only 5 seconds to apply the ageing effect to one frame.

Re-ageing an actor, is generally an expensive and laborious process, requiring an artist to go through a scene frame by frame and manually change a character’s appearance. There have been previous attempts to automate this process using neural networks and machine learning. The Disney researchers noted that while such attempts may have worked for still images, other systems generally lose face identity, have lower resolution, and have less resolution between subsequent video frames. The results were unstable. The newly developed solution is the first practical, fully automated production-ready method for reworking faces in videos.

Disney AI FRAN Make Actors Look Younger Or Older

The researchers built a database of thousands of randomly generated faces to train a FRAN (face re-ageing network) neural network using a dataset of actual individuals. Then used, existing machine learning ageing tools to age these synthetic faces and input the results into FRAN.

Neural networks can analyse images of faces, predict which parts of the face will be affected by ageing, and apply effects such as wrinkles and skin smoothing as layers on top of the original face. The researchers argue that this approach allows FRAN to rework a performer’s identity and appearance as they are, even if the performer’s head or face moves around or the lighting changes during filming. Unlike other methods, FRAN also does not require an extra step of facial alignment.

It’s simple to understand why Disney would want to create such a tool. For example, it could reduce the workload of visual effects artists and potentially speed up the process. It helps keep budgets in check.

21 Million Users Sued Google Due To The Anti-Competitive Policy Of Google Play

By
Vishak
-
Makes The Top Google Play Apps

More Americans are uniting against Google in court due to the company’s monopoly — 21 million users from 17 states have filed a class-action lawsuit against Google due to the vendor’s violation of antitrust laws regarding the operation of the Google Play Store.

The class action complaint has been accepted by a federal court in the Northern District of California. The antitrust action covers Play Store customers who have engaged with the platform since August 2016. According to customers, Google overpriced Android applications, despite collecting a 30% fee on purchases on its platform in most cases.

The plaintiffs estimated the total damage caused by the company at $4.7 billion. However, Google’s lawyers said the plaintiffs could not show exactly how the harm was caused. In turn, lawyers for the plaintiffs said that Google prohibited app developers from referring customers to competitors and used misleading warnings to refrain customers from downloading on third-party marketplaces.

The latest allegation of Google abusing market dominance is part of a bigger antitrust battle that includes similar lawsuits brought by prosecutors in roughly three dozen US states, Epic Games, Match Collection, and a group of smaller companies. In response, a Google spokeswoman stated that the business is examining the court’s decision to entertain a new class action case.

Samsung Is Developing An Application For Self-Repair Devices

By
Vishak
-
Samsung Self Repair Assistant

Samsung decided to make life easier for ordinary users and is planning to release an application to help users independently repair their devices at home. Apple and Google have similar programs, but none of the companies has an application.

Samsung has applied for registration of the trademark Self Repair Assistant, which was found in the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) database. The document states that the service is intended to provide consulting and information services related to self-installation, self-repair, maintenance, and configuration of devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and headphones. 

A few months ago, Samsung launched a self-service appliance repair program in the United States. Its essence lies in the fact that users can now buy spare parts and tools for servicing gadgets at home. The company developed this project together with iFixit. Now, the digital giant has taken on the creation of the Self Repair Assistant application.

At first, the application will only contain data on a few flagship models, but we can expect a wider list of solutions in the future. There is no release date yet.

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