#Dynamic Data Visualization

[acubeai]

Creating an Effective Power BI Dashboard: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction to Power BI Power BI is a suite of business analytics tools that allows you to connect to multiple data sources, transform data into actionable insights, and share those insights across your organization. With Power BI, you can create interactive dashboards and reports that provide a 360-degree view of your business.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Power BI Dashboard

1. Data Import and Transformation The first step in creating a Power BI dashboard is importing your data. Power BI supports various data sources, including Excel, SQL Server, Azure, and more.

Steps to Import Data:

Open Power BI Desktop.

Click on Get Data in the Home ribbon.

Select your data source (e.g., Excel, SQL Server, etc.).

Load the data into Power BI.

Once the data is loaded, you may need to transform it to suit your reporting needs. Power BI provides Power Query Editor for data transformation.

Data Transformation:

Open Power Query Editor.

Apply necessary transformations such as filtering rows, adding columns, merging tables, etc.

Close and apply the changes.

2. Designing the Dashboard After preparing your data, the next step is to design your dashboard. Start by adding a new report and selecting the type of visualization you want to use.

Types of Visualizations:

Charts: Bar, Line, Pie, Area, etc.

Tables and Matrices: For detailed data representation.

Maps: Geographic data visualization.

Cards and Gauges: For key metrics and KPIs.

Slicers: For interactive data filtering.

Adding Visualizations:

Drag and drop fields from the Fields pane to the canvas.

Choose the appropriate visualization type from the Visualizations pane.

Customize the visual by adjusting properties such as colors, labels, and titles.

3. Enhancing the Dashboard with Interactivity Interactivity is one of the key features of Power BI dashboards. You can add slicers, drill-throughs, and bookmarks to make your dashboard more interactive and user-friendly.

Using Slicers:

Add a slicer visual to the canvas.

Drag a field to the slicer to allow users to filter data dynamically.

Drill-throughs:

Enable drill-through on visuals to allow users to navigate to detailed reports.

Set up drill-through pages by defining the fields that will trigger the drill-through.

Bookmarks:

Create bookmarks to capture the state of a report page.

Use bookmarks to toggle between different views of the data.

Different Styles of Power BI Dashboards Power BI dashboards can be styled to meet various business needs. Here are a few examples:

1. Executive Dashboard An executive dashboard provides a high-level overview of key business metrics. It typically includes:

KPI visuals for critical metrics.

Line charts for trend analysis.

Bar charts for categorical comparison.

Maps for geographic insights.

Example:

KPI cards for revenue, profit margin, and customer satisfaction.

A line chart showing monthly sales trends.

A bar chart comparing sales by region.

A map highlighting sales distribution across different states.

2. Sales Performance Dashboard A sales performance dashboard focuses on sales data, providing insights into sales trends, product performance, and sales team effectiveness.

Example:

A funnel chart showing the sales pipeline stages.

A bar chart displaying sales by product category.

A scatter plot highlighting the performance of sales representatives.

A table showing detailed sales transactions.

3. Financial Dashboard A financial dashboard offers a comprehensive view of the financial health of an organization. It includes:

Financial KPIs such as revenue, expenses, and profit.

Financial statements like income statement and balance sheet.

Trend charts for revenue and expenses.

Pie charts for expense distribution.

Example:

KPI cards for net income, operating expenses, and gross margin.

A line chart showing monthly revenue and expense trends.

A pie chart illustrating the breakdown of expenses.

A matrix displaying the income statement.

Best Practices for Designing Power BI Dashboards To ensure your Power BI dashboard is effective and user-friendly, follow these best practices:

Keep it Simple:

Avoid cluttering the dashboard with too many visuals.

Focus on the most important metrics and insights.

2. Use Consistent Design:

Maintain a consistent color scheme and font style.

Align visuals properly for a clean layout.

3. Ensure Data Accuracy:

Validate your data to ensure accuracy.

Regularly update the data to reflect the latest information.

4. Enhance Interactivity:

Use slicers and drill-throughs to provide a dynamic user experience.

Add tooltips to provide additional context.

5. Optimize Performance:

Use aggregations and data reduction techniques to improve performance.

Avoid using too many complex calculations.

Conclusion Creating a Power BI dashboard involves importing and transforming data, designing interactive visuals, and applying best practices to ensure clarity and effectiveness. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can build dashboards that provide valuable insights and support data-driven decision-making in your organization. Power BI’s flexibility and range of visualizations make it an essential tool for any business looking to leverage its data effectively.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Geopolitics app is starting to come along pretty nicely - working on standardizing the interface of each widget & preparing it so you can easily customize where the data comes from & what widgets are shown...so like a customizable (& resizeable/rearrangeable) dashboard for whatever specific purpose you want

[imnothereyet]

can anyone tell me why i just thought it would be a good idea to throw myself headlong into a sequence of research & effort that summarizes as "human geography & urban planning historical revisionism" and would require learning how to do a from-the-ground-up redesign of entire metro areas based off of current understanding of the course of technological advancement, finding the oldest topographic data to use, spending hundreds of hours learning to effectively draw/paint semi-realistic architectural & landscape scenes, likely learning 3D modeling whether digital or physical, improving my understanding of building standards/options, and keeping up with emerging technologies.

[jcmarchi]

Using spatial learning to transform math and science education

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/using-spatial-learning-to-transform-math-and-science-education/

Using spatial learning to transform math and science education

Legend has it that Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head, sparking a bout of scientific thinking that led to the theory of gravity. It’s one of the most famous stories in science, perhaps because it shows the power of simple human experiences to revolutionize our understanding of the world around us.

About five years ago, Anurupa Ganguly ’07, MNG ’09 noticed kids don’t learn that way in schools.

“Students should learn how to use language, notation, and eventually shorthand representation of thoughts from deeply human experiences,” Ganguly says.

That’s the idea behind PrismsVR. The company offers virtual reality experiences for students, using physical learning to teach core concepts in math and science.

The platform can radically change the dynamics of the classroom, encouraging self-paced, student-led learning, where the teacher is focused on asking the right questions and sparking curiosity.

Instead of learning biology with a pen and paper, students become biomedical researchers designing a tissue regeneration therapy. Instead of learning trigonometry in a textbook, students become rural architects designing a new school building.

“We’re building a whole new learning platform, methodology, and tech infrastructure that allows students to experience problems in the first person, not through abstractions or 2D screens, and then go from that experience to ascribe meaning, language, and build up to equations, procedures, and other nomenclature,” Ganguly explains.

Students can rotate their bodies to minimize the distance between a trend line and the data points, to find the line of best fit and formalize the concept of residuals.

Image: Courtesy of PrismsVR

Today PrismsVR has been used by about 300,000 students across 35 states. The company’s approach was shown to boost algebra test scores by 11 percent in one study, with larger, multistate studies currently underway through funding from the Gates Foundation.

“Education has been in desperate need of real reform for many years,” Ganguly says. “But what’s happened is we’ve just been digitizing old, antiquated teaching methods instead. We would take a lecture and make it a video, or take a worksheet and make it a web app. I think districts see us taking a more aspirational approach, with multimodal interaction and concepts at the center of learning design, and are collaborating with us to scale that instead. We want to get this to every single public school student across the U.S., and then we’re going into community colleges, higher ed, and international.”

A new paradigm for learning

Ganguly was an undergraduate and master’s student in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. When she began as an undergrad in 2003, she estimates that women made up about 30 percent of her class in the department, but as she advanced in her studies, that number seemed to dwindle.

“It was a disappearing act for some students, and I became inspired to understand what’s happening at the K-12 levels that set some students up for success and led to fragile foundations for others,” Ganguly recalls.

As she neared the end of her graduate program in 2009, Ganguly planned to move to California to take an engineering job. But as she was walking through MIT’s Infinite Corridor one day, a sign caught her eye. It was for Teach for America, which had collaborated with MIT to recruit students into the field of teaching, particularly for high need and high poverty students.

“I was inspired by that idea that I could use my education, engineering background, and disciplined systems thinking to think through systemic change in the public sector,” says Ganguly, who became a high school physics and algebra teacher in the Boston Public Schools.

Ganguly soon left the classroom and became director of math for the district, where she oversaw curriculum and teacher upskilling. From there, Ganguly went to New York City Public Schools, where she also supported curriculum development, trying to relate abstract math concepts to students’ experiences in the real world.

“As I began to travel from school to school, working with millions of kids, I became convinced that we don’t have the tools to solve the problem I thought about at MIT — of truly leveling the playing field and building enduring identities in the mathematical sciences,” Ganguly says.

The problem as Ganguly sees it is that students’ world is 3D, complex, and multimodal. Yet most lessons are confined to paper or tablets. For other things in life, students learn through their complex experiences: through their senses, movement, and emotions. Why should math and science be any different? In 2018, the Oculus Quest VR headset was released, and Ganguly thought she had found a more effective learning medium to scale how we learn.

But starting an education company based on virtual reality at the time was audacious. The 128-gigabyte Quest was priced at $500, and there were no standards-based VR curricula or standalone VR headsets in U.S. K-12 schools.

“Investors weren’t going to touch this,” Ganguly jokes.

Luckily, Ganguly received a small amount of funding from the National Science Foundation to build her first prototype. Ganguly started with Algebra 1; performance in this class is one of the top predictors of lifetime wages but has shown a stubbornly persistent achievement gap.

Her first module, which she built during the pandemic, places students in a food hall when a sudden announcement from the mayor rings out. There’s an alarming growth of an unknown virus in the area. The students get the power to travel back in time to see how the virus is spreading, from one person’s sneeze to many people’s behaviors in a demonstration of multiplicative growth.

The people turn to dots in a simulation as the journey moves to interactive, tactile data visualization, and the students are charged with figuring out how many weeks until the hospitals run out of capacity. Once the learning design for VR was established, Ganguly continued to build experiences across the curriculum in geometry, algebra II and III, biology, chemistry, and middle school subjects. Today Prisms covers all math and science subjects in grades seven to eleven, and the company is currently building out calculus, data science, and statistics for upper and postsecondary school. By the fall of 2025, Prisms will have evergreen content up to grade level 14.

Following the experiences, students gather in small groups to reflect on the lessons and write summaries. As students go through their virtual experiences, teachers have a web dashboard to monitor each child’s progress to support and intervene where needed.

“With our solution, the role of the teacher is to be Socrates and to ask high-quality questions, not deliver knowledge” Ganguly says.

As a solo founder, Ganguly says support from MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, which offers members of the MIT community startup guidance in the form of “board meetings” led by successful entrepreneurs, was crucial.

“The MIT founder community is different,” Ganguly says. “We’re often technical founders, building for ourselves, and we build our company’s first product. Moving from product to your go-to-market strategy and hiring is a unique journey for product-minded founders.”

From textbooks to experiences

A few years ago, Ganguly’s team was leading a classroom coaching session in a Virginia school district when a teacher told her about a student named Silas.

“The teacher was saying, ‘Silas never does anything, he just sits in the back of class,’” Ganguly recalls. “I’ve seen this like clockwork, so we just said, ‘Let’s give Silas a fresh shot and see what we can do.’ Lo and behold, Silas was the first one to finish the module and write a full synthesis report. The teacher told me that was the first time Silas has turned in an assignment with everything filled in.”

Ganguly says it’s one of thousands of anecdotes she has.

“A lot of students feel shut out of the modern math classroom because of our stubborn approach of drill and kill,” Ganguly says. “Students want to learn through great stories. They want to help people. They want to be empathetic. They want their math education to matter.”

Ganguly sees PrismsVR as a fundamentally new way for students to learn no matter where they are.

“We intend to become the next textbook,” Ganguly says. “The next textbooks will be spatial and experiential.”

[citrlet]

because i was asked for what mods i use, i decided i'll just make a whole post!

most of everything here is pretty cottagecore/naturey~

under the cut because my game is heavily modded this list is long!!

visual

medieval buildings

way back pelican town

seasonal cute characters base / expanded / east scarp

all cuter animal replacements

vibrant pastoral 1.6 (temporary fix)

overgrown flowery ui

medieval craftables

dynamic night time

cottagecore fences

lamps

gwens paths

animated gemstones

foliage redone foliage only

rosedryads fairies

elle's town animals

sve facelift

more grass

medieval dnt

flowergrass and snowfields

expansion fish redesign

clothing / hairs

more accessories and stuff

cozy scarves

hoods and hoodies

vanilla pants and skirts

the coquette collection

seasonal hats

ani's colour collection

improved and new hairstyles

kyuyas hairstyles pack

furniture

idalda furniture recolor

h&w outdoor furniture

h&w fairy garden furniture

west elm furniture

nano's retro style furniture

asters big furniture pack

gameplay / mechanics

cjb cheats menu (just to walk a little faster)

cjb show item sell price

greenhouse gatherers

craftable mushroom boxes

advanced casks

lumisteria serene meadow

growable forage and crop bushes

cornucopia more flowers / more crops

atelier wildflour crops and forage pack

wear more rings

tree transplant

passable crops

no fence decay redux

multi yield crops

crop fairy

challenging community center bundles

better chests

automate

spawn supply crates on beach

expanded storage

bigger backpack

blue eggs and golden mayo

better ranching

npc map locations

data layers

expansions

stardew valley expanded

east scarp / lurking in the dark / never ending adventure / always raining in the valley

lumisteria visit mount vapius

misc

jen's cozy cellar

cozy farmhouse kitchen

asters walls and floors megapack

wrens expanded greenhouse

cuter coops and better barns

nicer sewer

also recommended

hudson valley buildings

elle's seasonal buildings

seasonal fences

ridgeside village

immerisve farm map 2

[stereax]

CapFriendly Alternative Sites MegaPost

(Last update: 07/27 - added CapSized.)

As we are all likely aware by now, the Washington Capitals have decided to ruin everyone's lives by purchasing and sunsetting CapFriendly. The site has gone dark as of July 10, 2024.

While the hockey community has experienced a similar loss before, with the death of Matthew Wuest and the subsequent loss of CapGeek, this is a markedly different situation that sets a troubling precedent - namely, that freely usable, public NHL data is now available to the highest bidder, who can then revoke access to the data at a minute's notice. Two things can coexist: we can be happy for the makers of CapFriendly that they are being compensated well for their services while also scorning the Washington Capitals organization for choosing to turn off CapFriendly entirely.

Under the cut, please find a list of free CapFriendly alternatives and other websites that contain NHL data. (In some cases, they are mostly free - however, most/all important information for lay analysis is available for free.) This list is dynamic and taking suggestions, so please feel free to send me any websites you find at @stereax and check the original post for updates!

PART 1: SALARY CAP TRACKERS

PuckPedia: The New CapFriendly

PuckPedia is the closest replacement to CapFriendly currently available. It contains salary cap information for all teams and players, draft pick information, several calculators including a buyout calculator and a pick value calculator, agent information, and more. They also run PuckDoku! The biggest strike against PuckPedia is its lack of simulators (Armchair GM, mock draft, or trade simulators); however, in the wake of the CapFriendly news, PuckPedia shared that an Armchair GM simulator is under active development. 07/05 Update: PuckGM is here! You can also react to prospective PuckGMs (thumbs up, thumbs down, laugh, think emojis).

CapSized: Labor of Love

Referred to me by @nonslipdoormat and billed as a "solo female developer's project" (nonslipdoormat IS said developer!), CapSized is a site that's designed similarly to CapFriendly. It has some features other sites lack, such as trade histories going back to 2003 (with some entries as old as 1964!) and a detailed transactions page again stretching YEARS into the past. The more you poke around, the more cool things you uncover. Its primary purpose is to be a "visual database", but calculators and an NHL GM mode are on the list of future additions. I'll be dead honest, I think this is my favorite cap-checker site because of all the extra utilities. Super excited to see where this project goes!

Referred to me by @reavenedges-lies. A "baby site" that has some of the basics of salary cap info, plus a buyout calculator, qualifying offer calculator, and trade proposal maker. The trade proposal maker is prone to error and seems to only be useful for graphics. It can be a useful site for some, but it would not be my first choice.

CapWages: CapFriendly Lite

Another alternative to PuckPedia that mimics CapFriendly in design and is more intuitive for users going directly from CapFriendly to an alternative site. Like PuckPedia, it now features a GM mode, but the GM mode is in beta and is not fully functional (it only shows contracts currently existing at the NHL level). Nevertheless, for checking salary cap info, it is very good and I recommend it. Also now has a buyout calculator.

CapSpace: Young Gun

BenchWarmers: Greenhorn

Similar to CapSpace but perhaps a little better in the design department. I like how, if you don't have an account, it acts like you're Kyle Dubas and has you watching Toronto and Carolina. Has a few neat stats (like "core four" which shows how much the four most expensive players are making) that I haven't seen easily replicated on other sites, but functionality is rather limited outside of that, which is why it's also not my first choice.

Spotrac: Another Salary Cap Checker

An alternative to PuckPedia for salary cap information. However, it lacks much of the information and functionality of PuckPedia or most other sites listed here.

PART 2: ADVANCED STATS

NaturalStatTrick: The Holy Grail of Stats

NaturalStatTrick, or NatStat for short, is a site that contains just about any stat you can think of for any team or player. It has a learning curve but is generally understood to be the most reliable stat tracker available for free. You can even view stats for individual games on it!

MoneyPuck: DTWoMeter and More

You know it from the Deserve-to-Win-o-Meter or its playoff odds rings, but MoneyPuck has a lot of useful data as well if you do a little browsing. Generally, I've heard that MoneyPuck is less accurate than NatStat, but is easier to use, especially on mobile.

HockeyViz: "If I Ever Sell, I Failed"

Home of the Simple Hockey Charts, HockeyViz has a visual for just about every stat out there. You've almost certainly seen some of them before. Most of them are completely free to the public! They're super useful for visualizing stats as more than "just numbers", allowing you to see exactly WHERE things are happening on the ice.

HockeyStatCards: GameScore Kings

Again, you've probably seen HockeyStatCards's GameScore charts. Using data from NatStat (see above) and an algorithm created by Dom Luszczyszyn, it provides a simple GameScore number that tells you whether a player is having a positive or negative impact on the ice for every game in the NHL.

PART 3: SPECIALIZED SITES

NHL Armchair GM: Building Rosters

This site allows you to Armchair GM a roster. Notably, it has a steeper learning curve than CapFriendly and does not have a forum or other way to easily save and publicize your Armchair GM moves. However, it can be useful to make Armchair GMs and have visuals for them.

NHL Entry Draft: With the First Overall Pick...

This site contains a ton of draft resources, from a mock draft simulator to scouting reports. Definitely a useful site for those who are interested in the entry draft. I've seen a couple of mock draft sites, but this one seems to have by far the easiest and arguably most expansive way to use it.

NHL Injury Viz: Rulers of LTIR

Here, you can explore the relationship between the injuries of players, their cap hits, and how teams did without them. Very useful when you're arguing that a certain player going down doomed the team.

PART 4: MORE TYPES OF DATA

HockeyReference: The Good Old Days

Hockey Reference is best used for surface level data about older players. It has some trivia sections as well, for if you ever wanted to know all players wearing certain jersey numbers, sharing a certain birthday, or hailing from Alaska.

EliteProspects: Every League Imaginable

Want to know the roster of a third-tier league in Quebec? EliteProspects has you covered. Literally every league on the face of the Earth, currently existing and not, EliteProspects has info on. Any player you can possibly name, EliteProspects has their stats from atom hockey all the way to the end of their career.

HockeyDB: Another Spot for Stats

HockeyDB, referred to me by @reavenedges-lies, is another solid site for looking up basic hockey stats. Also has a ton of leagues, similar to EliteProspects. Has a hockey card feature as well that shows you cards featuring the player you've looked up, which is neat!

PART 5: FORUMS

HFBoards: Hockey Forums

Probably the most well-known hockey forum out there. If you want to talk puck on a more forum-like site, similar to CapFriendly's forums, this is the one for you.

PART 6: CAPFRIENDLY ARCHIVES

SergeiFyodorov's CapFriendly FAQ Drive

Curated by @sergeifyodorov. Originally posted here and sent to me by @fellowshipofthegay. Archives of the CapFriendly FAQs!

Got a site that's not listed here? Let me know at @stereax and I'll add it! Remember: While CapFriendly may be going away, hockey analysis is here to stay!

[bellejolras]

i don’t mean to go on a rant but I’ve been reading reviews of Poor Things bc i hate being happy and ohhhh my goddddd

spoilers under the cut but I have complaints about people’s (lack of) media literacy

Oh my god okay so first of all, if you haven’t seen a movie how are you going to comment on it. Reading summaries and other people’s reviews only is not sufficient to make an original point. you do not know what you’re talking about. just stop.

Second, the movie is. satirical. Which I thought was obvious from the absurd premise and surreal visuals? This is not supposed to be the real world. Nor is it advocating for all the stuff it shows. In fact, it’s even actively indicting some of what it shows. For example: fucked up power dynamics in sexual relationships exist in the movie, but the movie is not saying they are good, it’s criticizing them. Is this not getting through to people?

Third, and related, it’s not ! just ! about ! a sexy baby !! Partly because again, satire. But also partly because she rapidly goes through childhood & adolescent maturity. And it’s not meant to be, like, linear… the regular laws of empirical data and science do not apply to this world… so she is not in fact, like 6 when she’s having sex but more like 16. Which you could argue is still a minor, and im not disputing that, because again the movie is critical of this part and duncan is a total loser. But there’s a massive difference between the mental development of those two ages. ALSO there’s literally nothing inherently wrong with baby bella autonomously discovering masturbation. That’s extremely normal for little kids, often just as a way of self-soothing because it feels nice and not with any awareness of sexuality. And it’s fine if you thought that was a weird scene! but it’s hardly pedophilia to include in the film when the “baby” in question is in fact played by fully grown adult emma stone and I cannot believe that I’m seeing people accuse this movie of that

Fourth, if you claim your takeaway from this movie is “it wants me to believe that women’s power only exists through their sexuality” then I don’t believe you’ve seen the entire movie (see point 1). Narratively it’s only a means to an end for Bella, and when she gets tired of it, she stops! She gets bored of duncan and reads philosophy! She leaves her sex work career and becomes a medical professional! And, even in the sex scenes, while there are many, they center her and her experience, her pleasure. Yes, her tits are out a lot but the sex scenes are weird, intentionally grotesque without being violent. The montage with duncan is shot through a fisheye lens and literally pans away from the bed to focus on a bird landing in the room. Duncan can proclaim himself the best lover in the world, but he’s really not important to the scene ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In conclusion, I know the people I’m complaining about aren’t going to read this, but just in case, I urge you to learn media literacy. And anyone else who read all of this, thanks lol!! accepting good faith discourse in the notes/replies

[omenarchive]

Welcome to the Omen Archive!

We're pleased to see you. You may note the “pardon our moon dust” banner at the top of our site. We’ve been weighing site readiness against a desire to launch, and finally felt we had reached the tipping point. This doesn’t, however, mean that things are complete: there is a long list of projects on the docket. Some are below. 

We intend, in time, to add:

A single campaign-at-a-glance page

Fearne’s Wild Shapes

Chetney’s Hybrid Transformations

Chetney’s toys

Imogen’s dreams

Ruidus flares

FCG’s baked goods

Campaign calendar

Dynamic character/party inventories

Visited locations list

Improved ability to sort existing lists and tables

Additional data visualizations (graphs, etc.)

Export data to machine readable formats, such as Excel or JSON

Many of these projects are currently in progress.

We have recently added:

Character cards (all levels)

Character level-up summary charts

FCG lore drops and worldview evolution quotes, "smiley day"s, trusted companions, Transfer Sufferings, berserks, Flat Exandria mentions, and flesh tongue mentions, as well as a nifty little easter egg (click the coin!)

Laudna’s “capable”s

Delilah appearances

Laudna’s Hunger of the Shadow Shard (as subset of Delilah mentions)

Episode thumbnails

Matron of Ravens mentions

Character damage taken

Episode At a Glance archive

If there are additional stats you’d like to see collected, please email us at sending@omenarchive.com, as well as (if relevant) some notes about how you tend to use that type of data (for example, running some analysis of your own, cross-checking lore, researching fanfiction, etc.). We’re always happy to add new things to the list where we can. 

Keep visiting the site for updates, and keep an eye on our social media for announcements of additions and changes to our stats and interface.

-

ETA: We're happy to see people getting excited about discovering new data via our site, but there's one important detail we want to be sure to clarify. Abundant credit is due to the team at CritRoleStats for not only lending us all of the pre-Episode 82 data on our site, but also for providing a partial foundation for some of the categories where we are working to expand.

ETA: This post is being edited to reflect progress made in adding new data and tools to the site.

[askagamedev]

Vertical Slice Breakdown - Dragon Age Veilguard

It's been a few days since the Dragon Age Veilguard gameplay video was released. I posted a challenge for aspiring developers to identify as many specific features and systems as they could spot. My expertise is in gameplay, so that's where I will be focusing. Expertise on visuals like lighting, rendering, shaders, etc. should be directed elsewhere.

0:22 - In-Game Cinematic with moving cameras 0:30 - Seamless cinematic transfer to gameplay, quest tracking UI element, different walking speeds 0:36 - Interactable element with UI 0:43 - Camera movement - orbital motion, but likely not detachable 0:53 - Party member movement, including waiting for the player as part of an escort sequence 2:08 - Uninteractable NPC actors perform animations 2:13 - Scriptable terrain changes/destruction 2:18 - Scriptable interactions with multiple actors 2:29 - Uninterrupted conversations when transitioning from gameplay to in-game cinematic 2:39 - Context-specific traversal method with special traversal animation (balancing across a thin beam) 2:50 - Small sequence that is likely unloading the last area and loading in data for the next environment. Likely also locks players off from returning to the previous area. 3:22 - Conversation wheel with "personality" icons and paraphrased words 3:39 - Dynamic inventory in game cinematics, show player's items 3:46 - Scripted Player equipment change during cinematic 4:04 - Quest variables (e.g. player background) result in different NPC response 4:27 - Combat UI including current target (four red dots), Combat log 4:30 - Player can jump 4:33 - UI Melee danger indicator for incoming attacks - silver for enemy attacking, gold for shortly impending damage 4:35 - Player can dash/dodge 4:39 - Event log - Items/Loot notification 4:42 - Shooting UI including hit/miss indicator (red reticle), time scaling, arrow charging (rounded purple bar above arrow count), arrow refill cooldown 5:03 - Some kind of special charge/jumping attack 5:09 - XP gain UI, Quest objective completion UI, Quest objective map indicator UI 5:12 - Auto sheath weapons 5:15 - Potion use/Health recovery 5:18 - Recover potions from the environment 5:40 - Quest objective indicator change on approach 5:49 - Ranged attack danger indicator 5:51 - Defensive action (player reflects damage back on ranged attacker) 6:06 - Enemies can be knocked off edges when fatal 6:10 - Destructible objects in combat, can be scripted 6:16 - Some kind of "special" dodge skill with VFX, likely a rogue class skill 6:51 - Second context-specific traversal method (sliding down a slope) also likely a second "can't go back" type of lockoff 7:01 - Action/Command UI (party/self ability commands) 7:06 - Specific skill used, skill cooldown, enemy debuffed + UI (weakened), resource used (purple bar at bottom of screen) 7:07 - Quick use button mapping, likely for controller face buttons 7:09 - Resource bar refills on its own and on attack damage 10:47 - Different kinds of health bars (likely magical shield and armor) 11:59 - Boss UI with both magical shield and armor bars. Not sure what the number 4 there indicates 12:15 - Telegraphed danger zones projected onto the floor 12:22 - Quick recover timing event 14:45 - Conversation option for branching cinematic 14:51 - Follower approval UI event log 18:49 - Destructible object with health bar and UI highlighting

Each of these elements is something that would need to be designed and implemented by someone on the gameplay team working with UI, engineering, and art. See anything I missed? Which did you get?

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[ghostwarriorrrr]

🇹🇷🔥 Turkish Air Force - F-4E 2020 Terminator

The F-4E 2020 Terminator represents a significant leap forward in the capabilities of the Turkish Air Force. This comprehensive upgrade enhances the venerable F-4E Phantom II with modern Turkish-made weapons systems, showcasing Türkiye’s commitment to self-reliance and advanced military technology.

Background

With a storied history dating back to the 1960s, the F-4E Phantom II has been a pivotal player on the global stage of air combat. Serving multiple nations and seeing numerous conflicts, the Phantom carved out its place in aviation history as a versatile and rugged aircraft. Türkiye’s decision to upgrade this aircraft stems from a strategic imperative to leverage existing assets while infusing them with cutting-edge technology to maintain relevance in modern aerial warfare. The 2020 Terminator program is the Turkish Air Force’s ambitious initiative to retrofit these fighters with state-of-the-art systems.

Strategic Importance

The ability to exert air superiority and conduct precision strikes is paramount in a region marked by dynamic security challenges. The F-4E 2020 Terminator’s enhanced capabilities contribute significantly to deterrence, and the demonstration of Türkiye’s advancing aerospace industry serves both a strategic and diplomatic purpose.

Upgrade Overview

The 2020 Terminator upgrade, realized by Turkish Aerospace Industries in collaboration with ASELSAN, constitutes a multifaceted improvement over the aircraft’s original design. It touches every aspect of the aircraft’s systems, bringing its avionics, armaments, and electronic warfare systems into the 21st century.

Avionics:

The modernized multi-mode pulse Doppler radar extends the aircraft’s detection range, allowing it to lock onto and engage targets from greater distances. Integrating a Hands-On Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS) system enhances pilot control, minimizing response time during high-stakes manoeuvres. Color Multifunctional Displays (MFDs) replace outdated gauges, providing pilots with real-time data visualization for improved situational awareness.

Armament:

The Terminator’s weapons suite has been revolutionized with a mixture of Western and indigenous munitions. Long-standing armaments like the AIM-9X Sidewinder are joined by Türkiye’s own precision-guided munitions, such as the SOM cruise missile, capable of striking strategic land and sea targets with formidable accuracy. The UAV-230, a domestic innovation, represents the pinnacle of Türkiye’s missile development, offering supersonic ballistic delivery of a range of warhead types over substantial distances. The BOZOK, MAM-C, MAM-L, and Cirit missiles exemplify Türkiye’s expertise in laser guidance and smart munition technology, enabling the Terminator to engage and defeat a broad spectrum of target profiles with unerring precision.

Electronic Warfare:

To contend with the contemporary battlefield’s electronic warfare environment, the F-4E 2020 Terminator incorporates an advanced Electronic Support Measures (ESM) system for rapid threat identification and an Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) suite to confound hostile tracking systems. Moreover, chaff and flare dispensers have been integrated to provide decoys against incoming missile threats, enhancing the aircraft’s survivability in hostile airspace.

Operational Capability:

The F-4E Phantom II, transformed by these integrated systems, emerges as a multirole platform capable of dominating beyond-visual-range air-to-air engagements and precision ground-attack missions. It can operate in complex electronic warfare environments and deliver various ordnances based on mission requirements, making it a flexible asset in the Türkiye Air Force’s inventory.

Significance:

The F-4E 2020 Terminator project is a hallmark of Türkiye’s aerospace ambition and its push toward defence autonomy. By retrofitting and modernizing its Phantoms, Türkiye maximizes the value of its existing fleet while also establishing a foundation for future indigenous aircraft development projects.

Munitions Details:

The advanced, indigenous Turkish weaponry integrated into the F-4E 2020 Terminator underlines a significant shift toward self-reliance in defence technologies. Each munition type brings unique capabilities that enhance the platform’s lethality:

UAV-230: A domestically-developed ballistic missile, this supersonic weapon delivers high-precision strikes at long ranges, challenging enemy defences with its speed and reduced radar cross-section.

BOZOK: The versatility of this laser-guided munition makes it ideal for engaging both stationary and moving targets with high precision, ideal for close air support.

MAM-C/L: These smart micro munitions are designed for tactical flexibility, allowing for precision targeting in complex engagement scenarios, from anti-armour operations to counter-insurgency roles.

Cirit: A highly accurate laser-guided missile system designed for low collateral damage, Cirit is adept at striking soft and lightly armoured targets with pinpoint accuracy.

SAGE Munitions: TUBITAK SAGE, Türkiye’s leading defence research and development institute, has contributed a range of munitions enhancing the Terminator’s operational capabilities across various domains.

Conclusion:

The upgraded F-4E 2020 Terminator is a testament to Türkiye’s determination to retain a competitive edge in aerospace and defence technologies. The integration of modern avionics, armaments, and electronic warfare capabilities ensures the aircraft’s continued relevance in modern air combat, and its presence in the skies serves as a deterrent in a strategically complex region.

[moiraimyths]

An Announcement on The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe)'s Route Order

Happy Saturday, fateful friends! We hope you're enjoying the update, if you've had a chance to play!

Some folks have asked us, both now and in the weeks leading up to Shae and Maeve's routes, what the overall route update order will be for the rest of NDM.

We're going to answer that question today, much too rigorously 👇

Initially, we'd planned to keep the route order a semi-secret in order to hype up the reveal for the next batch of characters, but after some thought/observation, the Moirai Myths team now thinks that revealing the order, and further explaining the order, would be more holistically useful to our players.

First things first: We are most likely always going to do route updates in two half-batches, instead of releasing the full route for one character at once. Two halves of two routes is roughly equivalent to one full route, so we could release each route one at a time, but this decreases the odds of us having an update that interests you if you're only presently interested in a few members of the cast. With this in mind, we've purposefully plotted out the routes so that the midway point for all routes will end on a cliffhanger or point of intrigue to encourage discussion/speculation regarding "what could come next," etc. If you've played Shae and Maeve's routes thus far, you'll know exactly what we mean by that. 😄

On that note: Why are Shae and Maeve's routes first? A small part of it is logistical. While they're not our most popular characters, most people like Shae and Maeve well enough coming out of the demo (Vol. 1), which gives them a decently broad appeal-potentiality. Preliminary data of ours also suggests that the average person's interest in these characters increases following the update. *wink* However, the second and larger reason is because of NDM's overarching story. While each route, as with other dating sims, explores the specific character arcs and personal struggles of their namesakes, these things are not the sole focus of the routes. NDM's story begins in a cold war scenario that could very well turn into a hot war scenario under the wrong set of circumstances. These plot points are persistent across the game, but certain elements are looked at more closely in some routes than in others.

Shae and Maeve basically serve as the introductory characters for our world beyond Vol. 1. Their routes explain essential concepts, such as the class dynamics of Tír na nÓg, the nature of the War of the Courts, etc., and they get some pretty big backstory questions answered and out of the way early on. This allows future routes to focus on other, similarly critical subjects, unimpeded by the need to go over previously-revealed information from the other routes in the same amount of detail. To that end, since major reveals in Shae and Maeve's routes may be comparatively understated in the next batch of routes, this begs the question...

✨ Is there an official recommended reading order? ✨

Yes. And some of our players have already guessed it:

Book of the Traveller (Vol. 1) is the "inciting incident" content for the game and must be read first. After that, you should play Shae's route (Book of the Soldier, Vol. 2), then Maeve's route (Book of the Warrior, Vol. 3). This means, according to the numbering: The next route batch will be Flannán and Aífe. Following them, Robin and Keagan.

We understand that in a lot of visual novels, routes can be read in any order without much impact to the story or experience. This is not so much the case with The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe), for the reasons we have previously explained. While we would not say the game would necessarily be ruined if players chose to, say, start with Keagan's route and work their way backwards, it would nevertheless be a less satisfying experience because you won't be getting the gradual build up of certain concepts and plot points in the prior volumes. In a sense, it would be somewhat similar to reading an actual book series out of order: You could probably read The Two Towers ahead of The Fellowship of the Ring and still have an enjoyable time, but you might find yourself asking, "Hm, why are they sending Hobbits on an important task like this? Sort of odd that an elf or human wasn't given this duty instead."

We hope this post is clarifying as to our artistic intent and general plans, and remember: Your favourite characters will appear in major ways across multiple routes, and we will be releasing side story DLCs featuring the other characters in between updates. 😊

Slán go foill! (Bye for now!)

-The Moirai Myths Team

[maul-of-shame]

[ABOUT "THE RINGS OF POWER" RUMOURS GOING AROUND:]

Sooooooooo, I’ve been seeing this swirling storm of chaos over on Twitter and Tumblr, and it seems like shippers (and non-shippers alike) are whipping themselves into a frenzy over this “Amazon Preview program” post. People are panicking, spinning theories, and already mourning the show as if the Valar themselves have announced its doom.

First of all—breathe, besties. Lemme grab those reins before y’all ride headfirst into Mount Doom on a horse named Speculation. Let’s take a step back, re-saddle our ponies of reason, and navigate this mess with a clear head. Because honestly? This panic spiral isn’t doing anyone any good, and it’s time we address it properly.

This post claiming to be from someone in the Amazon Preview program has thrown out the idea that The Rings of Power might get canceled, based on one alleged survey question asking how viewers would feel about such a possibility.

Naturally and obviously, that one sentence has snowballed into chaos: shippers blaming each other, Haladriels claiming to be the sole saviors of the show, and everyone else clutching their lembas bread wondering if this truly spells the end of Amazon’s multi-billion-dollar endeavor.

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t.

But before we dive into why, let’s lay this out clearly. Speculation without evidence is just that—speculation. Right now, this rumor has the same credibility as Gollum’s “juicy fish” promises. So, let’s chill out for a second, untangle the web of panic, and address this mess calmly, because trust me, The Rings of Power is not about to vanish into the West just yet.

1. No proof = no panic. While the original poster claims to be part of the Amazon Preview program, we have no concrete evidence that this survey or its specific question even exists. I'm sorry that's not me being mean, that's a fact. Until Amazon makes an official statement, take this with a grain of salt. Let’s not give ourselves heart palpitations over unverified claims. We don’t need to borrow worry from the future.

2. Viewership ≠ Haladriels alone. I’m sorry (not really), but this idea that Haladriels are the "main audience" and thus the show’s sole reason for survival? Nope. Stop right there. While the Haladriel fandom is vocal and sizable, they are not the entire viewership. Millions of people around the world are tuning in for the larger story of Middle-earth, the intricate lore, the stunning visuals, and their own favorite characters and dynamics—whether that’s Elrond & Galadriel, Durin & Disa, the Harfoots, or even Arondir's badass moments. Amazon didn’t pour half a billion dollars into a single ship.

Haladriels, who are you? The dwarves showing up at the last minute to the Siege of Eregion, claiming to be the sole saviors of the battle? Let’s pump the brakes on this idea, because while your contributions to the fandom are visible and often loud, you are not the entire viewer base. You’re part of the tapestry of fans, not the whole thing.

Yes, you’re passionate. Yes, you create fan art, fanfics, and engage actively in discussions. And yes, maybe you’re a good chunk of the audience (you are).

But—and I cannot stress this enough—you are not the majority of viewers Amazon is depending on for the show’s success.

The show has millions of viewers globally, and a good number of them don’t EVEN engage with shipping.

They’re here for the lore, the spectacle, the drama, or maybe just to see an elf and a dwarf bicker their way into a beautiful friendship.

Amazon’s decisions about the show—renewals, budgets, story arcs—aren’t hinging on one ship. They’re analyzing data from a massive, global audience across dozens of countries, not just the trending tags on Twitter or Tumblr. And even if Haladriels make up a decent slice of the pie, it’s not the whole bakery. This is Middle-earth, not a kingdom under one banner.

While the ship is part of the fandom's flavor, it is not the main course. This isn’t me throwing shade—it’s me asking for a reality check, from one passionate fan to another.

And just so we’re clear—this isn’t me throwing shade because I ship Elrondriel (Elrond/Galadriel). Trust me, I know my ship isn’t the entire audience either. Elrondriel shippers are a passionate, creative, and dedicated part of the fandom, but we’re also just one piece of the puzzle, just like Haladriels are. Believe me, we’re in the same fandom boat here—just sailing with different banners.

I understand the urge to feel like your ship carries the weight of the fandom. When you’re surrounded by incredible art, fic, metas, and headcanons that fuel your love for a pairing, it’s easy to think, "We’re the backbone of this fandom!" But the truth? We’re all in this together, and none of us—not Haladriels, not Elrondriels, not any ship—can claim to be the be-all and end-all of The Rings of Power audience.

We might feel strongly about our pairings, but the reality is that shipping communities are just one part of the much larger audience Amazon considers when making decisions. There are fans who aren’t on Tumblr, Twitter, or AO3, fans who aren’t debating ships, and fans who might not even care about romance in the show at all (I know, wild concept, but they exist!). They’re here for the epic battles, the exploration of Middle-earth, and the overarching story.

So, no, this isn’t a case of “my ship is better” or “your ship doesn’t matter.” It’s about perspective. I care about fandom health and fandom spaces, no matter the ship. I’m here advocating for all of us to recognize that we’re not the sole audience Amazon is catering to—and that’s okay. We’re all contributing to the fandom in different ways, and that’s something worth celebrating.

So to Haladriels feeling like the show’s fate rests on your shoulders, let me reassure you, that you have to produce and produce and produce: it doesn’t.

The show’s survival isn’t riding on Elrondriel either, nor on any single faction of fans.

We’re all part of the audience, but none of us are the entire audience.

The fellowship of fans is vast and diverse, and while we might be rowing in different directions sometimes, we’re still in the same boat when it comes to loving this world and wanting the best for it.

We might not ship the same thing, but we share the same love for this story and the passion to see it thrive. So let’s focus on that instead of spiraling into ship-centric fearmongering. Let’s celebrate what we love, stay creative, and keep contributing to this incredible fandom in ways that uplift us all.

3. Bezos isn’t walking away. The Rings of Power is Jeff Bezos’s lovechild. He and his family are reportedly huge fans of the Tolkien franchise. Love him or hate him, Bezos is not the kind of person to let a project this massive—one of the most expensive shows ever made—flounder without giving it every possible chance to succeed. The man is prideful, and he’s not just going to bow out because of mixed reception in its first season or something. If anything, he’ll double down, exert even more control, and pump the breaks on creative risks to bring the show in line with mainstream expectations.

You can even check this right here, which is from a trusted source:

You can also see this article and passage here:

As part of that investment Amazon MGM Studios recently acquired Bray Studios, where “Rings of Power” is filmed. Can we take that as indication that the show, which shot its first season in New Zealand, is staying in the U.K.?

JS: I think you can. Why not? No plans to move it. Very excited about it.

How have you found the reaction to Season 2?

JS: Obviously very different marketing levels and all of that [to Season 1]. But that being said, over 55 million people at this point have engaged since Season 2 launched. And if you look at the long-term trajectory, which is how this company looks at an asset like that, this is a long-term investment in that franchise. […] There’s well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.

Is there any change to the 50-episode commitment?

JS: I don’t think so. [That] commitment is never the thing that’s driving what we’re doing. We’ll continue to make the show as long as we see global customers loving it and watching it to the point where — it is a business. Obviously, we need a large amount of people showing up. And there are a large amount of people, so there’s no debate about whether or not the show will continue.

4. "Cancelled" doesn’t mean what people think it does. Even if Amazon is “mulling over” decisions for Season 3, this doesn’t mean the show is on the chopping block. It’s standard practice for large-scale productions to reassess budgets, strategies, and audience reception to refine their approach. It doesn’t spell doom; it spells adjustments. Given the scope of The Rings of Power, Amazon likely planned for this to be a long-term investment and would have accounted for a slower start. Building trust and an audience takes time—just ask any successful franchise.

5. Let’s calm the Fellowship down. Worrying about every rumor floating around is exhausting. It’s like trying to outrun a Nazgûl while barefoot in Mordor. We don’t need that energy in our fandom right now. Yes, we can be critical of the show. Yes, we can hope for improvements. But the speculation about the series getting canned before Season 3 even airs is unnecessary noise that only feeds negativity and add worries to already existing conflicts.

TL;DR:

I’m not here to sound like your mom or anything—but if it helps, think of me as your friendly neighborhood Gandalf (minus the fireworks but with plenty of snacks). I’m just here to calm things down before we all start marching out of Hobbiton over a rumor that has absolutely no solid ground to stand on. This whole situation is snowballing—and let’s be honest, it’s not even winter yet.

This post that everyone’s spiraling over? The one about surveys and cancellation questions? It comes with exactly zero proof.

No screenshots, no corroboration, nothing to confirm it’s legit beyond someone’s words on the internet.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but without evidence, it’s like claiming to have the One Ring but refusing to show even a glimpse of it. Sounds a little sus, right?

Look, I get it. The wording is scary. “How would you feel about cancellation?” is enough to make anyone who loves the show clutch their lembas in fear. But panicking and spreading unverified claims like wildfire isn’t helping anyone. It’s like rallying the Rohirrim before you even know what you’re riding to face—take a breath, assess, and then make decisions.

Until we hear something concrete, let’s not let this post stir the pot unnecessarily. The show is far too big to just disappear overnight, and Bezos’s pride alone will probably ensure we at least get to see this through. Let’s focus on enjoying what we have, continuing to provide feedback where we can, and sharing the love of this sprawling, beautiful world Tolkien inspired.

It’s a single claim from an unverified source with no screenshots, no corroboration, and no concrete evidence. Until we see something legitimate, this is just another shadow in the Misty Mountains of Fandom Panic™.

With everything I’ve mentioned—the insane budget, Bezos’s personal attachment, and the fact that Amazon has already made long-term commitments to the show—there’s little reason to think it’s on the chopping block. Is it possible they’re retooling it or adjusting things? Sure, that happens with every major series. But outright canceling the biggest, most ambitious project in their streaming history? That’s a huge leap, and frankly, it doesn’t line up with what we know about how Amazon operates (or how Bezos’s ego works).

So let’s not get sucked into the Eye of Sauron-level drama without solid proof.

I get that the idea of the show being in jeopardy is unsettling—Rings of Power means a lot to so many of us for so many different reasons. But until there’s something concrete, let’s not fall prey to baseless fear. Hold fast, steer your boats true, and don’t let panic steer you off course. Keep your lembas close, your theories reasonable, and your hearts hopeful. After all, not all rumors that spread doom are gold.

Bezos and his family love this series. The man isn’t going to let his shiny billion-dollar baby get canceled quietly.

Let’s channel some hobbit energy—grab a snack, take a deep breath, and wait for actual confirmation before we assume doom and gloom. We’ve weathered plenty of storms in this fandom, and this? This is just a passing cloud until we know otherwise. Stay calm, my friends. Middle-earth wasn’t built in a day, and neither are Amazon’s decisions. 🌿

[nasa]

The Artemis I Mission: To the Moon and Back

The Artemis I mission was the first integrated test of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and Exploration Ground Systems at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We’ll use these deep space exploration systems on future Artemis missions to send astronauts to the Moon and prepare for our next giant leap: sending the first humans to Mars.

Take a visual journey through the mission, starting from launch, to lunar orbit, to splashdown.

Liftoff

The SLS rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launched on Nov. 16, 2022, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The world’s most powerful rocket performed with precision, meeting or exceeding all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I.

"This is Your Moment"

Following the successful launch of Artemis I, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson congratulates the launch team.

“The harder the climb, the better the view,” she said. “We showed the space coast tonight what a beautiful view it is.”

That's Us

On Orion’s first day of flight, a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays captured this image of Earth.

Inside Orion

On the third day of the mission, Artemis I engineers activated the Callisto payload, a technology demonstration developed by Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco that tested a digital voice assistant and video conferencing capabilities in a deep space environment. In the image, Commander Moonikin Campos occupies the commander’s seat inside the spacecraft. The Moonikin is wearing an Orion Crew Survival System suit, the same spacesuit that Artemis astronauts will use during launch, entry, and other dynamic phases of their missions. Campos is also equipped with sensors that recorded acceleration and vibration data throughout the mission that will help NASA protect astronauts during Artemis II. The Moonikin was one of three “passengers” that flew aboard Orion. Two female-bodied model human torsos, called phantoms, were aboard. Zohar and Helga, named by the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) respectively, supported the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), an experiment to provide data on radiation levels during lunar missions. Snoopy, wearing a mock orange spacesuit, also can be seen floating in the background. The character served as the zero-gravity indicator during the mission, providing a visual signifier that Orion is in space.

Far Side of the Moon

A portion of the far side of the Moon looms large in this image taken by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays on the sixth day of the mission.

First Close Approach

The Orion spacecraft captured some of the closest photos of the Moon from a spacecraft built for humans since the Apollo era — about 80 miles (128 km) above the lunar surface. This photo was taken using Orion’s optical navigational system, which captures black-and-white images of the Earth and Moon in different phases and distances.

Distant Retrograde Orbit

Orion entered a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon almost two weeks into the mission. The orbit is “distant” in the sense that it’s at a high altitude approximately 50,000 miles (80,467 km) from the surface of the Moon. Orion broke the record for farthest distance of a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and safely return them to Earth, reaching a maximum distance of 268,563 miles (432,210 km).

Second Close Approach

On the 20th day of the mission, the spacecraft made its second and final close approach to the Moon flying 79.2 miles (127.5 km) above the lunar surface to harness the Moon’s gravity and accelerate for the journey back to Earth.

Cameras mounted on the crew module of the Orion spacecraft captured these views of the Moon’s surface before its return powered flyby burn.

Heading Home

After passing behind the far side of the Moon on Flight Day 20, Orion powered a flyby burn that lasted approximately 3 minutes and 27 seconds to head home. Shortly after the burn was complete, the Orion spacecraft captured these views of the Moon and Earth, which appears as a distant crescent.

Parachutes Deployed

Prior to entering the Earth’s atmosphere, Orion’s crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsive powerhouse provided by ESA (European Space Agency). During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph (40,236 kph) to about 20 mph (32 kph) for its parachute-assisted splashdown.

Splashdown

On Dec. 11, the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California after traveling 1.4 million miles (2.3 million km) over a total of 25.5 days in space. Teams are in the process of returning Orion to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once at Kennedy, teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Next, the capsule and its heat shield will undergo testing and analysis over the course of several months.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[howgalling]

idk if I mentioned but I got to speak to JRO after the con at tfnation; specifically about the first aid plot line he didn’t end up getting to include in the mtmte comics!!

I missed the panel where he was talking about it, but one of my friends mentioned it, so I had to ask for more information!!!!!. First Aid essentially loses the plot for a while trying to find a way to bring ambulon back. it’s briefly mentioned as an off comment by (maybe ratchet?) that first aid has been isolating himself for months with ambulon’s dead body in the comics. Which is crazy btw lol anyway

first aid spends all that time between the plot failing to find ways to bring ambulon back to life. He fully repairs ambulons body, every fragment of him is visually perfect, /technically/ functional. He even repaints ambulon, touching up the patchy paint job Ambulon was known for.

But ambulon is truly dead. What made ambulon who he was, his memories, his personality, his knowledge, his friendship- was obliterated in the bisecting, as was his spark. It was a complete brain-death by cybertronian standards.

As far as I’m aware, the spark is just a power source, relative to the memory banks portion of their processors and whatnot, specifically the sections that store the bots actual personality and memories. Though it’s always worded differently. JRO didn’t give an exact time range (understandable lol) for how long they were on Delphi, but the general thought is that First Aid and Ambulon were on Delphi together for a decent chunk of years, relative to the timeline.

:((( first aid and ambulon really endured Delphi together and bonded throughout that, and to see him murdered so abruptly, (by their ex-boss who they watched descend into madness- no less!!!) was extremely traumatising, as much as it’s played as a joke by the fandom lolol. ambulon suffered what was essentially complete brain death at the moment of injury, non-recoverable.

The dynamic between ratchet, Pharma and first aid/ambulon is really interesting, other people can word it better than me but it ties massively into the feedback loop first aid gets lost in from that point. Watching his closest friend die in a hysterical power play between his two superiors would be helpless agony. And it hurts more because we know first aids temperament :(( he’s still soft, despite it all, and he’s the type of character that you just want to shield from the nastiness of it all. 😭😭

First aid goes as far tracking down the mechs that were involved in the faulty combiner experiment Ambulon was forced into. Looking for maybe even an echo or an imprint, faint traces in the data+code of the mech’s that might have had /anything/ of his friend left in it. Pieces he could put together to make him whole again. But there’s nothing, just surface level memories from a bond that never succeeded. MAN

Anyway, I’m going to try and draw something for it, please give me focus

[neturbizenterprises]

Top 10 Breakthroughs for AI Innovations:

Imagine a world where machines can create, not just compute. Welcome to the realm of "Generative AI" technology models, a paradigm shift in artificial intelligence that goes beyond analysis and ventures into the realm of creation.

These AI models, trained on vast data sets, possess an uncanny ability to generate new content across various mediums. From stunning visuals and captivating music to compelling text and even functional code, generative AI is revolutionizing art and design. Empowering artists with new tools for expression and pushing the boundaries of creativity, this technology is transforming storytelling by enabling dynamic and personalized narratives that captivate audiences. It's also finding its way into scientific discovery by aiding researchers in designing novel molecules and accelerating innovation.

One prominent example of generative AI is text-to-image generators. These models can conjure up photorealistic images from simple text prompts, breathing life into our imaginations. Imagine describing a scene or character and having an AI instantly translate your words into a visual masterpiece.

But the capabilities of generative AI extend far beyond static images; video generation is another rapidly evolving field. With AI models learning to create realistic and captivating video sequences, entertainment, education, virtual reality - all are set to be transformed. Get ready for immersive experiences that blur the lines between real-life events and digital creations.

"This section of the video description contains affiliate links. If you click on one of them, there is a possibility that I will receive a commission." Generative AI Links:

Leonardo AI (Image Generator):

Synthesia AI (Video Generator):

Zebracat AI (Video Generator):

Rask AI (Language Translator):

StealthGPT /SciSpace (Undetectable AI):