#I like that I managed to make them look 3d model-ish here

[lewa358]

Game Retrospective: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Note: this post contains vague spoilers.

Screw it, I love horror games now.

I was always a bit of a coward growing up. I remember refusing to watch the first Harry Potter flick because the three-headed doggo in the trailer scared me too much. But I’m much older now, and with that age came maturity--at least, enough maturity to slap on a VR headset t creep through a dilapidated old house filled with people and monsters that want to do god knows what to me.

So I’ve beaten this. My second RE game after 4 (third if you count Leon A as beating REmake 2), though I played quite a bit of the first Revelations before the final boss decided to be obnoxious, and that shitty version of RE1. But that doesn’t really go into how brave I’ve become, at least when it comes to experiencing horror media.

See, most RE games are silly nonsense. Gory, dark, and powerfully atmospheric, sure—but also remorselessly goofy. Be it the hokey FMVs and voice acting of the first game, Claire’s silly outfit in the third, the demon Napoleon Bonaparte in the fourth, or the gonzo action gameplay and frenetic pacing of Revelations, this franchise has only rarely be truly horrifying. Don’t misunderstand: these games can absolutely be scary as hell when they want to. But the tone of the series as a whole has veered more towards the silly than the scary, especially after 4.

Which is why 7 felt so radically different. Damn near all of the earlier games’ inherent goofiness suddenly vanished, and instead we have a story of a guy trapped in a house with insane, seemingly cannibalistic freaks that refuse to die. The rooms ooze with grotesque detail, and the story is told in cutscenes that are as serious and polished in their animation and delivery as any western game. The whole thing is in first-person as well!

The gameplay is a nice change as well. What I really liked about RE2’s remake is that, in terms of level design, it felt halfway between an adventure game and a Metroidvania. You had to explore and backtrack across a cramped, claustrophobic environment to collect items that are used in other rooms to solve puzzles and explore more of the environment. Unlike an adventure game, these “puzzles” are usually relatively simple, but unlike a Metroidvania, the items rarely granted you extra abilities. And unlike in either genre, you had to carefully manage inventory space, ensuring that you had enough room for both key items and gameplay stuff like ammunition, weapons, and healing items.

And there’s also the enemies. Strong, brutal enemies, but the most reliable way to kill them is to use your incredibly limited ammunition, so simply running from them is a legitimate strategy.

I like that general design, and it’s here in RE7—mostly.

See, RE7 barely has normal enemies. For the first 6-ish hours of the game, your only opponents (with like 2 exceptions) are the Bakers--fully fleshed-out NPCs who are either completely unkillable or tied to a boss fight. This honestly works very well—it ensures that the enemies you fight are genuinely intimidating. That first house is horribly creepy, with fantastic detail crammed everywhere, and quite a lot of fiendishly creative tricks played on our woeful protagonist.

But after a while the game gleefully reconstructs the previous games’ approach, and honestly I liked that too. The game is great at both slow-paced, spooky exploration and relatively linear gunslinging, so I welcomed the change, especially given how hard the first half of the game was, and how satisfying the guns were to fire. And those boss fights are brilliant! Chainsaw duel! Running a guy over with a car in his own garage! Whatever the hell Jack was, with the upside-down head!

Now all this is great on a flat screen…but in VR, it’s a completely different beast. Being able to look around the Baker mansion and its related areas by moving your actual neck, and seeing it all in stereoscopic 3D, is wonderfully and disturbingly immersive. Being able to aim by looking at enemies is also a blast. It fully confirmed that VR is my favorite way to play games like this…even if the implementation here is drowning in caveats:

The resolution and other graphical capabilities of PSVR are extremely limited. This isn’t a problem in graphically simple games like SUPERHOT VR or games designed from the ground up for the platform like Astro Bot (which is still my favorite VR game)—but in a game as intricately detailed as RE7, you run into a lot of problems. All the character models look janky, with jagged edges and other limited details. Still incredibly immersive, but the issues are there.

As mentioned, you aim with your neck (or, in other words, moving the headset) rather than pointing a controller. The former is fine, but the latter would be much more immersive, and allow me to shoot without looking at these hideous beasts. There is, of course, no support for the Move or Aim controllers. Playing with the standard PS4 controller works perfectly fine, and aiming with my neck is definitely better than aiming with the control stick (or, dare I say it, a mouse), but it’s an odd choice that few VR games make.

Many times, the game switches from in-engine cinematics to pre-rendered ones. The former work in VR…but the latter do not. This is intended to be a subtle switch, but it’s jarringly obvious in VR, since it suddenly goes from a full immersive environment to a flat screen. This has the effect of lessening the impact of some twists and scripted sequences, especially in the final boss fight. 

Despite how seriously the game takes itself, I was never truly horrified like I was with, say, SOMA. The game never really dives into any deep, thematically resonant territory—at least, not themes so simplistic, or maybe just subtle, that I dismissed them outright. It’s just Spooky House With Kooky Killers, The Game. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but I honestly feel like it should be more. The game is so damn good at being a Spooky House game, and does it so artfully, that I feel that something deeper should be easy for the game’s writers.

Like, what is there? Parental abandonment? You can’t really claim that’s a theme when the “parent” is an evil creator and manager of B.O.W.s and the “child” is an explicitly insane eldritch abomination. Those things completely ruin any chance of the story working as an allegory.

But still a great game besides that.

Game notes:

Developer/Publisher: Capcom

Time to beat: about 10 hours

Got Ending 1, normal difficulty, playing mostly in VR

Header image from the game’s Steam page; other images are screenshots from the game’s PC “Beginning Hour” Demo (and thus are not representative of how the game looked when I played it, especially in VR).

[game-meak]

A Proper Postmortem

Maybe?!  Heck if I know how to actually format a good post but let’s try.  As game development went on for almost four years, this is probably gonna be long... and also give away basically the whole game oops!  Read on with caution.

Sometime around July 2014, a month after the initial release of my first game, my room was being remodeled and I was stuck with nothing for free time but a garbage laptop I could do anything on, an old flip phone, my sketchbook, and my 3DS.  So beyond playing an obscene amount of Animal Crossing and Tomodachi Life, I at some point went “hey, what if I made a second game starring the kids.”  So I started trying to plan it out!  And it went

absolutely nowhere that I intended it to go!!!

For instance, this is the very first page of sketches.  This squirrel was supposed to be really important.  It’s not.  I don’t even KNOW what’s up with that duck.

A thing I like to think about before I set off making any of the story, assets, or scripts for my games tend to be themes and motifs.  And I kept circling back to a very important, very personal “theme.”  Without using the internet at large as my therapy couch, I was emotionally abused and taken advantage of multiple times in my life and it greatly impacts how I interact with people to this very day, as you’d expect events of such a degree would.  Particularly, I kept thinking that the RPG Maker fan crowd tends to skew young and be in the teenage range and at ages 14-16, I could’ve used something to help.

Of course, my entire thought process isn’t necessarily one of charity and selflessness.  It was also a way of me expressing what I’d dealt with in ways I’ve only ever communicated with my friends who were also victims of the same circumstances, the closest I would let myself come to personal stories and retellings with a cover of plastic children and wild adventures.  It was also in some ways a way of me verifying to myself that something ongoing was, in fact, bananas and should not have been happening, but that might be another story for another time.

As you can probably guess, Haze and Seal came into the picture since I needed to make two characters who would have this struggle.  A lot of decisions came about because of my personal experience.  They’re 15/16 because I was at the time of the incidents that primarily inspired me to make this game.  They’re both nonbinary because I am.  They love anime because I did (and do...?!)  One of their friends is even directly modeled off how one of my friends looked in high school.  To that degree, I guess someone, somewhere can call them self inserts.  But they’re also not, since I didn’t want to just do a personal retelling with fictional characters.  I’d just write a memoir or something at that point.

Haze’s design came first, and then Seal’s was sort of made as a foil to them.  Haze’s “colors” are pink, black, grey, and red.  Seal’s are teal and light purple... and also black.  Haze had a rabbit motif (which got toned down as I went on), Seal had an owl motif (which is now just a single mention in their list of likes...), etc.

Though in the beginning, the story was entirely different.  Initially, everything took place in the neon-ish areas with black sky and reflective, celestial water (that I, very eloquently, call “spacewater”).  The idea was that Haze and Seal were beings from another dimension and that their “fighting” was causing a rip in the universe that the kids stumbled into and therefore got wrapped up in this mess.  I had an entire script written and started making assets and when I went to sum up the game’s plot in a neat paragraph, I realized... I hated it!!!

So I chucked all I had done by that point writing-wise and started again.

In fact, I rewrote a lot.  After the first it was mostly small tweaks and adjustments, but the biggest ones (and the ones that still present a challenge to me!) usually involved trying to make Seal feel like a believable character.  I had shown an early draft to someone who said that Seal felt too much like trying to get back at someone, so I scrapped a ton of their lines and tried again.  I still worry whether or not they come across too Strawman-y, but I’ve done the best I can and whatever criticism people have can apply to my next writing attempts.  It’s very hard to separate yourself from subject matter you feel really personally attached to.  I don’t want to write them in a way that you immediately hate them, or hate me for writing such a blatant “villain” character, but in a way that you can formulate your own thoughts.  That said, though, I am violently allergic to people who call Seal a “tsundere,” even in jest.  So I guess I want people to have their own thoughts as long as it’s not that specific one...! (;;;;)

You may be thinking “heck, this is a lot of paragraphs in and you haven’t even brought up gameplay thoughts” and yes... that’s very true.  Shamefully, for a game where I thought “I should definitely, absolutely focus more on making it a Fun Game than a walking visual novel” I might’ve actually dropped the ball in that area.  I’d like to think I was more adventurous than I had been with my first game.  Some parts do kind of fall into the “walk to the next cutscene, find a key to unlock the next cutscene” pit, but I did put effort into figuring out what I could do with RMXP.  My obligatory “please don’t use this engine here, people thinking of using RPG Maker” statements here.  In the final product, though they’re very simple, I’m most proud of the chalkboard puzzle and the paint sorting puzzle.

Even if, y’know... I somehow neglected to include the letter “k”

Speaking of, I’m not sure if this is a general RPG Maker thing, a “man I hate RMXP” thing, or a “meaka cannot gamemake” thing, but I had several event/puzzles just up and quit on me a few times.  Like they would work fine for months and months, but one day I’d go to them and just nope, suddenly they’re not working, sorry.  Copy+pasting the event to a new map wouldn’t work, so I’d have to manually redo the event.  One of them was the chalkboard puzzle.  The other was the sliding puzzle when Tony is by herself.  Which I’m also aware slows the game down a ton, but I have legitimately no idea how to fix that... I tried and I could never get to to not lag like crazy.

Like I said, I started in July 2014.  I’d shipped the game off to my beta testers in March 2018.  A vast majority of that time was spent creating the visual assets since everything you see in the game is custom.  All the sprites, all the tilesets, every little pixel of it.  All me!  Needless to say... it was very exhausting and very time consuming. I grossly underestimated how much time I thought it’d take.  I never accounted for the very real possibility of burnout, which is incredibly silly considering I was making something entirely by myself that was also an occasionally difficult subject matter...!  There were quite a few weeks where I touched nothing because I couldn’t bring myself to and even a few times where I just considered deleting everything and cancelling the project.  I knew I’d be mad at myself if I quit, especially as I got later into production, so I just tried my best to make sure I didn’t turn it into a huge chore.  Obviously, there were parts that were more tedious than others, but this game really is a very large labor of love that I put a lot of my heart into.

Part of that time is also a little bit of indecision.  Did you know I went through 3 possible title screens?  I sure did!  I’ve also publicly posted about redoing both Haze and Seal’s bust sprites before.  I almost redid all of the kids’, too, but I didn’t wanna get caught in the loop of remaking everything, so I opted to just leave them as they are.  Most of them don’t bug me as much.  M...most of them!

I’m hopping back on the Story train since obviously that was my main focus, but the decision to have Seal sort of “reveal” their true nature (or at least have a jealousy-related anger burst) to Octavio as an animated cutscene was one I’d decided pretty early.  Which is also why, unsurprisingly, I was debating getting voice actors for a hot minute.  But I wouldn’t have used it anywhere else in the game, so I opted not to.  I also wanted to keep the file size low, but that wound up not happening so much, h-haha...   For someone who uses the only engine without native support for videos, I sure do like making animated cutscenes, huh.

Anyway.  This scene originally bridged Octavio’s section of the game to Pablo’s, which would’ve been (for some reason) in an abandoned hospital.  But that didn’t pan out because it didn’t fit what I wanted the game to be and also by switching the order of the two, it builds up more tension(?) on the kind of character you expect Seal to be.  I hope their very first “fuck off, maybe” took someone out there by surprise!

This also was the point when I decided I wanted to commission an original soundtrack, since nothing quite got across what I wanted at the time.  Which is when I put out my silly ad post and somehow managed to get the amazing ProjectTrinity to compose for me...!  I’m still amazed by the sheer quality of music he made for my little RPGMaker game.

Having the teen characters curse was also something I waffled on for a bit.  Clearly, I dwell on the important things as a writer.  I wanted it to contrast the cutesy, kidlike way the siblings talk and also the sort of squeaky-clean image the witches (particularly Seal) present to the kids by contrasting how they talk to each other, most importantly how Seal talks to Haze and their other friends.  I did have the same issue with the Mother in my first game, but I opted to not have her curse at all either since she’s childish in her own way, too.  But that’s not for THIS game’s postmortem, get otta here!!!

I also very much was set on a “battle” with words being the final event of the game.  Though I had a hard time imagining what that would be initially, but eventually arrived at a sort of fake battle system that was introduced in the mine.  The setting for this battle changed with time (everywhere from the park to the academy and in between) was considered...!  The dirty secret is that while I did like the decision to make it take place in the voids between worlds, I also sort of did not want to draw the staircase in the witch academy.  Originally, the kids would’ve also helped Haze “reach” Seal (who was putting actual obstacles in the way), but I guess in my own way, I wanted to give Haze the ability to confront Seal on their own, one-on-one.  Or something like that...!  I also didn’t want to add too much needless backtracking.

I’m... unsure what other point I really want to make, so I guess I’ll end this here unless anyone has anything in particular that interests them they’d want me to answer!

All in all, this game means a lot to me and took a chunk of my life to make and I really hope it’s able to reach at least one person who might need it, even if it’s only a little. 

To all of you who gave it a try, thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart.

A shameless link to the game:  [itch.io] & [RMN]

[vynru]

A redraw of this monstrosity. Or, the old one is a monstrosity (time-taken-wise, it’s not that ugly either). I quite like this redraw, actually. It took me from the 11th of May until now– which is a little more than a month. Long time, huh? Of course I wasn’t able to draw for all of that time, but let’s take a look at the old version from 2017…

This thing. This freaking thing took me almost two years.

This is not an exaggeration. I used to have a habit that every single time I made a significant change I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep (I pretty much always did), I would save the drawing as a new file. This means that between 2016 and 2017 I had saved countless of different files of the same drawing, numbered from A1 A2, etc, to D51, and because of this, I was able to check how long each phase of the drawing took me.

But then, here goes: The sketch was made before the 25th of April 2016 until the 12th of April 2017. Yes. A full year to make a sketch. I wouldn’t call it sketching, though. I used 3D models in CSP and countless of pictures I made of my own hands and family members who posed for me, which I traced, tossed out, and tried again because I couldn’t cobble it together properly or just wasn’t happy with because 3D models look stiff and real people don’t translate well to an anime-ish style. I’m pretty sure I somehow managed to learn my first bit of anatomy by screwing around with this single drawing for a full year. It’s kind of a shame, really. Because of this ridiculously patient perfectionism, I don’t have any completed trashy drawings of where I first started anime-style. And I really would’ve loved to redraw something that’s just objectively horrible instead. But ah well.

The line art was done between the 12th of April 2017 and the 6th of September 2017… almost 5 months. In this time, I’m pretty sure I redid the shoes (the line art ended up being traced & edited over pictures of my own shoes (these became Hiroshi’s, but I mostly made the shoes thinner and added that rectangle, which was a zipper on my real shoes) and my sister’s (Naoki’s), both of which I had stuffed with toilet paper to appear filled on the pictures). I redid a bunch and had no muscle control from being very inexperienced in drawing digitally, so I would often spend hours and hours on just a tiny portion of the drawing (I also wanted the lines to be p e r f e c t and just refused to use any stabilization tool). It was honestly starting to feel like a world map I was working on.

Then, it took me over a month to do the base colors, from the 6th of September 2017 until the 22nd of Oktober 2017. Again, not working on the drawing all the time, bad muscle control, just having no knowledge whatsoever about colors and being way too perfectionistic for my own good was to blame for this.

The shading, surprisingly, only took me from the 22nd of October 2017 until the 4th of November 2017– a small two weeks. Apparently, I had somehow taught myself the basics of drawing anatomy/anime in only one illustration. It sounds like some sort of strange online scam, but I swear, it has got to be the most inefficient and tedious way to practice something. Almost two years could have been spent filling so. many. sketchbooks.

But now, over three years after I started this drawing, I was finally able to recreate it without tracing anything and using very little reference except for my own drawings. I’m usually not against using reference, but I wanted to use as little as possible for this specific redraw just to see if I could “stand on my own legs” this time.

And honestly, I’m extremely happy with the result. I even managed to pick colors I like a lot without adjusting them with a filter (I didn’t do that in the original either… which is very visible OUCH), so I think I can safely say that, after over three years of drawing digitally, I’ve finally “finished” this drawing… Until I redraw it again, that is! Because I definitely won’t just let go of this now that I’ve put just so. much. time into this drawing, so I’ll likely keep coming back to it every few years to see how much I’ve improved.

[superchartisland]

Elite (Firebird, Spectrum, 1985)

Gallup all format charts, Your Computer Volume 6 No. 1, January 1986

[content warning: discussion of slavery and colonialism]

Elite was a year old by the time its Spectrum version hit #1, a conversion developed as a result of its massive success on the more expensive and less popular BBC Micro computer. Yet even for 1985 it still feels preposterously ahead of its time. As with many other games I’m writing about here, I first played it in the early 90s, and its wireframe monochrome 3D spaceflight still felt high-tech and futuristic. Like the map in The Crystal Maze! As recently as 2016, one of the year’s most anticipated new games got there essentially on the promise of an updated execution of Elite’s concepts (I’m scheduled to talk about that one in five years’ time). Elite is a game which did the previously unimaginable and it had a lasting impact.

It’s a game about space travel and trading. You start out on the planet Lave with a triangular-ish Cobra Mk III spaceship and some credits to buy some stuff before you set out into the universe. Pick a destination, hyperspace there via a flashy space tunnel visual effect, and see another planet in front of you. Move around it to its geometric space station, line yourself up with an entrance slot, and you can dock into another planet’s market to buy and sell and upgrade and do it over again.

Well, I make that sound simple, but the space station docking is an incredibly difficult stage to get past. Things can get harder yet later on with pirates or police or aggressive aliens, but the required feat of flight technique is a heavy barrier of its own. I have memories of getting deeper into Elite, of being enthralled by its progression, and I know that 7-year-old me was much more patient with games than me now, but I’m not 100% convinced I ever got past that starting point. My happy memories might be of watching my dad play it. I’m not sure it matters all that much.

Just conceptually, Elite offers so much more than the basic actions of its gameplay. What form it takes is subject to an incredible degree of freedom. Go where you like, trade what you want to, attack other ships and salvage from their wrecks, upgrade your ship as you see fit based on your own priorities -- combat, trade, not having to do the docking waltz yourself any more. Everywhere you go you see other ships going about their business, and in the absence of anything telling you what to do, the sense of the game presenting a world and the player just existing as one tiny part of it is the strongest we’ve seen so far. Of course Elite is built for the player’s benefit too, but it doesn’t remind you of that in-world, where you are just one more of many and it’s possible to imagine the universe carrying on without your tiny contribution and not even noticing. It’s not quite the Total Perspective Vortex, but it’s an experience with a very different flavour to a lot of games where you play as the chosen one.

Elite’s world is one rich in detail. It uses procedural generation -- templates filled in with details based on random number generation -- to create a far bigger universe than would otherwise have been possible with the computers of the time. You can browse a huge galactic map of (eventually) accessible places, and a local one of nearby stars and associated planets, each with their own details to read about. The planet Tionisla is notable for its inhabitants’ ingrained shyness, Leesti is known for Zero-G Cricket and Leestian Evil Juice, while for rich industrial corporate state Zaonce the info screen just notes “This planet is a tedious place”. These details make no real difference to any of the choices available to the player, and yet they bring being in the world of Elite to life.

The details also provide some familiar topics for those familiar with similar fictional settings. Elite gets in references to Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy early and often -- you start off rated as “Harmless” and the first progression on your path to the ultimate rank of “Elite” is of course to “Mostly Harmless” -- and has a nod to 2001 in the delightful version of Strauss’s Blue Danube waltz that plays while your expensively bought docking computer does its thing. (Well, the Commodore 64 version I remember had the last one, anyway; the Spectrum’s crap sound strikes again.) It even came packaged with its own sci-fi novella.

The indication is that Elite’s aspiration is to make the player feel like they’re in the kind of sci-fi story they’re hopefully familiar with, the better for them to fill in details that the game doesn’t have. The high level of incidental background detail, copied with the relatively low level of detail on your actions make for the perfect opportunity to do that construction of additional narrative, on your own, or with others, as described in a lovely post on GameTripper. And that narrative outsourcing is a great move. All the filling in, informed by other science fiction or otherwise, or otherwise, comes easily and offers an even bigger range of possibilities than even such a groundbreaking game could on its own.

For all the freedom, though, players work along some lines set by the developers. And the confines of those lines are revealing. You can’t, at least within actions shown directly by the game, operate as a space Robin Hood and give anything you take from the rich away to the poor. You can’t run your ship as a passenger transport. But you can trade in slaves. The possibility is presented every time you look at the list of a planet’s available commodities, quantities chillingly listed in tonnes alongside computers and minerals and “alien items”.

There is an in-game punishment of sorts if you trade in slaves or firearms or narcotics, a strong possibility that the space police will come after you. But they’re lucrative trades, you can fight the police, and that’s also a new set of possibilities to act as an incentive to the player to make those choices. The gameplay consequences of making the choice might actually be more fun. The two Cambridge students who made this game where players aspire to be the Elite decided that as part of their entertainment those players should be facilitated to imagine owning other people as property. Any thoughts on other reasons not to carry out such an atrocity are another thing left completely to the player.

It makes sense to look at those decisions in the context other games of the era we’ve seen, too. There was Frank Bruno’s Boxing and its vintage racism. Sabreman, the character we’ve seen lead three #1 games already, did so in colonial chic headgear. Fantastical worlds are always mirrors of our own, intentionally or otherwise, and in Elite’s time the British Empire (which 44% of British people surveyed were still proud of in 2016) wasn’t far behind us at all. Elite has you as a lone trader, rather than a representative of the East Galactia Company, but the prospect of travelling to far-flung locations and shooting down their defences to foist your narcotics onto their population can’t help but resonate, too.

It’s not just the experience of playing this game that those resonances matter for. Elite was as loved as it was successful and sets the scene for what is to come, its ideas traceable through to very different future games. Championship Manager would go on to turn its perspective vortex and largely player-outsourced narrative into a magical football story machine. And some other Brits would take Elite’s freedom to go anywhere and do anything as the model for the even more successful Grand Theft Auto, with the lack of morality not only built in as a given but made the whole point. The path towards a particular type of power fantasy dominating games doesn’t start here, but it’s a beautifully built trading post along the way.

[t-baba]

Alternatives to SPAs, Next.js 10, and running Node on iOS

#512 — October 30, 2020

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🎉 512 issues.. we're half way to 1 kibi-issue? 😄 Powers of 2 are much more fun to celebrate than hundreds or thousands, right? Thank you for all your ongoing support. __ Peter Cooper, your editor

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What It's Like Being a jQuery Maintainer — Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek is one of those heroes who drives and maintains a library that can seem either essential or unnecessary, depending on what company you keep: jQuery. Here’s a look at how he approaches this responsibility.

GitHub ReadME

Create React App 4.0 Released — It's over a year since the last major release of create-react-app, a popular way to quickly spin up a new React app, but with v4 we get support for Fast Refresh (a modern alternative to hot reloading), plus React 17 and TypeScript 4 support.

Facebook React Team

How to Build Forms With React the Easy Way — The challenges inherent to building forms with React, such as state management and validation, can be tackled with finesse. Read TJ VanToll’s blog to find out how to solve them quickly with the KendoReact Form component. Check it out.

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StandardJS 16: An Attempt at a Standardized JavaScript Style — StandardJS isn’t a formal standard but is nonetheless widely used to enforce consistency. v16 promises better performance and improved JSX, React and Next.js support.

Feross Aboukhadijeh et al.

esbuild: An Extremely Fast JavaScript Bundler — “You featured this last month,” I hear you say. True, but it now has an all new homepage complete with extra useful documentation and it continues to be a project I’m seeing a lot of buzz around. Next time you have ten minutes to play with a new tool, check it out.

Evan Weaver

⚡️ Quick bytes:

Node 14 has now become a Long Term Support (LTS) version as of v14.15.0.

GitHub has published a new roadmap for npm, as well as a new feedback process.

GitHub is running its annual Game Off game development contest throughout November if you fancy trying something new.

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📚 Tutorials, Opinions and Stories

If Not Single Page Apps (SPAs) Then What? — If you’re not a fan of the SPA approach, what else can you do? Turns out there are numerous modern alternatives from Stimulus to RedwoodJS.

Tom MacWright

Running Node on iOS and iPadOS via iSH — iSH provides a Linux shell on iOS devices and with the most minor of fiddling you can get Node running on it too.

Dr. Axel Rauschmayer

Getting Audio Visualizations Working with Web Audio API — A developer works through the trickiness of cross-browser issues around the Web Audio API and comes up with a neat visualization for his audio chat system.

Dwayne Harris

Logi Composer: An Out-of-the-Box Development Platform for Analytics — See how easy it is to build, customize, and embed analytics in your application. Download a free 14-day trial here.

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JavaScript's Memory Management Explained — A summary of the core concepts of memory management as it relates to JavaScript.

Felix Gerschau

How to Use Sharp for Image Processing in Node.js — Sharp is a high-performance module for resizing and formatting images (it uses libvips behind the scenes) and here’s how to get started with it.

Indrek Lasn

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[promin-blog]

Tolkien's Ungoliant and Stephen King's It – some interesting parallels

Scene from It (1990) - the Losers confront Its ‘true’ from.

While watching the recent adaptation of Stephen King's It (2017) and reacquainting myself with King’s work in general throughout the past year (including watching some older adaptations of his books, among which was also the 1990 miniseries It), my mind was constantly going back to Ungoliant, Morgoth and the Silmarillion.

Why? Well, some of it undoubtedly has to do with my ongoing interest in Tolkien, but I also managed to find some parallels between Ungoliant and It, and Morgoth and the arch villain of the Kingverse, the Crimson King.

Long story short, enjoy me shamelessly hopping on the It bandwagon!

Warning for the arachnophobic.

So, what do Ungoliant and It have in common?

They both:

1) assume a form of a (female) spider

2) have hunger as one of their defining traits

3) use Deadlights/Darkness, a fear inducing form of 'unlight' which traps their victims (connected to the spider form), also used by the Crimson King/Morgoth

4) are ancient and have a somewhat unclear origin

5) have a loose allegiance with the Big Bad's of their universes (Morgoth/the Crimson King)

  What do Morgoth and the Crimson King have in common?

They:

1) use Darkness (Unlight)/Deadlights to achieve their ‘goals’ - Melkor uses it to steal the Silmarils and kill the Trees, and the Crimson King uses it as a weapon (according to The Dark Tower Wiki)

2) have a loose allegiance with a hungry spider-like being who also uses Darkness (Unlight) /Deadlights)

3) both are Big Bads of their respective fictional universes

4) both are trying to rewrite reality in their own image

NOTE: Others have already found some references to the Crimson King being similar to Sauron (The Dark Tower Wiki page on the Crimson King, under ‘Inspiration’). I haven’t yet come across any articles comparing him to Morgoth which I believe to be a better position (to me Randall Flagg seems like a more credible reference to Sauron, even though, of course, overlaps are possible, both because Sauron imitated Morgoth in-universe and because King could have fused them on purpose).

So, let’s first break down the similarities between It and Ungoliant.

While Ungoliant takes the form of a giant spider and is referred to as female, It's ‘final’ form is also a giant spider.

In the novel It the Losers call It the Spider (i.e. "The Spider stopped laughing", It p 4153). It also seems to be considered by the Losers as femal(ish) as they refer to It as a 'bitch'  several times ("You k-k-killed my brother, you fuh-fuh-fucking BITCH" (…) p 4099, including the somewhat paradoxical "We killed It" (…) "We killed the bitch.", It, p 4289) after discovering It's eggs (It, p 4212).

It’s spider-form was also shown overtly in the finale of the 1990 miniseries It, as a kind of a 'boss-form' for the Losers to fight:

In the new It adaptation the spider imagery is covert, but still pervasive in the way Pennywise (definitely less ambiguously masculine, in my opinion, than in the 1990 adaptation) behaves and operates. This makes ‘the spider’ more than just another of It’s many forms designed to induce fear.

For example, It lives in the sewers, which are a kind of a web. The new film puts great emphasis on this, giving us both Bill’s model of the sewers and a map of them, both of which serve as visualizations of a ‘spider-web’. The ‘sewer web’ is also in a sense ‘invisible’ (like a real spider web) because it is underground. Thus it is both a hiding place for It and a trap for It’s prey.

Furthermore, as we can see in the Losers first individual encounters with It, the prey Pennywise finds by using the sewers are paralyzed by their own fears - the fears not produced directly by It, but by the ‘mundane’ (as opposed to the ‘supernatural’) part of the plot - mostly bullies and abusive parents. Arguably, It first finds the Losers because they are afraid. Pennywise uses fear (in the new movie It smells fear) to locate its victims and moves through the sewers accordingly, like a spider traverses its own web when its prey becomes entangled in it and it feels the vibrations the prey produces. Fear, in a sense, produces ‘vibrations’ in Pennywise’s spiderweb.

Pennywise's likeness to a spider in the new adaptation is also shown in the scene where the kidnapped children are suspended in air, as if trapped in some invisible spider web, stashed in a spider’s pantry.

As we can see when Pennywise suspends Beverly Marsh in the same way, all the children there are paralyzed by fear, the aftereffect of looking directly into It's deadlights. Fear is the spider venom which keeps It’s victims paralyzed and helpless. Deadlights are like a high-concentrate fear-venom that leaves you senseless.

No matter what form It assumes, It always acts like a spider.

Stephen King Wiki says the following on this issue:

"Throughout the book It is generally referred to as male; however, late in the book, the protagonists come to believe that It may be female (due to Its manifestation as a monstrous female spider). This is, however, not Its true form, it is simply the closest the human mind can come to approximating it (…) Its natural form exists in a realm beyond the physical, which It calls the ‘deadlights‘. (…) Coming face to face with the deadlights drives any living being instantly insane."

This can be compared with the description of the darkening of Valinor and the Elves and Valar’s experience of ‘the Darkness' that Ungoliant has 'woven':

"So the great darkness fell upon Valinor. Of the deeds of that day much is told in the Aldudénië, that Elemmírë of the Vanyar made and is known to all the Eldar. Yet no song or tale could contain all the grief and terror that then befell.The Light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light. In that hour was made a Darkness that seemed not lack but a thing with a being of its own: for it was indeed made by malice out of Light, and it had power to pierce the eye, and to enter heart and mind, and strangle the very will." (Silmarillion)

The Darkness that Morgoth unleashed on Valinor with Ungoliant’s help paralyzed the Elves and the Valar to such a degree than they couldn’t immediately pursue them.

It also interesting that, similarly to the paradoxically sounding name 'Deadlights', Ungoliant’s darkness also gets a paradoxical negative prefix - ‘un’, ('Unlight of Ungoliant' (Silmarillion p34)). Both present fear, in a sense, but in Tolkien’s case I would argue that the Darkness/Unlight presents above all fixation on the experienced loss, and not moving on creatively, still aptly shown by the spider imagery.

What also comes to mind here is Frodo’s and Sam’s confrontation with Shelob in Shelob’s Lair in The Two Towers.

The new movie’s whole 'Neibolt house hunt' sequence reminds me very much of that, mainly because Beverly gives It a really good stab in the head after which It retreats like a wounded Shelob when stabbed by Sam. Also, the tunnels of Shelob’s lair are like a 3D spider web, much like King’s town of Derry sewer system is It’s spider web, with the emphasized spacial quality - you are not on the web, you are in the web.

And, yeah, Frodo almost gets stashed in the spider’s pantry, like Beverly.

Furthermore, Tolkien describes Sam’s fear like something akin to an invisible spider web of Shelob:

"But nothing of this evil which they had stirred up against them did poor Sam know, except that a fear was growing on him, a menace which he could not see; and such a weight did it become that it was a burden to him to run, and his feet seemed leaden." (TTT, Shelob's Lair)

Sam literally has difficulty moving because of his fear. Then a little bit later he has a moment of ultimate ‘fixation’, a moment of paralyzing fear - he believes Frodo to be dead:

"‘He’s dead!’ he said. ‘Not asleep, dead!’ And as he said it, as if the words had set the venom to its work again, it seemed to him that the hue of the face grew livid green. And then black despair came down on him, and Sam bowed to the ground, and drew his grey hood over his head, and night came into his heart, and he knew no more. When at last the blackness passed, Sam looked up and shadows were about him; but for how many minutes or hours the world had gone dragging on he could not tell. He was still in the same place, and still his master lay beside him dead." (TTT, The Choices of Master Samwise)

It's like Sam took a glance at the Deadlights. Notice also how this despair is first described as 'black', which is a fairly common construction ('black despair'), but then 'blackness' is described as an entity on it's own, like it is described in The Darkening of Valinor - "a thing with a being of its own".

However, Sam manages to disentangle himself from this web – there is a moment of fixation on the experienced loss, but then he goes to the ‘underground’ (externalized by him literally being underground, in Shelob’s lair) of his own thoughts and feelings (this chapter is not named for nothing 'The Choices of Master Samwise') and manages to move on with the objective of the Fellowship's mission on his mind:

"‘But what can I do? (...) Or go on? Go on?’ he repeated, and for a moment doubt and fear shook him. ‘Go on? Is that what I’ve got to do? And leave him?’ (…)"‘What? Me, alone, go to the Crack of Doom and all?’ He quailed still, but the resolve grew. ‘What? Me take the Ring from him? The Council gave it to him.’ But the answer came at once: ‘And the Council gave him companions, so that the errand should not fail. And you are the last of all the Company. The errand must not fail.’" (TTT)

At this moment Sam passes Tolkien’s ethical test - he is able to ‘go on’, even after a crippling loss.

So, that would be points 1) and 3).

2) hunger as a defining trait

Hunger is also a big parallel here. Pennywise practically only sleeps (hibernates) and eats, and Ungoliant (just like her offspring Shelob) is always hungry. She ate the Trees’s sap. She tried to eat Morgoth and the Silmarils:

'Blackheart!' she said. 'I have done thy bidding. But I hunger still.' (Silm)

She even ate her sex partners:

“(...) other foul creatures of spider form had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband, and she mated with them, and devoured them”

And, in the end, probably herself:

“Of the fate of Ungoliant no tale tells. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.”

In the novel, Pennywise describes itself in terms of it’s hunger:

“(…) I am the eater of worlds, and of children. And you are next!”

I didn’t address everything I listed in this post, in particular, those last two parallels between Ungoliant and It:

4) they are ancient and have a somewhat unclear origin

5) they have a loose allegiance with the Big Bad's of their universes (Morgoth/the Crimson King).

These are tightly connected with the second list that explains the parallels between Morgoth and the Crimson King so I will elaborate on them together in my next post.

Thank you for reading this.

[garmmy]

appmon afterthoughts

appmon is finally over! it’s been a great journey. ;v; i drop shows easily when watching them week by week so i prefer binge-watching them at once, so appmon is the first show of this length that i managed to watch as it aired all the way through! (i dropped off somewhere in neovamdemon’s arc when trying to keep up with xros wars, haha. i did go back and finish it after that though!)

my personal preference of seasons: frontier > adventure > *appmon* > savers > 02 > hunters > tamers > tri > xros wars (as usual i still love all the seasons!! this is just if i had to rank them. i won’t deny that the 7 death generals arc was a bit of a drag for me though..)

here are my (LONG and incoherent) thoughts after watching the series, spoilers under the cut.

characters: - gosh i love the main cast so much!! ;v; i’m also glad that the appmon get a fair amount of characterisation and focus too (though still not as much as their human buddies), i feel there are times when digimon gives focus to the humans but in turn sacrifice some of the focus that their monster partners get. - i live for character interactions, so while i’m glad that haru/eri/astra interact with each other a lot, it’s a bit disappointing to see how little interaction rei and yuujin get with eri and astra. :( and hackmon never really interacts with the others much, or at all..i like hackmon, but it’d be nice to see him talk to someone other than rei for once. - i love the character growth in this season so much ;; possibly just behind frontier. eri and astra’s growth wasn’t as overt possibly due to how they express their personalities, but they throw a lot of it about the ‘filler’ eps and it all comes together really nicely. haru gets visibly stronger and more confident throughout the show, and rei’s change in reaction to his applidrive’s “are you alone?” question alone says so much. - on that note, i LOVE how they handled yuujin’s question (would you give your life up for a friend). in the end, it’s not those flashy scenes where you take a fatal hit for someone, but yuujin giving his life up not just to save humanity, but more importantly to save haru from having to shoulder the heavy burden of actually making the choice to kill yuujin. i thought that was a really powerful scene and it really got to me. - (shipping) haru and rei...i don’t care if it’s romantic or platonic or whatever i just love seeing them interact so, so much. people who know i like other pairs like seliph/ares, aichi/kai, etc...it’s the same pattern, nice pure boy gets the brooding edgy jerk to open up. i am a predictable person lol

story: - there are a lot of fillers. (but what is a digimon season without fillers?) i like fillers myself (probably why i like hunters when many people hate it), but i read the wtw comment threads every week and you get tons of complaints every time it hits a filler ep, and i can somewhat understand their frustration. appmon can be a drag to watch if you’re the kind who hates fillers. (i don’t deny a few fillers like the maripero ep did bore me though) - appmon does handle the main plot progression better than hunters though, despite the still whack pacing, and the fillers still tend to have nice character bits/growth. i love hunters but i won’t defend its absolute disregard for plot then trying to cram everything in at the last minute haha. still there are a number of unanswered questions..while i do agree that not all questions necessarily need answering, they can still provide deeper insight to characters. - personally, i liked how they kept the lightheartedness of the story while touching on salient AI-related issues. but while they bring up some very interesting issues, i don’t feel like they addressed them satisfactorily (at least from my pov)? leviathan’s aim with the humanity applification plan was to eradicate problems like conflict, disease, and human error from humanity, which is in a way even backed up by haru’s grandpa, who mentions “being data is great! without a physical body, one has no need to worry about injuries or sickness”, coming from someone who died in part because of sickness. you can see where the protags are coming from, but they never really address these ‘benefits’ of the humanity applification plan and how the benefits of not going through with the plan would outweigh the benefits of going through. - app-fusion might work well as a game mechanic, but i think it only serves to detract from the story in the anime, at least the way it is right now. for two series whose evolution is centred around fusion, xros wars handles fusion much better, utilising more creativity in both using and fusing the ‘fodder digimon’. appmon just tends to forget its fodder appmon exist. i personally think that appmon would be better off if its app-fusions were treated as simple evolutions instead (that’s pretty much how they treat the buddy appmon anyway; globemon is pretty much treated as ‘evolved gatchmon’, rather than an actual fusion of dogatchmon and timemon), that way you don’t get the nagging feeling that the fusion fodder appmon are just..fodder. - speaking of app-fusion, i have to say i personally prefer the more emotion-driven evolutions from the earlier seasons, rather than the evolutions achieved by getting the correct chip as we see in appmon. it makes sense from a gameplay perspective, but in context of the anime it feels..less impactful, i guess? i just always love seeing the bonds between the humans and their partners get tested, and become even stronger. - on an unrelated note, i find it funny that the show has a subplot involving two computer genius brothers and the cicada 3301 thing, mainly because i have a FDD story centered around the same idea (that i don’t make progress on at all. it probably looks like an appmon ripoff now but i don’t care haha)

designs: - i love the standard grade main appmon designs, they’re all so cute ;w; they have this distinct style in mind and i think they pulled it off well. (i’ve warmed up to musimon’s design A LOT from when he was first revealed, but i do still think it could be slightly less cluttered) - the ultimate grades are PERFECT, they’re some of my favourite digimon designs and possibly one of my favourite ‘group’ of designs out of protagonist digimon!! (possibly only bested by the frontier beast spirits and maybe the savers ultimates/tamers adults? haha) i just...yes. they’re amazing. i love them so so SO much - i’m not a fan of the direction they took with the god grades (maybe because i love the ultimate grades too much lol). all the gold didn’t sit too well with me either, maybe because we already had so much gold in xros wars? i do think they make great ‘final forms’ for the protagonist mons, but personally i still greatly prefer all their other forms to their god forms. i’m a bit more partial to hadesmon than the others because i LOVE jesmon, but hm...hadesmon still looks a lot more gaudy..like jesmon’s gaudy little brother. hahaha - i think the level system is a nice simplification from digimon. hopefully this means we can see appmon in future digimon games..they would be easier to implement than xw digimon anyway, haha;;

animation: - like many others i was skeptical about the making of higher-grade appmon 3DCG at first, though it eventually grew on me. the fights between 3DCG appmon were nicely done, but seeing the difference in animation between the 2D characters and 3DCG appmon was jarring, especially in shots where they’re together, mostly because of the framerate..the 3DCG appmon are animated on 1s? while the humans are animated on 3s like normal anime, it’s a big difference. thankfully most 3DCG fights don’t bring in the humans much. - the models/3D animation are still pretty well done! and i appreciate that they didn’t render them cel-shaded like what most anime do with 3D models (i remember translating the appmon interview mentioning why they did this, before appmon started airing; i was skeptical but now i can see what they were going for and i think it turned out well!) - after watching appmon i think 3DCG is a nice move for toei though, because we all know toei’s animation quality...could be better? hahaha. but i find toei’s weakness isn’t so much layout/choreography, but more of sometimes poorly-drawn frames, bad timing, or too little inbetweens, some of which are solved with 3DCG. you can especially see the contrast with digimon tri’s fight scenes; highly detailed digimon like jesmon for example would’ve benefited greatly from 3DCG, i know how painful it is to translate all of its details to 2D animation but as you can see it results in quite a number of not-as-nicely drawn frames. - special mention to charismon because i really like how he was modeled/rigged. those eyes!! can you imagine duskmon in 3D doing that and with those creepy sound effects too. - i’m not a huge fan of the palettes used in the AR-fields..(i didn’t like how the digiquartz was depicted that much either, and their depictions are quite similar so yeah) i can definitely see the effect they’re going for, but it felt more ‘kiddy alien-ish’ than ‘digital’ to me.

music: - i found the music quite ok (i liked DiVE!! and BE MY LIGHT though!), but i guess it didn’t match up to my personal tastes as much :x sadly appmon might be the lowest of the digimon seasons when it comes to music for me, i liked that endings are back! but the songs themselves didn’t captivate me as much as the previous seasons’ ending songs did. - on that note i’m glad they put in an insert song though! i guess i’m just really big on insert songs in digimon because as a kid i printed out the lyrics to brave heart and the other evo songs and loved singing along when they played in the show. lol - i remember complaining about this when the first episode aired, and my opinion still hasn’t changed 52 eps in. i CANNOT stand the applidrive voice at all hahaha (and the speed-up effect they use when app-linking/fusing) - the character songs are cute!! i’m personally really glad they decided to make them :) - the background music was pretty nice and had some memorable tracks..i’m not quite sure how i’d compare it to the rest? i liked all the soundtracks so far, though xros wars’ and frontier’s osts stood out especially for me.

[murasaki-murasame]

I got a whole lot of neat stuff off of the recent gala banner and the current summer banner, and I have a lot of thoughts about what I want from the [hypothetical] second summer banner that I wanna get down on paper in advance so I can either look smart if I get it right or really dumb otherwise, so here we go, lol.

I’m just gonna put this under a cut in case anyone doesn’t care to see me basically liveblog my last week of playing a gacha game.

My experience with the gala banner was kinda funny. I ended up doing two different summoning sessions at the start and end of it, since I initially didn’t care enough about Gala Cleo to pull much on it, and I wanted to prioritize the summer banner more, but then we found out that the summer banner wasn’t going to be limited and we got like 30 pulls worth of free currency for various reasons, so I decided to just spend all my resources on the last day of the gala, which I think got me to about 80-ish pulls total on it.

Which was totally worth it because I managed to get Amane, Vixel, Annelie, Julietta, Natalie, Nefaria, and Gala Cleo. I also got enough eldwater to get around to promoting my Norwin, because my good purple bunny boy deserves all the love. I actually got Gala Cleo on the very last 10-pull I was able to do, and considering that my very first 10-pull on the gala gave me a dupe Maribelle, I still got really nervous for a second there when I saw the rainbow wand, lol. I also got enough 4-star strength dragon dupes to MUB a couple of them, so that was nice. I don’t think I actually got a single 5-star dragon from the gala, oddly enough.

In spite of the fact that I even managed to get Gala Cleo, I actually got most excited about getting Vixel, since he’s one of the units I’ve been wanting to get ever since I started the game. I just love his design and his voice so much, lol. I also promoted him just to help make him even stronger.

Though mostly I find it kinda funny that literally all of the new adventurers I got were light and shadow ones. It’s not like I had all of the other ones or anything. But I can’t complain, since light was one of my weakest teams before this. I was contemplating dream summoning someone like Annelie or Julietta to round it out, so I’m glad I won’t have to.

And then the summer banner happened, and even though I spend all my resources on the gala, we’ve been getting drowned in enough summon vouchers and wyrmite recently that I still managed to do 20 pulls on the first day of it, and another 20 pulls yesterday. The first 20 pulls got me Summer Ranzal and Summer Julietta [plus a Konohana Sakuya dupe], and the second 20 pulls got me Summer Celliera and Siren [and a Freyja dupe], so at this point I’m just gonna quit while I’m ahead and hoard my resources for the next banner, lmao. I feel like with each new banner I tend to either get all of the units on it almost immediately, or I struggle to get any of them. I got all the new adventurers in the B-Zardin and S-Maribelle banners, I only got Shinobi from the festival banner, I didn’t get ANYONE from the Ramona banner, but now I have Gala Cleo and everyone from the summer banner. I’ve got some weird luck with this game.

I also wanna point out that in the summoning session I did yesterday, I started by spending 10 single vouchers to raise my pity rate, and the 10th voucher I used was the one that gave me the dupe Freyja, which at the time bugged me because I got baited by a dupe 5-star dragon AND it reset my pity rate, but then I just decided to spend the 10-fold voucher they gave us for the 1.10.1 update, and in spite of having a freshly reset pity rate I got both Summer Celliera and Siren in it. Somehow.

I’m glad I got all of them, though, since my water DPS options were severely lacking before this. Especially when it came to dragons.

Even though it’s not really confirmed yet, I still think there’s going to be a second summer banner after this one, and I was planning on hoarding most/all of my resources for it even before I managed to get everything on this banner. I’m readily putting on my clown nose and hoping against hope that we get a Summer Luca based on his incredibly good summer outfit from this event, and if we do then I’m gonna spend all my resources on him.

Either way, I think a second summer banner would almost certainly give us alts for Luca and Verica. It’s pretty obvious how Verica’s 5-second cameo in this event was one giant tease for the second banner. And Luca even has a 3D model for his summer outfit. If we get a third new summer alt to go along with them, I have a feeling it’d probably be Elly because lol of course it would, but I hope not. On top of the fact that she literally just got a non-limited 5-star alt a month or two ago, it’d also be really unnecessary for her to get a water-element summer alt since she’s already a water unit, and she’s probably gonna eventually get a water-element gala alt anyway. Since regular Elly’s one of the best units in the game, I feel like a summer Elly would either disappoint people and everyone would ignore her in favour of keeping regular Elly on their teams, or she’d be better than regular Elly and everyone would complain about her being broken. So I just wanna be spared of all that, lol.

If it’s not Elly, though, they could really do anything at all with a third summer alt in the second banner. I feel like only her, Luca, and Verica really stick out as obvious options, since they’re basically the only other characters involved in this event. I know everyone wants a Karina alt, but she’s already a really good water unit, and also she kinda already looks like a summer alt of herself. She deosn’t really need one.

I actually kinda like the idea of it being Johanna in a sundress, to go along with some of the Dragalia Life comics from a little while ago about her.

In terms of weapon types and stuff, I’d like to see a 5-star water blade, a 5-star water staff, and a 4-star water sword, since those are some slots that haven’t been filled at all yet. And if they do it that way, I could definitely see Verica as a 5-star water staff, and I’d really like to see Luca as a 5-star water blade. Which I guess would leave the wildcard third summer alt character as the 4-star water sword. I guess Luca could just get a 4-star alt, but I really hope he gets a 5-star one, since he hasn’t gotten any alts at all thus far.

If we do get a second summer banner that’s tied to the second part of the summer event, I’m also really curious to see who the featured dragon is. I wonder if they’d just keep Siren as the featured dragon, or if it’d be a new one. She’s the only dragon that’s really relevant to this event [other than the welfare one we got already], but they might not want to have the same dragon be featured for two banners in a row. I saw someone suggest the idea of Barbary becoming a summonable dragon, and I actually really like that idea.

I might not want to bother summoning much on the next banner if it’s another summer one that doesn’t have Luca on it, since my water team’s much more well-rounded now, but we’ll see how it goes. At worst I’d probably just keep hoarding my resources for the next gala.

[jccamus]

Count ‘em up: 100 things we announced at I/O ‘19

Another I/O is in the books! We played in sandboxes, watched eye-popping product demos and listened to AI-powered music. But the fun isn’t over! In case you missed it, here are 100 announcements we made at I/O:

Hardware

1. Hold the phone! Our new smartphones—the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL—hit the shelves this week, bringing together all the essential Google features at a lower price ($399 for the 5.6-inch display and $479 for the 6-inch model). 2. Good things come in threes, like Pixel 3a’s color options. Choose from Purple-ish, Clearly White and Just Black. 3. And no matter what color your phone is, it has the same great Pixel camera. Capture shots in portrait mode and HDR+, or use Night Sight to take magical photos in low light (think outdoor concerts, swanky restaurants or night hikes with friends). 4. To add to the creativity, Time Lapse is coming to Pixel 3a. Soon you can capture an entire sunset within a few seconds of video. 5. All-day battery, baby! The Pixel 3a charges seven hours of battery life in 15 minutes and full battery can last up to 30 hours. 6. Squeeze the Pixel 3a to get the Google Assistant to send texts, find directions, set reminders and a lot more—simply by using your voice. 7. Hi, who’s there? The Google Assistant’s Call Screen feature (available in English in the U.S. and Canada) gives more information about who’s calling before you even answer your phone. Best of all, it helps save you from robocalls once and for all. 8. The Pixel 3a is protected against new threats with three years of security and operating system updates. 9. It also comes with the custom-built Titan M chip to help protect your most sensitive data. 10. All Pixel phones will get a preview of AR in Google Maps. So the next time you're getting around town, you can see walking directions overlaid on the world itself, rather than looking at a blue dot on a map. 11. Say hello to Google Nest. We’re bringing the Home products and Nest brand together to create a helpful home. 12. We welcomed the newest member of the Google Nest family: Google Nest Hub Max. Hub Max has a 10-inch screen, premium stereo sound, a camera with built-in Nest Cam features and the power of Google Assistant. 13. Live Albums on Nest Hub Max lets you select pictures of family and friends from your Google Photos to be displayed on the screen. 14. The built-in Nest Cam helps you keep an eye on things at home. You can turn the camera on when you’re away and check on things right from the Nest App on your phone. 15. The camera on Hub Max also lets you make video calls and leave personalized messages with Google’s video calling app, Duo.   16. If you’re listening to music or watching a cooking tutorial, turn down the volume with a wave of your hand. With Gestures, you simply have to look at the Nest Hub Max and raise your hand to pause media. 17. The home view dashboard lets you control all your connected devices from one dashboard—and the Google Assistant now controls more than 30,000 smart devices from 3,500 brands. 18. Similar to Voice Match, you have the option to enable Nest Hub Max’s Face Match feature that recognizes who’s using the device and shares the most relevant information, like their calendar and estimated commute time. 19. We shared our new privacy commitments, explaining our security and privacy options for Google Nest products. 20. There’s a green light on the front of Hub Max that indicates when the camera is streaming. In addition, you have multiple controls to disable camera features, like the Nest Cam and Face Match. 21. Hub Max will be available in the U.S., U.K. and Australia this summer. 22. Google Nest Hub, formerly Google Home Hub, is now available in 12 more countries—Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain and Sweden. 23. And our prices are lower: Google Nest Hub available in the U.S. for $129, and starting today Google Home is $99 and Google Home Max is $299.

Assistant 

24. The Assistant is now on more than one billion devices, available in more than 30 languages across 80 countries. 25. The next generation Assistant will run on-device and answer queries up to 10 times faster, with almost zero latency. It will come to Pixel phones later this year. 26. Keep the conversation going. Now with Continued Conversation, you can make several requests in a row without having to say “Hey Google” each time. 27. We’re extending Duplex to the web to help you complete tasks faster. Just ask the Assistant, “Book a car with for my next trip,” and it will figure out the rest. 28. Sound the alarm! You can now stop a timer or alarm that you set on Google Home speakers and Smart Displays by simply saying, “stop.” 29. Help is on the way! With a new feature called Personal References, the Assistant will better understand you and reference to the important things in your life. Say you’ve told the Assistant which contact “Mom” is. You can then ask, “Hey Google, what’s the weather like at my mom’s house this weekend?” and get the answer without any additional details. 30. Choose your next recipe to try, event to attend or podcast to listen to with Picks for You. This Assistant feature draws from past searches and other contextual cues to give you more personalized results. 31. Over the coming weeks, you’ll be able to access all of the helpfulness of the Assistant directly within Waze. 32. Take advantage of Google Assistant Driving Mode when you’re behind the wheel. The new dashboard automatically starts when you’re driving and displays the most relevant activities like navigation, messaging, calling and media. 33. It’s easier to use the Assistant to control your car remotely, so you can adjust your car’s temperature, check your fuel level or make sure your doors are locked without leaving the house. 34. Control your Assistant data and make privacy choices that are right for you from the “You” tab in your Assistant settings. 35. Ever Googled a “how-to” question? We’re giving content creators easy-to-use developer tools so in the coming months when you ask, “Hey Google, how do I install a dog door?” you’ll get a helpful step-by-step experience from a trusted source like DIY Networks. 36. The Assistant can now help you do specific things in some of your favorite apps. For example, you can say, “Hey Google, start my run in Nike Run Club.” 37. Game makers can now take full advantage of developing for Smart Displays' interactive screens, so you'll start seeing more games that combine voice, visuals and touch.

AI and ML

38. And the winner is…we unveiled the 20 Google AI Impact Challenge grantees  who are using AI to address societal challenges. 39. We’ve made progress on flood forecasting in India. Now we can better use AI to predict flood timing, location and severity across 90 percent of India, and share that information with Google Public Alerts. 40. Two bands took the stage at I/O—with a little help from machine learning. Both YACHT and The Flaming Lips worked with Google engineers to create music with Magenta, our AI tool for artistic creativity 41. Check out our new PAIR Guidebook, an external toolkit that will help ML practitioners make better, user-centered decisions when building with AI. 42. We’re taking the same AI research that makes our products better and using it to enhance user privacy. Federated learning allows Google’s AI products to work better for you, and work better for everyone, without collecting raw data from your devices.

Google News and Search 

43. Now it’s easier to stay in the know. The technology that powers Full Coverage in Google News is coming to Search to better organize search results for news-related topics and give you the context you need to understand a story.   44. When you search for a news topic, you’ll have the option to see different points of a story—from a timeline of events to the key people involved—and surface a breadth of content including articles, tweets and even podcasts. 45. In the coming months, we’ll start including podcasts in Google Search results so you can listen to podcasts directly from the search results page or save an episode for later.

Augmented Reality and Google Lens

46. Seeing is believing! Soon you’ll be able to view 3D objects right from Search and place them into your own space. 47. Lens now provides more visual answers by using AR to overlay useful information and content onto the things you see. For example, if you see a dish you’d like to cook in an upcoming issue of Bon Appetit magazine, you’ll be able to point your camera at a recipe and have the page come to life and show you exactly how to make it. 48. Lens can help you decide what to order. Just point your camera at the menu, and Lens highlights which dishes are popular, right on the menu. Tap on a dish to see photos and snippets of reviews from Google Maps. 49. Now, you can point your camera at text and Lens will automatically overlay the translation right on top of the original words—it works in more than 100 languages. 50. Say what? When you point your camera at text, Lens can now read it out loud. You can also tap on a specific word to search for its definition. This feature is launching first in Google Go, our Search app for first-time smartphone users.

Privacy 

51. You’ll start seeing your Google Account profile icon appear more prominently across all Google products, so takes just one tap to access your privacy and security settings. 52. Now we’re making it easier to manage your data in Maps, the Assistant and YouTube (coming soon). For example, you'll be able to review and delete your location activity data directly in Google Maps, and then quickly get back to your directions. 53. New auto-delete controls for Location History and Web & App Activity allow you to choose to automatically and continuously delete your data. 54. We’re expanding Incognito mode—the option in Chrome that clears your browsing history after every session—to more of our products, including Maps. 55. Thanks to federated learning, Gboard has improved predictive typing as well as emoji predictions across tens of millions of devices. 56. We’ve built security keys directly into your Android phone, giving you easier and more convenient protection against phishing attacks. This is rolling out to all devices running Android 7.0 and above.

Android

57. Android Q’s newest features are centered around innovation, security, privacy and digital wellbeing. 58. A new gesture-based navigation lets you easily move between tasks and utilize a bigger screen. 59. Android Q has tools for developers to build cool apps for foldable phones and 5G, opening up new possibilities for experiences like gaming on your device. 60. Live Caption will automatically caption media playing on your phone—like videos podcasts, audio messages, even stuff you record yourself—across any app. 61. Smart Reply is getting even smarter! Not only will your phone show suggested replies, it’ll also help you take action, like opening addresses from a text message in an app like Maps. 62. You asked, we listened! Android Q brings Dark Theme. You can activate in Settings, or by turning on Battery Saver. 63. We’re bringing privacy to the top level of Settings so you can find all the important controls in one place. 64. Android Q arms you with new permission controls so you can share your location (or not) with apps on your own terms. 65. Time for a time out? With the new Focus Mode, you can get things done without distraction, by selecting the apps you want to stay active and pausing everything you don't. 66. And to help children and families find a better balance with technology, we’re making Family Link part of every device that has Digital Wellbeing, starting with Android Q. 67. Signed, sealed, delivered! There’s a new way to deliver important updates. With Project Mainline, we can update core OS components without a full OS update. 68. All Android devices with Q—including phones, tablets, TVs, and Android Auto—are required to encrypt user data. 69. Some of these features are available today in Android Q Beta which is available on 15 devices from 12 manufacturers (in addition to all Pixel phones). 70. Android Q brings lots of new emoji, including 53 new non-binary designs for emoji that Unicode defines as "genderless.” 71. Buckle up! Android Auto’s new design coming out this summer will help you get on the road faster, show you useful information at a glance and simplify common tasks while driving. 72. Now media developers will be able to build new entertainment experiences for Android-powered infotainment systems. 73. With Tiles on Wear OS by Google you have more swipeable access to things right from your wrist like your goals, next event, weather forecast, heart rate and timer. 74. Android TV platform now has more than 140 pay TV partners, 6 of the 10 top smart TV OEMs using the Android TV platform; and more than 5,000 apps and games in its ecosystem.

Chrome

75. It’s now easier to share files between Linux, Android, and Chrome OS using file manager. 76. Android Studio on Chrome OS helps you optimize your apps for Chrome OS—directly on your Chromebook. 77. All Chromebooks launched this year will be Linux-ready right out of the box. 78. We have more user transparency and controls, like improved cookie controls and more restrictions for fingerprinting across the web.

Ads

79. With the option to bid on tROAS, advertisers will soon be able to automatically pay more for users who are likely to spend more in apps, and pay less for users likely to spend less. 80. We’re teaming up with eight agencies http://bit.ly/2PWq1jx —Vidmob, Consumer Acquisition, Bamboo, Apptamin, Webpals, Creadits, Kaizen Ad and Kuaizi—to provide advertisers end-to-end creative development and consultation services. 81. We’ll be expanding a new monetization program, called Open Bidding, to all publishers later this year so developers can automatically  maximize the value of every impression automatically. 82. New transparency tools across browsers http://bit.ly/2V2slpT will give people greater visibility into the data that Google uses to personalize ads. 83. We also launched new AdMob tools for developers that help give more control over ad content, easily access metrics and quickly identify and remove bad ads.

Accessibility

84. Project Euphonia is using AI to improve computer's' abilities to understand and transcribe a diverse set of speech patterns, including impaired speech. 85. Live Relay uses on-device speech recognition and text-to-speech conversion to allow the phone to listen and speak on people’s behalf while they type. 86. Project Diva is a research effort that makes Google Assistant more accessible for people with disabilities.

More developer announcements

87. We’re launching a preview for Local Home SDK that lets smart home developers bring a new level of speed and reliability to smart home devices. 88. The next version of our Maps Android SDK is now available for public beta. It’s built on a common platform with the Google Maps mobile app, which means better performance and feature support. 89. A new Google Maps Platform integration with deck.gl will make high-quality data visualizations at scale possible. 90. We’re unifying our efforts around third-party connected home devices under a single platform for developers. Now we’ll be delivering a single consumer and developer experience through the Works with Google Assistant program. 91. We introduced updates in ARCore to Augmented Images and Light Estimation— features that let you build more interactive, and realistic experiences. 92. Scene Viewer is a new tool that lets users view 3D objects in AR right from your website. 93. Android development will become increasingly Kotlin-first.

94. We released 11 new Jetpack libraries and open-sourced an early preview of Jetpack Compose, a new unbundled toolkit designed to simplify UI development. 95. Android Studio 3.5 Beta is available for download and includes improvements in three core areas: system health, feature polish and bugs. 96. Flutter 1.5 includes hundreds of changes in response to developer feedback, including updates for new App Store iOS SDK requirements, updates to the iOS and Material widgets, engine support for new device types, and Dart 2.3 featuring new UI-as-code language features. 97. We released the first technical preview of Flutter for the web. 98. Our in-app updates API is out of beta. Now people can install updates without ever leaving the app. 99. New metrics and insights in the Google Play Console help developers better measure app health and analyze performance. 100.A new change is coming to Chrome Canary to help image-heavy websites can load more quickly.

Publicado en Official Google Blog http://bit.ly/2VYg36k vía IFTTT

[android-for-life]

"Count ‘em up: 100 things we announced at I/O ‘19"

Another I/O is in the books! We played in sandboxes, watched eye-popping product demos and listened to AI-powered music. But the fun isn’t over! In case you missed it, here are 100 announcements we made at I/O:

Hardware

1. Hold the phone! Our new smartphones—the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL—hit the shelves this week, bringing together all the essential Google features at a lower price ($399 for the 5.6-inch display and $479 for the 6-inch model). .2. Good things come in threes, like Pixel 3a’s color options. Choose from Purple-ish, Clearly White and Just Black. 3. And no matter what color your phone is, it has the same great Pixel camera. Capture shots in portrait mode and HDR+, or use Night Sight to take magical photos in low light (think outdoor concerts, swanky restaurants or night hikes with friends). 4. To add to the creativity, Time Lapse is coming to Pixel 3a. Soon you can capture an entire sunset within a few seconds of video. 5. All-day battery, baby! The Pixel 3a charges seven hours of battery life in 15 minutes and full battery can last up to 30 hours. 6. Squeeze the Pixel 3a to get the Google Assistant to send texts, find directions, set reminders and a lot more—simply by using your voice. 7. Hi, who’s there? The Google Assistant’s Call Screen feature (available in English in the U.S. and Canada) gives more information about who’s calling before you even answer your phone. Best of all, it helps save you from robocalls once and for all. 8. The Pixel 3a is protected against new threats with three years of security and operating system updates. 9. It also comes with the custom-built Titan M chip to help protect your most sensitive data. 10. All Pixel phones will get a preview of AR in Google Maps. So the next time you're getting around town, you can see walking directions overlaid on the world itself, rather than looking at a blue dot on a map. 11. Say hello to Google Nest. We’re bringing the Home products and Nest brand together to create a helpful home. 12. We welcomed the newest member of the Google Nest family: Google Nest Hub Max. Hub Max has a 10-inch screen, premium stereo sound, a camera with built-in Nest Cam features and the power of Google Assistant. 13. Live Albums on Nest Hub Max lets you select pictures of family and friends from your Google Photos to be displayed on the screen. 14. The built-in Nest Cam helps you keep an eye on things at home. You can turn the camera on when you’re away and check on things right from the Nest App on your phone. 15. The camera on Hub Max also lets you make video calls and leave personalized messages with Google’s video calling app, Duo.   16. If you’re listening to music or watching a cooking tutorial, turn down the volume with a wave of your hand. With Gestures, you simply have to look at the Nest Hub Max and raise your hand to pause media. 17. The home view dashboard lets you control all your connected devices from one dashboard—and the Google Assistant now controls more than 30,000 smart devices from 3,500 brands. 18. Similar to Voice Match, you have the option to enable Nest Hub Max’s Face Match feature that recognizes who’s using the device and shares the most relevant information, like their calendar and estimated commute time. 19. We shared our new privacy commitments, explaining our security and privacy options for Google Nest products. 20. There’s a green light on the front of Hub Max that indicates when the camera is streaming. In addition, you have multiple controls to disable camera features, like the Nest Cam and Face Match. 21. Hub Max will be available in the U.S., U.K. and Australia this summer. 22. Google Nest Hub, formerly Google Home Hub, is now available in 12 more countries—Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain and Sweden. 23. And our prices are lower: Google Nest Hub available in the U.S. for $129, and starting today Google Home is $99 and Google Home Max is $299.

Assistant 

24. The Assistant is now on more than one billion devices, available in more than 30 languages across 80 countries. 25. The next generation Assistant will run on-device and answer queries up to 10 times faster, with almost zero latency. It will come to Pixel phones later this year. 26. Keep the conversation going. Now with Continued Conversation, you can make several requests in a row without having to say “Hey Google” each time. 27. We’re extending Duplex to the web to help you complete tasks faster. Just ask the Assistant, “Book a car with for my next trip,” and it will figure out the rest. 28. Sound the alarm! You can now stop a timer or alarm that you set on Google Home speakers and Smart Displays by simply saying, “stop.” 29. Help is on the way! With a new feature called Personal References, the Assistant will better understand you and reference to the important things in your life. Say you’ve told the Assistant which contact “Mom” is. You can then ask, “Hey Google, what’s the weather like at my mom’s house this weekend?” and get the answer without any additional details. 30. Choose your next recipe to try, event to attend or podcast to listen to with Picks for You. This Assistant feature draws from past searches and other contextual cues to give you more personalized results. 31. Over the coming weeks, you’ll be able to access all of the helpfulness of the Assistant directly within Waze. 32. Take advantage of Google Assistant Driving Mode when you’re behind the wheel. The new dashboard automatically starts when you’re driving and displays the most relevant activities like navigation, messaging, calling and media. 33. It’s easier to use the Assistant to control your car remotely, so you can adjust your car’s temperature, check your fuel level or make sure your doors are locked without leaving the house. 34. Control your Assistant data and make privacy choices that are right for you from the “You” tab in your Assistant settings. 35. Ever Googled a “how-to” question? We’re giving content creators easy-to-use developer tools so in the coming months when you ask, “Hey Google, how do I install a dog door?” you’ll get a helpful step-by-step experience from a trusted source like DIY Networks. 36. The Assistant can now help you do specific things in some of your favorite apps. For example, you can say, “Hey Google, start my run in Nike Run Club.” 37. Game makers can now take full advantage of developing for Smart Displays' interactive screens, so you'll start seeing more games that combine voice, visuals and touch.

AI and ML

38. And the winner is…we unveiled the 20 Google AI Impact Challenge grantees  who are using AI to address societal challenges. 39. We’ve made progress on flood forecasting in India. Now we can better use AI to predict flood timing, location and severity across 90 percent of India, and share that information with Google Public Alerts. 40. Two bands took the stage at I/O—with a little help from machine learning. Both YACHT and The Flaming Lips worked with Google engineers to create music with Magenta, our AI tool for artistic creativity 41. Check out our new PAIR Guidebook, an external toolkit that will help ML practitioners make better, user-centered decisions when building with AI. 42. We’re taking the same AI research that makes our products better and using it to enhance user privacy. Federated learning allows Google’s AI products to work better for you, and work better for everyone, without collecting raw data from your devices.

Google News and Search 

43. Now it’s easier to stay in the know. The technology that powers Full Coverage in Google News is coming to Search to better organize search results for news-related topics and give you the context you need to understand a story.   44. When you search for a news topic, you’ll have the option to see different points of a story—from a timeline of events to the key people involved—and surface a breadth of content including articles, tweets and even podcasts. 45. In the coming months, we’ll start including podcasts in Google Search results so you can listen to podcasts directly from the search results page or save an episode for later.

Augmented Reality and Google Lens

46. Seeing is believing! Soon you’ll be able to view 3D objects right from Search and place them into your own space. 47. Lens now provides more visual answers by using AR to overlay useful information and content onto the things you see. For example, if you see a dish you’d like to cook in an upcoming issue of Bon Appetit magazine, you’ll be able to point your camera at a recipe and have the page come to life and show you exactly how to make it. 48. Lens can help you decide what to order. Just point your camera at the menu, and Lens highlights which dishes are popular, right on the menu. Tap on a dish to see photos and snippets of reviews from Google Maps. 49. Now, you can point your camera at text and Lens will automatically overlay the translation right on top of the original words—it works in more than 100 languages. 50. Say what? When you point your camera at text, Lens can now read it out loud. You can also tap on a specific word to search for its definition. This feature is launching first in Google Go, our Search app for first-time smartphone users.

Privacy 

51. You’ll start seeing your Google Account profile icon appear more prominently across all Google products, so takes just one tap to access your privacy and security settings. 52. Now we’re making it easier to manage your data in Maps, the Assistant and YouTube (coming soon). For example, you'll be able to review and delete your location activity data directly in Google Maps, and then quickly get back to your directions. 53. New auto-delete controls for Location History and Web & App Activity allow you to choose to automatically and continuously delete your data. 54. We’re expanding Incognito mode—the option in Chrome that clears your browsing history after every session—to more of our products, including Maps. 55. Thanks to federated learning, Gboard has improved predictive typing as well as emoji predictions across tens of millions of devices. 56. We’ve built security keys directly into your Android phone, giving you easier and more convenient protection against phishing attacks. This is rolling out to all devices running Android 7.0 and above.

Android

57. Android Q’s newest features are centered around innovation, security, privacy and digital wellbeing. 58. A new gesture-based navigation lets you easily move between tasks and utilize a bigger screen. 59. Android Q has tools for developers to build cool apps for foldable phones and 5G, opening up new possibilities for experiences like gaming on your device. 60. Live Caption will automatically caption media playing on your phone—like videos podcasts, audio messages, even stuff you record yourself—across any app. 61. Smart Reply is getting even smarter! Not only will your phone show suggested replies, it’ll also help you take action, like opening addresses from a text message in an app like Maps. 62. You asked, we listened! Android Q brings Dark Theme. You can activate in Settings, or by turning on Battery Saver. 63. We’re bringing privacy to the top level of Settings so you can find all the important controls in one place. 64. Android Q arms you with new permission controls so you can share your location (or not) with apps on your own terms. 65. Time for a time out? With the new Focus Mode, you can get things done without distraction, by selecting the apps you want to stay active and pausing everything you don't. 66. And to help children and families find a better balance with technology, we’re making Family Link part of every device that has Digital Wellbeing, starting with Android Q. 67. Signed, sealed, delivered! There’s a new way to deliver important updates. With Project Mainline, we can update core OS components without a full OS update. 68. All Android devices with Q—including phones, tablets, TVs, and Android Auto—are required to encrypt user data. 69. Some of these features are available today in Android Q Beta which is available on 15 devices from 12 manufacturers (in addition to all Pixel phones). 70. Android Q brings lots of new emoji, including 53 new non-binary designs for emoji that Unicode defines as "genderless.” 71. Buckle up! Android Auto’s new design coming out this summer will help you get on the road faster, show you useful information at a glance and simplify common tasks while driving. 72. Now media developers will be able to build new entertainment experiences for Android-powered infotainment systems. 73. With Tiles on Wear OS by Google you have more swipeable access to things right from your wrist like your goals, next event, weather forecast, heart rate and timer. 74. Android TV platform now has more than 140 pay TV partners, 6 of the 10 top smart TV OEMs using the Android TV platform; and more than 5,000 apps and games in its ecosystem.

Chrome

75. It’s now easier to share files between Linux, Android, and Chrome OS using file manager. 76. Android Studio on Chrome OS helps you optimize your apps for Chrome OS—directly on your Chromebook. 77. All Chromebooks launched this year will be Linux-ready right out of the box. 78. We have more user transparency and controls, like improved cookie controls and more restrictions for fingerprinting across the web.

Ads

79. With the option to bid on tROAS, advertisers will soon be able to automatically pay more for users who are likely to spend more in apps, and pay less for users likely to spend less. 80. We’re teaming up with eight agencies http://bit.ly/2PWq1jx —Vidmob, Consumer Acquisition, Bamboo, Apptamin, Webpals, Creadits, Kaizen Ad and Kuaizi—to provide advertisers end-to-end creative development and consultation services. 81. We’ll be expanding a new monetization program, called Open Bidding, to all publishers later this year so developers can automatically  maximize the value of every impression automatically. 82. New transparency tools across browsers http://bit.ly/2V2slpT will give people greater visibility into the data that Google uses to personalize ads. 83. We also launched new AdMob tools for developers that help give more control over ad content, easily access metrics and quickly identify and remove bad ads.

Accessibility

84. Project Euphonia is using AI to improve computer's' abilities to understand and transcribe a diverse set of speech patterns, including impaired speech. 85. Live Relay uses on-device speech recognition and text-to-speech conversion to allow the phone to listen and speak on people’s behalf while they type. 86. Project Diva is a research effort that makes Google Assistant more accessible for people with disabilities.

More developer announcements

87. We’re launching a preview for Local Home SDK that lets smart home developers bring a new level of speed and reliability to smart home devices. 88. The next version of our Maps Android SDK is now available for public beta. It’s built on a common platform with the Google Maps mobile app, which means better performance and feature support. 89. A new Google Maps Platform integration with deck.gl will make high-quality data visualizations at scale possible. 90. We’re unifying our efforts around third-party connected home devices under a single platform for developers. Now we’ll be delivering a single consumer and developer experience through the Works with Google Assistant program. 91. We introduced updates in ARCore to Augmented Images and Light Estimation— features that let you build more interactive, and realistic experiences. 92. Scene Viewer is a new tool that lets users view 3D objects in AR right from your website. 93. Android development will become increasingly Kotlin-first.

94. We released 11 new Jetpack libraries and open-sourced an early preview of Jetpack Compose, a new unbundled toolkit designed to simplify UI development. 95. Android Studio 3.5 Beta is available for download and includes improvements in three core areas: system health, feature polish and bugs. 96. Flutter 1.5 includes hundreds of changes in response to developer feedback, including updates for new App Store iOS SDK requirements, updates to the iOS and Material widgets, engine support for new device types, and Dart 2.3 featuring new UI-as-code language features. 97. We released the first technical preview of Flutter for the web. 98. Our in-app updates API is out of beta. Now people can install updates without ever leaving the app. 99. New metrics and insights in the Google Play Console help developers better measure app health and analyze performance. 100.A new change is coming to Chrome Canary to help image-heavy websites can load more quickly.

Source : The Official Google Blog via Source information

[rieshon]

Spring 2018 Preview

I can’t believe a new season starts in a week already... heres the shows.

1. Comic Girls: KIRARA ANIME BOIS. Do I even need to say more than that? The girls look absolutely adorable, the animation looks on point, and although the director is a debutante he's being backed up by an impressive quartet of writers including Takahashi Natsuko, Yokote Michiko, Hanada Jukki and Machida Touko. Oh yeah, it's also got a bunch of hot channees in addition to the cute schoolgirls. You can't go wrong with this one.

2. Amanchu! ~Advance~: Satojun is back at it again with the silly hiragana subtitles for sequels. The masters of healing are back again for a sequel to what was one of my favorite shows of 2016. More Teko, more of that sexy Itou Shizuka-voiced teacher, and more relaxing feels. This is exactly what we need to fill the Yurucamp-shaped holes in our hearts.

3. Alice or Alice: There are a lot of things that make me excited about this show. Obviously the cast is one: Ayaneru plays the main character, and we got Natsunee and Oonishi in there too. The director is Kobayashi Kousuke, an alumnus of the Pretty Rhythm series who was very heavily involved in Pripara, which you may know is the best anime ever made. And then there's the aesthetic: everything from the character designs to the title logo make this look and feel like a harem anime from 15 or so years ago, which is absolutely my jam. Pretty hyped for this one.

4. Sword Art Online Alternative Gungale Online: One of the weirder things to happen over the past year-ish is that I've become an unabashed SAO fanboy. The shows are just good, y'all. So you can imagine how I feel about a new show set in the SAO universe written by the author of Kino no Tabi, a show I just put in my top five of the last year, and with characters by Kuroboshi Kouhaku (also of Kino) who is the utmost hotness right now. Hopefully this will be more than enough to tide us over while we wait for SAO3 to arrive.

5. Waka-Okami wa Shougakusei: This looks like a kids anime at first glance, and, well, it is. It's based on a series of popular children's books, but they've really gone all out with the production values based on the PVs (Madhouse producing) and it looks immensely charming. Some of the best anime are childrens' stories, so I'm quietly excited about this one.

6. Hinamatsuri: This is shaping up to be one of the weirder shows of the coming season, and it looks great. From the look of the PVs, feel. are going even more all-out than they usually do with the visuals, and it also looks genuinely funny. Plus it's got a cute loli. Should be good.

7. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Die Neue These: It's finally here. Obviously I've heard nothing but good things about the original series, but I'm never going to have the motivation to go back and watch something so old, long and difficult, so hopefully this new anime has got me covered. I'm sure there will be plenty of discourse about it; I just hope it's decent.

8. Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai: Somehow, we've still never gotten a sequel to the wonderful Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, but this show brings together the chief staff of that show for a new romantic comedy anime at Douga Koubou. With that pedigree (they even got the same guy who did the OP song for Nozaki) there's definitely reason to be optimistic about this one. Not to mention it's got cute gaijin girls and an imouto voiced by Inosuke.

9. PERSONA5 the Animation: I think I'm going to give up any ridiculous illusions I have of actually playing the game any time soon and just watch this. It's the only realistic way I'll get to see dat Kawakami-sensei and Takemi-sensei. You know I'm all about the channees right now, and man, does P5 have some good ass channees. The anime is actually being directed by Ishihama Masashi, the man who did Shinsekai Yori and literally hasn't done another TV anime since, so that's pretty exciting. Obviously, a lot Shinsekai Yori's success is because of the material adapted, but if you can make a masterpiece like that you've got to have some kind of talent.

10. Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: CUTE CHANNEE ALERT WEEWOO WEEWOO WEEWOO. I'm all up ons this. Is there anything better than cute OLs? ...Man, things sure have changed around here. Also, that title is just mean when it's literally an anime about otaku having romances. SOME OF US OUT HERE ARE LONELY

11. Last Period -Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari-: Has there been a good social game anime yet? I guess Schoolgirl Strikers was alright, in that I actually managed to finish that one, but most of these turn out to be bad. I hope Last Period can be the one to buck the trend and be truly good, because I love the silly light-fantasy tone that it looks like it's going for. Wisemen for best girls. There's tons of cute girls with great designs (the one thing you can always count on social games for) and it'd be a shame for them to go to waste like so many before them.

12. Hisone to Masotan: I got really excited when I saw this because it looked like a cute anime about fighter planes. Instead it looks like it's a cute anime about fighter... dragons. What a ripoff. I wanted the planes. My aviation-nerd pouting aside I'm sure it will still be adorable JSDF propaganda. I just really wanted the planes.

13. Golden Kamuy: It's some kind of weird serendipity that I'm studying the Ainu for school this semester and now we get an anime explicitly about the Ainu. Period anime are pretty cool (the Russo-Japanese War isn't a setting explored in much visual media at all), the premise sounds cool, and I really like the look of the Ainu girl. Plus, how often do we get Ainu culture actually presented in anime? Remains to be seen how well it's done, but it's pretty neat.

14. Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Aw yeah. If only Jug was around to see the horse girls. I have no reason to doubt that this will be great fun, especially since it has the financial backing of Cygames, who have more money than God. Just hopefully we don’t have to see any of the cute girls get put down after breaking a leg.

15. Lostorage conflated WIXOSS: Somehow the WIXOSS anime series is still going. selector is still one of my favorite shows in recent memory, but Lostorage was complete spaghetti compared to it, so there's nowhere to go from here but up, right? This new series promises to bring back the characters from selector, which gives me mixed feelings. I don't want them to just play off nostalgia for the old show, but I'm also kinda excited to see Yuzuki and Tama again. I guess we'll see what happens. Maybe a new director will shake things up for the better.

16. 3D Kanojo Real Girl: Man, who wants a 3D girlfriend? Can your real life girlfriend be considered 3D if you're living in a 2D world? This stuff always leaves me conflicted. I'm down for some Serizawa Yuu-voiced heroine, and the always-capable Akao Deko is writing the screen adaptation, so it might be good.

17. Mahou Shoujo Ore: Oh god. I'm pretty sure I saw clippings from the manga of this a while back. It's a mahou shoujo where the girls transform into buff dudes in magical girl outfits for some reason. It can't be a coincidence that the protagonist is named "Uno" and is voiced by Oohashi Ayaka. If this show is even half as amazing as Fantasista Doll it'll be a great success.

18. A.I.C.O. Incarnation: There are a few Netflix-funded series this season but most of them don't look especially interesting. This one looks alright, but it's using the stupid Netflix bulk release model so I guess I'm waiting until April to start it despite all the episodes being out already. It looks like it could be a cool science fiction show, and I like the Naruko Hanaharu character designs.

19. LOST SONG: So this is that Suzuki Konomi promotional vehicle... From the PV, it doesn't look great, but I am a big fan of Konomin's singing so I guess I'll have to check out at least an episode. I just doubt her ability to act as well as she can sing.

20. Caligula: Strangely, this show does not seem to be about the son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder who ruled as Roman emperor from 37 to 41. I actually have no idea what it's about. Something about idols. But some of the character designs look pretty good, especially that blonde channee, so it's a maybe from me.

21. High School DxD HERO: It's baaaack. The show I watched three seasons of for Ayaneru that gave me almost no Ayaneru is back to continue to refuse to give me Ayaneru, probably. But hey, I like channees now anyway, so I may as well keep watching out of tradition if nothing else. I just hope Gaspar is like, actually in it this time...

22. Omae wa Mada Gunma wo Shiranai: This is an anime to promote Gunma... I guess? It definitely doesn't look like your typical local promotion anime... Apparently Gunma is a totalitarian state in this world. The green-haired girl played by Ucchii looks pretty good so I'll check it out.

23. Akkun to Kanojo: SUPER tsundere love comedy? Even regular tsundere is good. Unfortunately it's the dude who is tsundere in this one which isn't the thing I want. But the girls still look pretty cute so I'll definitely be giving it a look.

24. Mahou Shoujo Site: Uh oh, it's dark magical girls. There's nothing wrong with the concept per se but works like this often end up being grimdark for grimdark's sake (see: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku) so it makes me worried. This one looks like someone tried to mix Madoka and Jigoku Shoujo. It should be good for a laugh if nothing else.

25. Kiratto Puri Chan: Well, here we are. This is what they killed Pripara for. So who did they get to succeed the comedic savant Moriwaki Makoto? Well, it's a guy without a whole lot of directorial experience: Hiroshi Ikehata. What he has directed have been some incredibly charming shows, including the underrated Akiba's Trip anime and Sore ga Seiyuu. The main writing credit goes to Hyoudou Kazuho, who has worked with Hiroshi on all of his directorial projects but doesn't have any especially interesting work to his name. The biggest chance this has to be even marginally worthy as a successor to Pripara is if they continue to draw on the extended family of Pretty series creators, like Pripara did to a large extent. With Moriwaki's steady hand removed, I don't have high hopes, but if they killed Pripara for a show that's not even decent I am going to be upset.

26. Aikatsu Friends!: So Stars is ending and a new generation of Aikatsu is here as well. I can't let this pass unnoticed because Kido-chan is pegged to be one of the new Aikatsu leads and I'm always thirsty for new Kido-chan anime. I didn't really like Stars, so I hope this new one is more on the silly side, like joji anime really should be.

27. Cutie Honey Universe: Rember Cutie Honey? I mean, I don't, but a lot of people do. Apparently it's the 50th anniversary of Nagai Gou's venerable battle girl series, so they're doing a revival of it. I really dig the neo-retro art style going on here, and the cast is absolutely star-studded (our current darling, Kurosawa Tomoyo, is included among the likes of Hanazawa Kana, Tamura Yukari, Horie Yui and Kugimiya Rie) so I just might check it out.

28. Steins;Gate Zero: I really don't know if I want to watch this. Steins;Gate wasn't the worst of the semicolon anime; in fact, the first half of the series was greatly enjoyable, but I don't think I need to retread the infamous "shooting of the moeblob" that led to the godawful second half. It's got Christina, I guess. I just really don't know if I can subject myself to Okabe again.

29. Megalobox: This looks technically amazing, I just don't know if I'm interested in it. Will probably wait to hear other people's opinions before I check it out, if I ever do.

30. Gegege no Kitarou: I don't think I'll actually watch this, but the latest version of the classic children's anime has been getting some attention because the character designs for the female characters are, how you say, Extremely Good. They're definitely good enough that I'm tempted to check it out. Dat Nekomusume...

31. Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory: It really happened. I'm including this as the highest-profile show I definitely won't be watching. I haven't seen any of the other FMP anime, so it would be stupid to try and jump in here. The subtitle being abbreviated "IV" (for season 4) is very cute though.

I don’t know how to rank shorts so heres those:

Tachibanakan To Lie Anguru: It's time for another Yuri Hime anime! All you need to know about how hype I am for this show is the tagline: 'The harem manga protagonist is a girl!?' Tsuda Minami is once again going to have to be hard gay, this time with five different girls apparently. I'm especially looking forward to the Mikakoshi-voiced blonde. Unfortunately, being a Creators in Pack anime, it's a short...

Fumikiri Jikan: This is a five minute anime but I absolutely love the premise: girls wait at a train crossing. That's it. You gotta love manga and anime sometimes.

[infotainmentplus-blog]

The best gear for Android developers There are a lot of reasons to love coding. It’s highly rewarding, it can open doors in your career and it gives you a greater understanding of how things work. But it’s also just cool. Sitting in a café in front of a glowing screen filled with code has a certain romantic appeal. To others, you look like some kind of wizard/witch with an uncanny ability to manipulate technology. And there’s something haunting about the glow of the monitor and the quiet whirring of your computer. You feel smart and when everything is working correctly, that computer screen is a window into a world of possibilities. Sitting in a café in front of a glowing screen filled with code has a certain romantic appeal. With that in mind, it’s worth gearing up with the right tech in order to enjoy the experience to its fullest and to help you get into a productive flow state. Here is the best gear for Android developers. Computer This may come as a surprise, but in order to program, you’re going to need a computer. And depending on the precise type of programming you intend to do, you’ll need specific specs. In order to program, you’re going to need a computer Running Android Studio is not particularly hard, though in order to install it along with the Android SDK, Android system images for emulators, and any other software such as Unity or GitHub, you’re going to need a decent amount of hard drive space. Likewise, in order to run the Android emulator smoothly, you’ll want a minimum of 4GB of RAM (ideally 6GB) and an i3 processor (ideally i5, ideally coffee lake). If you can’t run the emulator then you can always test your apps on a physical device, but this is slower and it means you won’t be able to see how your creations work on different screen sizes and hardware. Having a decent graphics card is likewise no bad thing, as this can further help to give the emulator a boost and it can certainly come in handy if you plan on using an alternative engine/IDE like Unity; or if you’ll be creating 3D models in CAD software for your games. An SSD is not necessary as such, but if you like a smooth experience, then it will make a big difference. I hear great things about using busy IDEs on a 4K screen, but that’s a bit of a luxury seeing as that significantly ramps up the price. So, it depends on what you are aiming to build and what you’re willing to put up with. But if you want your experience to be as smooth and as welcoming as possible (and futureproof), then aim for something mid-range, built within the last couple of years. I personally use a Dell XPS 15 (2017) and an MSI Dominator Pro GT72VR 6RE (2016). The latter is certainly overkill, but I wanted VR. My old Surface Pro 3 (i5, 4GB) struggled a lot, so that should give you an idea. Recommendations Dell XPS 15 (i7 7700HQ, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA GTX 1050) Dell XPS 13 (i5 8250U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) Surface Pro 2017 (Intel 7th Gen Core i5-7300U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) Surface Book 2 15″ (8th Gen Intel Core i7, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1060) Surface Pro 4 (i5-6300U, 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) HP Spectre x360 (15.6″, UHD, i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce 940MX) Mobile devices If you’re going to be a mobile developer, then you’ll need a mobile device. This will give you a piece of physical hardware to test your apps on (which does have advantages over emulators in the right circumstances – for instance if you want to test a service for an entire day). It will also help you to find the pain points that come from every day use, which then present opportunities for you to create those essential new apps. How can you understand your target audience if you don’t use the hardware and software you’re developing for? So, what is the best smartphone for Android developers? The answer has to be the Pixel 2 (or the original will do). By getting Google’s latest hardware, you are guaranteeing yourself the earliest possible access to the latest Android updates, meaning you can start testing new features right away. That said, you’ll get by just fine with any modern-ish phone if you combine that with running the emulator. Depending on the type of developer you’re going to be, you might also want an additional rooted phone or tablet to experiment with. This will also give you the option to use custom ROMs and upgrade to newer versions of Android more quickly. Recommendations Pixel 2 Pixel 2 XL Pixel Pixel XL Samsung Galaxy S8 Monitor While they’re certainly not as bad as Premiere Pro, Android Studio and Unity both have a lot of windows and panels to manage. Thus, having a little extra screen real-estate can make a big difference. I heard somewhere that a 22” monitor could boost productivity by 30% over a 19” one. DELL concluded something similar regarding dual monitor displays. While I would take any precise figures with a BIG pinch of salt, I can attest that having a wider space to work with does make a difference. You’ll swap between windows less and you’ll find it easier to work from resources and quickly look things up on the web. If you’re anywhere near as dense as I am, then switching between windows will mean staring blankly at the screen before remembering what you changed your view for. I use an LG Ultrawide, because it was super cheap and it does the job nicely. Of course, going 4K will give you even more useable space (if you have the specs to power it). Likewise, going for a higher refresh rate will make for beautiful video and game playback but certainly isn’t essential. Recommendations LG 25UM58-P 25-Inch 21:9 UltraWide FHD IPS Monitor Omen by HP 32 Inch Gaming Monitor (2560 x 1440 QHD, 5ms 75Hz Refresh) Asus VP28UQC 28″ 4K UHD Keyboard and mouse Your keyboard is your main interface with your computer and it is through this that you will be entering all of your code. So yeah, it’s kind of important. The ‘correct’ advice here would be to get yourself a mechanical keyboard with some nice clacky keys. I invested in a Corsair Strafe RGB on this advice and I do really like the way it lights up and dances. But in all honesty, this comes down to personal preference. I actually prefer shallower keys myself and find that I would rather use Microsoft’s Universal Folding Keyboard a lot of the time! The best advice then is not to buy online, but actually head to a store and try the keys out for yourself. What I will say for bigger keyboards is that it does pay to have programmable shortcuts and easy access to function keys (which goes for productivity in general). I also know some people can’t live without a numpad, especially for software like Blender. In which case, laptop users may even wish to invest in a portable numpad. Recommendations Corsair Gaming CH-9000121-UK Strafe RGB Cherry MX Blue Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Bluetooth Keyboard Mechanical Numeric Keypad GATERON Blue Swith Wired Ice Blue Backlit Numpad Creature comforts To be honest, none of this stuff is essential. While I say that my Surface Pro 3 used to struggle, I still managed to build two moderately successful apps with it and even do a fair amount of video editing. Computers don’t build apps, people do. Or something. That said, a decent computer and ultrawide monitor can make your experience a lot more comfortable. The following pieces of kit are definitely even more optional but could make your experience all the more comfortable: Headphones – I personally can’t get into a flow state without some decent music turned up really I get a lot of use from my Spotify account! If you plan on working on the go, then add in some noise cancelling too. I’m using the COWIN E-7 Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones and I can recommend. LEDs – The ‘gamer aesthetic’ is something that doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I personally find that colored lights put me in a productive/techy mood. An LED strip costs very little and it’s a great way to pimp your battlestation. Large Desk – I know how important it is to have a large desk because I don’t have one. I’m constantly cramped and keeping a book open next to my keyboard is not an option. Being able to spread out can make a big difference and especially if you have multiple monitors or devices you want to use at once. I used to use the Innovex Orbit Desk which was pretty great. Chair – And speaking of comfort, having a comfortable, ergonomic chair is not only a great way to make coding more enjoyable, it’s also a good choice for your health in order to avoid painful backs and necks. Working on the move (just for fun) If you like the idea of coding on the move, then you do have a few options. The GPD Pocket is an awesome 7” laptop that you can fit in your laptop but which runs full Windows 10. It has an Intel Atom X7, which isn’t the best, but is backed up with a generous 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage. While the emulator won’t run that well, you can nevertheless run Android Studio on it without a hiccup (and Unity at a push!). If you keep your Android Studio projects in Dropbox then, you can quickly open them up while you’re on the train or lying in bed to try out ideas or just bring your project on a little. Or how about development on your Android device? You can do this with AIDE (which I have discussed before) or you can build cool tools with QPython (which I have also discussed). Add in a bluetooth mouse and keyboard and you have a faintly ridiculous, but also kind of cool (?), way to code wherever you happen to be. The Microsoft Universal Folding Keyboard and Arc mouse are great choices because they can be folded flat and stowed away in a pocket. Of course a power bank can also be helpful for making sure you have enough juice to keep you going with all these gadgets. Recommendations GPD Pocket Arc Touch Wireless Optical Foldable Mouse Microsoft Universal Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard Anker PowerCore 20100 – Ultra High Capacity Power Bank 4.8A Output Closing comments Of course, those are just my picks for the best gear for developers. Sound off down below with anything I missed/your favorite options. I’m always looking out for ways to upgrade my set up, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2oj8LHu