Hasta La Motion!

Disney launched the new portraits of the characters from The Lion King alongside the actors who are voicing them, and they are extraordinary, helping in building excitement for the film.

The images see Donald Glover with Simba; Beyoncé Knowles-Carter with Nala; John Oliver, Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner with Zazu, Pumbaa and Timon; Chiwetel Ejiofor with Scar; Alfre Woodard with Sarabi; Eric André, Florence Kasumba and Keegan-Michael Key with hyenas Azizi, Shenzi and Kamari; and Shahadi Wright Joseph and JD McCrary with young Nala and young Simba.

Donald Glover as Simba

The new featurette, which was released by Disney shows never-before-seen footage from The Lion King, a glimpse behind the scenes during recording sessions, plus comments from director Jon Favreau and members of the voice cast.

Disney’s The Lion King releases in India on 19 July in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu.

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NVIDIA has supercharged its lineup of gaming GPUs by introducing GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER and GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER — aims to deliver best-in-class gaming performance and real-time ray tracing for today’s next-generation games.

The result of nearly a year of architectural and process optimisations, the new GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs deliver the fastest gaming performance and the best power efficiency of any gaming GPU in their class. They also offer gamers an uncompromised combination of the leading performance and cutting-edge features.

“The ecosystem driving real-time ray tracing is immense — tens of millions of GPUs, industry standard APIs, leading game engines and an all-star roster of game franchises.This killer lineup of SUPER GPUs delivers even more performance for demanding PC gamers and ensures that they’re prepared for the coming wave of real-time ray tracing blockbusters,” said NVIDIA senior vice president of the PC business Jeff Fisher.

Ray tracing is the advanced graphics technique used to give movies their ultra-realistic visual effects. Only GeForce RTX GPUs use a hybrid architecture of advanced shading, programmable ray tracing and compute cores to deliver ray traced games in real time. Ray tracing is supported in industry standard APIs, including Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and Vulkan, as well as in the game engines used by developers to create games, including Unreal Engine, Unity, Frostbite, id Tech, Northlight, 4A Engine and more.

Last month’s Computex and E3 trade events marked a milestone for real-time ray tracing, as a growing number of developers announced that they will be using it to create stunning visuals in their upcoming games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Control, Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, Sword and Fairy 7, Watch Dogs: Legion and Wolfenstein: Youngblood joined the list of major titles that will be using ray tracing. Battlefield V, Metro Exodus Quake II RTX, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Stay in the Light (early access) are already shipping with ray tracing support.

The new SUPER series of RTX GPUs join the existing GeForce RTX 2060 (starting at $349, the first step up to RTX performance) and the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (starting at $999, the best gaming GPU on the planet).

GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GPU – Starting at $399, Available 9 July
Up to 22 per cent faster (average 15 per cent) than RTX 2060
8GB GDDR6 – 2GB more than the RTX 2060
Faster than GTX 1080
7+7 TOPs (FP32+INT32) and 57 Tensor TFLOPs
GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GPU – Starting at $499, Available 9July 
Up to 24 per cent faster (average 16 per cent) than RTX 2070
Faster than GTX 1080 Ti
9+9 TOPs (FP32+INT32) and 73 Tensor TFLOPs
GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU – Starting at $699, Available 23 July
Memory speed cranked up to 15.5Gbps
Faster than TITAN Xp
11+11 TOPs (FP32+INT32) and 89 Tensor TFLOPs

GeForce RTX GPUs support multiple cutting-edge and advanced gaming features. In addition to being the only GPUs capable of real-time ray tracing, they deliver an order of magnitude increase in AI processing performance with NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (up to 130 Tensor TFLOPS of horsepower), and are also the only ones that support advanced features including Mesh Shading and NVIDIA Adaptive Shading (NAS).

NAS also supports Variable Rate Shading, including motion and content adaptive shading for the highest performance and image quality, as well as Foveated Rendering, which puts the detail where the gamer is looking when used in combination with eye-tracking, to deliver next-generation VR experiences.

All NVIDIA GPUs come with GeForce Experience, an application that makes PC gaming more accessible and provides unique, easy-to-use in-game features. GeForce Experience includes NVIDIA Highlights, which automatically captures the best gaming moments; NVIDIA Ansel, which lets gamers take stunning in-game screenshots; and NVIDIA Freestyle, which lets gamers customize their games’ appearance with more than 15 post-processing filters and 38 different configurations including settings for image sharpening, colour blindness and photo-realism. Gamers can even use the special night mode, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted, so they can get to sleep easier after a night of gaming.

For a limited time, starting on 9 July qualifying purchases of a GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, or GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER- based graphics card or desktop PC will include a copy of two award-winning games that support real-time ray tracing, Control and Wolfenstein: Youngblood a value of $90.

Where to Buy
The GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2080 SUPER GPUs will be available as custom boards, including stock-clocked and factory-overclocked models, from top add-in card providers such as ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and Zotac and as Founders Editions from the official website. Look for the GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs in gaming systems built by Acer, Alienware, Dell, HP and Lenovo, as well as by leading system builders worldwide.

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Shadowbringers is the third expansion for Square Enix’s MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV and delivers even more content alongside a number of core tweaks to the gameplay. the franchise recently celebrated more than 16 million registered accounts. The enthusiasm for it has brought Final Fantasy XIV to new heights, with the active player base reaching its highest mark in the game’s nearly six-year history.

Shadowbringers marks a bold new beginning, taking players beyond the world of Hydaelyn for the first time as they journey to the First and the realm of Norvrandt. The Warrior of Light must become the Warrior of Darkness to restore night and save the world from the apocalypse the Flood of Light promises.

Shadowbringers adds a wealth of new features to the game, including:

New Jobs: Gunbreaker and Dancer –The Gunbreaker is a new tank role who wields the iconic gunblade, utilizing ammo cartridges to protect their party from harm. The Dancer, a ranged attacker, not only unleashes powerful attacks using throwing weapons but also dances to execute abilities which provide beneficial effects to their party.

New Player Races: Viera and Hrothgar – The rabbit-like Viera are joined by the burly and lion-like Hrothgar, both with unique, customizable features specific to their races.

New Game+ – This brand-new system will allow for the replay of previously completed quests while retaining one’s current progression and job level.

Level Cap Increase – The level cap will be raised to 80 with the release of Shadowbringers. With this will come new actions for classes and jobs—as well as new foes against which players can hone their skills.

Trust System – In Shadowbringers, players will have the opportunity to challenge dungeons with a party of trusted non-player characters, including members of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Traditional party matching systems will remain available.

New Beast Tribes and Primals – Players will encounter the carefree but cruel pixies in Il Mheg alongside their mighty regent Titania, along with other beast tribes including the Nu Mou and the Dwarves.

New Content and System Upgrades – Battle system changes, new equipment, crafting recipes and more.

Players can also look forward to a variety of additional content that has been announced for release in upcoming patches:

New Alliance Raid: “YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse” – This exciting new 24-man raid written by guest creators Yosuke Saito and YOKO TARO will see Final Fantasy XIV and NieR come together as never before.

New High-End Raid: “Eden” – This new high-end raid will feature a new character designed by Kingdom of Hearts director and Final Fantasy XIV series veteran, Tetsuya Nomura. The content is schedule to become available on 16 July, 2019 with the release of Patch 5.01.

Restoration of the Holy See of Ishgard – End-game content for crafters and gatherers.

The Final Fantasy XIV free trial invites new players to access content up to level 35, create up to eight playable characters, and experience the different playable races, classes, and jobs with no restrictions on playtime. New players who wish to experience the free trial may register here:

Final Fantasy XIV:Shadowbringers is available as a digital download collector’s edition for the PlayStation4 computer entertainment system, Windows, Steam, and Mac for $59.99. A physical version of the Standard Edition is available for PlayStation 4 for $39.99 and digital download versions will be available for PlayStation 4, Windows, Steam, and Mac for $39.99.

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SIGGRAPH 2019 announces real-time live and games programming for the upcoming conference in L.A., which will shine a light on topics including but not limited to facial animation, AI, ethics, and the future of real-time production. In addition, Il Divino: Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling in VR will debut at the show, powered by Unreal Engine. SIGGRAPH 2019 is set for 28 July to 1 August at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

A fan-favourite, live event, showcases how essential real-time technology is and continues to be in revolutionising the way we interact in an increasingly connected society. Following a theme of thriving on live, the innovations that teams will demo are well-positioned to enhance future technological applications.

“We have a great lineup of demos prepared this year and I am so excited to share the work our jury culled from nearly 50 submissions. I hope you’ll join us as we take a look back at the past decade of Real-Time Live! and journey into its promising future. Our contributors will share new applications for robotics, ray tracing, AI, VR, games, film, and much more.”

Taking the future of production further, Games programming at SIGGRAPH spans many areas of the conference, including Talks, Panels, the Computer Animation Festival, Appy Hour, the Immersive Pavilion, and more. In collaboration with one another, the conference committee and reviewers work together to help spotlight creators, visionaries, and pioneers within the games industry from the world’s leading studios. Content is presented through sessions and demos that spotlight the latest rendering techniques, real-time tricks, asset pipelines, facial animation, advances in hardware and software, production challenges and accomplishments, virtual and augmented reality, and beyond.

Noted SIGGRAPH 2019 Games Co-chair Christopher Evans, “At SIGGRAPH 2019, attendees can expect to immerse themselves in the most engaging new gaming technologies and techniques. In addition to being a key place to learn about the latest research in games, the speakers and experiences lined up this year shine a light on the ways the industry is thriving.”

Alongside a handful of Courses, Production Sessions, and Technical Papers, highlights for games and real-time production content include:

REAL-TIME LIVE!
Real-Time, Single Camera, Digital Human Development
Contributors: Doug Roble, Darren Hendler, Jeremy Buttell, Lonnie Iannazzo, Melissa Cell, Deer Li, Jason Briggs, Chad Reddick, Mark Williams, Lucio Moser, Cydney Wong, Dimitry Kachkovski, Jason Huang, Kai Zhang, David McLean, Rickey Cloudsdale, Dan Milling, Ron Miller, JT Lawrence, and Chinyu Chien, Digital Domain . Digital Domain Virtual Human will demonstrate our state-of-the-art, real-time, live-drive, digital human technology. We will show how photo-real digital humans with realistic facial animation can change the VR/AR experience.

“Reality vs. Illusion” Real-Time Ray Tracing
Contributors: Natalie Burke, Arisa Scott, Natalya Tatarchuk, and Sebastien Lagarde, Unity Technologies . They have seamlessly transitioned from the filmed real-world car to the car ray traced in real-time powered by Unity, demonstrating advanced effects of real-time ray tracing technology in a live demo – dynamic global reflections and GI, multi-layer transparency with refraction, area lights, shadows, ambient occlusion, and more.

IMMERSIVE PAVILION 
Il Divino: Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling in VR
Contributors: Christopher Evans, Epic Games 
Experience Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling in virtual reality. Move around the space or take a guided tour. Users can also suspend on a virtual scaffold to see the work up close as few have seen it before. The experience will use the all-new Valve INDEX headset.

PANELS
FACS at 40
Panelists: Mike Seymour, University of Sydney and fxguide (moderator); Erika Rosenberg, Stanford University and Erika Rosenberg Consulting; Vladimir Mastilovic, 3Lateral; Mark Sagar, Soul Machines; and, John Peter Lewis, Google AI .

The Ethical and Privacy Implications of Mixed Reality
Panelists: Kent Bye, Voices of VR Podcast (moderator); Diane Hosfelt, Mozilla; Matt Miesnieks, 6D.AI; Samantha Mathews Chase, Venn.Agency; and, Taylor Beck, Magic Leap 

TALKS 
THRIVE – Foundational Principles & Technologies for the Metaverse
Speaker: Tim Sweeney, Epic Games
Science-fiction notions of “the metaverse” are slowly becoming a reality as products such as Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox bring immersive social experiences to hundreds of millions of people and blur the boundaries between games and social networks. This talk explores the foundational technologies, economies, and freedoms required to build this future medium as a force for good.

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The recent addition from India, more accurately Tamil cinema is Srinivas Mohan, the visual effects supervisor of big-budget sagas like director Shankar’s 2.0 and the SS Rajamouli-helmed period fantasy Baahubali.

Visual Effects

Srinivas Mohan who has worked in the Tamil and Telugu film industries will be a part of the jury in the category of visual effects. The VFX artist is known for his pathbreaking special effects work in films like Sivaji, Endhiran and the Baahubali series. This induction has indeed been a proud moment for Indian cinema.

Aside from Srinivas, screenwriter and filmmaker, Anurag Kashyap, well known for his performance in Imaikka Nodigal will be joining this jury.

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