Technology - Google News

Minecraft to get big lighting, shadow and color upgrades through Nvidia ray tracing - TechCrunch

Posted: 19 Aug 2019 04:23 AM PDT

Minecraft is getting a free update that brings much-improved lighting and color to the game's blocky graphics using real-time ray tracing running on Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics hardware. The new look is a dramatic change in the atmospherics of the game, and manages to be eerily realistic while retaining Minecraft's pixelated charm.

The ray tracing tech will be available via a free update to the game on Windows 10 PCs, but it'll only be accessible to players using an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU, since that's the only graphics hardware on the market that currently supports playing games with real-time ray tracing active.

It sounds like it'll be an excellent addition to the experience for players who are equipped with the right hardware, however – including lighting effects not only from the sun, but also from in-game materials like glowstone and lava; both hard and soft shadows depending on transparency of material and angle of light refraction; and accurate reflections in surfaces that are supposed to be reflective (ie. gold blocks, for instance).

[embedded content]

This is welcome news after Minecraft developer Mojang announced last week that it cancelled plans to release its Super Duper Graphics Pack, which was going to add a bunch of improved visuals to the game, because it wouldn't work well across platforms. At the time, Mojang said it would be sharing news about graphics optimization for some platforms "very soon," and it looks like this is what they had in mind.

Nvidia meanwhile is showing off a range of 2019 games with real-time ray tracing enabled at Gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany, including Dying Light 2, Cyperpunk 2077, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Watch Dogs: Legion.

[gallery ids="1870333,1870334,1870335"]

Let's block ads! (Why?)

72 hours with Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus: ongoing camera review - TechRadar

Posted: 19 Aug 2019 06:32 AM PDT

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 camera stands with the best camera phones, or at least that's the conclusion I'm drawing ahead of TechRadar's full review this week.

I've already unboxed the Note 10 and offered details about the size, performance, and a select few camera samples. Now it's time to unleash a full gallery and demo the versatility of the four camera lenses and the Plus-exclusive depth sensor.

Samsung's Note 10 is outfitted with a 12MP regular lens that features a variable f/1.5 and f/2.4 aperture, meaning the space through which light passes physically changes depending on the lighting conditions. That's fairly sophisticated for a smartphone.

What stands out even more are the 12MP f/2.1 telephoto and 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lenses that offer photos at varying perspectives. I captured scenes in new ways: up close without distortion via the 2x zoom telephoto lens, and cramming more in frame with the wide-angle lens – without having to back up to get everything in the shot.

After a weekend of testing, I'm ready to share the good, the bad, and the sometimes slightly out-of-focus.

Ongoing Note 10 camera review (gallery)

Image 1 of 3

Ultra-Wide lens: 42nd Street / Chrysler Building

Image 2 of 3

Regular lens: 42nd Street / Chrysler Building

Image 3 of 3

Telephoto lens: 42nd Street / Chrysler Building

This is my favorite set of Samsung Note 10 camera samples so far, because it shows how the three rear cameras depict a scene differently, especially the 16MP wide-angle lens.

You can't even see 42nd Street and the iconic yellow New York City taxi cab in the other two photos. And yet, if you wanted the Chrysler Building on its own, the telephoto lens is there to get the best shot of its perched gargoyles.

Image 1 of 4

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus camera sample

Ultra-Wide lens: Reflection photo cropped and edited (best of both worlds)

Image 2 of 4

Regular lens: cuts off the tops and bottoms of subject

Image 3 of 4

Ultra-Wide lens: everything in frame – maybe too much

Image 4 of 4

Ultra-Wide lens: cropped before editing

My second-favorite Note 10 camera photo set is this one, and it again demonstrates how useful the ultra-wide camera can be in certain situations.

The first photo you see here is the 'finished product'; it was taken with the ultra-wide lens, and has had some edits – some basic Lightroom fixes and cropping. I used the ultra-wide lens because the Note 10's regular lens didn't do this reflection justice (photo 2) – the building is cut off at the top, and at the bottom in the reflection.

Because I didn't want to get splashed by the nearby traffic (you can see a bunch of yellow taxis almost staring me down), I didn't have enough time to back up and reframe the shot. With a quick switch to the ultra-wide camera (photo 3), I was able to snap a more inclusive photo and crop it later (photo 4); the image was then edited to produce photo 1.

Image 1 of 3

Color Point Live Focus mode

Image 2 of 3

Color Point Live Focus mode

Image 3 of 3

Color Point Live Focus mode

Color Point was my favorite camera mode when reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the S10 Plus, and it's debuting on the Note series with the Galaxy Note 10.

This renders the background and portions of foreground in back and white, but keeps the main subject in color to make the person or object really pop from the scene. It's not always perfect – you can see that part of the red tomato is in color and part of it isn't, and the glass is also in color. A couple of adjustments from the photo taker and several attempts to be safe (just hammer that shutter button until it works) usually fixes these issues.

It's a really fun way to capture a scene, and Samsung does it better than anyone else (especially Motorola, which has tried the same thing with lackluster results).

Image 1 of 2

Color Point vs Regular Photo

Image 2 of 2

Color Point vs Regular Photo

Here's another great example of a Color Point mode image alongside an all-color regular photo. I don't want the people in the background of the shot (sorry, folks), and the Color Point Live Focus mode makes them far less distracting.

The all-color shot is taken at an f/1.5 aperture (it's a bit dark in the restaurant), and so is the black-and-white Color Point photo. What's interesting is that Color Point mode (and all Live Focus modes) allow you to switch between the regular lens and the telephoto lens (the latter is always the default).

Image 1 of 4

Note 10 vs Pixel 3 low light: Note 10 photo (regular mode)

Image 2 of 4

Note 10 vs Pixel 3 low light: Note 10 photo (Night mode)

Image 3 of 4

Note 10 vs Pixel 3 low light: Google Pixel 3 (regular mode)

Image 4 of 4

Note 10 vs Pixel 3 low light: Google Pixel 3 (Night Sight mode)

This... needs more testing. I used Samsung's newish Night Mode on the Note 10 (it appeared in the S10, S10 Plus and S10e via a software update after those phones launched).

The first photo shows what Samsung cameras do in dimly-lit settings – they amp up the exposure, and smooth, smooth, and smooth again. This looks like my skin went through an old-school family portrait-editing session. Samsung's Night mode (photo 2), further increases the exposure, but grain can be seen everywhere, especially in the curtains. It's definitely brighter, though.

I threw in a Google Pixel 3 photo taken with that phone's famed Night Sight mode. It does a better job of keeping detail and tamping down the grain, but it's also noisy in the end. This is a dark photo, which means the Note 10 camera requires more testing in bars. "Drink, please!"

Image 1 of 7

Color Point photo in focus

Image 2 of 7

Color Point photo out of focus

Image 3 of 7

Regular lens – in focus

Image 4 of 7

Regular photo out of focus

Image 5 of 7

Telephoto lens – in focus

Image 6 of 7

Telephoto lens – out of focus

Image 7 of 7

Ultra-wide lens – in focus

I did say I'd highlight the good, the bad, and the sometimes slightly out-of-focus. Trying to get the regular and telephoto lenses to focus on subject in Color Point mode can be difficult – but this can also be the case with regular snaps as well, as you can see in the images above. I gave myself permission to eat a donut for this test. One donut was harmed in the making of this Note 10 photo gallery.

Image 1 of 3

Live Focus modes besides Color Point

Image 2 of 3

Image 3 of 3

Color Point gets all of the attention, and for good reason. It's Samsung's best new camera mode, and this is the first time we've see it on a Note phone. But there are other Live Focus modes besides this one.

There's Spin (photo 1) and Zoom (photo 2), a normal blur effect, and the new big Big Circles filter that makes lights in the background blurred and bulbous in shape (seen in the next photo set).

Image 1 of 4

Remote selfie and Big Circles Live Focus mode

Image 2 of 4

Remote selfie and Color Point mode

Image 3 of 4

Remote selfie and close-up perspective

Image 4 of 4

Remote selfie and un-cropped perspective

Here's a good example of the Big Circles mode using the 10MP front camera – and an example of a shot taken remotely, using the S Pen to fire the shutter.

Samsung's S Pen has always been a useful stylus, but it became a Bluetooth camera remote shutter with last year's Note 9. That feature returns, along with other gesture controls for swiping through camera menus and zooming in and out. Color Point appears in (photo 2) along with a cropped selfie (photo 3) as Samsung's front camera auto-crops vs the wider selfie (an un-cropped version, photo 4) that you can select instead.

More Note 10 photo samples incoming

I tested the Note 10 camera for an entire weekend. That's not enough to put a stamp on the review, but I'm closer after 72 hours (well, a little longer after writing and uploading photos – Samsung's photo transfer software leaves a lot to be desired, which I'll nitpick in the review).

The camera analysis isn't done. Too often reviews don't take into account the video capabilities of smartphones, and that's what I'll be doing Monday and Tuesday. The Samsung Note 10 image stabilization has been enhanced, according to Samsung, and I'll test that out in side-by-side comparisons. Stay tuned for more updates as the week goes on and the Note 10 flexes its multi-camera muscles.

Let's block ads! (Why?)