It turns out that sort of out-of-place Natalie Portman cameo in Avengers: Endgame was a little more important than anyone could have guessed. The actor, who hasn't played a major role in any MCU movie since 2013's Thor: The Dark World, will be making a return to the MCU to reprise her role as Jane Foster in Thor: Love And Thunder--with one major caveat: she'll be wielding Mjolnir.Director Taika Waititi took the stage at San Diego Comic-Con during the massive Marvel Studios panel to surprise fans. Moderator Jessica Chobot prompted Waititi with a question about what comic book storylines had inspired him, which Waititi was quick to answer. "When we were shooting Ragnarok, I was reading Jason Aaron's Mighty Thor, and it introduces female Thor [Jane Foster]. So, there's only one person who can do that."Natalie Portman herself then took the stage to massive applause, before being handed her own replica Mjolnir to really drive Jane's new MCU status quo home."This feels pretty good," Portman … [Read more...] about Natalie Portman Is Returning To The MCU To Play Jane Foster Thor
Final Fantasy 15’s AI is secretly a grand philosophy experiment
Where do bodies begin in video games, and where do they end? You might point to the body of a game's protagonist, but if a player's body isn't so much a body as an expression of your agency, a vehicle or tool, it seems reductive to stop at the perceptible limits of a single character model. In the medieval horror game A Plague Tale: Innocence, the player's range of action and awareness is distributed across the bodies of several characters (together with the phantom onlooker that is the third-person camera) - big sister Amicia, a gang of teenage runaways and the sickly young Hugo, who must be guarded like an Achilles heel. Where exactly are you, the intelligence directing the simulation, in this shifting equation, and what does that bode for concepts of minds and bodies at large? To play such games may not feel like reading a treatise, but it's to participate in a thought experiment about the lines we draw between the categories of consciousness, flesh and world. Games in general are … [Read more...] about Final Fantasy 15’s AI is secretly a grand philosophy experiment
Here’s the Witcher trailer rap you were no doubt waiting for
Netflix have released the first trailer for their show based on The Witcher books and already an enterprising nerdcore MC has put his Geralt-themed verses over the top of it. English rapper Dan Bull combines his track The Bestiary with the footage of Henry Cavill looking grim, rapping through a list of Geralt's monstrous foes like it's time for the Pokemon rap, only with alghouls instead of articuno.Dan Bull is also responsible for a Borderlands 2 track that gave us the phrase "Vault Hunter S. Thompson". Which is pretty good, although he's no Mega Ran.As for Bull's Witcher-themed rap, it sums up Geralt of Rivia with the memorable phrase, "Imagine Guybrush Threepwood meets Clint Eastwood." … [Read more...] about Here’s the Witcher trailer rap you were no doubt waiting for
glDrawArrays: Erasing the buffer between calls?
I have two VBOs, assigned to names 1 and 2. Only 2 is being drawn. However, if I comment out VBO 2, VBO 1 is drawn with no problem. Here's the relevant code. for m in shader._models: try: # Set the model's transform matrix uniform vbo, mode = m.render_data glUniformMatrix4fv( shader.uniforms['model'][0], 1, GL_FALSE, np.array(m.model_matrix)) vbo.bind() # Binds the VBO. glDrawArrays(mode, 0, len(vbo)) finally: vbo.unbind() # Unbinds it. glGetting GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_BINDING in the loop gives me alternating 1 and 2s, so the buffers are binding correctly. I have done a variety of checks to ensure one object isn't being hidden by the other, for instance. The only explanation I can think of is glDrawArrays clears the whole buffer every time it draws? What the heck? … [Read more...] about glDrawArrays: Erasing the buffer between calls?
The Fantastic Four And Mutants Are Finally Teased For The MCU
It was an absolutely jam-packed Marvel Studios Hall H panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con including first looks at the recently confirmed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings, Thor 4, titled Thor: Love And Thunder, Black Widow, The Eternals, as well as Disney+ TV shows like Loki and Falcon and Winter Soldier. At the end, it felt as if there was no more news left in the Marvel Universe for fans to get.But nothing in the MCU is ever what it seems. As the panel wrapped up for the evening, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige dropped a handful of playful teases that serve as confirmation for something fans have been clamoring about for years: the inclusion of not only the Fantastic Four, but "mutants" (you know, like the X-Men) in the MCU."We talked about so much tonight, it's a shame we didn't have time to talk about Black Panther 2, about Captain Marvel 2, about Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 [...]" Feige joked, "We didn't have time to talk about the Fantastic Four, or about the … [Read more...] about The Fantastic Four And Mutants Are Finally Teased For The MCU