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New ‘Valorant’ Map Lotus Is Set In India And Has Destructible Walls

Published

3 weeks ago

January 6, 2023

Harry Miller

Riot Games has revealed a new map for Valorant called Lotus, which is set in India and features three spike sites as well as some other brand-new mechanics.

Like most of the other Valorant maps, Lotus introduces some new ideas with the two most prominent being rotating doors and a destructible door/wall. There’s also a silent drop on the map, meaning you can get around without making too much noise.

“We wanted to make another three site map and show that this is more of a format we’ll keep using than just a single map,” said Joe Lansford, level designer on Valorant. “Additionally, we aimed to make a map with high flexibility and movement for both teams. There are several traditional Indian architectural elements and locations that we took inspiration from. Stepwells, Rock-Cut architecture and the Dravidian style. Badami Cave Temples, Ellora Caves and Rani Ki Vav to name a few.”

This is the second map in Valorant to feature three spike sites, with the other being Haven, one of the launch maps that has always been somewhat divisive. With three sites the defending team obviously has to split a bit more, but for the attackers, there is often less room to move around the map. It remains to be seen if this will carry over to Lotus or if the design team has managed to change it substantially.

The map, which is due to release on January 10, is set in Omega Earth’s India, specifically the Western Ghats. The design is inspired by traditional Indian stepwells and rock-cut Dravidian architecture, and also features a few visual secrets that lore fans will need to look out for.

Louts is due to launch next week

Credit: Riot games

Using India as a map location has long been rumoured for Valorant, but initially this map had a very different concept, with the team revealing it was originally going to be set in space, before they realised the systems they wanted to implement didn’t really work.

“When designing Lotus, I was originally envisioning a space station and had an airlock mechanic that shut down large areas of the map,” said Lansford. “Turned out to just not be that fun, so we scrapped the idea and moved in the direction we have today.”

Lotus will be launching alongside the massive 6.00 update to Valorant which kicks off the start of Episode Six. Along with the new map comes a load of balance changes, a new battle pass and of course some new cosmetics.

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Google's AI generated music is unsurprisingly great – MobileSyrup

Published

4 hours ago

January 28, 2023

Harry Miller

Google has shared a new AI research project called MusicLM that uses AI to make music, and it’s the latest AI to make artists scared for their jobs.

You can’t use this tool publically like ChatGDP, but Google has shared a ton of samples attached to a research document. These range from small ten-second snippets to full-length five-minute songs.

This tool takes simple text inputs or a person humming and turns that into beautiful music. You can even use a sequence of text prompts to write a song that changes over time. After listening to a couple, the AI doesn’t recreate human music perfectly since it can’t do voices well, but the beats are always interesting and melodic, to say the least. I’d also expect Google to make this much better at human singing soon.

MusicLM really shines by recreating soft beats like melodic techno and relaxing jazz. There are five-minute samples of each genre near the top of the research paper’s sample zone, and they are worth a listen.

There’s no word when or how Google will release this fully, but as we extend further into the AI world, it seems like no creative pursuits are safe.

Source: Google Research

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Launch Date, Specs And Twitter Reactions – AugustMan HongKong

Published

5 hours ago

January 28, 2023

Harry Miller

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Specialized shutters pioneering women's apparel brand – Canadian Cycling Magazine

Published

6 hours ago

January 28, 2023

Harry Miller

Specialized is shutting down the pioneering women’s apparel brand, Machine For Freedom. MFF, founded by Jenn Kriske in 2013, built a strong following for promoting a more inclusive vision of the women’s cycling community.

MFF was one of the first brands to seriously develop women’s riding clothing outside of the traditional, race-focused sizing of most apparel lines. In the years since, other brands have broadened their lines to match the example set by Machined For Freedom.

The boutique California-based apparel brand was bought by Specialized in 2018. Going into the fifth year of partnership, the global bike brand is now disbanding MFF. The news was met with an outpouring of support from riders as well as other women’s clothing brands that have followed in MFF’s tire tracks.

The end of Machines For Freedom is the latest in a series of big changes for Specialized. Specialized also announced significant layoffs earlier this year as well as shutting down most of its long-running ambassador program.

MFF founder Jenn Kriske posted this note to the brand’s community on Instagram:

“It is with a heavy heart that I make this announcement. After eight incredible years, the difficult decision was made to shutter the Machines For Freedom brand.

I am tremendously grateful for everything this brand and this community has accomplished in that time. Our influence in the industry is undeniable, and our industry-leading fit process changed the game for women riders in all shapes and sizes. While the brand will no longer exist, the community – and what we built together – will. What we built is bigger than any single brand or company, and I am eternally grateful to be a part of it.

Machines For Freedom is bigger than cycling.

Always has been.

Always will be.”

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