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Legend of Zelda Temple Recreated In Unreal Engine 4

Posted: 09 May 2014 07:01 AM PDT

Legend of Zelda Unreal Engine 4 image

Find out what The Legend of Zelda could look like using one of the best gaming engines around.

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series has sported many looks. The original’s 8-bit. Ocarina of Time’s 64-bit. The cartoony cel shading of The Wind Waker. Now one person took it upon themselves to show what the popular action-adventure series could look using the power of the Unreal Engine.

Michael Eurek spent “several months" building the Temple of Time from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, using Unreal Engine 4, the 3D animation software Maya, and both digital art suites Z-brush and Photoshop. And from the looks of it, the results are quite impressive. Michael's efforts nail down all the classic Legend of Zelda trappings in his rebuild beautify, and even features the most prized possession of any true hero, the Master Sword.

Perhaps one day Nintendo will create a Zelda game to this insane level of graphical bliss (I mean, that Wii U demo looked pretty rad, right?), but until then Michael has the glimpse of something quite amazing. Check it out!

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13 Brilliant Maps of Legendary Fictional Worlds

Posted: 09 May 2014 06:01 AM PDT

Cybertron

What makes fantasy and fiction great? Not just the story and the main characters, but the attention to details and the fleshing out of an imaginary but almost completely real world.

By creating history, backgrounds and minor characters seem just as important as the main ones, authors, screenwriters and video game designers manage to capture our imaginations, and maps, made by the creators or by fans, are just as important to getting the full experience.

The Realm of Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings)

Westeros & Essos (A Song of Ice and Fire)

 

The Star Wars Galaxy

Pokemon

Hogwarts (Harry Potter)

Cybertron (Transformers)

Star Trek Universe

Planet of Azeroth (Warcraft Universe)

The Island (Lost)

 

Continent of Tamriel (Elder Scrolls Games)

 

Planet of Arrakis (Dune)

 

The Continent (The Witcher)

Springfield (The Simpsons)

 

You can find more maps like these on this fantastic blog.

My favorite fictional world is the one of A Song of Ice and Fire, so this post about maps of places on Westeros and Essos is my obvious recommendation.

BMW’s Solar Carport Concept Charges EVs While Shading Them

Posted: 08 May 2014 01:55 PM PDT

BMW Solar Carport Concept 2

The Los Angeles media launch of the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid in was the perfect opportunity for the German automaker to showcase its solar carport concept, a solution that provides shade to cars while charging them.

While hardly a revolutionary idea, BMW’s solar carport concept demonstrates how electric vehicles should be treated. That is, if you happen to live in a sunny part of the world, or at least in one that has sunny days most part of the year.

Tom Allemeier, carport designer at BMW Group DesignworksUSA, stated that “With the solar carport concept we opted for a holistic approach: not only is the vehicle itself sustainable, but so is its energy supply.”

The frame of the carport is made of bamboo, which is considered by “particularly sustainable raw material.” In my humble opinion, though, BMW’s approach is a sad joke compared to Volvo’s Pure Tension Pavilion, a really futuristic way of charging solar cars.

The solar carport created by BMW will be compatible with the iWallBox Pro, the automaker’s home-charging solution for its electric vehicles.

Speaking of BMW’s EVs, the i3 all-electric car costs $41,350 and comes with a 22 kWh lithium-ion battery that should keep the car running for 80 to 100 miles. The plug-in hybrid i8, on the other hand, is a tad more expensive, at $135,925. For that price, you can ride 22 miles in all-electric mode. I would pick a Tesla Model S anytime of the day instead of the BMW i8, especially since the 85kW Model S has a range of 400 miles. I guess that the two companies have different audiences for their products, otherwise the German carmaker wouldn’t have even starter to develop electric vehicles. As the Community’s Pierce Hawthorne would put it, Tesla’s EVs are streets ahead. Quite literally!

Allemeier expressed his enthusiasm regarding this concept, even though there is still a lot of room for improvements here: “This is therefore an entirely new generation of carports that allows energy to be produced in a simple and transparent way. It renders the overarching theme of lightweight design both visible and palpable.”

Given the lack of originality, I would be less enthusiastic about this new generation carport, but I guess that every carmaker out there needs to provide its own solution along with the vehicles it develops.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the M8 custom PC case developed by Asrock and BMW, and the Pure Tension Pavilion developed by Volvo.

Mink 3D Printer Creates Makeup in Any Shade You Can Think Of

Posted: 08 May 2014 12:45 PM PDT

Mink Makeup 3D Printer

Harvard Business School graduate Grace Choi might have invented the device that will kill the makeup industry, a 3D printer that makes lipstick and eye-shadow in every possible shade out there.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference that took place in NY a few days ago, Choi expressed her outrage regarding the steep prices of cosmetics, in general. According to her, the prices asked by the giants of the makeup industry are unjustified, to say the least “They do this by charging on the one thing that is available for free, color.” The best thing about Mink, in this context, is that it enables you to pick any colour you like from the Web (think Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc) and have an eye-shadow/powder/lipstick printed right away with that exact shade.

In other words, Mink makeup 3D printer turns the Web and any laptop, camera or phone into a beauty aisle without an end. The main target audience is represented by girls aged 13 to 21 who haven’t formed a habit yet from using makeup. Choi mentioned that all the materials used by the 3D printer are FDA approved and come from the same sources as the incredibly expensive cosmetics found at Sephora, so there shouldn’t be any safety issues there.

As Choi stated at the TechCrunch Conference, “The inkjet handles the pigment, and the same raw material substrates can create any type of makeup, from powders to cream to lipstick. Implementing this ability on the Mink is not hard to do, it’s actually more of a business decision. What we’re doing is taking out the bull shit. Big makeup companies take the pigment and the substrates and mix them together and then jack the price. We do the same thing and let you get the makeup right in your own house.”

The creator of this 3D printer for cosmetics is thinking about offering it for $300, along with decently priced substrates and ink. Assuming that the consumables are really cheap, Mink might actually be able to destabilize the makeup industry. The price of the printer itself might go down a bit if Choi manages to negotiate with the major printer companies of the world. There are still a lot of factors that could influence Mink’s destiny, color replication and product life being only two of them.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the LIX 3D printing pen that lets you draw in midair and the 3D printing Photoshop tool developed by Adobe.

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