While most recent 3DGS-based SLAM works focus on small-scale indoor scenes, developing 3DGS-based SLAM methods for large-scale forest scenes holds great potential for many real-world applications, especially for wildfire emergency response and forest management. However, this line of research is impeded by the absence of a comprehensive and high-quality dataset, and collecting such a dataset over real-world scenes is costly and technically infeasible. To this end, we have built a large-scale, comprehensive, and high-quality synthetic dataset for SLAM in wildfire and forest environments. Leveraging the Unreal Engine 5 Electric Dreams Environment Sample Project, we developed a pipeline to easily collect aerial and ground views, including ground-truth camera poses and a range of additional data modalities from unmanned aerial vehicle. Our pipeline also provides flexible controls on environmental factors such as light, weather, and types and conditions of wildfire, supporting the need for various tasks covering forest mapping, wildfire emergency response, and beyond. The resulting pilot dataset, WildfireX-SLAM, contains 5.5k low-altitude RGB-D aerial images from a large-scale forest map with a total size of 16 km . On top of WildfireX-SLAM, a thorough benchmark is also conducted, which not only reveals the unique challenges of 3DGS-based SLAM in the forest but also highlights potential improvements for future works. The dataset and code will be publicly available.

For months rumors have circulated that developer Bethesda was about to release a remastered version of its timeless classic action RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion–now one has finally arrived and it looks so good I can barely believe my eyes. The remaster boasts the complete Oblivion world–Cyrodiil and all–beautifully remade with high-resolution textures and new lighting. The graphical conversion comes courtesy of the game development engine Unreal Engine 5, with a little input from Bethesda's in-house gaming engine to keep it looking as true to the original version as possible. Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, players will now be able to play Oblivion in 4K at up to 60 FPS, enjoying a level of detail they could otherwise only dream of in the original. They can forget about wandering past trees and shrubs that seemingly appear in 2D, for example, because they'll now be rendered in mind-blowing 3D, like everything else in the game. In addition to a graphics overhaul, the remaster boasts an updated UI as well as updated sound and visual effects.

This work presents a new robotics simulation environment built upon Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) for agricultural image data generation. The simulation utilizes the state-of-the-art real-time rendering engine to provide realistic plant images which are often used in agricultural applications. This study showcases the rendering accuracy of UE5 in comparison to existing tools and assesses its positional accuracy when integrated with Robot Operating Systems (ROS). The results indicate that UE5 achieves an impressive average distance error of 0.021mm when compared to predetermined setpoints in a multi-robot setup involving two UR10 arms.

A great way to get started with AI art is to explore different prompts. Prompts are what you use to describe the image you want to create, and they include lots of different information, from specific artist names and art styles to using pop culture icons and exploring fantasy scenes. Try using the prompt ideas listed below, then experiment with replacing the keywords with different ideas of your own. Soon enough you will get the hang of how to create unique AI art using your own original prompts. Referencing the masters of art history is a great place to begin if you are stuck for ideas.

Lara Croft is making a return with the help of Amazon Games. The company will publish the next Tomb Raider title, which Crystal Dynamics is developing. Amazon said the studio is using Unreal Engine 5 to craft the biggest and most expansive Tomb Raider game to date. It'll likely be a few years before you can get your hands on the next Tomb Raider game, which is coming to multiple platforms. It's still in early development, but Amazon says it'll retain all of the franchise's hallmarks.

Swedish game company Embracer Group has just made a blockbuster deal to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal for what seems like a bargain $300 million price, the company confirmed in a press release. The deal includes a "catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalogue games from Square Enix Holdings," it wrote. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Those studios represent around 1,100 employees across eight global locations, the company noted. When the deal is finalized, Embracer will have 14,000 employees, 10,000 game developers and 124 internal studios.

Crystal Dynamics has "just started development" on a new Tomb Raider game, the studio announced today on Twitter. It didn't share what the game will be called nor when fans can expect to play it, but it did note that it will run on Epic's new Unreal Engine 5. After working on the mediocre Marvel's Avengers, the project will see Crystal Dynamics return to the franchise it spent more than a decade making popular again. Crystal Dynamics is incredibly excited about the future of Unreal and how it will help us take our storytelling to the next level. That's why we're proud to announce that our next #tombraider game is being built on Unreal Engine 5! pic.twitter.com/UFMiWzJAZc It would also appear to signal the end of the studio's in-house Foundation engine, which powered Rise of the Tomb Raider and the most recent mainline entry in the series, 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

For years, the 3D software development tool Unreal Engine has powered some of the biggest video games on the market--from Fortnite to Valorant--as well as television shows like The Mandalorian and even Porsche engineering. On Tuesday, Epic Games showed off the public release of Unreal Engine 5, the engine's first major update in 8 years. The company promises that the new updates to Unreal Engine 5 will make it the bedrock for the next generation of Web 3 developments--from metaverse experiences to movies, and of course, video games. Unreal Engine is the second-most widely used video game engine, trailing only Unity, and is known for its depth of features and visual quality. Its release opens the door for Disney to create a live Mandalorian video game that looks nearly as real as the show does, for example, says Kim Libreri, the CTO at Epic Games.

A year after it wowed many with its first gameplay video, Chinese developer Game Science Studio is back with an even more impressive look at Black Myth: Wukong. The studio has switched from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5 for the action RPG. According to NVIDIA, it's the first peek at a UE5 game that uses Deep Learning Super Sampling ( DLSS), the company's AI-powered upscaling tech. The 12-minute preview, which you can watch in 4K at 60 frames per second, shows off much more action from the game. It features a couple of stunning boss fights, including one with an electric dragon on a frozen lake.

Kim Libreri, an award-winning visual effects artist based in Northern California, has worked on movies including Artificial Intelligence and War of the Planet of the Apes. For nine years he has been working with a piece of technology better known for computer games, in particular the smash-hit Fortnite. The Unreal Engine, owned by Epic Games, provides the building blocks and tools that a computer game developer needs, but is increasingly an attractive technology for TV and film producers. The latest version of technology, Unreal Engine 5, is coming out next year, and Epic has been heavily trailing its features. It should allow visual effects artists like Mr Libreri to slot graphics and images straight into a scene, with little fuss.