This winter, moviegoers will be faced with a choice not seen since July 21, 2023. While “Barbenheimer” ended up a win-win—Barbie was the highest-grossing movie of the year, and Oppenheimer won the Best Picture Oscar—it’s not yet certain who will rise on December 18, 2026. Will Dune: Part Three, the final entry in Denis Villeneuve’s highly acclaimed sci-fi trilogy, reign supreme? Or will Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel’s bold-faced attempt to recapture its superhero movie magic, win the battle?
It’s too early to tell, especially after both films showedexciting new teases at this week’s CinemaCon. But one film has a distinct advantage going into that popcorn-laden weekend. Dune: Part Three has the IMAX market locked down, meaning it will get to show off its sandy action on the most covetable giant screens.
Not one to be outdone, though, Disney would like fans to know that Doomsday will still look and sound as fantastic as possible, thanks to its newly announced “Infinity Vision.”
According to a press release, Infinity Vision is no mere gimmick; it’s “a new certification for premium large format (PLF) theaters.” If a theater is certified, it means audiences can expect “the biggest, brightest, and most immersive cinematic experiences” based on “rigorous technical standards” for screen size, image clarity, and sound.
While that sounds encouraging, it also seems like there’s some FOMO going on here. Infinity Vision-certified theaters are really just regular theaters that can brag they feature tip-top equipment. It’s not the same seeing a movie in the massive, eardrum-shattering IMAX format.
However, you have to guess Disney wanted to make sure Marvel fans—who, let’s face it, have a lot of crossover with Dune fans—didn’t feel left behind. Maybe the studio hopes it’ll encourage people who might have waited on seeing Doomsday to go opening weekend anyway. There is spoiler avoidance to consider, after all!
The press release notes that Infinity Vision will include “over 75 domestic and 300 global exhibitor PLFs.” You can first experience it during September’s re-release of Avengers: Endgame, and then, of course, in December when Doomsday arrives.
Autodesk Maya remains the industry standard for 3D animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering. However, because Maya is a multi-faceted application, its hardware demands vary significantly depending on whether you are focusing on viewport interaction, complex Bifrost simulations, or final-frame rendering.
Selecting the optimal configuration requires an understanding of how Maya utilizes system resources across different sub-tasks. This guide analyzes current hardware performance—including the latest GPU architectures and high-density DDR5 memory—to provide empirical recommendations for professional workflows.
Maya System Requirements: The Processor
The CPU is the primary engine for Maya. Its performance is divided into two categories: Single-Core (Active Work) and Multi-Core (Rendering/Sim).
Active Modeling and Animation
For tasks like modeling, rigging, and animation playback, Maya is primarily single-threaded. High clock speeds are more beneficial than high core counts here. A CPU with a high “boost” frequency ensures that the viewport remains responsive and that the UI does not lag when manipulating complex hierarchies.
Rendering and Simulation
When using Maya’s built-in Arnold renderer or running Bifrost liquid simulations, the software transitions to a multi-threaded workload. In these scenarios, the more cores available, the faster the computation.
Recommendations:
Top Tier: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Intel Core Ultra 9 285k. These chips offer a balance of 5.7GHz+ boost clocks for modeling and high core counts for local rendering.
Workstation Tier:AMD Threadripper 9000-series. For users doing heavy simulation or high-resolution Arnold rendering locally, the 32 or 64-core variants are essential to minimize downtime.
Maya System Requirements: The Graphics Card
The GPU’s role in Maya has expanded from merely driving the Viewport 2.0 to becoming the primary engine for rendering through Arnold GPU, Redshift, or V-Ray.
Viewport Performance
Viewport 2.0 relies on DirectX or OpenGL. Modern professional and consumer cards handle high-polygon counts with ease, but VRAM becomes the primary bottleneck when working with high-resolution textures and complex Shaders (OSL).
GPU Rendering
This is where the hardware requirements scale exponentially. If your pipeline utilizes GPU-accelerated renderers, the number of CUDA cores (NVIDIA) and the total VRAM are the two most critical metrics.
Recommendations:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (32GB VRAM): The current gold standard for GPU rendering. The massive VRAM allows for rendering complex scenes without the “out of memory” errors common on lower-tier cards.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (16GB VRAM): Excellent for high-end modeling and animation where real-time viewport feedback is needed, though it may struggle with ultra-heavy production-grade GPU renders.
Memory (RAM)
Maya is notoriously memory-intensive, especially when dealing with high-resolution meshes or large particle caches.
32GB: The absolute minimum for professional work. Suitable for individual asset creation and light scenes.
64GB: The “Sweet Spot.” This provides enough headroom for Maya to run alongside supporting apps like ZBrush, Substance Painter, or Photoshop without aggressive swapping.
128GB+: Necessary for artists working on massive environments, high-end VFX, or heavy Bifrost simulations.
Storage Architecture
Slow storage is often the “silent killer” of productivity in Maya. Asset loading times and autosave lag can interrupt the creative flow.
Primary (OS/Apps): 1TB NVMe Gen5 SSD.
Secondary (Active Projects/Cache): 2TB+ NVMe Gen4/Gen5 SSD. Maya’s “Scratch” space and Bifrost caches should always live on the fastest drive possible to prevent simulation bottlenecks.
Tertiary (Archive/Storage): High-capacity SATA SSDs or Enterprise HDDs for finished projects.
Estimated Benchmarks (April 2026)
To illustrate the performance delta between modern configurations, we look at two primary metrics: Maya Viewport FPS (Interaction) and Arnold Render Time (Computation).
Maya Viewport 2.0 – Performance Score
Higher is better. Test Scene: 10-million polygon character rig with textures.
Arnold 7.3 Render Benchmark
Lower is better. Test Scene: “The Junk Shop” @ 4K resolution.
By aligning your hardware with your specific workflow—prioritizing CPU clock speed for animation or VRAM and CUDA cores for rendering—you can ensure that Maya remains a tool for creativity rather than a source of technical frustration.
Josh has been with Velocity Micro since 2007 in various Marketing, PR, and Sales related roles. As the Director of Sales & Marketing, he is responsible for all Direct and Retail sales as well as Marketing activities. He enjoys Seinfeld reruns, the Atlanta Braves, and Beatles songs written by John, Paul, or George. Sorry, Ringo.
Head straight for orbit with GeForce NOW — no space helmet required.
PRAGMATA, Capcom’s long-awaited sci-fi action adventure, touches down on GeForce NOW the same day it launches worldwide. The futuristic journey through a cold lunar station in the near future can be streamed instantly from the cloud to almost any device, no console or heavy hardware needed.
That’s only the beginning. Five new titles join the cloud this week, expanding April’s gaming galaxy with fresh adventures and endless possibilities.
Plus, the GeForce NOW Ultimate membership comes to gamers in India for the first time, with the service now available in beta and operated by NVIDIA.
Time to see what’s landing on GeForce NOW.
A Mission Gone Wrong
PRAGMATA is Capcom’s newest sci-fi action adventure that blends heart, high-tech and a hauntingly quiet world set in the near future. Step into the boots of Hugh Williams, an investigator navigating a lunar research station gone silent and Diana, a young android. Armed with an arsenal of weapons and the ability to hack, every corridor and console becomes part of a cinematic experience filled with tense exploration and fast-paced action.
The story unfolds amid the cold vacuum of the moon after a massive quake hits the station researching Lunafilament — a material said to be able to create anything given enough data. Awake, injured and disoriented, Hugh crosses paths with Diana, the mysterious android girl known as a Pragmata. Now, they must work together as they face the rogue station on their way back to Earth.
PRAGMATA shines in stunning clarity with ray-traced lighting and NVIDIA DLSS 4 technology boosting frame rates and image quality. Stream it on launch day at full fidelity, even without the latest hardware — no need to wait on a large install or worry about hardware specs. Hugh and Diana’s lunar mystery is ready when the moment strikes.
Let’s Play Today
Heroes in the cloud don’t have to wait for updates.
Fortnite: Save the World is now free and ready to stream instantly on GeForce NOW. The storm hits hard and the heroes hit harder — jump into a co-op adventure that mixes base-building, looting and all-out action against waves of Husks. Craft the ultimate fort, set sneaky traps and team up to protect what’s left of the world — no waiting for updates or patches, just pure fight-and-build mayhem. The storm’s closing in, but thanks to the cloud, the party’s jumping right into the action. “Save the World” isn’t available on mobile devices, including tablets.
In addition, members can look for the following:
REPLACED (New release on Steam and Xbox, available on Game Pass, April 14, GeForce RTX 5080-ready)
Windrose (New release on Steam, April 14, GeForce RTX 5080-ready)
Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss (New release on Steam, April 16, GeForce RTX 5080-ready)
PRAGMATA (New release on Steam, April 16, GeForce RTX 5080-ready)
When I first started shooting footage for my wife for her YouTube channel I really didn’t know too much about shooting in that specific situation.
I was always more an editing guy than a video shooting guy!
So when I began I figured out some of the things I thought I needed and slapped it all together and off we went.
As time passed I learned some hard (and very expensive!) lessons.
Right now I have a great setup PLUS, a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t really need!
I cannot stress the value enough of having a dedicated space already set up for shooting YouTube talking head style videos.
So if you are creating this kind of content then the video below is an excellent walk-through of what you really need and how to do it for very little money.
Create a Talking Avatar That Sounds Just Like You
PowerDirector have recently introduced a new capability into their already impressive A.I. driven tools.
This one is especially good for anyone wanting to make videos that do not include their own face… or any face at all for that matter!
The feature combines the ability of making avatars or still images turn into videos with the ability to clone you own voice.
The result is you can add some text, choose and avatar and then the newly created character will speak for you.
How to Speed Up or Slow Down Video
One of the easier ways to pace your video edits so as to reflect what is happening is by speeding up or slowing down the footage.
In most video editors this is a pretty easy operation and you can see it in action in the Movavi video editor video below.
However as you watch that video it is important to note a few of the pitfalls you can run into when adjusting the speed of any clip.
Like most things in the video editing process, speed adjustments are not a one size fits all proposition.
Dull Spring Footage? Try This Color Grading Technique
First up, let’s be clear about this tutorial from the folks at Filmora.
Sure it says it’s about “Spring Footage” but in reality it is a very good walk-through of how to color correct footage that seems somewhat dull straight out of the camera.
It covers two recent addition or improvements in their color tools which are the HDR color adjustments and using the color curves.
Both of these tools are borderline pro features but like most things, they are totally useless unless you know how to use them! So this is how to use them.
Back in the day when I first started my video editing journey and dinosaurs roamed the earth the prospect of creating a travel map was quite daunting!
I am not going to go into how it was done here, but let me just say it took a few hours and the result were less than impressive!
These days it is a whole different story and if you check out this video from Filmora, the results are pretty amazing.
DaVinci Resolve 21! What’s New?
There has been quite a lot of noise this week about the release of DaVinci Resolve 21 and all the new features.
Just to keep things real here, bear in mind that this is not an actual update yet.
The is the pre-release of version 21 into beta testing to the general public.
This allows both free and studio users of the program to have a play with the new one while Black Magic can gather usage and bug information from a far wider dataset.
If you are running version 20 right now and check for updates through the user interface, you will be told you are on the latest version… and that’s because you are!
So in light of that here’s a taste of some of the features and upgrades that are inside this beta release.
Most interesting for me is the new Photo Page which now provides a dedicated space for dealing with images both individually and in groups.
A lot of people have been using Resolve as a photo editor because of the awesome tools available in the Color Page.
This new dedicated Photo Page I believe, is just the beginning because the folks at Black Magic don’t tend to half-ass stuff like this.
I think over the next few months the capabilities of that new page will start to take shape fully.
How to Stay Organized As A Creator
When the average person starts off with creating videos it is usually common for their projects to be very simple.
Most often it is a single footage file shot pretty much in one session, some music, some still images and a voice track.
However as time passes those simple projects begin to become more and more complex.
They start adding b-roll, footage from different sources, multiple music sources, recorded voice overs and the list goes on.
Once that starts to happen things tend to get very complicated very fast!
It is at that time that they either get frustrated with the process and lose interest or they get organized and keep going.
From my observation there is generally no middle ground there!
Everyone has their own way of getting organized but what I have found is that the best way to do it is to copy someone who has a track record working with complex projects.
Casey is someone like that so here’s how he does it.
Camera Movements for Beginners
Over the past year or so there have been some pretty impressive advancements in the field of footage stabilization.
Many cameras, especially action cam style ones have some very impressive stabilization built in while at the same time, editing software has also been catching up.
The result of this has been a greater ability for the average person to engage in both “run and gun” style shooting as well as adding camera movement without the need for expensive equipment.
So now that we can all move around a bit more, here’s a tutorial on some camera movement basics to get you started!
Why Wide Shots Feel So Cinematic
If you take a look around this website you will probably notice a few articles on the types of shot used in making videos and how they work.
There’s this one here:
and another one here:
Whilst both of those articles are absolute works of genius (by me) they are essentially at an introductory level.
For a deep dive into the Wide Shot, take a look at the video below for a meatier take on it.
Key Takeaways
This week a comprehensive guide for creating a $100 cinematic YouTube studio setup for talking head videos.
Introducing a new feature in PowerDirector that allows users to create talking avatars that can mimic their voice.
Speed up or slow down video footage easily whilst remaining aware of potential pitfalls during adjustments.
New features in DaVinci Resolve 21, including a dedicated Photo Page for better image management.
Emphasizing the importance of staying organized as a creator, especially as projects become more complex.
JATO is the global leader in automotive data, analysis, and intelligence. With 40 years of experience tracking vehicle registrations, pricing, specifications, and market trends, JATO helps automotive manufacturers, suppliers, financial institutions, and industry stakeholders make informed strategic decisions. Their strategic intent is to help customers create significant competitive advantage by constantly leading in connected data, information, and knowledge provision, ultimately improving customers’ work processes, informed decision making and business results.
Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Hockey fans, today’s Connections: Sports Edition is for you. All four categories are hockey-related. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Fire it into the net!
Green group hint: Lord Stanley’s hardware.
Blue group hint: Where hockey teams play.
Purple group hint: Put the biscuit in the basket.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Types of hockey goals.
Green group: Last four teams to win the Stanley Cup.
Blue group: NHL arena names.
Purple group: Hockey terms that are also food items.
Bungie released Marathon’s big mid-season update just a few days ago, and it’s packed full of heavily-requested changes (plus a bunch of new things we didn’t even know we wanted). There are more unique weapons to find outside of Cryo Archive, the CARRI event designed to incentivise cooperation, an experimental pseudo-battle royale mode that’s a real treat, and a new item: the Mercy Kit.
In Bungie’s own words, “sometimes you shoot first and ask questions later,” so the Mercy Kit is intended to, y’know, let you show your enemies some mercy if there’s a chance you could be buddies after all. All Rooks spawn with a Mercy kit, and there’s a chance to find one while looting in your non-Rook matches.
Despite having the best intentions in mind, you can always count on players to do exactly the opposite of what you want. Mercy Kits aren’t being used to “extend a helping hand to rival Runners”, as creative director Julia Nardin hoped; they’re being used to grief. Content creator FalloutPlays is bang on the money when he describes it as the “most troll-friendly item imaginable.”
Article continues below
Im a sick bastard https://t.co/6s8476xqXq pic.twitter.com/Mwdws9AgVhApril 16, 2026
Why show mercy when you could revive them and kill them again for bonus XP? That’s the Arachne way. I’ve even seen a few clips where players revive a fellow Runner, butter them up by giving them free items for redemption, and then shoot them in the head with a WSTR. It’s a cruel world out there.
While it’s a nice idea to create a tool to encourage some cooperation and riff on Arc Raiders‘ social sim ‘friendly matches’ phenomenon, situations like that are a lot more rare on Tau Ceti. I’ve only met a few friendly players so far, but I have seen a few cases of friendly lobbies and even a cooperative Cryo Archive match.
Generally though, Marathon is shoot first and probably skip the questions entirely so you can pick their corpse clean, so it only makes sense that Mercy Kits would be twisted towards more PvP. It begs the question of what feasibly could be done to encourage more cooperation, or whether Marathon players simply are too far gone. I reckon it’s the latter, since I’m relatively peaceful in Arc Raiders and a gunslinger in Marathon, and that’s just how I like it.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
In March 2026, developers came together at VS Live! Las Vegas for a full week of technical learning, hands-on exploration, and a lot of great conversations about where software development is headed next. From AI-assisted development to modern .NET, cloud-native apps, and developer productivity, one thing was clear: the pace of change is not slowing down.
If you were not able to attend, or if you want to revisit some of the strongest content from the event, we are now publishing 20 sessions from VS Live! Las Vegas on the Visual Studio YouTube channel.
We are releasing about two sessions per day, so you can watch them at your own pace and jump into the topics that matter most to you.
What you’ll find in this series
These sessions reflect the topics developers are focused on right now, including:
AI and Copilot-powered development
Modern .NET and C#
Cloud-native apps and Azure
Developer productivity and tooling
Real-world architecture and engineering
You’ll hear directly from Microsoft engineers helping build these tools, along with industry experts who are using them to solve real problems and ship real applications.
A few sessions to check out
This lineup includes a strong mix of practical guidance, technical depth, and forward-looking keynotes.
Keynotes
The Road to Visual Studio 2027: Building a Faster, Smarter IDE – Mads Kristensen
Knowledge is the Key: The Path for AI Applications – Jerry Nixon and Drew Skwiers-Koballa
Featured sessions
AI’s Not Magic: A Developer’s Guide to Using AI Tools Without the Hype – Brian A. Randell
Building an AI Agent to Work with Your Own Data – Jerry Nixon
Building Intelligent .NET Applications: From AI to Implementation – Jon Galloway
What’s New in C# – Jason Bock
Building RESTful Services with ASP.NET Core – Philip Japikse
GitHub Actions in Action – Marcel de Vries
The Forgotten Features of Visual Studio You NEED In Your Life! – Mads Kristensen
Fast Focus: Caching Options in .NET – Jason Bock
VS Code and Visual Studio, Better Together – Brian A. Randell
Modernizing .NET Applications Faster with Visual Studio – Jon Galloway
What I like about this set of sessions is that it is not just theory. These talks focus on real-world scenarios, whether you are exploring AI in existing apps, modernizing older .NET solutions, improving performance, or just looking for better ways to work day to day.
Start watching
Whether you are catching up on what you missed or diving in for the first time, this is an easy way to experience some of the best content from VS Live! Las Vegas on your own schedule.
We will continue publishing sessions daily, so check back often and subscribe to the Visual Studio YouTube channel to stay up to date.
Want the full VS Live! experience? Attend in person
Watching online is a great way to learn, but there is still nothing like attending a VS Live! event in person. You get the sessions, the hands-on labs, the hallway conversations, and direct access to speakers, product experts, and fellow developers.
If you are a Visual Studio subscriber, you may already have access to exclusive event pricing through my.visualstudio.com. Just sign in, head to the Benefits page, and look for the Visual Studio Live! Events tile to get your priority code. Depending on the event, that can save you up to $900 on registration.
If you are not a subscriber, you can still save. As a Visual Studio Blog reader, use priority code VSLMS at checkout to save up to $600.
Each event includes a full week of expert-led sessions and hands-on labs, plus the chance to connect directly with the people behind Visual Studio, .NET, Azure, and GitHub Copilot.
Casely has reannounced a recall of its Power Pods 5,000mAh MagSafe E33A charger after dozens of people were injured and one even killed by the defective devices, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) announced. It’s recommended that you stop using the devices immediately, dispose of them safely and seek a replacement from the manufacturer.
A year ago, Casely and the USPSC published a recall of 429,000 units of the power bank with the model number E33A. That followed 51 incidents of the devices “overheating, expanding or catching fire” and burning users in multiple cases.
However, many of the devices have remained in use and are even more dangerous than initially thought. “In August 2024, a 75-year-old woman from New Jersey, was charging her cell phone with the power bank on her lap when it caught on fire and exploded,” the USCPSC reported. “The victim suffered second and third degree burns and later passed away from complications from her injuries.” In another incident this year, a 47-year-old woman was charging her phone on a plane when it caught on fire and exploded, giving her first degree burns.
As a result, the recall has been reissued due to “a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards to consumers,” according to the Commission.
The defective Casely Power Pods 5,000mAh charger is identifiable by the Casely embossed logo on the front and model number E33A on the back. It was sold at various online retailers including getcasely.com and Amazon between 2022 and 2024.
Casely is offering free replacement units as a remedy (it’s not clear if you can get a full refund). Those seeking one should write “recalled” on the battery pack in permanent marker and submit a photo, along with a second photo showing the E33A model number as pictured above. Owners are instructed to dispose of them by contacting a facility that handles lithium-ion batteries. Do NOT throw them away with regular household waste, recycling, or standard battery disposal bins due to the risk of fire and explosion.
Dive into a living medieval fantasy sandbox RPG where the world moves with or without you and factions rise and fall. Become a thief, hunter, or sellsword, survive alone or with a party, and shape your story in a fully enterable world where every building, cave, and road hides opportunity or danger.
Play solo or build your squad Create the heroes of your journey. Customize each member of your party’s appearance, hairstyle, physique, and background story to make your mark on the world. Every choice teaches you something. Earn experience through what you do and unlock skills that keep you alive. Go in loud with brutal weapons, or stay unseen, avoid fair fights, and end threats before they notice you.
Survive, Craft & Build The world won’t keep you safe; you’ll have to prepare. Stock up, craft gear, and choose how you live: settle in town by renting a house, or roam freely with camps you can set up between expeditions. Hunt, gather, and craft your loadout, then do whatever it takes to survive. We Gotta Go
Write Your Own Story Valorborn is built around player-driven stories, not a single scripted path. Start small and survive however you can. Steal and sell stolen goods. Live off the wilderness and trade pelts for coin. Take contracts and hunt the dangers stalking roads, ruins, and settlements. Tip faction conflicts in your favor, exploit the chaos for profit, or stay out of politics and carve your own path. Your choices shape your identity, your reputation, and your future.
