OnePlus 9 RT could launch in October after all, according to the latest leak. This comes after popular tipster Max Jambor revealed earlier that OnePlus has struck off the OnePlus 9T for this year. OnePlus launched the OnePlus 9 series earlier this year in March where we saw three phones: 9R, 9 and 9 Pro for the first time in the number series.
According to a report by Harish Jonnalagadda of Android Central that cites “insider sources”, OnePlus will launch the OnePlus 9 RT sometime in October. As hinted by the name, the phone is expected to be an upgrade over the OnePlus 9R and will be limited to India and China. As per the report, the OnePlus 9 RT will have camera upgrades and will likely be the first phone to run on OxygenOS 12 out-of-the-box.
OnePlus 9 RT leaked specifications
The OnePlus 9 RT is essentially similar to the OnePlus 9R save for some camera upgrades. The report states that the OnePlus 9 RT will feature the same 6.55-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 870 chip and a 4,500mAh battery that supports 65W fast charging.
The upgrade comes in the form of the 50MP primary camera based on the Sony IMX766 that we recently saw on the Nord 2. The rest of the camera sensors are expected to remain the same which includes a 16MP ultra-wide camera, 5MP macro camera and 2MP depth sensor.
As per the report, the OnePlus 9 RT is also slated to run on OxygenOS 12 that has more in common with Oppo’s ColorOS as a result of both companies merging their Research and Development departments. Having said that, OxygenOS 12 retains all the good features that have made it such a fluid UI including utilities like work-life balance, Zen mode, Scout and Shelf.
There’s no official word on the exact launch date of the phone just yet but we expect to hear more about it in the coming months
Epic Games has announced the release of Unreal Engine 4.27, which will supposedly introduce new features for creators across game development, film and television, architecture, automotive and more. For a full list of all the new features and improvements coming to Unreal Engine 4.27, head on over to the release notes here. Read on for highlights, which include major updates to in-camera visual effects toolset for virtual production, enhancements to GPU Lightmass for significantly faster light baking, integration of the Oodle Compression Suite and Bink Video codecs for free use in Unreal Engine, production-ready Pixel Streaming, production-ready OpenXR support, Datasmith upgrades, and much more.
The new release of Unreal Engine comes with improvements to the efficiency, quality and ease of use of the in-camera VFX toolset, which will supposedly make it faster and easier than it has ever been before. Epic collaborated with filmmakers' collective Bullitt to create these tools, and have created a test piece that you can check out here. This sample project is available for the community to download for free here.
Unreal Engine 4.27's 3D Config Editor will allow users to easily design their nDisplay setups for LED volumes or other multi-display rendering applications. There will also be multi-GPU support to maximise resolution on wide shots. The GPU is dedicated to in-camera pixels and allows for shooting with multiple cameras, each with its own uniquely tracked frustum. Unreal Engine 4.27 also addes support for OpenColorIO to nDisplay.
Level Snapshots have also been updated, allowing users to easily save the state of a scene and restore any elements later, making it easier to return to previous steps.
Unreal Engine 4.27 – Faster light baking
With Unreal Engine 4.27 come a plethora of enhancements to GPU Lightmass, with features that improve stability. The system will use the GPU rather than the CPU to reder pre-computed lightmaps, making use of DirectX 12's ray tracing capabilities and Microsoft's DXR framework. This significantly reduces the amount of the time it takes to generate lighting data for scenes. This will be especially helpful in scenes that require global illumination, soft shadows, and other complex lighting effects, which are normally pretty heavy on the load when it comes to rendering in real time.
For in-camera VFX workflows, GPU Lightmass enables crews to modify virtual set lighting far more quickly than before, making productions more efficient and ensuring that creative flow is not interrupted.
Unreal Engine 4.27 – Final-pixel imagery made easy
The Path Tracer is a DXR-accelerated, physically accurate progressive rendering mode in that can be enabled without requiring any additional setup. Unreal Engine 4.27 makes a range of improvements to the Path Tracer, making it viable for creating final-pixel imagery comparable to offline renderings. New features include physically correct and compromise-free global illumination, physically correct refractions, feature-complete materials within reflections and refractions, and super-sampled anti-aliasing.
Unreal Engine 4.27 – RAD Game Tools solutions integrated into Unreal Engine
With RAD Game Tools becoming part of the Epic Games family, the Oodle Compression Suite and Bink Video codec are now built into Unreal Engine, putting some of the fastest and most popular compression and encoding tools in the industry into the hands of Unreal Engine developers for free.
Pixel Streaming is now production-ready and comes with a host of quality improvements. This enables Unreal Engine and applications built on it to run on a high-powered cloud virtual machine, delivering the full-quality experience to end users anywhere on a normal web browser on any device. Unreal Engine 4.27 also adds support for Linux.
Unreal Engine 4.27 – Building a connected ecosystem
With Unreal Engine 4.27, users can export many more elements to USD—including Levels, Sublevels, Landscape, Foliage, and animation sequences—and import materials as MDL nodes. Users can now also edit USD attributes from the USD Stage Editor, including through Multi-User Editing.
Unreal Engine 4.27 – Production-ready support for OpenXR
Unreal Engine 4.27 makes it easier than ever to create XR content in Unreal Engine, with production-ready support for the OpenXR framework. The OpenXR plugin enables users to target multiple XR devices with the same API, and also offers support for additional features—including Stereo Layers, Splash Screens, querying Playspace bounds, and motion controller visualization—and for extension plugins from the Marketplace, enabling you to add functionality to OpenXR without relying on engine releases.
Epic has also redesigned the VR and AR templates to offer more built-in features and easier setup.
These are just a few of the highlights for features that will be included with Unreal Engine 4.27. Like we mentioned above, you can head on over to the release notes to check out all the new features.
It looks like Netflix is finally launching Spatial Audio support for the iPhone and iPad on iOS 14. So, what is Spatial Audio? The feature essentially creates a more immersive audio experience through the use of directional audio filters. Spatial Audio is a technology introduced by Apple in June 2020, which uses the head tracking feature to mimic a theatre-like surround sound experience, making the audio sound like it's coming from around a user with sound mapped to the device. As of right now, the feature is exclusive to the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.
What is Netflix's Spatial Audio feature?
In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple stated that, “Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking brings the movie theatre experience right to your AirPods Pro. By applying directional audio filters and subtly adjusting the frequencies each ear receives, spatial audio can place sounds virtually anywhere in space, creating an immersive surround sound experience. Using the gyroscope and accelerometer in your AirPods Pro and your iPhone, spatial audio tracks the motion of your head as well as your device, compares the motion data, and then remaps the sound field so that it stays anchored to your device even as your head moves.”
The report also goes on to state that even if you move your head or the device, the audio will match the angle and deliver Spatial Audio in the right spot. Apple has stated that this will be a slower rollout so do keep checking the app to see if you’ve received it.
The 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake-S CPU specifications and lineup has leaked online and it looks rather impressive. Only a few days ago, information about the 12th Gen Intel Processors surfaced on the web which referenced a Core-i9 12900k beating an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X in multi-core performance. However, the 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake-S CPU brings even more stuff to the table.
Intel Raptor Lake-S CPU Leak Specs
As per the leak by AdoredTV, The Intel Raptor Lake-S lineup is coming in October 2022 and will compete with the AMD Zen4 architecture. Intel's Raptor lake will share the same LGA 1700 socket as its predecessor Alder Lake. The 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake CPUs could feature powerful Raptor Cove cores in addition to power-efficient Gracemont Cov cores. The Raptor lake CPUs will most likely have a higher IPC rating, improved frequency and better performance per watt relative to Alder Lake.
The 13th Gen Intel CPUs will feature powerful Raptor Cove cores for higher performance and a higher number of Gracemont Cove cores for delivering higher efficiency. As a result, the top-spec 13th Gen Intel Core i9 "K" series CPU will have 24 cores and 32 Threads, which is essentially double the cores compared to 12th Gen.
As per the report, the 13th Gen Core i7 will have 16 cores/24 threads. The "K" variant of the Core i5 will have 14cores/20threads (6 Raptor cores and 8 Gracemont cores), however, the S version will feature an SKU with 14 Core/24 thread (6 Raptor cores and 8 Gracemont cores) along with a 10 core/16 threads SKU (6 Raptor cores and 4 Gracemont cores).
The 13th Gen Core i3 will come with 4 cores and 4 threads (4 Raptor cores). Lastly, the ultra-low-power Pentium CPUs feature a 4 core and 4 thread setup (2 Raptor cores).
The "K" series CPU will have 125W of maximum TDP. The mainstream SKUs will consume 65W and the power-efficient T-series CPUs will only require 35W of power.
Every "Core" Intel processor will launch with Iris Xe graphics featuring 32 execution units for higher-end and 24 or 14 units for low powered CPUs.
In terms of clock speed, the 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake-S CPU will feature a 200MHz additional clock speed, pushing it to a record 5.6GHz. Additionally, the Intel Raptor Lake-S CPUs will also have support for 5600MHz RAM speed and up to 6500MHz for LPDDR5X RAM.
The higher number of efficiency cores in Raptor lake will make mobile CPUs more effective in terms of battery life. It'll be a direct blow to Apple's M1 chip which currently offers one of the highest battery backups in Macbook Air and Pro if the leaks are true.
Keep in mind that Intel Alder lake and Raptor lake will use 10nm nodes. Meteor Lake is poised to be the first 7nm process from Intel and it is now known as Intel 5. If these leaks are true then the future looks bright for Intel.
Pokemon Unite is open for pre-registration on Android and iOS. The developer is giving certain incentives for players if they opt for pre-registrations. At 2,500,000 pre-registrations, players will get a Pikachu Unite licence and at 5,000,000 pre-registrations, players will get a new Holowear — Festival Style: Pikachu. Pokemon Unite is also getting Mamoswine and Syl...
Even if you haven't played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you would have probably still seen the iconic “You're finally awake” cart-ride intro in some meme or the other. Though the scene is remembered fondly, a former developer at Bethesda Game Studios has now detailed how the scene troubled the team during its making.
Oppo is one of the biggest names in the world of smartphones, and today at the Oppo 2021 Future Imaging Technology launch event, the company announced new innovations that could elevate its position in the industry. At the event, Oppo took the lid off some breakthroughs in smartphone imaging technology focused on upgrades to sensors, modules, and algorithms.
As part of the announcements, Oppo unveiled the next-generation RGBW sensor with 85-200mm Continuous Optical Zoom, Five-axis OIS technology, and next-generation under-screen camera with a series of proprietary AI algorithms. Oppo claims that by leveraging these new technologies, it has achieved a "great leap in smartphone imaging technology covering various imaging capabilities, including light-sensitivity, zoom capability, stabilization, future product form factor pre-research, and more."
Oppo's new RGBW sensor
Oppo claims its next-generation RGBW sensor significantly improves light sensitivity by introducing additional white sub-pixel(W), DTI technology, and Oppo’s self-developed 4-in-1 pixel algorithm. These innovations allow the new sensor to capture 60% more light compared to previous sensors while achieving an up to 35% reduction in noise to deliver much clearer and brighter images in low-light conditions.
As per Oppo, its RGBW sensor is made using an "advanced manufacturing and processing technology, increasing the level of computing power needed to execute complex algorithms and maximizing the amount of data extracted via the sensor’s white pixels." For this, Oppo is using a proprietary 4-in-1 pixel algorithm to help it boost the sensor’s colour performance. This is also claimed to help it prevent issues such as colour inaccuracy and moiré patterns. The new sensor will also support DTI pixel isolation technology to prevent sub-pixel crosstalk and improve image quality.
via GIPHY
Oppo claims that the new sensor will do more than just improve low-light photo capturing. Rather, it will also be able to make "portraits more expressive in both photo and video with enhancements to skin, texture, and contrast."
For now, Oppo hasn't announced the first device to feature this sensor, but it has said that it will be seen in Oppo products from Q4 2021. Even if we consider this to be a hint at a global release, we can expect the first set of devices with this new sensor to be launched in India towards the end of this year.
Oppo's new under-screen camera
At the event, Oppo also showcased its next-generation under-screen camera for future smartphones. This camera uses pixel geometry to ensure a 400-PPI high-quality display in the under-screen camera area. Oppo claims this has been achieved using transparent wiring and a new design, which ensures the result is much finer display quality with a smoother visual experience.
Oppo also claims to have developed a series of imaging AI algorithms – including diffraction reduction, anti-condensation, HDR, and AWB – to "better optimize the imaging quality of the under-screen camera." Oppo says this has been achieved using a diffraction reduction model which has been "trained using tens of thousands of images to control problems caused by diffraction at the light source, allowing users to capture clearer, more natural-looking images."
