HOW To HACK FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

How to hack any facebook account without NO keyloging pishing required

Here is one more interesting tip on how to hack a Facebook account by the method of reverting the password.This method does not involve any skill or anything just a brain would be enough to get you through this trick ! Well,you might think that it is impossible but it is actually true that you can hack any facebook account ! So before we start i would like to tell you what “Reverting” actually means…

What is Reverting ?
Reverting is the process of resetting a password without the knowledge of the actual user ! So this is basically a low level of hacking but it does the job for you !
For more on reverting go here : What exactly is reverting ?
How do I hack my friend’s Facebook ?
Make sure your not logged in to your account.If you are then make sure you sign out and then follow the following methods
1.Go to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=hack_login_changed / http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=hacked_cannot_identify
That is the form that you will be using in order to hack your user.
2.Then in “Your E-mail Address” type your E-mail address.
3.Then apply the following options as in the image below.
4.Once you have done that,You will have a question asking “Email associated with the compromised account.” – In that just type “No” and nothing else other than that !
5.In “Your contact email address.” – Type your own email for you to receive the Password Reset Link.
6.In the “Full Name of the Account.” – Type the Name of your victim if you know.If you don’t then:

a.Try finding the Name of the victim by just searching his/her e-mail on Facebook.
b.If that doesn’t work then google the E-mail address of your Victim,that might give you some details.
c.If that also doesn’t work then use the following sites to get them
http://com.lullar.com/ http://www.pipl.com/email/
So if you follow one of the above methods you should be getting the Full Name of your victim.Now lets move on to the next step
7.”Date Of Birth” – In this column you have to enter the Birthday of your Victim.If you know him personally then you should be knowing it.If not you can just social engineer him and somehow make him tell it.Once you get it you have to enter it in that.
8.”URL (web address) of your compromised profile.” – This is just the profile URL of your Victim which can be got easily(Usually of the form: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=99999)
9.Now your all set ! Before you submit the form just make sure you recheck the whole form if you have done the right thing.Once you do so just click on “Submit”
10.Thats it ! You have done it ! Now you just have to wait for Facebook team to look up for your request ! Once they approve it they will send a link to reset your victim’s Password !

3ds max vray hdri render

Architectural Visualization with HDRI Skies and Vray by Paco Morales, Mexico



Introduction

In this tutorial, we will illuminate an exterior architectural scene with help from Vray and a HDR image (High Dy­namic Range Image, or HDRI for short) from Hyperfocal Design.

Using 3dsmax and HDRI Skies with the V-Ray rendering engine will enable us to create super realistic results. Our HDR sky image will be used to light our scene and to cre­ate realistic reflections with a high level of realism, and with great ease of use. Conven­tional light rigging schemes can eventually achieve similar results, but with lots of time wasted on experimenting and tweaking. And time is money.




We will use the V-Ray render­ing engine, adjusting several parameters along the way to obtain nice shadows, materi­als, caustics, etc. V-Ray has proved itself to be a market leader for speed, ease of use and stunning lighting capabili­ties.

The first thing we will do is download the necessary files to start building and setting up the scene, and provide it with lighting and material information. This is a step by step tutorial, with lots of images to help grasp the general workflow idea. After all, one good im­age is better than a thousand words! You can download the 3d file from here.

For the sky, if you do not have one of Hyperfocal’s HDRI Skies you can of course use one their free HDRI sam­ples, which can be found in http://www.hyperfocaldesign.com/free-textures/

You could use a spherical HDRI for your scene, how­ever you will usually find you have unwanted objects such as buildings or trees which do not match your scene. You may also get unwanted lighting, color and reflection information. We will use one HDR image in several different sizes - one small image for the illumina­tion and larger ones for the background and reflections.

Note: This is not always the case, do some tests before committing an HDRI for a background. Depending on your scene, you may have little in the way of reflec­tions, and you may not need a dynamic HDRI background. In this case just resample the HDRI Sky to 8bit at the expo­sure level of your choice.

The resolution of the HDRI for the background and reflection mapping is larger than that of the lighting image. For light­ing we just need to get the general intensity, color and direction of the illumination from the image, whereas for the reflections, we need lots of detail showing. The higher the detail, the more realism in our final render.

Lighting Setup


First disable “Default Lighting” under Global Settings and de­lete any lights you have in the scene.

Now we load the HDRIs into the material editor; one for the illumination, one for the reflections, and the other for the En­vironment. Follow the instructions for the lighting HDRI below and then setup your reflection and environment HDRIs in the same fashion.




I like to handle the large background/environment HDRI inde­pendently, as this way you can adjust the background expo­sure level to suit your taste, without affecting the reflections or lighting.

In other words, you can make the sky HDRI look brighter or darker without over or underexposing the scene, this is good, as you have more overall control over the scene this way. This is effectively a way of tone mapping within your scene.

Note: Setup your white and black point as shown below, but don’t clamp the HDRI, oth­erwise you will lose the valu­able illumination information. Clamping the sun may reduce splotching and speckling artifacts in your final render, however you are better off re­sizing or blurring your lighting HDRI. You will need to adjust the RGB level to match your white point figures.

Direct Light Setup

We create a direct light with the values shown in the image shown to the right. You can follow the images to see where I have placed the light. But this is a matter of taste, and of course, it depends on the particular scene.

Press (Alt+B) and a win­dow will appear (Viewport background). Use the values as shown on the screenshot. Then adjust the direct light as per the image above, because we need to match the direct light with the sun position within the HDRI.

Shadows

Here is the image with the direct light; this provides strong but dispersed shadows. In the images shown to the right, different values have been applied to the V-Ray shadows with resulting levels of shadow sharpness.

The first image has a value of zero (0 with 32 subdivi­sions), giving it a focused look with no fading. In the second we have a value of 1 (1 with 32 subdivisions), and there is now some fading in the shadow borders. And so on till 4 with subdivisions. I personally use a value of 3.0 with 32 subdivisions most of the time.


Exposure

Here we have the image with pure illumina­tion provided by the HDRI, without direct light and the resulting soft shadows. De­pending on what size lighting HDRI you use, and whether you blur it or not, you will find that you can achieve anything from very blurry shadows to quite sharp. However the larger your lighting HDRI, the longer your render times and the harder it will be to remove speckling/splotching artifacts.


Depending on the scene and the look we wish to achieve, we can work with or with­out direct lights. For example in this cloudy sky image, the sun is behind the clouds, giving a soft shadow look. Many of the HDRI Skies in the Hyperfocal range have the sun positioned on a cloud edge, allowing the artist to choose a direct light/hard edged shadow appearance, or a soft shadow ap­pearance as if the sun is behind the clouds.

 Materials

For the materials, you can see the screen shots of the material editor below as reference.




In the reflections of the submaterial, we put a falloff (fresnel), this will make a more realistic-looking material. Just don’t overdo it.

Check out the floor settings...

Rendering and GI - Check out the screenshot settings of the rendering If you want caustics, make a plane with 150 segments each side, and collapse to a mesh. Then add some noise, as roughness is needed to make subtle varia­tions in the surface, and this generates the caustics. You can see the settings above. Note: Remember to enable gamma correction in preference settings. Go to Customize > Preferences > Gam­ma > Enable Gamma correction. My values are 1.8

Couple hospitalised after sex in the sea left them stuck together

Stuck: The man was unable to extricate himself from the woman due to suction. Couple not pictured. (Picture: Rex)

An amorous couple who took a dip in the ocean for a discreet lovemaking session ended up in hospital after they became stuck together.

The young pair were relaxing on a Porto San Giorgio beach when they decided to take to the water to express their love.

But what they thought was a daring and romantic venture came to an embarrassing end when the man found he was unable to detach himself due to suction – forcing the pair to shuffle to shore still stuck together.

According to Il Mattino, they caught the attention of a woman walking on the beach, who kindly gave them a towel to preserve what was left of their dignity.

A doctor was called and the young lovers were taken to a nearby hospital, where the woman was given an injection used to dilate the cervix of pregnant women

Dead mouse ‘found in McDonald’s coffee’

Mr Morais said he took off the lid to finish his coffee when he found the mouse (Picture: CBC)

McDonald’s customers might expect a free toy with their happy meal or a free cheeseburger if they buy a large meal and show a student card.

But one man says that when he finished his coffee he certainly wasn’t expecting what he found at the bottom of the cup: a dead mouse.

Ron Morais, from Fredericton, Canada, claims he’d already drunk nearly all his black coffee when he made the gruesome discovery.

‘I always take the lid off to get my last sip of coffee. And when I took the lid off, there was a little bit of a surprise in my coffee cup,’ he told CBC.

‘It was a dead mouse.’

Mr Morais’s co-workers said they wouldn’t have believed him had they not seen the mouse for themselves.

Mr Morais’s colleagues corroborated his bizarre story (Picture: CBC)

‘Unless I had been there and seen Ron drink all that coffee down to the last drop, I would have been, like, ‘You’re lying’,’ admitted colleague Brad Patterson.

After hearing the allegations, McDonald’s began an investigation but said there was so far ‘no evidence of pests’ at the branch.

‘We are continuing to investigate this isolated incident and have reached out to the customer to obtain the product sample,’ it said in a statement.

‘Food safety and quality are a top priority for McDonald’s Canada and all of our restaurants are held to high industry standards.’

Despite admitting to ‘a little queasiness’ at the time, Mr Morais remained upbeat about the incident.

‘I’m in better shape than the mouse,’ he said.

IOS 8.0.2 on iPad 3 Review

10/08/2014 By Josh Smith

This iOS 8.0.2 review on the iPad 3 looks at how the new software performs on this older iPad. Although not as old as the iPad 2, there are some issues with iOS 8 on the iPad 3 that users need to know before upgrading.
After spending a week using the iPad 3 on iOS 8.0.2 the performance is better than I expected, but it is still slow and some users may want to wait for the next update before upgrading to iOS 8 in any fashion.
In this iOS 8.0.2 review I’ll look at how the iPad 3 handles the update and help you decide if iOS 8 is worth installing on this old iPad or if it is better to wait for the iOS 8.1 release coming later this month.

Read our iOS 8.0.2 review for the iPad 3 to see how it handles on this older iPad.

Small updates like the iOS 8.0.2 upgrade focus on specific fixes, so there is not any major performance gain from the first iOS 8 update, but there is a chance that you will run into additional bugs. Small updates can break major features, like we saw in September with the iOS 8.0.1 update knocking out cell service for over 40,000 users.
Here’s our iOS 8.0.2 review on the iPad 3 with a detailed look at 5 key areas relating to performance and reliability.

iOS 8.0.2 Performance

After installing iOS 8.0.2 on the iPad 3 I check key areas to make sure the iPad still delivers a usable and enjoyable experience. This is primarily my wife’s iPad, but I use it somewhat regularly so that I know how it feels and performs. As the primary user she is also more sensitive to small bugs and issues which she shares after the update.

Apps

Loading an app like Spotify on the iPad 3 is much slower than on newer iPads, and perhaps slightly slower than on iOS 7, but overall the apps work well on iOS 8.0.2. Spotify, Facebook, Pinterest and many other apps work as expected without the crashes we see on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

iOS 8.0.2 Battery Life

After using the iPad 3 on iOS 8.0.2 for more than a week there is no change tot he battery life from iOS 7 or iOS 8. Users can still expect close to 10 hours of battery life from the iPad and incredibly good standby time.

Overall the iOS 8.0.2 performance on the iPad 3 is not that bad.

Connectivity

There are no connectivity issues on the iPad 3 running iOS 8.0.2 in my testing. I can connect to WiFi without trouble and Bluetooth headphones work with music and other audio on the iPad 3. There is no cellular connection on this model, so it is not something I can test.

iOS 8.0.2 Bugs and Fixes

Surprisingly there are not any major iOS 8.0.2 problems on the iPad 3. With connectivity working and apps not freezing or crashing the older iPad avoids many of the common problems plaguing newer iPhones.

Speed

Overall iOS 8.0.2 feels a little slower than iOS 7 on the iPad 3. The change is not dramatic enough to ruin the iPad experience, but there is no improvement in iOS 8.0.2. Hopefully iOS 8.1 or iOS 8.2 will focus on performance enhancements. The iOS 7.1 release targeted performance on older iPhones and also delivered faster speeds on the iPad 3, so there is hope that things will improve.

Should iPad 3 Owners Install iOS 8.0.2?

The iPad 3 performance is still not speedy on iOS 8.0.2 but there are not as many show-stopping issues as we see on the iPhone 6 Plus and other devices. I can still use this iPad to browse the web, watch movies or listen to music and Bluetooth connectivity works with headphones. I don’t plan on connecting this to my car, so any iOS 8.0.2 bugs relating tot hat are not a major drawback.
If you are already on iOS 8, you may as well install iOS 8.0.2 on the iPad 3, but if you are still on iOS 7.1.2 it’s worth waiting to see how iOS 8.1 performs on this device before you upgrade.

Robots will be next smartphones

READ:- Robots will be next smartphones

Well in the desert

prothomalo 

As the morning sun rises over the golden dunes of Erg Chebbi in the Sahara, men and women dig holes for tourists who want to bury themselves in the sand.

Decades ago, tribal nomads settled here, living a traditional desert existence that has now had to adapt to changing circumstance.

The dunes of Merzouga tower over the small community in southeastern Morocco, where the Berber Ait Atta tribe now makes a brisk living from tourism.

The formerly nomadic tribesmen have for years been running hotels and restaurants in Merzouga, a key stop on the Moroccan tourist trail on the edge of a sea of sand dunes.

Now they're even turning to the sands themselves to attract visitors.

For around 10 minutes visitors are buried neck-deep in the hot sand for therapy said to cure those who suffer from rheumatism, lumbago, polyarthritis and some skin disorders.

The therapy has the same effect as a sauna session, helping purge the body of poisonous toxins, according to those tribesmen such as Abdessalam Sadoq who now work in wellness tourism.

"We offer every type of tourism here, but especially for health," he said.

Making a living was not always easy for the descendants of the Ait Atta nomads, and over the decades the sons and daughters of those who roamed the desert on camels have had to attune themselves to more modern ways.

The Ait Atta once accumulated riches from trans-Saharan commerce, but now all that remains of this past is a road sign pointing towards Timbuktu, a mere 52 days away by camel.

Their way of life ended after Morocco became a French protectorate in 1912, with the development of mining in the region, the emergence of urban centres and demarcation of the nearby border with Algeria.

Once-nomadic tribes had to find a new livelihood, and turned to cultivating date palms and tourism in the second half of the past century.

Visitors in search of a cure do not come only from abroad: many Moroccans also firmly believe in the power of the desert.

"I really feel much better, and each year I come back here to spend a week," said sciatica sufferer Ali Kallamouche from the central town of Beni Mellal.

Focus now on health

A sand bath at Merzouga costs up to 10 euros ($13), and when "patients" shake off the sand they are wrapped in hot towels to avoid the shock of a sudden cooling of the body.

Many come not just for the cure but also for the breathtaking sunsets over Merzouga's erg—the shifting sand dunes 20 kilometres (12 miles) long, five kilometres wide and up to 150 metres (500 feet) high.

Camel safaris and stays in the desert under canvas with the region's Berber and Arab tribes are still a tourist staple, but with the economy biting, industry workers had to look elsewhere to attract business.

"People come for sand baths... and to taste the local dishes we make using medicinal plants and herbs," said Sadoq, who also heads an association to promote tourism in the Sahara.

Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy—contributing 10 percent of gross domestic product.

According to market experts, it is also growing, thanks to the development of wellness tourism.

In September, Morocco hosted the Global Spa and Wellness Summit where industry experts said the sector expanded globally last year by 12.5 percent, generating almost $500 billion.

Morocco topped the Middle East and North Africa list in health tourism, with the industry growing more than 67 percent since 2007.

In Merzouga, more and more people are signing up for a hot sand soak at the height of summer and other businesses, including those rooted in the recent past, are thriving as a result.

Ali sells camel milk, which he insists does wonders for diabetes, anaemia and digestive tract problems.

"People come from all over the world to Merzouga for sand baths, and that helps us promote other products," he said.

Hajj selfies spark controversyik

Hajj selfies spark controversyike

   

Raising his arm, Yousef Ali hugs his elderly father in front of one of Islam’s holiest sites as they grin for a selfie -- a craze that has hit this year’s hajj.

But not everyone is happy about young pilgrims from around the world constantly snapping “selfies”, photographs taken of one’s self, as they carry out the rites of hajj which are the high point of a Muslim’s spiritual life.

From Tawaf -- circling the holy Kaaba structure in Mecca -- to prayers atop Mount Mercy in Arafat, and stoning of the “devil” in Mina, the key stages of hajj have all been recorded on cameras and smartphones for posterity, and for instant sharing through social media.

Hajj is the one of the world’s largest religious gatherings. It has attracted over two million believers this year.

“As this is my first pilgrimage, it is important for me to document all the events taking place around me,” Ali, 24, told AFP, snapping a picture of himself with a green sign reading “Big Jamarah”, which refers to a wall where Muslims ritually stone Satan.

“Wherever I go, I take pictures, especially since nowadays we have these little cameras... that offer a full view of the area,” the bearded Kuwaiti, casually dressed in sweatpants and a pair of trendy sandals, said with a smile.

The increasingly popular phenomenon has sparked controversy among more conservative Muslims, however, with some taking to Twitter to criticise pilgrims who take selfies.

“When we went for umra in the mid-90s, Dad nearly had his camera confiscated to shouts of ‘haram!’ Now, #HajjSelfie is A Thing. What a world,” wrote one Tweeter.

Another user named Kahwaaa wrote: “It’s a time to connect to allah and purify my soul. #hajjselfies selfies shouldn’t be taken.”

But others said the issue was being blown out of proportion.

“People creating a huge issue about #hajjselfies. If photos are allowed during Hajj then what is wrong with selfies?,” asked Abdul Mufeez Shaheed.

Nothing at all, says Ali’s father Mohammed Ali, 65.

“A person taking such pictures is documenting a rare event”, a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many Muslims, he said, wearing a traditional white robe.

“This is a symbolic place representing history,” Mohammed Ali added, pointing to the three sites which pilgrims began stoning on Saturday at the start of the Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice, which is celebrated by Muslims worldwide.

#HajjSelfie -

Two women covered in traditional black abayas and veils hurried towards the Big Jamarah wall, but not without stopping for a quick self portrait along the way.

“My daughter and I are taking selfies to show our hajj pictures to our family in Paris. It’s also a nice memento,” said one of the women, a Saudi pilgrim from Jeddah who gave her name only as Umm Abdallah, 44.

Her daughter Wafaa Ahmed, 19, said: “I love taking many selfies wherever I go to keep them for myself, as well as to show them to my friends and brothers.”

Speaking to AFP by telephone, a professor of Islamic Sharia law in the Saudi capital Riyadh said that “if photographs are only for personal memory and not for disseminating, then no problem.

“But if they were for the purpose of showing off, then they are prohibited, such as the photography that takes place at the (hajj) rites.”

The scholar requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of stating a religious opinion in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

“It is better for Muslims to avoid them,” he said of selfies.

For the teenage pilgrim Wafaa Ahmed, “this is not a convincing view” because taking selfies “has nothing to do with religion”.

The elderly pilgrim Mohammed Ali also discounts the scholar’s opinion.

He says the camera “is a tool such as mobiles, used even by religious scholars who have not prohibited them, so why prohibit another tool of the modern era?”

As he speaks, a group of young Saudi men gather for a group selfie in front of a Jamarah wall before they stone the “devil”.

Iphone-6 Bendget TO Hairget Scandal!

What the hell is happening with the iPhone -6 ? 

first complain was from shoppers it's getting bend. 
Now coplaining pulling hair. This new version of the mobile phone
Users of the iPhone ear hair or beards Going up
Taking . After the news of social media gave the name 'heyaragete'.First 'bendgate' now 'hairgate' scandal.According to complainants , Phone
Between the glass screen and aluminum contain knurling there Hair stuck and when you want to 

3dsMax2014: Features and Improvements you might have missed.

Posted by chrismmurray, 3 May 2013 1:31 pm

So one of the myriad of things I get to work on at Autodesk is to take what marketing thinks is important and message that to the masses in ways we can all understand. Face time (at tradeshows etc...) given to anyone product is usually at a premium so not all the new features in any given release are given equal time. Some, unfortunately get no face time. 

In this post I want to discuss a little more in-depth about the 2014 release of 3dsMax and specifically the lesser known features and improvements that really didn't see
the light of day.

Here's a short list of what we will cover here. You can click on each one to jump right to that section.

Ease of use
Reliability
Data Exchange
Character Animation (Not Populate)
Pflow (not the standard New feature stuff)
Materials
Rendering
Viewport Performance (specifics)
File Handling
Already released New Feature Videos
Small Annoying Things

Ease of Use

Reorganized Main Menu: The main 3ds Max menu bar has been reorganized to be easier to use, and to make frequently-used commands easier to access. Icons have also been added. This includes the addition of the new Enhanced Default UI. Found here:

Mouse and Viewport Default Settings: Some mouse and viewport default settings have been changed to make 3ds Max easier to use; and in particular, to make it easier to select sub-objects. In particular:

• Visual Style & Appearance panel (or the Rendering Method panel for legacy viewports)
• Selection Brackets is now off by default.
• Display Selected With Edged Faces is now on by default.

Background panel (In Viewport Configuration)

• Aspect Ratio Match Rendering Output is now the default choice.

Mouse panel

• AutoFocus Viewport is now on by default. 
• Zoom About Mouse Point (Orthographic) and Zoom About Mouse Point (Perspective) are both on by default. 

Cycling the Active Viewport
You can now use (the Windows logo key) + Shift to cycle the active viewport. 

• When all viewports are visible, pressing +Shift changes which viewport is active. 
• When one viewport has been maximized, pressing +Shift displays the available viewports. Repeatedly pressing +Shift changes the viewport focus: When you release the keys, the viewport you chose becomes the maximized view. 

http://screencast.com/t/ceos89XU [FLASH REQUIRED TO VIEW]


Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.
Interruptible Auto Backup
While 3ds Max is saving an auto backup file, it displays a message to that effect in the prompt line. If the scene is large and you don't want to take the time to save it at this point in time, you can stop the save by pressing the Esc key. (If the scene is not large, the prompt appears for only an instant.)




Changes to the Isolate Tool
The Isolate Tool is now on the Scene menu (in the Enhanced Menus), which has an option to Isolate Unselected as well as Isolate Selected objects. Also, Isolate no longer zooms viewports by default. To zoom as well as isolate, choose Scene Isolate Zoom Extents On Isolate before you isolate an object or selection.

[As seen in the Enhanced Default Menu]

Reliability/Stability

Mesh Inspection
The new Mesh Inspector checks Editable Mesh and Editable Poly objects for errors in texture channels and topology. This reduces the number of fatal errors that 3ds Max will encounter. 
You can find options for Mesh Inspector behavior on the Customize menu of the Enhanced Default UI.




mental ray Renderer

If the mental ray renderer encounters a fatal error, 3ds Max continues to run, although to create a mental ray rendering again you need to restart 3ds Max. So what's the point? The point is that it gives you the chance to save your work and bring 3dsMax down gently as opposed to a lock up that causes you to lose work and potentially corrupt a file with a hard reset. File this one under the Lessor of Two Evils.

DATA Exchange

File Link Manager
When you link to a Revit or FBX file that contains a Daylight system, the File Link Manager now prompts you to add an exposure control to the scene. See File Link Settings: Revit and FBX Files Dialog. 


VRML Import
You can now import VRML files with the 64-bit version of 3ds Max as well as the 32-bit version. You no longer have to use the 32-bit version for VRML import.


Send To
The Send To feature no longer links to Autodesk Infrastructure modeler (AIM).

Animation and Characters

Hair and Fur

A new Scruffle parameter has been added to give you more control over clumped hair.



Skin & track view & multi-object selection & hidden object evaluation
Wow, thats a lot. How are these things related? They have all had significant performance improvements.

• Skin & trackview curveditor have had big performance boosts
• Multi Object Selection: Previously there was a huge lag when selecting mutliple objects (by clicking with a mouse). The speed of selection has been improved.
• Hidden object evaluation: Previously, when playing back animation in the VP, any hidden animated objects were also evaluated in the VP slowing it down. Now this has been improved so playing back visible objects in the VP has better performance (frame per sec) than previous releases. 

What about Populate?
There is a lot more to this feature that will be covered in a more in-depth blog post in the near feature. But for now, in addition to whats been shown in the New Feature Videos. What may not be obvious about the feature (which is a testament to good design) is the following.

• Believable human motion that varies markedly in style and is free from typical crowd simulation artifacts, such as foot sliding, jerky collision avoidance and sudden unnatural body turning
• Advanced dynamic obstacle avoidance when characters cross intersections and  when faster walkers pass around slower ones.

Much more to come on this subject...

Particle Flow

Advanced Data Manipulation
Create customized Particle Flow tools with the new Advanced Data Manipulation toolset called Data Operators. Motion graphics artists and visual effects specialists can now create their own event-driven data operators and save results as presets, or as standard actions in the Particle View depot. With the new versatile, easy-to-use Particle Flow advanced visual editor, artists can combine up to 27 different sub-operators to create a huge variety of Particle Flow toolsets purpose-built to meet the specialized requirements of individual productions. (I will be covering this in depth in a future blog post) 

Materials

In the Material/Map Browser, when you right-click a material or map, you can now copy it to a newly created library.






Normal Bump Map
The Normal Bump map has been updated to fix a bug that caused normal bump mapping to appear differently in 3ds Max viewports than it did in other rendering engines. In addition, the Preferences dialog General panel Normal Bump options now let you optimize the display of normal bump maps created by applications other than 3ds Max. 

Rendering

NVIDIA® mental ray® Renderer
The mental ray renderer has a new Unified Sampling mode that is easy to control and renders much more quickly than the multi-pass sampling used in previous versions of 3dsMax. 
IBL - Image Based Lighting
New Skylight options let you accurately generate shadows with IBL images. More than one map can be used as well!


Other Stuff

• The String Options rollout lets you enter options as you would in a mental ray MI file. 
• If the mental ray renderer encounters a fatal error, 3ds Max continues to run, although to create a mental ray rendering again you need to restart 3ds Max. (as previously mentioned) 

NVIDIA® iray® Renderer

• The iray renderer now supports a variety of maps it could not render in previous releases. These include Checker, Color Correction, Dent, Gradient, Gradient Ramp, Marble, Perlin Marble, Speckle, Substance, Tiles, Waves, Wood, and the mental ray Ocean shader. 
• New solver method options let you turn on a sampler that improves the accuracy of indoor scenes, and a sampler that improves the quality of caustic lighting. 
• The Displacement settings have been moved to a rollout of their own. 
• When you use the Unlimited option, the Rendering Progress dialog now displays the number of iterations that have elapsed, and the progress bar shows an animated stripe rather than an absolute percentage. 

Viewports

Nitrous viewports have been updated in a number of ways to improve performance speed:

• Improved particle flow playback performance 
• Improved performance when the scene contains a large number of instanced objects 
• Improved performance with AutoCAD files 
• Improved playback performance for skinned objects 
• Better texture management. You can actually set the size you want for in scene maps! 
• Back-face culling in wireframe display 
• Nitrous viewports now fully support adaptive degradation, including the Never Degrade object property. See Display Performance Panel (Nitrous Drivers). 

Support for Direct3D 11

• For Windows 7 systems, Nitrous viewports can now use Direct3D 11. 
• The Nitrous Direct3D 9 driver is still available for Windows XP users. And for Windows 7 systems that don't have graphics acceleration, a Nitrous software driver is also
• available. The Display Driver Selection dialog has been updated to reflect these changes. 

File Handling

Automatic Gamma Correction for Bitmaps
When gamma correction is enabled, 3ds Max uses the gamma value saved with bitmap files it loads, and saves the gamma value with bitmap files it saves. If the file format does not support a gamma value, uses a gamma value of 2.2 for 8-bit image formats, and 1.0 (no gamma correction) for floating-point and logarithmic image formats. 


Updates to the Log File
The log file now includes column headings, and entries include the process and thread IDs of the 3dsmax.exe process that added them. (All 3dsmax.exe processes running at the same time write to the same max.log file.)

Previously Released New Feature Videos

Here are the new feature videos of the highlighted features. These videos were released in early April, 2013.

Particle Flow/mParticles

 

Android 4.4 KitKat tips, tricks and secrets

What's hiding in Android 4.4?

Android L is on the horizon, but most phones are going to use good old Android 4.4 for a little while yet. That's no bad thing, though – it's an incredibly feature-rich piece of software. So much so that it takes a while to see anything approaching all it has to offer. 

Allow us to educate you on some of the most interesting and useful Android 4.4 tips, tricks and secrets hiding in the software. Grab yourself a hot beverage, find a comfortable seat and prepare for a taste of what your phone can really do.

Please note that your phone may look slightly different from the screenshots here as many phones use custom interfaces that change the look and layout of Android 4.4 a bit.

1) Get under the hood with Process Stats

Smartphones are very much like computers in your pocket, and sometimes it's nice to get super-detailed in order to get a better understanding of how things are ticking over.

In Android 4.4, Google has added a Process Stats section to the Developer Menu, which contains all kinds of information about which apps are running, what processing they're using and how long they've been running since you booted up the phone.

It's gloriously geeky, and ideal for those who want to fine-tune their handset's performance.

2) Dismiss an alarm before it bothers you

There are few social situations more awkward that an alarm that you no longer need sounding during a meeting or when you're trying to blend in on public transport. Only appearing in public naked comes close, in our opinion. You may not think it's quite that extreme, but you'll still be thankful of Android 4.4's advance alarm notification system.

An hour before the alarm is due to fire, you'll get a pop-up notification on your screen which allows you to dismiss it before it has chance to sound and make everyone on the bus look at you.

3) Link up your cloud storage accounts with Android's Storage Access Framework

Storage Access Framework is basically a grander way of saying all of your data can be accessed from one convenient menu. When you're prompted to locate files you'll notice that a side-menu has all of your connected cloud storage accounts - such as Drive, Dropbox and Box - listed, so you can easily pull content from these sources without having to open multiple applications. It's one of Android 4.4's most potent features, yet it has received very little attention.

4) Keep an eye on your data usage

Most carriers enforce data allowance limits these days, which means media-hungry mobile owners with their fingers in all kinds of cloud storage pies are at risk of running over and incurring prohibitive fees.

Thank goodness then for Android's built-in data usage monitor, which tells you exactly how much you've been gobbling up via your mobile network. You can set warnings for when you're close to your limit, or have a ceiling that disables data traffic the moment it is reached. You can even specify a day in each month where your allowance renews and reset the data counter to zero accordingly.

5) Gain an easy speed boost by disabling animations

The animations that occur as you move between applications and screens might look pretty, but they can slow you down - especially as they essentially force you to wait a short period before moving to another page or loading an application.

Thankfully, it's possible to reduce the time they run for or disable them completely, both of which will make your handset feel faster. Go to Settings > Developer Options and scroll down to the Drawing section. Find the options which refer to animation scale (Window, Transition and Animator) and toggle them all to "Animation Off". Your UI might not be as pretty in motion, but it will be so fast you may even struggle to keep up.

6) Enable lock screen widgets

Lockscreen widgets are one of Android's more recent innovations, but in Android 4.4 they're not enabled by default. To turn them on, you'll need to drop into Settings > Security and tick the "Enable Widgets" box. To add widgets, simply swipe from left to right on your lockscreen and tap the "plus" icon. You can choose from Gmail, Calendar and Google Keep, amongst other things.

7) Switch launchers quickly

One of Android's big advantages over its rivals is the ability to change your launcher, which essentially means you can drastically alter the way your homescreen looks and behaves.

Previously, switching between launchers was something of a pain, but Google has now added a quick and easy toggle in the settings menu - so now there's no excuse not to try the many amazing launcher alternatives available on the Google Play market.

When you have more than one launcher installed on your phone, the Settings menu will show a new "Home" option - tapping this will bring up all of the available launchers on your device, allowing you to toggle between them quickly and easily.

8) Quick accessing Google Now

If you’re fairly new to an up-to-date version of Android, you really need to check out Google Now. It’s a great sort of lifestyle assistant service that tracks where you are and what you like to make suggestions for things you might want to do with your phone at any time.

Yes, it sounds creepy, but it’s actually really handy at times.

To quickly skip over to Google Now, just hold down on the Home soft key key. If your phone has a physical key, it should head to Now directly, or if it’s a software one you’ll see a Google button pop up above – just drag your finger over it to shortcut to Now. 

Google Now provides ‘cards’ of information based on where you are and what you’re doing. If there’s nothing much there, just trying using it a bit more regularly as it learns from your patterns.

9) Remotely wipe your phone if you lose it

Losing your phone is a painful experience - especially if it provides your daily Flappy Bird fix - but the amount of data contained on our handsets means that having it fall into the wrong hands can have all kinds of negative ramifications.

Google has your back, however, and provides the means to remotely locate and wipe your phone should it go walkabout. You'll need to enable it from the device before you lose it, though - go to the Google Settings application in your app drawer and select Android Device Manager, then turn on "Remotely Locate This Device" and "Allow Remote Lock And Factory Reset".

The latter option also allows you to remotely change the lockscreen password, should you be too scared to wipe the entire device. In the event of your phone going missing, visit the Android Device Manager page online and you can choose to ring (even if the phone is set to silent), lock or wipe the phone.

10) Record your phone's screen

Taking a screenshot in Android used to be like pulling teeth - you had to connect your phone to your PC in order to grab any kind of on-screen image. Since Android 4.0, we've had the trusty "Volume down and Power button" combo, but 4.4 goes to the next level - it features the ability to record video from your screen as well.

As it is primarily aimed at developers who want to add video to their app listings, taking advantage of this native feature is quite tricky - you'll need to follow these incredibly detailed instructions - but it's a smart bonus nonetheless.

11) Install an alternative SMS client

Hangouts replaces the default SMS client in Android 4.4, and while it does the job perfectly well - integrating instant messaging and text chats - some people will no doubt long for the old way of doing things.

Thankfully, it's possible to specify a different app for SMS messages. Find one that you like on the Google Play market, install it and then go to the Settings menu within Hangouts. Tap SMS and then SMS Enabled, and you'll be able to select the app you want to use.

12) Exit immersive mode

One of the new features of Android 4.4 is the "immersive" mode, which basically removes all of the on-screen interface to give you an unimpeded view on your current application. Apps that support immersive mode should automatically remove UI elements, but if you want to get them back, simply swipe down from the top of the display - the notifications bar will magically re-appear.

13) Keep track of your movements each day

Another cool Android 4.4 feature is the power to track the steps you take each day, as well as differentiate between walking, running, cycling and climbing. This ability hasn't been leveraged as much as you might expect, and only a few apps make use of it right now.

One is the highly polished Moves app from ProtoGeo, which tracks your movements and gives you data on how many steps you've taken, as well as a visual "storyline" of your daily life.

14) Use Wi-Fi to determine your location to save battery

Previously with Android, determining your location was based almost solely on GPS, which consumes a fair amount of battery life. Android 4.4 now comes with three modes for this functionality.

High accuracy uses GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile network signal to get a fix on where you are, while Device Only relies totally on GPS. In the middle there is Battery Saving mode, which abandons GPS and uses Wi-Fi and your mobile network - amazingly, this is still pretty precise, and doesn't drink as much juice. Go to Settings > Location > Mode to pick the one that suits you.

15) Taste the next generation with ART runtime

Android uses Dalvik runtime by default, which is described as a "just in time" compiler. That means it does all of the application processing as and when it's required. Moving forward, Google is looking to use ART runtime, which is an "ahead of time" compiler. ART is actually featured in Android 4.4 already, but it's not enabled by default - you'll need to enter the Developer menu to switch it on.

Your handset will reboot and it will take a short time to recompile your apps - you may even notice some stability issues - but on the whole, ART should be quicker and friendly on your battery. As more apps are optimised to use ART, you'll find it more beneficial to use.

17) Switch on Developer Mode

Developer mode used to be a part of Android's settings menu that was easily accessible, but recently Google has hidden it away to prevent users from tinkering too much.

However, it's still fairly easy to discover if you know what you're doing - go to Settings > About Phone and then tap the "Build Number" section seven times. This will unlock the developer menu, allowing you to access a whole number of nerdy features.

16) Limit background processes to improve battery life and performance

If you’re finding that your phone’s performance starts getting a little glitchy at times, you can reclaim control over how your phone operated by accessing the developer options in settings.

Here you get to control how many background processes your phone is allowed to perform. Cut them down a bit and you should see an improvement in performance, and potentially battery life too.

You can choose the background processes limit right down at the bottom of the Developer Options menu in Settings.

18) Fire up Google Now with just your voice

It's possible to activate Google Now - Android's answer to Siri - simply by saying "OK Google". When you're on the home screen, simply utter those two words and you'll be prompted to speak your next command, which can be anything from asking for Google to search the web to setting an alarm for a particular time. Just be wary of any annoying friends shouting the same phrase when you're trying to do other things on your phone.

19) Check out the KitKat easter egg

Each version of Android has a special little hidden interactive animation to show off the version of Google’s software you're running. It’s one of the more lighthearted parts of the system.

To find this easter egg, you have to to a simple gesture – it’s the same in every version. Go to Settings and scroll down to About Device.

Now tap on the Android Version entry repeatedly. Just keep on going until the screen changes. Enjoy.

20) How to cloud print from your phone

Cloud Print has been available in Android for quite a while, but now it has been fully embraced by all the main printer manufacturers, it’s more useful than ever. What it lets you do is wirelessly send documents to print from your phone to a Wi-Fi enabled printer.

It has its own place in the Android Settings menu, in a spot calling Printing. As standard, actual support for printers isn’t inbuilt. You need to install the app of your printer’s manufacturer.

Tap Add Service down at the bottom of the Printing page. This will take you to Google Play, where you can download the app from Epson, HP or whoever.

To actually print a document, you’ll need to find an app that supports printing. The most obvious is Google Chrome. Just tap the three-pip settings button and you’ll see a print option.

21) How to turn off the keyboard buzz vibrate and noise

One of the first things you might want to consider switching off on your phone is the vibration feedback when you press a key on your phone’s keyboard. It can get annoying, and uses up battery too.

You’ll find the option to turn vibrate feedback on and off in Settings > Language & Input > Google keyboard. That’s assuming your phone uses the Google keyboard – if it has a custom UI it probably won’t, but you should see a corresponding entry here in any case.

Turning off Sound on Keypress and Vibrate on Keypress here is a good idea.

We also think you might want to turn off the vibrate and key sounds elsewhere – the above tip only relates to key presses on the keyboard. For noises and buzzes elsewhere, go to Settings > Sound. Under the system sub-head you’ll see checkboxes for Touch Sounds and Vibrate on Touch. If you’re going to use the phone on the train, please turn off keypad sounds – no-one wants to hear them.

22) Use screen casting to send your mobile screen to your Chromecast

With Android 4.4.2, Google added a casting option to many Android devices. What this lets you do is send the video and audio from your phone to a Chomecast.

For the uninitiated, this is Google’s alternative to Apple TV. You plug it into your TV’s HDMI port and it lets you stream video from services like Netflix. And your phone. Oh, and it only costs £30.

If your phone has the casting option you’ll find it right down at the bottom of the Display menu within Settings. It’s great for video, although not quite so hot for games as there is a bit of lag/delay.

23) Encrypt your phone for hardcore security

Things like gesture unlocks and passwords are fine if you’re just trying to stop your friends from tweeting or facebooking using your account while you leave your phone for a moment. But you need more if you want to keep your data secure.

In Settings > Security you’ll find an option to encrypt your phone. This means the data on your phone will no longer be stored as-is, but will have to be decoded before it can be used.

When you first encrypt the phone, you’ll have to go through a lengthy wait as this happens. And it also means you’ll need to set in place a passcode or password to unlock the phone. You can’t encrypt and then just use Face Unlock - it kinda defeats the point.

You need to make double sure you won’t forget your password, though, otherwise your data is gone for good.

24) The do's and don’t of mobile security

The one caveat to Face Unlock is that if you want real mobile security, don’t use it. It’s there as a fun extra and pretty much nothing else.

Not only could someone that looks just a bit like you unlock your phone, but a picture of you could do the trick too. Face Unlock isn’t really all that discerning either. In order to make Android 4.4’s face unlock work with quite low-res cameras and be quite quick to use, it’s hardly discerning at all.

If you want actual security, you’re much better off with a passcode or password. You’ll find both of these options in Settings > Security > Screen lock.

25) Use your face to unlock the phone

Android 4.4 offers a number of ways to unlock your phone. The most eye-catching of the lot is face unlock. What this does is to scan the geometry of your face, and remember it, then using the front camera to tell whether you’re the one trying to unlock your phone.

Fancy having a go? You'll find the Face Unlock feature in Settings > Security > Screen lock. The phone will scan your face, but don’t try to do it in a dark-ish room or it won’t work properly. However, it is pretty quick.

Once setup you can also improve Face Unlock by scanning your face additional times in different conditions, and require an eye blink to ensure a picture of you isn’t being used. These options pop up in Settings > Security once you’ve initially setup Face Unlock. 

26) How to fix app issues

Apps are often at the root of a lot of issues with Android phones. They cause performance problems, battery problems and can eat away at your storage without you knowing.

To check no apps are causing battery drain go to Settings > Battery. Here you’ll see the apps and services that are using your battery most. Unless you use an app or game an awful lot, there shouldn’t be any in the top couple of spots.

To go about solving any errant app issues, go to Settings > Apps, then find the one that’s either causing a battery problem or appears to be misbehaving. In its entry you’ll see buttons to clear its cache and data. This will effectively reset the app. Try this, or uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

You can also find out which of your apps are using the most data by going to Settings > Storage and then selecting apps. They’re listed by their size.