A NEW BLACK Ops 3 update on Xbox One has launched and Treyarch have supplied official Call of Duty patch notes on the subject.

• The activation prompt for Blackjack Mercenary Contracts will now function properly. 
• Fixed a string issue in the ‘Replace Current Contract’ prompt.

• Kills with the HIVE gun will now properly count towards the “Tools of the Trade” Contract. 

• Resolved an exploit whereby players could equip any currently locked Black Market weapon.

• Resolved an issue that blocked the ability to start a Public Match on some maps.
• Addressed a theater animation issue that occurred when watching older films.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Death Machine to show an ammo count after viewing the in-game scoreboard.

• Addressed an issue where players would not benefit from a Max Ammo power up if they are riding the dragon.
• Resolved an issue where players could jump onto the Gigant Finger Trap to exploit zombie pathing.
• Addressed a bug preventing the player from picking up a quest item inside the Groph Module, when using the Gauntlet of Siegfried.
• Fixed a rare issue where the player would not be able to pick up a power up when a Groph Module would land between the Armory and Supply Depot.
• Addressed a rare issue when the Game Over screen will display missing geometry behind the score board. 

• Addressed several GobbleGum issues relating to Zetsubou No Shima map features.

• Resolved a bug that caused the Margwa to appear incorrectly at longer distances.

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PES 2017 ARSENAL TEAM FACES REVEALED

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Today we officially open-sourced the specs for Surround 360, our high-quality 3D-360 hardware and software video capture system. The open source project includes the hardware camera design and software stitching code that makes end-to-end 3D-360 video capture possible in one system — from shooting to video processing.

We believe making the camera design and stitching code freely available on GitHub will accelerate the growth of the 3D-360 ecosystem — developers will be able to leverage the code, and content creators can use the camera in their productions. Anyone will be able to contribute to, build on top of, improve, or distribute the camera based on these specs.

Both the hardware design and software play a role in achieving a high-quality output. We've previously written about the hardware design of the camera and its importance in decreasing the processing time for the footage. Even though we use high-quality optics and machine-fabricated rigs, there is still enough variation between camera lenses that without software corrections, results are not viewable in stereo (you see double vision and not 3D). Our stitching software takes the images captured by the 17 cameras in Surround 360 and transforms them into a stereoscopic 360 panorama suitable for viewing in VR. This software vastly reduces the typical 3D-360 processing time while maintaining the 8K-per-eye quality we think is optimal for the best VR viewing experience. This post goes into some depth on the rendering software we created to solve this problem, covering the goals we set, the challenges we took on, and the decisions we made in developing this technology.

Rendering stereo 360 video is a hard problem for a variety of reasons:

Traditional mono stitching software won't solve these problems. It can apply relatively simple transforms to the source images, then blend them together at the edges, but this approach is not sufficient for stereo. It produces stereo inconsistencies that break perception of 3D and cause discomfort.

We tried a lot of camera/software combinations as we developed our prototypes for a 3D-360 camera. Our first attempt was four pairs of cameras pointing out in a square, spaced roughly eye-distance apart. Then we tried to stitch the left and right eye images into a seamless panorama with alpha blending, which is a basic technique for mixing images together to create a smooth transition. It looked great when pointing straight out in the direction of the real cameras, but the stereo was off at the corners. Another issue with this approach is that as you rotate around, your eyes have to point in different directions to look at objects a constant distance away, which causes eyestrain.

There are more sophisticated ways to construct stereo panoramas than basic alpha blending and stitching. One approach is to take slices of the images captured by a camera that rotates around a fixed axis. This approach produces panoramas that have proper vergence and creates more consistent perception of depth than basic stitching. However, it cannot be applied to scenes where anything is moving. Going one step further, we use optical flow to simulate a rotating camera, by "view interpolation" from a small number of cameras arranged in a ring; this approach can capture scenes with motion, but optical flow is a challenging problem in computer vision research.

The Surround 360 rendering code is designed to be fast so it can practically render video while maintaining image quality, accurate perception of depth and scale, comfortable stereo viewing, and increased immersion by incorporating top and bottom cameras to provide full 360-degree x 180-degree coverage and making the tripod pole invisible.

Equirectangular projections are one technique commonly used for encoding photos and video in VR. An equirectangular projection is just a way of wrapping a sphere with a rectangular texture, like a world map. Each column of pixels in the left or right equirect image corresponds to a particular orientation of the user's head, and the pixels are what should be seen by the left and right eyes in that head orientation.

So our goal is to generate equirectangular panoramas for the left/right eyes, such that each column of pixels corresponds to a different head orientation. For a given head orientation, there are two virtual eyes spaced 6.4 cm apart (or whatever we specify), which rotate around the center of the head. From each virtual eye, we consider a ray that goes out in the direction of the nose, and we want to know what color the light from the real world is along that ray. That is the color we should use for the corresponding pixel in the equirectangular image.

Now imagine all this is happening inside the camera (from a 2D top-down perspective); the center of the head is the center of the camera. The ray we constructed through each pixel starts at a virtual eye and eventually exits the circle of cameras. If that ray passed right through a real camera, we would know what color it should be from some pixel in the camera's image. But usually the ray exits the circle where there is no real camera. In this case, we use view interpolation to generate a virtual camera in between the real cameras, and get the ray color from a pixel in the interpolated view.

The description above is a model of how the stereo equirectangular images that we render correspond to the color of light along rays in the real world, which explains why it feels realistic (although it is a rough approximation).

In practice, we implement the above model in a pipeline of image processing stages. There are many steps in the pipeline, but it is mostly automatic, so the time to render is still considerably less than manual stitching.

First, cameras output RAW bayer pattern images. The Image Signal Processor (ISP) part of the Surround 360 rendering code converts the RAW sensor data to a standard RGB format .png image, applying gamma and color correction. Then, the rendering system reads the camera images and builds equirectangular projections from each. The equirectangular projection covers a whole sphere with a rectangular texture. Each camera captures only a portion of the full sphere, but this can still be represented on an equirectangular projection. We found it convenient to use this projection throughout all subsequent stages of the pipeline.

While projecting the original image to equirectangular, we apply corrections for lens distortion. We calibrate models for lens distortion by taking many pictures of checkerboards, which is a common approach in computer vision.

We also correct for rotational or translational misalignment of the camera/lens/mounting system, which would cause vertical parallax (which causes double vision and breaks 3D). We do this by finding matching key points in images from all adjacent cameras, and optimizing a perspective transform for each camera that rectifies all the cameras jointly, to minimize vertical parallax (the vertical difference between where an object appears in the left eye's image, and in the right eye's image).

All the cameras are projected to equirectangular in such a way that objects at a distance of infinity from the camera are aligned with zero displacement, while any difference in object position between different cameras in the equirectangular projection corresponds to parallax from being closer than infinity. This helps optical flow, because it typically starts with an initial guess of 0 flow, which is the right answer for things that are far away.

Overlapping regions of the images from neighboring cameras are extracted, and optical flow is computed between them.

Optical flow is used to do view interpolation, so we can get the rays we need from virtual cameras.

So far, we have described how to render the side stereo parts of the panorama. We also incorporate top and bottom cameras to make it more immersive by providing full 360-degree x 180-degree coverage. The side cameras are wide-angle lenses with roughly 90-degree horizontal and vertical FOV (which decreases to 77 degrees after correcting for barrel distortion). So that covers a 77-degree strip at the horizon, out of the full 180-degree vertical range. We have cameras with different 180-degree fisheye lenses on the top and bottom to fill in those holes with mono. It actually has to be mono at the very top and bottom because there is no way to bake correct stereo for all head orientations into a left/right equirectangular image pair, so we make it gradually transition from stereo at the horizon to mono at the poles. With different lenses, we could increase the stereo range at the horizon, but that is a trade-off with resolution/pixel density.

To seamlessly stitch the top camera with the side camera left/right images in a way that produces comfortable stereo, we use optical flow to match the top image to the side panoramas. Then the top image is warped according to the flow and alpha-blended (with deghosting) to composite the images.

There are two cameras on the bottom, so we can automatically remove the tripod pole. The primary bottom camera is in the center of the rig, symmetric with the top camera. The problem is, a big chunk of its image is blocked by the tripod pole. The secondary camera is on the other side of the pole, so it sees the part of the scene that is blocked by the pole in the primary camera's image. We build a synthetic image that would have been seen by the primary bottom camera but with the pole removed. This is done by specifying a mask of the pole in both images, then using optical flow to warp the secondary image onto the primary image, and mixing the two such that the primary pixels are used unless they are in the pole mask, and otherwise the warped secondary pixels are used. After the two bottom images are fused to remove the pole, the result is stitched to the side left/right eye panoramas similar to the top camera.

All this happens in multiple threads to take advantage of multi-CPU systems. For example, optical flow can be computed between all image pairs simultaneously. Beside that, each step of the processing pipeline is scheduled according to its dependencies on other steps, to keep all the CPUs busy for as much of the rendering time as possible.

This rendering pipeline produces high-resolution stereo 3D-360 panoramas that occupy the full 360-degree x 180-degree sphere for a highly immersive experience. We have taken great care to preserve image quality at every step of the pipeline, to optimize for speed, and to produce the most accurate approximation to reality that is practical with off-the-shelf hardware. We are very excited to contribute all the hardware designs and software as open source and to continue to iterate on the design, the code, and the whole 360 pipeline in the future. We hope this will inspire others to build their own stereo 360 rigs and, most of all, to capture truly immersive experiences. Please let us know what you think and what you contribute back to the community.

The truce she brokered later on with Theon and Yara -- who now take the absolute prize this year for longest distance traveled in shortest amount of time (that old Ice and Fire bullet train’s been working over time, and even crossing seas) -- felt a bit rushed, but some of that just might be because of the miles the two Ironborn magically jumped as they were the last people I thought I’d see in Dany’s pyramid this episode.

I do like that, despite her returning to find Meereen under siege, Daenerys is still willing to listen to Tyrion and rely on him for advice, because she did return at the absolute worst time. Well, worst for him, but best for the crisis at large, since she was able to end it with a simple “Dracarys!”

But let’s shift away from the dragonfire spectacle that was the Meereen battle and over to the North, where things were a lot more gritty and grimy, centered on a hard-hitting, massive battle sequence, featuring an impressive amount of stunt work, choreography and storytelling. There was even a fun tracking shot right in the thick of it, as Jon plowed his way through enemy forces, occasionally getting saved by good fortune. This battle was a massive undertaking and one that overflowed with drama. Would our heroes win? This season has been really big on payoffs and satisfying wins, so there was almost an expectation here for a swerve - for this year’s big tragedy. But it didn’t come and the Starks took back their home.

And it was for the best, really, since I don’t think, especially this close to the end of the series, that we could have taken another cold, harsh loss. It’s funny, Game of Thrones viewers are so used to having the rug pulled out from under us that sometimes we don’t know when to ease up and enjoy a solid victory. It’s almost like we don’t trust it. But this one felt super-earned given the long journey of the Starks. It even felt earned just based on this season alone, in fact.

One of the dynamics I loved here, as the armies prepared for battle, was the differences between Jon and Sansa stepping forward in big ways. The two of them even argued the night before about tactics, with Jon being very Ned-like and Sansa, fittingly, coming from a much more detached, Littlefinger-type stance. Hell, she was cold and logical enough to firmly realize that Rickon was a goner, no matter what, when Jon wasn’t willing to accept it. She knew they needed greater numbers but Jon was stubbornly going forward with an assault anyway.

And then, the very next morning, on the precipice of battle, Jon got manipulated into mounting a full-fledged assault because he was overcome with emotion over Rickon’s death - which was an expertly crafted bit of theater totally conceived by Ramsay in order to pull Jon’s entire army out into the open. I know a lot of viewers have had their fill of Ramsay being terrible, since there’s been so much of it, but this really was a horrible and evil ploy. As for poor Rickon, well, I don’t think many expected much from him character-wise regardless, so he died in service of the battle and as part of Ramsay’s final attempt to rule the North.

There were so many great, ferocious moments here, from Jon facing down Ramsay’s arrows with his a shield at the end, to Tormund killing Lord Karstark, to the giant Wun Wun using his last breaths to break down the Winterfell gate. And yes, there even was a point when it looked like Jon might be a goner, as he started to get trampled and suffocated within one of the giant mounds of bodies. It was sort of a slight scare though, since we knew that Melisandre was still around to bring him back from the dead if need be, whether he wanted her to or not. Still, the stakes here were Winterfell, not Jon’s life. Jon’s army couldn’t fail. Not now, not this time.

The arrival of the soldiers from the Vale may not have been a huge surprise since, many guessed that’s who Sansa had written a letter to, but it was still a very crowd-pleasing moment given just how crushed and defeated Jon and his men were. It also somewhat mirrored Jon getting saved by Stannis’ forces back at the end of Season 4 (an event referenced in this episode).

Even though Season 6’s bounty and splendor of payoffs can sometimes feel very un-Game of Thrones, who couldn’t love Sansa exacting sweet revenge on Ramsay? And with his own dogs too? That was so satisfying. And yes, it had to be her who did it. Even Jon knew that much as he stopped himself from killing Ramsay with his bare hands so that he could be at Sansa’s mercy -or lack thereof.

THE VERDICT:

Game of Thrones did not disappoint when it came to this season’s great northern battle as Jon and Sansa’s differences were spectacularly highlighted in a savagely strong war chapter that saw House Stark overcome huge odds to reclaim their home. Plus, Daenerys got to soar as her dragons quickly stopped a violent siege with fury and fire.

Valve dropped a surprise sale on Steam called the Lunar New Year Sale. It contains a brand new choose-your-own-adventure that determines what sort of curated sales you'll see, and there are thousands of games up and available at massive discounted prices. The sale runs from today all the way up until February 12th.

Shacknews briefly explained how gamers don't have to worry about choosing wrong with the little mini-game where options are presented how to travel west. In the first choose-your-own-adventure there's an option to swim or drive. Choosing swim brings up a bunch of nautical games, sea simulators and oceanic survival titles. Choosing to drive will curate a list of driving or racing games based on your gaming habits and preferences.

So what sort of games are discounted? Well, there are a lot of the usual suspects on there. Rockstar's GTA V is discounted by 33% off, so you can grab it for only $40. It's kind of annoying that the game will be a year old soon and getting it for anything under $40 during the big sales is a real challenge, or requires you to pay a visit to G2A.

And despite just coming out a few months ago, Fallout 4 is already marked down by 33% off the normal price, so you can also get it for $40. I suspect that during the next big sale it will likely be 50% off while GTA V will probably only move up to being 35% off.

Speaking of games at half-off prices, CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is actually 50% off, so you can get the game for only $29.99. CD Projekt has always been generous with their discounts, though. For example, right now you can get The Witcher: Enhanced Edition for 85% off the normal price at only $1.49. The second game in the trilogy, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, is also pretty cheap right now and can be acquired for $2.99.

Ubisoft also has discounts on a bunch of their games, including Assassin's Creed: Rogue, which is slashed down by 60% from the normal price and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is 75% off the normal price so you can get it for only $7.49. I think it's odd that Black Flag is discounted more than Rogue when I thought that the latter had a better story to tell and more gameplay features to explore. Even Ubisoft's latest Assassin's Creed Syndicate has been hit with the discount stick, being knocked down by 40% off the normal price, so you can grab the PC version for only $34.99. The only drawback to the PC version is that you will need Uplay to make it work. If you're not big into having Uplay on your machine and dealing with the cumbersome setup then you may want to explore other options.

What I also find interesting is that some games that aren't even out yet are already discounted, such as Campo Santo's highly anticipated, character-driven mystery game, Firewatch. The game is marked down by 10% off its suggested $19.99 price, so you can grab the upcoming game for only $17.99. You can look for Firewatch to launch on PC and PS4 starting February 9th.

A variety of other games are also made pretty cheap as well, ranging from a collection of Star Wars games that can be acquired for as cheap as $2.99, includingKnights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando and Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Activision's Call of Duty series is also discounted, up to 50%, including the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.

You can check out more of the games and the steep discounts by visiting the Steam store page.

The Kaaba or Ka'aba (Arabic: الكعبة‎‎ al-Kaʿbah IPA: [ælˈkæʕbɐ], "The Cube") also referred as Kaaba Muazzama (Grand Kaaba), is a building at the center of Islam's most sacred mosque, Al-Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca, al-Hejaz, Saudi Arabia. It is the most sacred Muslim site in the world.[1] It is considered the "House of God" and has a similar role as the Tabernacle and Holy of Holies in Judaism. Wherever they are in the world, Muslims are expected to face the Kaaba when performing salat (prayer). From any point in the world, the direction facing the Kaaba is called the qibla.

The sanctuary around the Kaaba is called Al-Masjid al-Haram