Digital Gaming

Epic Games Fined $520m By The FTC

(CTN News) – The US Federal Trade Commission has hit Fortnite maker Epic Games with a record-breaking penalty of $520m (£427m) over allegations it previously used “lax privacy practices” for voice and text chat, and used design tricks to “dupe millions of players” into unintentional purchases.

The judgment represents the largest-ever settlement obtained by the FTC regarding the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, since Fortnite enabled default in-game chat and user data collection.

While the US ratings board ESRB rates Fortnite as a “Teen” game, the Federal Trade Commission argues Epic Games knew its users were likely under 13 years old and had not sought parental consent.

Lastly, the FTC fined Fortnite for using “illegal dark patterns” that “tricked players into making unwanted purchases and allowed children to rack up unauthorised charges without their parents’ knowledge”.

Fortnite applied “counterintuitive, inconsistent and confusing button configurations” that allowed users to purchase things accidentally, according to the FTC.

Before 2018, it was too easy for children to purchase in-game currency without parental consent, the FTC said. A second criticism was Epic Games’ locking of accounts for customers who subsequently charged back purchases – some worth thousands of dollars – with their credit cards.

In a detailed response to the settlement, Epic Games explains how Fortnite has evolved over the years and how it believes the FTC has used “statutes written decades ago” to target “long-standing industry practices” that it now agrees “are no longer sufficient.”

As a result of this agreement, Epic Games is able to provide the highest quality player experience to its players and remain at the forefront of consumer protection.

As a result of our efforts over the past few years, we’ve been making changes to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be helpful to others in our industry.”

The statement from Epic Games highlights the changes it has made to address the FTC’s concerns, including a refund token system (added in May 2018) and a more recent undo purchase system.

Even more recently, you are required to hold a button to make a purchase to confirm your intention.

Epic responded to the FTC’s concerns about child privacy by launching Cabined Accounts – an Epic Account that prohibits certain features like chat and purchasing for children under 13.

In Epic Games’ words, “No developer creates a game knowing it will end up here.” The video game industry is a place of fast-moving innovation, where player expectations are high and creative ideas are crucial.”

The laws of decades ago don’t specify how gaming ecosystems ought to function. They haven’t changed, but their application has evolved, and long-standing industry practices are no longer sufficient.

The old status quo for in-game commerce and privacy has changed, and many developer practices need to be reconsidered.

Epic Games concluded that the practices referenced in the complaints are not how Fortnite operates. We share the same principles of fairness, transparency, and privacy that the FTC enforces.

We will continue to ensure that players know what to expect when making purchases, make cancellations and refunds as easy as possible, and build safeguards to keep our ecosystem safe and fun for everyone.”

Who invested in Epic Games?

Epic Games is funded by 38 investors. Sony and KIRKBI A/S are the most recent investors.
…
Investors.

Investor Name	Sony
Lead Investor	—
Funding Round	Venture Round – Epic Games
Partners	Kenichiro Yoshida

Digital Gaming

Nvidia Quake II RTX Download Latest Update [1.7.0]

Quake II RTX – In the first three levels of the original game, battle your way through the dangerous Strogg civilization while taking in realistic reflections, refraction, shadows, and global illumination.

The future of humanity won’t be known until then. It’s on for Quake II with RTX. The first three single-player levels of the venerable PC game are included in this trial.

The complete game, including multiplayer modes with full route tracing, may be enjoyed by original game owners by patching their copy.

GeForce RTX and Quake II RTX

Check out Quake II RTX to see how path tracing, a cutting-edge ray tracing technique, is used. Prepare to play 1997’s Quake II in a brand-new way.

This is made feasible via Nvidia’s VKRay extension, which enables game developers to utilise the Vulkan API to incorporate ray-traced effects.

Kay-Tracing In Real Time

A whole new Quake II experience is produced by global lighting features like realistic reflections, refraction, shadows, and global illumination.

Real-time range day lighting, sun light, and indirect illumination are all included in Quake II RTX. Light will refract through water and glass, surfaces will reflect light more accurately, and light sources will enlighten everything around them.

The minimum need for operating the game will be a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, according to Nvidia, who claims that these effects would require the RT cores available on RTX series GPUs.

What’s New In Quake II RTX?

Issues Fixed:

When a monster interacts with a door in notarget mode, the game logic no longer crashes (#92).
Fixed a crash that occurred when the map file lacked a VIS hunk (#223).
Fixing bugs with the Vulkan validation layer (#229, #246, and others)
Several doors’ texture alignment issues were fixed (#211).
With dmflags containing 8192 (DF_INFINITE_AMMO) (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/191), the flare gun was fixed as it was still utilising ammunition.
Fixed initialization of the Vulkan queue on systems that don’t support split queues (#248)
Added a statically linked library in place of OpenAL as a dependent (#224)

Click on the link below to download the new update of Quake II RTX

Quake II RTX Download

Misc Improvements:

Added support for building on PowerPC 64 LE CPU architecture (#260)
Adjusted the automatic UI scaling to avoid making the UI too big
Improved precision of target frame rate adjustment (#242)
Tuned the full-screen blend effects to be less intensive
Updated the Loading plaque texture (#265)

User @res2k’s Contributions On GitHub:

When screen-space picture memory utilisation is extremely high, a warning has been added (#179).
Additional control on emissive material fallback radiance (#210)
The full screen blend effects now have menu controls (#216)
Support for player flashlights and spotlights with emission profiles has been added (#203, #214).
Crash when missing some textures was fixed (#263)
Fixed a bug that caused an overrun when pt_bsp_sky_lights exceeded 1 (#262).
BSP model animated textures were fixed (#187).
Crash fixes when renderer initialization is unsuccessful (#199)
In some circumstances, fixed FSR image scaling (#232)
Corrected improper texture scaling in the absence of a bespoke material definition (#235)
In GitGub CI builds, the mode setting was fixed for Linux (#268)
Fix for Q2RTX 1.5.0 save game compatibility (#193)
Fixed a few lighting-related bugs in custom maps (#189)
For R16_UNORM textures, fixed texture data size computation (#236)
The HDR screenshot function been fixed (#190).
Smoke effect appearance was fixed (#195).
The range of animated light intensities has been fixed (#200).
When numerous materials are used with the same base texture, the replacement textures were fixed (#222).
Fixing excessive flicker and noise through improved light list processing (#234)
Enhanced robustness of the material system for games using bespoke textures (#201)
Noise and darkening reduction by improved polygonal light sampling (#266)
Wayland support enhancements (#261, #221)
Integrated a number of Q2PRO (#196) fixes
Per-map files have taken the place of the original sky_clusters.txt file (#219).
Colour nuance in particles has been improved (#197)
upgraded SDL2 to version 2.26.1 (#252)

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Digital Gaming

Free Fire Redeem Code Today 19 April 2023 (100% Working)

Introduction:

FF Reward – Garena Free Fire Redeem Code For April 19, 2023, Redeem Latest FF Rewards with These Codes.

Free Fire is a popular online battle royale game that has overtaken the gaming world. Players can earn rewards by redeeming codes regularly released by the developers.

In this article, we will provide you with the latest Free Fire redeem codes that you can use to get your hands on some exciting rewards.

What are Free Fire Redeem Codes?

FF redeem codes are a combination of letters and numbers that can be used to claim rewards in the game.

The developers release these codes on their social media channels, and players can use them to get items such as skins, characters, and more.

How to Redeem Free Fire Codes?

To redeem FF codes, follow these simple steps:

FF redeem code can be redeemed on the official website. https://reward.ff.garena.com/en
Log in to your Free Fire account using Facebook, Google, VK, Twitter, Apple ID or Huawei ID
Enter the redeem code in the given field and click on the ‘submit’ button
The rewards will be added to your account within 24 hours

Latest Free Fire Redeem Codes:

Here is the latest Free Fire redeem codes that you can use to claim rewards:

G3MK-NDD2-4G9D
RR2Y-WYPT-9K3K
FF8M-82QK-7C2M
5G9G-CY97-UUD4
SARG-886A-V5GR

Note: These codes are valid for a limited time only. Make sure to redeem them before they expire.

How to Use Free Fire Redeem Codes?

To use Free Fire redeem codes, follow these steps:

Open the Free Fire app on your device
Go to the game lobby and click on the ‘mail’ icon
Click on the message that contains the redeem code
Click on the ‘collect’ button to claim your reward

Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes Today April 19, 2023

FYHI34UDHY88GT
FDE2CF3VG4BRHG
FYTVBHNJMKTYMJ
BI8UJHKI8AUYTR2
FF3EBRNGJVUYGF
FVENRMTKYMKOI8
FYRFAQVBGHY2TR
FFVRBNJGUYGERJ5
F6YHIFYH6L7MUKL
FHO0IUT5AREQD1V
F2B3HER280BHNJI
F5UJHTYMHUYRFFY
FJGY7LO8YIUKJUY
FJKI89LFNDSW45
F6Y7HGFD567Y89
FKIJHGF5Y6UIO8U
FKINHTR7TI78O90
FFYJUJUULO2WVV

Conclusion:

Free Fire redeem codes are a great way to earn rewards in the game. With the latest codes in this article, you can get some exciting rewards and improve your gaming experience. Remember to redeem the codes before they expire and enjoy the rewards that come with them.

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Digital Gaming

Quordle Today: Daily Quordle Word Puzzle Hints And Answer For April 19, 2023

(CTN News) – Your answer to Quordle Today 450 is now available. You need to know here about the four-word puzzle from 19 April 2023

Quordle’s been around for five months. At the end of April, the game was released as a prototype with many bugs.

Due to the increased difficulty, it’s the most popular daily word game. Four five-letter words have to be guessed in nine attempts instead of one.

In the dedicated practice mode, players can do unlimited Quordle word puzzles, which don’t count toward their overall stats, including win streaks.

Players get a new set of words daily in the game mode at midnight.

By completing the daily mode puzzle, you can add to your stats, including win streaks.

It can be hard to correctly guess all the daily Quordle Today words within the allotted number of guesses. We’ve been providing hints along with the answer for a while now.