Experimental AI Tool Makes GTA 5 Look Stunningly Photorealistic – Here’s How

May 13, 2021 by CrackedConsole

An AI research group has released a new video showcasing a new photorealism enhancement tool being applied to GTA 5 – and the results are stunning.As part of the Intel ISL research group’s Photorealism Enhancement project, the new machine learning tool helps make computer-generated images more realistic by analyzing each frame of the game animation and comparing that to real-life images before applying enhancements based on them. In a video demonstration, Intel ISL shows some regular gameplay of Grand Theft Auto 5 before switching over to its tool’s output, which analyzes the gameplay footage and uses machine learning to make it look more photorealistic.

Arduino-controlled Rubik’s cube chandelier solves itself

May 12, 2021 by CrackedConsole

Rubik’s cubes have been mystifying and frustrating people for more than 40 years now. According to Forbes, 450 million Rubik’s cubes had been sold by 2020. But based on our very scientific estimates, only a small fraction of those have been solved. To avoid that difficulty, Stuart Gorman gave his Rubik’s cube chandelier the ability to unscramble itself.

This large 3D-printed chandelier looks exactly like the iconic cube, except that each section is lit by LEDs instead of covered with a sticker. Those are WS2812B individually-addressable RGB LEDs controlled by an Arduino Mega board. People usually choose the Mega when they need a lot of I/O pins, but in this case Gorman picked the Mega because it has lots of RAM to work with. That RAM is necessary for handling the complexity of the Arduino code that the lamp is running.

Arduboy CE (Cartridge Edition)

May 12, 2021 by CrackedConsole

Arduboy CE places the MCU onto a removable game cartridge so you can swap out games like the good ol’ days!

Game cartridges are so nostalgic! And Arduboy is all about the nostalgia. Designed to be reminiscent of the original DMG Game Boy, Arduboy CE (Cartridge Edition) combines both concepts!

Tetris for GameBoy Gets Online Multiplayer

May 11, 2021 by CrackedConsole

Released in 1989, the Game Boy version of Tetris is notable for being the first game to support multiplayer via the so-called “Game Link Cable” accessory. So it’s fitting that, 32 years later, that same game is now playable with others over the Internet thanks to an open source USB adapter from [stacksmashing].

As explained in the video below, the adapter is essentially just a Raspberry Pi Pico paired with some level shifters so that it can talk to the Game Boy’s link port. That said, the custom PCB does implement some very clever edge connectors that let you plug it right into the Link Cable for the original “brick” Game Boy as well as the later Color and Advance variants. This keeps you from having to cut up a Link Cable just to get a male end, which is what [stacksmashing] had to do during the prototyping phase.

Digital to Analog Converters – An Introductory Tutorial

May 11, 2021 by CrackedConsole

Digital to Analog Conversion 101

The function of a digital to analog converter is to convert a sequence of digital bits (usually stored in some sort of register) into an analog signal. That is, a DAC takes a binary number and converts it an analog voltage that is proportional to the binary number. If we feed a DAC with different binary numbers in quick succession a complete analog waveform is created.

Create an Arduino Wireless Network Using NRF24L01 modules

May 11, 2021 by CrackedConsole

A 4 node wireless network setup using the NRF24L01. Code link: https://github.com/webslinger2011/RF2…

LAM – Laboratory Arduino Mobile

May 10, 2021 by CrackedConsole

You’ll learn how to construct your own Arduino laboratory.

NTP Based Digital Clock Panel Driver

May 10, 2021 by CrackedConsole

Highly accurate, Ethernet base, 7-segment clock driver with built-in NTP client.

This Pizza Compass Directs You to the Nearest Slice No Matter Where You Are

May 9, 2021 by CrackedConsole

With the advent of GPS and the handy Google Maps, traditional compasses seem pretty outdated. They’re not as intuitive, and they only point north. But what if there was a smart compass that pointed you towards what you really want, like, say, pizza? Engineer Joe Grand recently built a compass that directs you to the nearest slice of pizza no matter where you are. And in the wise words of pizza connoisseurs, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’s totally tubular.

David Hansel’s ArduinoFDC Converts an Arduino Into a USB Floppy Drive Controller

May 9, 2021 by CrackedConsole

Requiring no additional hardware beyond an Arduino Uno, Nano, Pro Micro, Mega, or compatible, ArduinoFDC is surprisingly powerful.

Developer David Hansel has published a tool that aims to make it easy to integrate classic floppy drives with a modern computer: ArduinoFDC, turning an Arduino Uno, Nano, Pro Mini, or Mega into a functional USB floppy controller.

“ArduinoFDC consists of three parts,” Hansel explains of his Arduino Sketch. “A library providing low-level functions to allow reading and writing disks at the sector level as well as low-level formatting disks. Integration of ChaN’s brilliant FatFS library to provide file-level functions for reading and writing files and directories in a FAT (MS-DOS) file system and a high-level format function to initialize a FAT file system.”