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Sega and Creative Assembly have announced that they have now released official mod tools for strategy game Total War: Attila. The “Assembly Kit,” as Sega is calling it, is available to owners of the game through the Tools menu in your Steam Library.

The Assembly Kit is being billed as the “most extensive” mod tools package Sega has ever released, outdoing similar packages for Shogun and Rome II.

Courtesy of Sega, the Total War: Attila Assembly Kit includes the following:

• DaVE: enables editing of the game’s database entries.
• BOB: enables processing of raw data such as textures, models and animations.
• TeD: enables the creation of individual battlefields for land, sea and sieges.
• Terry: enables the editing of campaign map aesthetics such as the height-map, lighting and props. Unlike previous Assembly Kits, Terry now grants access to Terrain Raw Data, which means modders can determine which battle maps load in for specific campaign map locations.

Sega also pointed out that fans who want to “get the most” out of the Assembly Kit should download the Terrain Raw Data resource pack. This comes with a whopping 60 GB of assets for creators to work with. Check out the video above to see some of this in action.

Interested modders can also visit the Total War Wiki here for a more in-depth rundown of scripting methods and how to best leverage the new mod tools.

Finally, Sega has opened a new Steam Workshop page for Total War: Attila, which allows players to share their work with others. These mods are all free, following Valve’s decision earlier this week to kill paid mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Looking ahead, Sega recently announced Total War Warhammer with a flashy cinematic trailer. Other new Total War games in development include Total War: Battles Kingdom and Total War: Arena.

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Direct X 12, the next graphics API for Windows devices, has been demonstrated rendering real-time graphics with “six to twelve” times more polygons than its predecessor.

Speaking at the Build 2015 conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Microsoft technical fellow John Shewchuk talked through a strikingly detailed Final Fantasy PC demo that was running from a quad-SLI Digital Storm rig.

The video demonstration, which graphics card giant Nvidia says “points a way through the uncanny valley”, can be found below:

“The thing that’s really incredible about what you’re seeing is just the density of data that’s involved in this,” Shewchuk said.

In a bid to show that the demo was not pre-rendered CG, Shewchuk opened the free camera to look around the scene in real-time, as well as make various changes to the lighting.

Shewchuk claimed that each scene renders about 63 million polygons. “That’s about six to 12 times more than we could do with DX11,” he said.

He went on to claim that the textures were 8K by 8K, and that “every piece of hair is being rendered as a polygon – this isn’t surface map stuff. I think it’s an incredible example of just how far people are pushing big data.”

Nvidia said the demo was “running on four of our flagship GeForce Titan X GPUs,” and described it as a “stunning example” of what can be done with Microsoft’s next graphics API.

Direct X 12 is due to arrive with Windows 10, which is rumoured will release in July, though no official date has been set.

“Microsoft has said Windows 10 will launch this summer. We have nothing additional to share,” a Microsoft spokesperson told GameSpot in response to the release date rumour.

In January, Microsoft claimed that DirectX 12 would not necessarily require new graphics card for its basic functions to work.

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Final Fantasy XV maker Square Enix has unveiled a new demo that shows off the latest tech it is working on. Revealed at Microsoft’s Build conference today, the demo features the same character that appeared in the Agni’s Philosophy Final Fantasy tech demo which was shown in 2012.

As detailed by Nvidia, the demo is titled “WITCH – Chapter 0 [cry]” and is powered by DirectX 12. The footage shown is allegedly in-game, with each scene comprised of “over 63 million polygons”; six to twelve times more than the capabilities of DirectX 11. Microsoft corporate vice president Steve Guggenheimer showcased the demo, altering lighting effects and camera angles in real-time. The build was shown on a PC running four GeForce Titan X graphics cards.

Square Enix first revealed its Agni’s Philosophy Final Fantasy tech demo at E3 in 2012. The four minute video runs off the company’s proprietary Luminous Studio Engine, and took twelve months to create.

Nvidia’s DirectX 12 API will be included with the upcoming Windows 10. For a technical breakdown of Direct X12’s advancements, be sure to read this post on Microsoft’s developer website.

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GameSpot Australia is giving you the chance to a day pass to Vivid’s Game On Showcase in Sydney, an interactive games and online video showcase that will take place at the Australian Technology Park from May 22-24. Attendees can participate in workshops, watch performances, compete in esports competitions, and meet their favourite celebrity YouTubers.

We’re giving away passes to the show! To enter, simply tell us in 25 words or less why you want to go to Game On! The GameSpot AU crew will award the top five most interesting and creative answers with a VIP ticket each to the event. In addition to being able to enter the show, VIP ticket holders get access to exclusive celebrity meet-and-greet opportunities, priority queues and seats, and will receive a goodie bag. Five selected runner-ups will each receive a general entry pass.

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