title: Glock

text: Beginning in 2007, Glock introduced several "Short Frame" models designated by the suffix "SF". The short frame was originally designed to compete in the now cancelled U.S. military Joint Combat Pistol trials for a new .45 ACP pistol to replace the M9 pistol. Glock's entry featured an optional ambidextrous magazine release and MIL-STD-1913 rail along with a reduction in the size of the backstrap. The Glock 21SF is currently available in three versions: one with a Picatinny rail and ambidextrous magazine release and two with a Universal Glock rail available with or without the ambidextrous magazine release. Current 10mm and .45 ACP Glock magazines are manufactured with ambidextrous magazine release cutouts. As of January 2009, the Glock 20, 21, 29, and 30 were offered in short-framed variations. These models incorporate a reduction in trigger reach, and full-sized models feature a reduction in heel depth, which corresponds to an overall reduction in length for those models.


title: Glock

text: Glock pistols chambered for the .45 ACP (and the .45 GAP) feature octagonal polygonal rifling rather than the hexagonal-shaped bores used for models in most other chamberings. Octagonal rifling provides a better gas seal in relatively large diameter rifled bores, since an octagon resembles a circle more closely than a hexagon.


title: Glock

text: As is typical of pistols chambered in .40 S&W, each of the standard Glock models (22, 23, and 27) may be easily converted to the corresponding .357 SIG chambering (Glock 31, 32, and 33, respectively) simply by replacing the barrel. No other parts need to be replaced, as the .40 S&W magazines will feed the .357 SIG rounds.


title: Glock

text: The first two .380 ACP models are primarily intended for markets that prohibit civilian ownership of firearms chambered in military calibers such as 9×19mm Parabellum. Despite this, they are legally prohibited from being sold to civilians in the United States due to being manufactured in Austria and not meeting the import restrictions based on their caliber. They are also prohibited from ownership in Canada due to not meeting minimum barrel length requirements for handguns.


title: Glock

text: Due to the relatively low bolt thrust of the .380 ACP cartridge, the locked-breech design of the Glock 19 and Glock 26 was minimally modified for the Glock 25 and Glock 28 to implement unlocked breech operation. It operates via straight blowback of the slide. This required modification of the locking surfaces on the barrel, as well as a redesign of the former locking block. Unusual for a blowback design, the barrel is not fixed to the frame. It moves rearward in recoil until it is tilted below the slide, similar to the standard locked-breech system. The reduced size and mass of the Glock 42 required return to the Glock-standard locked-breech design.


title: Glock

text: As is typical of pistols chambered in .357 SIG, each of the standard Glock models (31, 32, and 33) may be easily converted to the corresponding .40 S&W chambering (Glock 22, 23, and 27, respectively) simply by replacing the barrel. No other parts need to be replaced, as the .357 SIG magazines will feed the .40 S&W round.


title: Glock

text: Glock pistols chambered for the .45 GAP (and the .45 ACP) feature octagonal polygonal rifling rather than the hexagonal-shaped bores used for models in most other chamberings. Octagonal rifling provides a better gas seal in relatively large diameter rifled bores, since an octagon will have shorter sides and shallower angles than a hexagon.


title: Glock

text: Aside from the original Austrian company, Glock pistols are manufactured by the Glock Inc. subsidiary division located in the United States. Those batches are identical compared to the Austrian-made ones, but they are marked as "USA", instead of "AUSTRIA", on the slide. Glock 17 pistols are being assembled locally at army workshops of Uruguay to fulfill the needs of the national military services and law enforcement organizations.


title: Glock

text: The 205th Armory in Taiwan produces a copy of the Glock 19, named the T97 pistol. The Taiwan-made Glocks were made to replace the Smith & Wesson Model 5906 used by the Taiwan police, but it ultimately did not enter service. Turkish company Akdal Arms produces a pistol named the Ghost TR01, which is heavily influenced by Glock pistols in its design.


title: Glock

text: Russian firms such as Skat, ORSIS, and Izhmash assemble three models of Glock pistols locally: the Glock 17, 34, and 35.


title: Glock

text: Third party frames and slides for Glock pistols began to appear in the early 2000s. This has led to "Glock" becoming a generic term encompassing pistols not made by Glock Ges.m.b.H. especially as expiring patents allowed for complete Glock clones to be made. As of 2019 a large number of American companies produced Glock clones.


title: Glock

text: There are three sidearms made by Iranian DIO's Shahid Kaveh Industry Complex which they call Ra'ad (has a safety selector, possibly an unlicensed copy of Glock 17), Glock 19 and Kaveh-17 (probably an improved Ra'ad, a variant of Glock 17S), which all of them are unlicensed clones of Glock pistols. It is not known if they could make their way to Iranian military and replace the Browning Hi-Power, M1911 and SIG P226 pistols and they were possibly some prototypes and have never gone on mass production.


title: Glock

text: The Tatmadaw of Myanmar have adopted a clone of the Glock 17 known as the MA5 MK II, which was first reported in 2018. They're currently being manufactured and adopted for Myanmar's special forces units.


title: Glock

text: In 2017, it was reported that Norinco was able to make a clone of the Glock 17 known as the NP-7 (or NP7). The pistol was subcontracted to Hunan Ordnance Industry Group through the Hunan Ordnance and Light Weapons Research Institute. Its features appear to be influenced by the fourth gen Glock 17. The NP7 is being marketed for export sales.


title: Glock

text: Glock pistols have been used in mass shootings including the 1991 Luby's shooting, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the 2011 Tucson shooting, the 2012 Aurora shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the 2015 Charleston church shooting, the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, and the 2022 NYC subway shooting. Experts on gun control, mass shootings, and defense training have cited factors such as reliability, ease of use, and commonness. The criminal use of these weapons has led to calls for increased gun control in the United States. This common usage, however, has been described by to be a result of Glock's overall popularity and market presence in the US and that "this level of violence isn’t necessarily tied to a particular[,] to a brand". In the late 80s, gun control advocates had similarly focused on Glock pistols because of their magazine capacity (compared to six shot revolvers), but also their "futuristic, distinct appearance". They were singled out for restriction by some jurisdictions and were branded the "hijacker's special" based on the false assumption that they could bypass airport metal detectors because of their polymer frame. This was refuted in Congressional hearings by the ATF, FAA, and other organizations responsible for airline security, which proved embarrassing for the bans' advocates and provided significant publicity for Glock. In April 2022, Ilene Steur, a survivor of the 2022 NYC subway attack, sued Glock and its Austrian parent company for compensation for her physical injuries and emotional pain.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has become popular and influential over much of the world. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations. It is also often said to inspire a "sense of wonder". Besides providing entertainment, it can also criticize present-day society and explore alternatives.


title: Science fiction

text: American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction." According to Isaac Asimov, "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology." Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction tries to blend fiction and reality seamlessly so that the viewer can be immersed in the imaginative world. This includes characters, settings, and tools and perhaps most critically, the scientific plausibility and accuracy of technology and technological concepts. Sometimes, science fiction forecasts real life innovations and discoveries. In the 2020 series "Away" astronauts use a real-life Mars rover called InSight to listen intently for a landing on Mars. Two years later in 2022 scientists used InSight to listen for the landing of a real spacecraft.


title: Science fiction

text: In the Jurassic Park franchise, dinosaurs are created from ancient DNA and 18 years later, real life scientists found dinosaur DNA in ancient fossils.


title: Science fiction

text: Part of the reason that it is so difficult to pin down an agreed definition of science fiction is because there is a tendency among science fiction enthusiasts to act as their own arbiter in deciding what exactly constitutes science fiction. Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "science fiction is what we point to when we say it." Ultimately, it may be more useful to talk around science fiction as the intersection of other, more concrete, genres and subgenres.


title: Science fiction

text: Forrest J Ackerman has been credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy "hi-fi") in about 1954; the first known use in print was a description of "Donovan's Brain" by movie critic Jesse Zunser in January 1954. As science fiction entered popular culture, writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "B-movies," and with low-quality pulp science fiction. By the 1970s, critics within the field, such as Damon Knight and Terry Carr, were using "sci fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction. Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers." Robert Heinlein found even "science fiction" insufficient for certain types of works in this genre, and suggested the term speculative fiction to be used instead for those that are more "serious" or "thoughtful."


title: Science fiction

text: Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times, when the line between myth and fact was blurred. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, "A True Story" contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life. Some consider it the first science-fiction novel. Some of the stories from "The Arabian Nights", along with the 10th-century "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" and Ibn al-Nafis's 13th-century "Theologus Autodidactus," also contain elements of science fiction.


title: Science fiction

text: Written during the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Johannes Kepler's "Somnium" (1634), Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis" (1627), Athanasius Kircher's "Itinerarium extaticum" (1656), Cyrano de Bergerac's "Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon" (1657) and "The States and Empires of the Sun" (1662), Margaret Cavendish's "The Blazing World" (1666), Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), Ludvig Holberg's "Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum" (1741) and Voltaire's "Micromégas" (1752) are regarded as some of the first true science-fantasy works. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered "Somnium" the first science-fiction story; it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earth's motion is seen from there.


title: Science fiction

text: Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818) and "The Last Man" (1826) helped define the form of the science-fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that "Frankenstein" was the first work of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) which featured a trip to the Moon. Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1870). In 1887, the novel "El anacronópete" by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine. A rather unknown early French/Belgian science fiction writer was J.-H. Rosny aîné (1856–1940).


title: Science fiction

text: Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction." His notable science-fiction works include "The Time Machine" (1895), "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1896), "The Invisible Man" (1897), and "The War of the Worlds" (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering, invisibility, and time travel. In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, and something resembling the World Wide Web.


title: Science fiction

text: Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars", published in 1912, was the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, "Amazing Stories". In its first issue he wrote:


title: Science fiction

text: In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith's first published work, "The Skylark of Space," written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby, appeared in "Amazing Stories". It is often called the first great space opera. The same year, Philip Francis Nowlan's original Buck Rogers story, "Armageddon 2419", also appeared in "Amazing Stories". This was followed by a Buck Rogers comic strip, the first serious science-fiction comic.


title: Science fiction

text: In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of "Astounding Science Fiction", an event which is sometimes considered the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which is characterized by stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress. In 1942, Isaac Asimov started his Foundation series, which chronicles the rise and fall of galactic empires and introduced psychohistory. The series was later awarded a one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series." The "Golden Age" is often said to have ended in 1946, but sometimes the late 1940s and the 1950s are included.


title: Science fiction

text: Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human" (1953) explored possible future human evolution. In 1957, "" by the Russian writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov presented a view of a future interstellar communist civilization and is considered one of the most important Soviet science fiction novels. In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" marked a departure from his earlier juvenile stories and novels. It is one of the first and most influential examples of military science fiction, and introduced the concept of powered armor exoskeletons. The German space opera series "Perry Rhodan", written by various authors, started in 1961 with an account of the first Moon landing and has since expanded in space to multiple universes, and in time by billions of years. It has become the most popular science fiction book series of all time.


title: Science fiction

text: In the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave science fiction was known for its embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously "literary" or "artistic" sensibility. In 1961, "Solaris" by Stanisław Lem was published in Poland. The novel dealt with the theme of human limitations as its characters attempted to study a seemingly intelligent ocean on a newly discovered planet. 1965's "Dune" by Frank Herbert featured a much more complex and detailed imagined future society than had previous science fiction.


title: Science fiction

text: In 1967 Anne McCaffrey began her "Dragonriders of Pern" science fantasy series. Two of the novellas included in the first novel, "Dragonflight", made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula Award. In 1968, Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," was published. It is the literary source of the "Blade Runner" movie franchise. 1969's "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin was set on a planet in which the inhabitants have no fixed gender. It is one of the most influential examples of social science fiction, feminist science fiction, and anthropological science fiction.


title: Science fiction

text: In 1979, "Science Fiction World" began publication in the People's Republic of China. It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market, at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue and an estimated 3–5 readers per copy (giving it a total estimated readership of at least 1 million), making it the world's most popular science fiction periodical. In 1984, William Gibson's first novel, "Neuromancer," helped popularize cyberpunk and the word "cyberspace," a term he originally coined in his 1982 short story "Burning Chrome". In 1986, "Shards of Honor" by Lois McMaster Bujold began her Vorkosigan Saga. 1992's "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson predicted immense social upheaval due to the information revolution.


title: Science fiction

text: In 2007, Liu Cixin's novel, "The Three-Body Problem", was published in China. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014, and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, making Liu the first Asian writer to win the award.


title: Science fiction

text: Emerging themes in late 20th and early 21st century science fiction include environmental issues, the implications of the Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about biotechnology, nanotechnology, and post-scarcity societies. Recent trends and subgenres include steampunk, biopunk, and mundane science fiction.


title: Science fiction

text: The first, or at least one of the first, recorded science fiction film is 1902's "A Trip to the Moon", directed by French filmmaker Georges Méliès. It was profoundly influential on later filmmakers, bringing a different kind of creativity and fantasy to the cinematic medium. In addition, Méliès's innovative editing and special effects techniques were widely imitated and became important elements of the medium.


title: Science fiction

text: 1927's "Metropolis", directed by Fritz Lang, is the first feature-length science fiction film. Though not well received in its time, it is now considered a great and influential film. In 1954, "Godzilla", directed by Ishirō Honda, began the kaiju subgenre of science fiction film, which feature large creatures of any form, usually attacking a major city or engaging other monsters in battle.


title: Science fiction

text: 1968's "", directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the work of Arthur C. Clarke, rose above the mostly B-movie offerings up to that time both in scope and quality, and greatly influenced later science fiction films. That same year, "Planet of the Apes" (the original), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and based on the 1963 French novel "La Planète des Singes" by Pierre Boulle, was released to popular and critical acclaim, due in large part to its vivid depiction of a post-apocalyptic world in which intelligent apes dominate humans.


title: Science fiction

text: In 1977, George Lucas began the "Star Wars" film series with the film now identified as ""Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope."" The series, often called a space opera, went on to become a worldwide popular culture phenomenon, and the second-highest-grossing film series of all time.


title: Science fiction

text: Since the 1980s, science fiction films, along with fantasy, horror, and superhero films, have dominated Hollywood's big-budget productions. Science fiction films often "cross-over" with other genres, including animation "(WALL-E" – 2008, "Big Hero 6" – 2014), gangster ("Sky Racket" – 1937), Western ("Serenity" – 2005), comedy ("Spaceballs" −1987, "Galaxy Quest" – 1999), war ("Enemy Mine" – 1985), action ("Edge of Tomorrow" – 2014, "The Matrix" – 1999), adventure ("Jupiter Ascending" – 2015, "Interstellar" – 2014), sports ("Rollerball" – 1975), mystery ("Minority Report" – 2002), thriller ("Ex Machina" – 2014), horror ("Alien" – 1979), film noir ("Blade Runner" – 1982), superhero ("Marvel Cinematic Universe" – 2008–), drama ("Melancholia" – 2011, "Predestination" – 2014), and romance ("Her" – 2013).


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction and television have consistently been in a close relationship. Television or television-like technologies frequently appeared in science fiction long before television itself became widely available in the late 1940s and early 1950s.


title: Science fiction

text: The first known science fiction television program was a thirty-five-minute adapted excerpt of the play "RUR", written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek, broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios on 11 February 1938. The first popular science fiction program on American television was the children's adventure serial "Captain Video and His Video Rangers", which ran from June 1949 to April 1955.


title: Science fiction

text: "The Twilight Zone" (the original series), produced and narrated by Rod Serling, who also wrote or co-wrote most of the episodes, ran from 1959 to 1964. It featured fantasy, suspense, and horror as well as science fiction, with each episode being a complete story. Critics have ranked it as one of the best TV programs of any genre.


title: Science fiction

text: The animated series "The Jetsons", while intended as comedy and only running for one season (1962–1963), predicted many inventions now in common use: flat-screen televisions, newspapers on a computer-like screen, computer viruses, video chat, tanning beds, home treadmills, and more. In 1963, the time travel-themed "Doctor Who" premiered on BBC Television. The original series ran until 1989 and was revived in 2005. It has been extremely popular worldwide and has greatly influenced later TV science fiction. Other programs in the 1960s included "The Outer Limits" (1963–1965), "Lost in Space" (1965–1968), and "The Prisoner" (1967).


title: Science fiction

text: "" (the original series), created by Gene Roddenberry, premiered in 1966 on NBC Television and ran for three seasons. It combined elements of space opera and Space Western. Only mildly successful at first, the series gained popularity through syndication and extraordinary fan interest. It became a very popular and influential franchise with many films, television shows, novels, and other works and products. "" (1987–1994) led to six additional live action "Star Trek" shows ("" (1993–1999), "" (1995–2001)"," "" (2001–2005), "" (2017–present), "" (2020–present), and (2022–present)) with more in some form of development.


title: Science fiction

text: The miniseries "V" premiered in 1983 on NBC. It depicted an attempted takeover of Earth by reptilian aliens. "Red Dwarf", a comic science fiction series aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009. "The X-Files", which featured UFOs and conspiracy theories, was created by Chris Carter and broadcast by Fox Broadcasting Company from 1993 to 2002, and again from 2016 to 2018. "Stargate", a film about ancient astronauts and interstellar teleportation, was released in 1994. "Stargate SG-1" premiered in 1997 and ran for 10 seasons (1997–2007). Spin-off series included "Stargate Infinity" (2002–2003), "Stargate Atlantis" (2004–2009), and "Stargate Universe" (2009–2011). Other 1990s series included "Quantum Leap" (1989–1993) and "Babylon 5" (1994–1999).


title: Science fiction

text: SyFy, launched in 1992 as The Sci-Fi Channel, specializes in science fiction, supernatural horror, and fantasy.


title: Science fiction

text: The space-Western series Firefly premiered in 2002 on Fox. It is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of "Serenity", a ""Firefly"-class" spaceship."Orphan Black" began its 5-season run in 2013, about a woman who assumes the identity of one of her several genetically identical human clones. In late 2015 SyFy premiered "The Expanse" to great critical acclaim, an American TV series about Humanity's colonization of the Solar System. Its later seasons would then be aired through Amazon Prime Video.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction's rapid rise in popularity during the first half of the 20th century was closely tied to the popular respect paid to science at that time, as well as the rapid pace of technological innovation and new inventions. Science fiction has often predicted scientific and technological progress. Some works predict that new inventions and progress will tend to improve life and society, for instance the stories of Arthur C. Clarke and "Star Trek". Others, such as H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", warn about possible negative consequences.


title: Science fiction

text: In 2001 the National Science Foundation conducted a survey on "Public Attitudes and Public Understanding: Science Fiction and Pseudoscience." It found that people who read or prefer science fiction may think about or relate to science differently than other people. They also tend to support the space program and the idea of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations. Carl Sagan wrote: "Many scientists deeply involved in the exploration of the solar system (myself among them) were first turned in that direction by science fiction."


title: Science fiction

text: Brian Aldiss described science fiction as "cultural wallpaper." Evidence for this widespread influence can be found in trends for writers to employ science fiction as a tool for advocacy and generating cultural insights, as well as for educators when teaching across a range of academic disciplines not limited to the natural sciences. Scholar and science fiction critic George Edgar Slusser said that science fiction "is the one real international literary form we have today, and as such has branched out to visual media, interactive media and on to whatever new media the world will invent in the 21st century. Crossover issues between the sciences and the humanities are crucial for the century to come."


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction has sometimes been used as a means of social protest. George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949) is an important work of dystopian science fiction. It is often invoked in protests against governments and leaders who are seen as totalitarian. James Cameron's 2009 film "Avatar" was intended as a protest against imperialism, and specifically the European colonization of the Americas.


title: Science fiction

text: Robots, artificial humans, human clones, intelligent computers, and their possible conflicts with human society have all been major themes of science fiction since, at least, the publication of Shelly's "Frankenstein". Some critics have seen this as reflecting authors’ concerns over the social alienation seen in modern society.


title: Science fiction

text: Feminist science fiction poses questions about social issues such as how society constructs gender roles, the role reproduction plays in defining gender, and the inequitable political or personal power of one gender over others. Some works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.


title: Science fiction

text: Climate fiction, or "cli-fi," deals with issues concerning climate change and global warming. University courses on literature and environmental issues may include climate change fiction in their syllabi, and it is often discussed by other media outside of science fiction fandom.


title: Science fiction

text: Libertarian science fiction focuses on the politics and social order implied by right libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and private property, and in some cases anti-statism.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction comedy often satirizes and criticizes present-day society, and sometimes makes fun of the conventions and clichés of more serious science fiction.


title: Science fiction

text: The potential for Science Fiction as a genre is not just limited to being a literary sandbox for exploring otherworldly narratives but can act as a vehicle to analyze and recognize a society's past, present, and potential future social relationships with the Other. More specifically, Science Fiction offers a medium and representation of Alterity and differences in social identity.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction is often said to inspire a "sense of wonder." Science fiction editor and critic David Hartwell wrote: "Science fiction’s appeal lies in combination of the rational, the believable, with the miraculous. It is an appeal to the sense of wonder." Carl Sagan said: "One of the great benefits of science fiction is that it can convey bits and pieces, hints, and phrases, of knowledge unknown or inaccessible to the reader . . . works you ponder over as the water is running out of the bathtub or as you walk through the woods in an early winter snowfall."


title: Science fiction

text: In 1967, Isaac Asimov commented on the changes then occurring in the science fiction community: "And because today’s real life so resembles day-before-yesterday’s fantasy, the old-time fans are restless. Deep within, whether they admit it or not, is a feeling of disappointment and even outrage that the outer world has invaded their private domain. They feel the loss of a 'sense of wonder' because what was once truly confined to 'wonder' has now become prosaic and mundane."


title: Science fiction

text: The study of science fiction, or science fiction studies, is the critical assessment, interpretation, and discussion of science fiction literature, film, TV shows, new media, fandom, and fan fiction. Science fiction scholars study science fiction to better understand it and its relationship to science, technology, politics, other genres, and culture-at-large. Science fiction studies began around the turn of the 20th century, but it was not until later that science fiction studies solidified as a discipline with the publication of the academic journals "Extrapolation" (1959), "" (1972), and "Science Fiction Studies" (1973), and the establishment of the oldest organizations devoted to the study of science fiction in 1970, the Science Fiction Research Association and the Science Fiction Foundation. The field has grown considerably since the 1970s with the establishment of more journals, organizations, and conferences, as well as science fiction degree-granting programs such as those offered by the University of Liverpool and the University of Kansas.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction has historically been sub-divided between hard science fiction and soft science fiction, with the division centering on the feasibility of the science central to the story. However, this distinction has come under increasing scrutiny in the 21st century. Some authors, such as Tade Thompson and Jeff VanderMeer, have pointed out that stories that focus explicitly on physics, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering tend to be considered "hard" science fiction, while stories that focus on botany, mycology, zoology, and the social sciences tend to be categorized as "soft," regardless of the relative rigor of the science.


title: Science fiction

text: Max Gladstone defined "hard" science fiction as stories "where the math works," but pointed out that this ends up with stories that often seem "weirdly dated," as scientific paradigms shift over time. Michael Swanwick dismissed the traditional definition of "hard" SF altogether, instead saying that it was defined by characters striving to solve problems "in the right way–with determination, a touch of stoicism, and the consciousness that the universe is not on his or her side."


title: Science fiction

text: Ursula K. Le Guin also criticized the more traditional view on the difference between "hard" and "soft" SF: "The 'hard' science fiction writers dismiss everything except, well, physics, astronomy, and maybe chemistry. Biology, sociology, anthropology—that's not science to them, that's soft stuff. They're not that interested in what human beings do, really. But I am. I draw on the social sciences a great deal."


title: Science fiction

text: Respected authors have written science fiction. Mary Shelley wrote a number of science fiction novels including "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" (1818), and is considered a major writer of the Romantic Age. Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" (1932) is often listed as one of England's most important novels, both for its criticism of modern culture and its prediction of future trends including reproductive technology and social engineering. Kurt Vonnegut was a highly respected American author whose works contain science fiction premises or themes. Other science fiction authors whose works are widely considered to be "serious" literature include Ray Bradbury (including, especially, "Fahrenheit 451" (1953) and "The Martian Chronicles" (1951)), Arthur C. Clarke (especially for "Childhood's End"), and Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, writing under the name Cordwainer Smith. In his book "The Western Canon", literary critic Harold Bloom includes "Brave New World", "Solaris", "Cat's Cradle" (1963) by Vonnegut, and "The Left Hand of Darkness" as culturally and aesthetically significant works of western literature.


title: Science fiction

text: David Barnett has pointed out that there are books such as "The Road" (2006) by Cormac McCarthy, "Cloud Atlas" (2004) by David Mitchell, "The Gone-Away World" (2008) by Nick Harkaway, "The Stone Gods" (2007) by Jeanette Winterson, and "Oryx and Crake" (2003) by Margaret Atwood, which use recognizable science fiction tropes, but whose authors and publishers do not market them as science fiction. Doris Lessing, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, wrote a series of five SF novels, "Canopus in Argos: Archives" (1979–1983), which depict the efforts of more advanced species and civilizations to influence those less advanced, including humans on Earth.


title: Science fiction

text: In her much reprinted 1976 essay "Science Fiction and Mrs Brown," Ursula K. Le Guin was asked: "Can a science fiction writer write a novel?" She answered: "I believe that all novels ... deal with character, and that it is to express character–not to preach doctrines [or] sing songs... that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved. ... The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise, they would not be novelists, but poets, historians, or pamphleteers." Orson Scott Card, best known for his 1985 science fiction novel "Ender's Game", has postulated that in science fiction the message and intellectual significance of the work are contained within the story itself and, therefore, does not need stylistic gimmicks or literary games.


title: Science fiction

text: Jonathan Lethem, in a 1998 essay in the "Village Voice" entitled "Close Encounters: The Squandered Promise of Science Fiction," suggested that the point in 1973 when Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" was nominated for the Nebula Award and was passed over in favor of Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama", stands as "a hidden tombstone marking the death of the hope that SF was about to merge with the mainstream." In the same year science fiction author and physicist Gregory Benford wrote: "SF is perhaps the defining genre of the twentieth century, although its conquering armies are still camped outside the Rome of the literary citadels."


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction is being written, and has been written, by diverse authors from around the world. According to 2013 statistics by the science fiction publisher Tor Books, men outnumber women by 78% to 22% among submissions to the publisher. A controversy about voting slates in the 2015 Hugo Awards highlighted tensions in the science fiction community between a trend of increasingly diverse works and authors being honored by awards, and reaction by groups of authors and fans who preferred what they considered more "traditional" science fiction.


title: Science fiction

text: Among the most respected and well-known awards for science fiction are the Hugo Award for literature, presented by the World Science Fiction Society at Worldcon, and voted on by fans; the Nebula Award for literature, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and voted on by the community of authors; the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, presented by a jury of writers; and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction, presented by a jury. One notable award for science fiction films and TV programs is the Saturn Award, which is presented annually by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films.


title: Science fiction

text: There are other national awards, like Canada's Prix Aurora Awards, regional awards, like the Endeavour Award presented at Orycon for works from the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and special interest or subgenre awards such as the Chesley Award for art, presented by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists, or the World Fantasy Award for fantasy. Magazines may organize reader polls, notably the Locus Award.


title: Science fiction

text: Conventions (in fandom, often shortened as "cons," such as "comic-con") are held in cities around the world, catering to a local, regional, national, or international membership. General-interest conventions cover all aspects of science fiction, while others focus on a particular interest like media fandom, filking, and so on. Most science fiction conventions are organized by volunteers in non-profit groups, though most media-oriented events are organized by commercial promoters.


title: Science fiction

text: Science fiction fandom emerged from the letters column in "Amazing Stories" magazine. Soon fans began writing letters to each other, and then grouping their comments together in informal publications that became known as fanzines. Once they were in regular contact, fans wanted to meet each other, and they organized local clubs. In the 1930s, the first science fiction conventions gathered fans from a wider area.


title: Science fiction

text: The earliest organized online fandom was the SF Lovers Community, originally a mailing list in the late 1970s with a text archive file that was updated regularly. In the 1980s, Usenet groups greatly expanded the circle of fans online. In the 1990s, the development of the World-Wide Web exploded the community of online fandom by orders of magnitude, with thousands and then millions of websites devoted to science fiction and related genres for all media.


title: Science fiction

text: The first science fiction fanzine, "The Comet", was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago, Illinois. One of the best known fanzines today is "Ansible", edited by David Langford, winner of numerous Hugo awards. Other notable fanzines to win one or more Hugo awards include "File 770", "Mimosa", and "Plokta". Artists working for fanzines have frequently risen to prominence in the field, including Brad W. Foster, Teddy Harvia, and Joe Mayhew; the Hugos include a category for Best Fan Artists.


title: Rick Astley

text: Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, songwriter and radio personality, who has been active in music for several decades. He gained worldwide fame in the 1980s, having multiple hits including his signature song "Never Gonna Give You Up", "Together Forever" and "Whenever You Need Somebody", and returned to music full-time in the 2000s after a 6-year hiatus. Outside his music career, Astley has occasionally worked as a radio DJ and a podcaster.


title: Rick Astley

text: Born and raised in Lancashire, Astley became a musician after leaving school, as the drummer for the soul band FBI. Three years later, he rose to fame through his association with the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman; releasing the 1987 album "Whenever You Need Somebody", which sold 15.2 million copies worldwide. His debut single "Never Gonna Give You Up" was a number 1 hit single in 25 countries, winning the 1988 Brit Award for Best British Single. His 1988 single "Together Forever" became his second single to top the US "Billboard" Hot 100, and was one of his eight songs to reach the top ten on the UK Singles Chart. The title track was a No 1 single in seven countries, and it reached No 3 in the UK. In 1988, Astley followed-up his debut album with "Hold Me In Your Arms". The lead single "She Wants to Dance with Me" was Astley's first single that he wrote himself, and it became a worldwide top 10 hit.


title: Rick Astley

text: In 1991, Astley left Stock Aitken Waterman and moved his musical direction away from dance-pop and towards soul, which he explored on his albums "Free" (1991) and "Body and Soul" (1993). His 1991 single "Cry for Help" was Astley's last single to reach the top 10 in either the US or UK. In 1993, Astley retired from music to focus on spending time with his then-partner and raising their daughter. He returned to the music industry in 2000, and released the single "Sleeping" and the album "Keep It Turned On" in 2001. Four years later, Astley released his covers album "Portrait".


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley became an Internet phenomenon in 2007 when the music video for his song "Never Gonna Give You Up" became integral to the Rickrolling meme, and his performance career was revitalised by the meme's popularity. In 2010, Astley released the single "Lights Out" after touring with Peter Kay. Six years later, he released his album "50" to celebrate his 50th birthday, which debuted in the UK at No. 1. He released his most recent studio album "Beautiful Life" in 2018, and released his greatest hits album "The Best of Me" in 2019. His most recent albums were recorded at his home studio in Surrey.


title: Rick Astley

text: By the time of his brief retirement, Astley had sold approximately 40 million records worldwide. A year after the Rickrolling meme began, Astley was voted "Best Act Ever" by Internet users at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008. His song "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached 1 billion views in July 2021, becoming the fourth 1980s song to reach this milestone (behind "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, "Take On Me" by A-ha and "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses).


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley was born on 6 February 1966 in Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire, the fourth child of his family. His parents divorced when he was five and Astley was brought up by his father Horace Astley. Astley remained in very close contact with his mother Cynthia Astley, who lived a few streets away from his father. After finding out that his father was the one who kicked his mother out of the house, Astley distanced himself from his father. When he was 10 years old, Astley began singing in a local church choir, which began his love of music.


title: Rick Astley

text: During his schooldays, Astley formed and played the drums in a number of local bands, where he met guitarist David Morris. After leaving school at sixteen, Astley was employed during the day as a driver in his father's market-gardening business and played drums on the Northern club circuit at night in bands such as Give Way – specialising in covering Beatles and Shadows songs – and FBI, which won several local talent competitions.


title: Rick Astley

text: In 1985, Astley was performing as a drummer with a soul band named FBI, with Morris on guitar. They were a well-known local band writing and performing their own music, gigging in pubs and clubs. When FBI's lead singer left the band, and Morris left to concentrate on his career in hairdressing, Astley offered to be the lead vocalist. This was when he was noticed by the record producer Pete Waterman, who persuaded him to come to London to work at the Pete Waterman Limited (PWL) recording studio, with RCA Records publishing his records. Under the tutelage of the production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, known as Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), Astley was taught about the recording process and groomed for his future career, supposedly starting off as the recording studio "tea boy". The reason for Astley to be hired as a "tape op" was to overcome his shyness. SAW also hired most of FBI, including Morris as a guitarist/songwriter.


title: Rick Astley

text: His first single was "When You Gonna", released as a collaboration with Lisa Fabien, and was produced by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow. "We were at a stage early on with Rick, when no one knew quite what to do with him," recalled Harding. "The idea was to make him happen in the clubs... [but the song] opened up the doors for him at Capital Radio." The song was released in May 1987, and with no promotion managed to chart at No. 17 in the Netherlands and No. 20 in Belgium.


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley's first solo offering was "Never Gonna Give You Up", recorded on New Year's Day 1987, and released eight months later, in August. Although his producers were initially unenthusiastic about the track, Astley's distinctive rich, deep voice combined with dance-pop made the song an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. The song was also a worldwide number-one hit, topping the charts in 24 other countries, including the US, Australia, and West Germany. It was the first of 13 (worldwide) top 30 hit singles for him. "Never Gonna Give You Up" won Best British Single at the 1988 BPI awards (now called the "BRIT Awards"), and he performed it in front of a global audience of 100 million.


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley's next single was "Whenever You Need Somebody", which was released in October. The single was a recycled Stock Aitken Waterman song, originally recorded by O'Chi Brown in 1985, which Stock says was resurrected in the rush to gather strong follow up material in the wake of Astley's unexpectedly huge global success. It became a successful European hit, reaching No. 1 in seven countries, including West Germany and Sweden. It also reached No. 3 in the UK. It was not released in North America.


title: Rick Astley

text: In November 1987, the album "Whenever You Need Somebody", containing four tracks written by Astley, reached number one in the UK and Australia and No. 10 in the US. It was certified 4× Platinum in the UK and Canada, and 2× Platinum in the US. "Whenever You Need Somebody" sold 15.2 million copies worldwide, making Astley the top-selling British act of the year.


title: Rick Astley

text: In December 1987, Astley released a cover version of the Nat King Cole classic "When I Fall in Love". This single is mainly remembered for a closely fought contest for UK Christmas Number 1. Rivals EMI, hoping to see their act the Pet Shop Boys reach No. 1, rereleased Cole's version. This led to a slowdown of purchases of Astley's version, allowing the Pet Shop Boys to reach the coveted top spot with their cover version of Always on My Mind. Despite selling over 200,000 copies and gaining a Silver certification from the BPI, Astley's "When I Fall in Love" peaked in the UK at No. 2 for two weeks. The rerelease of Cole's version reached No. 4. The B side for Astley was a dance number, "My Arms Keep Missing You", which was successful in mainland Europe but wasn't released on an album until the 2002 compilation "Greatest Hits".


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley's fourth single release was "Together Forever" (1988), reaching No. 2 in the UK. It was denied the top spot by Kylie Minogue's debut "I Should Be So Lucky", which reached No. 1 following her successful role as Charlene Robinson in "Neighbours". "Together Forever" was more successful in the US, topping the charts, making it his second and last US chart-topper. In 1989 Astley was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist but lost to Tracy Chapman.


title: Rick Astley

text: His fifth and final release from his debut album was "It Would Take a Strong Strong Man". It was a more soulful song than his other releases, and was mainly intended for the North American market. It was not released in Britain. It was another hit, reaching No. 10 on the US "Billboard Hot 100" and No. 1 in Canada. During the period between his debut release and his fifth single, Astley outsold every other artist in the world. In the UK, he was in the Top 40 every week for the first six months of his career.


title: Rick Astley

text: Production of the singer's follow up album with Stock Aitken Waterman got off to a rocky start, when a distressed Astley rejected the set's intended first single, "Nothing Can Divide Us" — a track the producers then gave to Jason Donovan. Wishing to placate an unhappy Astley, producer Pete Waterman allowed him to start work with other writers and producers under the PWL umbrella, but a fire in the PWL studios then destroyed much of Astley's new material, causing a delay in the release of his second album. "Hold Me in Your Arms" was released in January 1989, containing five singles, and reached No. 8 in the UK and No. 19 in the US, being certified platinum in the UK and gold in the US.


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley's relationship with British media deteriorated significantly after the release of "Hold Me in Your Arms", with the media calling him a "puppet" of Stock Aitken Waterman, although Astley had written five of his new album's tracks. The negative press affected the sales of his singles.


title: Rick Astley

text: The first single from the album was "She Wants to Dance with Me", written by Astley. He composed the track in the style of Whitney Houston's hit, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" in an effort to win the confidence of Waterman, who was a huge fan of Houston's song. It was another successful single, reaching No. 6 on both the UK and US charts.


title: Rick Astley

text: "Take Me to Your Heart" was the next single to be released from the album. It was one of four songs written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman that were belatedly added to the album in order to help Astley make his release deadline following the fire. These four tracks were written and produced in just two days, with writer Matt Aitken confirming "Take Me to Your Heart" was inspired by house music act Inner City's 1988 hit, "Big Fun". The single reached No. 8 in the UK and was not released in the US.


title: Rick Astley

text: "Hold Me in Your Arms", a ballad written by Astley, reached No. 10 in the UK and was also not released in North America. The next two singles released from the album were intended for the North American market. "Giving Up on Love" and a cover of The Temptations song "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" charted at No. 38 and No. 89 in the US respectively.


title: Rick Astley

text: In December 1989, Astley set off on his first world tour, touring 15 countries including the UK, US, Australia, and Japan. By the end of the tour, he was tired of the negative press and wanted to explore alternative paths as a musician. He left Stock Aitken Waterman and RCA Records bought out his contract with PWL.


title: Rick Astley

text: By 1990, Astley decided to leave his dance-pop days behind him, moving towards his passion, soul. This shift in musical genre led him to change his image, ditching the boy next door look, growing his hair, and presenting himself as a mature and passionate musician. His third album, "Free", was released in 1991 and contained collaborations with Elton John. It had three singles and reached No 9 in the UK and No 31 in the US.


title: Rick Astley

text: He achieved one more major success with his 1991 ballad "Cry for Help", which reached No 7 in both the UK and the US. The other two singles from "Free" were not as successful. "Move Right Out" reached No 58 in the UK and No 81 in the US, and "Never Knew Love" reached No 70 in the UK and did not chart in the US. "Free" marked the end of Astley's successful period, and "Cry for Help" was the last Astley single to make the Top 10 in either the UK or US.


title: Rick Astley

text: His next album, "Body and Soul", was released in 1993, and was largely an Adult Contemporary album. By the time the album was released, Astley had decided to retire from the music industry. As a result, the album did not get much promotion, not charting in the UK but managing to make the "Billboard" 200, peaking at No 182. The two singles, "The Ones You Love" and "Hopelessly," performed very well on the US adult contemporary chart, peaking at No 19 and No 4 respectively. "The Ones You Love" peaked at No 48 in the UK but did not chart in the US. "Hopelessly" also crossed over and peaked at No 28 on the US Billboard 100, staying in the US top 40 for five weeks, and No 33 in the UK. It was the last hit to chart on the Top 40 in the UK and US. It was named as one of the most performed songs at the 1994 BMI Awards, and is one of the few songs to achieve BMI 'Million-Air' status.


title: Rick Astley

text: After 1993, Astley retired from the music industry at 27, deciding that family life was more important. During his time out of the music business, he raised his daughter Emilie, born in 1992. For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Astley remained out of the spotlight. He later said this was due to his growing frustration with the business side of things. During this period he co-wrote "Mission Statement", a track for former Marillion singer Fish's 1999 solo album "Raingods with Zippos".


title: Rick Astley

text: Seven years after "Body and Soul", Astley returned to the music industry, signing a co-publishing deal with Polydor and recording a new album, "Keep It Turned On", between November 2000 and September 2001, and released in late 2001. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from the US house producer Todd Terry. "Keep It Turned On" was only released in Continental Europe.


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley's first compilation album, "Greatest Hits", was released in 2002, and reached No 16 on the UK Albums Chart. With no promotion from Astley, it sold over 100,000 copies and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry. In 2003 he charted at No 10 in the UK as a songwriter with "Shakespeare's (Way With) Words" performed by short-lived boy band One True Voice.


title: Rick Astley

text: In 2004, Astley toured for the first time in 14 years, which led him to a record contract with Sony BMG.


title: Rick Astley

text: In March 2005, Astley released the album "Portrait", in which he covered many classic standards such as "Vincent", "Nature Boy" and "Close to You". Astley and Sony BMG were unhappy with the result so the album was poorly promoted, yet it managed to reach No 26 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Rick Astley

text: In April 2008, the album "The Ultimate Collection: Rick Astley" was released by Sony BMG, and by early May it had reached #17 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart, again with no promotion by Astley.


title: Rick Astley

text: In September 2008, Astley was nominated for the 'Best Act Ever' award at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as did efforts to encourage MTV to invite Astley to the awards ceremony. On 7 November, following a massive Internet campaign by fans, Astley won the award in Liverpool but was not there in person to receive it. Perez Hilton collected the prize on his behalf. On the back of this, "Never Gonna Give You Up" (which had recently become an Internet meme via Rickrolling) returned to the UK charts, over 21 years after it was released, peaking at No 73 during the Christmas period.


title: Rick Astley

text: During the late 2000s, Astley continued touring across the globe, touring with various other 1980s acts, such as Boy George and Belinda Carlisle, in the "Here and Now Tour". In April 2009, he wrote an article for "Time" about moot.


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley was a special guest throughout Peter Kay's new tour, "The Tour That Doesn't Tour Tour...Now On Tour", from 27 April to 22 May 2010. To mark the occasion, Astley released a new single, "Lights Out", on his own label on 7 June 2010. It was his first release in the UK Singles Chart in 17 years. It was well received by radio, peaking at No 15 on the UK Airplay Charts, but failed to become a commercial hit, reaching only No 97 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Rick Astley

text: During the summer of 2010, Astley became a radio DJ for London's Magic FM, presenting a Sunday show. The initial contract was for eight weeks, but he proved popular with listeners and his contract was extended till the end of the year. In December 2010, Astley co-hosted the "Chris Evans Breakfast Show" on BBC Radio 2 with Peter Kay, and in March 2011 appeared in Comic Relief's Red Nose Day telethon on the BBC.


title: Rick Astley

text: In April 2016 Astley released "Keep Singing", from his forthcoming album "50". Interviewed by Amanda Holden on the "Lorraine" show on 7 April, Astley explained that turning 50 had prompted him to release the single. He said, "It was a big milestone. I got back in the studio and friends were telling me the material I was working on was pretty good. So I decided to go for it." On 31 May, the release date for Astley's "50" was revealed to be 10 June 2016. The album reached number one on the Official UK Album Sales charts in the week of 17 June 2016 to 23 June 2016.


title: Rick Astley

text: On 1 June 2018, Astley posted a video on Twitter announcing his upcoming album "Beautiful Life" set for release on 20 July. He also released a single of the same name. Astley did a tour, the "#BeautifulLife Tour", and tickets were first available for purchase to anyone who pre-ordered the album. "Beautiful Life" was released earlier than previously said, on 13 July 2018. The album peaked at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Rick Astley

text: In 2019, Astley served as the support act on Take That's Greatest Hits Live 38-date tour in Britain and Ireland. Astley is also an occasional guest vocalist at Foo Fighters concerts, and has previously performed with A-ha and Kylie Minogue. During live performances where he sings "Never Gonna Give You Up", Astley sometimes shouts out to the audience that he is feeling "bloody marvellous" or that he is feeling "fantastic" after the line "And if you ask me how I'm feeling" to have some banter with the audience.


title: Rick Astley

text: On 25 October 2019, Astley released a new album, "The Best of Me", which includes some of his original tracks, some reimagined versions of his existing songs, and the new single "Every One of Us". One of the reimagined songs is a pianoforte version of "Never Gonna Give You Up", in which Astley changes the key to F minor. In live concerts, Astley sings it in A minor.


title: Rick Astley

text: In June 2020, towards the end of the nationwide lockdown in England due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Astley released four cover songs; "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers, "Everlong" by Foo Fighters, "Titanium" by David Guetta and "Better Now" by Post Malone. Around this time, Astley made a TikTok account, launching it with a video of him dancing to "Never Gonna Give You Up" which received millions of views.


title: Rick Astley

text: On 30 November 2020, Astley released a single, "Love This Christmas", the video featuring Astley performing amid a flurry of snow and dancing snowmen. To accompany the single, Astley launched a signed limited edition Christmas card, with all proceeds going to the Shooting Stars Children's Hospices.


title: Rick Astley

text: On 7 April 2021, Astley released a single, "Unwanted", inspired by the era and vibes of the original podcast.


title: Rick Astley

text: On 28 July 2021, "Never Gonna Give You Up" hit one billion views on YouTube, making Astley the fourth 1980s artist to pass this milestone, after Michael Jackson, A-ha and Guns N' Roses. Astley celebrated by releasing a new limited-edition, signed, numbered and coloured 7" vinyl single of "Never Gonna Give You Up", backed with the pianoforte version from "The Best of Me".


title: Rick Astley

text: On 2 September 2021, amid the news that ABBA have reunited, Astley released a cover of their song "The Winner Takes It All".


title: Rick Astley

text: On 14 September 2021, Astley announced he would be collaborating with the indie band Blossoms to perform songs by The Smiths.


title: Rick Astley

text: In 2007, Astley became the subject of a viral Internet meme known as rickrolling. The meme is a type of bait and switch using a disguised hyperlink that leads to the "Never Gonna Give you Up "music video. When victims click on a seemingly unrelated link, the site with the music video loads instead of what was expected, and in doing so they are said to have been "Rickrolled". The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics in unexpected places. The meme gained mainstream attention in 2008 through several publicized events, particularly when YouTube used it on its 2008 April Fools' Day event. Rickrolling saw a massive resurgence online in the early 2020s. In online classes on Zoom during the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown, students often rickrolled their classmates and teachers. A 4K remaster of the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video went viral in early 2021.


title: Rick Astley

text: Initially, Astley, who had only recently returned to performing after a 10-year hiatus, was hesitant about using his newfound popularity from the meme to further his career, but accepted the fame when he Rickrolled the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with a surprise performance of the song. Since then, Astley has seen his performance career revitalised by the meme's popularity. In an interview, Astley stated that one of his favourite Rickroll videos is "BarackRoll", a rickroll featuring clips from rallies by Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign, edited to make it look as though he is singing "Never Gonna Give You Up".


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley himself has been rickrolled a few times; in fact, the first time he was rickrolled actually pre-dated the viral phenomenon. In an interview with Larry King, Astley stated that the first time he fell for the prank was through an email his friend sent him during the early 2000s. On a Reddit post in June 2020, a user claimed to have met Astley backstage when they were 12 years old, but the user posted a link to the song instead of a picture verifying the encounter. Astley later confirmed he had been tricked into clicking the link. The post became the most upvoted post of 2020 on Reddit.


title: Rick Astley

text: Astley has been married to film producer Lene Bausager since 2003. They have a daughter who has a master's degree in fine art and is a garden designer. Astley met Bausager when she was working as a promoter with RCA in 1987, and she is now a film producer. He and his wife live in the Surrey town of Molesey, and his daughter lives in Denmark. He maintains a home recording studio and has a collection of guitars.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Gemma Christina Arterton (born 2 February 1986) is an English actress and producer. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature film debut in the comedy "St Trinian's" (2007). She portrayed Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" (2008), a performance which won her an Empire Award for Best Newcomer.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton has since appeared in a number of films, including "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" (2009), "Tamara Drewe" (2010), "Clash of the Titans" (2010), "" (2010), "" (2013), "The Escape" (2017), and "Vita and Virginia" (2018). She received the Harper's Bazaar Woman of the Year Award for acting in and producing "The Escape". Her theatrical highlights have included starring in "The Duchess of Malfi" (2014), "Made in Dagenham" (2014), "Nell Gwynn" (2016) and "Saint Joan" (2017). Arterton was nominated for Olivier Awards for her work on both "Nell Gwynn" and "Made in Dagenham", and she won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for the latter.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Since 2016, Arterton has run her own production company, Rebel Park Productions, which focuses on creating female-led content in front of and behind the camera. She has executive-produced four feature films and two short films. She is also on record as being a prominent supporter of the Time's Up, ERA 50:50 and MeToo movements. Arterton played an integral role in persuading actresses to wear black at the 2018 BAFTAs in support of Time'sUp, and has been involved with ERA 50:50, an equal pay campaign in the UK, since its inception.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton was born at North Kent Hospital in Gravesend with polydactyly, a condition resulting in extra fingers which a doctor removed shortly after her birth. Her mother, Sally-Anne Heap, runs a cleaning business, and her father, Barry J. Arterton, is a welder. They divorced during Arterton's early childhood, and she grew up on a council estate with her mother and younger sister, Hannah Arterton, who is also an actress. Her matrilineal great-grandmother was a German-Jewish concert violinist.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton attended Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, a state grammar school in Kent (now Mayfield Grammar School) and made her amateur stage debut in a production of Alan Ayckbourn's "The Boy Who Fell into a Book". Her performance won her the best actress prize in a competition at a local festival.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: At age 16, Arterton left Gravesend Grammar School to attend acting college at the Miskin Theatre at North West Kent College in Dartford. She later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2008.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton had her first professional role in Stephen Poliakoff's "Capturing Mary" while she was still at drama school. She made her stage debut as Rosaline in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Globe Theatre in London in July 2007 before graduating later that year. She made her film debut in "St Trinian's" (2007) as Head Girl Kelly.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2008, she appeared in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace". Chosen from around fifteen hundred candidates, Arterton plays Bond Girl Strawberry Fields, in what is described as a "nice-sized role". Arterton describes her character as "the thinking man's crumpet". In the same year, she played the eponymous protagonist in the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". Also in 2008, she played Elizabeth Bennet in the ITV serial, "Lost in Austen". Her most controversial role to date was in the 2009 film "The Disappearance of Alice Creed", in which her character is kidnapped and abused in several graphic nude scenes. The role required her to be handcuffed to a bed and wear a ball gag in her mouth throughout. She requested that she be left tied to the bed even when the camera was not on her to help her performance. She joked that the crew would put the ball gag back in if she was chatting too much. The film was well received, with Frank Scheck for "The Hollywood Reporter" noting, "Arterton… handles the rigorous physical and emotional demands of her role with great skill".


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton was the face of Avon's Bond Girl 007 fragrance, when it was launched in October 2008. In 2010, Arterton made her West End debut in the UK premiere of "The Little Dog Laughed". She was originally attached to star in a new adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" as Catherine Earnshaw; however, she later left the project.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton appeared in pivotal roles in the 2010 films "Clash of the Titans" and "", and played the lead in "Tamara Drewe". In 2010 Arterton also starred in the Almeida Theatre's production of "The Master Builder" directed by Travis Preston, where she was widely praised for her performance as Hilde Wangel. In 2011, Arterton was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Rising Star Award and was under consideration for Leading Actress for her performances in "Tamara Drewe" and "The Disappearance of Alice Creed". In November 2012, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2012 International Film Festival of Marrakech.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton starred in the action horror film "" as Gretel, opposite Jeremy Renner who played Hansel. The 3-D film was set 15 years after Hansel and Gretel killed the witch who kidnapped them. It was released on 25 January 2013. In January 2014, she took the title role in John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi", the inaugural production at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the new indoor theatre at Shakespeare's Globe. Both the play and Arterton herself received positive reviews, with Paul Taylor for "The Independent" reporting. "The luminous Gemma Arterton beautifully captures the multi-faceted quality of the Duchess". In the same year, she starred with Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick and Jacki Weaver in the psychological thriller film, "The Voices".


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2015, Arterton starred as the titular lead in "Gemma Bovery""." The film is a re-imagining of Gustave Flaubert's 19th century classic "Madame Bovary" directed by Anne Fontaine. Arterton learnt to speak French for the role, never having spoken the language previously.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2014–2015, Arterton starred in "Made in Dagenham", a stage musical about the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 concerning equal pay for women. Since its premiere on 5 November 2014 at the Adelphi Theatre in London, she has publicly expressed her support for their cause. She played a fictional character named Rita O'Grady and her performance received mixed reviews from critics. Simon Edge, for the "Daily Express", complained of an "underpowered central performance from Gemma Arterton as Rita". However, Matt Trueman for "Variety" praised Arterton for her "all-out star turn" and Paul Taylor, for "The Independent", praised how "Arterton holds the show together beautifully". Despite the show closing after only five months, Arterton was nevertheless nominated for an Olivier Award for best actress in a musical, and went on to win the Evening Standard award for Newcomer in a Musical.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In a 2015 interview with the "Independent" newspaper, Arterton stated that she was the director Jonathan Glazer's choice for the lead role in his movie "Under the Skin". Glazer, however, was forced to recast because Arterton was not famous enough for the film to secure financing.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In February 2016, Arterton started a run playing the title role in the Shakespeare's Globe transfer of "Nell Gwynn", at the West End's Apollo Theatre. Arterton was praised by critics, with Michael Billington for "The Guardian" citing her "natural sparkle". For her performance she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play. In July 2016, she was named as a member of the main competition jury for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. Also in this year, Arterton was nominated for a BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the teacher Helen Justineau in "The Girl with All the Gifts". Her performance, a story set in a dystopian future world ravaged by a zombie pathogen, was generally well reviewed.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2016, Arterton set up Rebel Park Productions to create female-lead and female-centric film and TV projects. She produced the well-received short film "Leading Lady Parts" in support of Time's Up. The film starred Emilia Clarke, Tom Hiddleston and Gemma Chan and helped to raise awareness for the UK Justice and Equality Fund. In the same year, she played one of four lead roles in Arnaud des Pallières' French language film "Orpheline" ("Orphan"), a role in which she exercised the French language skills she had acquired for her role in "Gemma Bovery".


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2017, Arterton took on the role of Joan in Josie Rourke's interpretation of George Bernard Shaw's classic story "Saint Joan". While the play itself received mixed reviews, Arterton's performance was widely praised as the highlight of the show. In the same year, she appeared as the fictional young screenwriter Catrin Cole in "Their Finest", a wartime romcom about a propaganda film crew working during the Second World War. Arterton's performance amongst the impressive ensemble of supporting actors (Bill Nighy, Sam Claflin and Eddie Marsan) was generally well received.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2018, Arterton produced and co-created "The Escape", a largely improvised film about a mother struggling with the breakdown of her marriage. The film received excellent reviews and Arterton was nominated for a BIFA award for Best Actress in a British Independent Film. She was awarded Woman of the Year by "Harper's Bazaar" magazine for her work on the film. Also in 2018, Arterton was one of 928 new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 49% of whom were female as part of the Academy's ongoing attempt to increase representation.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2018, it was announced that Arterton would play late singer Dusty Springfield in a film about her life. However, no further news about the project has been released since.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: In 2019, Arterton appeared in the Netflix comedy "Murder Mystery" (which stars Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston and Luke Evans). Despite the film's largely negative reviews, it was watched by 30.9 million Netflix account-holders in its first three days of release, then a record for the streaming service. In the same year, Arterton played the socialite and author Vita Sackville-West in "Vita and Virginia", a film about the romantic relationship between Arterton's character and Virginia Woolf which was the inspiration for Woolf's novel "". Arterton is credited as executive producer of the film. She also produced and starred in the short film "Hayley Alien", which was written and directed by her sister and co-star, Hannah Arterton.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton was an executive producer and starred in the Second World War film, "Summerland", directed by Jessica Swale. Arterton had previously worked with Swale on the stage show "Nell Gwynn".


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton met production assistant John Nolan on the set of "Quantum of Solace" and they lived together in London. In 2008, she had a relationship with the Spanish stuntman Eduardo Muñoz, whom she met on the set of "". They lived together in a London flat, but they split up after six months.


title: Gemma Arterton

text: Arterton married Stefano Catelli in 2010; however, they separated in 2013, and, in August 2015, their divorce was finalised "by consent" at the Central Family Court in High Holborn. Arterton said she "never really believed in exchanging vows" and that she was not sure she would "want to walk down the aisle again". In 2013, Arterton stated that she wanted to wait until she has accomplished something in the acting world before having children.


title: Constance Wu

text: Constance Wu (born March 22, 1982) is an American actress. Wu was included on "Time" magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She has earned several accolades, including nominations for a Golden Globe Award, four Critics' Choice Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and two TCA Awards.


title: Constance Wu

text: Wu starred as Jessica Huang in the ABC television comedy "Fresh Off the Boat" (2015–2020), which was her breakthrough role and earned her four nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. She was further lauded for her role as Rachel Chu in the romantic comedy-drama film "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018) for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, among others; she became the first actress of Asian descent in over 40 years and the fourth overall to be nominated for the former category. She subsequently starred in the crime drama film "Hustlers" (2019) and the film "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" (2022). That same year, following a series of media controversy and mental health issues, she published her memoir, "Making a Scene", to critical success.


title: Constance Wu

text: Constance Wu was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her parents emigrated from Taiwan. Her father, Fang-Sheng Wu, is a biology and genetics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and her mother is a computer programmer. Wu said that her paternal grandparents were very poor, working as bamboo farmers, and did not have the opportunity to get an education, so they were unable to read and write. She is the third of four daughters.


title: Constance Wu

text: She graduated from Douglas S. Freeman High School, in Henrico County, Virginia, where she performed in local theater. She participated in a six-month program during high school at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Wu later graduated from State University of New York at Purchase's Conservatory of Theatre Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting in 2005. Wu has cited Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee as an influence. After college, Wu studied psycholinguistics and considered pursuing a graduate degree in speech pathology before deciding on acting and moving to Los Angeles.


title: Constance Wu

text: In New York City, Wu got roles onstage and in independent movies. She made her screen debut with a supporting role in "Stephanie Daley" (2006). She later had supporting roles in "Year of the Fish" and "The Architect". On television, she appeared in episodes of "", "", and "Covert Affairs", and had a recurring role as Laudine Lee on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live" in 2007. In an interview, Wu stated that she impulsively moved to Los Angeles from New York in 2010 after a heartbreak. In Los Angeles, she was cast in "Sound of My Voice," directed by Zal Batmanglij. From 2012 to 2017, Wu starred in the web series "EastSiders." She won two Indie Series Awards, both for Best Ensemble - Drama in 2014 and 2016. She was also nominated for two Indie Series Awards, one for Best Supporting Actress - Drama and the other for Best Guest Actress - Drama in those same years.


title: Constance Wu

text: In 2014, Wu participated in Sundance Screenwriters' Lab with two emerging Asian-American directors, Yung Chang and Christopher Yogi, in what she felt was a unique opportunity to support fellow Asian storytellers. In 2014, after landing a role in one unsuccessful comedy pilot, Wu won the lead role in the ABC comedy series "Fresh Off the Boat" alongside Randall Park. The series is loosely based on the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang and his book "". The series premiered in 2015, and Wu received critical acclaim for her performance. E! named her a breakout star of the 2014-15 television season. For her role as Jessica Huang, she received four nominations for The Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and two Television Critics Association TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy.


title: Constance Wu

text: In 2017, she appeared in the Hulu anthology series, "Dimension 404", and was included on the annual "Time" 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In February 2017, Wu was cast as the female lead in Jon M. Chu's adaptation of "Crazy Rich Asians", based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan. The film was released in the United States and Canada on August 15, 2018, by Warner Bros., and was the first major Hollywood studio film to feature an all-Asian cast since 1993's "The Joy Luck Club." The film was a critical and commercial success, and emerged as the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade, grossing over $238 million. Wu received critical acclaim for her performance and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, A Satellite Award, two Critics' Choice Movie Awards and two NAACP Image Awards. She is the first Asian woman in over 40 years to be nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and the fourth-ever female Asian nominee. Wu is signed on to reprise her role as Rachel Chu in both sequels to "Crazy Rich Asians" titled "China Rich Girlfriend" and "Rich People Problems", which were originally set for back-to-back filming in 2020, although production on them has not yet begun. In November 2018, Wu starred in a short animated film "Crow: The Legend" as Skunk.


title: Constance Wu

text: In 2019, the actress starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the crime comedy film "Hustlers", which follows a group of former strippers in Manhattan who rob wealthy men. The film opened on September 13, 2019, and became a box office success, grossing over $157 million worldwide and receiving positive reviews from critics. Wu worked at a strip club undercover to prepare for the role. Also in 2019, Wu starred in the independent drama film "I Was a Simple Man". In June 2019, it was announced that Wu would play the lead role in a film titled "Goodbye Vitamin", based on the debut novel of Rachel Khong. The film will be distributed by Universal Pictures and Wu will serve as an executive producer on the film. In March 2021, Wu was cast in the Amazon Prime thriller series "The Terminal List". More recently, she signed a first look TV deal with Entertainment One. She plays Mrs. Primm in the new movie "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile", which was released in theaters October 7, 2022. She will also appear in the U.S. debut of the play "".


title: Constance Wu

text: Wu lives in Los Angeles. In December 2011, Wu met actor Ben Hethcoat, whom she dated until February 2018. In November 2018, Wu spoke out about online harassment and criticism she had received for dating Hethcoat, who is white. In August 2020, Wu gave birth to her first child, a girl, with her boyfriend Ryan Kattner, frontman of the band Man Man.


title: Constance Wu

text: Wu is an activist regarding Chinese representation in U.S. media, and has expressed her support for bringing more diversity into the film industry. Wu has shared her stories regarding times that she had been denied roles due to her racial background, and stated her hopes that her success would pave more paths for diverse representation in the U.S. film industry. The #StarringConstanceWu hashtag meme, adopted by Chinese-American activists, inserts Wu's image into film promotional materials in order to highlight the paucity of Chinese actors in starring roles.


title: Constance Wu

text: In 2017, Wu worked with Miry's List, an organization that provides essential kits to newly arrived immigrants and refugee families in Southern California, stating in an interview with "Teen Vogue" that she wants to be active in her care of "people with the courage to make an immigrant journey in search of peace, safety and well-being for their families."


title: Constance Wu

text: In May 2019, after "Fresh Off the Boat" was renewed for its sixth and final season, Wu made several social media posts expressing her unhappiness with the renewal, including commenting "Dislike" on the show's Instagram post announcing the renewal and tweeting, "So upset right now that I'm literally crying. Ugh. Fuck". Several days later, Wu clarified that she had been angry at the show's renewal because it had forced her to drop out of another project which she was "really passionate about", one that would have been an artistic challenge compared to her role in "Fresh Off the Boat". She further stated that she loved her cast mates and harbored no animosity towards them. The posts sparked backlash on social media. In July 2022, Wu revealed that the controversy, and specifically several private messages from "a fellow Chinese actress" who told Wu that she had "become a blight on the Chinese American community", had prompted her to attempt suicide; she was found by a friend and saved. Wu abstained from social media for the subsequent three years and decreased her acting workload to "focus on my mental health", which included entering psychotherapy. In September 2022, Wu stated in interviews that she was the target of sexual harassment by an unspecified producer of "Fresh off the Boat".


title: Unreal Engine

text: Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game "Unreal". Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres of games and has seen adoption by other industries, most notably the film and television industry. Unreal Engine is written in C++ and features a high degree of portability, supporting a wide range of desktop, mobile, console, and virtual reality platforms.


title: Unreal Engine

text: The latest generation, Unreal Engine 5, was launched in April 2022. Its source code is available on GitHub after registering an account, and commercial use is granted based on a royalty model. Epic waives their royalties margin for games until developers have earned in revenue and the fee is waived if developers publish on the Epic Games Store. Epic has included features from acquired companies like Quixel in the engine, which is seen as helped by "Fortnite"'s revenue.


title: Unreal Engine

text: The first-generation Unreal Engine was developed by Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games. Having created editing tools for his shareware games "ZZT" (1991) and "Jill of the Jungle" (1992), Sweeney began writing the engine in 1995 for the production of a game that would later become a first-person shooter known as "Unreal". After years in development, it debuted with the game's release in 1998, although MicroProse and Legend Entertainment had access to the technology much earlier, licensing it in 1996. According to an interview, Sweeney wrote 90 percent of the code in the engine, including the graphics, tools, and networking.


title: Unreal Engine

text: At first, the engine relied completely on software rendering, meaning the graphics calculations were handled by the CPU. However, over time, it was able to take advantage of the capabilities provided by dedicated graphics cards, focusing on the Glide API, specially designed for 3dfx accelerators. While OpenGL and Direct3D were supported, they reported a slower performance compared to Glide due to their deficiency in texture management at the time. Sweeney particularly criticized the quality of OpenGL drivers for consumer hardware, describing them as "extremely problematic, buggy, and untested", and labeled the code in the implementation as "scary" as opposed to the simpler and cleaner support for Direct3D. With regard to audio, Epic employed the Galaxy Sound System, a software created in assembly language that integrated both EAX and Aureal technologies, and allowed the use of tracker music, which gave level designers flexibility in how a game soundtrack was played at a specific point in maps. Steve Polge, the author of the Reaper Bots plugin for "Quake", programmed the artificial intelligence system, based on knowledge he had gained at his previous employer IBM designing router protocols.


title: Unreal Engine

text: According to Sweeney, the hardest part of the engine to program was the renderer, as he had to rewrite its core algorithm several times during development, though he found less "glamorous" the infrastructure connecting all the subsystems. Despite requiring a significant personal effort, he said the engine was his favorite project at Epic, adding: "Writing the first Unreal Engine was a 3.5-year, breadth-first tour of hundreds of unique topics in software and was incredibly enlightening." Among its features were collision detection, colored lighting, and a limited form of texture filtering. It also integrated a level editor, UnrealEd, that had support for real-time constructive solid geometry operations as early as 1996, allowing mappers to change the level layout on the fly. Even though "Unreal" was designed to compete with id Software (developer of "Doom" and "Quake"), co-founder John Carmack complimented the game for the use of 16-bit color and remarked its implementation of visual effects such as volumetric fog. "I doubt any important game will be designed with 8-bit color in mind from now on. Unreal has done an important thing in pushing toward direct color, and this gives the artists a lot more freedom," he said in an article written by Geoff Keighley for "GameSpot". "Light blooms [the spheres of light], fog volumes, and composite skies were steps I was planning on taking, but Epic got there first with Unreal," he said, adding: "The Unreal engine has raised the bar on what action gamers expect from future products. The visual effects first seen in the game will become expected from future games."


title: Unreal Engine

text: "Unreal" was noted for its graphical innovations, but Sweeney recognized in a 1999 interview with "Eurogamer" that many aspects of the game were unpolished, citing complaints from gamers about its high system requirements and online gameplay issues. Epic addressed these points during the development of "Unreal Tournament" by incorporating several enhancements in the engine intended to optimize performance on low-end machines and improve the networking code, while also refining the artificial intelligence for bots to display coordination in team-based gamemodes such as Capture the Flag. Originally planned as an expansion pack for "Unreal", the game also came with increased image quality with the support for the S3TC compression algorithm, allowing for 24-bit high resolution textures without compromising performance. In addition to being available on Windows, Linux, Mac and Unix, the engine was ported through "Unreal Tournament" to the PlayStation 2 and, with the help of Secret Level, to the Dreamcast.


title: Unreal Engine

text: By late 1999, "The New York Times" indicated that there had been sixteen external projects using Epic's technology, including "Deus Ex", "The Wheel of Time", and "Duke Nukem Forever", the latter of which was originally based on the "Quake II" engine. Unlike id Software, whose engine business only offered the source code, Epic provided support for licensees and would get together with their leads to discuss improvements to its game development system, internally dubbed the Unreal Tech Advisory Group. While it cost around $3 million to produce and licenses for up to $350,000, Epic gave players the ability to modify its games with the incorporation of UnrealEd and a scripting language called UnrealScript, sparking a community of enthusiasts around a game engine built to be extensible over multiple generations of games.


title: Unreal Engine

text: In October 1998, IGN reported, based on an interview with affiliate "Voodoo Extreme", that Sweeney was doing research for his next-generation engine. With development starting a year later, the second version made its debut in 2002 with "America's Army", a free multiplayer shooter developed by the U.S. Army as a recruitment device. Soon after, Epic would release "Unreal Championship" on the Xbox, one of the first games to utilize Microsoft's Xbox Live.


title: Unreal Engine

text: Though based on its predecessor, this generation saw a notable advance in rendering terms as well as new improvements to the tool set. Capable of running levels nearly 100 times more detailed than those found in "Unreal", the engine integrated a variety of features, including a cinematic editing tool, particle systems, export plug-ins for 3D Studio Max and Maya, and a skeletal animation system first showcased in the PlayStation 2 version of "Unreal Tournament". In addition, the user interface for UnrealEd was rewritten in C++ using the wxWidgets toolkit, which Sweeney said was the "best thing available" at the time.


title: Unreal Engine

text: Epic used the Karma physics engine, a third-party software from UK-based studio Math Engine, to drive the physical simulations such as ragdoll player collisions and arbitrary rigid body dynamics. With "Unreal Tournament 2004", vehicle-based gameplay was successfully implemented, enabling large-scale combat. While "Unreal Tournament 2003" had support for vehicle physics through the Karma engine, as demonstrated by a testmap with a "hastily-constructed vehicle", it wasn't until Psyonix created a modification out of Epic's base code that the game received fully coded vehicles. Impressed by their efforts, Epic decided to include it in its successor as a new game mode under the name Onslaught by hiring Psyonix as a contractor. Psyonix would later develop "Rocket League" before being acquired by Epic in 2019.


title: Unreal Engine

text: A specialized version of UE2 called UE2X was designed for "" on the original Xbox platform, featuring optimizations specific to that console. In March 2011, Ubisoft Montreal revealed that UE2 was successfully running on the Nintendo 3DS via "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D". "The 3DS is powerful, and we are able to run the Unreal Engine on this console, which is pretty impressive for a handheld machine, and the 3D doesn't affect the performance (thanks to my amazing programmers)," said Ubisoft.


title: Unreal Engine

text: Screenshots of Unreal Engine 3 were presented by July 2004, at which point the engine had already been in development for over 18 months. The engine was based on the first-generation, but contained new features. "The basic architectural decisions visible to programmers of an object-oriented design, a data-driven scripting approach, and a fairly modular approach to subsystems still remain [from Unreal Engine 1]. But the parts of the game that are really visible to gamers –the renderer, the physics system, the sound system, and the tools– are all visibly new and dramatically more powerful," said Sweeney. Unlike Unreal Engine 2, which still supported a fixed-function pipeline, Unreal Engine 3 was designed to take advantage of fully programmable shader hardware. All lighting and shadowing calculations were done per-pixel, instead of per-vertex. On the rendering side, Unreal Engine 3 provided support for a gamma-correct high-dynamic range renderer. The first games released using Unreal Engine 3 were "Gears of War" for Xbox 360, and "RoboBlitz" for Windows, which were both released on November 7, 2006.


title: Unreal Engine

text: Initially, Unreal Engine 3 only supported Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms, while iOS (first demonstrated with Epic Citadel) and Android were added later in 2010, with "Infinity Blade" being the first iOS title and "Dungeon Defenders" the first Android title. In 2011, it was announced that the engine would support Adobe Flash Player 11 through the Stage 3D hardware-accelerated APIs and that it was being used in two Wii U games, "" and "". In 2013, Epic teamed-up with Mozilla to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the web; using the asm.js sublanguage and Emscripten compiler, they were able to port the engine in four days.


title: Unreal Engine

text: Throughout the lifetime of UE3, significant updates were incorporated, including improved destructible environments, soft body dynamics, large crowd simulation, iOS functionality, Steamworks integration, a real-time global illumination solution, and stereoscopic 3D on Xbox 360 via TriOviz for Games Technology. DirectX 11 support was demonstrated with the "Samaritan" demo, which was unveiled at the 2011 Game Developers Conference and built by Epic Games in a close partnership with Nvidia, with engineers working around the country to push real-time graphics to a new high point.


title: Unreal Engine

text: While Unreal Engine 3 was quite open for modders to work with, the ability to publish and sell games meant using UE3 was restricted to licenses of the engine. However, in November 2009, Epic released a free version of UE3's SDK, called the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), that is available to the general public.


title: Unreal Engine

text: In December 2010, the kit was updated to include support for creating iOS games and apps. OS X compatibility followed in the September 2011 release.