Technologies

Warframe Isleweaver’s Spider-Man-Like Frame Is a Masterpiece of Design

From concept to completion, creating the character Oraxia presented unique challenges for developer Digital Extremes.

There’s a lot to get excited about in Warframe’s Isleweaver expansion — which is free to play today on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. The update links the time-lost Warframe 1999 and the timeless islands of Duviri, pushes the Void War narrative arc forward and gives tight-knit player guilds a new large-scale operation to contribute to.

The biggest allure of a new update for many players will always be the shiny new toys, and Isleweaver has tons of those too. A new whip and throwable clustered barbs will make a fine addition to any stealthy player’s arsenal, while endgame builds will benefit from a new Incarnon weapon that’ll evolve and gain special abilities in the heat of battle.

But the most impactful addition to every Tenno’s toolkit is Oraxia, the 61st unique Warframe that players can pilot. She’s the culmination of a years-long community meme about adding a Spider-Frame into the game, and you’ll soon get a chance to scuttle around on spindly legs, summon an army of multilimbed children and assassinate enemies from above.

But it turns out that deploying extra legs and climbing on walls took an immense amount of effort to make work in Warframe, another challenge for a team that continues pushing itself to make wild fantasies playable in the game.

Oraxia «was definitely something that we only did because we’re crazy,» Warframe Design Director Pablo Alonso joked. «Honestly, we shouldn’t have done it. But at the same time, I’m happy we did, even though it pushed the team a lot to get this done.»

I spoke with Alonso and Warframe Creative Director Rebecca Ford to find out more about how Oraxia evolved from concept to reality, the stresses of modeling a completely new type of Warframe ability, and the challenges of creating this fearsome arachnid’s boss fight.

A skittering threat stalks the shadows

Warframe is all about empowering players to pick a power fantasy and live it out on the galactic stage.

Whether you enjoy playing more traditional roles, like a hack-and-slash knight or a damage-soaking tank, or you get your kicks from playing more unorthodox characters, like Sun Wukong or a walking nuclear reactor, there’s a frame in the game for nearly everybody’s favorite play style.

Each Warframe has to widen the net a little more, doing something completely different from the previous playable characters. The vision for Oraxia was actually quite simple: Like Spider-Man, she does whatever a spider can.

«She’s a predator,» said Alonso. «She lurks, she strikes, and she has her little army. That’s the core theme we were going for with her.»

Unlike in-your-face tanky frames, stealthy Warframes strike from the shadows, going invisible or lulling enemies into a deep slumber. When you play with Oraxia, you’ll skitter on walls with her ultimate ability and engage with your foes from above — they’ll become your prey.

«The walking with the elongated legs is the most exciting part of her kit,» said Ford. «Her ultimate move set is so cool, I feel like it’s unlike anything we’ve ever done before.»

«Especially once you start web whipping between walls and stuff, it makes the game feel very different and it’s a lot of fun,» Alonso added. «It almost makes you think of the game in a little bit of a different way, which is what we want.»

Alonso explained that gameplay diversity is one of the most important design pillars guiding the Warframe team, and that Oraxia already feels like a success because there’s nothing else in the game that compares with the feeling of popping out extra legs and web-swinging around the map.

«It’s very satisfying,» Ford said. «It’s a testament to not only the mechanics that were put in, but sometimes you just see the sound team hit with a small WAV file that makes all the difference. The sound for the web is excellent.

«All those little pieces come together when you have people working in their craft so excellently to create that satisfying button click,» Ford said. «Because at the end of the day, that’s all we’re doing, right? We’re putting together buttons and dressing them up in a way that makes it feel like something that’s never been in Warframe before.»

More legs meant more design challenges

Believe it or not, Oraxia existed far before the Spider-Frame meme took root in the Warframe community. Ford said the Warframe team wanted to piece this frame together as far back as 2023.

While developer Digital Extremes has a very close-knit relationship with Warframe players, Oraxia’s development process was largely unaltered by the memetic feedback the team was constantly bombarded with.

«For us, this was always a character that needed the whole treatment,» Alonso said. «There are memes that can be hard to overcome — think ‘Hydroid trailer‘ — but this one wasn’t much of a problem because we had so many cool concepts for what the Warframe was going to be. The meme of it being a secret was just kind of fun for us.»

What made Digital Extremes hold off on Oraxia for so long? Understandably, bringing this frame to fruition was something of a design nightmare.

«The perfect summary is that this was the ‘Oh, god, what have we done?’ Warframe,» said Ford.

Alonso explained that Oraxia was far more complex to create than the average Warframe because there were so many considerations that needed to be made regarding the legs that appear during her ultimate ability.

Every Warframe team needed to work in tandem to smooth the kinks with the latest frame. Oraxia required new model rigging, animation trees, animation tweaks and complete animation overhauls for how the frame’s legs move and react to the environment around them.

The unique shape of the frame meant collision hitboxes had to be tinkered with, and the player camera needed to be pulled back away from Oraxia because her legs were obscuring the aiming reticle.

There was a cascading series of issues that made the Spider-Frame a tough character to integrate into the game. But seeing the frame in action for the first time validated the team’s decision to commit to it.

«There were just so many things to fix with Oraxia, but the frame ended up being really cool,» Alonso said. «That’s the thing that always catches us: We want to make something cool, and it can be painful getting there, but it’s worth it in the end.»

From foe to friend: Creating a Warframe’s boss fight

Before you get a chance to try out Oraxia for yourself, you’ll have to challenge the sticky seamstress on a newly revealed island in Duviri.

This isn’t the first time players have had to fight another Warframe, of course. Solar rail specters have historically gated every new planet on the Star Chart, and the Stalker’s Warframe acolytes routinely show up to threaten you if you’re bold enough to walk the Steel Path.

Kullervo, one of the other Warframes featured in Duviri, has a boss fight of his own, where you challenge the tortured soul in his gladiatorial arena. But Warframe’s design team has had a lot of practice with boss fights since his debut, learning lessons that will apply in the battle against Oraxia.

«We’re getting better at telegraphing moves and being more careful explaining how things work,» Alonso said. «You know, we have a few bosses within Warframe that — even people that have been playing for years don’t really know how they work. They just know ‘shoot them until it dies’ and they don’t know why. So we want to find where those communication breakdowns are happening and fix those.»

Perhaps more importantly, Alonso explained that traditional boss fights really don’t work in a game like Warframe, so it’s up to the team to find fun new ways to make things challenging, without creating bullet-sponge enemies.

«We’re also trying to have more mechanics rather than just making bosses that essentially soak up damage. When it comes to just avoiding damage or dealing out damage, Warframes are so good at those things that fights become a DPS race,» Alonso said, referring to damage per second. «If it’s just a survivability race, you just subsume Mesmer Skin and stand there — there’s no problem in your life, right? So we’re basically trying to find those spots where there are interesting mechanics.»

Oraxia’s boss fight will include movement mechanics at different intervals, forcing you to avoid hazards in the midst of tangling with your venomous foe.

«In this one, we have some tunnels between boss stages, where you have to dodge some lightning,» Alonso said. «It’s not a complicated thing. It’s not a hard thing. But it’s fun to dodge, jump and slide under it. It adds a different beat of gameplay that feels very Warframe.»

If you’re looking for a model of what the Warframe team believes a good boss fight should feel like, look no further than the Technocyte Coda enemies introduced in Warframe 1999, Alonso said. You might not battle the same infested lich every time, but the stage hazards, like laser lights and explosions, anchor the fight.

«I think that shows a little bit of what we like, which is a bit of combat, then some kind of mechanical component before you’re back in combat again,» he said. «That flows really well, and we’ve found that it has a good rhythm to it.»

The Isleweaver update is available for free now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. You can dive into the Duviri invasion, help Dominus Thrax retake his throne, and battle Oraxia at her island lair next time you log in to Warframe.

Technologies

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

The magic of magnets tucked into your joysticks can put an end to drift. But which technology is superior?

Competitive gamers look for every advantage they can get, and that drive has spawned some of the zaniest gaming peripherals under the sun. There are plenty of hardware components that actually offer meaningful edges when implemented properly. Hall effect and TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance or tunneling magnetoresistance) sensors are two such technologies. Hall effect sensors have found their way into a wide variety of devices, including keyboards and gaming controllers, including some of our favorites like the GameSir Super Nova.

More recently, TMR sensors have started to appear in these devices as well. Is it a better technology for gaming? With multiple options vying for your lunch money, it’s worth understanding the differences to decide which is more worthy of living inside your next game controller or keyboard.

How Hall effect joysticks work

We’ve previously broken down the difference between Hall effect tech and traditional potentiometers in controller joysticks, but here’s a quick rundown on how Hall effect sensors work. A Hall effect joystick moves a magnet over a sensor circuit, and the magnetic field affects the circuit’s voltage. The sensor in the circuit measures these voltage shifts and maps them to controller inputs. Element14 has a lovely visual explanation of this effect here.

The advantage this tech has over potentiometer-based joysticks used in controllers for decades is that the magnet and sensor don’t need to make physical contact. There’s no rubbing action to slowly wear away and degrade the sensor. So, in theory, Hall effect joysticks should remain accurate for the long haul.

How TMR joysticks work

While TMR works differently, it’s a similar concept to Hall effect devices. When you move a TMR joystick, it moves a magnet in the vicinity of the sensor. So far, it’s the same, right? Except with TMR, this shifting magnetic field changes the resistance in the sensor instead of the voltage.

There’s a useful demonstration of a sensor in action here. Just like Hall effect joysticks, TMR joysticks don’t rely on physical contact to register inputs and therefore won’t suffer the wear and drift that affects potentiometer-based joysticks.

Which is better, Hall effect or TMR?

There’s no hard and fast answer to which technology is better. After all, the actual implementation of the technology and the hardware it’s built into can be just as important, if not more so. Both technologies can provide accurate sensing, and neither requires physical contact with the sensing chip, so both can be used for precise controls that won’t encounter stick drift. That said, there are some potential advantages to TMR.

According to Coto Technology, who, in fairness, make TMR sensors, they can be more sensitive, allowing for either greater precision or the use of smaller magnets. Since the Hall effect is subtler, it relies on amplification and ultimately requires extra power. While power requirements vary from sensor to sensor, GameSir claims its TMR joysticks use about one-tenth the power of mainstream Hall effect joysticks. Cherry is another brand highlighting the lower power consumption of TMR sensors, albeit in the brand’s keyboard switches.

The greater precision is an opportunity for TMR joysticks to come out ahead, but that will depend more on the controller itself than the technology. Strange response curves, a big dead zone (which shouldn’t be needed), or low polling rates could prevent a perfectly good TMR sensor from beating a comparable Hall effect sensor in a better optimized controller.

The power savings will likely be the advantage most of us really feel. While it won’t matter for wired controllers, power savings can go a long way for wireless ones. Take the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, for instance, a Hall effect controller offering 20 hours of battery life from a 4.5-watt-hour battery with support for a 1,000Hz polling rate on a wireless connection. Razer also offers the Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC, a near-identical controller with the same battery offering TMR sensors. They claim the TMR version can go for 36 hours on a charge, though that’s presumably before cranking it up to an 8,000Hz polling rate — something Razer possibly left off the Hall effect model because of power usage.

The disadvantage of the TMR sensor would be its cost, but it appears that it’s negligible when factored into the entire price of a controller. Both versions of the aforementioned Razer controller are $199. Both 8BitDo and GameSir have managed to stick them into reasonably priced controllers like the 8BitDo Ultimate 2, GameSir G7 Pro and GameSir Cyclone 2.

So which wins?

It seems TMR joysticks have all the advantages of Hall effect joysticks and then some, bringing better power efficiency that can help in wireless applications. The one big downside might be price, but from what we’ve seen right now, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. You can even find both technologies in controllers that cost less than some potentiometer models, like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

Caveats to consider

For all the hype, neither Hall effect nor TMR joysticks are perfect. One of their key selling points is that they won’t experience stick drift, but there are still elements of the joystick that can wear down. The ring around the joystick can lose its smoothness. The stick material can wear down (ever tried to use a controller with the rubber worn off its joystick? It’s not pleasant). The linkages that hold the joystick upright and the springs that keep it stiff can loosen, degrade and fill with dust. All of these can impact the continued use of the joystick, even if the Hall effect or TMR sensor itself is in perfect operating order.

So you might not get stick drift from a bad sensor, but you could get stick drift from a stick that simply doesn’t return to its original resting position. That’s when having a controller that’s serviceable or has swappable parts, like the PDP Victrix Pro BFG, could matter just as much as having one with Hall effect or TMR joysticks.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 18, #513

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 18, No. 513.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has a fun yellow category that might just start you singing. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I don’t care if I never get back.

Green group hint: Get that gold medal.

Blue group hint: Hoops superstar.

Purple group hint: Not front, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.»

Green group: Olympic snowboarding events.

Blue group: Vince Carter, informally.

Purple group: ____ back.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.» The four answers are Cracker Jack, home team, old ball game and peanuts.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Olympic snowboarding events. The four answers are big air, giant slalom, halfpipe and slopestyle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Vince Carter, informally. The four answers are Air Canada, Half-Man, Half-Amazing, VC and Vinsanity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ back. The four answers are diamond, drop, quarter and razor.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Feb. 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 18.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is a fun one, and it’s not terribly tough. It helps if you know a certain Olympian. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.