Latest news with #Razed


Time of India
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
GTA V gets a jaw-dropping visual upgrade with this free mod, launching May 15
Image by Razed in the official mod Discord Grand Theft Auto V is set for a major overhaul, and the good news? It won't cost you a penny. A completely new version of the hit NaturalVision mod, called NaturalVision Enhanced , is releasing on May 15 and guarantees to take GTA V Enhanced's PC graphics to an entirely new level. With next-generation ray tracing and breathtaking lighting enhancements, the game is set to appear more realistic than it ever has before. NaturalVision Enhanced brings next-generation graphics to GTA V for free — videotechuk_ (@videotechuk_) The much-awaited NaturalVision Enhanced mod by Razed takes the ray tracing features added in the recent PC release of GTA V Enhanced to a new level. Rockstar's implementation already brought about ray traced global illumination and ambient occlusion, but this mod takes it to the next level. It brings volumetric clouds, a rebuilt lighting system, and even opens up hidden shadow rendering capabilities that were not switched on in the vanilla game. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Jawa Tengah: AI guru Andrew Ng recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Aroun... Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo Razed found that NaturalVision Enhanced took unused visual capabilities of GTA V Enhanced where all lighting sources can create more shadows. It is this extra feature that NaturalVision Enhanced turns on, bringing better depth and realism to everything from skyscrapers to street-level detail. The light adaptation system has also been revamped, performing well across the full map and weather conditions. Players will be able to access an in-game menu that allows them to switch the enhanced RTGI (ray traced global illumination) and RTAO (ray traced ambient occlusion) on and off in real time. You can even turn up the intensity of night-time RTGI effects for more extreme nighttime visuals. Release date, availability, and support for older versions NaturalVision Enhanced will be fully free to download and play. The release date is slated for May 15, and it will be compatible with the GTA V Enhanced PC version, now also on PC Game Pass. A trailer is in the process of being created to highlight the new visuals in action, and Razed has already posted several jaw-dropping screenshots and sliders on Discord. For those who are still playing GTA V Legacy on PC, there's also some good news: the original NaturalVision Evolved mod will keep on updating, with the latest being issued only last March. NaturalVision Enhanced is not merely a mod but an outright visual transformation that can compare to official remasters. Coming with a free launch on May 15 and seamless compatibility with PC Game Pass, this is an absolute must-play for any GTA V enthusiast who wants to see the game at its graphical best. Also Read: Did a GTA 6 screenshot sneak into San Andreas definitive edition?
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
As Rays stadium plans stall, new film remembers the Gas Plant neighborhood
A new documentary starring former residents of the Gas Plant aims to tell the story of what life was really like in the racially segregated neighborhood that is now Tropicana Field. Black-owned businesses thrived. Neighbors raised each other's children as their own. Kids caught crawfish in Booker Creek and scaled the two giant natural gas tanks that gave the neighborhood its name. It had the best views. Then public officials and the St. Petersburg Times described the area as blighted. They sold the community on a redevelopment plan promising affordable housing and light industry. Residents believed they could move out and come back to something better. None of that happened. That land was later used to build a baseball stadium on the prospect of luring a professional team to St. Petersburg. The Gas Plant, a safe haven in a city slow to reckon with its Jim Crow past, was lost in a bait-and-switch, residents who lived there say in the documentary. 'I can never forgive the city of St. Petersburg for the lie that they told us,' said William Graveley, one of two dozen Gas Plant descendants featured in 'Razed.' 'Razed' takes viewers through a timeline of how the Gas Plant came to be, how it grew into an important business and cultural district and how the neighborhood was torn down in the name of something better that never came. The documentary debuts this Saturday as the future of that land — and plans to right those wrongs — approaches a breaking point. 'Razed' revels in joyous memories and photographs but pulls no punches on what happened to the Gas Plant. But it stops short of wading into what is supposedly next for the Trop — a $6.5 billion public and private plan to build a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium and surround it with a neighborhood of housing, shops, restaurants, entertainment, office space and an African American history museum. The project's name pays homage: the Historic Gas Plant District. 'I hope it plays out differently this time around,' said Charles Dew, a St. Petersburg-born historian and author, at the end of the film. Mayor Ken Welch, who features prominently in 'Razed,' negotiated terms for the project that include affordable housing, jobs for local workers and opportunities for minority-owned businesses. But those plans are now up to the Rays to carry out, and it's not looking good. The Rays have until March 31 to move forward with that deal. Team brass as recently as Friday accused Pinellas County and St. Petersburg, which have granted $742 million in public funding toward the project, of breaking the agreement by delaying votes after last year's hurricanes resulting in cost increases. 'Razed' credits Gwendolyn Reese, a Gas Plant descendant and president of the African American Heritage Association, as a producer of the film. She helped the Rays with their development proposal as a paid consultant and gave public presentations on the team's plans. Reese helped organized a reunion in 2021 where 'Razed' director Andrew Lee and assistant director and producer Tara Segall began interviewing descendants of the Gas Plant. She kept that group together to share ideas and suggestions with the Rays as the team worked on plans for the new stadium and Gas Plant project. At a recent event discussing the film at Tombolo Books, Reese was asked by an audience member what choices or actions could be made to envision a better future for St. Petersburg. 'Well, mine is that we get up off our asses, excuse me, and move forward with the redevelopment of Tropicana Field,' Reese said, calling the deal 'the best thing that has ever come to St. Petersburg.' 'To move forward on that would, today, presently, would be a very great, giant step towards showing that the city is serious about that broken promise,' she told the crowd, 'but not just that broken promise, serious about progress, serious about equity.' Reese told the Tampa Bay Times that though the Rays agreed to cover all cost overruns as part of the deal, increased costs due to delays should not fall solely on the team. 'I think we all need to sit down together and figure it out,' she said, referring to the city and county. 'Razed' premieres Saturday to a sold-out crowd at the Center for Health Equity with a rolled out red carpet for the stars of the film, the Gas Plant descendants. A second show has been added due to demand. The film's executives are considering a limited run in local theaters and have pitched the documentary to a film festivals, as the story of stadiums displacing communities of color has played out throughout the United States.


Axios
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
"Razed" documentary delves into history of St. Petersburg's Gas Plant neighborhood
Decades after the Gas Plant neighborhood was swept aside, the pain lives on for its former residents. "The first thing I want to say," William Graveley says in the opening quote of a new documentary, "is I can never forgive the City of St. Petersburg for the lie that they told us." Why it matters:" Razed," a new film from local production studio Roundhouse Creative, delves into the history of St. Pete's Gas Plant neighborhood through the stories of Graveley and others who lived there. It comes at a pivotal moment: The city is on the precipice of redeveloping the historically Black neighborhood into a live-work-play district with an African American history museum, affordable housing and a new baseball stadium. Yes, but: It also comes amid a flurry of politicking that has left the future of the plan uncertain. Flashback: Before it was replaced by Tropicana Field and its vast expanse of parking lots, the Gas Plant neighborhood was a thriving community of Black-owned homes, churches, schools and businesses during segregation and Jim Crow. While the community was seen as blighted by white city and business leaders, former residents featured in the film tell of a close-knit neighborhood where people looked out for each other and kids roamed freely to play in Booker Creek or frolic in yards filled with fruit trees. Looming over it all were two cylindrical towers holding the city's natural gas supply for which the neighborhood is named. Everything changed in the 1980s, when the city took over and demolished the neighborhood, promising residents would return to a rehabilitated community with jobs, industry and affordable housing. "They dangled that carrot, and we bought that," former resident Gwendolyn Reese, who is also credited as a producer, says in the film. None of it happened. Instead, the city offered up the freshly demolished 86 acres as a site for what became the Trop. City and business leaders hoped a stadium would lure a major league team to St. Pete. Black people had been lied to before, Reese says, but what stood out was "the brazenness of it." Zoom in: Interspersed with interviews and black-and-white flashes of old St. Pete are ominous overhead drone shots of the Trop and footage of residents pointing out where their family homes once stood. "My house was this tree right here," says Carlos Lovett, who grew up in the neighborhood, while standing in a grassy median in the Trop's parking lot. "I made it this tree. … I needed a place to come back to." Directors Andrew Lee and Tara Segall got the idea for the documentary while working a video booth at a Gas Plant neighborhood reunion in 2021. They were tasked with filming residents sharing happy memories from the neighborhood, but folks kept pulling them aside, saying, "Let me tell you the real story," Lee said. What they're saying:"That's when it became clear there's emotion tied to this history," Lee said. "We felt this deep sense of obligation to tell these stories." "More than one person has said, 'Nobody's ever asked me what happened,'" Segall added. The big picture: With the help of Reese, who is also president of the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg, filmmakers over three years talked to 20 former residents, including Mayor Ken Welch and Courageous 12 member Leon Jackson. They also drew on historical records, newspaper archives and family photos. Between the lines: The film doesn't wade much into the Gas Plant and Trop redevelopment project on the horizon — and that's on purpose, Lee and Segall said. The filmmakers wanted to keep the documentary focused on preserving the history, and "maybe that insight can impact future decision-making," Lee said. Roundhouse maintained full editorial control, they said; neither the city nor the Rays had influence over the storytelling. What's next: The film premiers Feb. 22 at the Center for Health Equity in St. Pete. That viewing is sold out, but registration will open soon for a second showing Feb. 23. Residents can check here for viewing updates. The bottom line: "Can we put [the neighborhood] back together? No," former resident Russell Cato says in the film. "But we can put the history back together."