Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by neoengsheng

Kojima's name removed from MGS 5.

neoengsheng — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 07:20:30 +0800

QUOTE

Metal Gear Solid 5's Box Art Removes Kojima Name
Konami strips game of Kojima Productions branding.

Konami has removed all mention of Hideo Kojima and his studio, Kojima Productions, from Metal Gear Solid V's box art.

New, and seemingly final, versions of the box art carry no mention of Kojima, where placeholder assets had previously showed the Kojima Productions logo and the line "A Hideo Kojima Game."

The news comes just days after Otsuka Akio, the Japanese voice actor for Metal Gear Solid's protagonist Snake, claimed the development studio no longer exists. "[Kojima Productions] has been disbanded," he said. "It appears that the work that the team has been putting their utmost effort into is nearly complete." Konami has yet to respond to the speculation.

This is not the first time Konami has sought to remove mention of the long-time Metal Gear director from its games. Back in March, the publisher deleted Kojima Productions branding from the Silent Hills/PT website, before announcing that the reboot project had been cancelled altogether.

Konami also wiped Kojima branding from official artwork and marketing material for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, as well as from Twitter and the publisher's LA office listing. But, until now, The Phantom Pain's box art had remained untouched.

A source close to Kojima Productions told GameSpot in March that Kojima is expected to leave the studio following the completion of The Phantom Pain. It is understood that the team's contracts run until December.

The Metal Gear Solid 5 release date has been set for September 1 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. The PC release date is scheduled to arrive two weeks later.

Original

New

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/metal-gea...e/1100-6428873/

Horrible Truth of No Man's Sky

neoengsheng — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 02:27:32 +0800

[youtube]7K6t77a9Rw0[/youtube]

Also, Planet Ini Milik Siapa.

BitSummit 2015-Kyoto Indie Game Fest

neoengsheng — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 00:04:49 +0800

A Healer Only Lives Twice
by Pon Pon Games
For: PC, Vita

[youtube]jCL9ilUZHoo[/youtube]

You and a guildie have come to ruins in forest for exploration. And the monsters began swarming to the blind alley. You are newbie priest. Heal the tank to push battle line. Restore health, gather junk, sweep enemies, and keep running ahead - while the last light doesn't go off.

GTA 5 joined AMD Gaming Evolved.

neoengsheng — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 13:47:21 +0800

QUOTE

GTA V joins the AMD Gaming Evolved stable, supports Contact Hardening Shadows

Grand Theft Auto V came out for the PC today. In tandem with that release, AMD has announced that GTA V is part of its Gaming Evolved initiative, and that the game supports its Contact Hardening Shadows (CHS) feature.

CHS uses factors such as the distance between a light source and an object, and the type of object casting a shadow, to render more realistic soft shadows. Radeon owners can enable this feature by selecting AMD CHS under GTA V's soft shadows graphics options.

Lest GeForce owners feel left out of the fancy soft-shadows club, Nvidia tells us that GTA V also supports its GameWorks Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows (PCSS) effects. This GeForce news post (http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/grand-theft-auto-v-nvidia-gameworks-and-technology) shows PCSS in action along with some other Nvidia-specific GTA V optimizations.

CHS is much better.

Some benchmark.

Nintendo just went full retard in Japan

neoengsheng — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 13:41:34 +0800

QUOTE

Japan's New Fire Emblem Has Four Versions, Is Crazy

The last Fire Emblem—which was amazing—was available in a single version. The next one, Fire Emblem if, is available in four (at least in Japan), and it’s both hilarious and horrifying to see it all written down in the one place.

Bear with me here. And note that everything I’m about to show you has been announced only for the Japanese version of the game.

Fire Emblem if, which features two warring factions, is going to be available in two boxed retail versions (above), each one playing through the game from one side’s perspective, with a different story and unique characters. If you buy one of these boxed versions and want to see how the other goes down, though, you can buy the other campaign as DLC at a discounted rate.

(Oh, and there’s a third campaign, included in neither boxed edition, that’s available only as DLC.)

There’ll also be a special edition made available, which bundles the light, dark and third campaign in a single purchase, along with other stuff like an art book (below).

But wait, there’s more! There will also be a single downloadable version of the game that lets you choose which faction you’ll fight for (the opening sections of both campaigns in all versions are identical, with the split happening later in the game; you can see it in the image below, with the divergence taking place at chapter “6”). Once this choice is made, it’s locked in.

Anyone buying this downloadable version can then of course also buy the DLC.

Just to recap, then, that’s four versions of the one game: two different boxed editions, a modified downloadable version and a special edition.

It’s absolutely bonkers. It’s almost as though the whole process was designed so that people look at all this, scratch their heads and just think “fuck it, I’ll just get the special edition, my head hurts”.

Perhaps understandably, Nintendo of America made absolutely no mention of any of this in their own announcement of if’s release. It’d be very surprising if they don’t keep it simple and just release the downloadable/choice version as the sole version in the West, and leave the third campaign for DLC.

http://kotaku.com/japans-new-fire-emblem-h...razy-1695153130

Simple version:
- 2 different version of the game, Black and White, each with different path in the campaign starting from Chapter 6 onward.
- 1 DLC campaign not available in either boxed copies.
- 1 downloadable version that will get locked in once you choose your side after Chapter 6, making it equivalent to either the Black or White version.
- 1 special edition that include Black, White, the DLC and artbook.
- Also available, owner of either White or Black can purchase the other path of the campaign as DLC.

Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem

neoengsheng — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 22:38:49 +0800

[youtube]0fS24IxelBA[/youtube]

New product from KFC HK.

neoengsheng — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 14:42:39 +0800

[youtube]C7gQHQMt4ls[/youtube]

Crisp "N" Crunch Potato Chips Chicken.

inb4 KFC Wipe Floor and Shoe Chicken.

Arkham Knight PS4 file size bigger than GTA5

neoengsheng — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:44:25 +0800

QUOTE

‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ PS4 File Size Is Bigger Than ‘GTA 5’

The Batman: Arkham Knight PS4 file size is going to be huge, making it literally the biggest game this year (so far). Rocksteady is set to take the concept of an open world title to a new level, competing with the current record holder Grand Theft Auto V.

The game was sighted on PSN with the new official Batman: Arkham Knight release date of June 23, and a file size which will take up nearly a tenth of either current generation console’s stock hard drive space. This is a good indication that when the PS4 bundle launches, you will probably need to wait at least 24 hours with an average internet connection before even being able to play the game. Downloading it could take a week on a lower bandwidth connection, and is not recommended for those of us with limited data plans.

At 48.7 GB of required space, the Batman: Arkham Knight PS4 file size is the biggest open world game yet. Compare this with the massive GTA 5 file size of 41 GB and you have one ambitious superhero title. While Grand Theft Auto 5 came with an added online version, it was still originally created for the previous generation and remastered like The Last of Us for the latest consoles. Arkham Knight was made specifically for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, so this could explain the higher file size.

With such a whopping hard drive footprint, gamers will be expecting some fantastic detail in every inch of the game. GTA 5 has a rather heavy attention to detail and takes over 700 MB less space on your hard drive.

This would be a good time for Nyko to finally release their Data Bank PS4 hard drive extension, with bigger titles starting to hit the market. Even USB 3.0 external hard drive support could help, if Sony ever enables the option.

Will you be able to handle the Batman: Arkham Knight PS4 file size this June 23, or will you need to delete a game or three to make room?

http://www.inquisitr.com/1973686/batman-ar...DOXGrdVwuLdo.99

GG consoles, time to upgrade hardisk.

Windows 10 Might Lock Out Other Operating Systems

neoengsheng — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 21:28:31 +0800

QUOTE

Windows 10 Might Lock Out Other Operating Systems

Microsoft says that Windows 10 will be a lot stricter when it comes to setting the Secure Boot feature. Once this feature is enabled, unauthorized installation of an OS other than Windows 10 is not allowed.

Microsoft has made it clear that this time, OEMs are no longer prevented from permanently enabling the Secure Boot on their personal PCs. This will give OEMs full discretion on whether or not to allow users to install other OSes beside Windows 10.

In previous Windows versions, Microsoft has allowed, and at times has even required, OEMs to make the Secure Boot setting user-adjustable. As indicated in the rules for the "Designed for Windows 8" logo, Microsoft mandates that every system should have a user-accessible switch that allows Secure Boot to be turned off, eventually making the PC more compatible with other OSes. The rules also required users being allowed to add their own signatures and cryptographic certificates to the firmware. This helps them to enjoy both the protection offered by Secure Boot and the freedom to compile their own software.

In the case of Windows 10, OEMs may enforce a non-disable option on the Secure Boot feature. This means that any OS the user wants to install will have to be digitally signed before it is allowed to be installed by Secure Boot.

Details on how Secure Boot's new feature will affect Windows 10 users are shown on slides presented by Microsoft at its hardware conference, WinHEC 2015.

"Win10 Desktop: It's OEM option whether to allow end user to turn off Secure Boot. Win 10 Mobile: Must not allow secure boot to be turned off on retail device," states Microsoft on one slide from the conference.

While the new feature may not seem an issue to some users, those who are keen on running an alternative OS may find it a bit troubling. For example, those who use their PC for gaming will have issues because there will be no way for them to dual-boot their Steam Machine to Windows 10 or to run SteamOS on a Windows 10 PC. Moreover, the absence of the Secure Boot off switch will make users unable to downgrade their new Windows 10 PCs and laptops to an older or even additional version such as Ubuntu and Linux.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/41580/20...ing-systems.htm

Udang di sebalik mee.

That Windows 10 free upgrade don't sound that good now.

Nvidia sudah datang dengan superiority talk

neoengsheng — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:05:18 +0800

QUOTE

Nvidia Explains Why Their G-Sync Display Tech Is Superior To AMD's FreeSync

This month, the battle for GPU market share officially extends beyond the computer itself and into the display space, with AMD’s FreeSync technology launching to compete with Nvidia’s G-Sync. G-Sync is a proprietary solution invented by Nvidia in 2013 to enable a smoother gaming experience by eliminating screen tearing and seriously reducing annoying problems like ghosting and stutter. It requires the addition of Nvidia’s G-Sync module inside each monitor that is sold. FreeSync is AMD’s long awaited answer, and is built on the back of a Adaptive-Sync, an open standard which doesn’t require the addition of extra hardware.

On the surface it’s easy to write off these technologies as equals. Thus, it’s easy for consumers to simply choose the cheaper option. But Nvidia’s on a mission to make sure you understand that there are differences — even differences you may want to pay a premium for.

What I know for a fact based on testing is that regardless of their unique approaches, both technologies dramatically improve the PC gaming experience more than any other solution in existence. This is only the beginning of the G-Sync versus FreeSync exploration, but take solace in the fact that regardless which technology you embrace, screen tearing and stutter will largely be a thing of the past.

I recently had an educational conversation with Tom Petersen, Distinguished Engineer at Nvidia, regarding those differences and a range of other topics related to the G-Sync versus FreeSync debate. It was so insightful that rather than use it as background information for future articles, I wanted to publish it verbatim. Please enjoy!

Cost Vs Price

Forbes: Tom, for anyone not yet invested in Nvidia’s ecosystem, what benefits are there to G-Sync, and what do you believe justifies the added price?

Tom Petersen: “That’s an interesting question. I differentiate cost from price. The price of a G-Sync monitor or the price of a GPU is what a user sees at a business. You can imagine that the cost — what Nvidia or an OEM incurs when building that product — is a totally orthogonal issue. Price is determined by the market, and by the consumers. If Asus tried to charge more for a G-Sync monitor like a Swift…they want to charge as much as they can, but if it’s too high the market doesn’t buy it, they don’t get to sell it, and the price goes down.”

Forbes: Speaking of Asus, the ROG Swift seems like a great example, because all reports indicate it’s constantly selling out at $749, which is obviously more expensive than an equivalent non G-Sync monitor.

Tom Petersen: “That tells me the price is probably too low. Commercially, if the price is too high you’ve got heavy stock, and prices come down to move that product. So I think as a very first principle, it’s important to differentiate in your mind the difference between price and cost. Cost is what determines profitability. So from an OEM’s perspective, they want to build products where the cost of manufacturing is lower than the price. So when I hear people talk about pricing, what I think a lot of people don’t understand is…most of the time, Nvidia or Asus or Newegg doesn’t really set the price. You get to effectively accept or not accept what the market is doing about pricing. The market is saying ‘I love this monitor, reviews are awesome, I’m willing to pay this much money.’ If you look at a FreeSync monitor and say ‘oh, they’re cheaper,’ that’s likely because the OEMs believe that the market will only tolerate a lower price. They’re not setting it lower because they want to make less money.

Let’s use another example, AMD’s Radeon 295×2. It launched at $1499 last year. Since then, the price of the 295×2 has been cut in half. Do you think AMD’s partners lowered the price because they wanted to make less money? Of course not! The market gave them feedback and said ‘I know it seems reasonable that this would be a $1500 part and you’re delivering a lot of performance, but that’s not the price.’ So then AMD said ‘Maybe $999 is the price.’ And the market responded by saying ‘nope, not quite.’ The G-Sync enabled ROG Swift has only come down in price by $50 in the last year. That’s because demand is there.

We come back to one of AMD’s principle arguments about our cost being higher than their solution. That’s absolutely true. But you know what? That’s an Nvidia problem. It’s completely unrelated and irrelevant to the consumer. You don’t bitch at Ford for having spark plugs that are platinum plated and cost 4 cents extra.”

Forbes: Ok, let’s talk about the cost to display manufacturers for G-Sync. I remember the original DIY kit was upwards of $240, but it can’t be that high for OEMs.

Tom Petersen: “No, it’s not. And the cost they’re incurring is something they’re factoring into their profitability. And that factors into the decision of whether or not they make them. The fact that OEMs like Asus are charging a significant premium for their monitors makes perfect sense to me. They’re building a monitor for gaming, and the market loves it. So everybody’s happy, right?”

Why Nvidia — And Its Users — Need The G-Sync Module

Forbes: Credit where credit is due: I give Nvidia props for inventing a solution to screen tearing, stutter, and input lag well before an open standard existed. But will we ever see a day when Nvidia ditches their proprietary solution in favor of Adaptive-Sync?

Tom Petersen: “When we invented G-Sync, we determined very early on that in order to accomplish everything we wanted, we needed to be on both sides of the problem — at the front end where we’re controlling the GPU, and the backend inside of the monitor. As FreeSync comes to market, we’ll be able to compare the different strategies and see which one’s more effective. For us, having the module inside the panel allows us to deliver what we think is a very good experience across a full range of operating frequencies for refresh rate or framerate. We have some really significant technology inside that module dealing with the low end of refresh rates. So as a game transitions from 45fps down to 25fps and back, and games get really intense? During that transition our tech kicks in and delivers a smooth experience over that transition.”

Forbes: Let’s talk about the minimum response times that both G-Sync and Adaptive Sync support.

Tom Petersen: “First of all, the spec ‘Adaptive Sync’ has no minimum. Both have the ability to communicate any range, so there’s nothing about the base specs that are different. What’s interesting though, is the reason there are panel-specific refresh limits. LCD images decay after a refresh, you kinda paint the screen and it slowly fades. That fade is just related to the panel. The reason there’s an Adaptive Sync spec and G-Sync module is because that lower limit is variable depending on the technology inside the panel. But games don’t know about that! So what do you do when a game has a lower FPS than the minimum rate you want to run your panel? Because when they run below that minimum rate things start to flicker, and that’s a horrible experience.”

Forbes: So what specifically does Nvidia do to combat that?

Tom Petersen: “I can’t go into too much detail because it’s still one of our secret sauces. But our technology allows a seamless transition above and below that minimum framerate that’s required by the panel. PC Perspective wrote an article guessing how we did that, and they’re not that far off…”

Forbes: You’ve said in the past that one of the crucial goals of G-Sync was to never introduce screen tearing, no matter what.

Tom Petersen: “You never want to introduce stutter, either. It’s a complex problem, which is why we think you need some of that secret sauce in both the driver and the module. In contrast, AMD’s not doing that. As you transition from the high frequencies to the low frequencies of FPS, they have some jarringly negative experiences coming out of their zone. If you take any of their panels and run it from whatever frequency is in the zone, to any frequency out of the zone at the low end, the experience is not good at all.”

Now G-Sync addresses two problems at the low end, tearing and stutter. Stutter is caused by having a repeat of the exact same frame. So you show all these new frames, then suddenly if you’re not able to keep up with the refresh rate minimum, you see that frame twice. That’s what V-Sync does, repeating a frame. But when you repeat a frame, motion stops and that’s why you feel a stutter. G-Sync doesn’t do that. It adjusts the refresh rate to keep it above that minimum rate, and we have other techniques like shifting and centering to avoid stutters. It’s a tough problem, which again requires the module inside the monitor. If you download our new G-Sync demo which purposefully goes in and out of that zone on your AMD FreeSync monitor, you’ll see that whether you’re tearing of stuttering, the experience is not great. You can set whatever framerate range you want, and it operates across all monitors to compare the differences.”

Ghost In The Machine

Tom Petersen: “There’s also a difference at the high frequency range. AMD really has 3 ranges of operation: in the zone, above the zone, and below the zone. When you’re above the zone they have a feature which I like (you can either leave V-Sync On or V-Sync Off), that we’re going to look at adding because some gamers may prefer that. The problem with high refresh rates is this thing called ghosting. You can actually see it with AMD’s own Windmill Demo or with our Pendulum Demo. Look at the trailing edge of those lines and you’ll see a secondary image following it.”

Note to readers: I have seen this firsthand on the Acer FreeSync monitor I’m reviewing, and PC Perspective noticed it with 2 additional FreeSync monitors, the BenQ XL2730Z and LG 34UM67. To illustrate the problem they recorded the aforementioned monitors running AMD’s Windmill demo, as well as the same demo running on a G-Sync enabled Asus ROG Swift. Ignore the stuttering you see (this is a result of recording at high speed) and pay attention to the trailing lines, or ghosting. I agree that it’s jarring by comparison.

Tom Petersen: “We don’t do that. We have anti-ghosting technology so that regardless of framerate, we have very little ghosting. See, variable refresh rates change the way you have to deal with it. Again, we need that module. With AMD, the driver is doing most of the work. Part of the reason they have such bad ghosting is because their driver has to specifically be tuned for each kind of panel. They won’t be able to keep up with the panel variations. We tune our G-Sync module for each monitor, based on its specs and voltage, which is exactly why you won’t see ghosting from us.

We also do support the majority of our GPUs going back to Kepler. The 650Ti Boost is the oldest GPU we support, and there’s a lot of gaps in their GPU support. It’s a tough problem and I’m not meaning to knock AMD, but having that module allows us to exercise more control over the GPU and consequently offer a deeper range of support.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho...mds-freesync/2/

Our product is better because..... secret. We perform better because.... secret. We need the extra 200USD module because.... secret.

Buy our superior product because "it just works" /apple

Note: Multiple tech review websites already reviewed the panels mentioned and pinpoint the source of the problem to panel manufacturer. The only 2 that tries to pin the problem on AMD FreeSync is 1, Nvidia and 2, PC Perspective which is known to be biased toward Nvidia and openly admits in comment section that they did not properly calibrate the monitor and openly admits that they are not expert in panel review yet keep insist that their review is legit because they "do the test in lab" and "measured using scientific equipment".

AMD FreeSync vs G-Sync review

neoengsheng — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:16:04 +0800

QUOTE

FreeSync vs. G-SYNC Performance

One item that piqued our interest during AMD’s presentation was a claim that there’s a performance hit with G-SYNC but none with FreeSync. NVIDIA has said as much in the past, though they also noted at the time that they were "working on eliminating the polling entirely" so things may have changed, but even so the difference was generally quite small – less than 3%, or basically not something you would notice without capturing frame rates. AMD did some testing however and presented the following two slides:

It’s probably safe to say that AMD is splitting hairs when they show a 1.5% performance drop in one specific scenario compared to a 0.2% performance gain, but we wanted to see if we could corroborate their findings. Having tested plenty of games, we already know that most games – even those with built-in benchmarks that tend to be very consistent – will have minor differences between benchmark runs. So we picked three games with deterministic benchmarks and ran with and without G-SYNC/FreeSync three times. The games we selected are Alien Isolation, The Talos Principle, and Tomb Raider. Here are the average and minimum frame rates from three runs:

Except for a glitch with testing Alien Isolation using a custom resolution, our results basically don’t show much of a difference between enabling/disabling G-SYNC/FreeSync – and that’s what we want to see. While NVIDIA showed a performance drop with Alien Isolation using G-SYNC, we weren’t able to reproduce that in our testing; in fact, we even showed a measurable 2.5% performance increase with G-SYNC and Tomb Raider. But again let’s be clear: 2.5% is not something you’ll notice in practice. FreeSync meanwhile shows results that are well within the margin of error.

What about that custom resolution problem on G-SYNC? We used the ASUS ROG Swift with the GTX 970, and we thought it might be useful to run the same resolution as the LG 34UM67 (2560x1080). Unfortunately, that didn’t work so well with Alien Isolation – the frame rates plummeted with G-SYNC enabled for some reason. Tomb Raider had a similar issue at first, but when we created additional custom resolutions with multiple refresh rates (60/85/100/120/144 Hz) the problem went away; we couldn't ever get Alien Isolation to run well with G-SYNC using our custome resolution, however. We’ve notified NVIDIA of the glitch, but note that when we tested Alien Isolation at the native WQHD setting the performance was virtually identical so this only seems to affect performance with custom resolutions and it is also game specific.

For those interested in a more detailed graph of the frame rates of the three runs (six total per game and setting, three with and three without G-SYNC/FreeSync), we’ve created a gallery of the frame rates over time. There’s so much overlap that mostly the top line is visible, but that just proves the point: there’s little difference other than the usual minor variations between benchmark runs. And in one of the games, Tomb Raider, even using the same settings shows a fair amount of variation between runs, though the average FPS is pretty consistent.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9097/the-amd-freesync-review/4

TL;DR version:

FreeSync is just as good as G-Sync.

Inb4 Nvidia purposely cripple FreeSync performance in future TWIMTBP title.

Why not build a full surround holo hall?

neoengsheng — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 15:07:03 +0800

[Youtube]9-B8LnBNwO8[/youtube]

Since Japanese already have a holo concert of Miku, why not build a concert hall with surround holo screen so that the hall scenery can change base on what song is being presented? Sure better than using props, lightning and LED screen.

Possible Rdeon R9 390X leak

neoengsheng — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:38:47 +0800

QUOTE

AMD Radeon R9 390X Video Card Specifications and Performance Numbers Leak

t appears that AMD isn’t liking the fact that all eyes are on NVIDIA this week during their GPU Technology Conference and released some internal slides to the gang over at VideoCardz on the AMD Radeon R9 390X graphics card! The R9 390X slides just happen to have specifications for AMD’s upcoming flagship GPU along with some performance numbers that show it is up to 60% faster than the AMD Radeon R9 290X that was released in 2013.

Legit Reviews asked AMD if these slides were real yesterday and they quickly responded by letting us know that they were likely fake and that “There’s a reason why we haven’t acknowledged any product names yet. And we’re still a bit away from talking about it, let alone launch…” With that in mind, let’s dig in!

The AMD Radeon R9 390X uses the Fiji XT GPU and is said to have 4,096 stream processors and is paired with either 4GB or 8GB of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) that is said to deliver remarkable memory bandwidth. The slide shows the Radeon R9 390X having the 4096 stream processors running at up to 1050MHz, which is good for 8.6 TFLOPS of compute performance. The original Radeon R9 290X had 5.6 TFLOPS of compute performance, so this is a nice little jump up. The slide also shows the AMD Radeon R9 390X can come with either two 8-pin PCIe power connectors or one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

The incredible memory performance is thanks to Hynix HBM technology that uses a memory interface that is a 4096-bit memory interface that should give the 390X around 1.25TB/s of memory bandwidth. VideoCardz says that “earlier plans were to release Radeon R9 390X with 4GB HBM (1GB per stack), but TITAN-X launch made those plans obsolete. Currently AMD is planning to launch R9 390X with 8GB HBM, but 2GB per stack (through Dual-Link). We were told it was a very hard decision to make.”

The AMD Radeon R9 390X is said to support full DirectX 12 features and of course AMD’s own Mantle API along with things like LiquidVR, FreeSync and more.

The slides also show there is an AMD Radeon R9 390X WCE, which stands for water-cooled edition. AMD water cooled the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB video card, so to see another water cooling option on their next-generation flagship GPU doesn’t come as too big of a shock.

On the Radeon R9 390X performance that was leaked it looks like the R9 390X will perform between 50-65% better than the Radeon R9 290X in 4K UDH gaming when looking at four game titles. Will the AMD Radeon R9 390X be able to hang with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X?

inb4 FAKE AND GHEY.

Dyson invest in tech to double battery life

neoengsheng — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 23:20:09 +0800

QUOTE

Dyson Invests $15m In Tech To Double Smartphone Battery Life

Sakti3’s technology could ultimately double battery life for electric cars and smartphones

Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson has agreed to invest $15m (£10m) in a US start-up whose technology could double battery capacity for products including smartphones and electric cars.

Sakti3, founded in 2008 by former University of Michigan engineering professor Ann Marie Sastry, produces lithium-ion batteries that use solid-state technology, rather than the liquid electroytes that have in some cases caused fires.

The technology is safer than liquid-based lithium-ion technology, introduced by Sony in 1991, and could also effectively double battery life, according to the company.

The deal gives Dyson the exclusive use of Sakti3’s technology in both its existing products and new product areas.

Sir James Dyson, the engineering entrepreneur who founded the company, said Sakti3’s technology is the most promising approach to increasing battery life it has come across.

“Sakti3 has achieved leaps in performance, which current battery technology simply can’t,” he said, adding he hopes to see the technology in Dyson products within the next three years.

Sastry said the joint venture is aimed at scaling up new ideas and making them “a commercial reality”.

Robotics

The batteries are to be used first in Dyson products such as new versions of its cordless or robotic vacuum cleaners. Dyson last year announced a four-year £1bn research and development plan that includes an expansion of its robotics activities.

The company introduced its first autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner in September, using 12 batteries, twice the number found in its cordless vacuum cleaner. Dyson said last year it would invest £5m in a new Imperial College London robotics laboratory, and its new Wiltshire campus also includes a robotics lab.

Sakti3 had previously raised $30m from backers including General Motors, Japanese conglomerate Itochu and investment group Khosla Ventures.

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/mobility/d...i26fC1wvfV6v.99

Longer battery life and safer battery, no more exploding phones.

Inb4 Apple patent it.

AMD Freesync driver available 19 March

neoengsheng — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 23:02:05 +0800

QUOTE

AMD FreeSync monitors now available in select regions

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan X is right around the corner, so it's time for AMD to come stomping on its parade with a new FreeSync-capable driver. We're sad it's not the Radeon R9 390X, but this will do until then.

While AMD FreeSync capable monitors are now available in select regions, AMD has given a short update regarding it saying that the FreeSync driver will be coming on March 19th.

According to AMD, FreeSync monitors are now available in some countries in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and since "gamers are excited to bring home an incredibly smooth and tearing-free PC gaming experience powered by AMD Radeon GPUs and AMD A-Series APUs", AMD has announced that FreeSync-capable driver for single-GPU configurations will be available on March 19th. Unfortunately, those running on AMD Crossfire system will have to wait until April.

Plenty of manufacturers, including Acer, LG, BenQ, Iiyama anmd many more, have already announced their own FreeSync monitors so there will be plenty of choice when it comes to screen size and resolution.

In case you missed it earlier, FreeSync is AMD's response to Nvidia G-Sync and syncs the refresh rate of the monitor with the rendering rate of the AMD Radeon GPU, thus removing screen tearing and reduce stuttering in games. We had a chance to check it out during CES 2015 and it looked pretty good.

Most manufacturers announced that their FreeSync monitors will be available during this month so finally we will have a chance to see AMD's FreeSync push in retail/e-tail.

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/3722...-select-regions

Go to website for epic fanboy war.

Also, FreeSync capable driver for Crossfire will be available in 1 month.

Average monitor price difference between G-sync and FreeSync monitor is about 200USD.

Some Freesync monitor
BenQ 27-inch 144Hz XL2730Z £497.99
34" ultra-wide LG Flatron 34UM67 £499.99
Acer's 27" Predator XG277HU £429.95

G-sync monitor
Asus ROG Swift PG278Q £619.99

Titanfall 2 incoming for PS4, XB1 and PC

neoengsheng — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 20:41:53 +0800

QUOTE

EA Indicates 'Titanfall 2' Will Come To PS4, Not Just Xbox One

It’s been whispered since before the original Titanfall even came out for Xbox One and PC, that a future sequel would ditch the “anything but PS4” release policy and expand to Sony ’s system as well in later installments. EA and Respawn were very clear that their deal with Microsoft extended only to the first game in the series, and barring any sort of dramatic renegotiation, Titanfall would expand outward after that. Now, we’re hearing from EA directly that it’s very likely going to be the case.

At the 2015 Technology, Internet & Media Conference on Monday, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen spoke about the future of Titanfall (via Gamespot).

“Last year it was on the Xbox only; in the future, we haven’t yet announced, but we’ll probably have another Titanfall game. It will probably be a bigger footprint than just a single platform. I think that’s a huge positive for us.”

Titanfall has come up in conversation recently as today marks the release of Evolve, another AAA, multiplayer-focused game, promising innovation, but still trapped at a $60 price point which some fans may find too high. Side-by-side, Evolve does seem to have more content than Titanfall did at launch, though admittedly Respawn has done a great job continuing to expand their original game as time has gone on.

With that said, Titanfall was not the blockbuster it was heralded to be, and joined Watch Dogs as a 2014 high profile release that wasn’t the “gamechanger” everyone predicted. Official, total sales numbers have never been released for Titanfall, though amateur estimates put the game at just over 4 million copies sold across Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. Though that is likely leaving out a fair number of uncountable digital sales.

In short, it seems that whatever enormous sum of money Microsoft paid EA and Respawn to keep Titanfall off PlayStation, it’s unlikely they would pay it again for Titanfall 2. As such, that frees up EA to release on PS4 in the future, and Jorgensen cited “30 million” new-generation consoles sold so far, which includes 18.5M PS4s, and means he estimates that 11.5M Xbox Ones have been sold to consumers. Sadly, as ever, the Wii U is not a part of the conversation.

Despite a less than record-breaking launch on Xbox, I do think that Titanfall could be a valuable franchise for EA going forward. Now that the mechanics of the game are in place, and they’ve had a ton of feedback to go on, Respawn can make a sequel more expansive than the first game. Namely, they can flesh the game out so that it’s more than just a multiplayer melee.

Titanfall created a cool word full of mechs and monsters, and did absolutely nothing with it. Though it’s a common notion that in many famous multiplayer games like Halo and Call of Duty, some players will skip the campaign and dive straight into deathmatches, I think a story is beyond important for establishing a presence in the pantheon of video game lore. It introduces at least a solid 6-12 hours of unique gameplay, and creates memorable characters that can go on to become icons. I’ve said in the past that one of Titanfall’s primary problems was that the game had no face. No one to point to and say, “yes, that’s the hero of this game.”

Destiny has this problem too, but at least bothered to have some semblance of a story (albeit a bad one), and at least a handful of characters, even if most of them are Tower vendors. Even the story-less Evolve has characters with actual faces and voices you’ll remember and associate with the game. Titanfall just had a fleet of faceless mechs and pilots, and random voices that periodically yelled at you over the radio during the game’s faux “campaign,” which was just slightly tweaked multiplayer matches.

Honestly, if Titanfall 2 simply arrived with all the multiplayer additions Respawn has added since launch, and a solidly scripted story/campaign mode, it would have the potential to really make an impact this time around. Combine that with a multiplatform launch, and Titanfall could become a real player in the shooter space. For all its faults regarding a lack of content, mechanically, I still don’t think I’ve played a better shooter in years, and I think it even bests Destiny and Advanced Warfare in that regard. With that solid foundation, all they need is more content to make the purchase price worthwhile and the universe memorable, and they’ll be well on their way to becoming the hit franchise they always wanted to be.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/201...-just-xbox-one/

inb4 dead after 1 month.

BAFTA Game Award 2015.

neoengsheng — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 01:37:42 +0800

For TL;DR,scroll down to last part for result.

QUOTE

Destiny surprises at the Bafta video game awards

Destiny has been named as best game at 2015's British Academy Game Awards.

The post-apocalyptic first-person shooter was developed by Bungie. It was the US studio's first release after quitting the Halo series.

The title attracted mixed reviews, and its relatively bare-bones plot continues to divide gamers.

The award surprised many in the audience at the London ceremony as it had not won any of the other categories it had been nominated for.

However, Bungie's skill at crafting alien-slaying gunfights appears to have helped it seize the top prize.

Accepting the award Bungie's president thanked Destiny's players.

"It's always a labour of love that we do because of the passion of the fans," said Harold Ryan.

"They really are the ones who drive you to put the energy and time into putting the game together."

Several other biggest-budget nominees - including Assassin's Creed Unity, Mario Kart 8 and Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare - walked away without a prize.

Big name losers

OlliOlii - the low-budget skateboarding video game from London-based studio Roll7 - beat both Fifa 15 and Forza Horizon 2 for the best sport video game.

The actress Ashley Johnson defeated the Hollywood star Kevin Spacey to win the best performance award for Ellie in The Last of Us: Left Behind.

And the puzzle game Lumino City - which was created using real-world models made out of paper, card, miniature lights and motors - beat Ubisoft's Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed Unity for artistic achievement.

Monument Valley won British game of the year. Its developers, UsTwo Games sparked a brief backlash in November after charging £1.49 for extra levels - a fee many gamers thought justified after trying them out.

The title also took the mobile and handheld category.

Alien: Isolation, by Sussex-based The Creative Assembly, only walked away with the audio achievement prize despite entering the ceremony as the favourite with six nominations.

Return winner

The awards were hosted by the comedian Rufus Hound - his first time in the role.

His opening monologue poked fun at the rising number of video games that sell expensive downloadable content in the months following the original title's release.

However, that did not stop last year's big winner, The Last of Us, from also scooping up the best story award for its add-on tale, Left Behind.

In fact, many of the winners managed to secure what might be seen as David-and-Goliath battles.

Analysis: Adam Rosser, presenter of Radio 5 live's Game On

There was an audible ripple of surprise in the press room as Destiny took the best game Bafta.

Destiny has been criticised in many quarters for being the epitome of "grind", suffering from a sparsely populated game world and repetitive gameplay.

In many people's minds the game has struggled to integrate two genres: the first-person shooter and the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

That was always going to be a tall order.

As was following the well-thought of Halo series, which Bungie built its reputation on.

Destiny took the template that Halo established and spun a similar aesthetic out into a different kind of universe.

One in which Earth is threatened by "the Darkness", a nebulous adversary that wouldn't be out of place in a Luc Besson film, and the central "character" in the game, The Traveller is a mute orb in whose shadow the last safe city on Earth is founded.

There are good ideas scattered through the game but at present, several DLC (downloadable content) releases in, it still manages to feel unfinished.

In a strong category - up against Alien: Isolation, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and even Mario Kart 8 - the decision to give the most high profile award to Destiny looks, to many, like an eccentric one.

Paying respects

The awards this year introduced a new category - best persistent game, representing titles whose action continues even when the player is not taking part.

Destiny had been nominated for the prize, but it went instead to Riot Games' hugely popular League of Legends.

Following the announcement, Mr Hound paused to pay tribute to the fantasy author Terry Pratchett, whose death had been announced hours earlier, and the late Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, who voiced several video games.

There was also a sombre moment following the award for "original property" when the team behind Ubisoft Studio's Valiant Hearts paid their respects to the Word War I soldiers who had inspired its puzzle adventure.

This year's winner in the "ones to watch" category was Overly Kinetic, a development team made up of students from the University of Southern California.

They created the distinctive "stealth-deathmatch" multiplayer game Chambara, in which four players camouflage themselves in the game's environment while trying to sneak up on and attack each other.

The category is linked to the Dare to be Digital competition run by Abertay University, which gives contestants nine weeks to create a prototype, and is intended to bring attention to new talent.

Another American team, albeit a more experienced one, celebrated taking the "multiplayer game of the year" prize - Blizzard Entertainment for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

The developer beat Destiny for the prize.

The creators of the strategy card game revealed during their acceptance speech that some in their studio were dubious about its prospects before its release.

The title - which is a spin-off from the role-playing game World of Warcraft - recently revealed it had attracted 25 million registered players.

Fellowship

David Braben - the creator of Elite and its most recent sequel Elite: Dangerous - received a standing ovation when he took to the stage to be given the Bafta fellowship by another British gaming legend, Ian Livingstone.

Mr Braben suggested that we are on the "cusp of a golden age for video gaming".

WATCH: David Braben spoke to the BBC shortly before being presented his award

"The rise of the indies is truly amazing," he said. "It's the best time there has been to be in this wonderful industry."

He thanked members of the public who had crowdfunded his latest title and his colleagues at Frontier Developments.

At one point it had seemed that Elite: Dangerous would not raise its target of £1.25m on Kickstarter, which would have meant it would have missed out on the seed money.

Microsoft recently revealed that the title would soon be released for its Xbox One console following its success on PC.
Category Winner

Best game
Destiny (Bungie)

British game
Monument Valley (UsTwo)

Debut game
Never Alone (Upper One Games)

Story
The Last of Us: Left Behind (Naughty Dog)

Performer
Ashley Johnson for The Last of Us: Left Behind

Artistic achievement
Lumino City (State of Play)

Audio achievement
Alien Isolation (The Creative Assembly)

Family game
Minecraft: Console Editions (Mojang/4J Studios)

Game design
Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions)

Game innovation
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Mobile and handheld game
Monument Valley (UsTwo)

Multiplayer game
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)

Music
Far Cry 4 (Cliff Martinez, Tony Gronick and Jerome Angelot)

Original property
Valiant Hearts (Ubisoft Studios)

Persistent game
League of Legends (Riot Games)

Sport game
OlliOlli (Roll7)

Ones to watch
Chambara (Overly Kinetic)

Bafta fellowship
David Braben (Frontier Developments)

sos: www.bbc.com/news/technology-31862717

Most lol winner and category:
Destiny- best game
LoL- persistent game (definition as quoted " titles whose action continues even when the player is not taking part")

Lastly, drillz of Ashley Johnson, the girl that play Ellie in Last of Us.

Rules of Internet

neoengsheng — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 14:26:09 +0800

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/D...FCC-15-24A1.pdf

From great 'Murica to all /k lawyer.

inb4 TDFL;DFR.

Edit: no democracy included as requested by hoimangkuk.

Darksiders creator got new game

neoengsheng — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:33:45 +0800

QUOTE

Darksiders creator returns to his Battle Chasers comics for a new game

Darksiders creator Joe Madureira has announced a new game based on his Battle Chasers comics from the late ’90s. This is the first project from Madureira’s new studio, Airship Syndicate, which includes former developers from Madureira’s previous studio, Vigil Games. He also intends to launch a new run of the Battle Chasers comic, which ended on a cliffhanger in 2001 after nine issues.

Madureira and co-founder Ryan Stefanelli described the game to Polygon as a role-playing game with “a sense of adventure similar to the Darksiders games.” Details are otherwise scarce on the project except that it will be “kind of classic and old school but presented with some new modern twists.”

Airship Syndicate is still undecided about how to raise money, considering the range of options from standard investors and publishers to newer, crowdfunding platforms. Madureira and Stefanelli plan to keep the development team small, at just 10-15 people. The game is targeted for PC and console development, with tablets under consideration.

No publisher or release date has been announced for the accompanying comics. Battle Chasers was an action fantasy comic that originally ran for nine issues from 1998 to 2001, first published by WildStorm and then Image Comics. While beloved by fans, the comic’s publishing schedule was notoriously inconsistent, with unpredictable gaps between each issue. Madureira left the comics industry in 2001 to pursue his career in games, leaving the series unfinished. It told stories of fantastic adventures in an arcanepunk setting, with a style reminiscent of old Heavy Metal comics — burly men and buxom women swinging huge swords.

He plans to release the new run in three-issue arcs. The first such arc resolves the story from the original comics and ties in with the game. Should the game and comic catch on, Madureira hopes to expand the franchise into other media. “I’ve always wanted to do an animated series, possibly, so there’s a couple of different options that we’re pursuing for bringing the franchise back in a big way.”

Darksiders and its sequel were third-person action RPGs, fusing the exploration and puzzle-solving of Zelda games with the hack-and-slash combat of games like God of War and Devil May Cry. Series developer Vigil shut down in 2013 when owner THQ collapsed.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/battle...sers-announced/

http://www.airshipsyndicate.com/

PAX East 2015 collection - Day 2

neoengsheng — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 10:42:41 +0800

[youtube]9dzm_DS5pT0[/youtube]

[youtube]h0yy-oo2tJs[/youtube]

[youtube]FLg_rZpH9Ag[/youtube]

[youtube]GJyKMsCAKB0[/youtube]

[youtube]Ra1FA5iJGAs[/youtube]

[youtube]lrXeAM_KAX0[/youtube]

[youtube]pP0CmAHtevc[/youtube]

[youtube]yVYh_91FCZc[/youtube]

Post 3: Final fantasy 14 Heavensward

Day 2: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...20&p=73329295&#