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Japan's largest contact lens maker signed a deal to build AR contacts

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Dec 9, 2020 10:40 PM CST

Menicon, Japan's largest contact lens manufacturer, just signed a deal with Mojo Vision to build augmented reality contact lenses. Yes, you read that right. Augmented reality contact lenses are a real thing.

Japan's largest contact lens maker signed a deal to build AR contacts

Mojo Vision is trying to create the worlds' first augmented reality smart contact lens. If any company can pull off Mojo Vision's crazy idea, it's Menicon. It is the perfect partnership and perhaps the only pairing that could pull off this incredible feat. Mojo Vision and Menicon plan to run feasibility studies to evaluate production and manufacturing processes.

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Continue reading: Japan's largest contact lens maker signed a deal to build AR contacts (full post)

Cyan's Myst is now available on Oculus Quest

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Dec 9, 2020 9:38 PM CST

Myst, the classic point-and-click puzzle adventure game from Cyan, has made its VR debut. The developer has rebuilt the game from the ground to make the adventure even more immersive.

Cyan's Myst is now available on Oculus Quest

If you grew up gaming in the '90s, you probably remember Cyan's Myst. This game captured countless gamers' hearts in the early '90s and was re-released multiple times over the last 27 years, including 2000's Masterpiece Edition and 2014's realMyst Masterpiece Edition. The game was subsequently followed up by a full series that included six full games to tell Myst's intricate tale.

Now, Cyan is bringing the original game back for a new generation to experience. Myst on Quest features all the actual puzzles from the original and intertwined storey plots of the original. It's ready for newcomers to dive in, and it's all set for veterans of the series. If you've played Myst enough times to remember the puzzles, you can enable puzzle randomization to bring fresh air to the experience. As if wandering around freely in Myst's four ages in 6-DoF VR isn't a new enough take on the game.

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Continue reading: Cyan's Myst is now available on Oculus Quest (full post)

Halo Infinite will have 'premium paths', but no randomness/lootboxes

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 9, 2020 5:33 PM CST

Just as we predicted long ago, Halo Infinite will be monetized with cosmetic skins. Now 343i re-iterates that REQ packs and lootboxes won't be included, but doesn't offer specifics on microtransactions.

Halo Infinite will have 'premium paths', but no randomness/lootboxes

Halo Infinite will have microtransactions. Monetization is a staple to most of Microsoft's first-party games, especially those with live elements. This concept goes double for Halo Infinite, which has a free-to-play multiplayer mode. But how exactly will Infinite be monetized? There will be skins and ornaments--that we know for sure--and REQ packs are dead. Expect to see paid paintjobs, custom armor/weapon skins, and a lot more offered in a straightforward mTX storefront.

Although details are light, 343i does confirm random unlocks won't be a part of Infinite's "premium path." Anything up for sale won't affect the game in any way, so expect everything to be 100% cosmetic.

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Continue reading: Halo Infinite will have 'premium paths', but no randomness/lootboxes (full post)

Joe Staten: Halo Infinite is the game Bungie imagined 20 years ago

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 9, 2020 4:11 PM CST

Halo Infinite isn't just another Halo game, but a platform for all future Halo games. It aims to be the definitive springboard for the franchise's future and deliver on Bungie's original vision.

Joe Staten: Halo Infinite is the game Bungie imagined 20 years ago

Shortly after Joe Staten joined the team, 343 Industries announced a Fall 2021 release date for Halo Infinite. The latest dev update highlights a ton of interesting details about Infinite, namely big graphical overhauls with the Slipspace engine. 343i apparently has made some huge improvements over the earlier gameplay footage and has used the delay time wisely.

The update is filled with lots of assurances from the studio. The general consensus is the July gameplay demo wasn't anywhere near finalized, and many key graphical and lighting effects were missing. Joe Staten also says the campaign is finished--or at least finished enough to play through--and that it's the culmination of Bungie's original vision way back in 2000.

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Continue reading: Joe Staten: Halo Infinite is the game Bungie imagined 20 years ago (full post)

Spider-Man Miles Morales loads in less than 10 seconds on PS5

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 9, 2020 3:13 PM CST

Spider-Man Miles Morales can load in less than 10 seconds on the PlayStation 5's SSD, compared to over 31 seconds on the PS4.

Spider-Man Miles Morales loads in less than 10 seconds on PS5

The PS5's new PCIe 4.0 SSD is a big leap for console gaming. Faster load times are the biggest revolution for consoles, and there's really no going back once you play games from the SSD. The PS5's drive is able to transfer data at up to 5.5GB/sec, over 100x faster than traditional 5400RPM HDDs in the PS4. The 12-channel SSD can load games much, much faster than console HDDs.

Read Also: Understanding the PS5's SSD: A deep dive into next-gen storage tech

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Continue reading: Spider-Man Miles Morales loads in less than 10 seconds on PS5 (full post)

Wondershare PDFelement 8: Is this PDF Editor worth it?

Sponsored Content | Software & Apps | Dec 9, 2020 1:56 PM CST

Wondershare PDFelement comes in a lot of flavors based on your device, PDF task complexity, and the need to collaborate online. Here are some of the top-selling document management products:

Wondershare PDFelement 8: Is this PDF Editor worth it?

Check out our review of the Wondershare PDFelement right here.

PDFelement 8 was designed to simplify how people interact with documents. Even if you don't need the powerful features for advanced users, you can conveniently work with simple tasks, too, making it the perfect PDF utility for both beginners and professional users.

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Continue reading: Wondershare PDFelement 8: Is this PDF Editor worth it? (full post)

DualSense stick drift is still a problem after new controller update

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 9, 2020 1:31 PM CST

A new software update for the DualSense is now available, but it won't fix analog stick drifting.

DualSense stick drift is still a problem after new controller update

DualSense stick drift may not be as widespread as Nintendo's controversial JoyCon drift, but it's still present. We've found out the hard way. Our pack-in DualSense controller started to significantly drift just days ago, making games unplayable. The only thing it's good for now is navigating menus.

Sadly, it appears firmware updates won't fix this issue (at least for us). Today Sony released a new DualSense patch that updates the controller to v0210. This didn't alleviate our issue. It appears the drifting is a hardware fault and can't be remedied by software updates, which makes sense considering the DualSense uses the same exact same drift-prone analog sticks as the DualShock 4.

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Continue reading: DualSense stick drift is still a problem after new controller update (full post)

Spider-Man Miles Morales gets 60FPS ray tracing mode on PS5

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 9, 2020 12:22 PM CST

Spider-Man Miles Morales now has an optional 60FPS ray tracing performance mode on PS5 that enhances ray-traced reflections while maintaining buttery-smooth frame rates.

Spider-Man Miles Morales gets 60FPS ray tracing mode on PS5

The new Spider-Man Miles Morales update clocks in at 261.9MB and brings a Performance RT mode, offering ray-traced 60FPS gameplay. RT with 60FPS is a pretty big deal for consoles, but Miles Morales runs at a lower resolution with this mode on. We're not exactly sure what resolution the game can hit with the perf setting enabled.

The mode does also seem to significantly lower the pedestrian density in Manhattan. Our tests show a markedly reduced AI character count while re-loading the game in Performance RT. The mode's description warns this will happen though: "This is an alternate version of the 60 frames per second "Performance" mode, adding ray-tracing by adjusting the screen resolution, reflection quality, and pedestrian density."

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Continue reading: Spider-Man Miles Morales gets 60FPS ray tracing mode on PS5 (full post)

New PS5 firmware update fixes download issues, Wi-Fi connectivity

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 9, 2020 11:11 AM CST

Sony just released the third major firmware update for the PlayStation 5 since launch, fixing Wi-Fi connectivity and game download issues.

New PS5 firmware update fixes download issues, Wi-Fi connectivity

The new PS5 firmware patch updates the console to v20.02-2.30.00.05-00.00.00.0.1 and squashes a few bugs. The update doesn't bring many big fixes outside of Wi-Fi support and specific use-case downloads, and it's not as dramatic as the second update which outright fixed random game deletion and USB DualSense charging. There's still no way to back up PS5 game saves outside of PS Plus, and M.2 SSD expansion is still unsupported (this won't be available until 2021).

The main fixes include Wi-Fi connectivity with specific routers, text input when playing PS4 games via backward compatibility, a bug that cancelled game downloads when transferring PS4 data to the PS5 (a nifty startup feature that saves you time), and general system stability.

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Continue reading: New PS5 firmware update fixes download issues, Wi-Fi connectivity (full post)

The lenses in the Lynx-R1 headset are like none we've ever seen before

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Dec 8, 2020 11:18 PM CST

Stan Larroque, the creator of the Lynx-R1 mixed reality headset, has been active on Twitter recently, sharing images of his prototype headset. One of the photos showed off the lenses, and the design is like nothing we've ever seen before in a VR or AR HMD. These lenses are square!

The lenses in the Lynx-R1 headset are like none we've ever seen before

In most headsets, the lenses you find are Fresnel-style lenses, which work well, but they are prone to cause the dreaded "godray" effect that many VR gamers complain about. We're not privy to Lynx's lens design specifications, but we're almost sure they do not incorporate Fresnel technology.

From the image that Larroque shared, you can clearly see that the lenses feature a square shape, and they are installed with the corners oriented like a diamond shape. The image also shows that the lenses comprise four triangular sections, which appear to have a bevelled shape that meets in a valley in the center.

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Continue reading: The lenses in the Lynx-R1 headset are like none we've ever seen before (full post)

Oculus brings Phase Sync frame timing technology to Quest SDK

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Dec 8, 2020 10:39 PM CST

This week, Oculus revealed to developers that its Phase Sync frame timing management technology is now available on Oculus Quest. The technology, created for the Oculus PC SDK, is now part of the Oculus Mobile SDK.

Oculus brings Phase Sync frame timing technology to Quest SDK

Oculus created Phase Sync more than three years ago for the Oculus Rift platform. It gives the rendering pipeline dynamic control of frame timing to reduce positional latency and works in conjunction with Asynchronous Time Warp, another Oculus-specific latency reduction technology. Phase Sync helps limit positional latency by giving the application just enough time for each frame to render, and no more.

When Oculus launched the original Quest, the mobile SDK used a fixed-latency approach, which gave each frame the same interval of time to complete. That worked fine when developer optimized their games for one set of hardware specifications, but with the Quest 2, that shortcut no longer works. Oculus said that Quest apps on Quest 2 often receive "early frames," which can cause framerate judder.

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Continue reading: Oculus brings Phase Sync frame timing technology to Quest SDK (full post)

Intel GPU boss Raja Koduri says GPU Golden Age is here, and he's right

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Dec 8, 2020 9:51 PM CST

Intel Senior Vice President, Chief Architect, General Manager, Intel Architecture, Graphics, and Software -- what a title, right?! -- Raja Koduri is geeking out about GPUs on Twitter and I love it.

Intel GPU boss Raja Koduri says GPU Golden Age is here, and he's right

Koduri tweets that it's "exciting to see these next to each other" which he is referring to the picture that has some delicious GPUs on show -- Intel Xe-HP, Xe-HPG, and Xe-HPC. We can see in the photo that the card on the right packs a single 8-pin PCIe power connector and a passive single-slot design with a short PCB.

But in a follow-up tweet, Koduri began geeking out about all the GPU releases this year, where he said: "A100, Xe LP, RTX 3X, Navi2, MI100, M1 - moved the GPU bar significantly forward, all the way from devices through edge to the data center. Can't wait to see what developers will do with all of this performance + Xe HP/HPG/HPC in 2021 and beyond - GPU Golden Age...".

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Continue reading: Intel GPU boss Raja Koduri says GPU Golden Age is here, and he's right (full post)

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk seems to be in Cyberpunk 2077

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 8, 2020 9:28 PM CST

Cyberpunk 2077 news is everywhere right now with the game launching on December 10, and now news is surfacing that Tesla Motors and SpaceX boss Elon Musk is in Cyberpunk 2077.

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk seems to be in Cyberpunk 2077

It was November 22, 2019 when Musk tweeted "See ya in 2077" with a wink emoticon, setting people into a flurry -- but now the game is here and an Elon Musk-like NPC has been spotted in a bathroom inside of the game. CDPR and Musk were tweeting each other last year, with CDPR saying "we had a done deal, Elon" to which he replied: "See ya in 2077".

You be the judge -- is this Elon?

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Continue reading: SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk seems to be in Cyberpunk 2077 (full post)

Medal of Honor VR's recommended specs are a little bit crazy

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Dec 8, 2020 8:59 PM CST

The first Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond in nearly a decade is about to launch, and this time it's the series debut in VR. Just as people are getting excited about it, the developer spoiled some people's excitement by revealing the recommended specifications. This is not a minimum VR spec type of game.

Medal of Honor VR's recommended specs are a little bit crazy

VR games have always been somewhat demanding, but you could also get away with playing on relatively modest hardware. When Oculus and HTC launched the Rift and Vive, you needed at least a GTX 970 to drive the headsets.

These days, you'd be hard-pressed to play the most recent games on a modern headset with a card like that. But you could still have a great experience on something like a GTX 1070. And when it came to the CPU, any i5 or better from the last 4 or 5 years would suffice in most games. Not so with Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. This game needs everything you can throw at it.

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Continue reading: Medal of Honor VR's recommended specs are a little bit crazy (full post)

Razer's teeny-tiny Tomahawk Gaming Desktop PC is now up for pre-order

Anthony Garreffa | Computer Systems | Dec 8, 2020 8:30 PM CST

Razer introduced the new Tomahawk Gaming Desktop at CES 2020 earlier this year, before the world was turned upside down by COVID-19, and now the small gaming PC is up for pre-order.

Razer's teeny-tiny Tomahawk Gaming Desktop PC is now up for pre-order

The new Razer Tomahawk Gaming Desktop is up for pre-order starting at $2399 (with no GPU) which will give you an Intel Core i9-9980HK processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD (yay) with a 2TB HDD @ 5400RPM (wtf). We have cooling through 120mm fans at the top, and another on the GPU.

Razer also offers the Tomahawk Gaming Desktop with a GPU as well, for $3199 -- where you will get the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition graphics card.

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Continue reading: Razer's teeny-tiny Tomahawk Gaming Desktop PC is now up for pre-order (full post)

Cyberpunk 2077 triggers seizures, CDPR reacts to add warnings

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 8, 2020 7:24 PM CST

Cyberpunk 2077 seems to be filled seizure-triggering moments, with Game Informer writer Liana Ruppert writing a piece titled Cyberpunk 2077 Epileptic PSA -- where she suffered a major seizure playing the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 triggers seizures, CDPR reacts to add warnings

Ruppert played through Cyberpunk 2077 and suffered "one major seizure" and then "felt several moments where I was close to another one" but decided to push on, so that she could put together a small guide for players who want to play Cyberpunk 2077 -- and don't want to miss out because they know it will trigger a seizure.

It seems the big problem with seizures while playing Cyberpunk 2077 are the Braindances, which are a feature of the game that lets players use Braindances to access another person's memories. Ruppert writes that "pretty much everything about this is a trigger and this is something that caused me to have a grand mal seizure when playing to help with our review. This is also a trigger on many levels, starting with the device itself".

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Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 triggers seizures, CDPR reacts to add warnings (full post)

Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K on $1499 GeForce RTX 3090... just 22FPS average

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 8, 2020 7:04 PM CST

Yeah Cyberpunk 2077 is the new Crysis, and maybe even worse -- as NVIDIA has just published some official benchmark numbers that will make your eyes water.

Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K on $1499 GeForce RTX 3090... just 22FPS average

Not even the flagship GeForce RTX 3090 which starts at $1499 can handle 4K 30FPS out of the box with the RTX 3090 hitting just 22FPS average (ray tracing + Ultra graphics) and not even 4K 60FPS with DLSS on "Performance Mode" for Cyberpunk 2077. This is with all of the ray tracing bells and whistles on, with the GeForce RTX 3080 at just 15.5FPS average and 51.8FPS average with DLSS enabled.

NVIDIA's previous-gen Turing-based flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti hits just 13.4FPS average in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K, while enabling DLSS pushes the frame rate up to 38FPS average -- much further away from the new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards.

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Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K on $1499 GeForce RTX 3090... just 22FPS average (full post)

XPG expands its chassis portfolio with the XPG Defender Pro E-ATX Case

Kevin Carbotte | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Dec 8, 2020 6:34 PM CST

XPG today revealed the XPG Defender Pro, an all-new E-ATX mid-tower chassis with plenty of space and cooling capacity for today's most advanced hardware.

XPG expands its chassis portfolio with the XPG Defender Pro E-ATX Case

XPG's new Defender Pro case features support for graphics cards up to 380mm in length and CPU coolers as tall as 170mm. XPG said the case also offers "optimized airflow efficiency" to keep your hardware cool.

The Devender Pro's stock configuration includes three XPG Vento 120 ARGB fans, two in the front and one at the back. The case has room for an additional four fans, for a total of seven throughout the chassis.

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Continue reading: XPG expands its chassis portfolio with the XPG Defender Pro E-ATX Case (full post)

In Death: Unchained gets free Siege of Heaven DLC and it's out today

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Dec 8, 2020 5:16 PM CST

In Death: Unchained, one of the top titles on the Oculus Quest platform, just got a new game mode that expands the game in new ways. The developer described the Siege of Heaven DLC as a "game within the game" that adds further depth and challenges to the already excellent title.

In Death: Unchained gets free Siege of Heaven DLC and it's out today

The Siege of Heaven DLC adds a new mode called gate defence, which, unlike the standard game, is a stand-your-ground type of shooter. In Siege of Heaven, the enemies come to you; you don't need to find them.

Superbright, the development studio behind the game, said that the new gate defence mode is much easier for newcomers to jump into. The rounds are short, at 15 minutes per battle, and you don't need to learn movement mechanics to play the game because you're defending one spot.

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Continue reading: In Death: Unchained gets free Siege of Heaven DLC and it's out today (full post)

Cross-play is finally coming to Destiny 2 in 2021, Vault of Glass too

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 8, 2020 4:44 PM CST

First there was cross-saves. Now Bungie is finally bringing cross-play to Destiny 2, but we don't know exactly when.

Cross-play is finally coming to Destiny 2 in 2021, Vault of Glass too

In a recent dev update, Bungie confirms cross-play is coming to Destiny 2 sometime in 2021. There's no exact timeframe for the new feature, but it'll be part of 2021's slate of updates that also includes the Vault of Glass raid, new strikes, and more.

Hopefully we won't have to wait until Destiny 2's big new Witch Queen expansion before cross-play rolls out.

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Continue reading: Cross-play is finally coming to Destiny 2 in 2021, Vault of Glass too (full post)

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