Latest News - Page 2456

Soon, I'm going to have to stop reporting on these teases of next-gen video cards, because I'm just getting too excited. We're at the point now where we're talking and reporting about the cooling shroud being removed like it's another bread crumb in the Pascal trail.

Today, we have the cooling shroud removed from the Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1080/GTX 1070, with the new cooler made using die-sinking technology. Die-sinking technology is a method of shaping a form with sparks, or electric discharges. As I explained in my GTX 1080 post yesterday, these coolers provide me with the feeling of Transformers, and I don't know if I like that or not - yet.

The new pictures see the GTX 1080 cooler made from four parts, with one of the characters in the GTX 1080/1070 not placed yet, so that it can be placed as a '7' or '8' depending on the card.

After teasing a rough GPU roadmap at its Capsaicin event during the Game Developers Conference, AMD has just replaced it with an official roadmap that shows what to expect through to 2018.

This year, we know that it's all about Polaris, but in 2017 the real fun begins with the Vega architecture as AMD will be using HBM2 on their next-gen GPU architecture. In 2018, the company will succeed Vega with Navi, which teases a still unknown "NextGen Memory".

The new Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 GPUs will feature fourth-gen GCN cores, with HEVC encode/decode abilities, the it's-about-damn-time HDMI 2.0 capabilities as well as DP1.3, and is built on the exciting new 14nm FinFET process. Now, let's get into more detail.

Another No Man's Sky gameplay preview has been spotted, this time showing off 15 minutes of footage on Sony's PlayStation 4.

Sean Murray recently sat down with Anthony Carboni to showcase half an hour of No Man's Sky, revealing even more tidbits about the game. We've already tracked a massive list of things you can do in No Man's Sky, but Murray always seems to surprise us time and time again--no matter how much you think you know about the game you're always shown something new.

The playthrough shows us what a typical session will look like, with exploration, material mining, weapon crafting, and conversations with aliens. We do get to see a nice glimpse at weapon customization and how attachments will work, pretty much confirming how important raw materials are. Based on the small glimpse we get of the inventory screen, I can see that Man's Sky is going to be a huge grind fest. Players will be planet-hopping for materials to build up their weapons, recharge shields, boost ships, and build all kinds of new tech. But you won't just be crash-landing on planets for mats--you can mine them from asteroids as well.

The Solus Project is a different sort of survival game than you might be used to. Inside is actually a very fascinating and complete storyline with objectives to complete, all set in an open world, which is almost the antithesis of most games of the genre. They give you a massive alien island to explore, and try to stay alive on, but that wasn't quite enough for them.They're planning on releasing an expansion that includes even more land to explore called The Highpoint Expansion.

This is actually the third expansion available, and it's completely free. They're adding in a more vertical element to the game, with caverns that have all manner of strange things to explore. You'll get to go deep into, and down, the cavern system as well as up. The gentlebeings at Grip Digital have included some new acid lakes, flying orbs and other strange flying and monstrous things that you'll have to avoid, lest you die investigating them.

Aside from the new visuals and creatures, the new expansions adds around three hours of story-based content with many new things to do, or try to complete anyway. They've even added a giant windmill apparently, too. They've put a lot of effort into this new expansion and have been able to fix nearly all of the previously known bugs and issues to ensure playability.

As reported last week, Apple has quietly retired its QuickTime software. While most don't use it anymore anyway, an important group still does: Adobe software users on Windows, which are now left hung out to dry.

The Adobe Creative Cloud team describes the situation as "unfortunate", and says it doesn't yet have an estimated date for when Adobe will have its dependencies worked out.

"There are some codecs which remain dependent on QuickTime being installed on Windows, most notably Apple ProRes. We know how common this format is in many worfklows, and we continue to work hard to improve this situation, but have no estimated timeframe for native decode currently."

Hotel rooms on the Las Vegas strip are getting outfitted with next-gen adult video rentals--VR porn.

Seedy porno and hotel rooms are pretty much peas in a pod--and that goes double for Las Vegas hotel rooms. Now this harmonious union has been "erected" to the most realistic level outside of actual sex--virtual reality. A production company called VR Bangers (yes, that's really the name) is teaming up with VR headset maker Auravisor to bring full 360-degree VR porn as an on-demand service in Las Vegas hotels.

To get access to a porn-loaded Auravisor--a self-contained 1080p VR headset with a 5.1-inch screen--you have to drop $20, and you get the headset for a period of time. VR Bangers says that users will "see your hotel room replicated in the VR headset," and the experience will allow users to participate in an actual first-person sex simulation rather than...well...traditional porn-watching. Given how disgusting publicly-used VR headsets can be without...uhm..."handling" oneself, I can only imagine how funky these headsets will get.

Chat bots are becoming increasingly more complex with the ability to actually hold down a real(ish) conversation. Microsoft has been previewing some of their advanced AI (not the now failed Tay project) through Skype, but it has previously only been available to users of Windows, Android or even iOS. The desktop (and larger mobile) Apple crowd had been left out. That's changed, just in case you'd rather not talk to humans.

The Mac client now natively supports talking to the bots, as does the web client, of course. Bot integration is now available because sometimes talking to real humans can be a pain in the tuckus. Though this isn't an example of advanced interaction, you're able to try speaking to six different bots that are in a beta state. These six bots are able to spit out basic information to queries you make. You can ask for the latest news, weather, and other things like that. They even understand natural language, so you shouldn't have to modify how you ask questions to get the proper response.

Now, to actually make them available you'll have to take a number of steps. On your Mac in the Skype app, navigate to Contacts, then select Add Bot. Easy enough really. In the web client, all you have to do is click on the Discover Bot on the left-hand side. Then you'll be able to interact with relatively intelligent assistants, which is what it amounts to at the moment.

Sony has set a strict requirement that all PlayStation Neo games run at a minimum resolution of native 1080p.

Sony's new PlayStation Neo (PS4.5/PS4K) will ensure native rendering resolution of 1920 x 1080 is the new standard for its games library--no more 900p upscaled to 1080p tricks. This new native standard is to allow smooth 1080p to 4K resolution upscaling, which is made possible by the console's new hardware. The PS4 Neo is powered by an APU built with what appears to be a Polaris 10 Ellesmere GPU derivative clocked at 911MHz, combined with a 2.1GHz 8-core Jaguar CPU, and rounded off by 8GB GDDR5 RAM at 218 GB/s.

Giant Bomb dropped the new details, citing leaked internal documents as their source. "It seems like [Sony] won't allow a display buffer lower than 1080 in Neo Mode, so these cases of games under 1080 getting scaled up, seems like that will only be a Base Mode thing," the publication said in its latest podcast.

Lian Li is combing two centerpieces of the desktop into one clever product: the desk and the case. The DK-04 blends both seamlessly while looking damn slick in the process, as well as offering water cooling and the option for a standing desk setup thanks to adjustable height settings.

You can mount up to eight 2.5'' or 3.5'' drives easily with thumbscrews on the DK-04; support for eight expansion slots and VGA cards up to 320mm in length means just about any graphics configuration is possible; four USB 3.0 ports, HD audio inputs, and an optional lighting kit are located at the front. Anchored cable clips means better organization.

The difficult part to swallow is the $1499 price tag, which will be too much for most.

Fallout 4's first-ever Creation Kit mod is now available for download, featuring two new quests, enemies, weapons, and a bunch of other custom content.

The mod is called Ransacked Relays and Shuddersome Subways, and is made by the infamous modder trainwiz, and shows off the versatility of the Fallout 4 Creation Kit with a few quick quests and fully-customized interiors.

All in all the mod is pretty quick, but it's a nice taste of what to expect when Creation Kit mods hit later this month. If you download the mod check our quick walkthrough below to help you get up and running.

Japanese car maker Mitsubishi admitted today that it cheated on fuel efficiency tests for select models in an effort to present 5 to 10 percent better than accurate numbers. President Tetsuro Aikawa and other company executives (pictured below) bowed in apology at a press conference today.

The cheating occurred when testing the air resistance and rolling resistance of tires tests, where "improper conduct" was used; Bloomberg reports this included intentionally varying the load placed above the wheels of the vehicles. Additionally, the company stated it has been using a mileage test since 2002 that isn't compliant with Japanese law.

Models affected include the eK Wagon and eK Space, as well as the Dayz and Dayz Roox as supplied to Nissan. All are mini-cars, none of which are available outside of Asia; 625,000 units were sold or supplied through March 2016.

Though the PlayStation 4 is nearly half through it's life, Sony isn't quite done with supporting the PS3 just yet and have issued another update to the aging console for those the no doubt sizable amount of people who still own and play it. Update 4.80 is available either through as a manually installed .pup file or via auto-update.

The update is more of a stability update than anything else, with not mention of any included features or specific fixes that it might address. The last update, firmware 4.76 which was released in January of 2016, was also more of a general stability update with the only other mentioned feature being the discontinuation of support for Facebook integration.

There are still a surprising amount of PS3's in the wild that are actually being used. They are still a viable platform for consuming media and even for playing games. The back catalog of great games is rather large and the ability to play more PSOne classics or PS2-era games via backward compatibility is much appreciated, though that's coming to the PS4 slowly but surely. It is, however, nice to see Sony take the time to address any latent issues in the older console because it likely still sells for them now that they're profitable to manufacture for them. The PlayStation 2 lived on well after the PS3 was released in the guise of a smaller device, which sold well in Japan and in the west. It's a natural move, there are plenty of great games to still play on the PS3 even. Sony reported the last hardware shipment numbers for the fourth quarter of 2011, which totaled 1.9 million units.

It's official--the Xbox 360 is done. Microsoft will no longer manufacture new Xbox 360 consoles, so existing inventory is all we have left.

Microsoft today announced that it will be discontinuing the Xbox 360 console, choosing the tenth anniversary to reveal the upsetting news. Microsoft really does have a weird way of celebrating a whole decade of gaming, don't they?

"Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft. And while we've had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us. Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. We will continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country."

Maingear just added a new 15-inch portable workstation to their lineup of portable powerhouses. The new Pulse 15 Pro combines NVIDIA's Quadro M2000M professional graphics with Intel's mobile Xeon's to make for a very productive, yet thin, mobile workstation.

Maingear has stuffed a lot of fast technology into a very small package with the new Pulse 15 Pro. It's only .75-inches thick but has an Intel Xeon E3-1505M running at 2.6GHz installed with up to 16GB of ECC enabled DDR4-2133MHz RAM and can have up to two Samsung 950 Pro NVMe enabled M.2 drives in RAID 0 for some insane read and write speeds. The shining star, of course, is the Quadro M2000M with 4GB of RAM with 640 CUDA cores capable of accelerating any OpenCL or CUDA workload you might run across. That can drive up to a 4K (2160P) IPS screen. As with all of Maingears products, you can choose from a variety of paint schemes where they apply automotive grade paint to the top cover. This all starts at a $2549.

The idea is that content creators and professionals of all types can use this to properly edit 4K video while on the go. It's also quite useful for anyone that needs a bit of power and the safety of ECC memory. "The Pulse 15 Pro will offer even the most demanding creative professional, with incredible processing power, blazing speed and impeccable graphics performance," said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. "With 4K video so easily accessible, even some of the most powerful machines can 'hiccup' when rendering it, however we've built this new workstation to effortlessly power through it."

Back in January, Netflix began getting serious about cracking down on VPN users, which utilize various software to gain access to other countries' broader catalogues. It made good on its word which has since prompted over 40,000 people to sign a petition demanding the company back off. Despite this, it's not concerned, calling the uproar 'inconsequential' in its earnings call this week.

"It's a very small but quite vocal minority," said CEO Reed Hastings. "So it's really inconsequential to us, as you could see in the Q1 results."

That said, Netflix sympathizes strongly with that minority, having stated publicly many times it eventually wants all of its content to be globally available, thus eliminating the demand for VPNs among its users.

The console generation cycle is changing. The days of a new console every 5-7 years are long gone. Now we have iterative mid-cycle upgrades built on existing hardware, with consoles evolving more rapidly and dramatically than they ever have before. According to Oddworld developer Lorne Lanning, this new cycle is a necessity if Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo want to stay competitive.

Sony's new upgraded PlayStation 4.5 console is proof that the console market is changing. To stay relevant and keep up the constantly shifting world of tech, Sony and Microsoft have to adapt. Sony's doing this with the PS4.5, and Microsoft is also experimenting with new Xbox hardware. As such, Oddworld developer Lorne Lanning says that Sony's plan makes sense and that consoles will need to change to stay competitive against other gaming platforms like mobile phones.

"I asked Shu[hei Yoshida] a question...I asked him 'so what's the PS5 look like?' And he said 'you mean IF.' And I was like whoa...He said 'Yeah, it's an if.' He didn't give me a clear answer, but he's hinting at '[Sony] needs to be more agile, and none of us knows what the future holds. So how do we adapt to that fast?' I think that's the right way to think about it. And the idea that you're going to release a piece of technology that lasts for seven years into the future...I think that's less and less viable. Even though generations of platforms seem to last longer, the problem is that, eventually, is that mobiles are going to get more powerful than consoles..."

Sony is apparently adamant about upgrading their current console, infusing it with more raw power to tap into so to have better looking games at potentially higher resolutions. But isn't that the same thing as simply creating a new console? One would think, but Sony isn't sure that there ever will be a true PlayStation 5 at all.

Back in February of 2015 it seems that a Lorne Lanning, a veteran in the gaming industry, was able to talk to the president of PlayStation, Shuhei Yoshida, at a private dinner following DICE 2015. The question was raised, rightfully, what a PlayStation 5 might just look like. Yoshida countered with an "if", meaning that such an idea was transitory at best. That answer could also have been technically specific, meaning that they were already working on the PS4.5, or Neo, at the time and that in the short-term there were no certainties regarding a specific generational increase.

Just as Microsoft's approach has changed to be more agile and flexible, so too has Sony realized that with PC hardware evolving at the rate it does, they also do to keep up and ensure playability and interest is maintained. Resolution is unfortunately a topic of great interest to gamers and a source of greater consternation, as of late. It does have an effect on how we experience playing, though perhaps not as great as some would have you believe. But if the two big console makers can't compete in terms of resolution, or in performance at those resolutions, then it could potentially lower their market share. More power also means access to other ways to experience gaming, such as AR, and VR as well as being able to have better looking games at more modest resolutions that play faster.

Microsoft is a very unique position to sweep in and topple Sony's mighty PlayStation empire--but it'll take lots of careful planning.

Remember back at E3 2013 when Don Mattrick revealed the always-online Xbox One with its non-shareable games? That event nearly demolished the Xbox brand altogether, and it's taken three years for the company to put the pieces back together. Sony won this current generation simply by doing the complete opposite of Microsoft and listening to its consumer base. Now the roles have been reversed--Sony's new PlayStation 4.5 is the company's pre-E3 2013 Xbox One, and Microsoft has found itself in a very advantageous position to steal this generation.

Microsoft has a singular advantage over Sony: the new Windows 10 Dev Mode. This new tool allows devs to make a single game that's playable on both PC and Xbox, alleviating the need for multiple ports. Sony's PlayStation 4.5, on the other hand, is a nightmare for devs because they now have to make two PS4 ports of every game, meaning multi-plat will need four ports (PS4, PS4.5, Xbox One, and PC). Every PS4 game released after October needs to have two versions--a PS4 and a PS4.5 flavor that supports 4K upscaling. As a result of this news, the new PS4.5 is pissing off lots of devs, and BioWare's co-founder even went so far as to say its a "gigantic pain in the ass".

Peter Jackson is incredibly excited about the prospect of bringing, mixed or augmented reality into the cinema sphere. He thinks it's going to be a huge market and add a lot of value to content. The problem is that it's also virgin territory, he says, which comes with its own set of challenges when trying to make it into something we actually want to watch, or play with. There's a lot of trial and error first before it's done right, and that's kind of scary for a filmmaker.

When you're the pioneers of any industry, whether it be in the form of genetically modifying snakes to develop the necessary organs to speak English or through exploring new computing options like quantum computing, there's always some type of resistance to the change you're trying to bring about. That might not be so with something like AR. It's a natural extension and one that we've been exposed to in various science fiction guises for decades now. "This mixed reality is not an extension of 3-D movies. It's something completely different," Jackson told Wired. "Once you can create the illusion of solid objects anywhere you want, you create new entertainment opportunities."

And really, AR is not necessarily new from a practical standpoint either. Games and other apps are already making use of the fact that modern phones and tablets have cameras and using those to display novel information or bring things to life. Ingress is a more modern game made in conjunction with Google by Niantic. It uses geolocation and AR to for its primary story-telling mechanism. PulzAR is a game fro the PS Vita that uses the built-in camera to create custom puzzles on top of real-life objects.

As Sony's new PlayStation 4.5 sports hardware upgrades to upscale 1080p games to 4K, gamers are pretty excited about the new console. Finally, we'll be able to hit native 1080p 60FPS in every game, along with light 4K gaming. Developers, on the other hand, aren't too happy about all the extra work they'll have to do.

In today's age of gaming, developers typically have to port games across three systems: PS4, Xbox One, and PC. With Sony's PlayStation 4.5 on the way, that number has been bumped by one. Reports say that all PS4 games made after October must have two versions: a PS4 version, and a new PS4.5 flavor. The new PS4.5 version also has to match the FPS of the base port. Even though the PS4.5 will likely be built on the same basic x86 architecture as the PS4, developers will still have to make tons of adjustments to add in 4K upscaling, on top of getting used to the new hardware.

"A trusted source tells me most developers are not happy with PS4.5, and having to develop around it. Extra cost, planning, other nonsense," says ex-IGN editor and KindaFunnyGames co-founder Colin Moriarty. Since Colin has tons of contacts in the industry, this is probably true. BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk mirrors the sentiment, saying that the PS4.5 will be a "gigantic pain in the ass" for developers.