AMD is working on an unannounced VR headset with 4K per eye

GDC 2016 - AMD came out swinging at its Capsaicin event, rolling out the red carpet and its impressive Radeon Pro Duo, but RTG boss Raja Koduri was on fire that night, teasing an unannounced VR headset, too.

Ars Technica reports that Koduri said: "We are already working with a headset manufacturer, unannounced, with a 4K per eye headset. It exists. It's quite, quite beautiful, and we believe that the roadmap to go into higher resolutions will happen more quickly than is probably expected. Once you've seen a high resolution VR experience, you can see that it's really quite beautiful".

It'll be interesting to see this happen, and what type of GPU we're going to need to power 4K per eye on a VR headset. Polaris can't come quick enough!

Continue reading: AMD is working on an unannounced VR headset with 4K per eye (full post)

AMD's Radeon Pro Duo easily beats the R9 295X2 and GeForce GTX Titan Z

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 16, 2016 12:11 AM CDT

GDC 2016 - AMD unveiled its dual-GPU yesterday at its Capsaicin event, but now the company has revealed benchmark numbers on 3DMark Fire Strike from the Radeon Pro Duo.

The Radeon Pro Duo destroys the Radeon R9 295X2, AMD's previous dual-GPU champion based on the Hawaii architecture, as well as NVIDIA's only current GeForce GTX Titan Z - based on its older Kepler architecture. Keep in mind that NVIDIA never released a dual-GPU based on its Maxwell architecture, but we could see a dual-GPU based on its next-gen Pascal architecture in early April at GTC.

Back to the benchmarks, the Radeon Pro Duo beats the Titan Z and R9 295X2 in all resolutions - 1080p, 1440p and 4K. On the Standard preset, the Radeon Pro Duo beats the Titan Z by 134%. On the Extreme preset it's 148% faster, and on the Ultra preset it beats the Titan Z by 152%.

Continue reading: AMD's Radeon Pro Duo easily beats the R9 295X2 and GeForce GTX Titan Z (full post)

Battlezone will have support for DX12, according to AMD

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 15, 2016 10:54 PM CDT

GDC 2016 - Battlezone fans are quite excited for Rebellion's reboot of the game, as it'll be including support for not just the PlayStation VR - which has just had its $399 pricing and October launch window revealed - but Oculus Rift support, and DX12.

AMD's Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy revealed during GDC that Battlezone will have DX12 support, and during an interview with VRFocus, Rebellion CEO and Creative Director Jason Kingsley said: "We are doing a lot of work on DirectX 12, and it really depends on how well Oculus works on DirectX 12".

Continue reading: Battlezone will have support for DX12, according to AMD (full post)

The Division made over $330 million in its first 5 days

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 15, 2016 9:26 PM CDT

Just how successful has The Division been? Quite successful, thanks to Ubisoft announcing official revenue numbers for The Division.

In its first five days of release, Ubisoft pulled in over $330 million - beating out Destiny's $325 million five-day haul from September 2014. AlsoDestiny launched on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, while The Division launched onto the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said: "The Division taking the top spot in the industry for first week sales of a new franchise is a tremendous achievement. We are very proud of our teams, and humbled by and thankful for the millions of players who are giving us their feedback and support".

Continue reading: The Division made over $330 million in its first 5 days (full post)

Apple Music adding previously unlicensed DJ remixes, mashups

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | Mar 15, 2016 8:05 PM CDT

Apple has partnered with digital distributor Dubset Media Holdings to bring many thousands of previously unlicensed DJ remixes and mixes -- or in old people terms: that DJ music the kids are listening to -- to its Apple Music service. For now, these aren't available anywhere else, but Dubstep claims every distributor will be supported in time.

The deal is made possible by Dubset's agreements with over 14,000 record labels and publishers, as well as its MixBank technology (used in combination with other proprietary and related software), which can analyze songs to determine original artists and make sure their labels and publishers as well as DJs are paid accordingly, all at flat rates. It's an impressive feat given one of these mixes can have more than 600 different rights holders, and one that's already making both DJs and labels happy.

"Remixes are a huge part of our culture - they allow DJs and fans to put our own creative spin on music," says DJ Steve Aoki. "Apple working with Dubset now is a really simple solution to something traditionally complex, and allows everyone to make money on this content for the first time."

Continue reading: Apple Music adding previously unlicensed DJ remixes, mashups (full post)

'Indiana Jones 5' is a go - Spielberg and Ford back for one last time

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 15, 2016 6:11 PM CDT

Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger promised that we'd see the return of the adventure icon 'Indiana Jones', and today the company which picked up the rights to the franchise in 2011 has finally made it official - and Harrison Ford is back.

In making the announcement that the Indiana Jones franchise will hit screens worldwide on July 19 2019, Disney Chairman Alan Horn said "Indiana Jones is one of the greatest heroes in cinematic history, and we can't wait to bring him back to the screen in 2019." Confirming that Director Steven Spielberg would be back on board, Horn continues "It's rare to have such a perfect combination of director, producers, actor and role, and we couldn't be more excited to embark on this adventure with Harrison and Steven."

Noticeably absent from the release was any mention of co-creator George Lucas, who served as co-producer for the previous four films. Instead, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will fill the role.

Continue reading: 'Indiana Jones 5' is a go - Spielberg and Ford back for one last time (full post)

Google DeepMind AI beats world Go champion 4-1, donates $1m to charity

The AlphaGo AI created by Google's DeepMind division yesterday lost its first Go match to world champion Lee Sedol in a five-game series. Commentator Song Taegon remarked that Sedol had developed a better understanding of his opponent, making for a highly anticipated game 5. Sedol was beaten again, although it seems to have been a much tighter game, with commentators going back and forth right until the end about who was on top.

Google DeepMind AI beats world Go champion 4-1, donates $1m to charity

"It was difficult to say at what point AlphaGo was ahead or behind," said Michael Redmond, 9-dan, American commentator. "A close game throughout. AlphaGo made what looked like a mistake with move 48, similar to the mistake in Game Four in the middle of the board. After that AlphaGo played very well in the middle of the board, and the game developed into a long, very difficult end game."

Continue reading: Google DeepMind AI beats world Go champion 4-1, donates $1m to charity (full post)

CRYENGINE V announced, features support for both DX12 and VR

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 15, 2016 5:09 PM CDT

GDC 2016 - Crytek announced its new CRYENGINE V at the Game Developer's Conference, with many exciting things to share from the latest iteration of its graphics engine. For the keen-eyed, CRYENGINE V skips CRYENGINE IV... as we still having games released with CRYENGINE 3.

CRYENGINE V announced, features support for both DX12 and VR

CRYENGINE V has support for DirectX 12, full support for VR, a reworked low overhead renderer which "Significantly increases the performance of today's hardware in graphically intensive applications". Better yet, the latest version of CRYENGINE uses a "pay what you want" basis for developers, where "you contribute what you can" according to the Creative Director of Crytek, Frank Vitz.

Vitz continued: "Game engines that allow for lifelike rendering in real-time will be at the forefront of this revolution. Our first VR lab opened in Istanbul in January. We have seven more going in North America".

Continue reading: CRYENGINE V announced, features support for both DX12 and VR (full post)

Chrome extension integrates YouTube gameplay videos into Steam site

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | Mar 15, 2016 5:02 PM CDT

A handy new extension is now available for Chrome users known to browse Steam from time to time. It's called Fair Steam and it saves you the trouble of looking up gameplay videos from YouTubers by integrating their videos directly into the Steam website. The videos available on a given game page are determined by an algorithm that prizes gameplay-heavy, personality-light videos, so you just get the meat. As of now, there are 13491 videos in the database, with more added daily.

Chrome extension integrates YouTube gameplay videos into Steam site

A few notes: more features are planned for Fair Steam, though they are not known yet. For now, the focus is on gameplay videos; if you're in the minority and don't use Chrome, Firefox and Opera versions are coming soon; for those that use Enhanced Steam extension, Fair Steam is compatible with it.

To download it, head this way.

Continue reading: Chrome extension integrates YouTube gameplay videos into Steam site (full post)

PlayStation VR priced at $399, launches in October

GDC 2016 - Sony has announced the pricing of the PlayStation VR after all this time, with PlayStation VR launching in October for $399.

Comparatively, the Oculus Rift costs $599 while the HTC Vive costs $799. Now, with the PS4 priced at only $349 - this means playing VR with Sony hardware will only cost $750. Not too bad at all, Sony. Now, what about the hardware inside of the PlayStation VR?

We're looking at a 5.7-inch OLED display with 960x1080 per eye at 90-120Hz. It has around 100-degree field of view, less than 18ms of latency, and works with the DualShock 4 and PS Move controllers. PlayStation VR has 360-degree head tracking thanks to its nine LEDs, too.

Continue reading: PlayStation VR priced at $399, launches in October (full post)