Latest News - Page 7

The PS5 can use lots of external USB devices including mice, keyboards, and even wired mics and headsets with sound cards.

The PS5 supports USB accessories like keyboards and mice (Bluetooth or otherwise), but what about audio? Sadly the PS5 won't transmit audio through Bluetooth. But USB is a different story. On a lark, I decided to test this out and hooked up a Blue Yeti mic to the PS5. Not only did the PS5 recognize the Blue Yeti as a microphone to record audio, but it also routed the audio output to the mic itself. It recognized and utilized the mic just like a computer would.

The same is true for wired USB headsets with built-in soundcards. I hooked up a HyperX Cloud II headset to the PS5 and not only did it transmit the audio through the headphones, but the PS5 actually recognized the soundcard and allowed Surround Sound 7.1 output.

So if you're a content creator or already have some higher-end audio/recording gear laying around, don't buy the Pulse 3D headset or even use the built-in Dualsense mic. Just hook up your own devices and see what happens.

MSI has just unveiled a duo of new Big Navi graphics cards, with the Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO and Radeon RX 6800 GAMING X TRIO announced. We have the flagship Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO below:

We are looking at a chunky 2.5-slot design, triple-fan TRI-FROZR 2 cooler, and dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors. For all intents and purposes this is identical to the reference Radeon RX 6800 XT but MSI is overclocking the Navi 21 GPU by a further 35MHz for a GPU boost of up to 2285MHz.

There's also the Radeon RX 6800 GAMING X that is nearly identical to the higher-end RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO brother, but has its GPU boost clock higher than AMD's own reference Radeon RX 6800 by 50MHz -- a nice bump before you can try some manual OC.

The Kratos Aircrew Combat Mission Training (ACMT) system uses Valve Index to teach military personnel how to operate a combat helicopter, and the experience looks wild!

Kratos Defense & Security Solution Inc., which makes solutions for military organizations, this week revealed a combat helicopter simulation training system that uses virtual reality to put soldiers through a simulated battle experience in an attack helicopter.

Kratos's ACMT solution includes the shell of a helicopter, complete with the switches and knobs you would find in the real thing. It also features Valve Index VR headsets for the whole crew, including one for the pilot, another for the co-pilot, and two more for gunners on each side of the cockpit. Kratos calls is a Multi-Position - Aircrew Virtual Environment Trainer (MP-AVET).

AMD has just released its new Radeon Adrenalin 2020 20.11.2 drivers, which pack support for the new RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards.

AMD of course fixes some issues as they do with any driver release, but the big news here is support for Big Navi and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. As for the fixes, we're looking at custom fan settings after waking from sleep fixed on the Radeon RX 5000 series, Far Cry Primal and Serious Sam 4 fixes, and more.

• You can grab the new AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2020 20.11.2 drivers right here.

There's some exciting new content coming to the Oculus Quest platform in December. Three new games are coming in the first two weeks, including a significant Pistol Whip update, Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister, and the VR remake of the classic 90's puzzle adventure game, Myst.

When Facebook revealed the Quest 2 at Facebook Connect in September, the company also announced a lineup of new VR titles that would come to the platform later this year. Some of those games are already out, like Population: One and Blair Witch. Some of them are coming at the beginning of next month.

The Pistol Whip 2089 update is first on the docket with a December 1st release date. The new release brings a new adventure to the game, set in a sci-fi future. The 2089 update also features a new set type of enemy to extinguish. Pistol Whip 2089 is coming to Quest, Rift, SteamVR, and PSVR.

AMD has now unleashed its new RDNA 2 architecture, powering the new Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards -- and world records are now being broken.

Overclocker 'Lucky_n00b' used his Radeon RX 6800 XT sample to topple the previous HWBOT 3DMark FireStrike record, beating out the previous champion in the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. The Radeon RX 6800 XT was overclocked to 2650MHz, powered with a new Zen 3-based Ryzen 9 5950X processor.

The Ryzen 9 5950X processor was overclocked to 5.4GHz and cooled by LN2 cooling, but to be clear just the CPU was chilled with LN2 -- not the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which was using its stock reference cooler. Lucky_n00b was able to achieve a huge 47932 graphics score, beating out the ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 OC by (just) 225 points.

Version 23 of the Oculus Quest platform software gives developers the ability to run games at 90Hz on Quest 2, but that might not be the cap for the hardware. John Carmack hinted that there could be a 120Hz mode in the future.

Oculus just started rolling out v23 of its platform software, which introduces a handful of new features, not least the highly-anticipated 90Hz mode for the Quest 2 headset. Once you have the latest version of the OS, you can run the Quest 2 in either 72Hz or 90Hz modes.

Initially, the faster refresh rate is only useful with Oculus Link as no Quest 2 games yet support the new refresh rate. However, developers are free to enable the speedier framerate in their games, and several developers are shipping updates soon.

Following the update announcement, John Carmack Tweeted a warning to developers about the new option. He told developers not to set their games to default to the highest refresh rate, because at the very least, Oculus is exploring the opportunity for 120Hz mode.

Godfall has just launched, but at launch the DXR-powered ray traced shadows weren't available -- and now they are, but only on AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards.

The new patch has enabled ray tracing on Godfall but is restricted to the new RDNA 2-powered Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card owners will have to wait, with an update in the future to bake in some ray tracing support for you.

HP is selling the Reverb G2 way faster than it can build them. The company is trying to keep up with demand, but it already sold out of the entire year's production run. New orders are now expected to ship in January.

HP started shipping the first round of Reverb G2 Windows Mixed Reality headsets to early pre-order holders earlier this month. The company previously said that customers who ordered before October would get their kit in November, while orders placed later than that could be waiting until December for their headset.

An update from Connection, HP's US fulfilment partner, today reveals that orders placed before October 25 would arrive in November or December. The update wasn't clear about orders placed between October 25 and today, but it said that if you place an order now, you likely won't get it this year. Connection expects to begin fulfilling new orders in January 2021.

I wrote an article just under a week ago, saying Wonder Woman 1984 debuting on HBO Max could be just what we need -- and it seems I was right.

Warner Bros. Pictures have just announced that Wonder Woman 1984, after many delays related to COVID-19, we have a new release date: Christmas Day, or December 25, 2020. Overseas, Wonder Woman 1984 will debut in cinemas on December 16 in markets where HBO Max isn't available.

Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins explains: "The time has come. At some point you have to choose to share any love and joy you have to give, over everything else. We love our move as we love our fans, so we truly hope that our film brings a little bit of joy and reprieve to all of you this holiday season".