Latest News - Page 924

Real-time ray-tracing has been one of the most talked about advances in PC gaming in recent years, and one of the most impressive games to feature the technology is CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077. A game that makes use of ray tracing for reflections, lighting, and other effects to add considerable depth and cinematic visuals to the game's futuristic Night City setting.

When NVIDIA lifted the lid on its new flagship GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 GPUs last year, it presented a look at a new ray-tracing mode coming to Cyberpunk 2077 called RT: Overdrive. The RT update is still in development and will make full use of DLSS 3 technologies and will be showcased by NVIDIA at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next week in a presentation called Cyberpunk 2077 RT: Overdrive - Bringing Path Tracing into the Night City.

This is interesting for several reasons, but mainly because when we hear about path tracing in games, it uses ray-tracing for all in-game lighting, ala NVIDIA's Portal with RTX and Quake II RTX mods. Seeing this in one of the most technically demanding games in recent years is surprising and impressive.

Valve's portable PC, the Steam Deck, is celebrating its first birthday, and with that, it looks like all Steam Deck models are finally going on sale. This is the first time the popular handheld has gone on sale since launching, with the deal on offer in all regions where the Steam Deck is currently being sold.

This means you can get a Steam Deck for 10% off in the US, which means the entry-level Steam Deck 64G is available for USD 359.10 (down from USD 399.00), the Steam Deck 256GB is available for USD 476.10 (down from USD 529.00), and the flagship Steam Deck 512GB available for USD 584.10 (down from 649.00).

With the Steam Deck recently expanding its global reach to markets like Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, the 10% birthday discount applies in these regions too. So, if you've been eyeing a Steam Deck, now's the time to pounce - as the deal expires on March 23 at 10 am PT.

The story of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has been well documented, with NVIDIA initially announcing the GPU as the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB before "unlaunching" that and releasing it as the RTX 4070 Ti in January 2023.

This meant that it was the first GeForce RTX 40 Series card to launch without a Founder Edition model because of this change. Even so, we expect to see more FE models for new GeForce RTX GPUs - including the baseline RTX 4070 and the RTX 4060 Ti, as these models got equivalent Founders releases for the Ampere RTX 30 Series generation.

New photos shared by @KittyYYuko confirm that a Founder Edition RTX 4070 Ti was either planned or has been in development, though it's not guaranteed to be released. Perhaps enough time has passed that NVIDIA could skip the RTX 4070 Ti Founder Edition and go straight to the RTX 4060 Ti.

Users of WhatsApp who also happen to own iPhones can now make use of a cool new feature that can pull text right out of a photo.

The new text feature can look at an image that someone received in a chat and then allow them to pull the text out for use elsewhere. However, the feature does require that the iPhone also be running iOS 16 or later - it requires an API that was made available by Apple as part of the September 2022 software update.

The new feature was spotted by WABetaInfo and isn't actually mentioned in the WhatsApp App Store release notes, which is a little strange. The outlet says that WhatsApp often releases new features like this slowly, so it's possible that there needs to be a server-side change made to your account if you aren't yet able to make use of this new feature.

You've probably already seen that rather fancy new NASA EVA spacesuit that's been doing the rounds over the last couple of days. But did you know that you actually have Apple TV+ to thank for its design?

That's because the costume designer behind the excellent For All Mankind on Apple TV+ was involved in coming up with the design for that spacesuit. And we can probably all agree that they did a bang-up job with it, too.

Costume designer Esther Marquis was the person behind both For All Mankind's fictional spacesuits and this new, very real, NASA offering. The design consists of three main colors including black, blue, and orange, and doesn't quite look like anything out of the hit Apple TV+ show.

Apple is testing a new look for the TV app on the Mac, and it's going to bring some much-needed changes to how the app works.

The latest macOS 13.3 beta includes the revamped TV app, but you can't test it yourself. In fact, Apple appears to have hidden the new app and it's only by digging into the code and stealthily enabling it that 9to5Mac is able to report on the changes.

The main change that people will notice when this newly updated TV app ships is the addition of a new sidebar that provides quick and easy access to a number of features and content types that might otherwise be somewhat hidden.

Square Enix reveals new details on its complicated NFT game Symbiogenesis.

Square Enix isn't messing around. The publisher is going all-in on blockchain and NFTs, and has created an eye-opening roadmap for its new NFT game Symbiogenesis. The game now has a website with a dearth of information.

The website presents an RPG that's been misshapen to fit into a strange new experimental mold. These's a lot of creative ideas here but most of them probably will not catch on to any meaningful degree. The information is indeed confusing and not intuitive whatsoever, prioritizing layered mechanics and engagement-driven systems like forcing an odd co-op element to get players to work together to unlock the final mission.

Have you been keen to get chatting with Microsoft's new Bing AI? From today, it seems anyone can get a piece of the chatbot action.

Previously, there was a queue for the Bing chatbot. You had to sign up for a waitlist and you'd then get notified when you were granted access to the AI. However, it appears that's all a thing of the past.

Windows Central reports that multiple people on their team could access the chatbot without waiting - they could simply sign up and instantly chat.

Apple could be preparing to increase the price tag of the iPhone 15 Pro, at least according to fresh news from the grapevine.

This comes from Jeff Pu, a tech analyst at Haitong International Securities, an investment firm in Hong Kong, who claimed in a research note that price hikes will be visited upon the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

As you may be aware, Apple's iPhone Pro models have stuck at the US$999 price point since the price tag was upped to that level with the iPhone X some six years ago. If Pu is correct, the iPhone 15 Pro will become the first Pro model to push above a grand - the question is, how far above?

We recently reported that NVIDIA was closing in on 400 games and apps supporting GeForce RTX technologies, with one of the key bits of RTX tech being the AI-powered DLSS - or Deep Learning Super Sampling. With the arrival of the GeForce RTX 40 Series and the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 coming soon, we've also seen the arrival of DLSS 3 and Frame Generation.

Here's a look at DLSS 3 in the popular Forza Horizon 5.

Here specialized AI hardware in the GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards is tapped to create entire frames -like motion plus-like tech in the TV space, except that it works. And doesn't ruin the gaming experience but pushes performance to new heights. Like the baseline DLSS Super Resolution tech, it's continuing to advance and evolve, with NVIDIA already releasing improved versions of what we saw when the GeForce RTX 4090 launched.

It looks like gaming bundles are back on the menu, which is fantastic because it's always great to get a new game when you purchase a brand-new GPU. It used to be the norm back in the day and seemed to disappear until recently, so it's great to see them return.

As per its namesake, NVIDIA's new Redfall Bite Back Edition GeForce RTX 40 Series Bundle will give those that purchase select GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, RTX 4080, and RTX 4090 graphics cards, desktop PCs, or GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090 Laptop GPUs a digital copy of Redfall Bite Back Edition.

Redfall is a new open-world co-op vampire-hunting action game from Arkane Austin, the studio behind the excellent Prey and Dishonored. Redfall is "loaded with NVIDIA tech," as the game supports the AI-powered NVIDIA DLSS 3 rendering and NVIDIA Reflex, with ray-tracing support arriving in a post-launch update.

Exclusive to the GeForce RTX 40 Series of graphics cards, DLSS 3 bundles DLSS Super Resolution (i.e., DLSS 2), NVIDIA Reflex, and Frame Generation into a single AI-powered rendering package. Frame Generation, which leverages the latest specific AI hardware found in GPUs like the GeForce RTX 4090, 4080, and 4070 Ti, is what people refer to when they say DLSS 3.

AI-generated frames that massively boost performance while maintaining impressive visual fidelity. It can be a revelation in games like Cyberpunk 2077, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and F1 22 - especially regarding 4K gaming. NVIDIA notes that in the first six months of its release, DLSS 3 has been adopted seven times faster than the first six months of DLSS 2.

With the Game Developers Conference (GDC) happening next week, NVIDIA is announcing a few developer-friendly things in relation to its AI-powered DLSS tools. But it's also confirming that a couple of the biggest PC games set to debut in the next few months will fully support DLSS 3.

AMD's incoming Ryzen 7 7800X3D could be a costlier processor than we thought, at least if early pricing in product listings for the chip over in Europe are on the money (so to speak).

VideoCardz has scoured online retailers, finding prices in various European countries that range from slightly beefier than the recommended price to quite a way above that MSRP.

Regarding the MSRP, we know that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D - an 8-core CPU with 3D V-Cache on-board - is set to retail at US$449 in the States. And given that, German tech site ComputerBase has come up with an expected price in Europe, based on comparing the MSRPs of the 7950X3D and 7900X3D in Euros compared to the US recommended price.

A photograph snapped by Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, an astrophotographer located near Rafaela in Argentina has captured the moment a 60,000-mile-high wall of fire fell down on the surface of the Sun.

The above image of the event was captured on March 9 and required the use of specialized camera equipment. Speaking to Spaceweather.com, Poupeau explained that the wall of hot plasma rose approximately 62,000 miles, which, for context, would be the same height as Earth stacked on top of itself eight times, then fell back down to the surface of the Sun.

Notably, this event is officially called a polar crown prominence (PCP), which is essentially loops of plasma being ejected from the surface of the Sun by contortions in the Sun's magnetic field. Furthermore, since PCPs occur near the poles of the Sun, where there is a stronger magnetic field, these plasma ejections often are pulled back into the Sun. This process of ejection and then retraction has earned the nickname "plasma waterfalls".

A draft research report by the Pentagon and a distinguished Harvard University professor outlines the possibility of an alien mothership within the solar system.

A new report penned by Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and Abraham Loeb, chairman of Harvard University's astronomy department and theoretical physicist, was released on March 7 and focused on the possibility of an artificial interstellar object being present within the solar system and probing the planets within it.

According to the report, there is a possibility of an artificial interstellar object being a "parent craft" or a mothership that sends small probes down to planets, similar to a mission conducted by NASA and other space agencies. This mothership is suspected of being controlled by an artificial intelligence that has likely been dormant for many years as the craft traveled across the universe.

Axiom Space scored the NASA contract to construct the next generation of spacesuits that will be worn by astronauts returning to the lunar surface.

NASA astronauts will be touching down on the lunar surface as part of the space agency's Artemis 3 mission, and according to a recent press release, Axiom Space will be the company providing the new spacesuits that are expected to come with a variety of different improvements. Axiom Space's website details the new suit called the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), which a prototype was recently unveiled at Space Center Houston's Moon 2 Mars Festival on March 15.

Axiom Space announced that it will be able to provide NASA with a fleet of training spacesuits by the end of this coming summer, and these spacesuits accommodate a large variety of crew members. Notably, Axiom Space took NASA's traditional spacesuit design, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), and added increased flexibility, greater protection to withstand the harsh environment of the moon, and the ability to add scientific tools for astronauts to carry out scientific operations while on the surface of the moon.

Landing a plane is no walk in the park, it presents unique challenges that individuals must train rigorously for, but what if you wanted to land a plane on the world's shortest runway that's stationed atop one of the world's tallest buildings?

That is what pilot Luke Czepiela attempted this week as part of a stunt under the banner of Red Bull, which set up a small helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, a luxury hotel in Dubai. The above video showcases the small diameter of the landing runway, which only stretched 88 feet from one side to the other. Notably, the helipad was 695 feet above the ground, making Czepiela's room for error even smaller.

According to the pilot, the stunt was practiced approximately 650 times on a normal runway that had a circle painted on the tarmac with the same dimensions as the helipad. It wasn't just practice that needed to be done before the flight, as Czepiela's team was required to modify the plane in order for it to stop within 88 feet of the runway. Engineers removed any unnecessary weight from the planet, which introduced its own problems with wind speed and "precise speed".

NASA's Mars rover, which has been stationed on the Red Planet since February 2021, has captured an amazing video of the Ingenuity helicopter taking flight.

NASA has taken to its blog to provide an update on the recent flight conducted by its Ingenuity helicopter, and according to the space agency, the Mars helicopter has now successfully carried out its 47th flight, achieving a maximum altitude of 39 feet, a top speed of 11.9 mph and 1,444 feet traveled. The flight was captured by NASA's Perseverance rover, which was positioned 394 feet away from the helicopter. As shown by the above video, Perseverance captured Ingenuity taking off, causing a small martian dust cloud to form from its spinning rotors.

Notably, Perseverance captured this footage with its Mastcam-Z imager on March 9, 2023, and according to NASA, the goal of the flight was to reposition the helicopter while also scouting ahead for any viable scientific prospects that Perseverance would then further inspect. For those that don't know, NASA originally sent Ingenuity to Mars with one objective in mind - to see if it was possible to conduct one flight on the surface of the Red Planet. Ingenuity is a technology demonstration that has superseded expectations, with reports stating the helicopter remains in good health on its road to reaching its 50th flight.

Recently we reported on ASUS's new BTF motherboard range, where the physical design put all the primary connections on the underside for improved cable management. It's part of the company's DIY-APE design. In fact, it's the sort of design that we'd love to see become standard - the only real catch being that, as of now, only a limited number of cases support the design.

That is, cases with suitable holes and space so these new motherboards can be mounted in the first place. But with one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards, ASUS, creating motherboards like the TUF GAMING B760M-BTF WIFI D4, we've also got word that another big player is looking to do the same.

With new reports coming in, it's looking like MSI is prepping its own AMD B650 motherboards with the main power connectors on the underside. And Maxsun too. On the MSI front, we'd love to see the design as part of the company's iconic Tomahawk range.

If you're serious about sim racing, mainly F1 and games like F1 22, you'll no doubt have looked into racing wheels, pedals, racing chairs, and even multi-screen setups powered by a high-end PC gaming rig. The new custom 2022 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 Show Car Simulator rigs are built on this idea, and they're also built using the "same processes as the real race cars." With realistic carbon molds that make them eye-wateringly expensive.

And with that, the Race Edition starts at a whopping USD 92,325, with a more high-end Champions Edition available for USD 123,100 - with shipments expected to commence in April 2023. So then, what does $92,000 get you in terms of an F1 racing simulation rig?

These rigs are essentially realistic shells of the Championship Winning RB18 created from "official Oracle Red Bull Racing CAD data," with Oracle Red Bull Racing involved in the development alongside Memento Exclusives (F1 Authentics). These simulators are similar to the ones used by the drivers themselves, and in terms of customization, both Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez driver liveries are available.