Modding - Page 4

We've recently talked about some crazy modifications in the pipeline for "the game that never stops evolving", including the 4K resolution texture pack mod alongside this crazy fan-made addition that basically adds a game within the game, named Enderal.

Taking a quick look at Nexus Mods, it gives you somewhat of an idea as to how extensive and vast Skyrim mods really are. You can see hundreds of mods here with thousands of downloads in total, seeing many of these fan-made game modifications hitting 1,000 plus downloads of their own.

This massive online community goes to show that if a developer can open up their game for modding, a whole new world of repeat-customers can emerge. How many people do you know that were heavily into playing things like Battlefield 2's Point of Existence mod or similar? Unfortunately these days, many games are released without a console, let alone being open to mods - meaning many games suffer majorly as eSport titles and also require constant developer interaction and support to grow and evolve.

Following on from yesterdays awesome Cooler Master build by Stuart Tonks from GGF LAN, we've come across a 'Rig of the Day' post by the Ocaholic Facebook page.

Featured here is an incredible system completed by Malik Customs, featuring a full EK Water Block setup all wrapped up in a Phanteks Enthoo Primo Ultimate and stuffed full of goodies by ASUS, including a GTX 970 Strix and a Z97-AR motherboard.

The full feature list of this impressive build includes:

We've been covering some sweet modded systems recently here at TweakTown, with a Cooler Master build by Stuart Tonks featuring in our headlines only just yesterday.

Cooler Master are committed to the mods, opening up their "Case Mod World Series by inviting all modders to show-off their creativity and push the limits of PC case design," as written in their recently issued press release. There is over $20,000 worth of cash and prizes available for entrants, supplied with the help of Dremel, Intel, ASUS, OCZ and GeiL.

The two categories include 'Tower Mod' and 'Scratch Build' with judging to be completed by the Cooler Master panel, including the following members: Richard 'Darthbeavis' Surroz, Peter 'L3P' Brands, Brian 'BOD MODS' Carter, Ronnie Hara, Mathieu 'Sassanou' Heredia, Richard Kiers, Antony Leather and the sponsors. Cooler Master have also added a new 'Rising Star' award, said to be given to a future star to watch in the modding scene - this is alongside a peoples choice award, with the winner chosen through public voting.

The model of the RAM sums this whole system up - beast. This promotional build completed by Stuart Tonks at GGF LAN contains Cooler Master's HAF Stacker 935 + 915 cases, complete with all the goodies you could hope for when it comes to a complete PC build - unless you want to go to a LAN party, that is.

Featuring two ASUS GTX780 Poseidons in SLI, an Intel i5 4670K and complete with full CM Storm gaming peripherals, the main feature is this crazy case - the Cooler Master HAF Stacker, in which Tonks has crammed nine HDDs and two SSDs.

Complete with a cool red and black color scheme, this is another great looking PC build to throw into the wide variety that Tonks now has under his belt.

Samsung did say it was going to ease down on the amount of smartphone offerings for 2015, but here we are just days into the New Year and we're being introduced to the new, all-metal Galaxy A7 handset.

The new Galaxy A7 smartphone features a much better, high quality build made from a full aluminum, unibody construction. We have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 64-bit processor, providing eight CPU cores in total. These are split into two separate quad-core processors, clocked at 1.8GHz, and 1.3GHz or 1.5GHz and 1GHz for the dual SIM version of the Galaxy A7.

We don't know which resolution the 5.5-inch panel sports, but we can be sure it'll be 1920x1080 (but it could be 720p, boo). There's also 2GB of RAM, 16GB of NAND flash backed up by expandable microSD, LTE Category 4, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, 5-megapixel selfie shooter, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and Android 4.4. We should expect a 2600mAh battery, and a thin design for the Galaxy A7.

We've reached back to the past for this one. Ryan Hooper from KARMA IT teamed up with ASUS Australia to produce a pretty kick-ass modded system where the chassis was the promotional poster for the actual motherboard itself.

Completed back in 2012, the system components included were the top of the time - however now they're obviously a little dated. Featuring an Intel i7-2600k processor and paired with an ASUS Maxtrix GTX 580 video card all running through an ASUS ROG Maximus IV Extreme, we haven't seen a build like this one before.

The full specification list is as follows:

Following our report on Daniel Woods and his amazingly simplistic Arctic Gold Parvum case build, we've stumbled across another beauty in the form of Max NB's Project Orange Horizon. This project was spotted on the Watercooled PC Facebook group.

Also utilizing a Parvum case, this modded system has set him back around $3,700 in total and must be seen in its entirety to be appreciated properly. Including SLI-GTX 780 Ti Superclocked video cards, an Intel Core i5 4690K Unlocked Quad Core and a handy 500GB Samsung 840 Evo series SSD, Max has made sure his stunning system also packs a powerful punch for any gaming he may want to take place.

What's even more impressive is the list of water cooling components on display, exceeding $800 in retail value. We understand that not all of our readers are watercooling experts (nor am I), but the sheer length of this list should at least impress you - even if you have no idea what's going on. Let's just say that he's put many hours and a lot of elbow grease into building and maintaining this beast.

As you may well be aware, we're starting to cover more modded PC's here at TweakTown - so please, if you have something cool you want to share, feel free to send us a message or email me directly at chrissmith@tweaktown.com.

Dan Woods is a well-known Australian Modder and PC builder, he's worked with Stuart Tonks from GGF LAN in the past on things like PAX Australia 2014 builds and more. But we're going to now shine the spotlight on him, by showing off his awesome 'ARCTIC GOLD' fully-custom PC build.

Featuring his own spray painting techniques, this Parvum case includes full rigid tubing for his water cooling loops, an ASUS Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II video card and 100 percent custom sleeving on the cables - making for a totally beautiful white and gold color scheme.

If you're really looking to confuse the console lover in your family, you really need to wrap up this device and present it to them on their birthday.

A modder by the name of Draelren has reached out to us, explaining the process behind his crazy Xbox 360/PC build set to confuse console lovers and haters alike.

Featuring an AMD A10-7850K CPU and a 128GB SSD, Draelren uses this system as one of his dedicated LAN rigs, however it's not quite finished - yet. "There are some things that still need to be done to it - but it's mostly there," he explains. "I'm needing to do some custom wiring to get the Xbox's power button to turn the computer on, and then the eject button for the optical drive to reset the computer."

Backwards-compatibility - a statement that will bring pain to the face of most console gamers in this day and age. We saw this when only the first-release PlayStation 3 could play PlayStation 2 games and now we're aware that your brand-new Xbox One cannot run your favorite 360 disks. How can you try and combat this? How about shoving both consoles into one laptop-like shell? That'll do it.

Well if you're crazy enough to try, this Xbook Duo guide will help you through the process. Apparently featuring no overheating issues, this hunk of technology will give you the ability to play your favorite Xbox 360 and Xbox One games in 'one' device. We say 'one' because it's basically two systems thrown into a single shell.

Lacking in aesthetics but teaming with usability - all they need is someone to come along and spruce up the looks department, then they'll have a winner on their hands.

Often described as still the best game in the series, the modding community of SA:MP has reached out to TweakTown - explaining that their San Andreas community is extremely alive and well, showing us screenshots of thousands of players pitting their might against each other in modded servers.

Ranging from role-playing modifications to extremely fun RPG-only battle zones, the team at SA:MP have already started work on their GTA V mod list. As according to James Beatie, V:Multiplayer's Lead Developer and Community Leader, "this modification can be created before the game is released, as a large portion of the programming needed can be done at any time. We feel the head start will open many doors to add as many features as possible."

His team specializes in mods that "allow a large expansion onto the regular multiplayer featured in the game. This allows players to play in an environment controlled by a dedicated server that anyone can host. This allows for roleplay servers to be hosted, which is a very popular occurrence in modifications listed above." We're not talking large player modes as in 64 v 64 Battlefield 2 scenarios here, we're talking 1,000 players on a server at one time - one thousand!

The first word that escaped my mouth when setting eyes on this sponsored build was - "Wow". Stuart Tonks from GGF LAN was been sent some latest-release products from Kingston, ASUS and Coolermaster and told to do his best.

The feature for this case is the (rare) ASUS TUF Sabertooth Z97 Mark S motherboard, sent directly from the tech-giant to Tonks in order to create a build worth showing off to the island national Australia and the globe.

"His best" is this amazing, liquid cooled black-and-white case mod setup affectionately named "White Matter" by the creator himself. The full feature list reads:

We recently reported on the Skyrim mod that basically adds a whole new world to the already-expansive game - it's basically a game within a game. Well in further news for the title that never stops growing, modders have taken, 'cleaned' and re-added just about everything that's in Skyrim to make a massive fan-made update.

Featuring improved lighting, bug fixes, updated models and new characters, this update gives you an incredible list of 4K textures and brand-new missions added to the ageing game. Now, we call it ageing due to it's release date (can you believe this thing came out in 2011!) however the never-ending mods, updates and add-ons being thrown into the mix by various fans will seemingly make Skyrim last forever.

This update was designed by ENBSeries members, showcasing screenshots of their latest addition featuring their impressive new high-resolution textures. This combined with ENBSeries Configs have seen Skyrim with a whole new lease on life. This isn't some dodgy back-alley botox job, it's a full blown makeover.

As traditional mail is becoming a less needed service, Royal Mail has stepped up in a bid to stay ahead of the 'rat race' - offering consumers the ability to 3D print and ship various objects from their local offices.

Paired up with 3D-printing company iMakr, Royal Mail using their services to install brand new printers in their New Cavendish Street delivery office in London, set to enable both custom designs and pre-made product designs to be ordered by consumers. These products can be ordered online by any end-user and have them shipped directly to their address or picked up directly from the office.

Mike Newnham is Royal Mail's Chief Customer Officer, sharing his thoughts on this business advancement he commented: "3D printing is an emerging technology that has many applications and offers an innovative way to create unique or personalized objects. It can be prohibitively expensive for consumers or small businesses to invest in a 3D printer, so we are launching a pilot to gauge interest in 3D printing".

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based startup Rohinni has an interesting project to share with the world: LightPaper. LightPaper is something the startup took to their Twitter account to tease, writing: "We print light".

The goal of the startup is to be the leading lighting application for, well, everything. LightPaper is the world's thinnest LED lighting, which can be applied to, stuck on, and placed onto virtually any surface. LightPaper, if you've already guessed, is super-thin, and is made by mixing ink and tiny LEDs together, and then printing out a mixture onto a conductive layer.

This layer is then "sealed between two additional layers. The tiny diodes are about the size of a red blood cell. When a current runs through the paper, the tiny, randomly-dispersed diodes will light up", reports 3ders.org. OLED is currently one of the thinner technologies out there, but LightPaper is set to break that record. LightPaper is being aimed at the automotive industry, where it could allow for better tail lights, or super-impressive looking branding.

Since the introduction of the Arduino, we have seen a wealth of self-dispensing, self-mixing, and self-concocting barbots hit the scene, but never have we seen one quite so refined as the new Barobot. The Barobot is a cocktail slinging robot that is aimed at making your socializing events more about socializing than about mixing drinks.

Recently launched on Kickstarter, the Barobot is a $1600 (self assembly) to $2500 (fully assembled) alcoholic drink mixing machine that utilizes a 7-inch android screen, and some custom electronics to mix the perfect cocktail every time, without the need for a bartender. The team behind Barobot is looking to raise $151,500 to mass produce the Barobot and make it a retail success.

The Barobot is capable of holding 12 bottles of your favorite spirits, and can perfectly dispense the correct proportions for any drink in its library, making for a more accurate drink with less wasted boose. "Mixing drinks at home parties might prove a challenge if you are not a trained bartender with professional equipment. It requires remembering many recipes and accurate measures which could be disastrous if you forget, more importantly, it distracts you from interacting with your guests. Barobot takes care of your bar tending needs allowing you to focus on your friends," Barobot said in its Kickstarter Campaign.

Printrbot has long been known for creating and selling affordable 3D Printer kits that enable almost anyone to begin 3D printing in their home, but that changed at this week's MakerCon in San Francisco. Earlier this week the company unveiled its first CNC Router that is targeted at beginner CNC users. The new Printerbot CNC Router is capable of machining wood, plastic and aluminum, albeit at different speeds.

The machine features a Wi-Fi enabled Raspberry Pi that runs a web-based control software suite enabling users to connect to the device wirelessly. The control board is based on the TinyG board, and movement is accomplished via NEMA 23 stepper motors. A Makita Router is utilized as the tool head, and the entire thing looks to be able to accept stock up to 24-inches square. No word on pricing has been released, but I have reached out to Printrbot for more information.

Yesterday, Arduino announced the launch of its latest edition to its user-friendly development boards. The new Arduino Zero is a powerful 32-bit version of the Arduino Uno, and is designed to empower creative individuals with the power to create something truly amazing. The board features an Atmel SAMD21 MCU which is comprised of a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0+ Core.

The new Arduino Zero is based on a 3.3v standards, has 14 digital I/O pins of which 12 are PWM and 2 are reserved for UART. Analog I/O is handled by 5 pins featuring 12bits ADC and 1 pin with 10bits DAC. Flash memory is set at 256KB, SRAM at 32KB, and up to 16KB of EEPROM is available via emulation. Unlike its AVR siblings, the Arduino Zero is clocked at 48MHz.

"The Zero board expands the Arduino family by providing increased performance to fuel the creativity of the maker community," said Massimo Banzi, Arduino co-founder and CEO. "The flexible feature set enables endless project opportunities for devices and acts as a great educational tool for learning about 32-bit application development."

Every DIYer in the world has at one point or another owned a cordless drill. Since their inception, cordless drills have made life much easier, but they have also resulted in many more stripped screw heads and "oversunken" screws. Black+Decker has just released a new cordless drill / driver with some innovative technology designed to prevent both of these forever.

The new Autosense Drill has been designed to automatically stop when a screw has become flush with the working surface. In the past, the utilization of a clutch system also prevented this, but it relied heavily on the operator knowing the perfect clutch setting for the type of screw and wood that was being used. The new Autosense drill is intuitive and all the user needs to do is select drive mode. This will tell the drill to begin sensing the required torque levels needed and when a rise in torque is sensed, the drill slows down and stops just as the head of the screw reaches the surface of the wood.

In the event that the screw needs to be sunken a little below the surface, the operator can simply pull the trigger again, and the Autosense Drill / Driver will sink the screw further into the wood 1/4 turn at a time. The new Black+Decker Autosense Drill / Driver is set to retail at $80 and will release to the public in Early June. I hope to get my hands-on one before then and will post a full review if I do.

As the maker and DIY movement continues to grow, so does the availability of less expensive, high-precision CNC machines. We have seen this trend already prove itself in the 3D printer market, and today desktop machining is cheaper than ever thanks to a company called Carbide 3D who launched its first Kickstarter campaign last week. The new Nomad 883 CNC Mill is designed be as easy to use as a 3D Printer, and will fit on most desktop surfaces, or to fit on top of any workbench in your shop.

"We designed the machine from the ground up to address the complaints we've heard about CNC machines - from designing our own spindle to adding automation like tool length probing and custom fixtures to simplify common job setups," said Grzesek, co-founder of Carbide 3D. "We think this is the next step in the recent Digital Manufacturing trend started by low-cost 3D printers."

Carbide 3D says that the Nomad 883 is designed to fill in the gap between huge milling machines that cost upwards of $100,000 and the more affordable desktop 3D Printers which range between $300 and $3000. The CNC Milling Machine is built with a rigid aluminum frame, and is capable of milling parts from wood, plastic, metal, foam, and wax thanks to its custom designed, brush-less spindle head. Getting your hands-on one of these awesome milling machines is as easy as a $1500 pledge on Kickstarter.