Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D News - Page 129

NVIDIA's CEO and founder Jen-Hsun Huang has written on the company's official blog addressing the issue of the GeForce GTX 970 and its 4GB of VRAM. Huang says early on in the blog post: "We invented a new memory architecture in Maxwell. This new capability was created so that reduced-configurations of Maxwell can have a larger framebuffer - i.e., so that GTX 970 is not limited to 3GB, and can have an additional 1GB".

He adds that the GTX 970 is a 4GB card, and that the upper 512MB of its 4GB of frame buffer is "segmented and has reduced bandwidth". Huang elaborates, saying "This is a good design because we were able to add an additional 1GB for GTX 970 and our software engineers can keep less frequently used data in the 512MB segment". But, he acknowledges that this wasn't all good news, as the company "failed to communicate this internally to our marketing team, and externally to reviewers at launch".

"Instead of being excited that we invented a way to increase memory of the GTX 970 from 3GB to 4GB, some were disappointed that we didn't better describe the segmented nature of the architecture for that last 1GB of memory", explaining the 4GB of VRAM issue on the GTX 970 in more detail, "This is understandable. But, let me be clear: Our only intention was to create the best GPU for you. We wanted GTX 970 to have 4GB of memory, as games are using more memory than ever". Huang added: "The 4GB of memory on GTX 970 is used and useful to achieve the performance you are enjoying. And as ever, our engineers will continue to enhance game performance that you can regularly download using GeForce Experience".

It wasn't even 24 hours ago that we were writing about Valve showing off its SteamVR headset at GDC 2015 next week, but VRFocus has heard "from a reliable source close to the project" that the HMD itself will be made by a third-party company.

Valve has reportedly secured a "prominent hardware manufacturer" to make the headset, but now the speculation will begin as to who this hardware manufacturer is. In order to fight against the likes of Oculus VR, Sony and other VR headset makers, Valve can't do this on the cheap. Maybe Valve is working with NVIDIA on the SteamVR headset? Now that should start an exciting discussion.

With the release of AMD's Radeon 300 series right around the corner, and the tease of its upcoming Fiji-based Radeon R9 390X flagship video card, it's time to start speculating on what we can expect in regards to VRAM on the new GPUs.

We have heard that AMD will be using High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM, on the flagship R9 390X. A report over at Fudzilla points out that AMD is using something called 2.5D-IC silicon interposer, which will see "two separate chips on the same silicon interposer and package substrate". AMD is baking this onto a PCB on the 28nm process, but there will be two products on offer. One without HBM, and the other with HBM.

HBM 1.0 is currently limited to 1GB per stack configured as 4 x 2Gb layers for a total of 4GB of VRAM, which should raise some very serious questions. Throwing to the side memory bandwidth and the node AMD chooses to use (with all signs pointing to 28nm), a limit of 4GB of VRAM could hurt the company with the first new GPU it has released in over 18 months. Considering the issues NVIDIA has been going through with its GTX 970 and "4GB" of VRAM argument, AMD have the opportunity to really drive home the VRAM argument.

NVIDIA has teased its 'Made to Game' special event on March 3 during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015, but according to some fresh rumors, the company could be unveiling its own VR headset. Chris Burns from Slashgear thinks that NVIDIA could unveil its own VR headset, and so do I.

The conclusion can be drawn from various technologies NVIDIA has been releasing over the last year, and still have close to their chest. With NVIDIA's Shield and Shield Tablet devices, its range of Tegra processors, G-SYNC, VR Direct, GRID, and so much more. Then we've heard from game developers like Tim Sweeney teasing that VR will look as good as real life within 10 years.

But where the pieces fit into the puzzle more is that G-SYNC and VR Direct technologies would go hand in hand with each other, which is something I asked the company back when they revealed their Maxwell architecture. At the time, my question was answered to the large number of other various press members, but wasn't elaborated on. I did ask if we would see VR Direct, VR SLI and G-SYNC work with the Oculus Rift, but maybe I should've asked if NVIDIA were working on its own VR headset, instead? With NVIDIA's CEO and founder Jen-Hsun Huang saying things like "More than five years in the making, what I want to share with you will redefine the future of gaming" when referring to the March 3 event, we can't help but get excited.

Facebook, the No. 1 social networking website, wants to integrate virtual reality into user news feeds, and is creating demo versions to show off the new feature. To take things a step further, Facebook users also have the ability to share their virtual experiences with other members.

In the live VR demos, Facebook members can visit Mongolia, or sit in an F/A-18 Hornet cockpit.

"Not a lot of people are going to get to Mongolia in their life... I've never been," said Chris Cox, head of product at Facebook, while speaking at the Code/Media conference. "You can look around. It's beautiful. And you immediately understand it's like one of these things... the first time you're in it, you realize you're looking at the future."

We reported yesterday that Valve would be talking about VR, physics engines and more but now the company has confirmed exactly what it will be teasing at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015, and it has us very excited.

Valve will be showing off the final Steam Controller for its upcoming Steam Machine platform at GDC 2015, as well as its "previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system". Valve also has plans to show "new living room devices" at GDC, which will most likely arrive as a slew of new Steam Machines. What has us excited however, is the idea of a full unveiling of its SteamVR platform.

GDC 2015 takes place between March 2-6 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Valve, one of the most infamous developers in the world, will be having not one but four presentations at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015. The company said it wouldn't be hosting its Steam Dev Days conference for 2015, but instead it would have a "larger than usual presence at GDC".

The company won't be talking about specific games, but we can expect that out of the four presentations, the companyu will use its own upcoming games as examples in presentations. This means that we could see a massive tease of Valve's upcoming games, and while there might not be any actual announcements, we might see into the world's of these games. Think Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life 3 and others and you might just feel the hairs stand up on your arms.

Valve will be hosting a panel on the future of OpenGL technology, which is something the company is invested into with its SteamOS being Linux-based, and Linux and OpenGL going hand-in-hand. Over the past couple of years Valve has been pushing for the adaption and improvement of OpenGL. We reported on this all the way back in 2012, where Valve squeezed more performance out of the OpenGL version of Left 4 Dead 2 than it did in Windows. Valve will also be talking about VR at GDC 2015, which is equally as exciting. We will learn about the creation of VR world's, which will end up moving into advanced topics like the challenges of creating high quality graphics, and having them pumped into users' eyes at high speeds.

The VRAM controversy over NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 970 continues, where class action lawsuits have now been filed late last week. You might remember this only happened a few weeks ago, with NVIDIA quick to jump and admit it falsely advertised the GTX 970 and quickly refreshed the official specifications of the Maxwell-powered GPU.

There are two lawsuits at the moment, one for NVIDIA and the other targeting GIGABYTE. The plaintiff is suing NVIDIA and GIGABYTE on behalf of all GeForce GTX 970 owners, making this a class action lawsuit. This means that any GeForce GTX 970 owner can jump into this class action lawsuit. There are four major complaints for which the plaintiff is asking for damages over, including:

It seems GIGABYTE is being sucked into this lawsuit by Andrew Ostrowski, the plaintiff, as he purchased two of GIGABYTE's GeForce GTX 970 video cards. We will eventually see most of NVIDIA's other add-in-board (AIB) partners enter the class action lawsuit, as more and more people jump on board.

With Sony pulling out of most of its markets and concentrating on mostly camera sensors and its PlayStation console, it should come as no surprise that the company is set to focus on its PS4-based VR headset, Project Morpheus, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015.

Sony will be giving hands-on demos of its system, as well as more details on its plans for its VR headset. We don't know what Sony will be showing off exactly, as the company could surprise the world with an updated version of Project Morpheus, which is what I want to see. Almost like the DK2 to the DK1 from Oculus VR, as Oculus has even passed that with the latest Crescent Bay prototype.

We will be reporting about all things GDC 2015 as the event kicks off early next month in San Francisco.

Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games and the brain behind the Unreal Engine, has said that there are some insane things going on with VR right now, but a lot of them aren't being shown to the public.

Sweeney was interviewed recently, where he said that he expects VR hardware and headsets to double in quality every few years for the next decade. He added that it will reach a point in around 10 years from now, that it will be hard to tell the difference between the VR world, and the real-world that surrounds you right now.

Oculus VR is expected to launch its first consumer-ready version of the Oculus Rift sometime this year, which I'm sure we're going to hear more about at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which kicks off in just a couple of weeks time.