General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

New ‘Crescent Bay’ Rift Prototype Impresses with Better Display, 360-degree Tracking

Posted: 21 Sep 2014 09:14 PM PDT

Crescent Bay Oculus Rift Prototype

Oculus making steady progress on road to consumer Rift

At its two-day Oculus Connect developer conference in Los Angeles this week, Facebook-owned Oculus VR introduced a new, improved version of its Rift virtual reality head mounted display (HMD). Called Crescent Bay, this latest prototype packs a number of improvements over the DK2 model.  These improvements, the company says, are enough to ensure a level of immersion "that's impossible to achieve with DK2."

Crescent Bay is said to have a higher-resolution display than the DK2, which began shipping in July with a full HD OLED display (960 x 1080 pixels per eye). Although the company has chosen to keep Crescent Bay's specs under wraps, most reports point to a 1440p screen or better. According to The Verge, a higher resolution is not the only notable improvement where the display is concerned but there are a number of other improvements that make it better overall than the DK2.

Besides the improved display, the Crescent Bay also packs 360° head tracking, expanded positional tracking volume, improved weight and ergonomics, and integrated audio.

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Acer’s XB280HK 4K G-Sync Display Now Available in North America

Posted: 21 Sep 2014 08:51 PM PDT

Acer 4K G-Sync Display

First 4K UHD display with G-Sync costs $800

The 28-inch 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) computer monitor Acer announced back in May is now available in the United States and Canada, the company announced in a press release Friday. The Acer XB280HK is the first 4K monitor to come with an Nvidia G-Sync module.

The XB280HK is a TN (twisted nematic) display with a 60Hz refresh rate. Of course, support for Nvidia's G-Sync technology means that this refresh rate can be adjusted automatically to match that of the GPU (see eligible models), thereby obviating any screen tearing and keeping both stutter and input lag in check.

"The incredibly sharp and smooth images provided by NVIDIA G-SYNC technology are sure to thrill the most avid gamers. Combined with Acer's highly flexibly ergonomic stand, non-glare ComfyView panel and low dimming technology, users are assured long hours of both comfortable and visually stunning game play," Ronald Lau, Acer America business manager, said in the press release.

The US$799 ($849.99 CAD) XB280HK delivers 170/170 viewing angles (horizontal and vertical), 1.07 billion colors, 1000:1 native contrast ratio, 300 nits brightness, and 72 percent NTSC color saturation. Further, it is equipped with DisplayPort and as many as four USB 3.0 ports.

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Syber’s Upcoming Vapor Extreme Gaming Console Packs Nvidia’s GTX 980 GPU

Posted: 21 Sep 2014 04:44 PM PDT

Syber Vapor Extreme

Runs Windows 8.1 but boots straight into Steam's Big Picture Mode

Syber, a division of California-based boutique system builder CyberPowerPC, has announced an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980-packing gaming PC that boots directly into Steam's Big Picture Mode. The Syber Vapor Extreme, as the machine is called, is not an altogether new product, but the latest addition to an upcoming line of Windows 8.1-based gaming consoles the company unveiled at E3 2014 back in June.

If it isn't already apparent from its "Extreme" moniker, this particular product is going to be the most powerful member of Syber's upcoming Vapor family of Windows-based gaming consoles — devices that would have almost certainly hit the market as Steam Machines had that platform not been delayed by Valve. Since we've already covered the other two SKUs in the Vapor line, we are going to limit ourselves to the Vapor Extreme here.

Inside the 36-lb Vapor Extreme you will find a 4.0GHz Intel Core i7-4790K processor, 8GB of RAM, Nvidia GTX 980 with 4GB of DDR5 VRAM, 1TB SATA III hard drive, one USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 port, HDMI port, DVI-D port, Gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11ac/g/n. It will come with a 450W power supply, Logitech F710 wireless gamepad and a wireless keyboard with touchpad.

The $1,500 Vapor Extreme is listed as "coming soon" on Syber's website. However, the two other SKUs in this line of SteamOS-ready machines, the $700 Vapor I and the $600 Vapor A,  are both available for pre-order now and should begin shipping in October.

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Posted by Shri Krishna

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