General Gaming Article |
- ZeniMax's Lawsuit With Oculus VR Goes to Trial
- Nvidia Shield Review (2015)
- Nvidia Extends Free Streaming Games Service to September
- Amped Wireless Outs New Touch-Based Router
- Newegg Daily Deals: Nero 2015, MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard, and More!
- Nvidia Launches Quadro M5000 and M4000 Graphics Cards
- Mozilla Refreshes Firefox Browser for Windows 10
- Mandatory Windows 10 Update Causes Some PCs to Reboot Endlessly
- Lenovo Unveils Xeon-Powered ThinkPad P50 and P70 Mobile Workstations
- Windows 10 Tips and Tricks
| ZeniMax's Lawsuit With Oculus VR Goes to Trial Posted: 11 Aug 2015 07:07 PM PDT The federal judge handling the case of ZeniMax Media versus Oculus VR has ruled that the dispute will move forward to a jury trial set for August 1, 2016. Judge Jorge A. Solis, whose seat is in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas, has also thrown out lawsuit dismissal requests made by Facebook, Oculus VR and co-founder Palmer Luckey. Zenimax Media sued Oculus VR and Palmer Luckey last year after Facebook purchased the Oculus Rift developer for $2 billion USD. The games publisher alleges that Oculus VR's current CTO, John Carmack, was working for ZeniMax Media's id Software subsidiary when he allegedly provided Palmer Luckey with trade secrets, code and "technical know-how" regarding the development of virtual reality headsets. "ZeniMax provided this valuable intellectual property to defendants under a binding Non-Disclosure Agreement that specifies such intellectual property is owned exclusively by ZeniMax and cannot be used, disclosed, or transferred to third parties without ZeniMax's approval," the company said in 2014. "ZeniMax's intellectual property has provided the fundamental technology driving the Oculus Rift since its inception." ZeniMax Media claimed that Oculus VR and Luckey refused to provide ZeniMax with compensation and is using the technology without permission. The company went on to say that its attempts to resolve the dispute were unsuccessful. Naturally, Oculus VR has a different story to share, indicating that ZeniMax Media wanted to take advantage of the financial transaction between Facebook and Oculus VR. "There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus VR product," stated Oculus VR's response to ZeniMAx Media's claims. "Indeed, ZeniMax had never identified any 'stolen' code or technology in any Oculus VR product, although ZeniMax had the full source code for the Oculus VR software for over a year and a half (having received it directly from Oculus VR well before it was even released publicly), and could have analyzed it online anytime (at developer.oculusvr.com)." "Until the Facebook deal, and the perceived chance for a quick payout, ZeniMax never raised any claim of infringement against Oculus VR, undoubtedly because ZeniMax never has contributed any intellectual property or technology to Oculus VR," Oculus VR added. With the jury trial not taking place until next August, both sides of the dispute seemingly have plenty of time to get their facts straight. Meanwhile, Oculus VR is currently hammering out the consumer version of its virtual reality headset, which is slated to arrive in Q1 2016. However, we expect to hear more about the dispute when the Oculus Rift finally hits store shelves next year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 11 Aug 2015 02:13 PM PDT More Android TV than game consoleThe 2015 Nvidia Shield marks the third entry into the company's Shield lineup. Confusingly, Nvidia is once again simply calling this iteration "Nvidia Shield." Because of its new form factor, many are referring to it as the Nvidia Shield gaming console, but in our opinion, it's actually more of a set-top box than a gaming machine. The brains behind the operation is Nvidia's new Tegra X1 SOC, but it's Google's Android TV UI that's really at the heart of the device. The Shield's main purpose here is for watching movies/TV shows, and gaming. This means that there is no full web browser and no email client. As a matter of fact, many of the Google Play apps are walled off, and only curated Android TV apps are downloadable from the Google Play store on the device. The Shield comes with a gamepad. Measuring 8.3x5.1x1 inches, the Shield is smaller than it leads one to expect in pictures. The little device is running Android Lollipop and has two USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet port. Unlike the two previous Shield devices, there is no battery here, and this Shield is meant to sip juice from a wall socket. Our $200 unit came with 16GB of internal storage, which isn't much, but considering most Android games and apps are quite small, coupled with the fact that it does have a MicroSD card slot, it isn't the end of the world. In case that doesn't do it for you, however, there is a $300 model that offers 500GB of storage out of the box. Setting up the unit is pretty easy. You simply log in to your Gmail account with the included wireless Shield controller, which is essentially the same controller that Nvidia packaged with its Shield tablet last year. The Shield controller is very similar to the Xbox controller, with the main differences being that it has a touchpad, volume buttons, a headset port, and a built-in mic. You'll be using the controller's mic a lot, as Android TV is largely designed around voice commands. Want to launch Netflix? Simply tap on the Nvidia button on the controller and say, "launch Netflix." Want to view pictures of cats? Simply say, "pictures of cats." In case you don't want to use voice commands, there is an onscreen keyboard as well. There is also an optional $50 wireless remote control, which has a circular d-pad, back button, home button, volume slider, and mic. You can also plug an analog headset into the remote, which is greatly appreciated if you want to be able to crank up the TV's volume without disturbing the roomies. For an extra $50, you can get an wireless remote. As a strict movie/video-watching machine, the Shield is the best set-top box out there. The Shield supports Hulu, Netflix, Plex, Kodi, Google Play Movies & TV, YouTube, and more. The device also acts as a Chromecast, and you have access to music streaming apps like Pandora and Google Play Music. To top it off, the box supports 4K video at 60fps over HDMI 2.0. It's not perfect, however. While HBO support was announced, it's not here yet, and there is no Amazon Instant Video access. The YouTube app, while usable, is also a little too simple for our liking. There's also a $40 stand for the Shield, if you're dying to see it standing up. When it comes to gaming, the Shield is largely a mixed bag. When we reviewed the original Shield portable back in 2013, we complained that AAA Android games were few and far between. The situation hasn't improved much in the past two years. Sure, there are some decent Android titles, but most of them are casual games or are ports of existing console/PC games. Also, while the Shield supports multiple controllers, there really aren't that many Android titles that support local co-op. Even the Dreamcast port of fighting game Soul Calibur, which purports to support local multiplayer, didn't actually support it on the Shield. Oddly enough, there are even some titles that worked well on the original Shield, such as GTA: San Andreas, that aren't officially supported on the new Shield. To mitigate the dearth of deep Android games, Nvidia is pushing its Grid game streaming service. Right now, there are about 60 streamable PC games, which you can view here. You'll need a good Internet connection, however, and we recommend a 5GHz router. We tried playing at 2.4GHz, but the lag and compression made for a frustrating experience. The Shield also lets you stream from your gaming PC, as long as you're on the same network. Oddly, however, this doesn't work as well as Valve's own In-Home Streaming service, as it only officially supports a couple of titles. We tried streaming Lethal League, a multiplayer fighting game on Steam, but the controls didn't work. The Shield's X1 chip is a quad-core 64-bit SOC based on a 20nm process. In conjunction with its SOC is 3GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the Shield's closed-off Android TV ecosystem doesn't support that many benchmarks, so we only had a handful of comparisons to go by. In GFX openGL, an openGL graphics benchmark, the Shield garnered 43fps in the "Manhattan" test. In this test, there is a futuristic rendering of Manhattan at night as helicopters fly through the city and fight a giant robot. We used our Shield Tablet as our zero-point, and Nvidia's 2014 tablet's 2.2GHz K1 processor only managed 29fps, which is roughly 50 percent slower and is unplayable. For a compute benchmark, we used CompuRS to calculate megapixels per second picture rendering. The Shield garnered a score of 4.7Mpixels/s, beating the Shield tablet by 104 percent with its 2.3Mpixel/s score. Synthetic tests out of the way, we fired up Tainted Keep, an Android hack-and-slash game with a built-in benchmark. Here, the Shield scored an average 57.9fps in the extreme benchmark, whereas the Shield tablet, again, got roughly half that framerate, only being able to muster an average 28.8fps. While the Shield is able to handle most games well, it's still a mobile chip and does have its limitations. We fired up The Talos Principle, which is a port of the PC first-person puzzle game, and even at its default 1080p settings the game struggled to run with a smooth framerate and was downright choppy at times. The Shield may not be our first choice for a gaming system, though you can certainly have tons of fun with it. Its real power lies in its strength as a media player; it's the most impressive set-top box we've seen to date. Specifications
Benchmarks
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| Nvidia Extends Free Streaming Games Service to September Posted: 11 Aug 2015 01:35 PM PDT Another free month for Shield ownersHere's a bit of good news for Shield owners who have enjoyed Nvidia's Grid game streaming service since it was launched back in 2013: Nvidia has quietly extended the cutoff date to September. Unfortunately, the company doesn't give an exact date for when the subscription model will begin, but we're betting it will be around September 30. Previously the Shield-based service was due to kick in the subscription model on June 30, but the official launch date was pushed forward to July 31, giving Shield owners an extra month of free play. The company said at the time that the first extension was due to the launch of Nvidia's Shield set-top box. "This extension is valid for our entire family of Shield devices," Nvidia said in June. "So if you own a Shield portable, tablet, or Android TV you may continue to enjoy unlimited streaming access to Grid's library of more than 50 PC games." The Grid gaming service's roster includes huge hits like Batman: Arkham Origins, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Borderlands, Dead Island: Riptide, Saints Row 3, and more. There are even family-friendly titles such as LEGO Batman, LEGO Hobbit, and LEGO Movie: The Videogame. Nvidia's Grid gaming service will presumably work like Netflix: pay a monthly fee and have access to a growing bank of PC games. Trine 2 and Strike Suit Zero are scheduled to be taken off the roster on August 14, and will likely be replaced by two new additions, just like Netflix. The company will also offer games to purchase and stream, similar to what OnLive was doing before it closed down. Currently, the Grid gaming service only works on the Shield Portable, the Shield Tablet and the Shield Android TV set-top-box. The Shield Portable is in the shape of a controller and sells for $199 (16 GB) whereas the Shield Tablet sells for $299 (16 GB, Wi-Fi) or $399 (32 GB, LTE). The Shield Android TV device costs $200 (16 GB, controller) or $300 (500 GB, Controller). Once the subscription model kicks in, will Shield owners bite? Nvidia may be placing its bets on the Grid service as an incentive for customers to purchase Shield hardware. There may be bundles offered, providing a discount on both the hardware and game subscription. We'll find out when the subscription model officially launches in the near future. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amped Wireless Outs New Touch-Based Router Posted: 11 Aug 2015 01:24 PM PDT On Tuesday, Amped Wireless introduced a new addition to its family of touch-based Wi-Fi routers, the TAP-R3. This Wireless AC router features a 4-inch touch screen and promises whole-home coverage. The device will be made available to purchase from Amped Wireless next week for $199.99 followed by brick-and-mortar and online shops in the coming weeks. The router's specs show that customers will see speeds of up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band. This speed is backed by three 2.4 GHz amplifiers, three 5 GHz amplifiers, and six low noise amplifiers. There's also one detachable high gain dual band antenna and two internal high gain antennas. In addition to the antennas, the new TAP-R3 provides one gigabit WAN port and four gigabit LAN ports for wired devices like desktops and game consoles. There's also one USB 2.0 port for sharing files or streaming media across the network. Got an Xbox One? Connect it to the router via Ethernet and stream your games to a wireless Windows 10 device nearly lag-free. "The TAP-R3 is effortlessly sleek and doesn't take up much space, but it can outperform some of the biggest routers on the market and is built with an incredibly simple setup process," the company says. "With its high power components, the TAP-R3 can send a Wi-Fi signal to areas like upstairs rooms, out to the yard, or to the far den." One of the big selling points is the device's 4-inch touch screen, which is backed by a Qualcomm processor. The company says that customers can setup the router with just a few taps of a finger or stylus. The screen is also the gateway to a number of features including creating a guest network, parental controls, Quality of Service and more. A good compliment to the new router would be the USB-based ACA1 adapter for Mac and Windows PC. You won't hit the router's maximum speed, but the adapter provides 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 867 Mbps on the 5 GHz band. There's also the PCI20E PCIe-based adapter that's capable of 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 867 Mbps on the 5 GHz band. Consumers looking to establish a Wireless AC network should be good to go with the new Amped Wireless TAP-R3. The price tag may seem a little steep, but customers seem to be getting a lot of bang for the buck with this router. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Nero 2015, MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard, and More! Posted: 11 Aug 2015 12:24 PM PDT Top Deal: Today's mobile devices have made it all to easy to accumulate home videos, but what do you with all those clips? You can view them as-is, or get to editing them, which you can do by taking advantage of today's top deal for Nero 2015 for $25 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [EMCAWKK92]). Not only can you create and edit videos with Nero, you can also rip DVDs, convert videos and audio to just about any format, stream to iOS and Android devices, and more. Other Deals: MSI Z97 Gaming 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $125 with $4 shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCAWKK77]) Hyperkin RetroN 5 Gaming Console for $119 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCAWKK97]) Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4 Gaming Headset for PlayStation 4 for $100 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCAWKK98]) Asus Radeon R7 260X 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card for $110 with free shipping (normally $115 - use coupon code: [EMCAWKK79]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nvidia Launches Quadro M5000 and M4000 Graphics Cards Posted: 11 Aug 2015 12:12 PM PDT More Maxwell GPUs Nvidia today added a couple of new professional level graphics cards to its Quadro family, the Quadro M4000 and M5000. Both cards are based on Nvidia's Maxwell 2 architecture, the same as found in its flagship Quadro M6000 card along with consumer desktop solutions like the GeForce GTX 980. The Maxwell 2-based M4000 (PDF) and M5000 (PDF) replace Nvidia's previous generation Quadro K4200 and K5200, both of which are Kepler cards. While the new parts aren't as powerful as the M6000, they tote the same architectural upgrades over the Kepler-based Quadro cards. Starting with the higher end of the two, the double-slot M5000 sports 2,048 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus for 211GB/s of memory bandwidth. It has a boost clockspeed of around 1,050MHz while the memory runs at 6,600MHz. NVIDIA rates FP32 performance at 4.3 TFLOPs. Finally, it has a 150W TDP. The M4000 is a single-slot solution with 1,664 CUDA cores. It also has 8GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, but it's clocked a 6,000MHz for 192GB/s of memory bandwidth. It has a boost clockspeed of around 780MHz and 120W TDP. FP32 performance is listed at 2.6 TFLOPs. There's software-based error correction code (ECC) for the memory on the M5000 model for added reliability. Both cards have four DisplayPort 1.2 connectors and can support up to four 4K displays (the M5000 also adds a DVI-I connector to the mix). Nvidia didn't say how much the cards will cost or when they'll be available. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mozilla Refreshes Firefox Browser for Windows 10 Posted: 11 Aug 2015 10:07 AM PDT Fresh new look When not pouting and making a stink about the way Microsoft decided to handle the default browser selection when upgrading to Windows 10, Mozilla was working on a new version of Firefox, one that it believes is a better fit for the new operating system. That version, Firefox 40, is now available. With it comes a fresh new look in Windows 10, one that's been tweaked and designed to give the browser a more streamlined feel. "You'll also notice bigger, bolder design elements as well as more space for viewing the Web. We had a lot of fun building this version of Firefox and we hope you'll enjoy the new look," Mozilla said in a blog post. Those bigger elements include things like a bigger X in the upper-right corner of tabs, a larger font in the address bar, and other visual tweaks that will make touch computing a little bit easier. In addition to the new look, Mozilla is working to make third-party add-ons safer in Firefox. To do that, it's rolling out a certification process based on guidelines that it recently provided to developers. For now, users will see warnings next to unsigned add-ons in Firefox. In future releases, Mozilla will take it a step further by automatically disabling third-party add-ons that haven't been certified. It will be interesting to see how Firefox fares in the coming months now that Windows 10 is here and installed on millions of PCs. One of the features of Windows 10 is Microsoft's new Edge browser, which among other things allows users to scribble on the web and make annotations. Firefox, while still popular, has fallen behind Chrome in market share and currently sits in third place. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mandatory Windows 10 Update Causes Some PCs to Reboot Endlessly Posted: 11 Aug 2015 09:38 AM PDT Stuck in a reboot loop It didn't take long to see an example of why some users aren't in favor of forced updates. Following a major cumulative update to Windows 10 that began rolling out last Wednesday, some users are complaining that their PCs are stuck in an endless reboot cycle. For those affected by the buggy update, Windows 10 automatically downloads and tries to install the collection of patches, which requires a reboot, but it fails along the way. Windows then rolls back the changes, tries to install the update again, only to fail again. Rinse and repeat. "Downloads, reboot to install. Gets to 30 percent and reboots. Gets to 59 percent and reboots. Gets to 59 percent again and then states something went wrong so uninstalling the update. Wait a few minutes and reboot. Back to login screen," a user complained on Microsoft's forums. The complaints aren't limited to Microsoft's forum. ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughs ran into the issue as well, and even worse, he says that Microsoft's tool that allows Windows 10 Home users to hide or block updates didn't allow him to prevent the buggy one from repeated attempts to install. There's an unofficial fix floating around that involves deleting a registry file. Specifically, it calls for deleting SIDs for users that no longer exist. You can find out which ones by checking Computer Management/Local Users and Groups/Users, and then navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. According to Forbes, Windows writes the bad registry entry after failing to install the first time around, and that's what causes subsequent attempts to fail as well. Just bear in mind that poking around and making changes in the registry can make a bad problem even worse, so proceed with caution if you attempt the above fix. With the introduction of Windows 10, system updates are mandatory, at least for Home users. Windows 10 Pro users have the option of delaying updates for this very reason. Microsoft's thinking is that it's in everyone's best interest if their PCs are updated and secure, though situations like this underscore the tradeoff with forcing security patches on users. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lenovo Unveils Xeon-Powered ThinkPad P50 and P70 Mobile Workstations Posted: 11 Aug 2015 08:44 AM PDT Xeon on the go Lenovo, the world's top supplier of PCs, didn't take long to pounce on Intel's new Xeon processor line intended for laptops. Intel announced the new Skylake-based parts on Monday, saying they're the first Xeon chips built with mobility in mind, and today Lenovo unveiled a pair of workstations that will run on the chip maker's new hardware. They consist of the 15.6-inch ThinkPad P50 and 17.3-inch ThinkPad P70. According to Lenovo, these new systems come equipped with the most memory and storage ever found in a mobile workstation. More specifically, each system can be configured with up to 64GB of DDR4-2133 ECC memory and can handle up to four storage devices for a total of up to 2TB of HDD space and 1TB of PCIe-based SSD space. The P70 also boasts a 17.3-inch 4K Ultra HD display or (optionally) a Full HD touch panel. Other features include two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, mini DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4, Smart Card reader, ExpressCard, SDXC, docking connector, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.11, and GbE LAN As for the ThinkPad P50, Lenovo is billing it as the thinnest and lightest full-function mobile workstation to date -- it measures 9.93 inches (D) by 14.86 inches (W) by 0.96 to 1.02 inches (H) and weighs 5.6 pounds. It has the same features as the P70, save for a 15.6-inch 4K display (Full HD touch panel is also optional on the P50). Like the P70, it's certified to run popular ISV applications. In addition to Intel Xeon E3-1500M v5 processor options, both systems use NVIDIA Quadro GPUs for professional graphics work and come with X-Rite Pantone color calibration to ensure accurate colors. The P50 and P70 are mil-spec tested for durability use a new FLEX Performance Cooling system that consists of a dual-fan design. According to Lenovo, this allows its mobile workstations to run quieter and cooler than previous generation systems. Lenovo says the P50 and P70 will be available in Q4 starting at $1,599 and $1,999, respectively. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 11 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT Some tips and tricks to make your experience with Windows 10 easierNow that Windows 10 is out and making its way to eager customers who have waited patiently for the new OS, we thought it would be a good time to post a few tricks and tips. These include changing the platform's look, turning off Wi-Fi Sense, and loads more. There's probably more than what's listed here, so check back for additional entries. Change the taskbar color |
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