General Gaming Article |
- Epic Launching VR Editor for Unreal Engine 4
- Steam's Lunar New Year Sale Is Your Newest Excuse to Buy More Games
- Asus ROG Horus GK2000 Quiet Mechanical Keyboard is Loud on Looks
- Sony Tries Hand at Consumer Solid State Drives
- Mobile Connections Will Push Internet Traffic Past 1 Zettabyte in 2016
- Logitech Intros G810 Orion Spectrum Keyboard
- Google Cracking Down on Fake Download Buttons
- Amazon Echo Finally Supports Spotify
| Epic Launching VR Editor for Unreal Engine 4 Posted: 05 Feb 2016 12:57 PM PST Epic Games reports that its Unreal Editor for Unreal Engine 4 is up and running in virtual reality, meaning developers should be able to strap on the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, don the accompanying motion controllers, and create virtual reality experiences in real time. The company says movement in the real world is mapped one-to-one in VR, allowing developers to reach out, manipulate, and grab objects. How cool is that? According to Epic boss Tim Sweeney in a recent blog, VR movement and editing controls are now functional in the VR editor, which also sports "key parts" of the Unreal Editor UI such as the Content Browser and the Details Panel. When the editor is eventually released, it will be built into Unreal Engine 4, which can be downloaded gratis, straight from Epic. The company will also release the full source code on GitHub. "You start out in the VR editor at a human scale, and can directly manipulate objects by moving around in a room-scale VR setting," Sweeney says. "But you can also use a smartphone-like pinching motion to zoom in and out. With one pinch, the world is shrunk to the size of a Barbie Doll house on your table. You can manipulate it granularly and ergonomically, and then zoom back to human scale." He says that developers also have a laser pointer at their disposal, allowing them to point at an object that's far away and either move it around, or reel in the object as if using a fishing rod. Developers can also teleport to the object's location by merely clicking a button. "With a mouse, several operations are often required to transform an object along multiple axes in 3D. In VR, you can frequently accomplish the same result with a single, intuitive motion," Sweeney adds. "This should come as no surprise, as a mouse only tracks two degrees of movement (X and Y), but in VR your head and two hands track six degrees of freedom each: X, Y, Z, and three rotational axes. That's 9 times the high-fidelity input bandwidth!" Sweeney says that Epic's Mark Rein saw the early DK1 version of Facebook's Oculus Rift prototype years ago and decided that Unreal Engine needed to support the hardware. Sweeney thought the idea was crazy at the time, until the HTC Vive and Oculus Touch motion controllers were introduced. These devices proved that developers could manipulate 3D objects directly in 3D just as humans do with objects in the real world. Unreal Engine has come a long way since it was first introduced back in the mid-'90s. It was the first engine to provide "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) editing, allowing map creators to move around the virtual environment and place objects in real time. Now developers can do the same in virtual reality, providing a more personal, hands-on experience. Sweeney says that additional details, including an actual release date, will be revealed in March during GDC 2016. In the meantime, you can catch the new VR editor in action by checking out the video below! |
| Steam's Lunar New Year Sale Is Your Newest Excuse to Buy More Games Posted: 05 Feb 2016 11:14 AM PST Ready...Set...Buy! Oh boy, like the diet that always starts on Monday so there's an excuse to splurge one more time beforehand, Steam's frequent game sales often prove too tempting to pass up. The discounted titles are like pieces of chocolate (speaking of which, guys and gals, Valentine's Day is right around the corner) or some other savory treat that you know you can do without, but what the hell, just this one last time, right? You may have found yourself saying that when Steam held its Fall Sale or the Winter Sale that quickly followed. The latter barely ended a month ago, but if you thought Valve would give you time to play all those games you stocked up on, think again—the Steam Lunar New Year Sale is now underway with thousands of marked down games! Some of today's highlighted deals include anywhere from 75-83 percent off XCOM titles, 33-75 percent off Fallout games (including 33 percent off Fallout 4, which puts the price at $40.19), 75 percent off Tomb Raider titles (minus Rise of the Tomb Raider), half off of Rust ($9.99), and 20 percent off Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide ($23.99, or $35.99 for the Collector's Edition). Valve also continues to be creative with its sales. Last time Valve posted a free comic called "Gingerbread Jake in Northpole Noir" on Steam and revealed a new page each day of the sale. This time? There's an interactive story element. "It is Lunar New Year once again, a time to travel home and reunite with family," the story begins. "You are far away from your home town of Monkey City, and many obstacles and choices lie on the path ahead... Your first obstacle is a massive body of water. Do you swim across, or hitch a ride and drive the long way around?" Your choice will determin what type of discounted games you're shown next—choose to swim and you'll be shown aquatic titles, and if you choose to drive, you'll be shown driving games (you can always go back and alter your choice). It's goofy, but hey, if you're going to have a sale every month, this is one way to try and keep gamers coming back. You can check it out for yourself here. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some games to buy and some sweet treats to gobble before Monday rolls around. |
| Asus ROG Horus GK2000 Quiet Mechanical Keyboard is Loud on Looks Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:39 AM PST Take your settings with you Asus just added another mechanical keyboard to its Republic of Gamers (ROG) division, the Horus GK2000, which is wrapped in an aggressive looking chassis that gamers are likely to either love or hate. A mishmash of lines and angles is pretty typical of an ROG product, be it a laptop or, in this case, a keyboard. It's not all just for looks, though—in addition to the wings, which are for aesthetics, Asus claims its newest plank has a premium, high-quality feel with CNC-processed aluminum accents and a special topcoat finish. You can also remove the bulky wrist-rest if you'd prefer a bit more desk space, plus there are two-way adjustable feet and a detachable stand for docking mobile devices. One of the highlights of the keyboard is an embedded 32-bit MCU and 4MB of onboard memory. The reason for the hardware is to control the lighting effects and create and store macros and profiles right on the keyboard itself. In total, gamers can program up to 80 macro commands with mouse and media-control functions thrown into the mix, and store them in up to 10 profiles. Asus chose Cherry MX Red key switches for the Horus GK2000. I prefer the audible and tactile click action of Cherry MX Blue key switches myself, though many gamers like the Reds because they're relatively quiet and have a low/lightweight actuation force (45g) that's preferable for rapid keystrokes. Each individual key gets its own red LED backlight which you can adjust on a per-key basis (like lighting up just the WASD keys, for example). There are also five preset lighting modes, plus a sixth profile for your own customized LED layout. The keycaps are ABS with a UV coating. According to Asus, they're also ergonomically shaped for both gaming and general purpose typing. Other notable features include a volume knob that can also control the backlight, two built-in USB 2.0 ports, audio pass-through (headphone and mic), five dedicated macro keys, and N-Key rollover (NKRO) support. It looks like the keyboard will come with a custom-fit neoprene carrying case so you can bring the plank to LAN parties. No word yet on price or availability though. |
| Sony Tries Hand at Consumer Solid State Drives Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:01 AM PST Look who's joining the SSD party Sony sold off its Vaio PC business around this time a year ago, but apparently the company is still interested in the PC space, at least from a component angle. Proof of that comes in the form of Sony"s new SLW-M series solid state drives. The SLW-M series is Sony's first foray into the consumer SSD market. They're 2.5-inch form factor drives measuring 7mm thick with a SATA 6Gbps interface. Initially there was no mention of what controller or type of NAND flash memory chips Sony opted to run with, but a teardown of one of the drives by Chinese-language website diypc.hk reveals that Sony paired Toshiba's A19 TLC chips with a rebranded Phison S10 series controller. Sony's kicking things off with two capacity options, 240GB and 480GB. They're rated to read and write data at up to 560MB/s and 530MB/s, respectively, though it's not clear if both drives sport the same rated performance or if those figures are combined maximums (performance tends to vary by capacity). This isn't a high performance line, though the rated specs would have been top notch before the emergence of PCIe-based SSDs. It will be interesting to see how pricing shakes out, along with real-world performance metrics. It's not yet known when the drives will be available or for how much. What is known is that the retail kit will come with a 9.5mm spacer, Acronis True Image 2015 HD, and Sony's own SSD Toolbox drive management software. |
| Mobile Connections Will Push Internet Traffic Past 1 Zettabyte in 2016 Posted: 05 Feb 2016 09:35 AM PST The Zettabyte Era If you need another reason to complain about data caps—we're looking at you, Comcast—consider that combined Internet traffic is expected to top the zettabyte mark this year, according to Cisco's Visual Networking Index, an ongoing survey of web traffic and trends. What is a zettabyte? It's equivalent to around:
These are rounded measurements, mind you, but you get the idea—a zettabyte is a lot of data, enough to fill about a hundred thousand of those fancy helium infused 10TB hard drives. The explosion in Internet traffic is predominantly mobile—smartphones, laptops, tablets. Since the first camera phone was introduced in 2000, the number of mobile users has quintupled, and by 2020, Cisco predicts there will be 5.5 billion mobile users. "With the ever-increasing billions of people and things that are being connected, mobility is the predominant medium that's enabling today's global digitization transformation," said Doug Webster, vice president of service provider marketing, Cisco. "Future mobile innovations in cellular, such as 5G, and Wi-Fi solutions will be needed to further address new scale requirements, security concerns, and user demands. IoT advancements will continue to fuel tangible benefits for people, businesses, and societies." Not surprisingly, mobile video is growing the most of any mobile application. This is because faster online connections—think 4G LTE—have enabled higher resolution video feeds. These trends don't show any signs of slowing down. Just the opposite, Cisco says that by 2010, global mobile data traffic will reach 30.6 exabytes per month, up from 3.7 exabytes in 2015. An auditing of the web will also show 81 trillion images and 7 trillion video clips by 2020. Data caps are the bane of this increased dependence on Internet connectivity, particularly among smartphone owners, though expect more Wi-Fi hotspots in the future. Cisco reckons that the total number of Wi-Fi hotspots, including home spots, will grow seven-fold from 2015 (64 million) to 2020 (432 million). |
| Logitech Intros G810 Orion Spectrum Keyboard Posted: 05 Feb 2016 07:41 AM PST Popular peripheral maker Logitech updated its RGB mechanical gaming keyboard lineup with the release of the G810 Orion Spectrum. The new keyboard features the company's exclusive Romer-G mechanical switches that promise 25 percent faster actuation than standard mechanical keyboards. Logitech says these switches have an actuation point of 1.5mm and an improved durability of 70 million keystrokes. That's impressive. According to Ujesh Desai, vice president and general manager of gaming at Logitech, the company met with "dozens" of gamers last year to see what they wanted from a keyboard. The resulting device features a fingerprint-masking matte texture, a durable braided cable, RGB lighting, and dedicated media buttons for controlling audio and video without having to leave the game. The specs show that the RGB lighting is customizable and supports a full spectrum of colors (16.8 million). Users simply load up the Logitech Gaming Software and customize every aspect, from personalizing each key to marking specific groups of keys by color to synchronizing lighting effects with other Logitech products. The software, which can be downloaded from Logitech, comes packed with profiles for more than 300 games. In addition to controlling the backlighting, the software also enables users to set up custom button macros on the F1 to F12 keys, and to determine what physical keys are turned off when the customer turns on Game Mode. The keyboard itself also provides 26-key rollover, three-step angle adjustments so that the user can set the keyboard to 0, 4, or 8 degrees, and rubber feet to keep the peripheral from sliding around during heated gaming moments. Logitech says that the big selling point is the switches, which deliver "near-instant responsiveness," a very desirable feature for intense PC gaming. The company indicates that they're better than standard Cherry MX switches, giving gamers a competitive edge. These switches feature patent-pending asymmetric keycaps, a soft click switch design, and a surface-mounted LED design that minimizes light leakage. "Low-force, 45g actuation results in near-instant responsiveness and helps minimize fatigue over long gaming sessions," Logitech states. "Dual-contact redundancy helps ensure key activation at the same point, every time." Logitech's new G810 Orion Spectrum is slated to arrive in the United States and Europe sometime in the beginning of February. The suggested retail price is $159, which isn't too shabby for a mechanical gaming keyboard for the serious PC gamer. |
| Google Cracking Down on Fake Download Buttons Posted: 05 Feb 2016 06:57 AM PST Google updated its security blog on Thursday with a promise of to rid our browsing experience of deceptive download buttons. This promise will be carried out via Google's Safe Browsing service, which seeks to protect Web surfers from the growing number of social engineering attacks. The download buttons being targeted typically look legit, but instead lead to what the company calls "deceptive embedded content." Safe Browsing, which has been used by more than one billion people to help ward off phishing attacks over the last eight years, got serious about social engineering attacks back in November 2015. Users are deceived by seemingly trusted web content, such as a fake-but-legit-looking bank or government page. This content tries to trick the visitor into coughing up valuable information such as passwords and credit card numbers. They'll even lead unwary users to fake tech support calls. According to Google, content will be considered to be "social engineering" when it pretends to act, look, and feel like a trusted entity, then tries to trick the Web surfer into doing something that the user would only do with an authentic trusted entity. For instance, a website may show a deceptive ad that asks the visitor to update their media player, but pressing the button leads the user to a malicious website or downloads malicious software. "Our fight against unwanted software and social engineering is still just beginning," Google says in its blog. "If visitors to your web site consistently see social engineering content, Google Safe Browsing may warn users when they visit the site. If your site is flagged for containing social engineering content, you should troubleshoot with Search Console." That warning usually appears as a big red sign flagging that a specific site the Web surfer is about to visit is deceptive. This site may trick you into doing something dangerous, the warning reads, such as installing software or revealing personal information. Users can either click on the details link or the "Back to safety" button. Google's Safe Browsing can be used in Apple's Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. The company seems intent on cleaning out the junk that causes Web surfers headaches and financial woes. Google says it will continue to refine Safe Browsing protection so that more people can remain safe online. |
| Amazon Echo Finally Supports Spotify Posted: 04 Feb 2016 09:51 PM PST Amazon introduced its Echo "smart" speaker to the masses back in June 2015 after shaping the product with a closed group of customers starting late 2014. The device was available only through Amazon until this past holiday season when the company served up Echo in retail outlets such as The Home Depot, Staples, Sears, Brookstone, RadioShack and more. It's priced at $179.99 and finally offers a feature owners have been asking for since its initial launch: Spotify support. Amazon and Spotify announced the compatibility on Thursday, revealing that Spotify Premium members in the United States can now listen to their favorite playlist, artist, genre and more on Amazon's device. Echo also now supports Spotify Connect, allowing customers to transfer and control their music from the Spotify app to Echo. Amazon Echo already supports a number of music services such as Audible, Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and TuneIn. Users can simply ask for a station, playlist, genre, or song. However, the speaker also supports Bluetooth, allowing the customer to stream their favorite tunes from a compatible phone or tablet. Amazon Echo comes packed with a Texas Instruments processor based on the ARM Cortex-A8, 256MB of LPDDR1 RAM, 4GB of internal storage, Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wireless N connectivity, one 2.5" woofer, one 2" tweeter, and seven microphones that use beamforming technology and enhanced noise cancellation. This device can hear users from across the room using far-field voice recognition technology. "We're extremely pleased that Spotify Premium subscribers can now listen to their favorite music on Amazon Echo," said Ian Geller, Global Head of Hardware at Spotify. "Creating innovative experiences is core to our mission. We know our users will love controlling music with their voice at home." New customers can try Spotify Premium free for 30 days by heading here. |
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