Valve has announced that its In-Home streaming service is available to everyone on Steam. The feature, which has been in beta until now, allows Steam users to stream their games from one PC to another on their home network.
Logging into your Steam account on two computers, using the same network, will automatically connect them. Once connected, your primary rig, the remote computer, can stream video games, including graphically demanding ones, to a lower-end PC or laptop. What you can stream is determined by a game's system requirements but such requirements won't affect what kind of computer you stream it to.
As of right now, Steam users will not be able to host the stream from Windows XP, Mac OS X, or SteamOS/Linux machines. But the remote PC will stream games to the aforementioned platforms.
Users will also be able to remotely install, launch, and play games from the secondary computer as if they were using the remote PC. In addition, keyboard, mouse, and controller input is sent back to the remote computer.
We compare the game's low, medium, and high settings with comparison pictures and video
Welcome to Maximum PC's new "graphical analysis" feature where we do a deep dive analysis on a video game's graphics options comparing its low, medium, and high settings along with any other graphical bells and whistles it may offer. In this on-going feature we will provide picture and video comparisons to the PC's biggest games. We know you're probably either equipped with a bad-ass rig or on the cusp on upgrading so we wanted to give you a visual glimpse of what your system/future system might be able to handle playing certain titles.
For our inaugural story, we decided to go with the recently-released Dark Souls 2.
It's no secret that the original Dark Souls on the PC was a terrible port. The game easily made our 10 Worst PC Ports list in large part due to its lack of graphical options. It's default resolution was 720p (yuck!). Furthermore, you had to pretty much hack the game to get it working in 1080p. Namco and FromSoftware said they were going to change that with the PC version of Dark Soul 2, so we wanted to take it for a visual test drive to see for ourselves.
Dark Souls 2: Graphics Analysis Video Comparing low, medium, and high settings.
Testing Methodology:
We wanted our tests to be easily replicated, so we ran the game in 1080p, using Dark Souls 2's preset graphics options, which include "Low," "Medium," and "High." These are the only presets the game offers, there is no "Ultra" preset in Dark Souls 2. We should mention that the point of this test is to analyze image quality and visual fidelity. This is not a frame rate performance test.
We captured our screenshots and video with a modest gaming rig, which sports an Intel Core i7 4770K CPU, 8GB of 1600MHz G.Skill RAM, and a GTX 680 video card.
The settings we used for each test are shown in the screenshots below:
Low Preset
Medium Preset
High Preset
On a related note, the game's minimum and recommended specs are listed here.
Video Scene Analysis:
Note: You can click on the images below to see an animated GIF comparing the scene running across Low, Medium, and High settings.
Ocean Scene
Our first scene has the game rendering an ocean, located near the game's hub city, Majula. When the scene is rendering on Low settings, it barely renders the ocean's waves. After we cranked it up to Medium, the waves became much more pronounced, finally, on High you can see the waves start to foam up a little more. We also noticed that the cloth on our character's trousers were less jaggy at Medium and High settings. Overall, there is a big difference between Low to Medium, but the disparity is less between Medium to High.
Note: You can click on the images below to see an animated GIF comparing the scene running across Low, Medium, and High settings.
Indoor dark dreary dungeon scene
In the second scene in our video, we captured footage from a dark dreary dungeon. This time, it was hard for us to delineate a difference between any of the game's presets. Our character's particle effects looked the same in Low, Medium, and High. We did see a difference in the dungeon's walls, however, which featured more detail at Medium and High settings. If you look at the arch way, you can see more textures on the rocks when the game is running in Medium and High.
Note: You can click on the images below to see an animated GIF comparing the scene running across Low, Medium, and High settings.
Outdoor castle courtyard scene
The last scene from our video shows our character in a castle courtyard. As we went from Low to High, it was again difficult for us to tell the difference between the three presets. Our character did look more detailed when we cranked up the setting from Low to High, but other than some minor shadows underneath the grass, we couldn't see many major visual upgrades in the environment. The castle's gray walls had a few more textures and shadows when going from Low to High settings, but these are very minor enhancements.
Extra Scenes not in the Video:
Castle vegetation scene
In this scene we see a castle wall covered in green vegetation. We see a consistent increase in detail going from Low to High. As we went up in graphical fidelity, the moss on the castle's exterior becomes greener, crisper, and filled with more shadows.
Boulder scene
Another area that we took a peek at featured a few boulders outside. As you can see it was difficult for us to tell the difference between the game's presets. We found that the rocks became more detailed going from Low to High, but there wasn't a huge difference within the rest of the environment.
Conclusion:
In doing our graphics test we saw the biggest difference in image quality when we had our character in highly-lit areas, or surrounded by water. When we were in dark or low-lit areas, the differences were quite negligible. For the most part, there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between Medium and High settings. The Medium preset in some cases looked almost identical to the High preset, with but a few minor missing textures and shadows. Ultimately, if you're playing Dark Souls 2, you probably won't see a huge disparity in image quality going from Medium to High, and this game isn't one that is likely to impress your console-loving friends with the game's highest settings.
Did you like this feature? If so, which game would you like us to do a deep dive graphical analysis on next?
Apple concedes its spot atop the list of most valuable brands
Steve Cook and the rest of the Cupertino gang at Apple are off their collective game, or so it would appear. Having once been declared the most valuable brand in the world, that honor now belongs to Google, as determined by Millward Brown, a global research agency specializing in advertising, marketing communications, media, and communications. In a new ranking of the top 100 most valuable global brands for 2014, the Mountain View firm supplanted its Cupertino rival.
The way Millward Brown figures it, Google's brand is worth $158.84 billion. That's a significant 40 percent jump compared to Google's brand value last year. Meanwhile, Apple's reported brand value dropped 20 percent year-on-year to $147.88 billion. In doing so, the two companies traded the top two spots.
"Digital service brands such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tencent and LinkedIn are now more than just tools, they have become part of our lives. They offer new forms of communication that absorb people's attention and imagination, while also helping them organize the rest of their lives at the same time. To gain more of our mind-space brands such as Google are making ambitious plays across existing category boundaries," Peter Walshe, Global BrandZ Director at Millward Brown, told The Telegraph.
IBM took the No. 3 spot at $107.54 billion, followed by Microsoft at No. 4 ($90.18 billion) and McDonalds at No. 5 ($85.76 billion). Technology-based firms accounted for half of the top 10 spots, the other two being AT&T at No. 8 ($77.83 billion) and Amazon at No. 10 ($64.25 billion).
The next time you're cut off in traffic, it might be the car, not the human driver that did it!
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) this week approved a set of rules and regulations for testing autonomous vehicles, otherwise known as self-driving cars. There was a public hearing held back in January, after which the DMV delivered final testing regulations to the Office of Administrative Law for approval. Regulations were then written up this week and will become effective on September 16, 2014.
As you might expect, there's a bit of a process involved before a company can put a driver inside a self-driving car and have it barrel down public roads. There's a permit that needs to be filed for. The vehicle must be operated by an autonomous vehicle test driver who is an employee, contractor, or designee of the manufacturer conducting the test. In addition, the company must have $5 million in insurance, or otherwise show proof that it can pay up to that amount in damage claims.
There are requirements for the test driver as well. Most of the regulations are obvious entries -- the driver must be in immediate physical control or actively monitoring the vehicle's operation and capable of taking over if something goes awry. He or she must also remain in the driver's seat at all times. There's actually quite a bit of training involved.
"As automated systems get more complex, human understanding also gets more complex," Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS), told ArsTechnica. "For a vehicle to suddenly swerve to the right, a human would have to grab [the steering wheel]... training becomes even more important, and it would also be important for general users."
It's an interesting future we're embarking on. A recent article in Popular Scienceposed an interesting question. Say a front tire blows out and your autonomous car swerves. After calculating the outcome, the self-driving car can either swerve left into oncoming traffic and kill multiple people, or swerve right over a cliff killing just you. Which should it do?
That's a question that will eventually need to be answered.
New and improved version of Chrome OS hits the Stable channel
Google this week rolled out an updated version of its open source Chrome OS to the Stable channel -- version 35.0.1916.116 (Platform version: 5712.6.0). The update applies to all Chrome OS devices, save for the Asus Chromebook and Samsung Series 3 Chromebox. For all other Chrome OS devices, the update adds a number of bug fixes, security updates, and feature enhancements.
One of the bigger additions to Chrome OS is that the Launcher now supports folders. You can now sort and organize all of your web apps into folders rather than stare at a haphazard collection of icons strewn about.
Based on user feedback, Google also updated window controls. The minimize button has made a return and the left/right tiling of windows can be accomplished by long-pressing on the maximize button, Google says.
If you're into voice commands, you'll be happy to know that blurting out "Ok Google" will allow you to use voice control on New Tab Page and Google.com for English (U.S.) users.
Google says systems will be receiving the updated version of Chrome OS over the next several days.
Streaming music service grows its paid membership amid increasing competition
Today is a day of celebration for Spotify, the spunky streaming music service that just crossed the 10 million paid subscriber milestone. Including freeloaders, Spotify is home to more than 40 million active users across 56 markets. That's not too shabby for a service that first launched in 2008, and has only been available in the U.S. since late 2011 (first as an invite-only and then to everyone by the end of September).
"We've had an amazing year, growing from 20 markets to 56 as people from around the world embrace streaming music. 10 million subscribers is an important milestone for both Spotify and the entire music industry," said Daniel Ek, CEO and Founder, Spotify. "We're widening our lead in the digital music space and will continue to focus on getting everyone in the world to listen to more music."
Spotify shared some other interesting statistics, including the fact that Eminem is the most streamed artist of all time. The most streamed song on Spotify, however, is "Wake Me Up" by Avicii.
Since launching in 2008, Spotify users have created over 1.5 billion playlists -- collectively, Spotify users are adding 5 million more each day. What this all translates into is over $1 billion going ro rights holders, Spotify says.
The challenge for Spotify going forward is to make money, and do it at a time when competition is getting fierce. If reports turn out to be true, Apple will end up acquiring Beats Audio, which is home to Beats Music. Citing a financial report by PrivCo, Businessweek says Spotify has lost $200 million since it was founded. Hitting 10 million paid subscribers is a step in the right direction, but it may not be enough.
Lenovo expanded its position as the No. 1 PC supplier in the world
The good times keep rolling for Lenovo, the company that continues to defy the odds with record growth. This time, Lenovo posted revenue of $38.7 billion for its full fiscal year, up 14 percent compared to a year ago and the highest it's ever been. In fact, Lenovo broke records all around, including pre-tax income of $1.01 billion, up 27 percent year-over-year and record full year earnings of $817 million, up 29 percent.
"Lenovo had a truly outstanding year," the OEM noted in what might be the world's largest understatement.
The Chinese OEM increased its lead in PCs sales by adding 2.1 points of market share to hit a record 17.7 percent for the full year. That represents a 5 percent annual jump at a time when the industry average is an 8 percent decline. In terms of PCs sold, Lenovo moved 55 million computers, plus 9.2 million tablets and 50 million smartphones.
"The record sales and profits that we delivered last year prove that Lenovo can grow and deliver its commitments, no matter the market conditions," said Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. "Not only did we strengthen our leading position in PCs, but we gained three points in tablets by quadrupling sales volume and became the fastest growing major smartphone company in the world. This demonstrates our capability to manage both businesses that are already mature, as well as those that are shifting to maturity."
Lenovo has figured out how to outpace the market, and in a big way. The company increased its laptop PC shipments by 12.9 percent, which flies in the face of an industry average decline of 5.8 percent. Meanwhile, Lenovo's desktop PC shipments jumped 6.8 percent year-over-year against an industry drop of 3.1 percent worldwide.
We can all stop shaking our angry fist Bitcoin minters, Litecoin miners, and every other type of virtual coin miner that caused a shortage of AMD graphics cards. Stock is again available, and best of all, prices are back where they should be. Heck, there are even deals to be had. Just look at today's top deal for the MSI R9 280 Gaming 3GB Graphics Card for $200 with free shipping (normally $250 - use coupon code: [EMCPEHW233]; additional $30 mail-in-rebate).
A lot of people weren't particularly surprised to learn that The Division was being delayed until 2015, but it's still nice to find out exactly why. After all, if you're looking forward to the game at all, you would like to see it sooner rather than later. Gamereactor recently spoke with the development studio, and the developers explained the core reason behind the delay as simply being a matter of properly exploring the concept rather than releasing an unfinished game on a tighter schedule.
According to the interview, the development team was upset at the original announcement of a 2014 release, as there had been no in-house discussion of release dates. The game's engine is quite powerful, but even the 2015 date may be overly optimistic, with The Division's multiplayer components still having major issues with implementation. Hopefully the delays will help ensure that the game is more polished and playable when it does release, whether that's in 2015 or later.
Trion has announced the availability of new crossover missions in its Defiance sci-fi shooter this week. The Cradle to Grave storyline "affects the entire Defiance universe," the company says, so if you're a completist you'll want to check it out to see how it relates to SyFy's ongoing television series.
The missions focus on Eren, the first Earthling-Votan hybrid who is colloquially known as the hope of Tranquility.
Aventurine has released Darkfall's latest patch, and it introduces a number of tweaks to the fantasy PvP sandbox's economy. The devs have added high-yield harvesting nodes "in order to promote more active harvesting activities," according to the patch notes. Said nodes will always be full as long as only one player is harvesting, and they also drop new rares instead of essences, which allows players to skip the rare essence conversion step.
New (and more expensive) rare tools are now available for crafting, and new basic materials have been added as well.
Darkfall devs are also hosting a livestream today at 1:00 p.m. EDT to answer questions on the game's custom roles revamp.
"I think we're still at the tail-end of six weeks, I could be wrong there, it's all a blur," Sage said. "But we're either in the sixth week or the seventh with this update and I believe our next update is fairly on schedule," he said. After Craglorn, ZeniMax plans to unveil the Crypt of Hearts veteran dungeon.
IGN also says that it talked to Sage about player housing, the Thieves Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood, though the website has decided to stretch the interview across multiple articles so that information won't be available until later in the week.
For a good long while I was downright antagonistic to all things PvP, whereas today I do my best to peacefully ignore the fact that PvP happens in MMOs. A big reason for my former hostility wasn't because PvP is a different style of gameplay that I didn't enjoy, but because I'd often see my PvE skills nerfed or negatively tweaked because they were considered overpowered and unfair in PvP. My teeth grated at the injustice of my PvE experience being dinged because of what happened over there in PvP-land.
Not all MMOs handle balance issues between the two worlds this way, as some create different skill sets for each, but that's unfortunately not always the case. It's also possible that devs have gotten a lot better at melding the two worlds when it comes to skills and talents that are carried between them. I'm still wary, however.
So do you see this happening, and if or when it does, do you resent PvP balance tweaks for impacting PvE?
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Snail's latest promotional post for Black Gold focuses on the game's distinctive visuals and art design. While there's little in the way of new gameplay information here, there is plenty of arresting concept art that melds fantasy, Victorian futurism, Wild West motifs, and of course steampunk.
I'm going to make a bold statement here that might net me some haters, but here goes: I think that Guild Wars 2 is better off now that it's cast off Jeremy Soule and moved on to in-house composers. Soule's soundtrack was great in parts, but he's not the be-all, end-all of good video game music. And his company's unexplained decision to yank the soundtrack from its store (and not even offer a digital version) irks me beyond the telling of it. Good luck finding it!
So today I'm going to give tribute to the two men who have been forging ahead -- spectacularly, I might add -- with scoring Guild Wars 2's ongoing living story updates. Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle have been whipping up a wide variety of tunes to go with the various story elements and events. To ArenaNet's credit, the studio has been posting these downloadable tracks for free on SoundCloud.
And while rumor has it that Diemer and Chappelle are already composing music for season two, I thought it'd be worthwhile to go back and share some of my favorites from their season one portfolio. I won't be dipping into Super Adventure Box, however, as we did that last year.
The historical fantasy MMO Legend of Silkroad began its open beta today, inviting any and all in who wish to sample its digital wares.
Legend of Silkroad is a tri-faction MMO that focuses on the economic and military conflict between three old world nations. It has a robust PvP system that encourages murder most foul in order to control the titular silk road. Or as the official site puts it, "Persia, Rome and China.. Who is the One of the all continents?"
Who indeed, readers. Who indeed.
You can check out a trailer for Legend of Silkroad after the jump!
Star Trek Online is pulling out all the stops for the first anniversary of its Legacy of Romulus expansion with a special weekend event.
New Romulus Weekend will be handing out quadruple Romulan Mark rewards for New Romulus missions from May 22nd through the 27th. Cryptic is also putting both Legacy of Romulus editions on sale during this time, offering the starter pack for 2,000 ZEN and the legacy pack for 12,500 ZEN.
Even after the weekend event is over, Romulan Mark rewards will remain doubled from here on out as a tribute to the expansion and the players' involvement in it.
If you want to subscribe to EVE Online, you aren't lacking for options. You can sign up for a monthly subscription, of course, but you can also purchase EVE time codes and PLEX. PLEX have the advantage of being tradeable within the in-game market, and you can use them to upgrade from a trial account to a full account. Or you can carry them around in a ship so that when it gets blown up, people can attach a real currency number to how much you lost.
Clearly, PLEX have more to offer, which is why EVE Online is phasing out EVE time codes in favor of PLEX activation codes. The net prices are identical, but the effect is that subscription time will be awarded as PLEX, which you can use in all of the many ways you already use PLEX. For more details and a quick rundown of how PLEX work, check out the official blog entry.
In other EVE news, CCP has released to its YouTube channel a Recording History video chronicling the events that triggered the Bloodbath of B-R5RB. We've included it below. [With thanks to tipster J!]
Emails surfacing from the legal fracas concerning 38 Studios and its loan from Rhode Island indicate that the studio knew the loan was not nearly enough to fully fund the game but decided to hide that from outsiders.
38 Studios Vice Chairman Thomas Zaccagnino allegedly sent one the damning emails, urging a few studio execs to remain mum on the financial situation: "I really do not think we should highlight the fact that we might be under-capitalized... [it] won't go over well with the staff or board."
The email was in response to CEO Jen MacLean, who wrote that she was concerned that the state wasn't delivering the full $75 million from the agreement and that the project would fall short of funding because of this.
One lawyer involved in both the deal and the lawsuit said that the state knew that the deal wasn't enough to fully fund: "The [EDC] Board was acutely aware that the capital needs of 38 Studios where [sic] in excess of $125MM as acknowledged in the 2010 EDC Inducement Resolution[.] The Board also knew that the net proceeds of the EDC Loan would be less than $75MM."
When will players in North America get to see the new race being added to Allods Online? It's hard to say. It's easier to say when they'll see the next major update to the game, however, as the Colors of War update is already live for the Russian server and is being localized for North America and European players now. So you can expect it within a month or so. And what does it contain? Like the name says, war.
Players will be able to explore a revamped Kingdom of Elements with several redesigned battle points as well as a new variant style of capture-the-flag in the Training Grounds. The Raid Dominion system has also undergone extensive remaking, adding in new elements like gun mounts to change the face of these battles. That's in addition to major class changes for Wardens and a revamp of the old Tika-Rek's cave. Check out the patch trailer just past the break.
During this week's EverQuest Next roundtable video, Senior Brand Manager Omeed Dariani is joined by Senior Producer Terry Michaels to discuss SOE Live, set to take place in Las Vegas this coming August 14th to 17th. The pair explain that players have voted resoundingly that SOE focus on previewing panels, specifically EverQuest Next panels, in the lead up to the convention. And yes, SOE is planning on illuminating EverQuest Next, not just Landmark and the studio's current stable of games, in Vegas.
"Remember that Landmark is really the basis for how we're going to make EverQuest Next," Michaels reminds viewers. "So it may be a topic that is primarily Landmark-related, but there's going to be information in there for people who want to know how things are going to work in EverQuest Next."
Continuing with our series of pre-WildStar interviews, Eliot and Justin grapple with the (ahem) "hardcore" endgame of raiding as we welcome Brett Scheinert and Mike Donatelli onto the show. Hey, 36 more people on this podcast and we could actually get a group going!
Get all of our opinions and analysis on the most important stories of the past week right here on Massively Speaking, the industry's leading MMO podcast. And if you have a comment, question, or topic for the podcasters, send an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!
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Last week, Wizards of the Coast filed a lawsuit accusing Cryptozoic, the studio behind upcoming MMOTCG HEX, of "willful infringement of intellectual property rights," among other patent and trademark infringement claims. Cryptozoic has responded this week with a statement rejecting what it's calling "frivolous" complaints:
Although we take all pending litigation seriously, we do not find any merit to the allegations in the complaint. We do not expect this frivolous legal action to impact our efforts to deliver a compelling and entertaining game experience to our customers.
HEX: Shards of Fate is a digital only MMO-TCG that attempts to innovate what a digital trading card game can be. Its digital only nature allows it to push the boundaries in ways a traditional paper TCG never could. As a small company, the daunting task of defending ourselves from the bullying of a much larger corporation is difficult, but we are committed to HEX: Shards of Fate and ultimately we will prevail.
We respect intellectual property rights, but the right to make a TCG is not exclusive to WOTC. Many TCGs can, and do, coexist consistent with any IP rights WOTC might have. While IP rights are important, so is fair competition. WOTC cannot snuff out fair competition with frivolous infringement assertions.
"As of August 2014, Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 will no longer charge a subscription fee for players," Turbine posted. "The last payments will be processed on June 31st, making July the final 'paid' month. Note that this means some players will technically receive some portion of July free as a result, as we have decided to absorb the cost and not run partial payments to cover it."
The free-to-play version of both MMOs will continue operating, although new or lapsed players will need to pony up $10 to activate an account. Turbine also said that the forums will remain running, that help will be limited, and that it will no longer be doing MSN Zone migrations after May 31st.
As for player-run servers, Turbine plans to offer up a "basic" Asheron's Call server and client download by the end of the year, supported by new sub-forums.
How about those predictions, huh? Last week I guessed that Guild Wars 2 would get a visit from the Zephyr Sanctum soon, and boom: Festival of the Four Winds exploding all over the place. Having used up my allotment of precognitive accuracy for the year, I plan to gorge myself on delicious sky candy and spend the next week or so literally bouncing off the walls. Before the festivities start, though, we've got just enough time to visit a topic near to my heart: Cantha.
ArenaNet receives very frequent requests to revive the setting of Guild Wars: Factionsin GW2, and between GW2's Chinese release, the level of mystery surrounding season two of the living world, and the return of the Zephyrites, it's natural that people would start talking about Cantha again. It might seem baffling that ArenaNet hasn't rushed to steer the living world story in such an obviously popular direction, but unfortunately it's not as simple as loading us on the next airship and flying away to Seitung Harbor -- at least not yet.
What's the immediate visual difference between a Warrior and a Paladin in World of Warcraft if they're not using abilities? There's not much of one. Which seems a little odd, seeing as these are two classes with immense difference in lore. That's why the art team is showing off a preview of things to come in the form of cosmetic class customization. The idea is that classes should have bits of visual flair to distinguish them without being tied to stats.
The preview shows off potential accessories for Rogues, Hunters, and Paladins, accessories that start off simple and get more elaborate over time. The design blog also points out that this is not something likely to be in for launch of Warlords of Draenor, although whether it might be included in a later patch or the next expansion altogether is somewhat ambiguous. Check out the full design preview for more details about what the designers envision.
LotRO's Spring Festival includes the notorious hedge maze, the manic shrew-stomping event, horse races, romance-themed quests, and the continuing rivalry between the Ale Association and the Inn League. It's a good time of the year to stock up on cosmetic items, reputation points, and general tomfoolery, so get to it!
All aboard the Steam stream train
Apple concedes its spot atop the list of most valuable brands
The next time you're cut off in traffic, it might be the car, not the human driver that did it!
New and improved version of Chrome OS hits the Stable channel
Streaming music service grows its paid membership amid increasing competition
Lenovo expanded its position as the No. 1 PC supplier in the world
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's 
