| HTC Explains Vive Delay Posted: 21 Dec 2015 04:50 PM PST 
Back on December 9, HTC said that its Valve Software-backed "Vive" virtual reality headset wouldn't be released to consumers until April 2016. Originally, Vive was slated to launch as a retail unit by the end of the year. At the time of the announcement, the company didn't provide a reason for the delay. "Since announcing the HTC Vive in March of this year we have focused on developing immersive content, refining both hardware design and user experience, and building relationships with new partners both inside and outside of the gaming industry," HTC said in an update. However, now we have some idea as to why the VR headset was delayed. During the Vive Unbound developers forum in Beijing, HTC CEO Cher Wang said that the company and Valve Software made "a very, very big technological breakthrough." According to Wang, this breakthrough was so big that HTC and Valve Software chose to set aside the version they had planned for the Q4 2015 release window and introduce the world to Vive using the improved model in April 2016 instead. "We shouldn't make our users swap their systems later just so we could meet the December shipping date," Wang said. The CEO wouldn't go into details regarding the breakthrough itself, but said the company will reveal the improved Vive next month during CES 2016 in Las Vegas. On the pricing front, there's a possibility that the HTC Vive will cost more than the upcoming Oculus Rift. Wang said that HTC conducted a recent survey with its engineers and discovered that 80 percent of the group raised their hands when she gave them a price that seemed affordable based on their monthly income ($1,560 to $1,730). Finally, Wang said that Audi plans to install Vive headsets in its flagship stores so that customers can test-drive a vehicle without hitting the open road. Other major car makers are expected to follow suit. HTC is also pushing the idea of using Vive in schools and hospitals. Wang likes the idea of children donning the headset and "becoming" a blood cell that flows through a virtual human. Yes, that would be cool. Looking ahead, 2016 will definitely be an exciting year in terms of virtual reality. While we already have Samsung's solution on the market, the wait for the highly anticipated HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and Microsoft's HoloLens has us sitting on the edge of our seats. Will they be worth the wait? VIA: Engadget |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Gigabyte G1 GA-Z97X Gaming Motherboard, Asus GeForce GTX 970, and More! Posted: 21 Dec 2015 10:37 AM PST |
| Geek Holiday Gift Guide 2015 Posted: 21 Dec 2015 10:27 AM PST |
| Fallout 4 Addict Loses Job and Wife, Blames Bethesda in Lawsuit Posted: 21 Dec 2015 10:25 AM PST Playing the blame game  A Russian gamer located in Krasnoyarsk has filed a lawsuit against Bethesda that essentially blames the developer for building a fun game. Of course, the lawsuit doesn't quite word it that way. What's at issue here is the 28-year-old's obsession with Fallout 4 and the price he paid for spending too much time playing it. After seeing an advertisement for the game, he downloaded it to his PC with the intention of playing it here and there. Instead, he hunkered down and ignored the real world for the next three weeks, according to RT. Bad things tend to happen when you suddenly shut yourself off from the outside world with no warning, or at least that's the case if you have responsibilities. This fellow did and because he skipped work in favor of Fallout 4, he eventually lost his job. His decision to become a recluse also affected his relationship with friends, his wife ended up leaving him, and his health suffered from lack of sleep and eating. All of which are understandable consequences. What's not so understandable is the lawsuit blaming Bethesda for turning his life upside down. "If I knew that this game could have become so addictive, I would have become a lot more wary of it," the unnamed man said in a statement. "I would not have bought it, or I would have left it until I was on holiday or until the New Year holidays." This isn't the first lawsuit of its kind, though it is the first one to come from Russia. The man and his lawyer are seeking 500,000 rubles, or about $7,000 in U.S. currency, with the law firm representing the man wanting to "see how far we can go regarding this case." As idiotic as this lawsuit sounds, there's at least one other instance where a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff. It happened when Craig Smallwood sued NCsoft of South Korea over his addiction to Lineage II, in which he spent over 20,000 hours playing. The suit was filed in federal court in Hawaii, and like this one against Bethesda, it attempted to hold the developer responsible for not warning gamers of the dangers of extended game play. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nvidia's VR Friendly GeForce 361.43 WHQL Drivers Now Available Posted: 21 Dec 2015 09:50 AM PST Contains GameWorks VR tweaks  Today's a good day for early adopters of virtual reality technology. There's an interactive version of Futuremark's upcoming VRMark benchmark to play around with on Steam, and if you own a GeForce graphics card, Nvidia has a new set of WHQL-certified drivers available, version 361.43. The Game Ready driver update is primarily focused on GameWorks VR, which is Nvidia's set of APIs, libraries, and features aimed at VR headsets and game developers. It contains several related tweaks, bug fixes, and optimizations, all in the name of delivering the "ultimate VR gaming experience." More specifically, GeForce 361.43 adds support for GameWorks VR 1.1, including VR SLI support for OpenGL applications and also for the latest Oculus software development kit (SDK), Nvidia says. Nvidia also squashed several annoying bugs. Here they are for Windows 10: - Cleaned up flip timing and event notification bugs. [200151547]
- Fixed a driver bug where if the output is active, hot unplugging a device will cause any following hot plug device to be ignored. [1707505]
- Cleaned up unexpected behavior related to the multi-HMD (helmet-mounted device) use case. [200152110]
- Return NVAPI_NO_CONNECTOR_FOUND from the NVAPI_GPU_GetAllDisplayIds() when headless GPUs are detected to allow for identification of the unsupported use case. [200155835]
- [GM20x] Clock speeds remain above idle at 144 Hz on desktop. [1631144]
- Lag in Star War
And here they are for previous versions of Windows dating back to Vista: - Prevented an extra hotplug/unplug for unconnected devices in escapeDirectModeEnable\DisableVRDirectMode(). [1707485]
- Fixed windowed G-SYNC not being totally disabled at the UMD (user-mode display) when the VR display is active. [200146036]
- Updated the whitelist entry regkey to allow multiple entries at once. [200155690]
- [GM20x] Clock speeds remain above idle at 144 Hz on desktop. [1631144]
There are a few other tidbits, like the addition of certain SLI and 3D Vision profiles, which you can check out in the release notes (PDF). When and if you're ready, you can download the latest drivers direct from Nvidia. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Futuremark Adds Interactive Preview of VRMark to Steam Posted: 21 Dec 2015 09:31 AM PST Upcoming virtual reality benchmark  Futuremark's set of benchmarks are well known and commonly used among reviewers and home consumers alike. Sometime next year, the company will add VRMark to the fray, a benchmark focused on virtual reality performance. Ahead of that release, you can take a sneak peek via an interactive preview that's now available on Steam. The Holiday Beta preview, as Futuremark's calling it, allows you to move freely within one of VRMark's test environments. At this early stage, the preview exists just to give you a glimpse of what Futuremark is working on -- it doesn't output a performance score or any kind of comparable results. VRMark is being designed to test VR systems and headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, though if you don't currently own a developer unit, Futuremark says the preview works on monitors, too. When finished (early 2016), it will examine things like VR system performance, latency, and accuracy. The beta is open to anyone and everyone who owns the Steam version of 3DMark. To join the beta, just follow the steps in Futuremark's community post.  In addition to providing a sneak peek of VRMark, Futuremark built a new UI for 3DMark, one that's "faster, more flexible, and more intuitive." One of the things some users might find helpful is that the makeover now shows the recommended benchmark for whatever system it's running on. Beneath the surface, Futuremark tweaked the 3DMark app so that you can download, install, and update the tests individually. That makes the initial download smaller and also means you can choose to install only those tests that you plan to run. "Say goodbye to massive downloads with every update," Futuremark says. Cool stuff. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Rig of the Month: The Riddler Posted: 21 Dec 2015 12:00 AM PST |
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