Star Citizen, the crowdfunding juggernaut that has raised seemingly endless amounts of money, has snowballed from an interesting space game to one of the biggest gaming projects in modern history. Constantly revised, improved and revised again, the game is always impressive to see in action and the latest screenshots from redittor Field Marshal Muzyk are no exception.
Powered by the graphical powerhouse that is CryEngine, Star Citizen 2.0 Alpha is really something to behold, and I can already hear some of you crying “there’s no way my graphics card can do this” but we’ll just have to wait and see. This game is pushing the limits of PC gaming technology, but I guess that’s not hard when the developers don’t have to make it portable to consoles or port from console to PC.
I managed to pick up Star Citizen quite a while ago now, and it is a shame in some ways that it’s becoming a victim of its own success and development time seems to be taking forever. Where the game will end up, I don’t know, but screenshots like this certainly bring some of the hype back for the final version, as well as make it seem worth the wait.
Are you looking forward to the final version (if there ever is one) of Star Citizen?
ASRock has announced one of the very few AMD 9-series chipset based socket AM3+ motherboards in the micro-ATX form-factor, the 970M Pro3.
The motherboard is said to be based on the AMD 970 chip and supports the AMD FX processors with TDP of up to 125W, meaning it excludes support for the FX-9000 series which requires more TDP. The motherboard also offers a 5-phase CPU VRM thanks to the 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS.
In terms of specs, the 970M Pro3 comes with one PCIe 2.0 x16, one PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4) wired to the southbridge, one PCIe 2,0 x1 and a PCI. The board also offers six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, a 6-channel HD audio with ELNA capacitors, Gigabit Ethernet port and four USB 3.0, all of which are driven by a UEFI BIOS.
The ASRock 970M Pro3 is currently available at select retailers and comes with a price tag of under $99.
Thank you TechPowerUp for providing us with this information
Philips has just added a new 34″ ultra-wide display to their range of products. The new display product code is BDM3470UP and it looks perfect for anyone who is looking for a display to work with in applications that require a big landscape-mode solution.
Brief specs can be seen below:
3440 x 1440 pixel resolution
5ms G2G response time
60Hz refresh rate
1000:1 contrast ratio
320 cd/m2 brightness
178/178 viewing angles
1.07b colour depth
W-LED backlight offering sRGB gamut
The BDM3470UP screen also features Philips’ SmartUniformity mode, using dedicated metrics to assess colour accuracy and deliver at least 95% average luminance uniformity. In terms of connectivity, the display comes with MHL-capable HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and VGA display ports, as well as 2 x USB 2.0 and 2 x USB 3.0 ports.
The 34″ display also features 2 x 3W stereo speakers and PiP / PbP support and allows the user to tilt, height, swivel and rotate as per preference. Philips is said to be selling the BDM3470UP at a price of €799.
Thank you Guru3D for providing us with this information
WebOS has undergone a lot of changes from back in the days when it was Palm’s operating system. First HP bought it and then later sold it to LG that started using it in their TVs rather than mobile devices. That is common knowledge, but what most don’t know is that there has been a lot of tension behind the lines. WebOS had some of the most skilled people on board, but a lot of them have left due to internal conflicts and pressure from above to implement features that collided with other features. The reason for this was that the people in charge would get bonuses depending on how many of their features would be implemented in the final products. Everyone pushing their own thing, and many of them, with disregard for what the other groups were doing.
That was the history lesson, now to the current situation. LG will be presenting their lineup of TVs based on the brand new WebOS 2.0, and so far the OS has gotten praise from those who have seen it. This is good news for the consumers and it could point towards the internal problems being solved, at least for now.
The new card-based interface will be presented at CES in January and according to LG, the webOS 2.0 update will reduce boot time by 60 per cent and the whole system will be smoother and faster than its predecessor. An example given is the switch between the Smart Home screen and the YouTube app has been improved 70% in loading times.
My Channels is another new feature that allows users to customize their favorite live TV channels or set-top box channels on the Launcher Bar, for that extra convenience. Quick Settings lets viewers adjust their TV without interrupting the program they’re watching and Input Picker allows connected devices to be recognized instantly for immediate use. There will also be access to a long list of UHD content via services such as Amazon and Netflix. Netflix 4k content will be available at the same level, for screens that support the resolution.
“With the newest features introduced in webOS 2.0, the overall user experience has become even simpler, easier and more intuitive,” said In-kyu Lee, senior vice president and head of the TV and monitor division at the LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. “The webOS platform is a great example of our commitment to taking a leadership role in the next generation TV market with a truly innovative Smart TV solution.”
Thanks to LG for providing us with this information
It’s been six months since Google released Android Wear to the public – over that time we’ve seen a number of unique and upcoming wearables from all the big mobile manufacturers. But rumours are flying that Mountain View might be bringing out version 2.0 of the OS as early as October 15th. An anonymous source recently tipped Android Police that users can expect to see an over-the-air update pushed out for a handful of Wear devices in the middle of next month.
The publication wasn’t given any solid information of what the update might entail – but Bluetooth headphone support and GPS tracking are the hotly anticipated additions, as well as a number of various bugfixes across the OS. We can hope to see easier tools to create custom watchfaces – as well as a few things we haven’t thought of that Google might have ready up their sleeve. The question left in everyone’s mind is what naming terminology Google will use in order to update and inform both users and developers – or will the update be prominent enough to warrant such at thing at this stage?
At the current time of writing, not much else has been said on the matter – but we can hope to expect more news about the 2.0 update soon.
Thank you to Android Police for providing us with this information.
Corning, the same people who make the popular Gorilla Glass front to many of today’s mobile handsets, have today announced the availability of their latest USB 3.Optical cables which allow USB devices to be connected at far greater distances than with a traditional copper based alternative.
Using the latest fibre optic technology the 3.Optical cable connects just as normal via a standard USB2.0 or 3.0 port, but instead of having copper wire running between the two terminals, an optical cable is used instead and this means that the standard limitation of 3 metres from point-to-point is nor longer a worry nor a restriction with distances of up to 30m easily achievable.
Since their introduction in the early stages of last year, Corning have been developing the cables with thinner and lighter designs being introduced and thanks to the of their ClearCurve VSDN fibre, they are able to withstands a “zero-bend” radius which allows the to withstand a lot of punishment such as being squeezed and tangled with out damage or loss of connectivity.
“With longer, thinner, and lighter cables, USB 3.Optical Cables by Corning give users the freedom to max out data connection speeds for a more enjoyable creative workflow,” said Bernhard Deutsch, vice president, product line management, Optical Connectivity Solutions for Corning Optical Communications. “Imagine having your computer at your workstation and the whir of back-up hard drives, printers, and other noisy peripherals in an entirely different room – and still benefiting from unbelievable transmission speeds.”
With many of todays external devices utilising the humble USB connection, the USB 3.Optical cables are ideal for a whole multitude of operations and scenarios, whether it be in the home, or in a commercial setting such as an office or bar.
“For example, restaurants can connect order-entry stations to USB-equipped printers located in both the bar and kitchen areas. The system then splits out the orders, printing food tickets in the kitchen and drink orders at the bar, resulting in faster service and happier customers.”
Currently the cables are only available in 10m lengths with “A-to-receptacle-A” terminals on either end (in other words they are just like a USB extension cable, but this means that they will work with any form of USB terminal when a short connecting cable is used. Priced at around $129, stock is available through the US Amazon store and Accu-Tech with more suppliers appearing in the future, along with 15 and 30m lengths also appearing on the shelves later this year.
In many of my flash drive reviews I have mentioned that USB flash drives are so common these days that they are literally being given away to us and it is only once we move above the 16GB marker and over to USB3.0 compatible drives that we start to see the price rise up along with the performance. The basic recipe for a flash drive has barely changed – if at all in many years and this is simply a USB plug mounted on to a small PCB with a controller and some flash storage on the other end. Apart from the advances in performance, capacity and the maturity to the USB3.0 platform – a flash drive has always been a flash drive, but this has started to change as we are now seeing a new breed of flash drive come on to the market that is targeted for the mobile user as opposed to just the desktop and notebook user.
This new type of USB standard is called USB On-The-Go or USB-OTG for short. With mobile devices now becoming more integral in our lives, the need to have more storage to hand is greater than ever. For a couple of years now we have seen wireless hard drives flowing of the shelves and whilst they offer up a simple solution for expanding your storage capacity, they are not exactly small and they are not necessarily the cheapest way to solve the problem. An alternative solution to expand the storage capacity on a number of devices is to insert a microSD card, but once again this is not always possible with many products not having microSD card readers on them. Across every mobile device however there is one option that is available to work with – USB.
MicroUSB is virtually standard on every mobile device that one can get today and with the Android OS now as feature rich as ever, support for the next generation of USB storage is starting to be rolled out, giving users a hassle free way of accessing their data on the go. The DataTraveler microDuo that I’m looking at today is Kingston’s first native USB-OTG flash drive and this support is provided through a microUSB port on one end of the drive whilst a full-sized USB jack on the other end allows the drive to be used in the traditional manner in a desktop or notebook system.
On the front of the microDuo packaging, Kingston are keen to accentuate the OTG capabilities of the drive, showing its dual USB port connectivity for desktop and mobile devices.
It’s that time of year again where NVIDIA have a new series of cards in the pipelines and as we have seen running up to today, the number of rumours and leaks that have been flying about are as profound as ever. For some this leads to pure confusion as to what is to be seen and what is complete rubbish, and for people like myself it leads to pure frustration as I know all the true facts and figures, meaning that when I see the rumours and false facts floating around I can do nothing but sit and wait until the NDA lifts to put a number of these claims to rest with the real specifications and performance figures behind the new cards.
So here we have it, the GTX 780 – the first in the new line of Kepler based 700 series cards and before we get too far into the nitty gritty of what’s new in the 700 series, I want to make the following fact clear and true – the GTX 780 CANNOT be flashed in any way to effectively turn it into Titan. There are a number of reasons for this; first off, whilst both cards share the same GK110 core, the 780 has far less CUDA cores, is a different revision of the core chip and has less texture units on-board. On top of this, there is also half the amount of video memory and a number of components in the power region of the PCB are missing as the 780 does not require these as opposed to Titan.
Point out of the way, NVIDIA’s new 700 series cards are here to replace the ever popular 600 series, although they are not a re-hash and re-brand of 6xx cards as some may presume. Whilst the GK110 cores may be featured on both 600 and 700 series cards, they will have subtle variances to them, mainly on the front of CUDA core count and texture filters and so forth.
So what is the 780 in relation to the 600 series cards. Whilst it may look like Titan, it is a slightly lower performing card. Titan is more geared towards users with multiple high resolution displays and thus the higher 6GB of GDDR5 memory that it encompasses. The 780 whilst still home to 3GB of GDDR5 is more aimed at users who are going to be gaming on a single screen at high resolutions with all the settings turned to 11. Over its predecessor, the GTX 680, the 780 has 50% more CUDA cores with a count of 2034, 50% more memory, up to 3GB from 2GB and overall a 34% increase in performance. Interestingly enough, GTX 580 users who upgrade to a 780 will see a whopping 70% gain in performance between the two cards and a 25-30% gain can also be found over AMD’s 7970.
The Frostbite 3 engine is set to be the true next-gen engine of EA’s DICE studio and while Frostbite 2.0 still have plenty of power to give us, they’re not going to sleep on their achievements that easy and are already looking forward to future generations of their titles.
Not only are EA working on next-gen engines for consoles and PC, but their website has now also confirmed that they’re working on the Frostbite Go engine, a new edition of their popular engine that is tailored towards mobile gaming platforms.
“[one of the] most exciting current projects is called Frostbite Go, a mobile division empowering EA game developers with Frostbite’s proven excellent workflows and features to bring true Frostbite experiences to all major mobile platforms”. reads the EA website where their Stockholm development team is working on the new engine.
This is of course big news and while it may not seem like it, this could have a big impact on what EA games come to the mobile market. With iPads and Tegra powered devices now able to churn out graphics that are in many cases on par with current gen console offereings there is little to no reason why premium titles such as Battlefield couldn’t co exsist in the world of mobile and there is less and less need these days for them to be cut down editions of what we see on consoles and in some cases even the PC editions.
Frostbite 2 is EA’s most popular engine and it’s already the weapon of choice for powering Battlefield 3, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor and more. With Frostbite 3 set to power Battlefield III and even Dragon Age III, we can only look forward to what EA might bring to mobile market with a proper, scalable game engine.
“runtime memory and runtime performance are both key factors to enabling code and data systems to deploy content to diverse targets from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 4 to iOS and Android”.
It’s also likely that EA will licence out their engine much like Unity and Unreal Engine are leased out, either way it should make for some interesting developments in mobile gaming over the next couple of years.
