19 Mar 2014

FYI: GDC 2014 News & More

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Announcements

  • Sony’s Virtual Reality Headset unveiled as “Project Morpheus” (via PS.Blog)
    • 1080p w/ 90 degree field of view
    • Positional and orientation tracking with help of accelerometers, gyroscopes and PlayStation Camera
    • No pricing or release plans announced
  • Some PlayStation 4 firmware 1.7 features detailed (via PS.Blog)
    • Video editor
    • Ability to export video and photos to USB
    • Option to disable HDCP for capturing game footage via HDMI
  • Sony integrating additional tools and middleware engines into the PlayStation 4 (via PS.Blog)
  • Intel Haswell-E feature 8-cores, DDR4 and X99 chipset coming 2H 2014 (via AnandTech)

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11 Mar 2014

Linux Gaming Inches Closer to Reality

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linux-logoThere are games on Linux but the selection available is paltry compared to Windows. And the reasons why the selection is so limited is due to lack of middleware support and the dominance of DirectX.

Crytek have ported their CryEngine to Linux and will be demonstrating its capabilities at GDC 2014 next week. I’m curious if it will perform better than the DirectX version.

Valve is continuing their efforts to sway the masses away from Microsoft and DirectX with “ToGL“, a DirectX to OpenGL translation layer. It’s limited to DirectX 9.0c for now but it’s a start. If developers can just flip a switch and port to OpenGL with minimal effort, they would be more inclined to support Linux.

All these efforts sound good but how long would it take before we see day and date high profile releases from the likes of Activision and Electronic Arts?

24 Mar 2013

Checkpoint: Software & Hardware Edition

by | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

checkpoint-hardware-software-edition

It’s happening all the time but the last 48 hours stressed the importance of both hardware and software. The successful marriage of both produces successes and/or improves the experience for everyone whereas an imbalance could spell disaster and defeat. It’s not necessarily just a matter of technical support either — the business side of hardware and software has a significant impact as well.

Here are some examples of what I’m talking about.

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8 Mar 2012

Middleware Battle 2012

by | posted in: Game News | 0

It wouldn’t be a Game Developer’s Conference without some middleware upselling. First we have Crytek’s CryEngine 3. It starts with a demo reel of games powered by their engine before getting into the nitty gritty.

It’s a nice little off screen capture of the trailers, but it doesn’t quite match the trailer Epic put out for their Unreal Engine 3 updates.

Epic’s trailer showcased a wide range of platforms including Adobe Flash, Vita, iOS and the usual candidates. That’s far more impressive than the handful of no-name games (except Mechwarrior Online) that Crytek showed off. But most importantly, Unreal Engine 3 continues to look awesome. I look forward to GDC 2013 where we’ll hopefully be seeing Unreal Engine 4 making its debut.

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