I'll be damned, the four of us never found that and we were seemingly always telling someone to change their mic gain. I can say the lag for teamspeak is about half what vent was for us and they say the codec in use eats less bandwidth. I think there are several codecs availible as well as data rate but we didnt bother moving from the defaults. In the end they both do about the same thing.
PC Gaming = World of Suck
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
I'll be damned, the four of us never found that and we were seemingly always telling someone to change their mic gain. I can say the lag for teamspeak is about half what vent was for us and they say the codec in use eats less bandwidth. I think there are several codecs availible as well as data rate but we didnt bother moving from the defaults. In the end they both do about the same thing.
Admittedly, it took me some time to realize that Vent had the option to customize gain individually per person, so it's not in the most obvious place. It's under one of the plugin sections where you select a gain plugin and then can configure it per user. I think you have to right click on the person you want to apply the plugin against. The lag I've certainly noticed in Vent. If teamspeak is better, I might consider pushing people off Vent and onto teamspeak to see if it improves for us.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Giant robots SMASH.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
ddrueding
Fixture
Looks promising for a game still in beta...
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's a CryEngine 3 title. Unfortunately that is probably the limit of my ability to comment at this time.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm not sure what you're objecting to. They're doing a lot right now in those videos to showcase their maps (they show off three in the footage) and the accuracy of their mech models compared to previous depictions.
One of the interesting things about this iteration of Mechwarrior is that the models for variants of the same mech have distinct models. A Catapult K2 is clearly different from a Catapult C1.
One of the interesting things about this iteration of Mechwarrior is that the models for variants of the same mech have distinct models. A Catapult K2 is clearly different from a Catapult C1.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Remember too that this is going to be an MMO, so it behooves the developers to make something that's playable on a wide range of systems. CryEngine3 is clearly capable of some breathtaking stuff, but it might not be the best idea build a game that needs to find a customer base right now using models that have polygon counts that require a $400 graphics card.
I will say that the game is available now to people who have paid to support development. It will ultimately be a free to play title with all the usual caveats (e.g. people who pay get better stuff). I'm not sure when a finished product will be released though.
I will say that the game is available now to people who have paid to support development. It will ultimately be a free to play title with all the usual caveats (e.g. people who pay get better stuff). I'm not sure when a finished product will be released though.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Just saw this linked elsewhere: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659943965/planetary-annihilation-a-next-generation-rts
All I have to say is:
All I have to say is:
The incredibly detailed, beautifully illustrated, insanely intricate birth of a video game Mech http://t.co/1P7210Dz -- PA Report (@thepareport
ddrueding
Fixture
640*800 per eye at the moment....wanting something a little bit more before I bite.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Can I play that without Steam?
That's a sad sentiment considering it was a group of regular people who put the project together, not valve. They are also offering it for free. I know several people who entered FPS gaming at half life 2 and had no clue of the origin since they didn't play the original and had no interest . Now they can do that with an improved graphics base.
I highly doubt we will see blue shift redone by this group of people. This project took them many years to accomplish and I don't know if they're ready to remake another one.
You can try.
ddrueding
Fixture
It requires the the SDK be installed of your computer to work, and the SDK is only available over steam, but I doubt you would need steam to be running to use the SDK in this capacity.
Humble Bundle 6.
Pay what you want.
DRM-Free.
Linux, Windows, & Mac.
Supports a charity; you decide.
http://www.humblebundle.com/#contribute
[video=youtube;RZj0qt_8Cjo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RZj0qt_8Cjo#![/video]
Pay what you want.
DRM-Free.
Linux, Windows, & Mac.
Supports a charity; you decide.
http://www.humblebundle.com/#contribute
[video=youtube;RZj0qt_8Cjo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RZj0qt_8Cjo#![/video]
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's a humble Ebook bundle now as well. Which looks pretty cool. They just added a bunch of webcomics collections to it, too.
So anyway, here's more evidence that Steam is awful. Because it's not like I wasn't going to mention it.
I actually got Orcs Must Die from another recent Humble Bundle and I really like it, but Orcs Must Die 2 is Steam-only. Jerks.
So anyway, here's more evidence that Steam is awful. Because it's not like I wasn't going to mention it.
I actually got Orcs Must Die from another recent Humble Bundle and I really like it, but Orcs Must Die 2 is Steam-only. Jerks.
I'm going to immediately stop using steam because of this. Thanks for saving me.
I've played some of Orcs Must Die, but I admit I bought it assuming it was multi-player...which I discovered it was not. OMD2 solved that, but I'm bitter about the first game. I found Dungeon Defenders to be a better alternative. $12 rents you the whole game through steam.
I've played some of Orcs Must Die, but I admit I bought it assuming it was multi-player...which I discovered it was not. OMD2 solved that, but I'm bitter about the first game. I found Dungeon Defenders to be a better alternative. $12 rents you the whole game through steam.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
You know me. Always happy to help.
I have a strong preference for single-player gaming experiences in the first place, but I have Dungeon Defenders on my tablet. I don't think it's as much fun as Orcs Must Die. Maybe someday they'll port Orcs 2 to Android so I can experience it without needing Valve's constant permission.
Dungeon Defends is way less fun single player. I saw it, and several friends saw the same. Making use of more than one character in a single level helps your strategy greatly and improves the challenge and game play. It also helps getting a character up to level 70.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
While I'm here and thinking about it, Android games I've enjoyed:
Bubble Shooter - Basically Frozen Bubble, but a good implementation with lots of puzzle levels and good replayability.
Rebuild - Zombie Apocalypse turn based game. Needs more randomness, but it has a very tense, atmospheric soundtrack and just like "The Walking Dead" it totally sucks when your best guys get killed.
Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled et al. - All the Popcap games are fun but way, way easier on larger screens.
Draw Something - aka "How many times can you score coins for drawings of dicks" This and Bubble Shooter are the only games on my phone.
Nova - Came with my phone; the worst FPS experience imaginable. Negative eleventy stars.
What I wish Android had, but that I haven't found yet, is a decent RPG-type game. Something like, say, Ultima 6 or Eye of the Beholder. I browse the Play and Amazon App Stores semi-regularly looking for stuff. I'd be really happy to find more classic PC games that have been adapted for it.
Bubble Shooter - Basically Frozen Bubble, but a good implementation with lots of puzzle levels and good replayability.
Rebuild - Zombie Apocalypse turn based game. Needs more randomness, but it has a very tense, atmospheric soundtrack and just like "The Walking Dead" it totally sucks when your best guys get killed.
Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled et al. - All the Popcap games are fun but way, way easier on larger screens.
Draw Something - aka "How many times can you score coins for drawings of dicks" This and Bubble Shooter are the only games on my phone.
Nova - Came with my phone; the worst FPS experience imaginable. Negative eleventy stars.
What I wish Android had, but that I haven't found yet, is a decent RPG-type game. Something like, say, Ultima 6 or Eye of the Beholder. I browse the Play and Amazon App Stores semi-regularly looking for stuff. I'd be really happy to find more classic PC games that have been adapted for it.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
GoG.com now supports OSX. Continuing the trend of supreme reasonableness, it is not necessary to re-purchase titles for which one already has a Windows license, everything is less than $10 and there are a lot of free and $3 titles as well.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Just two quick ones, Chris Roberts and Star Citizen: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/...berts-discusses-upping-the-ante-on-pc-gaming/
Hmmm... love the idea, but...
And for fans of the Halo series (in case you missed it, which is unlikely): Halo 4 - Forward Unto Dawn, Ep 1 -5. http://www.youtube.com/user/MachinimaPrime
Hmmm... love the idea, but...
And for fans of the Halo series (in case you missed it, which is unlikely): Halo 4 - Forward Unto Dawn, Ep 1 -5. http://www.youtube.com/user/MachinimaPrime
I had heard about him getting back into the space sim game and I'm excited for it. I enjoyed the wing commander series from years ago. I mentioned a few posts up that he was getting back into this. it's nice to see mroe info show up on their website. What's your hesitation with the idea?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
My concern, is that it'll want to be everything to everyone. Between all the elements mentioned in the article, it's certainly a big undertaking...
True. If they can do it, it'll be awesome. They said it won't be released until 2014...so they have some time to work out some stuff. I may still back the funding of the game because I like the idea.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
For those that want a Mech style game, ShackNews has 500K beta keys for Hawken
http://www.shacknews.com/article/76513/shacknews-gamefly-offer-50000-beta-keys-for-hawken
http://www.shacknews.com/article/76513/shacknews-gamefly-offer-50000-beta-keys-for-hawken
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
So it turns out that a Playstation 4 will basically be a PC, with eight 1.6GHz AMD cores and presumably something ATI-ish and APU-ish in the graphics department, plus 8GB RAM.
One assumes it will be locked down so that it can't run Windows and given the architectural differences I'm thinking that backwards compatibility is probably also off the table, but it's interesting to me that S*ny chose AMD, that they went with x86 instead of PowerPC and that the spec still seems so modest; past console iterations have at least been bleeding edge when they were introduced, but if AMD has bleeding edge APUs in its current processor designs I haven't heard of it.
One assumes it will be locked down so that it can't run Windows and given the architectural differences I'm thinking that backwards compatibility is probably also off the table, but it's interesting to me that S*ny chose AMD, that they went with x86 instead of PowerPC and that the spec still seems so modest; past console iterations have at least been bleeding edge when they were introduced, but if AMD has bleeding edge APUs in its current processor designs I haven't heard of it.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
I've been doing some reading on the PS4 design (based on rumors, etc), but it would appear that Sony (and MS, since the XBox720 according to rumours will have a very similar design hardware wise to the PS4), is that the PS4 core design is based around the GPU with the CPU cores grafted on it and not the traditional APU design (CPU with embedded GPU core exposed by an embedded PCIe controller between the two). Also, according to rumour the PS4 will use GDDR5 on a 512bit bus as the main RAM shared with the GPU... (something like 176GBs bandwidth between CPU and RAM vs 50GB on quad channel DDR3 setups commonly seen).
I've read a lot about the slow clocked CPU, and since most games are GPU limited and not CPU limited these days, having 8 slower cores may be better for power/heat management than 3-4 faster cores clocked at 4+ GHz. (Have you actually watched your CPU usage during game play)?
Also, I would highly suspect a UEFI based BIOS, with secure boot enabled locked to Sony keys as well to stop other OSes from being booted. (Using an existing UEFI BIOS will reduce production time/money as well as starting from a known working base for the underlying BIOS meaning less upgrades for the core system will be required). The interesting part in all of this is, how will the GPU be exposed to the game software, will the game have a basic OpenGL library to utilise or will the game have to interact with the GPU directly?
Also since the change from PPC to x86 for both Sony and MS, will mean that backwards compatibility will most likely be off the table in both instances... What will be interesting is the online store offerings by both parties and the indications of significant changes to the used game market (rumour has it MS will lock a game license to the actual console or your Live account, so you can't transfer games between consoles effectively killing the second hand game market).
Something else to consider.... nVidia only has an ARM license (no x86 license), so anything paired with an nVidia GPU will be limited to a more traditional PC-like setup (irrespective of the CPU cores being used) or they'll have to use an ARM derived CPU (ARM is great for low power, but at the higher end - not so good), or Intel, which doesn't have the GPU performance to compete with AMD or nVidia... So for a high performance CPU + GPU combination, it would appear at face value that AMD is the only company that has something to offer that will still be competitive in 3 years time... (and also have the performance to easily power 1080 HD gaming, with possible options to handle 4K screens)...
The only other options are SPARC (effectively only used in HPC these days) or PPC (relegated to more embedded stuff which is being taken over by ARM or HPC/Mainframe). Common MIPS implementations don't have the performance to compare to x86 based cores (but are competitive with ARM performance), and most of the other CPU designs are either dying or relegated to embedded setups where power requirements or core simplicity outweigh raw CPU performance.
PS. I can't be held responsible if any of the above information is incorrect... it is based on rumours, suspicions and outright lies...
I've read a lot about the slow clocked CPU, and since most games are GPU limited and not CPU limited these days, having 8 slower cores may be better for power/heat management than 3-4 faster cores clocked at 4+ GHz. (Have you actually watched your CPU usage during game play)?
Also, I would highly suspect a UEFI based BIOS, with secure boot enabled locked to Sony keys as well to stop other OSes from being booted. (Using an existing UEFI BIOS will reduce production time/money as well as starting from a known working base for the underlying BIOS meaning less upgrades for the core system will be required). The interesting part in all of this is, how will the GPU be exposed to the game software, will the game have a basic OpenGL library to utilise or will the game have to interact with the GPU directly?
Also since the change from PPC to x86 for both Sony and MS, will mean that backwards compatibility will most likely be off the table in both instances... What will be interesting is the online store offerings by both parties and the indications of significant changes to the used game market (rumour has it MS will lock a game license to the actual console or your Live account, so you can't transfer games between consoles effectively killing the second hand game market).
Something else to consider.... nVidia only has an ARM license (no x86 license), so anything paired with an nVidia GPU will be limited to a more traditional PC-like setup (irrespective of the CPU cores being used) or they'll have to use an ARM derived CPU (ARM is great for low power, but at the higher end - not so good), or Intel, which doesn't have the GPU performance to compete with AMD or nVidia... So for a high performance CPU + GPU combination, it would appear at face value that AMD is the only company that has something to offer that will still be competitive in 3 years time... (and also have the performance to easily power 1080 HD gaming, with possible options to handle 4K screens)...
The only other options are SPARC (effectively only used in HPC these days) or PPC (relegated to more embedded stuff which is being taken over by ARM or HPC/Mainframe). Common MIPS implementations don't have the performance to compare to x86 based cores (but are competitive with ARM performance), and most of the other CPU designs are either dying or relegated to embedded setups where power requirements or core simplicity outweigh raw CPU performance.
PS. I can't be held responsible if any of the above information is incorrect... it is based on rumours, suspicions and outright lies...