Project Eternity sure has pretty backgrounds

Subject: General Tech | April 10, 2013 - 01:12 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gaming, project eternity, obsidian

Obsidian's new RPG Project Eternity has some gorgeous backgrounds as you can see from the YouTube trailer below.  It was on Kickstarter and garnered three times the amount of money that they required to get the project going so we will be seeing this game sooner or later, you can still toss some coins at them by visiting their main page which is accessible from Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN's preview.  The design team describes the game as a mix of the dungeon crawling of Icewind Dale, the depth of NPC personality of Baldur's Gate and a story as gripping as Planescape.  Currently the Slacker Backer is worth $29 and will get you a copy of the game from Steam or GOG.

"My old-school RPG gland’s been engorged with excitement for many reasons lately, but the past few weeks have seen Torment race to the front of the pack – and not just because it’s chock full of twisted sights and sounds not of this world. In something of a revolution, it also moves. Like, its pictures just sort of do things, without the assistance of a flip book, finger puppets, or any of the other traditional methods. So imagine my elation when I discovered that Project Eternity will, in fact, employ similar motion gremlins to sow the glorious song of movement into its lush mountains, valleys, and plains."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Gaming

• Today's mid-range graphics cards in BioShock Infinite @ The Tech Report
• See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• That Looks Painful: A Thief Teaser "Trailer" @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Bioshock Infinite Tested, Benchmarked @ Techspot
• Gaming's favourite platters get another stir of the pot @ The Register
• Tomb Raider @ LanOC Reviews
• Hands On: Divinity – Original Sin @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• BioShock Infinite Benchmarked with AMD EyeFinity at 5760x1080 @ Tweaktown
• Tomb Raider PC @ eTeknix
• First Impressions of Trion Worlds’ Defiance @ Techgage
• Modern shooters and the atrophy of fun @ The Tech Report
• Valve Publishes Packages For Their Linux Distribution @ Phoronix
• Sleeping Dogs Benchmarked with AMD EyeFinity at 5760x1080 @ Tweaktown
• Disney shuts down Lucasarts games company @ The Inquirer
• BioShock Infinite Review – Leaving the World Awestruck @ Techgage
• Activision, Raven Release 2 Star Wars Games Under GPL @ Slashdot
• BioShock Infinite @ Kitguru
• Strike Vector Has Transforming Cowboy Space Planes @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Decor Never Changes: Metro – Last Light’s World @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• LEGO City Undercover Wii U @ Tweaktown

Intel Racks up another IDF Keynote

Subject: General Tech | April 10, 2013 - 12:31 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Project Scorpio, Intel, idf 2013, idf, Avonton

Intel talked about their Project Scorpio at IDF, similar to HP's Project Moonshot which has just become available.  Instead of a new Atom server being a complete system installed in a rack there will be a housing into which self contained server modules can be added and will communicate with the other modules via fabric switch.  That way you can pick how many modules you need based on your usage and purchase only that many, with upgrades being as easy as sliding in another module and configuring it.  Lego for admins!

They also showed off information on the new Avonton Atom as well as some information on the next family of Xeon processors which you can read more about at The Tech Report.

"Intel kicked off IDF Beijing with a keynote address that revealed a number of new server processors in the Atom and Xeon families. The chip maker also discussed its rack scale architecture, which aims to make next-generation servers more flexible and efficient through modular components."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Mm.. you like RAID? Ooh, you want flash. Try this super-Hadooper @ The Register
• Intel hints at server processor plans for the rest of this year @ The Register
• Intel Xeon 2013 update - A bit later, but a bit better too @ VR-Zone
• Free Anti-Virus Comparison Review @ OCC

Hot pink audio from Thermaltake, the Chao Dracco

Subject: General Tech | April 9, 2013 - 03:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: audio, esports, Chao Dracco, thermaltake

With the obnoxious variety of headphones available companies seem to be struggling to stand out in the crowd.  Audio quality comes a close second to the aesthetics of the headphones, with bright colours and logos dominating the audio section of any retail store.  Thermaltake's eSPORTS Chao Dracco is no exception, though they are very uniquely pink.  That doesn't mean that they neglected the sound as they have used 50mm drivers with a respectable 10Hz to 22K Hz range.  Read Bjorn3D's impression of how that translates into your ear in their full review.

"Tt eSPORTS Chao is about culture, and technology advances this culture to create massive individuality. It’s about fashion. Whether it’s hippies, punk, gothic, or hip-hop, you are Chao.  - Tt eSPORTS. This is a great aggressive catch line from a relativity new company. Let’s find out if they hold up to it."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Audio Corner

• Ozone Rage ST Gaming Headset @ techPowerUp
• SteelSeries Siberia V2 Cross-Platform Headset Review @ Hardware Secrets
• Steelseries Flux In Ear Headset @ LanOC Reviews
• Antec Mobile Products iso Headphones & gain Headphone Amp Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II Review @ TechReviewSource
• Eagle Tech Arion Portable Bluetooth Speaker Review @ NikKTech
• Scythe Kama Bay Amp Pro (SDAR-3000) & Kro Craft Speakers Rev. B Review @ Madshrimps
• Ineo Alienvibes W601 Speaker Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• A.M.P. SP1 review: newcomer in Bluetooth speaker dock @ Hardware.info
• Finis SwiMP3 X18 2GB @ XSReviews

Intel updates Thunderbolt

Subject: General Tech | April 9, 2013 - 02:35 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Intel, thunderbolt, falcon ridge, DSL4510, DSL4410

As promised, the new Falcon Ridge Thunderbolt controller will be arriving soon, bringing improvements to Thunderbolt.  There will be two different updates supplied by Intel, the first is a doubling of bandwidth to 20Gbit/s which will significantly outpace eSATA and may help drive adoption of the new standard.  Less attractive for the consumer but interesting to businesses is a new revision of the current 10Gbit/s standard which will require less power to do the same job as the current controller.  The Inquirer also mentions that Intel is still looking to replace the copper with fibre optics, though what that will do to the already high price of Thunderbolt cables is unknown as of yet.

"CHIPMAKER Intel has announced an update to its Thunderbolt bus boosting bandwidth to 20Gbit/s while introducing 10Gbit/s controllers with lower power consumption."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Ubuntu 13.04 Linux Can Outperform Apple OS X 10.8.3 @ Phoronix
• Synthesizing graphene in your basement laboratory @ Hack a Day
• TTexas Instruments previews H.265 codec on eight-core Keystone DSP @ The Inquirer
• Microsoft's security apps still trip up on Windows 8 @ The Register
• Website Problems With Internet Explorer 10? Switch Modes @ TechARP

Deal for April 9th - HP LaserJet Pro 200 M251nw Color Printer @ $150

Subject: General Tech | April 9, 2013 - 01:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Tried of your old printer with its cord running from your PC and wanting one that is worth more than the price of the ink cartridges inside of it?  HP's LaserJet Pro 200 M251nw colour printer is capable of being connected wirelessly which clears up a bit of your cord clutter and makes it easy to connect to several machines at home. Currently you can pick it up at less than half price.

HP LaserJet Pro 200 M251nw Color Printer
HP Home is offering their LaserJet Pro 200 M251nw Color Printer (CF147A#BGJ) for ONLY $149.99 plus free shipping. Use $165 instant savings and extra $15 coupon code: 15LOGICBUY to get final price. Sales tax where applicable. Offer valid through 4/13 or while stock last.

Intel Shows DSL4510/4410 and Falcon Ridge 20 Gbps Thunderbolt at NAB

Subject: General Tech, Storage | April 8, 2013 - 04:00 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: thunderbolt, nab 13, Intel, falcon ridge, DSL4510, cactus ridge

Way back in July of 2012 Tim Verry wrote a news story on PC Perspective discussing the upcoming Falcon Ridge and Cactus Ridge Thunderbolt controllers, due out in 2014 and 2013 respectively.  It appears this is coming to fruition at the NAB Show 2013 this week in Las Vegas, with two new variants of Thunderbolt on display by Intel.

Cactus Ridge, now known as the DSL4510 and 4410 controllers will add support for DisplayPort 1.2 when connected to native DisplayPort displays while also improving power management and lowering the implementation costs for hardware designers. 

Maybe more exciting is the prototype of next-generation silicon for Thunderbolt, code named Falcon Ridge, that runs at 20 Gbps, double that of current Thunderbolt implementations.  Intel promises that this will enable 4K video file transfer and display simultaneously.  As expected, production will start in late 2013 with ramping in 2014.

Thunderbolt's integration into the consumer market has been slower than expected but professionals are seeing more and more uses for this kind of extreme bandwidth as the video production pipeline prepares for large scale 4K distribution.  We are using Thunderbolt internally at PC Perspective for our Frame Rating capture based graphics testing running at nearly 800 MB/s we have been happy with the results. 

New Intel HD Graphics Driver Improves Game Performance

Subject: General Tech | April 8, 2013 - 03:13 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: Ivy Bridge, intel hd, Intel, hd 4000, hd 2500

Intel recently released an updated graphics driver for Ivy Bridge processors sporting either HD 4000 or HD 2500 GPUs. The new 15.31.3.3071 (or 15.31.3.64.3071 for those running a 64-bit OS) driver features several under-the-hood optimizations to reduce CPU overhead and improve the driver architecture itself.

The driver architecture improvements have also led to improved game performance. Intel claims up to 10% better performance in StarCraft II, Batman: Arkham City, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (among others).

The chip giant also notes that the new driver supports OpenCL 1.2 for GPGPU calculations. The graphics driver update is only for Ivy Bridge hardware, and is compatible with Ivy Bridge hardware and both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you are running Intel's Driver Update Utility, you should get the new driver automatically.

Otherwise, you can grab the new driver from the following link, depending on your OS.

• 15.31.3.3071 for 32-bit Windows 7/8
• 15.31.3.64.3071 for 64-bit Windows 7/8

Unfortunately, these drivers are generic Intel HD graphics drivers. If your OEM computer is running Windows with an OEM-customized version of Intel's drivers, you are out of luck. You will need to wait for your OEM to update its driver package in order to take advantage of the performance improvements.

Windows versus Linux in an OpenGL free for al

Subject: General Tech | April 8, 2013 - 01:59 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: linux, ubuntu 13.04, fedora 18, win7, opengl, Ivy Bridge

One major barrier to switching to Linux for many users is the graphical performance of the OS; Steam may be releasing a variety of games which will run on Linux but if the performance is awful there are not going to be many who think about making the switch.  Phoronix has been a close eye on the development of OpenGL drivers for Linux, this time specifically the onboard Intel graphics present on Ivy Bridge chips.  With one driver available for each OS the tests were easily set up, except for the aforementioned Steam games as there is a bug which prevents Phoronix from collecting the performance data they need.  Check out the performance differences between Ubuntu 13.04, Fedora 18 and Win7 in the full article.

"Last month Phoronix published Intel OpenGL benchmarks showing Windows 8 outperforming Ubuntu 13.04 with the latest Windows and Linux drivers from Intel. I also showed that even with the KDE and Xfce desktops rather than the default Unity/Compiz desktop to Ubuntu, Windows 8 still was faster on this Intel "Ivy Bridge" platform. The new benchmarks to share today from this Intel Ultrabook are the Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 results but also with performance figures added in from Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 x64 and Fedora 18."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Intel is sampling Avoton Atom chips ahead of IDF Beijing @ The Inquirer
• HP announces low-power Moonshot system based on an Intel Atom chip @ The Inquirer
• The Surprising SUSE Linux @ Linux.com
• AMD to fully replace FM1 with FM2, AM3 with AM3+ in 2014 @ DigiTimes
• Solar powered robot mows your lawn while you chill indoors @ Hack a Day
• Microsoft to slap 9 patches on Windows junkies on Tuesday @ The Register
• ASUS AiCloud: A Fresh Face for Networking @ Bjorn3D
• Gadget Show Live 2013 – The Public Event @ Kitguru
• DIY MultiCopter - Part 1. @ Metku.net