http://forum.beyond3d.com/ Beyond3D Discussion Forums en Thu, 17 May 2012 03:57:40 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forum.beyond3d.com/images/styles/B3DArena/misc/rss.jpg http://forum.beyond3d.com/ http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61907&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 15:28:26 GMT This is taken from the neogaf on someone who listened to the investor call. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...postcount=1542

I found this to very interesting as we have rarely had good insights to what it takes for a game to break even.

If this was the complete budget for a game like Ghost Recon: Future Soilder, it's also safe to assume that much larger production titles are likely to be even more expensive. ]]> Console Forum RobertR1 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61907 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61901&goto=newpost Sun, 13 May 2012 13:04:10 GMT Hi,
I'm having a very strange issue and I was wondering if anyone else already has experienced the same problem.

I'm using DrawIndexedInstanced to render multiples instances of a mesh. The code is running fine under DX11 32 bits but when running under 64 bits (on the same computer, just different exe) then instancing is not working : all instances use the values of the 1st instance, as if the instanceDataStepRate (=1) was simply ignored.

I checked what's happening using PIX and GPA and what makes me mad is that the API calls and buffer contents are EXACTLY the same.

- If I check the stream declaration, it is ok in both cases (32 and 64 bits exe)
- If I check the instance buffer content, the content is exactly the same (with different per-instance data)
- But when I check the "Post-VS" values, then it looks like all the instances have been using the instance data of the first instance!!!

I need to test it on other computers to check if it is a driver problem but anyone has already experienced such a problem??? ]]> benualdo http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61901 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61899&goto=newpost Sat, 12 May 2012 17:26:46 GMT Hi everyone, A research team from UNC, West Virginia U, and Penn State are working on a research study about people’s thoughts about video games and what they like about them. Would you be willing to take a few minutes to tell us your thoughts? Our questions are brief (about 15 minutes), and... Hi everyone,

A research team from UNC, West Virginia U, and Penn State are working on a research study about people’s thoughts about video games and what they like about them.

Would you be willing to take a few minutes to tell us your thoughts? Our questions are brief (about 15 minutes), and your insights would be really valuable to us.

We’ll be running the study until early July. At that time, we’ll be holding a raffle for a $50 Amazon gift certificate for people who are interested.

This study isn’t for any marketing purpose – it’s all about research on people’s liking of games.

If you’re at least 18 and are willing to help us out, please click here to participate.

https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/SE/?...rigin=Beyond3D

Thanks!

Mary

Mary Oliver
Distinguished Professor, College of Communications
Penn State University ]]> PC Games psugame http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61899 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61896&goto=newpost Fri, 11 May 2012 19:41:42 GMT I made that Dramcast thread and beeing called a troll and the thread closed is very weak cause I'm a Gamer since 1980 on nearly every console/arcade system...

Thanks for the one day good time and bye bye :( ]]> Site Feedback powerflower http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61896 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61895&goto=newpost Fri, 11 May 2012 13:46:37 GMT What do you think? I think it invented many things other companies copied(or not) like: -Analog triggers,ok the Saturn Nights Pad had them already -The sheer amount of arcade perfect translations from the Naomi PCB -the beautiful design of the console itself including the neat startup... What do you think?

I think it invented many things other companies copied(or not) like:

-Analog triggers,ok the Saturn Nights Pad had them already
-The sheer amount of arcade perfect translations from the Naomi PCB
-the beautiful design of the console itself including the neat startup sequence and last but not least the beautiful name of it,Dreamcast:)
-the VMU memory card
-first online console with the first MMORPG
-Seaman with Leonard Nimoy
-Angler controller
-Samba De Amigo
-REZ!!
-Shen Mue
-Easy programming HW
-60fps as a standard for many arcade games
-a 60Hz option for the european territory!
-VGA box
-flicker free interlacing
-a killer 2D machine aswell
-and lots of excellent games in every category

And the most important thing: Sega gave the gamer the feeling to become simply happy with it,not only money making like...you know what companies I mean;)

Now please Sega bring out the DC2 on base of the Ring Edge arcade HW already and kick some ass so deeply,please,no matter if it costs 1000 Euros/Dollars,I dont'care like many others fore shure:yes: Make a real premium HW with premium titles,no mass production,no EA,but only AAA+ titles just like the Neo-Geo only more sucessful.But wait didn't last the NG 10 years even with it's very expensive games;) ]]> Console Forum powerflower http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61895 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61894&goto=newpost Fri, 11 May 2012 06:11:14 GMT 1. http://techreport.com/articles.x/22922 2. http://www.hardware.fr/articles/866-1/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-test.html (French) 3. http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-670/ (German) 4. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_670/ 5....

1. http://techreport.com/articles.x/22922
2. http://www.hardware.fr/articles/866-...-670-test.html (French)
3. http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/g...force-gtx-670/ (German)
4. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...Force_GTX_670/
5. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A..._Direct_Cu_II/ (Asus DCU2)
6. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...70_Jet_Stream/ (Palit)
7. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...e_GTX_670_SLI/ (SLI)
8. http://www.hardware-mag.de/artikel/g..._edition_test/ (Zotac) (German)
9. http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html (MSI)
10. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Z...0_Amp_Edition/ (Zotac)
11. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/n...view-feat-evga (EVGA)
12. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/...eo_card_review
13. http://hothardware.com/Reviews/NVIDI...-and-Gigabyte/ (EVGA & Gigabyte)
14. http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1925/1/ (EVGA)
15. http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-g...ii-top-review/ (Asus DCU2)
16. http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...ay-sli-review/ (SLI + TriSLI)
17. http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-...stream-review/ (Palit)
18. http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-670-review/

]]> Arty http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61894 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61893&goto=newpost Thu, 10 May 2012 18:22:33 GMT Apologies to Acert93 for stealing his sig. for my thread title, but it was just too appropriate not to. The Verge have been killing it with MS leaks of late. Starting with the leak that started this thread about MS introducing a subsidized 360 plan... Apologies to Acert93 for stealing his sig. for my thread title, but it was just too appropriate not to.

The Verge have been killing it with MS leaks of late.

Starting with the leak that started this thread about MS introducing a subsidized 360 plan that has since become a reality.

Then the link I posted here about MS implementing a system-wide Kinect activity tracker with an optional hardware pulse-rate monitor.

And now we have MS bringing IE9 to the 360 with Kinect controls.

I thought it might be useful to have a central thread for these so they can be discussed in the context of a total package of additions to the 360. I'll try to keep this post updated with any new leaks and link to threads where the leaks are discussed individually. ]]> Console Forum mrcorbo http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61893 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61892&goto=newpost Thu, 10 May 2012 12:09:32 GMT There's one stubborn user over at another forum, according to whom the lag other outputmodes add to jumping within video file from timeframe to timeframe causes, among with sync issues, is unbearable regardless of if GPU acceleration is used or not

So he wants to use Overlay mixer then, but apparently it's been broken since 11.5 or 11.6 partly, the scaling doesn't work properly.

I did just a quick test myself with both old Media Player Classic and the more modern Media Player Classic Home Cinema - indeed, the overlay sometimes messes the scaling.
This can be reproduced by rapidly changing window size at least with HD-videos, it also sometimes doesn't scale at all when switching to fullscreen. ]]> Kaotik http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61892 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61891&goto=newpost Wed, 09 May 2012 16:18:25 GMT I got invited into the beta last night and only had time to play for about 3 hours, but I thought I'd share my impressions and notes with you fine folks.

Here is what my Outlander looked like after those first 3 hours: https://twitter.com/#!/heymarkd/stat...790465/photo/1



Visuals - Playing Torchlight 2 at 2560x1440 with all effects turned on and maxed out shows just how GOREGEOUS this game can look! But beyond it's technical capabilities, the actual art, assents, models, level design and animations have also come along splendidly. So far I think the thing that has stood out the most is the environmental designs. They're just spectacular and really just far beyond the sort of banal cave-after-cave we played through in T1. One cave had a pirate theme, and within were the animated skeletal remains of pirates, ghosts and other seaworthy nefarious creatures. Another dungeon was completely different in that it looked like a Gothic library, sort of like the one found in the Diablo 3 beta. :)

The game still has a more World of Warcraft aesthetic to it than a Diablo one. I love the look of it all.


Classes - I decided to go with the Outlander, mainly because ranged attacks coupled with a pet sounded like a blast, and you know what? It's a freak'n good time! Dual-pistols coupled with a Glave and I was mowing through mobs quickly. Oh and when creating a character you now have the option of 6 different pets. Pets still sell things for you, learn spells, can equip a collar and now have a shipping list to purchase things like identity scrolls or health potions.


- The GUI is unobtrusive, clean, responsive and does exactly what it should--stays out of our way!

- The loot, oh god the loot, THE LOOT!

- The world is more explorable, at least so far. As it opens up when you leave town and there are things to encounter. Like dungeons and NPCs. NPCs seem to guide you to various dungeons to kill someone who did something bad. The dungeons now have a level marker on this so you know if you're capable of handling the opposition. Its nice to see because it essentially means the world is your oyster.


There is more, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.Feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them, just keep in mind I've only played the game for a few hours and it's only the MP portion not the SP. ]]> PC Games warcrow http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61891 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61889&goto=newpost Tue, 08 May 2012 15:52:48 GMT Hello guys, I was wondering what is the highest yearly salary (as contractor) I could get as a Senior Software Engineer/Developer (including MS and Google ones). 150k$? or it is somewhere between 100-150k$? 75-100k$? Regards, m. Hello guys,

I was wondering what is the highest yearly salary (as contractor) I could get as a Senior Software Engineer/Developer (including MS and Google ones).

150k$? or it is somewhere between 100-150k$? 75-100k$?

Regards,
m. ]]> General Discussion imaxx http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61889 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61888&goto=newpost Tue, 08 May 2012 05:31:51 GMT I just got a letter from ATT notifying existing DSL customers that they'll be upgrading all 768Kbps and 1.5Mbps service contracts to 3Mbps without increasing monthy prices. They are also increasing the monthly bandwidth cap from 150GB to 250GB.

I currently pay $38/month for the 3Mbps service so I will not benefit from any speed increases but they also had some special promotions during this transition period. I was able to upgrade my 3Mbps service to 12Mbps and for the first year will only need to pay $25/month...after that I will pay $48/month which is only $10 more than what I currently pay for a measely 3Mbps. Can't wait to download X360 game demos in 1/4th the time. Streaming content from X360 will also be a lot better. Also now I could watch HD 1080p Youtube videos without having to wait for it to buffer.:lol:

Anyway it's been awhile since we talked about broadband prices here on the forum so what are other forum members paying for internet service in your area and what is your speed and cap?:smile:

I'm located in Fullerton/Anaheim, CA btw. ]]> RudeCurve http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61888 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61887&goto=newpost Mon, 07 May 2012 19:58:46 GMT This former Xbox Live-only title has been out on Steam now for a while - in both PC and Mac flavors - and I've played it for a bit. Not sure how far in, as there's no level changes or anything like that. It's just one seamless gameworld that scrolls mostly right-to-left as is the norm, with some up-and-down action too. :)

I'm sure you guys have seen screenshots, it's a fully black-and-white game, set in a shadowy realm of horror and death - LOTS of death. ...And spiders. Holy crap, those spiders! :lol: The hero is a small child-like figure with large, glowing eyes whom has to traverse this hostile landscape.

The graphical style is very clean and simple in a way, with a big cinematic angle; there's depth of field blurring foreground and background layers, the camera zooms in and out at times to adjust how much you're allowed to see of the surroundings, and there's a generous helping of film grain covering everything.

There's little details like low foliage growing along the ground, little pebbles tossed up by our hero's feet, and so on. The background often scrolls in parallaxed layers, which tweaks my nostalgia knobs something fierce, and everything is very nicely drawn. Some of the foreground graphics use quite low-res textures which looks a bit rough, but it's nothing worth complaining about really. Animation-wise, everything is superbly handled. Motions look realistic, but there's also a large dose of cartoonism infused in everything, balancing up the horror to some extent.

The gameplay is a cross between platforming and puzzle solving, often physics-based, and no fighting. Basically, anything you would fight in another game kills you in LIMBO, and you actually don't have any attacks at all. The closest we get is by using environment objects to defeat enemies, and many of these puzzles are quite clever. Some are quite frustrating as well, as timing becomes a more and more important element.

I've played LIMBO both on my PC - where it starts up in 2560*1440, the native rez of my screen - and also on my Macbook Pro with sandybridge-based Intel HD 3000 graphics. On my thunderbolt display (also 2560*1440, but I rather doubt that actually is the rez the game uses) the game runs rather smoothly; sometimes updates sag a bit when there's a lot of transparencies in use, but on the whole it's a wholly enjoyable experience and at no time did I die because of lack of hardware "oomph".

The game also syncs between game sessions using Steam cloud support (including between PC and Mac versions), letting you continue seamlessly where you last left off, regardless of which version you played last. This makes LIMBO a perfect game for laptop play when travelling or otherwise on the move!

The one issue I have with playing the game is the controls; you're stuck with either using arrow keys and Alt (on Macs) or Ctrl (on PC), or a gamepad to manipulate your little figure. It's a bit awkward playing with the keyboard, but I intend to buy a 360 gamepad. The wired Mad Catz MLG pad looks very interesting. ]]> PC Games Grall http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61887 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61886&goto=newpost Mon, 07 May 2012 19:15:10 GMT http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/ In short, 680 seems to be little more sensitive to losing PCIE bandwidth, and the lower your resolution is, higher the hit will be. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/I...press_Scaling/

In short, 680 seems to be little more sensitive to losing PCIE bandwidth, and the lower your resolution is, higher the hit will be. ]]> Kaotik http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61886 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61885&goto=newpost Mon, 07 May 2012 05:16:45 GMT Your opinion counts :)

I'm building a new 2008 R2 server that will act as a VM host for a plethora of boxes, to include a WHS 2011 instance, another 2008R2 instance for hosting some online games (MineCraft, some old Telnet games), and some other nonsense. Because the box will be running 24/7 and will only occasionally get "busy", I'm going to spec it out with equipment with good idle power characteristics. And because it will be serving as the backup instance for all my other home Windows devices thanks to WHS, I need to make sure that data doesn't go off the deep end.

I'm going to stack it all up using laptop drives: a pair of WD Scorpio Black 320GB drives in RAID1 + Z77 caching SSD for the OS and apps volume, and then eight 1TB 9.5mm laptop drives all connected to a Highpoint 2720 SGL in RAID6 for the data volume.

The question is: which 1TB laptop drives to use? You decide :) ]]> Purchase Decisions Help Albuquerque http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61885 http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61881&goto=newpost Sat, 05 May 2012 20:36:11 GMT Just wanted to pre-announce a project I am working on: an OpenCL BLAS. 1. First version will be released at end of May hopefully. Significant progress has been made. No support for complex types in the first release. And mostly focusing on BLAS3. 2. Tested against AMD (radeon 5850), Nvidia... Just wanted to pre-announce a project I am working on: an OpenCL BLAS.

1. First version will be released at end of May hopefully. Significant progress has been made. No support for complex types in the first release. And mostly focusing on BLAS3.

2. Tested against AMD (radeon 5850), Nvidia (tesla c2050) and Intel (i7 920) implementations on Linux, and against AMD implementation on Win 64. Trying to procure a Radeon 79xx and a GTX 680 for performance testing as well.

3. License will be Apache 2

4. API similar to AMD's BLAS API.

Please let me know if you are interested in beta testing and I may make something available to you in a week or two. If you are an OpenCL implementation provider, and would like to make hardware/software available to me to test, that will be appreciated as well. I am a grad student at McGill. You can also reach me at @codedivine on twitter. ]]> codedivine http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=61881