Creative Labs heeft nieuwe drivers gereleased voor z'n Savage4 3D Blaster. Downloaden kan op de download page van Creative.

Verder is er een patch voor Sports Car GT gereleased. 3DFiles heeft de download locaties en een lijstje met bugfixes:

• Added ACT Labs RS Shifter support (hit F11 to enter "Free Shift" mode)
• Joystick/wheel now reads up to 16 buttons
• Replay interpolation much improved
• Replay weather conditions should now always be correct
• Added ability to call alternate AI driver into pits (Shift + A)
• Course penalty message no longer appears if an AI gets a black flag
• Opponent car sounds fixed when driving in-car
• Wet cars now show up properly in multiplayer
• Qualifying framerate issues addressed
• Various networking improvements.
• Added Time Acceleration Mode: (CTRL + T)
• Added "dash" to starting view options on options/misc tab (option sticks from realtime as well)
• By request, Main taskbar in options no longer slides away when not in focus
• North Point Wet: no more course penalty in pits
• Road Atlanta: hills smoothed out
• D3D for 3Dfx put back in (to use D3D on primary adapter, you must disable on 3Dfx).

TNT2.net (vet design) heeft een interview gepost met een mannetje van Creative. Onderwerp is de Creative Labs 3DBlaster TNT2. Er worden een paar stompzinnige vragen gesteld ("Zal de 3D Blaster comptible zijn met alle DX games?"). Deze is wel goed:

How much of its full potential is the card at right now as of its shipping? Will we see any future driver updates that significantly increase performance such as the Detonator drivers for the original TNT?

I think the Detonator drivers [gave the performance boost] because they had completely gotten rid of the DX5 code and went to DX6 – that’s where they got the biggest performance kick. I don’t think you’re going to see that level again, because they’re closer to their maximum performance. You can always tune for some more here and some more there.

Verder nog een lap text over de klokfrequenties van de 3DBlaster TNT2. Check de review hier.

Yep, wéér een review van NFS4: High Stakes (of Road Challenge, whatever je het wil noemen). Deze is van Gaming Entertainment Monthly:

EA attempt in a futile attempt to get the hardcore racing gamer to purchase NFS:HS by putting in a 'Deep Career Play' in this new version of Need For Speed. If you're familiar with Ridge Racer for the PSX, and know how the career mode is done in that game, then you'll know exactly what NFS:HS's supposed 'deep career play' is. All it means is that you can purchase different vehicles, you can upgrade the car, change the color of the car, and that you must race the same tracks over and over again in order to get enough money to get on to better circuits. But where is the *)$#@@)*$ paintshop kit to personalize the car? NFS:HS includes a massive amount of different circuits that you can race in once you start getting into career mode. The problem is, you usually have to race the same circuits several times in order to upgrade and acquire enough money so you can compete in better circuits. If this doesn't bother you (you had to do the same in Ridge Racer & Gran Turismo for the PSX) a bit, then you deeply enjoy NFS:HS's career mode, as it is time-consuming but entertaining at the same time.

Check de review hier.

Ik zie dat Simon van Narwal de prijzen van de Matrox G400 gepost heeft op het hardware forum. Hier heb je ze:

Net binnen: de introductie prijzen van de Matrox G400 videokaarten. De prijzen zijn nog niet definitief dus pin me er niet op vast. De grote vraag is, nu de prijzen bekend zijn, welke videokaart moet men kopen?

Matrox G400 16 MB fl. 309,-
Matrox G400 16 MB DualHead fl. 349,-
Matrox G400 16 MB DualHead Retail fl. 399,-
Matrox G400 32 MB DualHead fl. 469,-
Matrox G400 32 MB DualHead Retail fl. 509,-
Matrox G400MAX 32 MB DualHead Retail fl. 619,-

DualHead is het aansluiten van twee monitoren op één videokaart. Dus we zullen nu wel allemaal een monitor erbij moeten hebben......

FL619,- slik

Ik was ff in Kenn Hoekstra's (waar heeft-ie die leuke achternaam aan te danken) .plan file aan het grazen, kwam ik daar deze Soldier of Fortune preview bij 3D Action Planet tegen:

Probably the most impressive part of Soldier of Fortune is the texturing (as exhibited at the recent E3 Convention). The game does a second rendering pass and includes greyscale texturing. If you're swimming in hardware, your visuals are going to be pretty sweet. In most 3D first person shooters, the wall-texturing becomes blurry and out-of-focus when up close, but if you have extra processor cycles to burn and tune up the rendering, you're faced with a beautiful, craggy and overall realistic wall. As you might imagine, this level of detail extends to the killing, which is why the censorship croud are anxious to have a say in ths distribution of the title across the world. This IS the Quake2 engine underneath, but once again a developer has taken it that extra mile, and it shows. They've even gone so far as to introduce their own modelling system, called GHOUL. This new system allows for pin-point accuracy, allowing for limb removal if you can hit it right. The realism is unbelievable. If you hit the guy in the stomach, out flow his intestines, and if you hit him in the groin, it's just as you would expect too.

Screenshots zijn mooooooi:

Van deze kaart hebben we nog niet zoveel (geen?) reviews gezien. GA-Source heeft er eentje, nog wel van de Ultra TNT2 versie. Hier heb je een stuk:

One of the things that a major manufacturer can differentiate themselves with is their drivers. Creative's Blaster Control allows you to do is have a virtual desktop larger than the current on screen resolution, which is a handy feature that not all manufacturers include. The Blaster Control also lets you adjust monitor position and size, color settings and a full range of Direct 3D and OpenGL tweaks. One tweak that is missing is a clock speed adjustment. Creative already has released a beta version of a clock adjustment utility. It allows you to overclock the TNT/2 Ultra up to a maximum of 166mhz core, 200mhz memory (from a default of 150/183).

Check de review bij Gamer's Alliance.

Ik lees bij Betanews dat versie 4.07 van Motherboard Monitor klaar staat om gedownload te worden. Hier's de sauce:

Alex Van Kaam sends the word of a new release of MotherBoard Monitor. This program will try to access one or more of the following chips: LM78, LM78-j LM79, WinBond W83781D, WinBond W83782D, WinBond W83783S , GL518SM, GL520SM, ADM9240, ADM1021, ADM1020, MAX1016, MAX1016a and LM75 on your motherboard and will try to provide you with information about your motherboard's temperature, voltages, fan speeds and cpu temperature.

...en je kunt 'm hier neer komen halen.

Lijkt erop dat zo'n beetje alle socket370-to-slot1 riser cards tegenwoordig een dual jumper hebben. Zo ook de Epox EP-S1C. Riva3D heeft een review van het ding:

The move to the Socket 370 architecture proved to be a great asset towards getting Celerons to work in dual configuration. Instead having to modify the Celeron CPU to enable multi-processor support, a simple modification to the Slot 1 Adapter can achieve the same effect. It was only a matter of time before a company came out with an adapter that would enable the average user to have a dual Celeron system with no fuss at all. Epox is one of the first companies to market such a product. It is called the EPoX EP-S1C Slot 1 adapter.

...maar als je een dual Celeron systeempje gaat bouwen dan lijkt me zo'n dual socket370 BP6 plank van Abit toch interessanter...

WickedPC heeft een review gebouwd van de 22Gig dikke 22GXP drive van IBM. Het ding draait op 7200rpm, ondersteund ATA/66 en heeft een vette cache van 2Meg:

The benchmarks pleased me. The 22GXP hard drive is faster bit a significant margin over the 8.4GB 5400RPM drive. Our only complaint is that the CPU usage almost doubled. Then again, that's what IDE is supposed to do, so no really harsh complaints there. It's worth mentioning that after installing the 22GXP, there is an obvious increase in speed not only with the hard drive, but also with overall system performance.

SCSI owners will want to stay SCSI if CPU utilization is a big issue for you, since SCSI hard drives have a lot less of a CPU load requirement, however SCSI is a lot more expensive for a drive the same size. Figure about $1000 for a 22GB SCSI drive that is any good.

Remedy Entertainment heeft een development update gepost op de Maxpayne site. Dit is keiharde research:

Max Payne is set in New York City. It was the perfect, logical setting for a film noir crime-thriller. The only problem was: what do we Finns really know about New York? Sure, we had watched all the right movies over and over and over, we had dug the deepest depths of the web for any and all pictures and tidbits of information, we had collected a whole library of NYC books, but we were still missing that first hand experience, and most of all we were missing a whole lot of good photo material. We wanted every level in the game to spell New York in big, bold neon letters. We had all the levels planned out, from the deepest crime-ridden slums to the glittering skyscraper heights, we knew exactly what we needed. There was only one way to get it. We had to go and do it ourselves. Six brave level designer soldiers, about to boldly go where no level designer had gone before.

...en vervolgens lees je hoe 6 dappere Remedy designers door New York hebben lopen banjeren ...

Bij PC Gamer Online [het blad is mooier dan de site] zijn ze op het idee gekomen om een preview van NFS4: High Stakes te posten. Hier heppie een stuk:

The most notable addition is a Career Mode in which you race through tiered circuits. Mark Madland, producer of Need For Speed: High Stakes says, "Career mode was developed to mirror real life in that car enthusiasts generally have to work their way up to their dream cars and spend time aspiring to own something faster, more exotic, more challenging to drive while they still enjoy what they have. Rather than starting with a $650,000 Ferrari, you start with what you can afford."

Players will be given an initial budget of $ 25,000, which you can spend on one of the less expensive cars such as a Mercedes SLK 230, a BMW Z3 or a Pontiac Firebird. You can then race for prize money to upgrade your car, race for bigger purses (or even put your vehicle on the line to try to win your opponent's), and eventually acquire more expensive machines such as a Jaguar XKR or a Lambirghini Diablo SV. "Career mode speaks to the emotional benefits that are hard to explain on paper to without experiencing them. There is a whole new strategic element that we've found really extends the life of the game," Madland says.

Ik lees bij AGN 3D dat Gamesmania 7 previews van opkomende (iemand een zinnige vertaling voor 'upcoming'? ) Star Trek games heeft gepost. Hier is het rijtje:

Star Trek: Armada
Star Trek DS9: The Fallen
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Klingon Academy
Star Trek: New Worlds
Star Trek: Starfleet Command
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force

Electronic Arts heeft de demo van Need for Speed 4: High Stakes (in Europa "Road Challenge") gereleased. 3Dfiles heeft de download locaties:

Recreated through close collaborations with the world's most renowned car manufacturers, NFS: High Stakes brings you a dream collection waiting to be unleashed on the open road. Speed has its consequences so weigh the risks carefully. Carelessness results in costly damage and flagrant disregard for the law results in strict enforcement from the Highway patrol. You can also choose to uphold the law behind the wheel of high-speed Police cruisers. Prepare for the ultimate driving experience.

Primary Download Sites:
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe
http://ftp.telepac.pt/pub/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe

Mirror Sites: (24 Hours For New Files)
ftp://ftp.epix.net/pub/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe
ftp://ftp.saix.net/pub/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe
ftp://ftp.iol.it/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe
http://www.task.gda.pl/pub/games/3dfiles/games/nfshighstakes.exe

Om om het geheel wat op te vrolijken raap ik ff meteen een paar (reeds geposte) screenshots van m'n ftp:

Hmmm...hebben we dit niet eerder meegemaakt? De concurrentie released een paar kaarten die beter zijn dan die van 3Dfx, dus gooien ze er meteen een rechtszaak tegenaan... Check deze info van GameDaily:

3dfx Interactive earlier this week filed separate patent-infringement lawsuits against nVidia Corp. and Real 3D Inc. The suits both concern what 3dfx claims is infringement over its patent #5,831,624, entitled "Level of Detail Texture Filtering with Dithering and Mipmaps." The patent was filed on April 30, 1996, and granted on November 3, 1998. According to Bruce Busby, 3dfx’s director of intellectual property, the patent enables the dithering between two levels of detail, and gives "the look of trilinear filtering without doing a multitexturing pass."

While not able to comment directly on the litigation and 3dfx’s chance of success, Busby indicated that a company legally can’t file such a case without a solid basis for filing, which Busby noted is covered by "Rule 11." Busby continued by stating that there are no planned court dates for the cases at present, but there’s a likelihood that these suits will be joined to the existing suits 3dfx is involved in with Real 3D and nVidia; this suit is filed as a countersuit to Real 3D’s previously filed case.

Michael Howse, 3dfx’s senior vice president of marketing, added that the company has a "duty to fight for intellectual properties." With the number of companies involved in one-upping each other for improving computer graphics, it’s not likely that this will be the last such suit filed over proprietary technology.

MS[Mikrosoft?]NBC heeft een interview gepost met onze vrienden John Carmack en John Romero . Voor het geval je om wat voor reden dan ook niet weet wie eerdergenoemde personen zijn, dan heb je de hier de intro uit dat interview:

CARMACK AND ROMERO CREATED more than games together; they also founded id Software along with two other partners. In 1996, after the creation of “QUAKE,” Carmack and Romero went in separate directions. Romero started a new company, ION Storm, where he began developing a first-person shooter with more of a storyline component. For his part, Carmack has remained at id, where he continues to concentrate on making breakthrough game engines. [break]Ok, nu een vraag. Deze is wel leuk: Quake vs de concurrentie:[/break] MSNBC: When you look at the competition in first-person shooters, which ones do you think were the best games? JC: I think Unreal did some very nice things, and that was the first time we’d ever had any competition that was actually a step forward. It was innovative … had 16-bit color and all of that, and I’ve said a lot of nice things about their work. I think they’re worthy competition now in terms of producing the same style of games. In our current work with “QUAKE III,” we’ve definitely got the best graphics technology. We’ve got the best networking technology, and in the style of game that we’re doing, we’re the most fun game, which is what we’re basing everything off of right now. We’ve just decided to not even … to not even pretend to compete in things like story-driven areas and things that involve working your way through a plot line. All we’re doing is just the absolutely raw “have-fun-while-you’re-playing” type of game. “QUAKE III” is a simple, shallow arcade game, but it’s a whole lot of fun, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re just not making any pretensions about vast originality. This is the same style of game that we’ve been doing for a long time, and I will say this is like the best job that has ever been done.

En ze hebben ook nog fotootjes van beide heren (links JC, rechts JR):

Romero is cooler .

FiringSquad heeft een hele handige guide in elkaar geflanst over hoe je je videokaart koud houdt tijdens deze hete dagen.

The basics of cooling the video card can be treated similarly as how a CPU is cooled, except that a video chipset may have a few chips (texture units) to cool. Otherwise, cooling is quit similar in that you have a chip that is producing heat, which must be transferred somehow. If the chip sat there without any air, it would radiate heat, which would be quite an inefficient way to deal with getting rid of heat! If you blew a current of air over the chip, the situation has slightly improved, as the radiated heat is drawn away by convection. However, we'd much rather have the heat leave the CPU as quickly as possible. Two objects in contact with each other is a good way to transfer heat, and ideally we'd like to have the object be able to absorb heat quickly and radiate it rapidly. That is why heatsinks were developed, and why we have fans mounted on them to get rid of heat!

Naast wat basic stuff laten ze ook verschillende modellen coolers zien. Lees hier de rest.

Ze hebben overigens ook een algemene cooling guide en een CPU cooling guide

4D Rulers heeft nieuwe screenshots gepost van hun spel Gore. Ik heb geen flauw benul wat dat voor soort spel mag zijn, maar de screenshots zijn mooi en bovendien valt er op dit moment niets zinnigs te melden...so hier heb je 3 tumbnails:

Bij Sharky Extreme hebben ze deel drie van hun 3D Terminology Guide gepost. Deze aflevering gaat over anti-aliasing. Hier heb je een stuk uit het artikel, over Polygon Edge Anti-Aliasing:

Polygon edge anti-aliasing is what we commonly see when anti-aliasing is switched on in any given Direct3D title. Accelerators such as the RIVA TNT2 support this feature. When using PEAA the accelerator or the driver or the application determines which triangle edges to anti-alias and then renders these edges again with a slight offset and lower opacity to produce a smoothing effect. The end result is a smoother image and no ugly jagged polygon edges.

While this feature is widely supported today, performance when anti-aliasing is enabled is downright pathetic, and if not, the results are. For example I've tried Rollcage on my TNT with anti-aliasing and the performance drop was amazing. Running speed is about 60 fps at 800 x 600, which turns into about 10 fps, 15 tops, at the same resolution with anti-aliasing enabled. Needless to say the game was hardly playable, but it did look quite nice (2 x 2 AA was set in the drivers not the standard 2 x 1 which doesn't look too pleasing but offers better performance).

TheTechs.net heeft een review van de Pioneer 6x DVD speler in elkaar gedraaid. Erg lang is de review niet, maar ach, zo veel valt er nou ook weer niet te lullen over een DVD-drive. Hier heb je wat info:

Since there is no benchmark for DVD drives I will just have to talk about the speed and quality from personal experience. I also have a Creative Labs Encore 2x DVD-Drive, so I used that drive as a comparison against the Pioneer 6x DVD Drive. The Pioneer drive loaded up the DVD disc about 2.5 times faster than the Creative Labs Encore did. The Pioneer is slot-loaded, compared to the Creative Labs tray-loaded feature. The image quality was about the same on both drives, when using the Creative Labs DxR2 decoder board. The sound was far superior from the Pioneer drive, due to the technology advances between the two generations.

Oja, het ding is zowel leverbaar in UDMA als SCSI-2 versie...

Het volk bij Computer Gaming Review heeft een review gepost van Elsa's nieuwe 3D bril: de 3D Revelator. Als ik dit zo lees schijnen die dingen nogal amazing te zijn :

So once everything is installed, and you get it configured for your monitor (to operate at the optimal refresh rate), it’s time to play! Like I said above, any Direct3D game will work. For the most part I played Half-Life. I set it to 800x600 and jumped into a single player game. My first impressions can be summed up in one word: "WHOOOAAAA!" I continued to say that for the next few hours in three second intervals. Even though I had to take a five minute break every half an hour or so because I got a headache from the shutter effect, it was still tottaly addictive. I was later told that side effects, like dizziness and headaches, vary from wearer to wearer. It is understandable that those kinds of results can’t be controled by ELSA because of the way our brain processes images. I still believe that the experince is worth a slight headache. It is truly amazing.