Planet Daikatana heeft een interview gehad met Noel "Shadow" Stephens, A.I. junkie voor Daikatana. Daikatana is dat spel dat over 10 jaar uitkomt, (als we geluk hebben)

What are some of the major changes that have occurred in Daikatana since you have been gone?

Wow, that is kind of a difficult question to answer because there has been SO much change and most all of it is VERY COOL. I guess for starters the weapons are looking way cooler and have come a very long way. Along these same lines, there are all sorts of level enhancements/changes that are making the game really stand out. In terms of the monsters, In Soo has done a fine job at creating a very simple Goal/task oriented system which is going to make my job much easier. Also some of the sub-plots that John has put into the game are just freakin' cool. Now that I am working on the game and have seen all the kewlness that it emits, I have become very excited for the people who are going to get a chance to play it with "little" or "no" knowledge of what they have in store for them. Kind of makes me wish I could brainwash myself just so I could see the final product with "virgin" eyes.

What monsters will you be working on first?

Currently I am working on the Doombat. The Doombat is really a good monster to start with. Not because it is simple, but because it is a little more complex due to the fact that it is flying all the time. This is giving me a real good feel for the whole A.I. system. I am adding smoothed corner turning with yaw/pitch/roll changes which will really give the Doombat a good "flying" feel to it. The Doombat also changes its fighting style based on how much damage you have done to it, a little dash of random numbers, and then also what you, the player, are doing. I won't give away the 'surprise' attack that I added to the Doombat, but let's just say that if you freak the Doombat out too much he might just do something that will leave the player in a 'gib' shower.

Helaas, PGC (Parallel Graphics Configuration) gaat definitief niet door. Het was een leuk plan om 2 Voodoo3 2000's of zelfs twee TNT2's (?) langs elkaar te draaien. Dit is een officieel statement van een Executive VP van Alienware:

"PGC will not be released by Alienware. This is due to the fact that the next generation of chipsets is simply weeks away.

In this industry products often become outdated before they are ever released. PGC simply ran out of time. It would not be logical for the gamer to invest in PGC when in about 5 weeks the next generation of video chipsets will be released. There was also an end user focus on a TNT2 based PGC solution that quite frankly , was not developed. We have had great success with our exclusive multi-card setup and there simply was not enough consumer interest for us to continue PGC.

Alienware will continue to bring the gaming community unique and innovative products. We do not see PGC as a viable solution any longer."

Op GA-Source lees ik dat ATI volgende maand met een nieuwe videokaart komt, de XPERT 2000. Hij zal nog gebaseerd zijn op de Rage128 chip en krijgt 32MB mee. Dit zooitje krijg je dan voor $99

ATI Technologies today announced the XPERT 2000, with 32 MB of memory, 32-bit true color acceleration and full hardware DVD acceleration.

The XPERT 2000 will make 32 MB of graphics memory a standard with system builders. As games become more complex, the 32MB will continue to provide the necessary bandwidth for high frame rate, texture intense game play for future games. The XPERT 2000 is fully optimized to operate in 32-bit true color to provide optimal visual quality graphics. And it does so with minimal performance degradation, providing true color with a performance level equal to that of a card that supports only 16-bit color.

With hardware DVD, the XPERT 2000 produces high quality DVD images at full-screen, full frame rate playback. XPERT 2000 allows even low cost PCs the ability to play back DVDs without burdening the processor. This makes the XPERT 2000 the ideal solution for running interactive DVD applications and watching DVD movies.

Game play will be enhanced through the acceleration of the OpenGL ICD and Microsoft's DirectX APIs. The result is full acceleration and top speeds for DirectX and OpenGL games and z-based fog and special effects.

The graphics power of the XPERT 2000 comes from the RAGE 128 chip, with more than 8 million transistors, equivalent to many processors today. Other 3D architectural features include a Twin-Cache Architecture including on-chip texture and pixel caches, a 8-bit stencil buffer, a 32-bpp renderer for full accuracy 3D rendering, a deep 32-bit Z-buffer, and high-quality alpha and fog effects.

The XPERT 2000 with 32 MB will be available in August at a street price of (US) $99.

Sharky Extreme heeft een blik geworpen op de nieuwe Celeron 500MHz. Na een beetje tweaken zijn ze erin geslaagd er 608MHz uit te krijgen, lees het hier.

Using Intel's standard retail cooling heatsink we were able to solidify our eval Celeron 500 CPU at a maximum MHz of 608MHz. This was achieved with the Soyo jumperless CPU setup operating at 7.5 x 81MHz.

Just for grins we tried to hit 7.5 x 83MHz (623MHz) on an Abit BM6 mainboard (which being a dedicated Socket370 mainboard doesn't require an electronically noisy Slotket converter card) to see if electrical noise interference was impeding our overclocking progress.

However, just as on the Soyo/Abit converter card combo, the native Socket370 Abit BM6 board refused to stabilize at a speed of 7.5 x 83MHz or 623MHz.

Bij Thresh's FiringSquad is een review te vinden van Creative's Ultra TNT2 kaart. Veel valt er niet over te zeggen, het is geen speciale kaart verder, maar de prijs is wel aangenaam. Overklokken schijnt ook niet één van zijn sterke kanten te zijn:

On our first card (we'll call them Card 1 through Card 3 from here on), our overclocking tests were the simplest we've ever run. Overclock, crash, reboot. Reduce, crash, reboot. We got it stable at 155MHz/185MHz, but no more. From the default 150/183 settings, this is not exactly what we'd consider a stellar performer. It's also an excellent example of something that buyers shouldn't fume about. If you get a card and you're not satisfied with its overclocking performance, it's not the fault of the manufacturer.

While Creative won't be warm to the idea, at most retailers you can exchange the card in hopes of getting a more overclockable one. The downside to this? A higher return rate pushes up costs for the manufacturer, who will in turn push up their prices to compensate for increased losses. It's a two way street, but it's doubtful anyone will take back a return if you claim it's because it doesn't overclock

Of course, to show the flip side of the coin, the other two cards were more adept overclockers in our test system. Card 2 successfully reached 166/190MHz stably, while Card 3 was able to pull in a more than respectable 170/191MHz. In most cases, overclocking made more of a difference on the memory bus, and memory overclocking is more of a benefit for high resolution, high color depth (32-bit) tests, so if 1024x768 or 1280x1024 is your kinda bag, then overclocking will help you more than us 640x480-low-detail-uglified Quakers.

Over bij Gamestats hebben ze een Vortex2 SuperQuad Digital reference design geluidskaart getest. Best wel interessante en uitgebreide review moet ik zeggen, check hem hier.

The in-game tests had different results. The sound quality, while very good, was not quite as striking in terms of reproduction when compared to its competitors. The 3D sound is both a little better and a little worse than SB Live's as well. The SB Live gives a better impression of the environment than the Vortex2. For example in Half Life if you shoot a gun while in a ventilation shaft, the Creative board gives a better impression (through reverberation effects) of the tinny sound you would expect. Where Aureal's offering excels though is in the sound placement. I caught myself looking beyond my monitor many times while testing the Vortex2 because it does make sounds seemingly appear from elsewhere. In Descent 3, shooting a missile down a long shaft resulted in an explosion sound that appeared distant and convincing. The rear speaker performance was a little better at creating convincing "behind sounds" on the Creative Labs card, and neither card could convincingly reproduce above or below sounds (perhaps we need six speakers?) Lastly, on the whole, the Vortex2 created richer 3D sound when using headphones. The Creative board's 3D sound from two speakers (e.g. headphones) lacked clarity when compared to Aureal's.

Extreme Hardware heeft een review online gaparkeerd van de Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000, een perfecte speakerset voor de veeleisende gebruiker. Hier heb je een stukkie, check de rest hier.

The FPS2000 Digital Speaker System features four 7-watt (Root Mean Squared) satellites, each with a 2-œ inch long-throw driver. With the satellites measuring a mere 3.25x3.25x3.25 inches, they fit easily on any desktop or around any room. The subwoofer itself isn’t very large either, but it is rather powerful at 25-watts (RMS). Additionally, as the name implies, the FPS2000 features a digital input, compatible only with the SoundBlaster Live!. By using a digital input, the sound remains digital until the very last output stage, where the FPS2000 converts the signal to analog. This helps to eliminate most signal noise or sound degradation due to converting sound to analog at multiple stages.

Op Hardware Info kwam ik een test tegen van de 2TheMax Riva TNT2 M64. Deze kaart bevat de nieuwe TNT2 M64 chip. Deze is identiek aan de TNT2, maar werkt met een 64 bit databus, in plaats van 128. Met deze chip mikt nVidia op de low-budget markt. lees de review hier.

Goedkoop is het codewoord van de TNT2 M64: de geteste kaart is verkrijgbaar voor nog geen Fl. 250,--. Zo krijg je dus een zeer goedkope videokaart met alle functionaliteit van de TNT2, 32 MB geheugen, maar alleen iets minder snelheid. Ook andere fabrikanten, waaronder Creative en ASUS, hebben aangekondigd met TNT2 M64 produkten op de markt te zullen komen.

The Register meldt dat AMD de release van de AMD Athlon heeft vervroegd naar 10 augustus. Check dit bericht.

AMD will finally take the wraps of the Athlon K7 on Tuesday 10 August, according to reliable but eminently impeachable sources. Benchmark data, however, continues to leak out early.

The company had originally been planning the big push for the end of August. As this has now been brought forward by three weeks, the implication is that AMD's yields on the K7 are better than initially planned for, and that it feels sufficiently sure of supply to counter the various pre-emptive strikes Intel has been mounting.

Earlier today (see story) Intel let it be known that 2 August was D-Day for 600MHz PIII, 500MHz Celeron and another round of price cuts.

Of dit echt zo is is maar de vraag, de bronnen van The Register zijn niet echt waterdicht te noemen.

Riva Extreme heeft de Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 gereviewed. Ja ik weet dat er al tig zijn geweest, maar deze heeft als voordeel dat er nu betrouwbare Quake 3 benchmarks in zijn opgenomen. Anyway, check de review hier.

Ahh, you guys know me too well. Yeah, I push the cards to crazy speeds. This card did NOT impress me on the overclocking side, although technically it is "overclocked" as compared to the great majority of TNT2 Ultra cards. I was able to get the card to run stable at 180MHz Core, 200MHz memory. Remember, the default clock for this card is 175/183, so there is not much breathing room for you overclock-crazy people. The RAM was kinda generic-looking so this may have hindered the overclock. It looks like they did a good job with the heatsink/fan, so maybe I just got an average chip. I've heard of people really pushing this card far, so you may luck out.

Voodoo Extreme heeft ook een review in elkaar gedraaid van de Intel Pentium III 600MHz. Overklokken wil niet echt meer lukken, de .25 micron technologie heeft zijn limiet hier wel zo'n beetje bereikt:

This always seems to be one of the first questions asked when referring to a new CPU, so it will be the first one answered. The highest I could overclock this CPU to (using only default voltage...) was 618MHz, or 6x 103MHz front side bus (FSB). It is the first 100MHz FSB CPU I have seen that will not even POST at a 112MHz FSB at default voltage. I think it is safe to say that the .25 micron fab has been pushed to its limits; the 600 was originally slated to be the first .18 micron CPU, but suits at Intel changed their minds and decided to cram in one more product based on existing, proven technology. For the overclocker in you, a PIII 550MHz running at 616MHz (5.5 x 112MHz) would be much more cost effective than attempting to overclock this chip.

Lees de rest hier.

Ik lees bij Blue's News dat er weer Quake3 Test benchmarks scores zijn van een AMD Athlon 600MHz, samen met een Voodoo3 3000.

I am testing it out on a wonderful new K7-600 AMD was kind enough to send us. Man this thing rocks! I'll get some meaningful timings if anyone cares. But I assure you it flies! Q3test 1.07, on the K7-600, Voodoo3 3000, graphics mode normal: (640 x 480)

q3testdemo1: 49.3 fps
q3testdemo2: 63.9 fps

Graphics mode fast:
q3testdemo1: 61.8 fps
q3testdemo2: 72.7 fps
[break]Verder zie ik dat CNET ook een artikel heeft over de AMD Athlon. Ze weten ons te vertellen dat officiële resultaten van deze processor 9 augustus aan het publiek worden vrijgegeven.[/break] Early next month, AMD said it will allow publications and analysts to first start discussing publicly the benchmarks surrounding the Athlon--formerly called the K7 processor. The event will likely be closely watched, because nearly every analyst contacted by CNET News.com has said informally that the Athlon, which AMD is banking on mightily, will outperform Intel's high-end Pentium III at the same speed.

By offering a better-performing chip at a lower cost, AMD is hoping to break out of its niche as supplier for the low end of the PC market and into more profitable market segments. This strategy is crucial to the long-term health of the company, analysts say.

Computers based around Athlon will start coming out in mid-August, said Ben Anixter, an AMD spokesman, at the BancBoston Robertson Stephens semiconductor conference in San Francisco this morning.

The new chip will run at 550 MHz and 600 MHz at its debut and move up to 650 MHz later in the third quarter of this year. A 700-MHz version will come out in the fourth quarter, he said. Copper-based Athlon chips, along with two-and four-processor Athlon-based workstations, will then begin to appear in early 2000, Anixter added.

Viking Industries, één van de snelstgroeiende en grootste geheugenfabrikanten heeft het assortiment uitgebreid met geheugenmodules van maar liefst 1 Gb.
Verder zijn modules van 256 en 512 Mb beschikbaar.
Deze reepjes (nou ja, repen) voldoen aan de PC-133 standaard en zijn de eerste in hun soort.

Viking Components Inc., one of the world's largest and fastest-growing manufacturers of component technology, announces the release of the industry's first 1 GB PC133 and PC100 Synchronous DRAM -- the highest memory capacity available in a single module. Viking's PC133 high-density modules, available in 256 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB capacities, are the first offerings from the company's new 'T4' family of DIMMs. [break]Het blijkt dat het geheugen ook licht overgeklokt kan worden[/break] We have characterized our T4 samples up to 142.8 MHz on the HP83000, and believe the T4 exceeds all PC133 specifications,'' said Ed Samuels, Viking worldwide director of engineering. ``In addition to being the highest capacity PC133 memory solutions available, the T4 modules have been ruggedized to work in the most severe workstation and server environments passing the industry's most rigorous lifetime tests.'' [break]De prijzen zijn ook bekendgemaakt (althans die van de 256 en 512 Mb versie's). Volgens mij niet echt geschikt voor thuisgebruik[/break] 256 MB T4 PC133 MD32722R4SN3-CL3 $750
512 MB T4 PC133 MD64722R4SN3-CL3 $1,850
1 GB T4 PC133 MD128722R8SN3-CL3 Call
1 GB T4 PC100 4D128722R8SN3-CL3 Call

De 1 Gb modules zullen dus rond de 4000 dollar gaan kosten. Niet slecht, 8 ruggen voor een dimmetje

Check hier voor het artikel

Op IGN staat een preview van Test Drive 6, het is geen lange tekst, maar je kan er wel een kleine indruk krijgen van dit spel.
de screenshot vind ik er wel leuk uitzien.

Hier een stukie uit de preview:

Fans of the Test Drive license have a lot to look forward to this fall. The sixth incarnation of the series features some awesome cars and some wide ranging racing locations. On top of that, there’s a new look and feel to the game -- all of which are supported by advanced racer AI and tougher, smarter cops. Since the release is still a few months away, a lot of work still needs to be done, but we’ve taken a good look at the game as it stands right now.

Lees hier de rest.