Eric van Fastgraphics heeft een force feedback roundup gepost, waarin sturen van Microsoft, Logitech, Guillemot, Trust en Thrustmaster worden vergeleken. Billies bibberstuur wordt tot winnaar van de test verklaard:

Microsoft's wheel was the first I got here, and I must say that I'm really pleased with it's performance. The wheel-ax is very tight and there's very little friction. The force effects are very good and you can feel that Microsoft is using a strong motor. On the middle of the wheel we find a button to switch the force feedback effects on or of. Usually you'll want to have it set to on, cause when you turn it off there's no resistance whatsoever on the wheel making it virtually impossible to drive a car with it. The pedals for gas and brake are some of the best I've seen so far. The big problem with the pedals are usually that they're too "light". By that I mean that you already push the pedal deep when you only just let you foot rest on it. The resistance is usually just way to little. You have to keep the point of your foot floating above the pedal until you want to press it. This doesn't seem like big deal, but just try it for a few minutes: Put your heel on the floor and lift the front of your feet up so that your toes are about 8 cm above the floor... You'll notice that you get tired pretty soon, not to talk about RSI ;-)) Anyway, the Microsoft pedals also have this problem a bit, but they offer more resistance than the rest of the pedals I've tested...

Ik lees bij BXBoards dat Abit een nieuw BIOS voor de BP6 heeft gereleased. De file kun je hier oppikken.

Tim Sweeney heeft een update gepost op de Unreal Technology page, waarin hij het een en ander zegt over verbeteringen in DirectX 7:

Unreal Tournament demo schedule

To quote Voodoo Extreme quoting me , here's the Unreal Tournament demo release plan:

- Windows 3dfx demo this week.
- Windows Direct3D/OpenGL next week.
- Linux Glide/OpenGL soon after.
- Mac timing not figured out yet.

DirectX7

Microsoft's new DirectX7 API will be released soon. I've already ported Unreal Tournament's Direct3D code to DirectX7 and have noticed a nice speedup on the TNT2 and GeForce256, primarily due to improved texture management.

The API's simplicity has also improved, which is something you don't often see: usually code just gets more complex as it evolves. Porting Unreal Tournament's code from DirectX6 to DirectX7 only took 3.5 hours, and mostly consisted of deleting now-redundant code and changing function calls and interfaces. I'm very glad to see the IDirect3DTexture, IDirect3DViewport, and IDirect3DLight interfaces gone, and replaced by much simpler state-setting code. Direct3D's abuses of object-oriented programming are now gone.

With DirectX7, Microsoft did something I welcome, and would like to see more of: they designed the new Direct3D interfaces to not be backwards-compatible with the old ones. This enabled them to remove from view a bunch of the old baggage that obfuscated Direct3D: execute buffers are gone, unnecessary intermediate objects are gone, and much less weird COM QueryInterface stuff is necessary.

Ripping out old code and replacing it with new, better designed code is a great practice which too many software developers are afraid of.

-Tim Sweeney

AGN Hardware heeft een review van de Creative Labs Nomad portable MP3 player op het net gegooid:

The NOMAD is currently the best MP3 walkman that I have seen on the market, but it is not a perfect MP3 walkman. The first fault with the NOMAD is the fact that it is a walkman that needs your PC's parallel port to communicate with. The first shortage is the fact that the parallel port with ECP/EPP enabled, you are only capable of having a maximum of 1mb/sec. The next shortage is a lack of a pass-through cable that would share with your printer. Without out this sharing port, you are left with crying out knowing that there is no printer attached. I don't know about you. but I use the printer quite a bit, so this is sure to be an annoyance.

Note: Currently there is not an USB version of the docking station, but that will change. Creative has said that they will be releasing a USB docking station for the NOMAD in Q4 of 99. When this USB option does come to the market, I would definitely consider giving the player a perfect rating.

Another shortcoming of the NOMAD is the player's arrangement for having 64MB of storage on board. Because even though they have 64MB of storage, this storage is broken down into 2 32MB units, which are not related. So when copying to the NOMAD, you must pick which storage areas get which MP3s. I would have preferred to have a 64MB cartridge only, so that I can just drop a full bundle of MP3s at my hearts desire.

Ik kwam op het High Gear Rally Championship forum een interessante posting tegen van een RC2000 beta tester. Check it:

I've been testing the full version of Rally Championship. Simply put, this is the most amazing car simulator I've ever seen. I had very high expectations for this sim over the past months, and they've easily been exceeded. The promises made by the developer/publisher were definitely kept. IMO, the demo was basically just a sneak peek. The full version is incredible.

They physics are excellent. The cars handle exactly the way I'd expect 280-300bhp fw/4wd cars would in real life. I don't think this sim will need to take a back seat to any other in the physics department. Roaring and sliding through the British countryside over various terrain and through all kinds of weather is an awesome experience.

There is force-feedback, handbrake, split axis, and dual controller support as well as support for the Act Labs RS shifter. I don't have an Act Labs wheel, but I may just have to get one so I can use the shifter with this sim.

Full damage and comprehensive car setup.Trying to drive a very fast stage time, let alone win the full rally in sim mode is going to be a tremendous challenge. While this is definitely a pure sim recreating the BRC, they also smartly include many gaming options with the ability to drive the A8 cars, and also an arcade mode. Modem, serial, IPX, up to 4 player alternate, split screen, and 8 player TCP/IP are the multiplayer options.

Graphics are simply the best ever. Photo-realistic. Believe it or not, they look significantly better in this beta than they do in the demo. Weather and time of day effects are incredible. Rain, snow, fog, overcast, dusk/dawn, nighttime, bright sunshine. Flowing rivers. It's all done perfectly. The interior view of each car is accurate and also photo-realistic. D3D means support for all cards. Even with such amazing effects, frame rates are smooth as silk and scalability is there for people with slower systems. It's actually kind of nice to just drive along slowly and look at the scenery. It's also great fun to rip through a snow stage at night and watch/feel your car create a snow drift as you blast through a turn. You even have to make sure the flashbulbs from photographers don't blind you when you come around a sharp bend. One time during a night stage I crashed near some spectators, and while sitting in the cab upside down, I actually found myself embarrassed as the flashbulbs kept going off all around me. :-)

It's hard to believe they actually recreated 430 miles of rally stages, but they did. Extremely detailed. BTW, after driving these stages, I can only think that the real life rally drivers must be equally crazy, and very talented, to do what they do.

Sound is also amazing and extremely immersive. All of the car's engine sounds were recorded individually and they sound fantastic, as do the other mechanical, impact, surface, ambient, and misc. sounds. I love it when the turbo kicks in. :-) There is DS3D, EAX, A3D2.0 and Dolby support. I'm a big fan of the game music too.

Menus are slick, fast, and easy to navigate with every option you can think of, and detailed descriptions of the cars and tracks are very well done.

I really could sit here and type all night long about how impressive this sim is. It sets new, very high, standards. Like I said at the beginning of this posting, I have never experienced such a fantastic, immersive, and realistic car simulator.

Dave

RC2000 gaat dus gewoon wreed goed worden . Om dit nog maar eens extra te benadrukken heeft Magnatic Fields 4 nieuwe screenshots gepost:

Na het besluit van Aureal om zelf geluidskaarten te gaan bakken heeft Diamond een nieuwe partner gevonden in ESS Technology:

Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. (NasdaqIMD - news), a leader in PC multimedia and Internet connectivity, and ESS Technology Incorporated (Nasdaq: ESST - news), the leader in PC audio technology, today announced a strategic partnership under which Diamond will offer next-generation PC audio solutions, featuring sound innovations based on the ESS chip platform. Diamond's next generation audio accelerators are expected to deliver the latest advancements in 3D sound technology for PC users who enjoy playing the hottest new 3D games and experiencing digital audio entertainment.

``Diamond is partnering with ESS to offer what we believe will be the most innovative and compelling audio technology available to the PC consumer during this year's holiday season,'' said Scott Vouri, vice president and general manager of the Multimedia Division at Diamond. ``With the introduction of our next generation audio accelerators we are continuing our commitment to deliver innovative sound card solutions that compliment our line of high-performance graphics and audio accelerators.''

Meer van dit soort onzinnige geblaat lees je in de press release.

Goh, waar hebben we dat eerder gezien? Soyo heeft z'n SY-6BA+IV moederplank onder handen genomen en er een extra ATA66 controller op gezet. Hier wat geblah uit de press release:

OYO’s SY-6BA+IV motherboard has been reengineered to include an onboard ATA66 controller to power next generation high-speed hard drives. With its on-board ATA66 support, system builders now have a total of four IDE disk drive channels (two with Ultra DMA 33 and two with Ultra DMA 66 support). Soyo’s new ATX footprint motherboard also features a new clock generator that allows the CPU Frontside System Bus (FSB) and PCI bus clock to be configured 29 different ways - from 66MHz-155MHz - in order to fine-tune the system bus speed for performance-oriented applications such as 3D modeling, animation or gaming. The new design also protects overclocked systems from crashes, particularly when using PCI bus add-in cards, because the redesigned SY-6BA+IV automatically sets the PCI bus clock to a safe level when the CPU FSB is set. When users overclock the CPU FSB, the PCI bus clock will be automatically clocked to a safe level.

Other enhancements geared to overclocking include adjustable CPU Core voltage. Users can set CPU Core voltage directly through the BIOS without jumpers. The new version SY-6BA+IV also supplies power to the DIMM memory banks directly from the motherboard to improve the stability and performance of the entire system instead of supplying power from a switching power supply.

[...] The SY 6-BA+3 features 1AGP, 5PCI and 2 ISA expansion slots, and will support up to 1GB of SDRAM system memory with 4 x 168-pin DIMMs sockets. Onboard I/O includes one floppy disk connector for two floppy drives, two serial ports, one parallel port, one PS/2 mouse port, two USB ports, one IRDA (infrared) port, and one PS/2 keyboard port.

Volgens Betanews heeft Microsoft vandaag Windows 2000 RC2 gereleased. Beta testers kunnen 'm als het goed is nu ergens van Microsoft's FTP trekken:

Earlier today, Microsoft posted the second Windows 2000 Release Candidate to the NTBeta FTP. As reported, Microsoft first declared Release Candidate 2 late last week, whereupon it went through last minute testing from independent service vendors, bringing the build number up to 2128. As stated early this month, Microsoft will officially launch RC2 tomorrow [=vandaag] at DevDays '99, where all attendees will receive a copy of the build. Windows 2000 testers are expected to receive download access sometime tomorrow. Release Candidate 2 will be the last major pre-release of Windows 2000 before it goes RTM (Release To Manufacturing) on November 15th.

Gamespot heeft een review gepost van de nieuwe Aureal Vortex II SQ2500, die in feite een opgelapte Vortex II is met verbeterde MIDI en lagere CPU belasting (driver kwestie):

We ran the SQ2500 through our stock 500MHz Pentium III test bed. The Ziff-Davis Audio Winbench scores were very good, indeed. The most rigorous test is the DirectSound3D streaming-audio set of tests. At 22KHz/8-bit resolution, the 2500 barely touched the CPU, generating 1.65 percent with 16 voices and 2.22 percent at 32 voices. The results at 16-bit/44KHz resolution were even more impressive: 1.81 percent with 16 voices and 2.52 percent with 32 voices. The 32-bit numbers, in particular, are a marked improvement over the rev A Vortex2 chip.

MIDI has improved. The acoustic piano samples do sound a touch muffled, but the horns are clearer and the percussion is quite a bit better. (We tested MIDI using only the 64-voice hardware MIDI). MIDI isn't that big a factor in today's titles, but it's still nice to know that the Vortex2 wavetable has improved somewhat. If you do have a hankering for better samples, there's a connector for a MIDI daughtercard. There have also been complaints about the signal output strength of the analog output, but we were able to hear .WAV and game audio at quite loud volumes.

Thomas Schmidt, president & CEO van Amiga Inc., heeft een update op de Amiga site geplakt, waarin hij nader verklaart waarom er geen nieuwe Amiga doos zal komen:

TO: THE AMIGA COMMUNITY

Thanks for your notes and comments about our plans for Amiga. In the past couple weeks, we've received hundreds -- if not thousands -- of emails and messages from loyal Amigans worldwide, many of you expressing a concern about Amiga's future based on recent reports in the media and in numerous chat rooms. I am so impressed with the spirit and passion of this great community and I wanted to make sure I told you that.

The fact is... to borrow from Mark Twain... the reports of Amiga's death have been greatly exaggerated. To that end, I wanted to provide a little more detail about our plans for Amiga... both as a product and as a company, and hopefully clear up any confusion that exists.

First, I hope you'd agree that Amiga was never about a box. It was never about an operating system either. Sure those things were part of what made the original Amiga great, but at its heart, Amiga was simply about a better way. Amiga was ahead of its time. Amiga promised to change the world. It ran against conventional wisdom and was better than anything out there at the time. In fact, we could all argue that it's still better than anything out there.

The ideals and spirit of that original Amiga are alive and well today. But to limit Amiga to just one box, one product, one OS, is to keep Amiga from ever seeing its full potential. Think about it.... The original Amiga never did really reach its full potential despite its technical advantages and its cost and ease of use advantages. Why? Because it never became ubiquitous. The company's early vision was probably too limited for the vast potential that Amiga offered.

The original Amiga was all about multi-media, so why not have Amiga running on every type of device imaginable, on top of every other OS out there? That's the beauty of Amiga and where we are as an industry. We're in the midst of a revolution unlike anything the world has seen, and Amiga has never been better positioned to change that world and make a bigger impact. Limiting Amiga to just one box and one OS at this point would be like offering the world a better horse and carriage at the dawn of the automotive age. Amiga and its revolutionary spirit deserve better than that. Amiga is going to produce software technology that will enable Internet services on an emerging category of products commonly referred to as "Information Appliances". It is an exciting new mega trend in the industry and we are excited about being at the forefront of this next great wave in computing history. In addition, we have decided to work with business partners who will deliver our software technology on their systems, rather than enter the hardware business directly.

So long live Amiga, but if you think that Amiga was just a box, you've missed the point. Amiga is about a better way. In the coming weeks and months, we promise to keep you posted on progress against our plans for Amiga, and we thank you for your continued support. Let's work together to enable Amiga to revolutionize the industry and change the world!

Long live Amiga,

Thomas J. Schmidt President & C.E.O.

Sun heeft het ontwerp van z'n Microsparc IIep processor onder de eigen Community Source License (CSL) vrijgegeven. EETimes heeft het nieuws:

The adoption of open-source principles at Sun Microsystems Inc. continues this week when the company puts a Sparc microprocessor under its Community Source License (CSL) for the first time, hoping to spread Sparc's use in system-on-a-chip designs. Some in the open-source community have criticized the CSL for deviating from what they call true open-source licensing, and fellow processor vendors are questioning whether Sun can make the CSL work. But Sun's efforts beg an even larger question: whether the open-source policy that helped spawn the GNU and Linux software communities can do the same for a piece of hardware.

[...] Sun began its CSL movement last year with Java and Jini software and is gradually applying the license to other products. The idea is to create a community of designers that can share tweaks and upgrades to the circuitry via the Web, said Fadi Azhari, Sun's group marketing manager for Sparc.

In the case of hardware, that means Sun wants "to make Sparc the core for any system-on-a-chip (SoC) architectures," Azhari said.

Sun also wants to spread the architecture to smaller companies, as Microsparc is being aimed at systems-on-a-chip for small network-edge devices, such as set-top boxes. Azhari pictures such devices selling for between $10 and $15.

RTL files for Microsparc IIep are due to be posted on Sun's Web site on Tuesday (Sept. 14). PicoJava was the first core to be offered this way, in April, and an Ultrasparc core is promised by the end of the year. For Microsparc, the RTL code for the IIep core (complete with PCI controller and memory interface) will be available, along with a programmers' reference manual, application notes and a verification test suite.

Het volk van Gamers Central heeft een aantal Colin McRae Rally 2 screenshots op hun site geparkeerd.

Graphically, Codemasters is promising a breath-taking racing experience. A refined graphics engine allows for incredible depth of detail and speed of movement with all cars looking far more realistic due to a significantly higher polygon count. Furthermore a new reflection-mapping technique gives the cars a super sleek paint work-effect.

The race stage scenery will also benefit from the superbly powerful graphics engine - utilising all-new scenic detail, taken from photographic references from every country.

"While the graphic power of the sequel is the most immediate difference, the heart of the game - its structure and content - is where we're doing the majority of the work," comments Guy Wilday, the game's producer.

Bij Hardwareinfo.net is een test te vinden van de Elsa 3D Revelator, dat is die coole 3D bril die helaas alleen met Elsa Erazor kaarten werkt. Check de review hier.

Toen ik een flinke tijd geleden de ASUS 3D-bril had getest kwam ik tot een compleet tegenovergestelde conclusie. De ASUS bril had vrijwel geen enkel effect en zorgde alleen maar voor veel hoofdpijn. Bij ELSA ligt dat echter anders: alle flikkeringeffecten kunnen met de juiste instellingen vermeden worden en de kwaliteit van de 3D beelden is echt ongelofelijk goed. De bril sluit zeer nauw aan bij de Z-buffer van de videokaart, zodat alle spellen er zeer realistisch uit zien.

Toch heeft de bril ook twee nadeeltjes. Het eerste nadeel is dat de bril alleen met Direct3D spellen werkt. Hoewel verreweg de meeste spellen met Direct3D werken is dit in principe niet zo heel erg, maar ik vind het persoonlijk toch wel een gemis dat ik de bril niet kan gebruiken bij Quake 2 en 3. Een tweede "nadeel" is dat de huidige versie van de 3D bril alleen maar werkt met een ELSA videokaart. ELSA heeft echter aangekondigd in de nabije toekomst wellicht een versie te maken die ook met andere videokaarten werkt.

Iedereen met een ELSA Erazor II of III videokaart die veel 3D games speelt kan ik zeker aanraden deze bril aan te schaffen. De resultaten zijn echt zeer goed en de prijs valt nog redelijk mee. Bezitters van videokaarten van een ander merk hebben helaas pech, want ik heb nog geen enkele andere 3D bril gezien met de kwaliteit van de 3D Revelator.

Een aanrader!

Ook bij Hardwareinfo.net, een test van de Yamaha WaveForce 192XG geluidskaart. Dit is meer een kaart voor MIDI freaks, want gamers zullen het zonder 4 speakers support en A3D 2.0 of EAX moeten doen. Hier heb je een hap uit de test.

De WaveForce lijkt een bescheiden geluidskaartje, maar toch zit er heel wat op de geluidskaart. Aan de buitenkant vinden we de gebruikelijke connectoren: mic in, line in, een line-out en een speaker-out. Een mogelijkheid om 4 speakers aan te sluiten met surround effecten heeft deze kaart helaas niet. Dit is erg jammer, aangezien vrijwel alle concurrerende geluidskaarten in deze prijsklasse dat wel hebben. De joystickpoort dient uiteraard ook als midi in/output. Aan de binnenzijde van de kaart vinden we niet alleen een aansluiting voor de cd-rom speler, maar ook voor een TAD-apparaat, een videoapparaat en een 4de AUX apparaat. Helaas is er geen gebruik gemaakt van de ondertussen bijna standaard MPC3 connectoren. Een digitale CD-audio aansluiting moeten we helaas missen. Interessant is de aanwezigheid van een SB-Link connector op de geluidskaart. Deze kan met bijgeleverde kabel verbonden worden met de SB-Link connector op het moederbord. Als deze aanwezig is wordt er op die manier een hardwarematige compatibiliteit met de oude ISA Sound Blaster (PRO) geluidskaart gegenereerd. Leuk om te weten is dat de twee belangrijke chips op de PCI-geluidskaart ook allebei van Yamaha fabrikaat zijn. Dit maakt Yamaha een van de weinige fabrikanten die zowel de chips als de geluidskaarten zelf maken.

Koen van Hardwareinfo.net is vorige week naar Amsterdam gefietst om daar een presentatie van Creative's nieuwste producten bij te wonen. Hij heeft uiteraard alle nieuwe wetenswaardigheden op zijn site gezet, met o.a. info over de 3D Blaster Annihilator GeForce, Sound Blaster Live! Platinum en de SB Live! Player 1024. Zeer zeker het lezen waard!

Met de, in mijn ogen geweldige, slogan "4 Rendering Pipelines, 2 Geometry Engines, 1 Insane Accelator" prijst Creative haar GeForce 256 videokaart aan. Voor de personen die het nog niet weten: de GeForce 256 is de laatste nieuwe GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) van nVidia, min of meer de opvolger van de TNT2. Met meest vooruitstrevende van de GeForce 256 chip is de aanwezigheid van een Transform & Lightning unit. Mede dankzij de informatie van Creative heb ik enkele dagen terug een zeer uitgebreid previewartikel over de GeForce 256 geschreven. Ik kan zeker aanraden dat artikel even te lezen, aangezien het zeer veel informatie bevat over de nieuwe chip.

Op de persdag liet Creative enkele prachtige demo's zien met de GeForce 256 videokaart. Screenshots van enkele van deze demo's zijn ook terug te vinden in het GeForce 256 artikel. Het was gewoon ongelofelijk hoe snel en mooi deze videokaart sommige effecten kan verwerken.

Zoals al op de doos te zien zal de Creative uitvoering van de GeForce 256 videokaart zoals te verwachten "3D Blaster GeForce" gaan heten. Of de toevoeging "Annihilator" ook in Europa zal worden gebruikt is nog niet helemaal zeker. De eerste 3D Blaster GeForce videokaarten zullen voorzien zijn van 32 MB ram. In het ontwerp van de kaart is echter rekening gehouden met een mogelijke 64 MB variant. Zodra daar vraag naar is kan deze zonder problemen worden ontwikkeld, zonder dat een nieuwe print ontworpen hoeft te worden. Over de verwachte prijs is nog niet veel bekend.

Creative positioneert de 3D Blaster GeForce als hét product voor rond de kersttijd. Dit kan een teken zijn van het feit dat we de kaarten de komende tijd echt nog niet in grote hoeveelheden hoeven te verwachten. [break]En hier wat info over de nieuwe SB Live! Platinum.[/break] Het echte nieuwe aan de Live! Platinum is de toevoeging van de zogenaamde Live!Drive. Dit is een 5 1/4 inch bay (die je dus bij je CD-Rom drives erbij schroeft) waarop vele aansluit mogelijkheden zitten. Niet alleen is het ideaal dat deze aan de voorzijde zitten, maar de ruime keuze aan aansluitmogelijkheden is ook zeer geschikt voor semi-professionele audio-gebruikers. Op de Live!Drive vind je o.a. terug:

Een gebalanceerde microfooninput
Een extra line-input
Een koptelefoon output met volumeregeling
Een coaxiale SP/DIF digitale in- en output
Een optische SP/DIF digitale in- en output
5-pin DIN-connectoren voor MIDI in en uit

Vooral de komst van ook optische digitale in- en uitgangen is natuurlijk zeer ideaal.

In het artikel staat verder nog info over Sound Blaster Live!Ware 3.0 en nieuwe webcams, speakers en MP3 Walkmans.

Voodoo Extreme meldt dat Matrox nu zelf een Tweak proggie in elkaar heeft geknutseld, omdat ze het gebruik van zelf gemaakte Tweak programma's sterk afraden. Je kunt het proggie hier downloaden.

This utility allows over clocking of the board and the ability to disable wait for vsync. The main purpose of this utility is to respond to the overwhelming demand from the Developer Community who require such a tool for the purpose of debugging, optimizing and fine tuning applications under development. This utility only supports G400 boards and will not function on a WHQL certified driver.

This utility is not recommended for use by the ordinary end user. However, due to the overwhelming amount of problems encountered in the field with 3rd party over clocking utilities, advanced users who insist on making use of such utilities are recommended to use the Matrox utility instead in order to avoid the risks associated with 3rd party utilities. These 3rd party utilities typically program the bios incorrectly and can potentially damage the board thereby violating the warranty on these board.

Matrox does not promote the use of any over clocking tool. Matrox will only support the Matrox tweak utility to the extent of providing support for un installing and/or disabling the utility.

The Adrenaline Vault heeft wat meer info over de Unreal Tournament demo die deze week op het net wordt gemikt. De eerste versie die waarschijnlijk donderdag komt, is Glide only . Daarna, waarschijnlijk dit weekend, komt er een versie die ook OpenGL en D3D ondersteuning biedt.

Adding one plus one and coming up with ''gold,'' observant gamers are abuzz with rumors that Epic Games' 3D action title Unreal Tournament is finished. In a recent post to the game's public message board, the development team mentioned a demo would be available after the game went gold. When news emerged that a demo was close to release, it was assumed the game was done. Nonetheless, Epic insists the game is not gold, but that the demo being released soon is the first of two test versions intended to provide specific input regarding how close they are to going gold.

The first demo, to be released before Saturday, is sponsored by 3dfx and is Glide-only. 3dfx wanted to sponsor the demo as a premium for Voodoo3 3000 users awaiting free versions of the game. The full test version released a few days later will support Direct 3D, OpenGL, Glide, Metal and software rendering. The download will be around 51 MB and include three deathmatch, one Capture The Flag and one Domination level, one player model with a few variations, six of the weapons and a shortened single-player ladder.

The demo will be playable in English, Spanish, French and Italian, but to minimize the size of the download, the only verbal voices included are in English. The demo will require approximately 125 MB of hard drive space and feature single-player against Bots, LAN and Internet play, and can act as a client or server. Epic is also including a web-based remote server administration so those running servers can administer them from any web browser.

3D Rage heeft een 9 pagina's tellende CPU Overclocking Guide in elkaar gezet. Alle handige info staat erin, dus het lezen waard. Hier heb je wat info over het koelen van je systeem.

One of the fundamental rules of overclocking is you can never have too much cooling, and you must always supply an ambient amount. Please remember though, that no matter how much cooling you provide to your CPU, sometimes it will not break a certain frequency, as it just can't handle it for a variety of reasons. You will increase your chances of hitting a targeted speed if you do have adequate cooling though, and this cannot be said enough.

First, if you do not have a fan in the 80MM bracket that comes standard on most ATX cases, get one. This will do wonders for the air flow in your case, as it will bring in cool air from the outside and circulate it over the various components. You must also have a fan which sucks out, pulling the hot air that collects inside your case out of your system. This is vital to cooling your system, perhaps more so than pulling air into your case.

The most important element of cooling your CPU is the heatsink/fan combo that is utilized to cool your CPU. This is one area in which you cannot be too frugal. The retail heatsink and fan that comes with the Intel line of CPU's is ok for overclocking one or maybe two levels up, but any more and you will be best off purchasing a better heatsink and fan. Some people may opt for a peltier cooler, which will cool even better, but it does have some dangers, and they cost more too. The bigger the heatsink the better, this is a basic rule. Oh, I almost forgot, you must get a tube of heatsink compound or thermal grease to put between your heatsink and CPU core. This will increase the heat transfered from the CPU core to the heatsink, thus you get more efficient cooling.

Computer Games Online heeft een preview geschreven van Delta Force 2. Gek genoeg schijnt deze game 32-bit only te zijn?? Anyway, lees de preview hier.

One thing they have added which gamers were clamoring for is 3D acceleration—sort of. Ok, you can run the game with D3D acceleration enable, but all that does is accelerate buildings and other polygonal objects, like characters. While this has a notable effect on indoor actions—the game no longer grinds to a near halt inside buildings—the overall impact of hardware acceleration seems minimal. There might be a bit of an improvement in sniping accuracy around buildings, for instance, but it's hard to tell if that's because of the acceleration or improvements in the game's basic engine over the original Delta Force.

The tall grass in Delta Force 2 adds a lot to sneaking. Another oddity about the 3D support in Delta Force 2: it seems it's 32-bit only, so owners of Voodoo cards are out of luck as far as running in accelerated mode goes. The readme says NovaLogic has tested the game on TNT, TNT2, and ATI Rage cards, and indeed it ran fairly well on our Pentium II 350 with a standard TNT2. "Fairly well" is the key, though; this game will be as much of a system hog it looks like as its predecessor. The default 640 by 480 resolution, even accelerated, isn't going to win any performance prizes, and trying 800 by 600 (which, admittedly, we stumbled into, as it wasn't selectable in the options menu) makes for even slower carnage. If you are expecting Quake III style fast action, look elsewhere; it looks like Delta Force 2 will be another thinking-gamer's shooter—and that's a good thing.

3D SoundSurge heeft een erg uitgebreide review gepost van de TerraTec Xlerate Pro, een Aureal Vortex II soundcard met 4 speaker support en digital S/PDIF interface. Lees 'm hier.

This is where the XLerate Pro really comes into its own. Titles that fully implement A3D 2.0 utilize what Aureal calls wavetracing. Wavetracing is based on room geometry and Aureal A3D 2.0 wavetracing engine will render the reflections of each sound source depending on how close to a wall or object the listener is and the sound sources are, and the materials and shape of the room where the listener and sound sources are will also affect the sound (i.e. a gun shot in a "bright" room like a tiled bathroom bounces off the tiles, around the corner, into the "soft" wood and carpeted room that the listener is in, rendering correct reflections, acoustic materials and occlusion on the fly as appropriate.) Not only does it render each source (and all the geometry and materials that come between it and the listener) but it also will take into account dynamic objects like opening doors, elevators, moving geometry (i.e. a listener or sound source inside a car), etc.

Hard OCP vond het nog nodig om een review online te gooien van de Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 Ultra TNT2 kaart. Hier een klein stukje uit de review

This Guillemot Maxi-Gamer Xentor 32 TNT2 Ultra (see) card is one of the most outstanding video cards we have seen and stands very close to getting all the same kudos of the Diamond TNT2 Ultra. I did think the visual quality of the Diamond was a little better but that could arguably be in my head. The Xentor does come with an overclocking utility built as an add-on that is installed independent of the the driver set which is very nice. You can OC on the fly for when you wanna torque your machine for a little gaming and then bring it back to spec for catching up on the latest news.

The overclocking ability of our OEM board was nothing short of phenomenal and the cards ability to handle high AGP bus speeds is very important to us. This is a solid card to choose if you are going to be OCing PIIIs in the future.

Als je heel augustus op vakantie geweest bent geweest dan is dit misschien wel een handig artikeltje. iXBT-Labs heeft namelijk voor de maand augustus al het hardware nieuws verzameld en er een artikel van gebouwd. Hier wat over de Athlon mobo's:

Here the month was undoubtedly marked by Athlon. The mainboards for this CPU were announced or manufactured by each more or less mainboard manufacturer. Except, Abit. But their position is also pretty understandable: first, Abit traditionally never deals with the chipsets from different manufacturers, and second, what mainboard can be made on Irongate today? Of course, the same as by other manufacturers. Seems not very typical for the company, which mainboards always boast something new and peculiar compared to those of their competitors. And here all the mainboards are as like as two peas, so that you can choose any of them with your eyes closed and you won't be mistaken.

The only piece you should be a bit more attentive with, probably, is MS-6167, because its coming into the market went not very smoothly. Graphics cards failures, cooling problems... However, cooling problems are said to be typical not only for Athlon mainboard. Anyway, all this is already history, because now all the defects are eliminated and MS-6167 is again included into the list of AMD recommended mainboards.

And the number of Athlon mainboards was just enormous in August. Some manufacturers just announced them and some prompt fellows were already starting to ship. FIC SD11, Biostar M7MKA, Asus K7V/K7M, Gigabyte GA-7IX, QDI KinetiZ7, Shuttle AI61, AOpen AK71 and QDI, Chaintech, SOYO and Tyan pointed out their intention to announce their products in the near future.

Bij 3DGPU.com staat een interview online met Richard Huddy van nVidia. In het interview bespreken ze de beschikbaarheid van games die gebruik maken van de T&L engine van de GeForce. Volgens Richard Huddy hoeven we ons geen zorgen te maken, er komen binnenkort veel GeForce supported games uit. Hier heb je vast een klein stukje:

[Q] Has NVIDIA been working with Game developers in incorporating the GeForce 256 features (T&L, etc.) in upcoming games?

[A] Yes, we've worked with numerous developers on this for more than a year now - and we're expecting to see the results starting to come in before Christmas. The very first DX7 games which will use the T&L engine of GeForce 256 will be available this month - September 1999! The uptake on T&L has led the way, but the other new features such as Cubic Environment Mapping and Vertex Blending will all get plenty of exercise over the coming months.

[Q] There has been a lot of talk, especially from 3dfx, regarding the lack of support for T&L in upcoming games. Do you see this as a problem, and how many games supporting T&L do you anticipate to be available in the next few months?

[A] In our day to day work with developers it is abundantly clear that the developers agree with us that raising the quality and complexity of modeling is the most significant step that can be taken towards truly immersive gaming interactions. All of the development community focuses on the real value that they can bring to game players, so we feel that we have good reason to be confident that GeForce will be a great gamers card (and much more beside!). I have no wish to get into a public slanging match with any of our competitors, I suspect that your readers wouldn't find it very useful. We'll just rely on the pure technical power of GeForce 256 to make the point for us.

Bij MSNBC hebben ze meer details over die vage game console van Microsoft, de X-Box. Deze zal volgens dit nieuwsbericht een 500MHz Intel processor krijgen, een GeForce 256 grafische kaart, 64MB aan textured RAM, een paar GB's aan HD ruimte en ook een 56K modem. Deze info is vrij gekomen na 'geheime' demonstraties op de European Computer Trade Show in Londen. Hier heb een gedeelte uit het bericht:

MICROSOFT HAS NOT FORMALLY announced its new console, which is currently referred to as X-Box. But a few analysts and software publishers where invited to attend highly secretive demonstrations of the new system last week during the European Computer Trade Show in London.(Microsoft is a partner in MSNBC.)

According to sources who attended those closed-door sessions, X-Box will feature a 500-megahertz Intel processor backed by the nVidia GeForce graphics chip — an innovative graphics chip that reportedly generates 3-D graphics without tapping into the main processor.

Though X-Box will feature a DVD drive, no one has mentioned whether it will have the navigational software needed to run DVD movies.

One of the system’s unique features will be a multi-gigabyte hard disk. None of the other “next generation” game consoles has an internal storage system.

Unlike Dreamcast, which featured both a proprietary operating system and a customized version of Windows CE, X-Box will only feature a Windows operating system. According to sources, the system will have 64 megabytes of textured RAM, a 56K modem and an Internet Explorer-based browser.

Despite all of these PC-esque features, X-Box will be a closed-box system with instant boot-up, giving it the same simplified operation that distinguishes game consoles from standard computers.

Verder staat er in het artikel ook nog een geinig vergelijking tabelletje tussen de X-Box, Dreamcast, Playstation 2 en de Nintendo 2000.

Bij Adrian's Rojak Pot (?) is een review te vinden van de 22GB grote IBM Deskstar 22GXP. Dit is een 7200rpm HD met ATA/66 interface.Hier heb je een gedeelte uit de review, de rest staat hier.

Hurrah for IBM! They finally corrected their mistake with the 14GXP. Okay... it may not be the fastest second generation hard disk but at least it's much faster than IBM's previous effort. And just because it isn't right at the top of the hill doesn't mean that it's slow. It is a 7200rpm hard disk after all and a second generation drive at that. For IDE users who have long been bound to 5400rpm or slower drives, that's plenty fast enough.

Needless to say, the Deskstar 22GXP isn't for everyone. It's more expensive than a few other second generation 7200rpm hard disks. But when you factor in the costs, remember that you are not only buying speed here. Reliability is important too. I have personally lost, oh... about 50GB of data or so over the last two years and I have hence cultivated a healthy craving for data integrity and safety. So, if plunking extra dough gets me a really reliable drive, I think it's worth every single cent.

Also, don't forget that IBM has a great reputation for service and support. Its tech support people are both helpful and knowledgeable. If your dealer refuses to help you, IBM will be there for you. Just remember, if they treat you well online, most likely they will treat you just as well when the shit hits the fan.

SystemLogic heeft van Leadtek een exclusieve pic ontvangen van hun WinFast GeForce 256 videokaart. Klik hier voor de uitvergroting.