Dennet schrijft: "Logitech is eindelijk zo aardig geweest om een complete driver set voor download aan te bieden. Dit is versie 8.62 en is inclusief een PS/2-rate schuivertje ."

Mooi, check deze page om de drivers neer te laden.

Koen Crijns van Hardwareinfo.net heeft een uitgebreide review gepost van Guillemot's GeForce 256 kaart, de 3D Prophet. Naast de bekende Quake en Unreal benchmarks heeft hij de kaart ook getest onder Viewperf, dat de snelheid van een videokaart toont bij professioneel 3D render werk. Hieronder een hap uit zijn test:

Hoewel sommigen er anders over denken vind ik de GeForce 256 echt een grote vooruitgang binnen de videokaarten industrie. Zoals we wel in de benchmarks hebben gezien is de nieuwe chip echt razend snel (zeker bij tests die nu al gebruik maken van hardware T&L). De verschillende nVidia demo's laten ons zien wat game developers nog allemaal in petto kunnen hebben voor toekomstige games. Als nVidia geen Matrox taferelen ondergaat kunnen de GeForce videokaarten makkelijk dé klapper voor de Kerst tijd worden. Een zeer hoge prijs (rond de 650 gulden) is in principe de enige belemmering.

Van Guillemots 3D Prophet ben ik erg gecharmeerd. Dit niet alleen door de zeer snelle GeForce 256 chip, maar ook door de keurige verzorging van de set: zeer uitgebreide drivers, een perfecte (Nederlandse) handleiding, een goede softwarebundel, goede ondersteuning met snelle driverupdates, etc.

Al met al is de Guillemot 3D Prophet gewoon een top-product dat zeker een Hardwareinfo.net Recommended Hardware label verdient!

In de rest van de review vind je veel mooie screenshots van nVidia demo's die de kracht T&L engine laten zien, zeker de moeite waard!

3D Files heeft (al een paar dagen geleden) een demo van Ultima IX: Ascension gepost. Omdat dit spel volgens mij zo wreed wordt post ik het nieuws hier toch maar even:

Prepare to embark on an adventure beyond imagination with the return of the best selling role-playing series of all time. In the 9th and final chapter in the 20-year legacy you return to Britannia™ for your last epic quest. As the heroic Avatar, only you can save Lord British™ and his people from the evil Guardian who has devastated the landscape and tainted the 8 sacred virtues. Valiant combat, magical prowess and knowledge of the 8 virtues are your weapons against evil in Ultima™ IX: Ascension, the most epic role-playing game ever created for the PC.

Key Features:

• Immerse yourself into the world of Britannia like never before. The stunning 3D graphics and exclusive 3D THX® sound blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
• Live the epic saga through seamlessly integrated combat, adventure, and puzzle-solving.
• Interact with the over 200 intriguing characters that live in the world of Britannia. All with full speech recorded by professional actors and scripted by a professional screenwriter.
• Experience the richest fantasy environment ever created. With day and night cycles, weather effects, real-life physics and the ability to manipulate every item in the world, you'll forget it's only a game.
• Engage over 60 unique creatures and monsters using the most innovative combat system ever created.
• Conjure 45 incredible spells using circles of magic, alchemy, and rituals. Uphold the 8 sacred virtues (Honesty, Justice, Humility, Sacrifice, Valor, Compassion, Honor, and Spirituality) as you become a legend.
• Designed by the Ultima creator Richard Garriott - a.k.a. Lord British.

  Editors Note!!! This is the demo from the December issue of Computer Gaming World. Its around 295 megs and is in multiple file rar format. It was also admitted that the demo does a CD check by mistake, so read the instructions included. We realize this demo is not for those with little computer knowledge nor those on modems, but the Ultima community wanted it, so here it is! A demo is expected sometime in November and the magazine should be hitting stores near you if it hasnt already.

  So, to clarify, this demo is untested by us and we make no promises. If it was me, I would wait for the internet demo or grab the magazine

De demo kan je hier vandaan slopen. Hijs wel 295 Megs!

LET OP: Deze demo is NIET geoptimaliseerd voor Direct3D en zal dus op niet-3dfx systemen niet lekker draaien (ja, ik heb zelfs gehoord dat ie op een Athlon 700 met TNT2/U klote draait). De full-version is WEL geoptimaliseerd voor Direct3D (en natuurlijk ook voor Glide).

Bij The Tech Zone staat een kleine review online van de Silitek SK-7500 draadloze keyboard. Ziet er wel cool uit, alleen wat ze met de numerieke keypad hebben gedaan vind ik niks. Hieronder wat info:

When I got the Silitek SK-7500 home, I was very eager to test out how well the infrared would work. Randomly typing I moved the SK-7500 in every angle, to my surprise the infrared receiver picked up every signal the keyboard sent. Although the specified range on the SK-7500 is 23-feet (7 meters), your monitor is what dictates how far away you are. In my test I was about 10 feet away, the SK-7500 worked perfectly at this distance.

The I-Point stick (it acts as a mouse pointer) is one feature any cordless keyboard should have, it takes almost no space and isn’t in the way while I was typing. Like any other mouse alternative, the I-Point does take take time to get use to. When holding the keyboard and using the I-Point, my hands tend to wrap around it very well (it was like I was holding a gamepad). The I-Point does lack in one area….gaming, I tried it on Quake 3 and my hands keep jumping from the I-Point to the keys.

When using the keyboard I did miss one thing, there’s no conventional numeric keypad. In place of a numeric keypad, Silitek has used an embedded numeric keypad (the center right keyboard keys are the numbers), you activate it with the num lock key. If your used to a notebook, it’s similar in design. Key pressure on the SK-7500 is good, it’s light and easy to type with.

Bij Sharky Extreme hebben ze een review gedumpt van de Tennmax Stealth Voodoo3 cooler. Hieronder wat info over de resulaten van het ding:

Starting with the Voodoo3 3500, I was careful in my overclocking experiments. This is due to the already high 183 MHz speed of the 3500 and the fact that it's a very expensive 3D card. Using the Voodoo3 Overclocker ver. 3.1, I moved up to 185 MHz with no issue, then 187, then 189 and finally 193 MHz. I shut down the PC and found the Stealth V3 Fighter to be slightly warm, showing that the cooler was doing its job. I progressed slowly up the MHz chart, thankful of the warning screen that let's you reboot if you've clocked the Voodooo3 too high. After a lot of testing, I found myself running at the magical 200 MHz setting without any sort of problems or crashes. Making a long story short, I finally hit 209 MHz and found it stable in my testing. I tried to go a bit higher and found that while Quake 2 worked perfectly, the finicky Unreal Tournament would boot me out with an error. At this point, I think the heat of the Voodoo3 chip was simply getting too high for UT to handle. I was very pleased with the speed results and found that the Stealth V3 Fighter is cooler at 209 MHz than the standard Voodoo3 heatsink is at 183 MHz.

Hier staat de rest van de review.

Glenn gaf me een link naar een heftige review van de HP Colorado 20GB Tape Drive. Hieronder een stukkie:

My initial benchmarks were fairly impressive. I tested on an Athlon 600 with an SD-11 motherboard, and a Quantum Fireball Plus KA hard drive. I almost forgot, I tested the internal version of the HP Colorado. During my mass-copy test, of 12 GB of data straight from the hard drive, the numbers hit up to 1 MB/sec at peak points (pretty fast for a tape drive). Still, this is pretty far from HP's claimed number, 1.5MB/sec. Even a marginally faster transfer rate makes all the difference in tape backup, as it could save you over a half an hour of hardcore number crunching backup.

Still, there has never (you heard me) been a PC hardware product on the market that has performed to spec. Maybe in magical blue-monkey electric rainbow leprechaun land you could get a Voodoo3 3000 to pump out 333 megatexels per second, but the real world is where we live, and I guess we'll just have to deal with marketing hype.

Overall, the HP drive was able to edge out my equivalent Seagate 20GB Travan drive in the benchmark area. The difference was negligible, but there. However, the HP manual and instructions were far better than those of Seagate, and had everything and a little more in the software area.

Check de rest van de info hier.

De gasten van Behind the Wheel hebben een preview gepost van Rally Championship van Europress. Met wat geluk komt deze game in November uit. Hieronder een stukkie uit de preview:

In comparison to Int. Rally Championship (IRC) the graphics engine of Rally Championship (RC) has been improved emensely. The result is resolutions up to 1600x1200. The technology that the graphics engine uses is the exact opposite of all the other racing sims - like Colin McRae Rally (CMR). It doesn't soften the textures and it uses no filters. This in turn makes the graphics look very sharp and especially in racing simulations this makes the textures much more vivid and realistic. Most of the textures the game uses are photographs taken from the real tracks. Different weather conditions, light reflections, sparking and a realistic damage model as well as animated spectators - it is CMR's equal in every respect. Another positive aspect of the game are the 7 different camera perspectives which include a full animated 3d cockpit as well.

Hmm, leuk nieuws om een slome zondag mee op te vullen: Entech Taiwan heeft een nieuwe versie van PowerStrip gereleased, zo bericht Betanews:

EnTech Taiwan snuck out a new version of PowerStrip for your downloading enjoyment. Designed to complement the native Windows Display Properties sheet under Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT, the PowerStrip combines advanced, multi-monitor API support with extensive programmable hardware support.

PowerStrip 2.54 kun je hier neerhalen.

News.com bericht dat IBM, HP, Micron Electronics en Dell naar verwachting op de Comdex beurs i820 systemen met Rambus geheugen zullen introduceren:

Several major PC makers, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Micron Electronics, and Dell Computer are expected to release business and/or consumer desktops containing high-speed memory chips based on the Rambus design during the high-tech convention, which begins November 15 in Las Vegas.

[...] An Intel spokesman would not comment on the prospective release date, but said that final validation is taking place and that the 820 chipset will be out by the end of the year.

Several sources said that the systems would come out on November 15 or possibly earlier. At the latest, Rambus systems will come out before Thanksgiving, sources said.

Speedy 3D heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid met een theoretisch verhaal over de werking van 3D shutter brillen zoals de Elsa Revelator en Metabyte EyeScream. Hier een hap:

Ok, so this is at least how these glasses are theoretically designed or supposed to work on paper. You have 2 frames in your glasses, which are each supplied 60fps (per frame) for 120 fps total. This first allows for a flicker-free display in most situations as long as your monitor supports 120hz refresh rate in the desired resolution. Since we now have glasses that are flicker free we can finally cover the technology. The software that is provided by the company controls the following operations (at least that is how I understand it). The right frame is darkened for 60fps(1 second) while the left frame stays the same and vice versa for the left frame. The effect that these glasses are trying to create is a more realistic depth by contrasting the two frames darkness. This tricks your eyes into thinking there is more depth in the game while nothing has actually changed via the game. By doing the following over and over the depth of the game you are playing will become more realistic. By creating a more realistic depth you feel that the game is much more realistic when this is implemented correctly.

Tja, alles kan getweakt worden, zo ook ons favoriete huisdier. Hier bijvoorbeeld een stukje over het proggie PS/2 Rate:

PS/2 Rate is probably the single most popular mouse tweaking program to date. The program adjusts the mouse sampling rate of a PS/2 mouse. When you increase the mouse sampling rate, the mouse cursor's position is refreshed on screen at a much higher rate than by default. This allows for much smoother operation. It's hard to explain how it works, but trust me.. it works wonders. Use this program for a week or two and play your favorite games and programs, then stop using it and you'll definitely be able to see the difference.

Heb je meer trek in dit soort tips (waarvan de meesten nogal voor de hand liggend, zoals vaker bij dit soort tweak guides), dan lees je hier volledige artikel.

T Break heeft een comparison gepost tussen de Voodoo3-3500TV en Creative Labs GeForce. Beetje scheve vergelijking als je het mij vraagt, aangezien beide kaarten nogal verschillen in performance en features. Op dat eerste punt wint de Annihilator uiteraard met gemak, de V3-3500 is interessant vanwege de ingebakken TV en video-editing functies:

The Voodoo 3500 TV doesn't offer 32bit color or blazing frame-rates but it does give me a reason to throw out my VCR. Imagine being able to set the timer on your 3DFX's Virtual Reality software to record your favorite TV show while you're out and about. And then having the option of deleting the show in seconds or burning it on a CD to archive it - all this without giving up or requiring another card to play the latest First Person Shooter and start fragging on the fastest Voodoo chipset available today. Not a bad idea by any means eh?

Gamespot heeft een review gepost van de Creative Labs Annihilator en vergelijkt 'm met de eerder geteste 3D Prophet van Guillemot:

Creative's board outpaced the Prophet in overall GameGauge scores and even edged out the TNT2 Ultra in the GameGauge scores, though the difference is statistically insignificant. If you consider that the board's running at only 120MHz core clock and 166MHz memory clock (versus 150/183 for the TNT2 Ultra), that's not too shabby. On top of that, the Annihilator's been very solid throughout our testing. It's my guess the newer reference drivers (now at 3.53) made the difference - the Prophet was tested with 3.48 drivers. Interestingly, at very high resolutions, the Prophet still fared a tiny bit better, though the differences are very minor at best