Showing posts with label balloon boy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balloon boy. Show all posts
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Batman Arkham Knight Patch 1.03 Is Live On PS4 and Xbox One, Fixes Leaderboards
Batman Arkham Knight has received a brand new patch on the PS4 and Xbox One that is aimed at fixing the leaderboards for the game. These leaderboards have been broken since launch and Rocksteady Studios promised a quick hot fix for them, which has been finally released on PS4 and Xbox One today.
This new update is less than 100 MB in size and should be out now on both PS4 and Xbox One. As announced by game director Sefton Hill, this new update is for fixing the leaderboards, and it can be confirmed from the changelog of Patch 1.03.
Batman Arkham Knight sales are currently suspended on PC until it is fully fixed. The game launched with a huge list of problems on PC and was quickly pulled from sale until the issues were resolved. Rocksteady Studios are currently hard at work on the PC version of the game.
Batman Arkham Knight is out now on PS4 and Xbox One.
Let us know if you have updated to the latest version of the game in the comments below.
GTA 5: Rockstar building new update on Xbox One and PS4 with latest fan offering
GTA 5 is set to receive its next instalment of free content this summer, which will include the PC version's Rockstar Editor coming to PS4 and Xbox One.
The new tool will certainly prove a game-changer for many consoles fans who have had to look on enviously at the amazing clips being put together by those on PC.
Rockstar has already confirmed that due to the Editor being an advanced tool requiring additional processing power, it will not be compatible with GTA V on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
However, fans who made the leap to the new-gen console are set to get a version tailored for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which we will see a release most likely with the launch of the Ill-Gotten Gains content update later this summer.
And warming up to the release of the new creator tool, the GTA 5 developers have picked out a new wave of fan-made videos that have caught their eye.
One that should prove very useful to console fans waiting to get their hands on the Rockstar Editor will be user whanowa's GTAV: Create Awesome Videos in 5 Steps.
An accompanying description for the video guide, which can be seen below, explains: "There have been a few attempts at Rockstar Editor video tutorials since launch, but none goes as in-depth as whanowa's "GTAV: Create Awesome Videos in 5 Steps".
"As well as a holistic overview, each section of this 20 minute epic is packed with helpful tips and tricks, complete with reference clips and demonstrations. If you're an aspiring Rockstar Editor, this video is highly recommended."
Rockstar has also revealed that they plan to bring The Lab radio station to all four consoles in a forthcoming title update, although there seems to be zero change of a the playlist-style station transferring over to PS4 and Xbox One.
"The GTAV PC Self Radio experience that plays your personally curated playlist of mp3s in the game as a fully featured and properly integrated radio station just wouldn’t technically be possible on the consoles as it requires more than the consoles allow at this time," a Rockstar statement on the subject confirms.
Monday, June 29, 2015
THE BUBBLE BOY - Fun and Addictive Bubble Pop game !
The Bubble
Boy - Free fun Game for Google
play store!!
The Bubble Boy - The fun Game for
iTunes!!
· The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game
for kids and all age groups.
·
Download this free game:
·
Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without
losing lives.
·
Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for
immersive game play.
·
Choose between two difficulty settings.
Easy and Hard.
·
Pop the power up bubbles to earn
additional points.
·
Beware of the naughty bubble. If popped
you will lose a life.
·
No Ads while playing.
THE BALLOON BOY- Fun and Addictive Balloon Pop game !
The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game for Google play store !!
The Balloon Boy - The fun Game for windows app store!!
The Balloon Boy - The fun Game for
iTunes!!
A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on
to too many balloons.
• Help him to get back down by popping all the
balloons before time runs out!
• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will
result in penalties....
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Will Gamers Pay Three Times the Price for a Fancier Xbox Controller?
It's a lot to pay $150 for a game controller that can kill virtual aliens a few milliseconds faster. The Xbox Elite, announced last week at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles, costs about three times as much as a standard controller—or nearly half the price of the Xbox One console itself, which comes bundled with a regular game pad.
At first glance, Microsoft's pricing strategy here seems hopelessly out of whack with what consumers are willing to pay. The $150 device, which comes out in October, has a “diamond rubber grip,” customizable buttons on the back, and levers and joysticks you can swap out. Oh, and a carrying case. But it looks pretty similar to its cheaper predecessor.
Serious gamers, who raved about the controller at E3, were able to look past the resemblance. The seemingly small changes make a big difference to players who spend hours a day mastering Call of Duty and Halo. By creating a product with premium materials and advanced features, Microsoft is trying to tap into a small segment of the gaming community that's willing to spend big on tools that might give them an edge on the digital battlefield.
This high-end niche hasn't really existed on consoles before. North American console gamers will spend more than $450 million in 2015 on game controllers, mostly for the standard fare, according to an estimate from research firm IDC. But PC gamers have shown a willingness for years to spend absurd amounts of money for mechanical keyboards and weighted mice.
With the Xbox Elite, Microsoft is trying to create a premium market among console gamers similar to the one that exists among PC obsessives. “They're going for a very specific audience that's relatively price insensitive as long as the quality is there,” says Lewis Ward, director of games research at IDC. “Think of it as the Maserati of standard game controllers.” About 20 percent of gamers are designated “hardcore,” meaning they spend at least 15 hours a week playing fast twitch games, according to Ward. They account for a higher percentage of revenue for game accessories because they demand the latest and best for any advantage they think they can get.
The new controller from Microsoft, which also works on Windows PCs, is the first attempt in this generation of consoles to sell add-on hardware to a premium class of gamers, Ward says. Past consoles have tried, usually unsuccessfully, to sell niche accessories. These were often specialized peripherals that only worked with a handful of games, such as plastic golf clubs, steering wheels, arcade-style joysticks, and a $200 contraption for the original Xbox that contained about 40 buttons, two joysticks and three foot pedals to simulate piloting a mech. Microsoft's Xbox Elite isn't going after the cheap add-on crowd. “I don't think they're going to sell a ton at the end of the day, but I don't think it's a bad bet overall,” says Ward.
Console owners are the frugal, sensible constituency in the $20 billion games industry compared with the excess in the world of PC gaming. If you want to be a real PC gamer, the first thing you'll need is a computer. But not just any machine will do. Hardcore gamers typically shop at custom builders like Falcon Northwest, which specializes in machines that allow their customers to specify everything from $1,000 paint jobs to the color of the fluid in their liquid cooling system. A Mach V rig with some top components can easily run more than $10,000. Throw in a high-end monitor or two—as any real gamer would—and you're looking at the price of a brand new Kia Rio.
In the high-end computer accessories department, a Mad Catz R.A.T. 9 gaming mouse, which its manufacturer claims will give a 1 millisecond response time, will set you back $134, if you opt for the glossy paint job. The S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 customizable keyboard costs $252. There are even specialized computer desks designed for gamers. The Volair Sim Universal Flight or Racing Simulation Cockpit Chassis costs $660.
After looking at the premium market for PC game accessories, the Xbox Elite game pad might seem like a bargain. But as I've learned from testing high-end game equipment, none of the customizable buttons and millisecond-saving mechanisms has ever saved me from a rifle butt to the back of the head in Halo.
Friday, June 26, 2015
New Details on Mega Man Creator's Xbox One Exclusive ReCore
New details have emerged online regarding ReCore, the new game from Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising creator Keiji Inafune, which was one of the big surprises during Microsoft's E3 press conference.
Beyond the reveal trailer, little is known about the game. As revealed in GameSpot's stage interview with Keiji Inafune, ReCore has been in development for 14 months, so it is still in the early stages.
A new video interview published by Xbox, however, has provided some insight into the characters at the heart of the story, and the world which it is set in.
Armature Studio's game director, Mark Pacini (whose studio is working with Inafune), reveals the main character of ReCore is called Jewel, while the robot companion--who starts off as a dog--is called Mack.
The two have a special relationship as Mack finds Jewel at the start of the game, and is part of a faction trying to help you bring back humanity to the planet. A separate faction of robots, meanwhile, is trying to stop Jewel and Mack from making this happen.
"One of the big features of this game is that the scenery completely changes after a sandstorm," Inafune adds. "[This] actually affects the maps in the gameplay."
Continuing, Inafune reveals that ReCore takes place in a world populated by very few humans, which means Jewel has mostly been by herself throughout her life, with the exception of her robot companion.
"As you continue on this adventure you are going to meet other companions, as well as enemies. The game's main theme focuses on how she is going to survive in this world," adds Pacini.
He continues: "The relationship between the friendly robots in the game and the enemy robots in the game, they get more volatile and deadlier as you go underground and find these areas. That's where all the good stuff is, and that's what you're trying to explore."
Central to ReCore is the ability to remove Mack's core and transfer his consciousness to another robot.
Inafune explains: "During the fight with the robots [in the trailer] Mack was defeated, but his core remained. Mack's consciousness still remains in the core and by implanting the core into another robot ... Mack will live on in another form.
"This is a very epic story full of mystery and adventure. As I said, robots play a very important role in this adventure, and there will be many more robots that will lead to a rich experience. There will also be many other companion robots you can partner with, and each of the different robots will lead to unique adventures."
For more on ReCore, watch GameSpot's E3 interview with Keiji Inafune.
New Details on Mega Man Creator's Xbox One Exclusive ReCore
New details have emerged online regarding ReCore, the new game from Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising creator Keiji Inafune, which was one of the big surprises during Microsoft's E3 press conference.
Beyond the reveal trailer, little is known about the game. As revealed in GameSpot's stage interview with Keiji Inafune, ReCore has been in development for 14 months, so it is still in the early stages.
A new video interview published by Xbox, however, has provided some insight into the characters at the heart of the story, and the world which it is set in.
Armature Studio's game director, Mark Pacini (whose studio is working with Inafune), reveals the main character of ReCore is called Jewel, while the robot companion--who starts off as a dog--is called Mack.
The two have a special relationship as Mack finds Jewel at the start of the game, and is part of a faction trying to help you bring back humanity to the planet. A separate faction of robots, meanwhile, is trying to stop Jewel and Mack from making this happen.
"One of the big features of this game is that the scenery completely changes after a sandstorm," Inafune adds. "[This] actually affects the maps in the gameplay."
Continuing, Inafune reveals that ReCore takes place in a world populated by very few humans, which means Jewel has mostly been by herself throughout her life, with the exception of her robot companion.
"As you continue on this adventure you are going to meet other companions, as well as enemies. The game's main theme focuses on how she is going to survive in this world," adds Pacini.
He continues: "The relationship between the friendly robots in the game and the enemy robots in the game, they get more volatile and deadlier as you go underground and find these areas. That's where all the good stuff is, and that's what you're trying to explore."
Central to ReCore is the ability to remove Mack's core and transfer his consciousness to another robot.
Inafune explains: "During the fight with the robots [in the trailer] Mack was defeated, but his core remained. Mack's consciousness still remains in the core and by implanting the core into another robot ... Mack will live on in another form.
"This is a very epic story full of mystery and adventure. As I said, robots play a very important role in this adventure, and there will be many more robots that will lead to a rich experience. There will also be many other companion robots you can partner with, and each of the different robots will lead to unique adventures."
For more on ReCore, watch GameSpot's E3 interview with Keiji Inafune.
Xbox One Players Can Now Sign Up For 'The Division' December Beta
Game publisher Ubisoft has recently opened its website to take registrations from interested Xbox One players who would like to be among the first batch to experience Tom Clancy's The Division beta version this coming December.
Tom Clancy's The Division beta will be available on gaming systems Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. While the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC beta versions are scheduled for an "early 2016" release, Ubisoft announced during Microsoft's E3 2015 press conference that Xbox One owners can test this modern military-setting RPG exclusively in December.
Gamers should preorder The Division from a participating retailer to have guaranteed access codes for the beta. There is also an option for players to register for the waiting list, and though it is not a guarantee, one can still play if the company decides to test servers—if it can accommodate more players at certain times.
Apparently, there is no limit if one would like to play on the three different platforms as long as the player preorders the game multiple times as well. The company may also provide special in-game rewards for eligible beta players, which can be unlocked during the full release of The Division in March 2016.
The four-player online co-op shooter is set after a devastating pandemic spread through New York City. With chaos extending everywhere, one will play as an agent of The Division with the ability to specialize and modify gear, weapons and skills to regain control of the city.
The game is currently under development at four separate Ubisoft studios, as the company seems to be very cautious in balancing the game rather than releasing it for the holiday season prematurely. Even though the game has had its release delayed more than once, many players are still waiting years after its initial announcement, and the company has been dedicated to pleasing the fans.
Check out a great gameplay trailer in Dark Zone multiplayer mode and be inspired to preorder a copy and play Tom Clancy's The Division beta soon.
ET deals: Xbox One Master Chief bundle for $349 with a free bonus game
Finally ready to jump into this console generation? Well, there’s never been a better time than right now. The 500GB Xbox One Master Chief Collection bundle is only $349, and you can get a copy of Batman: Arkham Knight for free. This deal won’t last long, though, so get your order in.
If you’re interested in snagging an Xbox one, but Batman isn’t to your taste, you have other options as well. For example, you can get the same Xbox One Master Chief bundle for $349, but swap out your free game for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Looking for a little multiplayer excitement? You could get your bundle with Elder Scrolls Online instead.
Regardless of which free game you choose, you’re bound to enjoy yourself with the Xbox One. While the initial launch was pretty rocky, Microsoft has done a superb job righting the ship. And earlier this month, Microsoft announced that select Xbox 360 games (both digital and disc) will be compatible with the Xbox One later this year, so you’ll be able to play your favorite last-gen games as well at no additional cost.
Normally, the Xbox One retails for $349, Halo: The Master Chief Collection retails for $59.99, and Batman: Arkham Knight retails for $59.99. For a limited time, you can get all three for just $349 (plus any applicable taxes). Better yet, shipping is free, so you’ll save even more when you take advantage of this deal.
Check out these other deals for your new Xbox One:
Xbox One Elite wireless controller for $149.99
Xbox Live Gold one-year subscription for $32.99
Our commerce group sources the best deals and products for the ET Deals posts. We operate independently of Editorial and Advertising and may earn a percentage of the sale, if you buy something via a link on the post. If you are interested in promoting your deals, please contact us at commerce@ziffdavis.com.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Xbox One backwards compatible Rare titles include DLC for free
Hot Kameo skins for everyone
If you're in the Xbox One Preview Program to test the latest dashboard updates for Xbox One and have any of the Xbox 360 titles developed by Rare on the backwards compatability list, you're in luck. Looks like all the in-game DLC for last-gen Rare titles is included automatically with the games' install, free of charge.
I've personally verified that Kameo includes all the costume DLCs while others have reported that Viva Piñata includes all the accessory packs for piñatas so you can make them look hella fresh. The map packs for Perfect Dark Zero are as of yet unconfirmed as I don't have a copy and seemingly the entire Internet doesn't either.
Other non-Rare titles do not have the DLC yet such as Mass Effect and Defense Grid. I've sent an email to Rare to see if this is intended and will update given a response. Including all the DLC would makes sense as Rare Replay will include all game-centric DLC from previous titles as well.
Apple’s Co-founder: We’re All Going to Be Robots’ Pets One Day
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk agrees
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak thinks we’re all probably going to become robots’ pets.
Speaking at a recent technology conference, Wozniak said that at first the thought of artificially intelligent beings in charge of everything scared him. But now it’s a comforting thought.
Fast forward hundreds of years to when robots are in charge. At that time, humans will probably be treated in a similar fashion to dogs, Wozniak said during an event at the Freescale Technology Forum 2015 in Austin, Texas.
“It’s actually going to turn out really good for humans,” he added. “And it will be hundreds of years down the stream before [artificially intelligent beings would] even have the ability.”
“They’ll be so smart by then that they’ll know they have to keep nature, and humans are part of nature,” he continued. “So I got over my fear that we’d be replaced by computers.”
Wozniak believes robots will helps us because we’re the “gods originally.”
At the event, Wozniak also took the time to discuss the Internet of Things. He likes it, but cautioned that connected devices in the home have the potential to attack humanity.
Wozniak isn’t the only tech leader with thoughts on future human and robot interaction. In a recent interview with scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk warned that robots will use humans as pets once they achieve a level of artificial intelligence known as “superintelligence.”
They’ll treat humans like “pet Labradors,” he said.
New build 10149 of Windows 10 Mobile updates browser, adds flashlight
Microsoft offered a new version of Windows 10 Mobile to the earliest adopters in the Windows Insider Program on Thursday, accelerating the release of new beta versions of its mobile operating system.
Build 10149 offers a number of improvements for people brave enough to install it on their devices, including a new button in the Action Center that turns on a phone’s flash so that it can be used as a flashlight. Cortana’s Notebook user interface has been finalized as well, with a combined profile and settings page.
The new build, which went out to users in the Fast ring of the Insider Program, also includes branding for Microsoft Edge, the new browser that the company previously included under the Project Spartan code name. That update also moves the address bar to the bottom of the screen and allows users to request either the mobile or the desktop version of a website. The browser has been given a new app ID to go along with its new name, which means users will lose any favorites, cookies, history and saved Reading List items after upgrading from a previous build.
Phone shutterbugs will probably be happy with the new build, which includes support for animated GIFs in the Photos app for phones that have 1GB of RAM or more. It also supports automatic upload of photos to OneDrive, so people can easily save the images they take to Microsoft’s cloud storage service. It’s a feature that wasn’t available for Windows 10 Mobile users, but that Microsoft had included in past versions of its mobile operating system.
Last week, Microsoft launched build 10136 of Windows 10 Mobile, which didn’t allow direct upgrades from what was then the most recent build. In order to get the latest software, users had to downgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 and then re-install Windows 10 Mobile. Build 10149 fixes that problem and allows direct upgrades. That comes alongside other bug fixes and experience improvements, including a fix for a bug that prevented text notifications from appearing for incoming messages.
As with a lot of beta software, there are also some nasty bugs in this release. Much like in Build 10136, there’s a final setup screen missing, so the phone will show the lock screen without the date and time after a device has first been updated. Microsoft Engineering General Manager Gabe Aul said in a blog post that users should let their phones sit until after the date and time appear on the screen.
In addition, users who are upgrading from build 10136 may encounter an “80091007 error.” Aul said Microsoft is working on a fix, but people who encounter the error and want to get their phone on the latest build as soon as possible can downgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 and then re-enroll in preview builds using the Windows Insider app.
Finally, there’s a “very rare” bug that could lock users out of their phones for hours at a time. Because of an issue with the phone’s Trusted Platform Module, you may be “unable to unlock your phone after entering your PIN and it keeps letting you type even though you entered your pin correctly.” Anyone who encounters the problem should let their phone sit for one to two hours and avoid turning it off, since that might make the problem worse and require a reflash of the phone.
Overall, Aul said that the new build is “faster, more stable, and more polished overall” and that it has been in use at Microsoft for a few days. The company still hasn’t given a definitive launch date for the mobile version of its new operating system, other than to say it will be coming after the public launch of Windows 10 for PCs and tablets on July 29.
Faster computers, coming soon, as graphics chip answers the call to action
This year, a new way to handle graphics chips will speed up everything on your computer -- from Photoshop to a first-person shooter.
That's because a more efficient way for software to control chip hardware will lift graphics performance, empower the graphics chip with new abilities and free a computer's main processor up to deal with other tasks. The rebuilt graphics foundation will arrive on Macs and Windows machines later this year, and you can expect games developers and others to seize the advantage as soon as they can.
"The performance opportunities are huge," said Linley Group analyst David Kanter of the acceleration technology.
You might have already heard of Apple's version of the technology, called Metal, which arrived on iPhones and iPads in 2014, and will arrive on Macs later this year with the OS X 10.11 El Capitan operating system. Apple is not alone. Microsoft's equivalent, DirectX 12, will arrive with Windows 10 on July 29. And an organization called the Khronos Group that creates standards for a broad range of operating systems will release its Vulkan competitor this year.
Performance increases once were taken for granted as Intel and other chipmakers introduced faster products every few months. But about a decade ago, problems with excessive power consumption capped speed improvements on chips. Since then, programmers have had to work harder to deliver new features and abilities. Unlocking new graphics-chip power is the next step that helps gamers, designers, and just about anyone else using a computer.
No wonder companies like Adobe Systems are eager about the new interfaces that let programmers tap into the graphics-chip power.
"We plan to support Metal this year," said Scott Morris, senior marketing director of Creative Cloud for Adobe. And David McGavran, senior engineering manager for Adobe's professional video products, said in a presentation at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference that Adobe will use Metal in the Photoshop image-editing program, the Illustrator program for vector graphics, and the Premiere Pro and After Effects programs for video editing.
Where does the speedup come from?
So how does this speed boost work? Two main chips do the bulk of the work inside a computer: the central processing unit (CPU), which is the brains of the operation, and the graphic processing unit (GPU), which performs an increasingly important supporting role drawing text, shapes and shadows on screen. Modern chip architects often combine these two jobs into a single unified design, but whether separate or unified, the graphics processor understands a different sort of programming instructions than the central processor.
The tricky thing for a programmer is writing those instructions -- especially because they differ according to when a graphics chip was made and which company made it. That's where programming interfaces like Metal, DirectX and Vulkan come into the picture. They offer a stable way to tap into the graphics chip's power for things like a better gaming experience.
"Developers will be able to create bigger maps, improved performance and graphics, and bigger multiplayer environments stretching across devices," Microsoft said, touting DirectX 12's help with gaming on Windows and Xbox.
These sorts of graphics interfaces have been around for decades. But the new ones expose deeper hardware access than earlier versions of Microsoft's DirectX and Khronos Group's competing OpenGL. The new approach gives programmers more direct control over the graphics chip -- and as an added bonus, frees a computer's CPU from a lot of work managing its GPU companion.
It's like the difference between planning an exact route on a map compared to telling Google Maps your starting point and end point. Google Maps is easier to use, but you can get the top speed by hand-crafting an optimum route.
Programmers can use the new horsepower to add more abilities to their code, or to lower the energy consumption of existing code so batteries last longer.
But, as we learned from "Spider-Man" in 2002, with great power comes great responsibility. The new version of DirectX, for instance, loses many of the safeguards that eliminated crashes and weird bugs. "Those are all gone now with DirectX 12, so developers must be much more careful about their code," Kanter said.
There are other perks with the new interfaces. One is that the same interface spans mobile devices, unlike earlier-generation designs. Another is that they handle not just graphics work but also computing work that can be done on the graphics chip. That can be anything from recognizing faces in video to simulating the physics of a video game car crash.
New complications
The new graphics chip control technology, called an application programming interface (API), let programmers squeeze as much power as possible from computer hardware, but there are complications.
One problem is that these three interfaces -- Vulkan, DirectX and Metal -- do essentially the same thing. Yet programmers have to pick which ones to use and where. Vulkan might span everything from PCs and smartphones to virtual reality headsets and gaming consoles, but DirectX and might work better on Windows and Metal for OS X, for example.
The more graphics interfaces programmers want to support, the more work they have to do. Programmers already had to deal with two or three in the past, but Metal adds another option to the mix, and Google could add still another for its Android operating system too.
Many programmers are shielded from the complexity dealing with multiple graphics interfaces by relying on game engines like Epic Games' Unreal Engine and Unity Technologies' Unity. The companies behind those gaming foundations handle the hard work of plugging into the lower-level foundations, offering a simpler framework for many programmers.
Khronos Group, for its part, says that despite the complications, it has wide support.
"There will be higher-level libraries and engines...that will run across different low-level APIs," said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and a vice president at graphics chipmaker Nvidia. "Practically every GPU [graphics processing unit] vendor and games engine vendor is participating in the Vulkan working group with wide commitment to support the API."
Adobe is one of the companies that must decide which of the multiple new graphics interfaces to support. It hasn't yet declared how it'll give Windows machines a boost comparable to what Metal offers on Macs. "We're of course looking into DirectX 12 but have not announced any definitive plans," spokeswoman Vanessa Rios said.
Google, too?
It's not yet clear whether Google will add yet another graphics interface of its own. Kanter, of the Linley Group, said the company did plan to.
That possibility didn't sit well with one prominent programmer, John Carmack. He's the creator of seminal and successful games like Doom and Quake and now the chief technology officer of Oculus, Facebook's virtual reality headset project.
"Hey Google, could you pretty please not develop another brand new low-level graphics API?" Carmack requested in a March tweet. "Vulkan should suffice," he added.
More disgruntlement came from hardware companies like chipmakers. They must invest a lot of resources writing the "driver" software that opens the interface to programmers.
Google declined to comment. But Google has rethought its position after industry push back, and it's likely to use Vulkan, according to two people familiar with the company's thinking.
Adobe: sign us up
Adobe is sold. McGavran demonstrated Metal-enhanced Illustrator and After Effects at Apple's WWDC event.
For After Effects, Adobe built Metal-based filters for overlaying text on video, adding a ripple effect and simulating the flares of light that appear when a camera points at the sun. Without Metal, adding these three effects to a video dragged playback down to about 3 frames per second. With Metal, it ran at the full 24 frames per second of video. Not only is there an eightfold performance boost, but CPU usage is lighter, he said.
Illustrator got fast enough with Metal that it no longer pauses to redraw everything on screen when zooming in, McGavran said. The performance was high enough that "we were able to demonstrate a brand-new feature, continuous zoom," he said.
In other words, Metal and its competitors unlock previously inaccessible computer performance. That kind of advantage can mean all the difference when it's time to get customers to open their wallets.
"This drastically changes how artists can work with our products," McGavran said.
Mobile gaming market is ripe for independent studios and developers to capture share
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As with most industries, a high concentration of revenue among a small group of companies indicates a monopoly-driven environment with difficult prospects for new entrants. While revenue consolidation in the global mobile gaming industry was high in Q4 2013, it dropped by 40% through Q1 2015, according to App Annie's new App DNA report (see screenshot, below).
Not only are mobile gaming revenues distributing more evenly, but so are downloads; in tandem, these point to improved monetization and marketing opportunities for small and mid-sized game development studios and independent developers.
Of course, this balancing varies by market:
Both mobile gaming download and revenue concentration dropped in western markets, like the US and the UK, in Q1 2014 year-over-year (YoY).
In South Korea, revenue concentration grew despite an evening download distribution, which highlights some difficulty for smaller app developers to monetize their products.
The opposite held true in China (based on iOS stats only), where mobile gaming downloads saw heavier concentration YoY but more evenly distributed revenues.
This global balancing may not persist as the volatile app market continues to change.
There's a long-standing tendency for mobile trends that catch on in Asian markets, like China and South Korea, to see delayed traction in Western markets, like the US and the UK.
We're starting to see this trend hold true with apps becoming gaming platforms, which drives consolidation in terms of downloads and revenue.
Asian companies like China's Tencent, which owns popular mobile messaging app WeChat, and Japan's LINE have been building out platforms over the past few quarters and have looked to games to monetize their users.
The US is starting to see some of the same, particularly with Facebook Messenger's recent addition of mobile gaming. If the west follows this eastern mobile trend, it's possible for mobile gaming revenue and downloads to see more consolidation.
Why most of us will miss out on Windows Hello, Windows 10's facial recognition feature
Chances are that Windows Hello, a Windows 10 feature designed to recognize you and wake up your PC, will instead give you a blank stare.
Chances are that Windows Hello, a Windows 10 feature designed to recognize you and wake up your PC, will instead give you a blank stare.
The promise of Windows Hello is that it eliminates the need for a password, because your computer will know who you are. A related technology, called Passport, uses Hello to log in to websites, too. But the technology depends on "depth cameras," which use infrared light to peer through makeup and beards to identify users.
It's these cameras, primarily made by Intel, that analysts and some PC makers believe will be too expensive to build into the sort of cheap PCs (with cheap webcams) that consumers prefer. It's also unlikely that the depth camera modules will be installed within many new monitors accompanying desktop PCs. And, of course, they won't be in the millions of existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 notebooks that will be upgradeable to Windows 10.
There might not be a shortage of depth cameras, but they'll be expensive, according to Bob O'Donnell, principal at TECHnalysis Research. "The expectation is that, looking at depth cameras, they'll appear in the most expensive, top-of-the-line models first," O'Donnell said.
Why this matters: Don't worry--you'll be able to do everything you need to do in Windows 10 without a depth camera or Windows Hello. To Microsoft, though, Hello helps sell Windows 10: There's an appeal to sitting down in front of your PC and having it wake up, without the need to type a convoluted password--especially one IT makes you change every few months. PC makers face a more difficult choice: They, too want something to transform the PC experience and tempt consumers into buying new hardware--like Toshiba's "Cortana button," for example. But they're not willing to pay for it, and that's where the problem lies.
Too much to avoid typing a password?
Windows Hello can use one of two technologies to identify you: a fingerprint reader, or a depth camera. There's a third available--an iris camera, which looks deep into your eye--but that requires dipping one's head and peering closely into the camera. All three have their own issues: The depth cameras are reportedly expensive, thumbprint readers have a reputation for spotty performance, and the way iris cameras work make them better suited for phones.
But at this point, only one company, Intel, manufactures the RealSense 3D depth cameras that Microsoft has shown off in conjunction with the Hello technology. While an Intel spokesman said that the RealSense cameras are widely available, he said that only fifteen different PC models will support the technology at launch. (Microsoft, when asked to comment, referred to corporate vice president Nick Parker, who recently said there will be 96 devices "that will light up the Windows 10 experience," without mentioning Hello specifically.)
Hello also hasn't come up in conversations with PC vendors, which is telling. The launch of Windows 10 at the end of July will nearly coincide with back-to-school PC sales, so if ever there were a time to talk up Hello, it would be in this timeframe.
"I think the ecosystem around the [infrared] camera isn't quite there yet, and we're all sort of struggling to sort out the meaning of that," said Jeff Barney, the vice president and general manager of Toshiba America's PC business, in an interview. Analysts, who have spoken to rivals including Dell and Hewlett-Packard, say they've received similar responses. Lenovo, meanwhile, is essentially charging $100 for the Hello depth camera.
In some sense, the chatter about Windows Hello is reminiscent of the arguments against smartwatches: How much are you willing to pay to avoid pulling your phone from your pocket? The best smartwatches provide capabilities your phone does not, including sleep monitoring, for example. So far, Hello hasn't provided that added value.
"Hello indeed seems to be falling upmarket," Wes Miller, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, said in an email. "Think it was Lenovo who announced two devices--one at a price premium over the other--and the main difference was the presence of a Hello-compatible camera. While it adds convenience, I'm not sure consumers will be willing to pay that--and I'm not sure that enterprises will buy into the reliability/security of it until proven over time."
Supposedly, the technology works wonderfully. Microsoft has shown a Windows 10 PC waking up nearly instantaneously using a depth camera, with no password required. And you might think of Hello as the equivalent of a TV's remote control, or a car's remote key fob--both conveniences that you'd be loath to give up.
Still, a television, and especially a car, are far pricier than the low-end PCs that consumers are increasingly turning to. But all isn't lost: This fall, Intel will debut its Skylake processor, the centerpiece of the company's wire-free future. That will be the second act for the PC in 2015 alone--and another opportunity for Microsoft and PC vendors to introduce Hello to their audience.
In a year or two, Hello may evolve into a beloved component of Windows 10. Right now, however, Microsoft's finding it difficult to drum up support in the PC community.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Nintendo at E3 2015: ‘Star Fox’ Returns but Silence on Wii U ‘Zelda’ and NX
Nintendo is in a time of transition, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president, said Tuesday in the company’s Digital Event video released for the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. Nintendo is making a push into mobile gaming and it’s working on its next console, the NX, but details of those two efforts won’t come this year, Fils-Aime said. They’ll come in 2016.
This year, Nintendo is using E3 to focus on the games it has for its two current platforms: the Wii U console and the 3DS hand-held. The big star of the video, which Nintendo released online instead of an arena-filled live event like Microsoft and Sony held yesterday, is “Star Fox Zero,” the new Wii U space shooter.
Star Fox Zero marks the return of the franchise, which hasn’t been seen on a home console since 2005’s “Star Fox: Assault,” on the Nintendo GameCube. The game creatively uses the Wii U’s tablet-like GamePad controller’s built in 6.2-inch touchscreen to display a cockpit view of the fighter-pilot action that the game centers around. A more traditional third-person view is shown on screen, and Nintendo expects gamers to switch their gaze between their TVs and the GamePad while playing the new title.
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s famous game designer, concocted the dual-screen gameplay. The company is collaborating with Japan’s Platinum Games to finish Star Fox Zero, which should be in stores this holiday season. Playable demos are available at the E3 expo in Los Angeles this week.
The game is graphically impressive, filled with starscapes and planetary scenes of mountains, ancient ruins and oceans. But, while the game looks good for a Wii U title, it falls short of the visual breakthroughs happening on rival consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4.
In a press event Sunday, Miyamoto said that the point of Star Fox Zero is the gameplay and the visual style of the game, which is somewhat cartoony. It was made that way with a purpose. “A lot of games nowadays look so realistic that they all look the same,” Miyamoto said.
The famed designer is right–many casual gamers might have trouble telling the difference between a “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield” game. But Nintendo’s strategy also reflects that the Wii U has far less graphical horsepower than rival home consoles.
You’re the Game Designer in Mario Maker
The Wii U is also set to get another title centered on one of Nintendo’s longest-running and most successful characters: Mario. To mark the 30th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. series, Miyamoto and other developers at Nintendo created a title called Mario Maker, set for release Sept. 11. In Mario Maker, players can design their own slide-scrolling levels in the visual style of both old-school 8-bit consoles and modern Wii U graphics.
The company showed an especially difficult level created at its Nintendo World Championships e-sports competition, which was hosted Sunday at Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater as a part of E3. Miyamoto said he had another reason for creating Mario Maker: “I still just love making games, it’s my favorite thing,” he said. He wanted “to let other people enjoy the experience of making games themselves.”
Some Best Buy stores in the U.S. will let gamers demo Mario Maker for themselves this week. Other Mario titles are on the way as well, including Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, which will hit the Wii U later this year. Nintendo is also launching a website called LetsSuperMario.com, where people can upload their own Mario-themed videos to celebrate the game’s 30 years.
Also Missing: Zelda on Wii U
Nintendo, meanwhile, has plans for its hit line of amiibo “toys-to-life” figurines. They will work with Mario Maker, so that characters like Zelda and the Wii Fit Trainer can appear in the game with the tap of a figurine on the GamePad controller. The new “Skylanders Superchargers” Wii U game also will work with special Bowser and Donkey Kong amiibo. And the coming “Yoshi’s Wooly World,” a beautiful platform adventure game in which the dinosaur runs through a world made of digital yarn and cloth, will have plush amiibos when it goes on sale this October.
The 3DS portable console got some love at E3 as well. Nintendo has a new “Hyrule Warriors Legends” adventure game coming early next year for the hand-held, and “Metroid Prime Federation Force” is a four-player shooting game that lets friends play online. There’s also a “Legend of Zelda” game coming this fall called “Zelda Triforce Heroes,” which lets players solve puzzles and traverse through dungeons with other players online.
One thing Nintendo disappointingly made no mention: the new Zelda title for the Wii U, which it showed a brief trailer of last year at the big show. The unnamed game is still under development, but it’s a no-show so far this year.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
How the Cheaper Xbox Could Shake Up the Console Wars
HoloLens stole the show at E3. The challenge for Microsoft is to not let it become the next Kinect
Microsoft is continuing to use its HoloLens “mixed reality” headset to steal the show at E3. On Monday, it brought down the house with an onstage Minecraft demo in which one player wore the headset to play the game while another player used a tablet. On Tuesday, it unveiled another demo, this one connecting the HoloLens to Microsoft’s most important gaming franchise, Halo.
At its booth on the show floor, Microsoft shuttled attendees in batches of 10 into a room that resembled the inside of a spaceship. Each one was outfitted with a HoloLens headset and walked into a briefing room, where a hologram of a battlefield emerged from a table and a computerized voice ran through tactical instructions. The groups then played, on Xboxes, the multiplayer mode of Halo 5: Guardians. The headsets weren't involved in the gameplay itself.
The Halo demo showed off the advantages and shortcomings of HoloLens. On the plus side, you could walk around with them (something that would be impossible, or at least inadvisable, with an Oculus headset), while the HoloLens gave directions through the hallways of the "spaceship." However, the actual portion of the screen where a hologram can appear is relatively small. Don't expect to see any holograms in your peripheral vision. The width of the image is a major reason why the current generation of virtual-reality headsets is more convincing than its predecessors.
While the HoloLens is making Microsoft look pretty visionary right now, there are plenty of dots yet to be connected. The augmented-reality headset presents a two-pronged challenge. The first one is technical. It’s just not that easy to create a device that makes holograms appear to be actual objects in the physical world. Microsoft is having increasing success with that task, as the Minecraft and Halo demos show.
But HoloLens will also one day have to be a product that Microsoft sells or otherwise distributes to the public. Pretty much all the questions about how HoloLens becomes a business remain unanswered. The actual Halo game sold to consumers will not have a mixed-reality component.
A cautionary tale is Kinect, the motion-sensing camera that Microsoft released in 2010. The camera allowed people to play games and otherwise interact with their Xbox consoles using gestures and voice command. It was an immediate hit. But despite an early wave of neat applications, Kinect never really developed into a platform for developers in the way that other successful computing devices have. Microsoft’s vision for Kinect got muddled and the project ended up losing momentum.
There are a lot of parallels to HoloLens. Even though the gaming applications are at the front of everyone’s mind this week, the device comes from a different division of the company. It is not clear whether Microsoft sees this as a tool for primarily gamers or professionals, or whether it could convincingly develop it to be both things at the same time. Microsoft hasn’t released a software developers kit that would allow people to make independent apps for the HoloLens. The company does say it is working with some partners, but isn’t giving any details.
For now, caution is the word with the device. “We’re trying to be a little bit conservative about HoloLens just because it is a very new platform and we’re still exploring it,” says Shannon Loftis, Microsoft’s general manager for global games publishing. “We obviously don’t want to over-promise. I don’t think we’ll under-deliver.”
In the last two years, Kinect became a liability for Microsoft. It bundled the camera with the Xbox One, which made it more expensive than the PlayStation 4. After initial sales lagged, Microsoft finally began gaining ground by letting people buy the Xbox One without Kinect. While the company is stepping carefully to bring HoloLens into the Xbox fold, it has all but pushed Kinect out the door. Not once during the company’s 90-minute presentation on Monday was it mentioned.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Xbox, PlayStation present new games ahead of E3 conference
Videogame console titans Microsoft and Sony vied for attention ahead of the industry's annual E3 conference, giving fans sneak peaks of the latest Xbox and PlayStation games.
Microsoft also told gamers that new Xbox One consoles would have "backward compatibility", meaning they will also be able to play games made for the older Xbox 360. Fans were shown clips of upcoming Xbox games - "Halo 5: Guardians","Rise of the Tomb Raider" and "Gears of War" - at an event at the University of Southern California Galen Center on Monday.
Meanwhile Sony unveiled the newest games for its PlayStation 4 including "The Last Guardian" and "Horizon: Zero Dawn", at a separate event in Los Angeles. It also told fans a deal with Activision would allow PS4 owners to be the first to play the upcoming "Call of Duty: Black Ops III" this summer. The two console makers held the events ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which takes place on June 16-18 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Bowser and Donkey Kong to guest star in Skylanders SuperChargers
The two figures, available exclusively through Skylanders starter packs, will also work as Nintendo Amiibo figures.
Gaming companies Nintendo and Activision have announced a new collaboration Tuesday at the E3 conference: Nintendo characters Bowser and Donkey Kong will be playable in the upcoming Skylanders game.
There are three companies making physical toys that work as in-game characters, Activision's Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Nintendo's Amiibo. They all work in the same way, too: A toy is placed on a platform that reads the NFC chip embedded in its base, connecting to the gaming platform and translating the information on the chip into the game -- so technically, they could work on each other's platforms.
The Bowser and Donkey Kong figures put the theory into practice, able to work in both the upcoming new Skylanders SuperChargers game and on Nintendo's own Amiibo platform.
The figures will be exclusively available in Skylanders SuperChargers starter packs for Nintendo consoles, the Wii, the Wii U and the 3DS. However, the toys will also work in editions of the game across all platforms.
"Activision's Skylanders games have been very popular on Nintendo platforms, and we hope this collaboration will delight fans of the franchise," said Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo. "We believe this unique approach will help expand the entire category and make it appealing to even more players."
In Skylanders SuperChargers, a new suite of characters will be linked to vehicles, which will need to be deployed in special land, water and sky zones -- areas destroyed by the series' returning big bad Kaos, who is sort of, when you think about it, an inspiring lesson in perseverance.
Bowser and Donkey Kong have been designed with vehicles and attacks that fit their legacies: the Barrel Blaster plane for Donkey Kong and the Clown Cruiser car for Bowser. Donkey Kong's attacks include barrels and bongos, while Bowser can breathe fire and summon Super Mario series regulars, Koopas and warp pipes.
The starter packs will be available when the game is released -- September 20 for the US, September 25 for Australia and the UK.
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