Tuesday 24 May 2016

THE VIRTUAL REALITIES

It has started.

Yet another huge company that should know better has made the age old mistake and thinks itself so big and soo superior that it can do anything where its customers are concerned and thinks everyone is too stupid to think for themselves and go with it?

I was sent a notification via Flipboard that Oculus Rift had started using a DRM, more of what they want on your headset that is NOT relevant to your gaming experience, in the Rift VR headset.

Apparently it turns out that people with a HTC Vive have been playing Oculus titles on their headset, which I had not heard of previous to be honest.

Well is not selling the software what it is all about? I'm confused.

Years and years and likely decades have people complained about a dodgy port of a game going from a console to the PC. History is littered with famous titles and that recent Batman Arkham Knight being a prime example.

But here we have software that works across platforms and they are slamming the door on this?!

Umm ... is not the aim of the game right now to make Virtual Reeality and the headsets the next big thing? Yeeeah locking people out of software and games is going to help bundles, you absolute blithering idiots!

EDIT: Apparently Oculus was first quoted as saying that if their software gets modified to play on other systems it will not mind. So a one eighty has been performed by them!

Here is another link reporting on that story with the contradictions I mentioned by Oculus themselves on Slash Gear.

http://www.slashgear.com/oculus-locks-out-vive-users-with-new-drm-20440933/

Sunday 22 May 2016

CRYSIS 2 ON MY SYSTEM

It is funny really because as I play through Crysis I find it hard to believe that the company went south for the winter.

Yes it may have been a bit linear but it was such fun to play and look at.

Except...I am going through this one in a pretty quick time and I think I should have picked a harder setting? Many times I reach the ammo pick up points I am already full.

I had thought I had played through this one but then as I played I thought I had not. Then I reached a large room in a roof where you get three gunships and a load of guys on the roof and it seemed somewhat familiar.

I do have these memory issues that have plagued me for years. I could never understand how or why I was so forgetful and for years it got me into various problems until I discovered I had a condition called Fibromyalgia Syndrome which itself causes dozens and dozens of problems from painful area anywhere to embarrassing or irritating conditions as well as a memory problem that has its own name...Fibrofog.

So yeah its explained these days but still damned infuriating.

The only bit that was familiar was that roof section in that guy's lab. After this section it has gone back to being unfamiliar, lol.

Now I do remember starting and playing the third title but I am ... pretty sure I did not play that very far before taking it off. Probably because the AMD APU on its own was struggling and I did not want to turn the graphics down to uninstalled it until I got a dedicated card. Probably forgot all about the game, so that will be next.

I do not know why but Raptr failed to record the first half dozen times I played it and I changed it over to manual and it would not start.

Then bizarrely and out of the blue ... it started recording on this play-through.

Now I am still on the AMD A10-7850K and a Radeon R9-280, non-X, with this being designed to last me until I build another system. This next system will come around the end of the year and will be a Zen based system with as many cores as they release and a Vega GPU. Most likely.

You never know I could end up with an nVidia GPU. Or it is even possible it could be a surprise Intel CPU they might bring out that does not force you to sell your house? Lol.


Thursday 19 May 2016

SHINING POLARIS & PASCAL IMMINENT

Yeeeaah...funny times and goings on at the moment.

I have been perusing through webpages and expecting some benchmarking to come up of the imminent GPUs from both AMD and nVidia but not much has come out.

Ohh much has been said, that is sure enough, but nothing has come out.

The first thing I noticed was nVidia's surprise and knee-jerk reaction to all the talk about AMD's Polaris and some big claims were made. Only they weren't.

'Its got double the speed of that and this amount of power compared to this' was stated a lot. Except it was not quite how it was put across.

There is no doubt that it is way too early to call anything yet but what nVidia stated themselves was that the only way you were going to see these massive boosts in performance and that was if you already had or planning to purchase imminently a Virtual Reality headset. Oh and that those threee short sentences about the nVidia 1070? What was up with that? Weird.

Many got so giddy headed that they failed to note that the up and coming nVidia 1080 GPU was around 30% up on the nVidia 980Ti. Yeah that is good ... ish. It certainly is not double!

In the red corner you have the fans by the ring side giving up theories of the advancement in power of the imminent AMD Polaris 10 GPU. Also predicting whether or not these cards will be Radeon 480's with the 'X' prefix or not and that the 480 will be as fast as the Radeon 390.

Some are saying more.

I will go on record to state I am going to side with the 'more' camp and that a fraction over a Fury card might be the case.

This is a big lithography jump and if you say that Pascal is a shrunk Maxwell card and has 30% then you can say that the new node brings 30% improvements. Except, no in AMD's case.

Because they have changed and added several things to the GCN GPUs.

They themselves have stated it is the biggest jump n their history. They are not stupid enough to repeat what happened with bulldozer which was more than many tech journalists made out anyway. Ergo, you can game on an AMD A10-7850K APU. Simply stating that you cannot game on said chip is quite simply untrue.

The same is true of the FX chips but yes they did not turn out quite as I had envisioned. I thought the very idea was sound but went wrong in the process somewhere. I also put it down to desperation because, and as I stated, the new node shrinks were taking longer than they had previously.

This even put Moore's Law on the brink of collapse, though he only stated it would last ten years and was a great prediction.

We are now on the brink of an amazing 6 months of tech gold and then some!

Two GPUs with Pascal and Polaris and then there is Zen. Throw in the node shrink and it is all good, though I am very interested indeed in the latter two from AMD. Am interested in Pascal, do not get me wrong but would be more so had they announced loads of core level changes as AMD have done.

Then there will be the HBM 2 chips and everyone keeps stating that it wont be ready until September? Err yeeeah that is HBM 2. What about HBM 1? This is just a die shrink after all which is not what HBM 2 is. Not in my opinion but I could be wrong here. These are on top of the GPUs when they are grown, so surely the same HBM is the same lithography and I see HBM 2 as having other things improved. Like the interconnects? Maybe higher stacks?

The way I see it is that the one I am more interested in waiting for, which is AMD's Vega though I am also interested in say a 1080Ti or a Titan Z and what they can do, Vega is the one I am likely to be if my theories are correct and I have read everything right?

Oh and Vega in October?! *CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP* Feck it! No fingernails!

Deus Ex Mankind Divided in August, Radiohead album out imminently and I even had an extra album not long ago from my very much loved Pink Floyd. Another Amused to Death style album from Roger Waters and I think I just might die this year?!

LMAO!

Oh...my...god and then there are the movies!

Oh and the Blu-Ray releases like Batman v Superman and all the info about Justice League that will come out? Doctor Strange.

Possibly a surprise Mass Effect release and I am even seeing rumours about Elder Scrolls VI Argonia and a possible release or announcement?! WHAT?!?!

Oh-oh-oh and then there are the Playstation Neo and XBTwo announcements?! Awww I can't call it X-Bone any more? Oh darn it!

So much is going to be occurring I am not sure if I will be able to keep up?!

Where did I PUT those damned blood pressure pills?!

THE CHIPPED DIAMOND

Purely by chance and I do not know how but I came across a little article about the future of the silicon, or not so silicon any more, processor.

I was looking up the history of the humble Marshmallow as I have been thinking about it and it must be named after a plant. I wanted to know how and why, lol. I have a pack of Mega Mashmallows right next to me, I wont get into the incident with The Bag Police at the Tescos in Enfield, lol.

Long story short I am eating them as I got into vaping and was introduced to The Marshmallow Man flavour by Joshua at the local London Vape Co. So I was thinking of Marshmallows, lol.

I miss my days from Middlesex University when we used to speak in great depth how both CPUs and GPUs were made. It was sixteen years ago, JESUS, and even back then we knew that as the lithography of microchips got smaller there would be problems.

It was commonly known that due to the impurities of the Silicon itself that getting it down towards a certain point would be hard and its limit was theorised at around 10nm, or nanometres.

In an exact play through of those predicted difficulties CPUs and GPUs have taken longer this time around to go from 28nm to 16nm.

This is the reason why in the past I have been critical of computer tech journalists going nuts over a GPU card that squeezes a tiny bit more ability from it for astronomical amounts of money.

Some companies had the resources to get there somewhat sooner than the others. Before long the materials of Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride become commonly used and the transistors themselves had to change.

Now for a very ... VERY long time I have not kept abreast of these developments and I do not have access to a copy of New Scientist every time it s published, as we did at university.

So as I started out this post saying ... I happened across this blog called Chemical & Engineering News where a journalist is speaking to a man carrying diamonds. Not a deal, smuggler or even blood diamonds as these diamonds are grown. On a wafer, or we getting there yet?

It seems a company is keen on using grown diamonds to put across an idea. An idea that involves growing diamond on top of silicon because of its vastly superior thermal conductivity which is 22 times greater than silicon. He believes that eventually grown diamond will replace silicon altogether.

That is a truly bold and astonishing claim!

What with this diamond microprocessor and graphene it seems the very common substance that makes up all living things and commonly abundant, carbon, has some very, very startling qualities.

Sitting there right under our noses this whole time and we did not think to look!

I only hope that the fact that the element of carbon can become graphene is certain instances that it stands to reason that other elements may all have their own situations where there qualities and abilities change radically?

Why you don't think there is just one magical element in in the periodic toolbox, do you?

I wonder what will be first in this instance, a GPU or a CPU?

He himself thinks something along the lines of a Pentium CPU in a five year period? Interesting.

http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i20/diamond-power-future-electronics.html

Wednesday 18 May 2016

RETURN OF THE WITCHER ... 3 WILD HUNT WARRIORS

Well after a long hiatus ... finishing Sniper Army Zombie Hoard .. thingey 2 in a couple of evenings and Metro 2033 deciding to not work any longer and exiting the game to its main menu without warning ... I have finally gone back to The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt and walked away from a fight with a beat that is 8 levels higher than me!

Taking time to get back to using those controls and I am also having some issues ... I do not know if something was updated on the game that has slowed it down, or something on my system, like Raptr?

Used Raptr before and was not a problem but as you can see from the videos below ... it is laggy and it has been driving me nuts!

No rest for the wicked!

Note that in the second video I am trying to save this guy while all these Wild Hunt Warriors and their dogs attack and I go through dozens of them and then ... DIE?!

They just keep respawning! I even wondered whether or not this chap was supposed to die, as this is a flashback being told by the guy I am trying to save who has been ... well bought back from the dead?! LMAO!

That was a slick ride though!




Saturday 14 May 2016

PLAYING METRO 2033 REDUX

Well that Sniper Nazi Zombie Army game was meant to last me until Homefront The Revolution and maybe even until Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

Three days later I finished it.

Sorry but I really cannot come to terms with the fact that a £30 plus game only lasts me a couple of evenings. I had thought after buying Fallout 3 a couple years back that short games like this were a thing of the past?

Mind you I say that but my very much loved Deus Ex Human Revolution only took me several nights on the second go at it.

So now I see Metro 2033 Redux on special offer of a silly couple of quid! It was one I always wanted to play so I got it! If it does not take me more than a few days at least I have the follow up, Metro Last Light, waiting for me to buy it.






Sunday 8 May 2016

MORE NAZI ZOMBIES

Been playing this Sniper Nazi Zombie Army 2 game and am stuck on a section designed for co-operative play.

What is annoying is that often I get near the end but get taken out by those hard zombies with machine guns that seem to need being shot a dozen times before they go down!

Or I get done by the suicide zombies with the grenades just before the machine gun toting zombie appears!

Still, it is fun despite the old looking graphics.

Collision detection is garbage and hopefully the next ones will have less linearity.

I will be keeping an eye out for the fourth version of these Sniper games as well as that Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 game, or its predecessor, though it still seems to be full price for some reason?


Here is the video of me starting off playing the game, in case you missed it or I forgot to post it, lol ...


Saturday 7 May 2016

SNIPER 2 ZOMBIE ARMY STARTING OUT

I have gotten really bored with the PC gaming titles I have on my computer and am really waiting around for Homefront The Revolution, if the reviews are good, and mainly Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

Every now and then I kept wading through Origin, Steam and UPlay and the odd visit to my Game Store for something to turn up but could not find anything that peaked my interest. Or at least anything that took me longer to play than it does to take a piss?!

Sorry but things like Call of Duty are OK but simply do not last anywhere near long enough for the money they charge and even at cut down prices I ... hesitate and then decide, no.

Outside of Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare that is and with the bad reviews they get. I simply do not understand how they sell as well as they do? I mean always the top seller when all they have had since that title is really crap scores?

Do not get me wrong...I can lay claim to buying and playing the very first two titles when they came out, unlike most people and I remember them well, and with fondness. Since then I have only ever read about them via other that have played the titles. So very short games with very bad scores.

I onlly purchased Call of Duty 4 because it got very good scores.

Still way to short.

So I ended up seeing Sniper 2 Zombie Army on a special offer and just a couple of pounds and thought that would keep me busy for a few weeks.

Well in the evenings that is as I have a new fandangled Nikon camera to keep me very busy during daylight hours, if the weather is good.

Anyway here is a video of my first hour or two of playing the title and getting to grips with its very ... differentness! Lol.




Friday 6 May 2016

THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC TOOL NIKON P900

After a long, long wait and my Sony Cybershot being technically broken for about 6 months I have finally gotten around to replacing it!

My Sony has a 50x zoom, which I cannot use anything close to any longer and has now been relegated to being permanently attached to a tripod for filming in the house. As short range it can still manage to do.

After an arduous journey and battle with London's public transport, some stupid mistakes and several times where I had to stop and hand near my pocket to grab my phone and call for an ambulance, I managed to somehow struggle through it and find the camera!

Rather oddly I had left the address behind of the Camera World store I was aiming for and though I knew its rough location I was a bit worried about ending up in hospital so headed for faithful old Jessops!

Before even exiting the station at Russell Square on the way there I was slumped against a wall on a staircase!

Only when I got to where Jessops was the last time I was in there ... it was not there!

That is the other problem with Fibromyalgia ... memory problems! I had forgotten to take the address to Camera World with me and never thought of checking to see if Jessops was still at the location it was when I was last in the in New Oxford Street! Dumb-arse!

I do not know if the slumping against the wall ore the burning, tingling feelings I had for thirty minutes afterwards was anything to do with Fibromyalgia, lack of blood pressure pills or something else? Or just an unfit bastard? Was a bit rough though, which means a lot of i say that.

Walking up Oxford Street instead of heading back into Tottenham Court Road, where some loom directed me, I walked past some scaffolding and there was a PC World! I know, I know I have had a refurbished item from them and it could have happened again. But I just wandered in just to see if they had a display one. They did. It was huge!

I saw an older gentleman who looked Indian standing  looking miserable. I got the impression he might not be happy as all the younger sales people probably intercepted any sales and I asked "Well you look like your not doing much?"

After initial shock someone asked him something and walking him tot he camera I asked if they had any in stock. They did. He got the box out, I checked for any seals over the lid of the box, dead give-away to refurbished items, and there were none.

Often there are these little seals that are clear but when pulled off say the word 'void' in gold that magically appear.

I had these on three Nikon cameras I bought a few years back from Argos. Nikon do not put any seals on their box and Argos swore blind they did not do it and stated it was Nikon. Wrong.

I also had an Olympus camera that went wrong in a line of consecutively received and amounting to four cameras from Argos.

I had one professional Corsair Vengeance Keyboard with a large dent in the aluminium base plate from PC World, just in case you were wondering. Oddly the Roccas Ryos keyboard I exhhanged that one for and around 8 months down the line started missing keystroke now and then and also adding one, or even bloody two extra keystrokes! So I guess we can safely take a stab in the dark about where that came from?

To be fair the Sony Cybershot came from PC World and that was new. It ias also the only thing that I have bought that has worked flawlessly for well over two years until it got dropped on its head and it still works to a degree!

Anyhoo ...

Thought you would like to see the new camera?

Nikon Coolpix P900 ....