Comment Re:Infiltrated? I think not. (Score 1) 580
I totally vouch for this! Wasn't Epic also working on a Linux variant of their Unreal Engine?
Submission + - Unique Map Shows Height of Earth's Forests (ibtimes.com)
Hkibtimes writes: A group of scientists from NASA and the University of Maryland have created a unique map that shows the heights of the Earth's forests. The map, supposedly an accurate and high-resolution reading, has been created using 2.5 million carefully screened and globally distributed laser pulse measurements sent from space.
Comment Game Framework (Score 1) 406
I think Sony should focus on providing a better framework, similar to the one from Microsoft on the Xbox360. With the PlayStation 3 they missed several important things:
- Cross-game chat
- Good way to use save games for all players (for a long time they did not support this)
- Build-in match-making system (currently a developer has to create it's own system)
- Same for voice/mic-systems
- Proper in-game menu when pressing the home button (it took Sony several months after release to implement this, and it is still not as good as the Xbox's)
- Good trophy system (that doesn't have to sync 90% of the time)
- Non-blocking game/system-update-downloads
- Implement a max-game-update size (currently it is only limited by to the amount of bandwidth the producer wants to pay for)
Comment Debugging assembly... (Score 1) 4
I work in the games industry as a gameplay programmer. Our boss is not that old and comes from a low-level engineer origin. So even though he doesn't code anymore he still stays and likes to help out debug assembly on PS3's from time to time. During crunch time he's almost always the last person to leave, and doesn't code at all. I suppose in our business it's just impossible for the boss to leave before the rest has finished, he has to do a quality check on the final product and verify it with the producers and project managers etc.
And he'll make sure we get good food.. :)
Analysts Foresee Another Banner Year For Videogame Industry 205
Analysts observing the videogame industry forsee 2008 being another blockbuster year in sales. Sales during the month of February were considerably up, according to the NPD group. Early in the year is historically a very slow time in the game sales calendar, making the 34% jump for the month highly significant. Grand Theft Auto IV is likely to be an engine for sales throughout the year: "The game, which will be available on the Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, is expected to boost sales of both consoles. Pre-orders have been better than expected, according to its publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, expects the game to sell about 9 million units during the company's fiscal year, which ends in October. Roughly 6 million of this, he added, will be to Xbox 360 owners."
WiiWare Week Round Up 64
Mark Graham writes "All this week, UK games development site Develop has been running a series of articles under its 'WiiWare Week' banner, analyzing developer's affections for, and the potential success of Nintendo's upcoming WiiWare digital distribution platform. Most revealing is the claim that Nintendo has been secretly 'waging war' on the likes of Sony and Microsoft by capitalizing on frustrations over cuts to the Xbox Live Arcade royalty rate (down from 70% to 35% for any game making under $4m in revenue) and talking up the service's access to a wide audience to win over development support. It features commentary from both established developers (such as David Braben, creator of Elite, and Scott Orr, creator of Madden) — and indie teams (developers of new WiiWare games Pop and Gravitronix) making launch games for the service."
EA Launches 'Hostile' Bid for GTA Publisher 171
Games news sites are reporting that EA has issued a new offering to Take-Two's shareholders in an attempt to purchase the company outright. Last month EA offered some $2 billion to Take-Two in an effort to accomplish the same goal. Take-Two declined, and EA took their offer public. Now, Electronic Arts is offering the price of some $26 per share to Take-Two's holders, a generous valuation. "Within ten business days Take-Two is required by law to publish, send or give to shareholders (and file with the Securities and Exchange Commission), a statement as to whether it recommends acceptance or rejection of the latest offer ... Since EA launched its February bid Take-Two said that other parties had approached it regarding a merger, but that it hadn't entered into negotiations with other companies about a deal."
Gibson Accuses Guitar Hero of Patent Violation 192
robipilot writes "Video game publisher Activision Inc. has asked a federal court to declare that its popular "Guitar Hero" game does not violate a patent held by real-guitar maker Gibson Guitar Corp. Gibson's 1999 patent covers a virtual-reality device that included a headset with speakers that simulated participating in a concert, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday by Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles."
Carmack Speaks On Ray Tracing, Future id Engines 256
Vigile writes "As a matter of principle, when legendary game programmer John Carmack speaks, the entire industry listens. In a recent interview he comments on a multitude of topics starting with information about Intel, their ray tracing research and upcoming Larrabee GPU. Carmack seems to think that Intel's direction using traditional ray tracing methods is not going to work and instead theorizes that using ray casting to traverse a new data structure he is developing is the best course of action. The 'sparse voxel octree' that Carmack discusses would allow for 'unique geometry down to the equivalent of the texel across everything.' He goes on to discuss other topics like the hardware necessary to efficiently process his new data structure, translation to consoles, multi-GPU PC gaming and even the world of hardware physics."
Unreal Creator Proclaims PCs are Not For Gaming 705
An anonymous reader writes "TG Daily is running an interesting interview with EPIC founder and Unreal creator Tim Sweeney. Sweeney is anyway very clear about his views on the gaming industry, but it is surprising how sharply he criticizes the PC industry for transforming the PC into a useless gaming machine. He's especially unhappy with Intel, which he says has integrated graphics chipsets that 'just don't work'."
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