Thursday, March 11, 2010

GeForce 196.78 Beta Driver Runs GeForce GTX 470

Details of the GeForce GTX 470 leaks out thanks to a beta driver system dialog screen.

With Nvidia's GF100-based GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 cards launching in just over two weeks, it should surprise no one that details of the new GPUs have been leaked from a beta driver release.
Softpedia cites Czech website PCTuning as identifying beta GeForce drivers version 196.78 as supporting the GeForce GTX 470. The driver system dialog screen revealed a few key details.
According to PCTuning's findings, the GeForce GTX will have 448 CUDA cores or SIMD units and come equipped with 1,280MB of GDDR5 on a 320-bit interface. The memory clock is at 1GHz, but the effective speed is multiplied to 4GHz for a memory bandwidth of 160GB/s.
Stay tuned as more Fermi details release over the next couple of weeks. For those of you who missed it, check out Nvidia's showing of a GeForce GTX 480 pitted against an ATI Radeon 5870.

Battlestar Galactica MMO Game in Development


The end of the modern day Battlestar Galactica was a sad day for sci-fi fans, but those who are into online gaming can relive some of the good memories this as Bigpoint and Unity are currently developing a browser-based Massively Multiplayer Online Game based on the TV series.
The game will be straight-forwardly titled Battlestar Galactica Online, which is described in the press release as follows:
Players will be able to choose to play as cylons or humans in a constant struggle to control the universe or just survive its perils. A blend of tactical space combat, exploration, and mission-based gameplay will provide a diverse experience. The dramatic missions will define the game's overall storyline, enabling the player to delve into mysteries of the Battlestar universe. Battlestar Galactica Online will create a new standard for web games, with beautiful 3d graphics and innovative game mechanics bringing a new level of game play to browser based MMOG. Assets from the television production will be integrated into the game to deliver an even more authentic experience.
While the prospect of a browser-based game means that we won't be expecting graphics that'll stress even the modest versions of modern GPUs, but the tech demos from Unity3D show that browser gaming can go well beyond Bejeweled

Sony's PS3 Motion Controller is Called "Move"

So much for "Wand" or "Arc."

So all the guessing about Sony's motion controller for the PlayStation 3 is out the window. Surely we should have figured out the name would have something to do with movement, but no. We came up with "Wand" or "Arc" or some other silly name we can't mention here.
Surprisingly, Sony didn't wait until E3 2010 to show how clever the PlayStation Move title would be for its upcoming device. Instead, it broke out the controller during GDC 2010 today and said that it will arrive in stores this Fall.
Gizmodo reports that Sony will provide three packages at launch: the PlayStation Move controller by itself, a bundle with the Move, the Eye, and a game, and a complete package with Move, the console, and more. Sony said that the Eye + Move combo package will cost less than $100.
The site was also able to get a little hands-on with the device, and said that Sony adapted a SOCOM game to use the PlayStation Move. "SOCOM, compared to point-and-shoot shooters on the Wii, was much smoother, much less jittery and more accurate," the site said. "The combination of Move and PlayStation Eye seems to work well in this aspect, but it's not exactly better to use this when you compare it to a standard controller or a Mouse + Keyboard."
"I can see this as better for novices to shooters, being able to aim where you want to shoot," the site adds.