graphics – Page 4 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Wii U emulator (almost) runs ‘Mario Kart 8’ on your PC

Want a Wii U but don’t want to own Nintendo’s latest console ? That’s sort of possible now. I emphasize the “sort of” because the recently released Cemu emulator is almost entirely broken at this point. There isn’t proper gamepad support, there’s absolutely no audio and the game video stutters and glitches pretty badly in most cases if the titles launch at all. For example, in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD ‘s attract mode (the opening menu screen), little Toon Link looks he has some seriously Donnie Darko -esque energy tubes coming out of his chest, stretching far out from his cliffside overlook on Outset Island. Peep it in the video embedded below. “Contains basically no optimizations, ” the download page reads. “Expect slow frame rates and long load times.” It’s still very early days for the program, but the developers are planning on sending updates every two weeks. You’ll need a 64-bit Windows 7 (or higher) machine with an NVIDIA card and the most recent driver set to get started. Oh, and some patience. But who knows, with some time, this could turn into something as cool as the vaunted Dolphin emulator that runs Gamecube games in pretty stunning high def. For now though, you’re better off with a Wii U if you want to play Super Mario Maker . [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images] Source: Gbatemp

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Wii U emulator (almost) runs ‘Mario Kart 8’ on your PC

Building the ultimate X99 gaming and benchmarking PC

Armed with an Intel Haswell-E CPU, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and an M.2 SSD, Ars UK puts together the ultimate gaming and benchmarking rig for the office. (video link) There are all sorts of reasons why you might want to get into PC gaming over, or in addition to a console: the huge library of comparatively cheap games on Steam, niche indie games that just wouldn’t find a home anywhere else, or maybe even the flexibility to run games on anything from lowly laptops all the way through to watercooled 4K behemoths. Then there are the other guys: the ones who obsess over clock speeds, how much wattage their power supply puts out, and if you really can cram an 8-core processor and a Titan X into a PC the size of shoebox . Consider me one of those people. For me, picking out the right components and building it all into a sleek, cable-managed rig is as much a part of PC gaming as it is actually playing games. Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Turns Out Ashley Madison’s Uncrackable Passwords Are Actually Very Crackable

It was little solace to victims of the Ashley Madison hack that the company had kept their passwords extra secure. Some even said the hashing algorithm was bulletproof. But—oops!—it turns out Ashley Madison made a programming error . And now, hobbyists have already deciphered over 11 million passwords from the leaked accounts. Read more…

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Turns Out Ashley Madison’s Uncrackable Passwords Are Actually Very Crackable

Skylake for desktops: New socketed processors from Core i7 to Pentium

It’s been over two years since Intel’s entire lineup of socketed desktop processors got a true refresh. We got a smattering of high-end Broadwell chips this year and a small speed bump to the Haswell lineup last year , but it’s been a while since system builders and desktop buyers had much to be excited about. We’ve already looked at a couple of these CPUs, particularly the high-end unlocked i7-6700K. But today Intel is announcing (alongside many mobile CPUs) a more comprehensive desktop refresh that also encompasses mainstream dual- and quad-core CPUs, a few low-power options for smaller systems, and wallet-friendly chips from the Pentium line if you’re trying to build a modern system on a budget. Intel tells us that all of these should be available for purchase before the end of the year. Before we get into it, you should familiarize yourself with the features of the new 100-series chipsets , since we won’t be covering that ground again in this article. You should also know that ultra-low-end Skylake Celeron chips are coming, but won’t be released until early 2016. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Skylake for desktops: New socketed processors from Core i7 to Pentium

A Graphics Breakthrough Makes Perfect CGI Skin

You might not understand all of the technical details behind the computer graphics research being revealed at Siggraph 2015 this week, but come next year when the CG characters in movies and video games start to look indistinguishable from real humans , you’ll know who to thank. Read more…

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A Graphics Breakthrough Makes Perfect CGI Skin

New Xbox dashboard and backwards compatibility come in November

At E3, Microsoft unveiled a revamped dashboard for the Xbox One that put an emphasis on speed and community. It’s now here at Gamescom when the company has revealed when exactly this revamped user interface will be filtering down onto your console: this November. The biggest additional feature is backwards compatibility , which means that around 100 Xbox 360 titles will be available to play on the hardware. Of course, if you’ve already paid for these games for the older console, you won’t be charged again for the privilege. In addition, the company’s Mike Ybarra has revealed that all future Games with Gold that are available on the Xbox 360 will also be accessible on the Xbox One. At the same time, he also announced that DVR functionality — which is also free — will come to the console in time for the holidays. The rest of the dashboard’s features were outlined at E3, the most notable being the integration of Cortana, Microsoft’s digital voice assistant. She can be used to perform minor tasks — like recording and sharing in-game footage — without you having to stop your epic career mode run on Fifa 16 . The revamped UI also offers a new quick-launch menu that pops up when you double-tap the Xbox button on your controller. We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany for Gamescom 2015. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show. Filed under: Gaming , Microsoft Comments Source: Xbox Tags: BackwardsCompatibility, Dashboard, FallUpdate, Gamescom2015, GamesWithGold, Microsoft, Xbox, XboxOne

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New Xbox dashboard and backwards compatibility come in November

Gamers: It’s safe to upgrade to Windows 10

While the IT managers of the world stress about Windows 10’s buggy mail client , default browser , and dodgy domains, for the gamer, Microsoft’s latest and greatest OS is an exciting proposition. Windows 10, if you didn’t know, comes with DirectX 12 , which promises significant performance increases (particularly for AMD graphics card users), thanks to its new low-level API features. The trouble is, right now, there aren’t actually any games out there that use DX12. While Nvidia and AMD have both launched new drivers to bring DX12 support to a range of their current GPUs, there’s not a single DX12 game to play. 3DMark has a neat draw call benchmark that gives us some idea of how much faster DX12 will be, but it’s entirely synthetic. One of the first games to actually use DX12 will be StarDock’s upcoming RTS Ashes of the Singularity , with an early beta build showing a significant uplift in performance. We were hoping to check out a special benchmark build of the game this week, but sadly it’s been pushed back. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Gamers: It’s safe to upgrade to Windows 10

Faster booting, smaller footprint make Windows 10 an easy upgrade for old PCs

A whole bunch of people are going to upgrade to Windows 10. Not everyone . But when you offer free Windows via a nag message delivered to over 80 percent of the user base, you’re going to attract people who wouldn’t have driven to MicroCenter to buy an upgrade DVD. Especially if you bought an eligible PC in Windows 7’s heyday, you will probably be installing the new OS on five- or six-year-old hardware that has long since been forgotten about by the company that sold it to you. Or maybe you bought something during the post-Chromebook era, where Windows PCs dipped back into netbook territory in their quest for a low price tag. We installed Windows 10 on a few of these kinds of systems to see what you can expect, at least if you’re comparing a clean install to a clean install. Current users of both Windows 7 and Windows 8 should expect to recover a few gigabytes of drive space, a few megabytes of system RAM, and a few precious seconds of boot time. Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Faster booting, smaller footprint make Windows 10 an easy upgrade for old PCs

Windows 10 passes 14 million installs its first 24 hours

Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi is checking in with a Windows 10 status update, revealing that the OS is already on some 14 million devices. He notes that not everyone who reserved an upgrade has gotten it yet, but that the rollout will continue in phases over the next few weeks. While whether or not you can upgrade to Windows 10 may still be in question, we have information to help decide if you should with our FAQ and review . Of course, if you’re one of the millions already in the door, you can just let us know how the new experience is working so far. Filed under: Software , Microsoft Comments Source: Blogging Windows

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Windows 10 passes 14 million installs its first 24 hours

The latest ‘King’s Quest’ adventure starts today

In case Shenmue 3 and a Castlevania spiritual successor were a bit too recent and console-centric for your nostalgia kick, maybe the new King’s Quest will tickle your fancy. The hand-painted adventure game’s first episode is out today across a wide swath of platforms (PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 , Xbox 360 an Xbox One , Windows). Creative director Matt Korba writes on the PlayStation Blog that the aim was to make a family-friendly game in an effort to bridge the gap between players of yore and today. What’s more there are apparently quite a few references to the original games hidden here and there. Should you want to try and find ’em for yourself, it’s $9.99 per episode or $39.99 for the season pass. Filed under: Gaming , Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: PlayStation Blog

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The latest ‘King’s Quest’ adventure starts today