JDCoombs

Steam Link Set Top Box, want a preview?

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 01:37:00 +0000

Valve is poised to shake things up in the latter half of this year when it seems they plan to release a number of game changing devices (take this as literally as you like). One of these is the Steam Link set top box which will allow you to use in-home streaming in your living room. This allows you to play all your games on steam from your couch, with potentially all the bells and whistles as the Steam Link has 3 USB ports for keyboard, mouse and controller input.

Unfortunately at this stage, only Windows PCs can be hosts for in-home streaming, so someone like myself with an iMac (yes, I'm one of those... whatever they are to you :) ) as my primary computer will have to use Boot Camp (or on other OSes dual boot with your favourite boot loader) and boot into Windows. I'm actually a little surprised that Microsoft hasn't capitalised on this sort of concept with the advantage they have across their ecosystem with Windows and extending the Windows gaming experience in support of the Xbox One and 360 as some sort of living room end-point. Although someone at Microsoft might argue it'll have adverse effects on the bottom line of Xbox, you could equally argue more people would buy the thing as this adds a useful feature. Even Apple could get in on the act if they took the Apple TV a little more seriously and enabled it for peripherals (MFi Game Controllers, like the SteelSeries Peripherals), really beyond gimmicks like the ATV3 setup and bluetooth keyboard, it doesn't offer anything else.

Now if you want a little preview of what this could be like, which is no doubt the reason you're here, am I right? You're going to need an Android Set Top Box that has a bit of grunt, Google Play and an nVidia GF series card that supports GameStream, and some compatible games. Keep in mind your mileage may vary, there are almost as many different Android STBs as there are dog breeds, and if you've gone cheap on your network hardware, that may cause you headaches. The app you want to make this happen is called Limelight, you can get it here if you're rooted, or here if you're not.

To make life easy, from this point on I've copied and pasted the instructions for you, if you have any issues, there are some troubleshooting tips on the store pages for both versions of the app.

Instructions:
1. Make sure GeForce Experience is installed, updated, and that you've scanned for games.
2. In most cases, your PC will show up automatically in the PC list. Click the entry in the PC list to start pairing.
3. On your PC, enter the PIN displayed on the Android device and accept the pairing dialog.
4. Choose your PC in the PC list and the app list will be displayed where you can select a game to stream.

How The Rise of the Mobile Device has Challenged Traditional Dominance

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:09:00 +0000

Screenshot from Epic Citadel on iOS, based on Unreal Engine

The release of the iPhone changed a game, but it wasn't a game mere mortals were playing. Big changes in the game space came from the releasing the SDKs for the various mobile platforms allowing even start-ups to get up and running in app development very quickly. Even then apps were initially fairly limited, and it wasn't until it was possible to use technologies like Open GL ES 1.0 and now 2.0 that we've started to see mobile devices like the Samsung Galaxy and the iPhone putting games in the hands of whole new audiences and I'm not talking Sudoku. People who had never played games before are definately playing them now, on the bus, on the train or even at home.

It wasn't too long ago that the dominant powers in gaming were Microsoft and Sony, between PCs and their respective consoles. Fast forward to 2012 and there were more iOS and Android devices sold globally than PCs and consoles, and more of the same is expected for 2013. Couple this with the lacklustre performance of Windows 8 both tablet and desktop and you've got Open GL running toward an open goal, with not even the keeper to beat because he's too busy trying to figure out what "metro" really means. Regardless of whether you're looking at Core Profile or Embedded Open GL, the reality is for indie devs it makes more and more sense.

Beyond this the next stage has to be the lounge room, I've been saying for a while that all I want is games on my Apple TV. Unfortunately the closest I can get to this is OUYA, initially a stupidly successful kickstarter project, it is basically an Apple TV with balls, or really a different focus. Sure with Apple TV you can airplay from your iDevice to your TV screen, but a purely touch interface in this environment is somewhat clumsy, like feeling around in the dark for a switch except all you can feel is glass. There are examples where this works and works well, but they're the exception and not the rule. The Ouya is geared towards the casual gamers, the price point is definately appealing against even the current generation consoles and there are set to be a good number of ports of successful titles from other Android devices and possibly iOS.

Ouya Console and Controller

The only problem I see with the Ouya as a developer is that I have yet another hardware spec to support, but it's one that should be supported for the sake of the Super Meat Boys of this world. Having said all of that I am still keen to see what may come from the Apple corner, and unlike many I don't hope for a TV as I've already got a few of them of the Samsung and Sony variety. I really don't see the need for a "smart TV" if it's already connected to smarter things, if I really want a crippled web browser on my TV screen I'll just use my X360 and the Internet Explorer app and despite having bought into Apple's ecosystem, I'm not a fan of a big chunk of glass forcing me into either UPnP or Zeroconf.

I'm more interested in the current STB, the Apple TV and whether it'll have apps and by extension games. I know even the ATV2 is capable of running OpenGL ES 2.0, the only thing absent from the picture is gaming peripherals, and even then you could do the old Fifa-like phone app to control the big screen action. Of course if you're a developer, all this is just a jailbreak away with the Apple TV 2 and a little effort. I believe the big winner of the next console war will closely align itself to mobile devices from integrating the devices themselves, to direct ports and an app store style approach where the next Angry Birds can be bought for 99 cents.

Amazon.com Widgets

A Quick Look at ArmA 3 and DayZ

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:42:00 +0000

Introduction
ArmA 3 is the next generation Military Simulation from Bohemia Interactive Studio. On March 5th this year they released an Alpha of the game to their pre-purchase customers to assist in the testing phase. The plan is to incrementally release the different capabilities ArmA is known for, starting with Infantry, then progressing to wheeled and tracked vehicles and then finally air vehicles. This approach allows fans of the series to keep a close eye on the development of the product and while Infantry is the primary focus right now, some vehicles are already available.

New Feature - Clouds!
Well, not a new feature, they've suddenly become interesting. On the whole the graphics aren't too different from what ArmA 2 is capable of with a few config tweaks here and there, having said that they have overhauled the cloud system, no longer are they 2D objects rolling through the sky in the same direction, they actually look quite real as the video below shows. In addition they appear to have tweaked the atmospheric lighting to work with the clouds quite well.

New Feature - Infantry Stance

The single biggest enhancement at this stage is the stance system, no longer are you limited to prone, crouched and standing (yes CoD warriors, real people have more than two choices here!), in fact you can go all the way from prone to a seated static position, different levels of crouched and kneeling all the way up to a high stance to peek over stuff, and that's just scratching the surface. For a more detailed look, see this comprehensive video (content from: YouTube: Dyslexci):

Future of Mods
At this stage it appears mods for the game will have a strong future as there is already a lot of work going on in this space with some users porting islands from ArmA2 and previous games. As for the scripting, the SQF language survives and it's quite possible the native code extensions will make a return to support the backend features seen in mod turned standalone game DayZ, there is also suggestion from the devs that they intend to support object-oriented scripting through Java.

If you haven't seen ArmA II, you can pick up a copy by clicking the image above, the game has recently seen a surge in popularity thanks to the hugely popular zombie survival mod, DayZ. As mentioned before it has now become a standalone developed by BI.

The Only Mod Worth Buying - DayZ

Normally I'm an excessively keen pure first person shooter player, have been since the original Counter-Strike days. The Walking Dead has probably contributed a little to the success of DayZ, as in my personal circumstances I started playing the mod after watching an episode of the show as there was something appealing about attempting to survive a zombie apocalypse in a massive open world with other live people. Whether you team up with others or go it alone the game experience has been quite rewarding and if anything I wish I had more time to play it. Fortunately, if you already own a copy of ArmA 2, you can currently get the mod for free via Play withSIX, which allows you to easily manage mods and other custom content, as well as browsing for servers.

DayZ Blog

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Installing JSAF on Fedora 16

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:58:00 +0000

I'll freely admit I am a newbie when it comes to JSAF, we recently received a copy and I had the task of attempting to install it under Fedora 16. I assure you it can be done successfully, and to save you a little head scratching here's a few simple steps:

1. Install OpenMotif via the RPM package suitable for your distro (ignore the fact it says fc12, it works!): i686 x86_64
2. At a terminal prompt, sudo yum install xorg-x11-fonts*

The second step will install a number of fonts JSAF depends on, plus a handful it doesn't. You could comb through the font packages and weed out a lot of fluff for a lean and mean VM appliance build, but for my purposes a blanket approach worked just fine. After you've followed these steps, follow the JSAF install instructions provided and you should be good to go.

Keep in mind this is by no means a definitive guide, it's just what I needed to do to get JSAF working for me.

Jamie

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VBS2 Amphib Video Pacific 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:19:00 +0000

NB: This video may show features not currently available to any customer.

Text from BISim:

This scenario demonstrates the ability of simulation to provide a valuable training asset within the ARG and the Royal Australian Navy in conducting realistic mission rehearsals of operations in a federated environment. Training scenarios using VBS2 are conducted in other Allied Navies worldwide.

Naval training and its specialities, is of key focus for VBS2 2.0. In particular the new release, due to be delivered to the USMC in March 2012, provides excellent support for below waterline, scuba capability, replication of tides and sea states and radar support. An increased demand from BISim's customers has identified these capabilities, amongst others, to be delivered in support of Naval customers worldwide.

VBS2 Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Due to a few requests I'm posting an updated list of VBS2 Online resources, particularly for the standard manuals since some of the URLs have changed:

http://www.bisimulations.com/support/manuals/ - All of the normal VBS2 Manuals in one location.

http://developer.vbs2.com/onlinehelp/ - Developer manuals (URL hasn't changed, yet)

http://resources.bisimulations.com/wiki/Main_Page - VBS2 Specific Wiki

http://www.simct.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page - SimCentric wiki for VBS2 Fires and Fusion API

http://resources.bisimulations.com/wiki/Category:Demo_Missions - Demo missions to show some non-standard VBS2 capabilities developed with scripting.

Late update

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

OK, haven't been around for a while or able to update my blog. Anyway, fact is the current useage of any tool I've created for VBS2 is unrestricted by my use of a non-commercial license provided it's not modified or included in a commercial body of work and then sold on.

Work continues on a number of projects, particularly gunnery systems which will be made available to all holders of the represented systems, hopefully these will somewhat represent the equipment they have, given I'm limited to what I can find on the internet. Luckily there's a lot of LAV and Abrams stuff online to enable those particular projects (such as youtube videos).

As far as Acceler8ion, it has skipped 0.03 entirely due to the release of V4 and the new text format, working on an update which will be 0.04 to be released when it's done and reasonably well tested for issues.

I am also working on a number of other private projects for large VBS2 customers on a non-commercial basis.

Busy times, but hopefully more updates to this blog on the way.

Jamie.

Altered EULA for PE Users

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Well it seems with the release of 1.3 that Serious Gamers (of which I am one) are under restricted license terms if we are to update to the new version and are offered a free change over to a new key. Users can ask for concessions in the EULA but this is by exception, unfortunately my attempts to negotiate this failed as my attempt to inject humour into the situation failed.

As it stands now, I can't afford the commercial license fee for my current key code, so I will retain this key and not migrate to the new EULA for some time to retain the relatively unrestricted distribution rights for my content. Unfortunately this means I can't confirm if my content works as advertised in 1.3.

I am not bitter about it to be honest, humour was misinterpreted and my negotiations will go nowhere. If you use my tools, including Acceler8ion, I can't really do much for you until I migrate over.

Jamie.

TripleHead2Gone?

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:23:00 +0000

Many of you would be familiar with the Matrox product TripleHead2Go, which comes in two flavours, analog and digital, the digital one offering a higher potential resolution that the other. The basic idea is that this little gadget splits a single display across three screens. VBS2 supports this by default with a 12:3 triplehead aspect ratio in the options. The down side for the average person on a budget is these boxes cost about $500 Australian.

Fortunately there's a cheaper solution, if you have more than 1 PCI Express X16 slot on your motherboard, you can simply install another GPU (provided your power supply can handle the load). The bonus here is that if you're not running the cards in SLI or crossfire, there is no requirement for them to be the same card model at all, for example I can pair my 285 GTX with my old 8800GTS and there would be no dramas. The only reason for another card is to display output for a third monitor, ensuring your most powerful GPU is supporting the primary display and is in the primary PCI-E slot. No graphics processing will actually be done on the lesser card in the pairing. Minor configuration is required in windows to ensure the monitors are displaying in the right order, and selecting the triplehead aspect ratio in the VBS2 options will enable you to stretch across 3 screens. Running windowed mode, all that is required usually is to manually stretch the window across the 3 displays.

In theory this should work for any PCI-e card on the lower end including 6800s as all the low-end card does is output the display and offers up extra DVI ports for your monitors. The only limitation in capability is derived from your monitors and the display output your GPUs can achieve. If you are attempting this and in doubt, seek technical assistance and advice on your particular PC.

Jamie.

Total Hits Approaches 2000

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Well it has been a slow climb, but I'm approaching 2000 hits since I put clustrmaps on this blog on the 3rd of April, over 500 of these hits have been from the USA, with Australia making up about 360 of the hits. Keep in mind this is not counting my subscriber base via RSS feeds or e-mail subscriptions. The top 10 visitor tallies via country are as follows:

United States (US)	574
Australia (AU)	359
United Kingdom (GB)	149
Germany (DE)	133
Canada (CA)	130
Russian Federation (RU)	59
New Zealand (NZ)	50
France (FR)	32
Netherlands (NL)	31
Singapore (SG)	26

House Move Complete + Other Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:14:00 +0000

Well my house moving is complete which was at extraordinarily short notice and for the moment I'm going through the house networking the whole thing with new cat 5 cable and everything seems to be ok so far, except for the fact the missus crimped one end of a cable and between us we stuffed it up!

In other news I recently purchased Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising for the PC. I was interested to see how it would stack up against ArmA 2, unfortunately for me it doesn't, and perhaps it comes down to the fact the game as a whole isn't for me. I do like some elements of the scenario editor, and the havok physics engine implementation is pretty cool in some regards. Unlike ArmA2 or VBS2, the editor for OFPDR is external to the game as an executable, and only contains a 2D view, so it's similar to the old mission editor interface. Scripting for the game is via LUA, an editor for which is embedded into the mission editor and learning this language isn't really optional if you want more than 63 player or non-player entities. If you put more than 63 AI and playable units in the scenario, you need to script showing certain groups up at points of the game with triggers, or the scenario simply wont run.

The physics is reasonably well executed, ragdoll physics are implemented for corpses, and buildings blow apart with debris going everywhere. However, despite my best efforts in an Abrams, I can't run down trees while doing 60km/h. Minor dismemberment is present in the game, shooting someone's limbs off with a 50 cal is achievable, however not really noticeable until you get up close. The particle effects are somewhat wrong as well, smoke and dust just doesn't look realistic, and even VBS2's standard effects are better.

I personally don't see this game having much of a military application in its current state, some ideas are good, particularly radial menus, however those can be seen in America's Army 3 and other well known applications. Having said that if it was altered it might have a purpose for soldiers, particularly if tools were available. It's a shame because it's one of the few large scale FPS type games that could enter into any form of competition with VBS2, possibly even SB Pro.

Speaking of VBS2, isn't 1.3 overdue? I'm guessing a delay of this duration could only mean one thing - feature overload, which is probably a good thing, provided the features are well executed. According to the forums we should be able to expect the new version at the end of the month as it has been in final testing for a few weeks.

Also, I'm seeking assistance from the wider community on developing a better understanding of dedicated servers, how they work, why they fail and their configuration, I have been experimenting myself, but I'm trying to find a good balance. Anyone who has any solid information and experience in this area, please get in touch. Additionally, reasonable experience operating with LVC Game would be appreciated. Unfortunately any information that BIA/BISim might have on running dedicated is not very detailed, and currently the best source is the bistudio wiki.

Jamie.

New AVRS Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:10:00 +0000

Some new AVRS/HCGT videos were posted to youtube in the last day or so, check out http://www.youtube.com/user/Sevent007 for more!

The Weird Support System

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Some of you may not be completely aware that earlier this year BIA transitioned from an open, Mantis based support system for bug/issue reporting by customers to an e-mail based support system. The reasons for this are not so apparent, the only thing I've heard from BIA's end is "it's better". The question is, better for who? The trouble with this new system, is reporting is not highly visible, take for example if I spotted a bug in the current version and reported it via e-mail, there's a chance that someone else has reported it as well, resulting in two separate cases, requiring two separate responses.

So how does this rate in the efficiency stakes? it doesn't. During the start of the year there was a lot of discussion among military customers that BIA support on the forums or via e-mail was pretty much non-existant. This continued until only a few months ago actually, and despite the advertised 24-48 hours for a reply, this is regularly not the case. In one instance, I reported a relatively minor issue on the 8th of May and didn't receive a valid response to the question until the 29th of July. So what do we blame it on? The Game After Ambush contract or the change over to the "better" support system?

Either way, questions aren't being answered, perhaps they're happy to let people do their job for them?

Jamie.

New HMDs from VSS

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Virtual Simulation Systems (unsure of where this company came from, it's quite possibly VIS) have shots of their new head mounted display system on their website http://www.virtualsimulationsystems.com/hmd.htm and a bit of text describing the products they offer in this line. VIS is the company that offers the call for fire/marksman dome I've mentioned previously, VSS seems to be advertising the same thing in 4ft and 7ft configurations.

Shown on the page is what looks to be the mentioned NVG-1 units which look like reasonable quality of replicas of in-service issued goggles. There appears to be no mention if head tracking is included with these or needs to be acquired separately.

In addition to this, these guys appear to be offering a variety of services and products that may be worth looking at if a little external development assistance is required.

Jamie.

Delays

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:43:00 +0000

OK, one more apology for delays to go out to everyone, the battle previously mentioned on this blog and elsewhere took a lot out of me, I've been ineffective after hours as a result. There seemed to be a suggestion down south that I wasn't acting in the best interests of deploying soldiers, a belief no doubt maintained as I've made no effort beyond this to put it down. I do not believe at any time I have denied any organisation the ability to support any deploying force in a timely fashion as I have not adversely affected their access to tools or skilled people to get the job done.

If it was my choice, this would never have happened and use of Acceler8ion would have continued in line with the terms outlined. New terms were recently forwarded to ASW, to which I got no reply and can only assume they haven't agreed at this stage, I can only hope if they were desperate to use the tool they would be employing it, but who knows.

End result and effect for now, is that until I reset and get "back on the horse", for the short term there wont be any immediately forthcoming works from myself, I can only say the next version of Acceler8ion will be released when it's done.

Cheers,

Jamie.

Moving Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:22:00 +0000

OK, now that the IP wars are over, looking forward to Acceler8ion 0.03 on the horizon. I am looking at a number of features that have been requested by users, including a fix finally to the LBT export. Additionally I'm looking at XYZ export as previously stated, and EMF layer export. These features will essentially allow you to survey the game world and output data to use for whatever purpose you intend to. In addition place holder models for any object you don't have the P3D for can be generated allowing you to use anything in the objects menu you wish as part of your terrain and see a representation of that in V3, which will be replaced by the actual object when in-game.

This version would hopefully be no more than a week or two off, I've encountered some unexpected bugs along the way and have to adjust and remove those, I'm hoping to get 0.03 out nearly completely bug free.

Meanwhile 0.1 (we're jumping a few version numbers now) is already in the planning phase, bringing quite a few major features in consultation with users and responding to their requests. I would like to thank my users for being relatively flex and waiting patiently for all new versions, and for those of you having trouble, please understand I juggle your wishes with those of the girlfriend.

Cheers,

Jamie.

Lesson Learned - I Hope!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:42:00 +0000

This lesson for others - tread lightly, exercise caution and don't assume the worst! More often than not there's either an honest mistake involved or a misinterpretation somewhere along the line.

Second time I've got the lesson and failed the test here.

Cheers,

Jamie.

Topography

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:37:00 +0000

Just to give you guys a quick look at what I've been up to lately on Acceler8ion. Some of you may have already seen this and got a sneak peak. Basically I'm working on a set of scripts both in VBS2 and GM that will make creating a topographical map from any in-game map a lot easier. The output here is a 1:50 000 scale representation of Sahrani with GM generated contours and VBS2's EMF output for vegetation and buildings. This has been one of the major reasons for delaying the new beta as the work going into this feature is substantial.

Enjoy.

Jamie.

Rumours?

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:12:00 +0000

Well as we can see this week, Pete Morrison posted on the forums about some rumours that are apparently circulating about BIA/BISim. Truth be told, I haven't heard about any of them so I'm a little puzzled. It's a damn shame that some of them aren't coming true however, support might be a little faster and more efficient then (not my words!).

In other news, the third beta of Acceler8ion has been a little delayed. Having said that, it will do exactly what it says it will do when it is delivered, I've just had a few minor issues getting time to work on it.

And what has held me up? my fire control core. A massive work in progress that brings VBS2 out of WW2/'Nam era gunnery. The basic concept is it provides all the hard working compnents required for at least a basic simulation of a ballistic computer.

This is in addition to my AI Enhancement which is progressing rather well. I'm hoping to have all these things ready for testing when 1.3 arrives, and available for release soon after assuming the testing goes well. Certain users will get these things ahead of time to provide feedback before testing with 1.3.

Jamie.

Visitor 4 Handout

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:32:00 +0000

For the terrain developers out there, BIA has released a new Visitor 4 handout that highlights some of the key features in the new tool. It looks fairly interesting, there are some new things that look like they'll be handy. I am very much hopeful that this is just the shortlist though, as the features in the handout, while good, aren't everything on the wishlist. You can check out the document here.

Jamie.

New PC First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:28:00 +0000

Well the parts of my new PC arrived today, I carefully assembled it over the course of about an hour, burnt a new Win 7 RC disc and installed it on the Solid State Disc (SSD) in around 20-30 minutes. I didn't actually time the OS install, but I sat down to eat and before I was finished the PC was at the desktop waiting for me.

Unfortunately at first there was something dodgy going on, every few seconds the PC would freeze and jerk around, I thought perhaps it was a faulty SSD as I'd heard horror stories. For about four hours I was tweaking bios settings, disabling defragmenting (really bad for SSDs) and other windows features that could have caused the problem. Then I read a suggestion to choose another SATA port on the motherboard, gave it a shot and now the speed is blinding.

I've since tested VBS2 on this spec, set everything to Very High in the video settings and both view distance and object distance to 10km, and still got a fairly reasonable frame rate at ground level on Sahrani. I wouldn't play at those settings as I could see things going downhill pretty fast! That and 10km view distance isn't really useful for dismounts. I will be testing ArmA2 later, this should be interesting.

Jamie.

New US Army Promo Video for VBS2

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:01:00 +0000

For those of you who haven't noticed, there's a new promo video on the VBS2 website for the US Army. Fortunately I have you guys covered! Music is the standard Pirates of the Carribean style from previous promo vids, in fact it's identical to the music from the UK MoD video. But we're not watching for the music!

Jamie.

eMagin z800 Goggles on Sale!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:39:00 +0000

For those of you who want to push the limits of virtual reality with a few toys, and with the cash spare, feel free to check out the emagin z800 goggles, similar to the ones used on the Loadmaster training system provided by BIA and LaserShot. VRealities.com has these on sale for $200 USD off the normal price, at $1299 USD. Check them out here.

The z800 goggles are probably the cheapest you can find on the market right now with built-in head tracking via gyroscope. You can get other goggles much cheaper than these, however they aren't head tracking capable, meaning a separate solution is needed, such as a 3DOF gyroscopic tracking sensor or Track IR, both available from VRealities.com. NB: This is not a paid advertisement, simply mentioning these goggles because they're awesome, if I had the cash spare, I would buy them myself, however I just spent around $2500 on a new PC.

New PC Spec:
1 Antec Three Hundred Case
1 Intel Core i7 920
1 Western Digital Green 1TB WD10EADS
1 ASUS P6T Motherboard
1 Corsair TX-850 850W Power Supply
1 OCZ Solid State Drive 3.5" Adaptor Bracket
1 Corsair HX3X12G1600C9 12GB (6x2GB) DDR3
1 EVGA GeForce GTX 285 2GB
1 G.Skill Falcon 64GB SSD

Feel the Power?

Jamie.

Modern Warfare 2 Promo

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0000

For the CoD4 players out there, there is a new video based on Modern Warfare 2 out, showing what's in the prestige pack. They make claims of real working NVGs and such, they do help you see in the dark but they're not operating on the same principle as what are seen in operation with militaries around the world. Video below:

For anyone who's interested, pause the video with the front end pointed at you, you'll see a series of bumps around the lense, these are IR LEDs, essentially the thing in the middle is a webcam with the IR filter removed, and on the user end are 2 low-res monochromatic displays.

Jamie.

Acceler8ion Bug

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Coombs) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:57:00 +0000

ALCON,

The Acceler8ion module has a bug with LBT export in 0.02. Please do NOT use this export function until the fix is released with 0.03.

The released of 0.03 to the test group is a little while off, and will be forwarded via the usual means. The Changelog is fairly ambitious.

Jamie.