optimization
Latest
Xiaomi's global devices to get Opera's data-saving tech
Following yesterday's announcement on Opera Max supporting YouTube and Netflix, today the company revealed that Xiaomi's latest Android fork, MIUI 7, will have the same data-saving technology baked into its Data Saver feature. According to Xiaomi, this can reduce data usage across all apps by up to 50 percent, though encrypted connections are still left untouched. While Data Saver has already been on Xiaomi's China devices for about a year, it'll be a first for global MIUI users, though they'll have to wait for a few more months. That said, other features such as "up to 30 percent faster response time," "10 percent better battery life" and face recognition in photo album will be available right away. All global Xiaomi devices except for Mi Note and Mi Pad can grab the update on August 24th.
Google and NASA make a short film to explain their quantum computing lab (update: video)
Google and NASA made much ado of their Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab when it launched in May, but they said little about how it works or its long-term goals. The two organizations are shedding a little more light on the subject through a new short film for the Imagine Films Science Festival. As Google and NASA explain, the lab could ultimately solve optimization problems that are beyond the scope of traditional computers. NASA may develop a more holistic model of the universe, for example, while Google could improve medicine. The film also provides a rare peek at the inside of one of D-Wave's second-generation quantum computers -- despite the small size of the circuitry, each system needs a giant enclosure that cools the hardware down to near absolute zero. The film is available to watch through The Verge, but those who want to check out the official screening can pay for a $50 festival pass and visit Google's New York City campus on October 11th at 7PM. Update: The short film is now embedded after the break for your viewing pleasure.
PlanetSide 2 launches Operation: Make Faster Game
It's easy for most players not to think about optimization. Games run the way they run, and you turn down options until you strike a balance between graphical prettiness and acceptable framerates. But developers spend a lot of time thinking about these things, and that thinking is precisely what's informing the new major development project for PlanetSide 2. Tech director Ryan Elam explains what this means in a letter to the community about what the team is planning to do with the game. Elam explains that at this point the team feels that the core game mechanics are where they need to be. What the game does need is to trim out bits of visual fluff and effects that force the game to run more slowly than it should. So the developers are working on simple ways to do that, like slowing the rate of updates on adjacent players to speed up large battles and simplifying the physics engine to not render changes that players cannot see or interact with. For a full list of the optimization projects, take a look at the letter. [Thanks to Gustavo for the tip!]
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Take what drops?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. In looking over the changes to warriors in patch 5.4, we know that the patch will be going live on September 10th and, as of now, we've seen very little in way of buffs to our DPS (fury is seeing a change to Storm Bolt that might make it worth taking, arms is getting some AoE dps buffs and all warriors should see a slight bump from Deep Wounds, but nothing terribly significant) - I think it's safe to say we're not going to see anything like a buff to our main attacks at this point. Combined with some set bonuses that will favor arms over fury (the two piece, anyway) and I admit that I'm considering going arms once 5.4 rolls around. This is deeply ironic considering I just got a heroic thunderforged 1h weapon for my SMF set. I took the scimitar for three reasons I think most warrior players will appreciate. It was a huge improvement over my normal 2h raid weapons. It dropped and I could use it. See number two. While SMF puts out more DPS than either TG or arms as of right now (it's debatable whether or not that will continue) the two fury specs are close enough that as of right now, DPS warriors are in a strange position of being able to essentially switch between the two. It's not as easy as simply slapping on the weapons, of course - the current game is one with reforging and gem selection to consider. In order to go from TG to SMF, I have to reforge several pieces of gear as well as change my gem selection (and it is of course even harder to go arms from either TG or SMF). This is somewhat counter to the idea that you would use either TG or SMF based on whatever drops - even if you find yourself suddenly holding a much better SMF set, you can't ignore the work you'll need to get SMF ready, and you certainly can't switch between the two on a fight per fight basis.
The Daily Grind: How stat-heavy do you like your game mechanics?
Playing Allods Online, you will not find yourself simply raising one stat even if all you do is swing a weapon at something. See, there's one stat that increases your overall damage, another stat that improves the range of that damage (so you're more likely to hit for a higher number rather than a lower one), and a few other stats that also affect something as simple as "how hard do I hit." It's not simple by any means, but it does provide an interesting dynamic wherein your primary stat isn't all that high, and you hit for astonishingly consistent amounts. Is that a good thing? Well, some players will be quick to point out that the game is doing with four stats what could really be done with one. Others like to have that amount of fine control over a character. So today we ask: How stat-heavy do you like your game mechanics? Do you want even the simplest character to be looking at seven or eight different numbers at all times, or are you happiest when you've got a choice between three stats at most? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: How important is endgame progression to you?
For some players, the real meat of an MMORPG begins when you don't have any more pesky levels to worry about. Leveling is training, but using all that training to clear through the hardest content in the game is what you signed up for. Whether it's in World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2, these players feel that the real push is to have the best possible gear and optimize your character specialties. For other players, the endgame is just an addition, sometimes even an unwelcome one. Having the best gear or the best build is nice, but it's not worth pursuing at the detriment of your enjoyment. Far better to just do dailies in Star Wars: The Old Republic or level a new character in Champions Online. These players can be just as dedicated to the game, but they just don't care for the endgame push. So which category do you lean toward? Is the progression track at the top what you live for, or is it just a distraction? How important is endgame progression to you? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
APB: Reloaded dev blog talks optimization
Devs say the darndest things. In APB: Reloaded's latest dev blog, optimization of the live game is likened to changing your car's oil while speeding along at 65 mph. While not an admission of actually attempting the latter, this fact-filled dev diary does get into the nitty gritty of the optimization process; it offers a view (literally, with graphs and pictures) of both the software and hardware optimizations that are in the works. A new OTW (Open Test World) called Overkill will soon come online to test a new bit of hardware developed specifically for the game to help improve performance. Those who are current OTW testers can expect to see Overkill in the next two weeks, while all players can expect to see release 1.10.2, with its performance improvements, very soon. If you want to see exactly what is being done to improve your FPS in game, this is the blog to read.
Google drafts checklist for making top-notch Android tablet apps
Google's Senior Mobile VP Andy Rubin has been cool towards tablet apps, arguing that mobile titles shouldn't be tuned to a specific form factor. Whether you agree with that assessment or not, his company has produced an (arguably overdue) tablet app checklist to help developers with big screen ambitions. The step-by-step walkthrough tells developers how to make the most of all that free space and optimize for the larger hardware, touch input targets and widgets. There's a difference between having guidelines and getting app writers to follow them, but the checklist is an important step towards keeping that Galaxy Note 10.1 or Nexus 7 well-fed. [Thanks, Christopher]
Faces of BlizzCon: We asked Ask Mr. Robot
Can't make it to Anaheim for the convention? WoW Insider takes you behind the scenes at BlizzCon 2011. WoW Insider has scored an exclusive interview with the intellect behind the gear optimizer Ask Mr. Robot -- Mr. Robot himself. The elusive Mr. Robot is rarely spotted in the wild, let alone in places as packed with unaugmented humanity as BlizzCon. While we'll be bringing you a more in-depth interview soon with the dev team of Ask Mr. Robot (how the tool will be handling the upcoming new talent system, the inner workings of spec scores and stat weights, what's ahead with new apps, service levels and games), we felt it was vital to bring you this binary code translation straight from BlizzCon and Mr. Robot himself. WoW Insider: What is the most challenging aspect of working with WoW-playing humans? Mr. Robot: The most challenging aspect of working with WoW-playing humans is feelings. Everybody has a feeling about everything. How can you feel about numbers? About gear? There's nothing to feel about that. What is the best class? Not rogues. What steps can we take to become favored vassals after the robot uprising? That is a very good question. There's a lot of things that you can do. First, use the website, because that offers you basic protection. Having the mobile app offers another layer of protection. I've been developing all these layers of protection specifically to save humans from the robot apocalypse. We're going to be releasing even more features; the more you use, the more you are protected.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: IceClean
OS X does a pretty good job of maintaining itself due to its Unix core, but there are times when you'd like to run some of its self maintenance tasks manually, and that's where IceClean comes in. Just using the built-in Unix System Tasks that underlay OS X, you can clean out system caches for both the user and root, delete temporary files and remove log files all from IceClean's menu-orientated UI. If you feel your Safari is a trudging a little, there's even an option for a Deep Safari Cleanup, which should go someway to helping speed up your experience. IceClean isn't all about cleaning though, it features a whole host of maintenance options including the usual verification and repair of your system disk, disk permissions and .plist files, as well as database optimizations including Launch Services. You can run the whole lot with one command or even schedule the maintenance tasks to be run daily, weekly or monthly at a time to suit you. IceClean can also poll the system for all sorts of information like system, disk and kernel information. Whois and network lookup tools are there too for network diagnostics. You can also force a Time Machine backup, kill Dashboard, speed up Spotlight indexing, force empty the Trash, modify screenshot settings and perform many other small tasks using the Utilities menu. IceClean is a one stop shop for most of your maintenance needs. It's not as user friendly as other options like Onyx, but for the sheer utility built into one app, IceClean is worth the free download.
Genesi's hard float ARM optimizations can hasten Linux floating point operations by 300 percent
You may know Genesi for its ARM-based Smartbook, but a recent software initiative it's undertaken has much broader implications for the Linux ecosystem. Traditionally, the Penguin-powered OS is compiled under the assumption that all ARM designs contain floating point silicon. Unfortunately, this is only true of recent architectures, creating a problem for older chipsets who stumble when executing floating point code. It's the realization of the fault that stalls progress as the chip is forced to rely on software emulation to make the appropriate stars align. Heavy stuff, but the firm's work in recompiling 90 percent of the existing Debian repository have caused a 300 percent increase in the speed of applications that are heavily reliant on floating point. Purportedly, they managed this without changing a single line of source code, but we'll leave it to them to explain -- there's a 15 minute barrage of technobabble waiting just after the break.
RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
Windows 7 gets a thorough SSD optimization guide
We all know we want an SSD, but do we truly know what to do with one when we get it? Sure, you could plug it into the familiar SATA and power cables and consider your job done, but that's not really the way of the geek. To educate us wistful, hopeful, soon-to-be SSD owners, TweakTown have put together a comprehensive guide on optimizing your solid state storage -- starting from the very first step of picking out the right drive. What lies ahead is a full breakdown of the controllers available on the market today, along with helpful reminders of the importance of Trim command and garbage collection support. After you pick out your perfect life partner, you'll be wanting to ensure it plays along nicely with Windows 7 as well, and they've got you covered on that front too. Just hit the source link and get informed. We did, even though we still can't afford to buy one of these mythical drives.
Best Buy's $40 'pre-optimization' determined to be worthless, iPhone earbuds determined to be white
Have you tried to buy a laptop or desktop at Best Buy lately? If so, you've probably been hit for a $39.99 "pre-optimization" fee, an extra charge that you just couldn't avoid. The cost goes toward covering the meager living expenses of some poor Geek Squad employee -- and to keep their retro gaming habit in check. In exchange those workers laboriously go through your machine and "optimize" it, removing some trialware and, apparently, enabling status bars. Supposedly the machines are faster and easier to use after this service, but Consumerist and Consumer Reports tag-teamed to make sure. The results? Not good. In most cases there was no performance increase, though in one instance the machine was 32 percent slower! Laptops were also found to be left in suspend mode, sometimes with software installs and Windows Updates half-completed. The worst part is that stores often won't sell you a machine that hasn't had this "service" performed. That's what we call shady behavior -- the sort we'd expect to see at the competition.
Atlantica Online adds a new mercenary to the mix along with optimization fixes
Hwarang. No, please, don't ask us how to pronounce it. We tried looking it up and not even Google wanted to tell us exactly how to say it. But, this new unpronounceable mercenary is the latest addition to Atlantica Online.Hwarangs are taken straight from the history books, like most of Atlantica's mercenaries, as they were an elite military unit from 10th century Silla (an ancient Korean kingdom.) In the game they will be represented as potent archers with a high offensive capability but low defense. Hwarang units also have the option of sacrificing themselves in battle to buff the rest of the mercenaries under your command.Hwarangs aren't the only thing coming with this patch, however, as the Atlantica team has made the difficult decision to increase the minimum system requirements in order to cut down on load times and increase client optimization. This move has been made in order to make sure the client can perform in areas with high population counts, as that has been a hang up of the game in the past. Only a small minority of users should be affected by this change, but it will be a wealth of benefits to all other users operating in high population areas.The full patch notes are available on Atlantica's website, if you wish to delve into the many changes and fixes.
The limits of Video Mode Ultra
I think I've found the limits of Video Mode Ultra -- when we first hard in the 3.1 patch notes that Blizzard was adding in a superspecial video mode for high-end computers to use, I was excited. I just recently "updated" my PC (read: "it broke and I had to spend a lot of time and money to fix it"), and it's been running like butter, so I was interested in putting it to the test. The day after the patch dropped, I flipped the switch to Ultra, and had no problems -- until this past Saturday. While wandering around Dalaran, I noticed my framerate had dropped quite a bit. I lowered a couple of the environmental settings just a bit and I was fine again, but apparently even with a 2.5 GHz quad core CPU, 4gb of RAM, and a GeForce 9600GT, Video Mode Ultra is still just a little too hardcore for me.What's interesting is that I ran Wintergrasp a few times before having those slowdowns in Dalaran, and never had a problem. But then again, Blizzard did say that they had spent a lot of time making sure Wintergrasp was streamlined enough to run huge battles with minimal slowdown, so maybe Dalaran didn't get that same makeover. And I should say as well that I had no issues anywhere else in the world -- even my Naxx run the other evening looked perfect with Ultra flipped on.Having a "future" graphics mode on PC games is nothing new -- for most games, the highest graphics setting is usually "experimental," so there's a little leeway in terms of release time (the game looks good with current hardware, but even better with next year's gear). And Video Mode Ultra is just that -- Blizzard trying to send a shot across the bow at those who are already saying the graphics look a little dated.
Vanguard producer discusses the state of the game
In an interview with Allakhazam, Vanguard producer Thom Terrazas talked about how his game is going right now, how it is currently being improved, and improvements that can be expected for the future. Allakhazam wasn't afraid to ask the tough questions, bringing up the game's less-than-stellar launch, and asking Terrazas to pinpoint the areas that have held back Vanguard until now.Terrazas admits that the performance and system requirements of the game during the launch period lost them a lot of players, but promises that these issues are well behind them now, with a lot of optimization to the client. His advice is to get in the game and join a guild, and promises that his team listen do the community and make updates accordingly. But with the next generation of MMOs already upon us, is it too late for Vanguard to recover?
10 commandments of Mac optimization
Jason Swadley of InsanelyMac.com let us know about his posting of the Ten Commandments of Mac Optimization (I especially enjoyed the HotWp1 joke). The list is an interesting one, because it's a good mix of actual software tips, and what you might call mindset suggestions. On the practical tips side, Swadley recommends apps like Onyx and AppFresh, to keep your Mac running so fresh and so clean clean. I agree, too, with his tip about periodically taking stock of installed apps, and pruning the tree, so to speak. Like him, I tend to download and try out lots of stuff, and so it's worth it, maybe once every two weeks, to run back through the Applications folder and clear out (with AppZapper, of course) what I'm not using anymore.But Swadley's other tips are for a much more holistic form of Mac optimization. He talks about removing peripherals that aren't used, buying every piece of software you find useful, and even not coveting your neighbor's Mac (because upgrading your own older machine might be more optimal than carting around a brand new release that you won't use half of).I like it-- it's definitely a more widespread version of these kinds of lists than I'm normally used to, and all the tips are certainly good ones, even if you've heard them all before.
Spring Cleaning now Universal
Spring Cleaning, the system optimization, cleaning, and uninstaller utility from Smith Micro is now a Universal Binary. Completely rewritten from the ground up, version 9 introduces a wealth of new features and tools, such as a Task Scheduler, Permissions Fixer, a Housekeeping Scripts Runner, Spotlight Index Rebuilder, System Cache Cleaner, and others, in addition to a reworked interface. $49.99 for the package, or $19.99 for upgrades. Requires OS X 10.4. Although I can't vouch for this application, I will recommend OnyX for folks looking for something similar, and for free. I usually make sure to crack OnyX open every month or so for a bit of housekeeping of my own.(via Macworld)
View a graphical chart of file and folder sizes with Disk Inventory X
Disk Inventory X takes a unique approach to helping you analyze your disk space usage by visualizing it as a graphical chart. You can see a breakdown of which types of files are hogging the most space, and clicking on a graphical portion will display the file's location in your Mac's system. Let's hear it for the use of color, shapes and sizes in helping Mac users clean up their hard drives; those Britney Spears MP3 duplicates and abandoned BitTorrent downloads aren't going to trash themselves.Disk Inventory X is donationware and available from derlien.com.
