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'Fortnite' will add ray tracing and DLSS on September 17th
'Fortnite' will get NVIDIA's ray tracing and DLSS tech on September 17th.
MIT researchers use shadows to create a video of what happens off camera
In order for self-driving cars to park themselves, they'll need to be able to see around corners. A team from MIT's CSAIL may have a new way to do that. Using video footage of shadows, they've developed an algorithm that can recreate video of what's happening off the screen.
NVIDIA shows how much ray-tracing sucks on older GPUs
NVIDIA recently announced that ray-tracing is coming to older Pascal GPUs, and now it has detailed how well -- or not well, rather -- it will actually work. If you're happy with basic effects, the news isn't too bad. The RTX 2080 Ti will outperform its 1080 Ti counterpart by just over double for reflections, in line with what you'd expect for a next-gen card. However, for stuff that really adds realism, like advanced shadows, global illumination and ambient occlusion, the RTX 2080 Ti outperforms the 1080 Ti by up to a factor of six.
'Fortnite' on Switch still holds up against Xbox One X version
If you're a Fortnite gamer who wants to play on the go, you've got two options. Either deal with touchscreen interface on the title's mobile port, or grab the recently released Switch version of the multiplayer Battle Royale shooter. Regardless, you'll likely encounter some visual downgrades if you've been playing on a high-end console or PC. Digital Foundry has created a video to compare the differences between Fortnite on the Switch and the game on an Xbox One X to suss out what, exactly, that means.
Deadlight first details: The meaning of 1986
1986 marked a legendary era in humanity's astronomical focus. Russia launched the Mir space station, Halley's Comet lit up Earth's February skies, the Antarctic ozone hole came under intense scrutiny, and America's Challenger space shuttle exploded in a fiery cloud 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven of the astronauts on board in clear view of their family, friends and the world.1986 is also the era that Tequila Works' chose for its upcoming horror-puzzle platformer (coming to XBLA this summer), Deadlight. The two aspects could be completely unrelated, of course, if Tequila Works CEO and creative director Raul Rubio hadn't gone out of his way to mention the astronomical significance of the year to Deadlight's larger, seemingly robust story in an interview with Joystiq."The choice of the time frame was not random at all," Rubio said. "If you think about it, 1986 was the year that had a lot of lunar events. And if you put that with movies like First Blood or Day of the Dead, it's a strange mix and you can get a unique visual."Rambo: First Blood and Day of the Dead both came out in the '80s, one as a hyperbolic action film and the other a zombie cult classic, and Deadlight draws on both of these tropes in a unique way, Rubio told us.%Gallery-145241%
Choose My Adventure: Singing the skill grind blues
Well, here we are folks, smack dab in the middle of our Darkfall run for Choose My Adventure. With three weeks down and three weeks to go, I have to be honest: I feel pressed for time. There's so much to see and do in this game that six weeks simply isn't enough to really do it justice (to say nothing of the fact that it's not nearly enough time to build a competitive character in terms of the skill grind). In any event, I'll do what I can to give you an accurate read on the game, and as my first couple of columns have admittedly erred on the side of fresh-faced enjoyment, today's entry will touch on a few of the game's less than savory aspects. In addition to that, I'll recap a few of my gameplay highlights from the past week. Join me after the cut for a look at my Darkfall present and future as well as a video diary of my adventures thus far.
Fallen Earth rolls out the second part of their graphical enhancements
When the entire world has come crashing down around your ears, and you're doing your best to survive in the Grand Canyon with only your wits, your skills, and a bucket of shotgun shells... well, you'd like things to at least look pretty. Fallen Earth has been working hard on its graphical engine recently, having just rolled out a shiny new update to improve clouds, textures, and the general state of vegetation in the area. Now they've completed a second pass, with the newest updates improving light and shadow as well as several shader effects. Aside from going through and improving existing player shadows, the designers have tightened up all of the shadows in the game, giving things a far more crisp and realistic look. According to project manager Colin Dwan, the result has both improved the look of the environments and actually boosted its performance slightly. If you have Shader 3.0 hardware and the Advanced Post FX setting on, the new shadows should be immediately visible upon entrance to the game. While it's not a sweeping change, it's a subtle and thorough one, and should make the life of a clone a bit more vibrant.
Fixing FPS issues with patch 3.1
A few people are experiencing slowdown issues with patch 3.1, and since our last bit of technical help went over so well, we figured we'd do a little troubleshooting for you on this one, too. If your computer is running slower since you updated into patch 3.1, the first thing to do is check your video options -- Blizzard has tweaked a few things in there, and chances are that by tweaking them again, you might be able to fix your problem (or at least make it a little better). Specifically keep an eye out for the new Video Mode Ultra setting -- that specifically is not designed to be used unless your computer is current and top-of-the-line. Shadows also are quite a drag on the video card and CPU, and turning them down won't affect gameplay that much.If your options are already low, the next thing you might do is check your videocard's make and driver version (scroll down to the "manually" section there -- you don't need to run Intel's program). Nvidia, who makes the common GeForce series of video cards just updated their drivers to version 182.50 on April 2nd, so if you have an earlier version than that, running the update will probably help. If you have an ATI card, you can find the drivers over on their site.And of course if all of your software is set up and you're still having issues, there's always the possibility of updating your hardware. That can be quite an ordeal, though, so if you're not so sure on how to install new RAM or can't recognize the difference between SATA and IDE, you might want to enlist a friendly techie for a little help. WoW is still very forgiving, but Blizzard has been slowly adding on the graphical goodness, so if you've been playing with the same PC since launch four years ago, it might just be time for an upgrade.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Rogue
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the twenty-second in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. Rogues are the masters of shadows. While two other classes actually use the shadow as a source of magical power, it's the Rogue who can potentially live and breathe the shadow, and make it an essential part of who he or she is what he or she does."The Shadow" as a concept, could mean a number of different things to your character, however -- anything from literal shadows that he or she might disappear in, to underground networks, knowledge of the street, and secret societies few others know about. An advanced rogue might even possess an intimate relationship with "the Shadow" as a mystical force he can wrap around himself in as a kind of cloak, or step through the shadows to appear behind his enemy in a flash.In fact, your rogue may not even use the term "shadow" at all, and may simply think of himself as a simple bandit, thief, pickpocket, detective, scout, special agent, assassin, bank-robber, or even a venture capitalist. In fact, the Rogue class is suitable as a broad catch-all class for a number of seemingly unrelated character types, from a court jester to a penniless tourist.
Troubleshooting dynamic shadows on OS X and Windows
This forum thread, about the new shadow technology appearing on the Mac in 3.0.2, is confusing. There are four Blue responses in the first 10 posts, and at the end of it, I still don't have a clear idea of whether shadows work on the Mac or not. The issue seems to be this: shadows do work on the Mac, but not the highest quality shadows. Why? Because while Windows uses DirectX to do its 3D processing, OS X still uses OpenGL. And while shadows do work in OpenGL (and eventually can work just as well in OpenGL), Blizzard needs Apple to put some extensions in which aren't there yet, so the highest quality shadows aren't yet possible.Did your eyes glaze over from all that tech talk? Let's make it simple: if you're on Windows or OS X and you don't see shadows, odds are that your settings are wrong. Open up Video settings in game, and slide the Shadows slider all the way to the right as far as it will go, and then escape out and see if Shadows appear. Note, however, that this will slow your computer down, and as we said earlier today, older computers might have trouble doing this. If you're running an older PC or Mac, you may have to forget about the dynamic shadows completely.That said, according to the Blues, with the shadow slider flipped all the way up on a PC and a Mac, the PC's shadows will look a little better. That's not a limitation of your computer (or of Blizzard's designers), it's a limitation of the technologies that Blizzard is using to make the game. When OpenGL (the code that allows game makers like Blizzard to draw 3D graphics within OS X) gets updated, then we'll see some higher quality shadows.
World of Warcraft's graphics engine to be upgraded incrementally
In the wake of a series of comments by Blizzard reps hinting at an eventual overhaul of World of Warcraft's graphics engine, Worldofwar.net contacted Lead Producer J. Allen Brack for clarification. Brack responded by describing specific changes to the engine that will be in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and then by making a pretty major revelation about the nature of the overhaul.According to Brack, Blizzard will be making the changes bit-by-bit rather than all at once. "We're taking an iterative, organic approach to graphics upgrades," he said, "going feature by feature as opposed to thinking in terms of an overall new graphics engine."As for the WotLK changes: those will include a new shadow engine, some new shaders for "even better looking terrain, as well as cool ice effects," and an increased view distance to make those expansive Northrend wastelands look, well ... expansive. He also noted that new water effects will be coming in "a future content update or expansion."[Via WoW Insider] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
One Shots: Not your everyday landscape
Shadows loom in the darkened forest, swallowing the intrepid explorer Twarsong and creating today's eerie One Shots image. While we can assure you that this is indeed Lord of the Rings Online, the Trollshaws isn't an area we see here too terribly often. It certainly isn't as bright and cheery as many others we do get, but we think this just adds to the beauty of a game. There's nothing quite like seeing creepy overshadowed areas where layers interplay with light, to make you appreciate how much the designers were paying attention to details.Do you know of any great creepy, spooky or foreboding areas in your favorite game? Run into any big nasty monsters lately? If so we'd love to see them! Just send them into us at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Screens of all games and situations are welcome! %Gallery-9798%
Turbine announces fourth pair of DX10 screenshot contest winners
Week four of Turbine's screenshot contest for The Lord of the Rings Online has come and gone, and the fourth pair of winners has been selected.This time the winners are players Morreion and Brisbanoch. Their entries have been posted on the official LotRO forums. Morreion's screenshot is pictured here. It shows off the dynamic tree shadow effects you can enable if you're playing with a DirectX 10-ready video card in Windows Vista.Turbine's been hosting this contest to celebrate LotRO's place as the first MMO to fully support DX10 features. It's not too late to send in an entry yourself if you've got the high-end hardware needed to support DX10 -- and if you run Windows Vista. That's a big if at this point.
LotRO DirectX 10 screenshot contest crowns week 3 winners
Week 3 of the Lord of the Rings Online DirectX 10 screenshot contest has rolled around, and there are two more winning snaps to share (full-sized versions available from the forum post). Both of the winners this week have shots that show off some nice tree shadows, and the reflection of the castle in the above shot is good too. Incidentally, an upcoming patch to the game will improve performance of DX10 with shadows in particular.If you missed the other winners so far, here is our coverage of Week 1 and Week 2. There should be two more weeks of entries still ahead, and we'll be sure to report them when they come through. It's also not too late to enter, if you have a ridiculous machine to back you up, so check out the contest rules if you want to get a chance at having a featured screenshot.
