Skid Row
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Spherica creates nausea-free immersive video
Typically, 360-degree VR video comes in two varieties: static, wherein the camera remains motionless while the onscreen action unfolds around it, and vomit-inducing, where the camera moves but instigates severe motion sickness in the viewer. The San Francisco-based motion picture startup, Spherica, aims to create a third option: immersive VR video that can track, tilt and pan without making the audience lose their lunch.
Ubisoft 'always on' DRM hated, hacked - circle of life continues
Ah, the circle of life. Here's how it works: Game developers claim they've created some sort of unbreakable DRM that will lock pirates out, and then the pirates break their way in, leading to even more repressive forms of DRM. The snake has eaten its own tail once again, as Ubisoft's "Online Services Network" – also known as the obnoxious "always on" DRM that's already caused problems for paying customers – has reportedly been hacked. The hack, by a group named Skid Row allows users to circumvent the DRM entirely and play the affected games without connecting to Ubisoft's authentication servers. In a statement attached to the crack's release, Skid Row proclaims that their crack "can't be compared" to other ways of hacking the games (which include having the software check in with an unofficial server), and that Ubisoft should "next time focus on the game and not on the DRM. It was probably horrible for all legit users. We just make their lifes [sic] easier." This crack is specifically for Assassin's Creed II but if the method works, it could theoretically be tweaked to include all of the games protected in this manner, including the upcoming Splinter Cell: Conviction. And thus, the circle, the circle of life continues on.
