In writing fiction, one is advised to show, don’t tell. Valve has taken that advice and created a web page that will give you a preview of dozens of games. But that’s only one part of what they’ve done. Steam has opened up games in development and letting people take them out for a spin. Users are invited to … Read more
There was a time when the definition of a workstation was crystal clear and so was the decision about having one. If you needed a workstation, you knew who you were and you knew how to get it: ask IT. Alternatively, whine, bully, and demand it from IT. And, the machine you got would have a RISC-based processor, a customized … Read more
Deep fakes have got the world creeped out. Photo manipulation techniques joined with AI are enabling people to create very convincing, very fake images and videos. The authenticity of audio is also up for grabs, and in fact in this paper, “Text Based Editing on Talking Head Videos,” researchers demonstrate a technique for editing a speaker in a video by … Read more
There was a time when game engines were built specifically for certain games and many companies believed the quality of their game engines defined the quality of their technologies. As the game industry has matured with thousands and thousands of games developed and played, and franchises established, the three leading commercial game engines, Unreal, Unity, and Crytek have become tested … Read more
A cloud of radioactive material settled over Ukraine and Belarus after a critical failure blew apart a Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station reactor in 1986. The resulting death toll had exceeded 4,000. Twenty years later, we got our first view of Stalker at an Nvidia conference where they showed some clips of it. It was amazing than with debris, bits of … Read more
Hexagon is best known as a sensor company, making 3D laser scanners and articulated-arm sensors that check the fit of finished products. After a car comes off the assembly line, for instance, robotic sensors scan the exterior, looking for deviations from tolerances. Other sensors reverse engineer parts or create point clouds of buildings. The sensor industry prefers we speak of … Read more
Graphisoft is the Hungarian software company that began in 1984 when Gábor Bojár thought of designing buildings virtually in 3D. As a result, ArchiCAD became the earliest version of BIM (building information modeling) software. In fact, it was so 3D oriented that generating 2D plans was an afterthought. This year, Graphisoft will release ArchiCAD 23. Graphisoft is still headquartered in … Read more
We are taking the arbitrary position of declaring any VR HMD with greater than 2.4mp per eye as being high-resolution VR. At the recent AWE conference, two companies stood out for their very high-resolution display capability: Varjo and VRgineers with 2560 × 1440 resolution per eye (3.7mp). Stockholm-based StarBreeze was the first to ship a hi-res VR HMD with their … Read more
Facebook now offers three Oculus VR head-mounted display (HMD) systems, a revamped Rift S, all-in-one portable Go, and the latest, a gaming HMD, the Quest. Facebook’s VR HMDs For reference, a can of tomato soup weighs about 350 g so wearing a VR HMD would be like strapping one and a half cans of soup to your head, how long would … Read more
Before our cars can become the robot slaves we want them to be, taking us here and there and not making us tell them how or when. Before they can have some sense of vision and common sense, robot slave cars have to be able to reliably see their surrounding environment. Right now, their vision is limited. Environmental factors such … Read more
Nobody said gamers would stop gaming. The detail is simply, like audiophiles used to have much higher end equipment than what anyone else could afford, or a high-end cell phone was different than a low end, technology being a great equalizer has made consoles, “good enough.” In the bad old days of the 80's when computer memory was still measured … Read more
Game engines are becoming powerful tools for a variety of work beyond the game industry. Of the largest areas of opportunity is the CAD market, but game engines are still difficult for people to use especially if their real job has nothing to do with learning game engines. Unreal has been working on this problem with tools for working with … Read more
