Items tagged with Source
Most old school gamers would name GoldenEye 007 as a title they have fond memories of playing. it was a huge hit on the Nintendo 64 console, and for the past 10 years a group of enthusiastic fans have been remaking the game for PC using Valve's Source engine. It's been playable throughout development, though the latest release—the first in over three years—is a big one with a bunch of new content and polish added. GoldenEye: Source now features 25 remade maps, 10 different mulitiplayer modes, and all 28 weapons from the original game, all faithfully recreated on the Source engine. The development team said it was aiming for a unique mix of retro and modern style gaming in hopes that GoldenEye:...
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When Valve announced that it was holding a news conference on March 3 at 3PM, it was quite apparent what was rolling around in the our brains: Half-Life 3. The mythical Half-Life 3 has reached almost legendary status among gamers, and leave it to Valve to tease us once again as we grab for a cold beer from the fridge to rest against our forehead. But while there was no Half-Life 3 announcement made today, Valve did have plenty to share with us including the successor to the Source engine. The Source engine has been the driving force behind Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike: Source, but Source 2 will soon upstage it. And just to make things even more interesting, Source 2 will be free to adopt for...
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News and rumors about Valve's (possibly) upcoming Source 2 engine have been buzzing for months, but a recent update to DOTA 2 contains the most persuasive evidence yet that a major engine is in the works. After the last patch, the game now contains a number of programmed default paths, directories, and file names that didn't previously exist. Source-related DLLs and executables (engine.dll, vconsole.dll) have been updated to "engine2.dll" and vconsole2.dll." The tileset editor has a default Source path. There's also now an option to save files as "Source 1.0 Map Files" where no previous option existed. Here's the funny thing -- while most people think of a game screenshot as...
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For years, gamers have wondered when Valve might debut a new version of its Source engine and next-generation games built to run on it. Now, we may have answer to that, thanks to leaked screenshots of what appears to be a rebuilt version of the classic Plantation level. If true, it represents an enormous step forward for the venerable Source engine, which debuted 10 years ago. While it's been upgraded several times, Valve has now used the core of the engine to power more titles than it built around the classic Half Life engine (itself based on Quake code). How big a jump? From this: To this: Obviously this could be a 3D mockup or a faked screenshot, but the news (leaked by Valvetime forum member...
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Valve has continued to unveil features and screen captures from the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in its bid to drum up excitement around what promises to be a massive update and extension to one of the most popular FPS titles of all time. The game is intended to update and extend Counter-Strike's classic formula, with new versions of classic maps and a 'Casual' mode in which weapons are all free and anyone can watch the actions of another player. The idea behind Casual mode is to give brand-new players a way to jump into the game, learn the ropes, and have fun. At the same time, ranked matches and an emphasis on weapon characteristics are meant to ensure that the game's accessibility...
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VALVE TO DELIVER STEAM & SOURCE ON MACLeading Gaming Service Expands to Mac Platform March 8, 2010 - Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April."As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services." "Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients,...
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There have been rumors of a Google-developed browser circulating for a few years now, and it appears that rumor is about to become fact. The Wall Street Journal posted a news story today confirming that a launch of Google's open-source web browser, now known as Google Chrome, is imminent..."Google Inc. confirmed that it plans to launch its own Web browser, in the latest twist in a battle with Microsoft Corp. over key Internet technologies. The Internet company, in a posting on its Web site Monday, indicated that a beta version of the software would be available for download on Tuesday. The company said the software is designed to make it easier and faster to browse the Web, by offering...
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Let's state a bit of the obvious, Linux, in all its various incarnations, is becoming more pervasive every day. From traditional desktop distros, to its omnipotent place in the embedded space -- from hand-helds to mission critical appliances in the enterprise, everywhere you look Linux is making inroads. One of the places you may not even have realized you were running Linux, is your home or office wireless router. What embedded realtime OS is running those configuration panels you mess around with when you want to reset that WEP key or punch a port open for gaming? You guessed it, the Peguin strikes again. In fact, the folks at Netgear seem to be making a business...
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Since Warner Bros. dropped HD-DVD just prior to CES, bad news has continued to flow for the HD-DVD group. Price drops were said by Gartner to simply "prolong the agony," Netflix dropped HD-DVD, and Best Buy said they would begin recommending Blu-ray over HD-DVD. Now "reliable" sources say that in the coming weeks Toshiba - the developer of HD-DVD - will abandon the format. Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks, reliable industry sources say, after a rash of retail defections that followed Warner Home Video's announcement in early January that it would support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format after May. Officially, no decision...
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What would year-end magazine issues be without wild-eyed predictions for the future? The Economist has wisely decided to limit their predictions to just next year, and to only three guesses. And unlike the usual flying car daydreams or SARS epidemic nightmares, these seem pretty likely: Surfing will slow. Surfing will go wireless. Open source will begin to push out proprietary code, from the bottom up. Linux freaks will rejoice!And because it is free, Linux become the operating system of choice for low-end PCs. It started with Nicholas Negroponte, the brains behind the One Laptop Per Child project that aims to deliver computerised education to children in the developing world. His...
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Software unlocking of the iPhone has been a source of threats from AT&T. However, there is an exemption in the DMCA that allows software unlocking of phones - the question has been what will happen if that's tested against a commercial product. In this case, an open source, free product, there's no recourse, except for a ROM change that stops this, of course.The first, non-GUI version was released last night; a beta GUI version has been released. If you want to try the manual version, that’s linked at the same site. Kudos to the iPhone Dev Team and all involved on this. This was (and still is) a lot of work.How soon will the 1.03 version of iPhone software be released, hmm?...
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AMD Works with Novell to Accelerate Open Source Linux Driver Initiative Targeting Developers for ATI Radeon™ X1000 Series and ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series Graphics Processors Sunnyvale, Calif -- September 7, 2007 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a major strategic initiative to support the Open Source development community for ATI Radeon™ graphics processors. The week of September 10th, AMD plans to provide an open source information and development package supporting the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 series as well as ATI Radeon™ X1000 series of graphics processing units (GPU) on Linux desktops. To accelerate...
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Electronics giant Sony announced a new version of its Walkman today. But instead of Pet Shop Boys and Flock of Seagulls cassette mix tapes, this one plays digital media, including video. And Sony was sure to point out that the devices aren't tied to any particular media format, unlike *cough* Apple *cough* players. And to sort of drive the point home, Sony also announced they were ending their proprietary ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe. Why, it's like open platform heaven over there at Sony these days. The Japanese company, one of the world's biggest electronics makers, said its NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610 series of Walkman digital music players would be available in...
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AMD may have signed on with TSMC to outsource production of their upcoming Fusion technology. At present it seems that Fusion will be produced on TSMC’s 45nm process. “JPMorgan projects that TSMC can further expand its technology to CPU manufacturing in the first quarter of 2008 after this field qualification is completed, though any meaningful sales contribution should only be seen in late 2008 or early 2009. Long-term speaking, the equity firm believes that TSMC will have a role to play in next generation game machine CPU manufacturing.” Little is known about Fusion except that it is a technology that is supposed to blend the features of a CPU and a GPU....
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It looks like AMD is considering an exit from the costly chip fabrication business. This might seem a strange move as many were speculating that part of the advantage of picking up ATI was that they could help the graphics firm eliminate the overhead caused by outsourcing chip fabrication. It's unclear if the union has provided enough work to make the fabrication plants and associated R & D as profitable as AMD would like. Most fabrication companies often have multiple customers which helps them evenly distribute the cost of upgrading their process technology. The idea of AMD and ATI together might have made swallowing those upgrade costs a bit more feasible, but it seems that it might...
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In a lengthy interview in Fortune magazine, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith outlined Microsoft's contention that they can prove 235 patent violations by open source software. And they'd like to be paid royalties, please. Smith broke down the alleged patent violations during the Fortune interview, saying the Linux kernel violates 42 patents and the operating system's user interface violates a further 65. He went on to claim that the Open Office application suite violates 45 patents and open-source e-mail applications infringe on 15 more. Other open-source software applications infringe on 68 patents, Smith said. The short answer here is Microsoft owns a lot of patents now,...
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Last month, nearly 10% of the Class of 2008 at Duke University's business school were caught cheating on a take-home final exam. But is it really cheating to collaborate on projects anymore? How dumb would you have to be to work that way in the real world? Still, many believe that a rethinking of the assessment process is in store. The Stanford University Design School, for example, is so collaborative that "it would be impossible to cheat," says D-school professor Robert I. Sutton. "If you found somebody to help you write an exam, in our view that's a sign of an inventive person who gets stuff done. If you found someone to do work for free who was committed to open source, we'd say,...
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McAfee's semi-annual overview of their on-going security research says that cyber-criminals are becoming more sophisticated, and are banding together in loose associations to swap code and deliver support for their nefarious endeavors. They've got their eye on your smartphone, too. Among the specific trends outlined in the report are expectations for the continued growth of botnets with the cooperation among hackers adding to the problem via group efforts to develop and refine threat code in the same manner that open-source contributors work in a community. The vast majority of botnets will continue to target flaws in Microsoft products and propagate themselves through buffer overflows,...
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AMD has been working very hard for several years now to catch up to Intel when it comes to developing and perfecting new manufacturing process technology. New process technology allows more transistors to be packed into the same physical area, which can relate to more features and performance in a given chip and/or more chips per material used. So there is either more performance, better price, or both, and what customer can resist better prices and/or better performance? AMD has done a good job of narrowing the gap, but Intel really pulled out all the stops to get both their 65 nm and 45 nm processes up and running well ahead of AMD. According to Reuters, it seems like AMD might be seeking outside...
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Early in 2004 IBM challenged Sun to co-develop an open-source implementation of Java. Sun did not immediately warm to the idea. Though IBM has its own implementation of Java and could easily have open-sourced it, IBM believed that any open source version of Java should have Sun involved. At the same time Eric Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative and one of open source's fathers, backed IBM and called on Sun to contribute Java to the open source community. In Raymond's opinion, the "'Sun Community Source License' promoted proprietary lock-in. He also contended that most open-source developers simply would not want any part of that. Through continued support...
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AMD PIONEERS INTERACTIVE ONLINE RESOURCE, REDEFINING TRADITIONAL WAYS IT INDUSTRY ACCESSES INFORMATION - AMD Virtual IT Experience Brings Industry Together, Using Cutting Edge Gaming Technology to Create an "Always On" Resource - Sunnyvale, Calif. - Sept. 12, 2006 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today unveiled the AMD Virtual IT Experience, a revolutionary online event that offers a new way to approach audiences seeking access to information about AMD and its partners. The AMD Virtual IT Experience is an interactive, content-rich venue to help customers quickly locate information, tools and advice to combat IT problems and advance their business - whether it's finding new ways to solve issues...
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Intel Releases Next Generation Open Source Graphics Driver The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics architecture. As with any free software project, this release represents only the beginning of an ongoing commitment by Intel to work with the X.org and Mesa communities to continuously improve and enhance the drivers. While these drivers represent significant work at both Tungsten Graphics and Intel - as our first release of this code - they're...
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