Sapphire HD 7970 Dual X Review
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Valve Shoots Down Rumors of Left 4 Dead Prequel
It looks like the Valve and Overkill Software collaboration still remains a mystery. Just days after a rumored Left 4 Dead prequel hit the airwaves comes the news from Valve that a prequel is not happening. One of Valve's writers, Chet Faliszek, says the collaboration is something smaller but still "really cool," however if it was a prequel then it would make the actual project "uncool." Chet does not really go into a lot of details, but says it is similar to Team Fortress 2 including weapons from other games. That still does not really tell us much of anything, because it could be adding in robber masks to Left 4 Dead or infected to PAYDAY: The Heist. Valve wants the community to discover the new project on its own, so it looks like we will need to be doing some digging.
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Dead Space 3 has Co-op Because it is Too Scary to Play Alone
Survival horror games have horror in the name for a reason; they are designed to scare you and make you scream out for mercy. Not all survival horror games stick with that formula and instead opt for more action, but some survival horror games still have some scares. The first Dead Space was a terrifying experience, and while the second had some more action elements, it still packed in the frights. EA knows this and has added in co-op to Dead Space 3 because the games are too scary to play by yourself. EA conducted research on the matter and discovered co-op is a good thing to have, especially since it can help take away some of the fear. I fully expect Dead Space 3 to be played in small doses like the predecessors, but the addition of a friend should help extend each play session. Co-op is not being added just because, but in order to provide another form of support. In this case, another person with a gun watching your back in the game.
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Chemical Space Size Estimate Made
Every now and then it can be fun to sit back and think about everything you have accomplished in a 'big picture' way. Chemists may not want to do that anymore thanks to a recent study published in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Neuroscience journal. The chemical space is the entirety of substances that could be useful to everyday life and researchers have just estimated how many small molecules occupy it: 1 novemdecillion.
Small molecules include just about every medicine humans have developed. If the total number of small molecules is a novemdecillion, than humans have barely synthesized a tenth of a percent of what is possible.
How big is a novemdecillion? It is a 1 followed by 60 zeros, which is more than some estimates for the number of stars in the Universe. The researchers came up with this number by considering what is possible under our current understanding of the laws of physics and chemistry.
This study is not without purpose though as the researchers suggest ways to use computers to get a handle on the chemical space. Potentially this could allow researchers to discover new medicines in the virtual space before manufacturing them in reality.
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Demand for Dawnguard's 360 Beta 'Overwhelming'
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will soon be receiving the Dawnguard DLC on the Xbox 360, while PC and PS3 gamers will have to wait about a month. Bethesda has had Skyrim beta updates debut on Steam around a week or two before the full launch, and is rewarding 360 gamers with a beta for Dawnguard. Only a limited amount of people will be able to join the Dawnguard beta and it looks like not even Bethesda could have guessed at the sheer number of applications. According to Bethesda, 0.5% of all applicants received an invite to the Dawnguard beta, with the studio saying the demand is "overwhelming." More invites could be coming out, but right now Bethesda has not said anything definitive once this first wave is handed out. The first wave should be all done by today and I can say for PC gamers everywhere, I envy the beta testers.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dawnguard will launch for the Xbox 360 on June 26th. No date has been set for the PC and PS3 versions just yet.
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Nanocable for Energy Storage
More and more the world is looking to capacitors to replace batteries. The reasons for wanting such a change include faster charging times and safety precautions, as capacitors do not need dangerous chemicals. Finding capacitors that can challenge batteries is not very easy though, because they generally have a lower energy density than batteries. However, micro and nanoscale capacitors could be built and linked together to potentially rival batteries. Researchers at Rice University have recently discovered a previously overlooked microcapacitor with the highest capacitance reported for something of its size.
A common method for making graphene is chemical vapor deposition on sheets of copper. When this happens there is the possibility for a layer of copper oxide to form between the copper and the graphene, and numerous graphene studies have noted this, but never looked too carefully at it. The Rice researchers almost did not look at it either, as they were just trying to make copper nanowires coated in carbon. Testing the wires gave some unexpected results because the copper oxide layer was still there. Closer examination showed it was acting as an insulator between the conductive graphene and copper, forming a capacitor. A good capacitor too as it breaks the records for other microcapacitors.
By connecting together millions of these nanocables, it should be possible to create a large-scale energy-storage device. Exactly how much energy such an array could store is hard to say at the moment, especially as quantum mechanics plays a role at the scale of a single nanocable. However, even if it is not able to challenge a conventional battery, it may still be able to transmit radio signals at the nanoscale, similar to the coaxial cables the give our televisions an image.
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NVIDIA Gets a Special Look at Unreal Engine 4
We reported last week that GT.TV was able to get a look at footage from the Unreal Engine 4 and also talk with Senior Technical Artist Alan Willard from Epic Games. NVIDIA was also present at the demonstration and was able to get some time to talk to Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games. In addition to improving on the graphics provided by the Unreal Engine 3, Tim described the desire to "deliver a toolset with an unprecedented mixture of power, ease-of-use, and polish." The key to the new engine is Sparse Voxel Octree Global Illumination, a method developed at Epic. The screenshots and video taken by NVIDIA are very impressive and give some insight into the future of gaming.
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SF-2000 SSD Controller Encryption Issues
Kingston Digital Inc. has released a statement regarding the SF-2000 controller used in the SSDNow V+200 and KC100 solid state drives and the encryption feature found on the drives. The drives have an advertised "self encrypting" feature that promises 256-bit AES encryption, but Kingston partner LSI has found that the controller only performs 128-bit AES encryption. Customer feedback indicates that most users don't take advantage of the encryption features of the drive, and Kingston is working with LSI to correct the issue. Until it is fixed Kingston will market the drive as featuring 128-bit encryption instead of 256-bit encryption. This issue is not confined to Kingston drives, but to any drive that uses the SF-2000 controller.
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Modeling Drug Side Effects
As I watch television and come across an ad for some medication, it is almost impressive the number of side effects one drug can have. Each one of those effects has been carefully studied before the drug came to market, top ensure it is not too dangerous. In fact, unacceptable side effects are the second most common reason a drug does not come to market, with effectiveness being the number one reason. Developing a drug to the state that it can be tested for approval is not cheap though with some estimates putting the cost at $1 billion across fifteen years, and other estimates at $4-12 billion, per successfully approved drug. To help cut costs and increase our understanding of these drugs, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have created a computer model to identify side effects.
The model was given 656 drugs that have already been carefully studied and documented and identified unintentional targets half of the time. Medications work by attaching to specific targets in the body. These targets are not always unique to the intended target though, so the drug does more than expected. Of the 1241 possible side effects the model identified, 348 are confirmed, and another 151 are potential side effects not previously documented, but have since been confirmed. One of those undocumented side effects though is one that has been confusing researchers for some time. An artificial form of estrogen has been reported to cause stomach pain for years, but the cause was never determined. The model found it is interacting with a target linked to aspirin, which is known to cause stomach pain.
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CD Projekt RED Says RPGs Should Look Better than Shooters
CD Projekt RED is known for its role-playing games, like The Witcher and the upcoming Cyberpunk. The Witcher 2 pushes the boundaries of how an RPG, and most other games, should look graphically. The Witcher games are also some of the most popular (and well-received) around, so you can be sure CD Projekt RED has some pride in its games. The company's co-founder, Marcin Iwinski, and head of marketing, Michal Platkow-Gilewski, recently sat down to an interview with GamesBeat to discuss Cyberpunk and a few other things. For starters, Iwinski believes there is no reason for RPGs to "look worse" than shooters. He believes RPGs should look better in addition to telling that amazing story. All the new advancements in technology should mean RPGs can enable all the graphical "bells and whistles," which Iwinski wants CD Projekt to deliver on as well. Great graphics and a great story will be a winning combination, and I trust that CD Projekt can deliver both for Cyberpunk.
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Keeping the Ice Off
We have two freezers at my house; one built into a refrigerator and the other is actually a chest freezer. Every so often we have to clean out the ice that has built up inside of them to get back some room in the freezers and to make sure they seal properly. Researchers at Harvard University have developed a technology which will prevent ice and frost from building up on metal. Not only could this help with household freezers, but also airplanes, wind turbines, and anything else that is exposed to low temperatures at water vapor.
In the past researchers have tried to develop hydrophobic surfaces that would simply prevent water from collecting on the surface, to prevent it from freezing. Unfortunately at high humidity this method does not work and the surface will still ice-over. Taking a new approach, the Harvard researchers developed Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS) which hold a molecularly flat liquid surface behind a nanostructure surface. Essentially, SLIPS makes the surface defect free because the trapped liquid is perfectly smooth, so any slippery material just slides off.
At temperatures above 0º C, SLIPS works to prevent any ice from forming on the surface. If the temperature drops below the freezing point though, ice can still form on the surface, but is much easier to get off. In fact, in the case of an airplane and wind turbine, the normal motions of and forces on the surfaces could cause any ice that does form to just slide off, making it ice-proof.
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Hardware Roundup: Tuesday Edition
Today we have a look at the Lepa G Series 1600W power supply, an Enermax-built unit that is 80 Plus Gold certified. Also in the mix today is another look at the Corsair 550D mid-tower chassis. The final review in store today covers the G.Skill ARES DDR3-2133 16GB quad channel memory kit. Enjoy your reading and check back tomorrow for more reviews from around the Web.
Cases
Video Perspective: Corsair Obsidian 550D Case @ PC Perspective
Memory
G.Skill ARES DDR3-2133 16GB Quad Channel Memory Kit @ ThinkComputers
Power Supplies
Lepa G Series 1600W Power Supply @ [H]ardOCP
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