Three developers affiliated with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory provide an in depth look for Dr. Dobb's Journal at the options for optimizing a breadth first search (written in C) on the Cell Processor.
For the non-technical the results can be summarized as "On a Pentium 4 HT running at 3.4 GHz, this algorithm is able to check 24-million edges per second. On the Cell, at the end of our optimization, we achieved a performance of 538-million edges per second. This is an impressive result, but came at the price of an explosion in code complexity. While the algorithm in Listing One fits in 60 lines of source code, our final algorithm on the Cell measures 1200 lines of code"
Definitely one for the programmers amongst us.
Standard controllers aren’t comfortable for everyone…
As an accessibility option for those that need it im all for it. As the standard control for ps6 helllll noo, touch controller would be the absolute worst.
Reading the patent itself this does seem to be intended with accessibility in mind as it attempts to solve comfort issues that some users have with overall size and placement. Im completely fine with the current layout but its nice to know this option is there. It is intended to allow customers the ability to resize the controller to there liking even those the company may not manufacture that size. So, its cool to see they are thinking like this even though this product may not be for me. I would still love to see it release and see the potential use cases.
This is interesting not only for accessibility reasons, but as a way to give players more control over their in game characters for core gamers.
I remember seeing the Tactus pop up buttons at CES 13 years ago and I was excited for the technology but I am not aware of any devices that used it.
The way gaming controllers are presented today is great, but I will always advocate for innovation in giving players more control and increased immersion.
Terrible idea. For most games, you need to feel the physical buttons because you're not looking at the controller. I hope they aren't serious.
Unless they've worked out a way for tactile feedback so you can feel them. Perhaps little air bladders that could inflate when a button is placed in that position, placed under a flexible screen? Maybe it wouldn't be the best controller for all of us, but I know people who have medical conditions that make holding traditional controllers very uncomfortable with their default button layouts, this could help them.
More accessibility options is never a bad thing, but man I hate that all electronics seem to be pushing touchscreen controls on everything.
They are just garbage
We are at the point in time when touch screen controls are cheaper to make than physical buttons. Just look at modern cars. More and more system controls are moved to the central screen now that all new cars come with screens. It's downright ironic too, considering just not that many years ago, people were warn to not use their phone while driving. Now all controls are moved to the central screen that you can't help but looking at screens while driving.
EXCEPT trying to connect your phone, lol. They make you stop to do that. But the big screen that is every bit as distracting as a phone, it's cool.
From a fourth Project CARS to a Dakar-style open-world racer that set the template for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Here are seven racing games that didn’t quite make it.
Blur was decent, although the control system could've been better, Blur 2 in the video looks good. Project Cars was massively overrated and full of bugs, Dirt 3 yes, a new Dirt Rally no, rally games have passed me by. Project Gotham Racing 5, Ridge Racer 8, Wave Race 4, Crash Team Racing 2 are up there. Ridge Racer Unbounded had everything apart from the gameplay, there was also Split Second which was decent, the Burnout series became boring as with rally and F1 games. A new Wipeout is due, also F-Zero. I wouldn't say no to Outrun 2 on current consoles as long as it includes the exclusive Xbox tracks, then Outrun 3. Wipeout VR on the PS4 was awesome, that's due a sequel. I remember Buggy Boy on the Commodore 64 and Spectrum, that'll never see a sequel. The likes of Turismo and Forza have become boring. Forza Horizon not so much. Road Rash and Super Hang on 2 others. Chase HQ has never gained legendary status on any console.
I would do anything for a MotorStorm on PS5. Or just the trilogy in 4k/60. RIP Evolution.
Evolution did good on those games... but we don't need them for a trilogy remaster. It can be done by Sony's master of remasters: Bluepoint.
For sure. I don't even think it would need that talented of a studio. Upping the resolution and framerate would be all that's needed. Of course I would take the trilogy with a complete overhaul on the graphics, but upping the rez and framerate (and some great AA) would easily be enough for me.
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most iconic video games of all time, with it helping to changed the RPG landscape when it was released in 1997.
If you already own it... There, I saved you the click on a deliberately misleading article.
I bought the game yesterday on steam for $4 because Square Enix is trying to replace it with a version that has no mod support.
Prior to yesterday, I had no idea the game had so many great mods until people started making a fuss out of it.
u get the switch 1 version of the og ff7 for free if you own 7 remake for the switch 2.
lol.
This reminds me of my MS paint project.
Make MS Paint in VB and C++.
Took me weeks to do it in C++.
Took only 2 days to do it in VB.
**Breaking news**
**Programming the cell is hard** hehe. Well the cell is capable of so much, but there is a lot of work that needs to be put into it. Guess the trade off is how much time an effort is worth the results.
prove the power with the games.
do you now see why there are so many cell and rsx threads.
GAMES.
The end of the article reads:
"In short, the Cell offers an impressive potential for performance. However, due to its architecture and limited support offered by the compiler, you can't expect to exploit this potential by just recompiling your current applications. Applications must be radically redesigned in terms of computation and data transfers. Computational bottlenecks must often be analyzed and addressed manually, and data transfers must be properly orchestrated in order to hide their latency completely under the computational delays."
Basically, unless something is built from the ground up for the Cell to process, don't expect drastic improvements over a system that has a different processor running at the same speed.
SONY went for the "Cutting Edge" factor when they decided on the Cell for the PS3, but with very little in the way of tools to efficiently program with the cell, they've left many developers hanging out to dry.
they did it with the ps2, toy story like renderings. And they did it with the ps3, 4d, killzone, etc. had they just said it was a little bit more powerful, and let the games speak for themselves then there wouldn't be all this rioting.