Browser Gaming Supercharged

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There’s plenty of buzz about virtual reality at this year’s GDC, with the Oculus Rift introducing a new development version of the headset, Sony’s Project Morpheus VR headset, and Sulon Technologies introducing a headset. It’s not at all clear that VR headsets costing hundreds of dollars will ever become a large gaming market. Another technology announcement at GDC, one that’s been largely ignored by the gaming press, is likely to have a far bigger impact on the gaming business in the years ahead.

The Khronos Group, a non-profit consortium with over 120 members (including some of the largest tech companies) announced several major updates to their APIs, including OpenGL ES 3.1, WebCL 1.0, SYCL 1.2, Open CL 2.0, and EGL 1.5. It’s a lot of alphabet soup and detailed technical specs for programmers, but the important part is what this will do for browser-based games on desktop and mobile systems: Provide near-native performance for browser-based games in a way that’s easy to program. In other words, games running in a browser could deliver nearly the same graphics or 3D performance as a game written for that platform.

Already OpenGL is used daily in over 1.5 billion devices, according to Khronos Group. It’s the most widely used API by an order of magnitude. This latest update enables many more features of current processors out there, and brings a number of desktop features to mobile devices. Such things as physics simulations will become easier and more powerful on mobile with the adoption of this new standard. Core game engines like Unity, Unreal and others will be adopting these standards, and other Khronos Group members like ARM, Google, Samsung, and others are expected to follow.

This is the breakthrough that HTML 5 has been waiting for. We’ve heard for years about games being written in HTML 5, meaning they would be able to run on any mobile device or desktop without any need to port the code. The problem has always been the limited performance of HTML 5, which even on the most powerful devices limited games to very simple graphics — and even those often weren’t as smooth as could be. Now, using these new APIs, HTML 5 games could be performing like they were written specifically for the device. Games using fast action and 3D graphics could be run right from the browser with no extra effort.

There’s some other attractions for game developers in these announcements. The SYCL spec allows the use of all C++ tools for OpenCL, meaning programmers can immediately use all the tools they are familiar with to create games for a variety of platforms. The WebCL spec gives programmers access to all of the hardware — CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and other such processors — in order to optimize computing power in a given device. That’s especially useful in a mobile device, where you can efficiently use all of the horsepower in service to creating a great game experience.

Still, it’s not all as easy as that. Browsers will have to be revised to incorporate these standards, so it won’t happen right away. And the dark cloud on the horizon is that in some cases it may not happen at all, or in a very limited fashion. Why Consider the situation on iOS devices. Right now, if you want to have a game appear on iOS, it has to be an app which is sold in Apple’s App Store. Apple takes 30 percent of the price, and 30 percent of any future in-game transactions. If, however, you could create your game in HTML 5 and anyone on an iOS device could get to it via the Safari browser, Apple wouldn’t get any share of the revenue. Clearly, Apple has a strong incentive to keep browser games crippled on iOS, which they can do simply by not adding these new capabilities to Safari.

“That is a dynamic,” admitted Neil Trevett, President of the Khronos Group and also a vice-president at Nvidia, when the [a]list daily questioned him about it. “The one developer that’s not as into WebGL and exposing it to developers is Apple. I think in the end the Web is the one platform that no vendor can really bet against.” Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research agreed. “The other aspect is it’s also the gateway to cloud data. You can’t hold all the data on your phone, and you have to go somewhere to get it. How are you going to get it there They’re not going to have any choice.”

Apple just introduced an 8GB version of the iPhone 5C in certain countries, allowing them to reduce the retail price by $50 or more in order to boost sales of iPhones. With only 8GB, though, the device will be far more dependent on streaming services. Getting the best performance from streaming is going to require supporting technologies like WebGL. In the long run, Apple may be forced into this support whether or not it has a damaging effect on App Store revenues.

Devices and browsers that do choose to support these new technologies will have a distinct advantage, and one that will be readily apparent to consumers as applications use the technologies to provide a better experience. Game creators need to keep a close eye on this technology, which could bring an additional 30 percent of revenue in while making games available on a huge number of devices. Trevett said that over 1.5 billion devices right now use OpenGL every day, for instance. These new standards could see similar widespread adoption, delivering a massive audience to game developers.

The impact on game finances and how games are marketed could be enormous. Game makers, HTML 5 and browser-based games may finally get their moment in the spotlight, and it could make business both easier and more lucrative.

Kicking Off ‘FIFA World Cup 2014’

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While World Cup 2014 isn’t quite here yet, you can sate your appetite for the greatest soccer competition in the world with EA Sports’ latest FIFA game. This trailer sets an appropriately celebratory mood, featuring the song The World Is Ours by David Correy, the official Coca-Cola anthem of the brand’s World Cup 2014 campaign.

 

‘Peanuts’ in 3D for the First Time

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The whole cast of the Peanuts comic strip is returning to the big screen for the first time in over 30 years. This time, the crew will be depicted in 3D in what looks to be a loving homage to Charles Schulz’s creation.

 

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‘Breach & Clear’ Kicks the Door Down

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Mighty Rabbit and Gun Media have a fancy trailer to celebrate Breach & Clear‘s release on the Steam platform. Using imagery that’d be right at home for a Tom Clancy title, they convey the major bullet points of the title, which is coming soon to Windows, Mac and Linux.

 

Role Reversal For Sexy Ads

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BuzzFeed has put out a new video titled “If Women’s Roles in Ads Were Played By Men” swapping the gender for GoDaddy, Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. and Doritos ads. The visual imagery is compelling, showing in nigh shot-for-shot reshoots why the cinematography is ridiculous to begin with, not unlike what the Hawkeye Initiative does for comics.

Source: AdWeek.com

 

Sony’s New Virtual Reality Headset

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Sony confirmed long-running rumors this week at the Game Developers Conference when it finally announced that it was working on a new virtual reality headset to operate with the PlayStation 4, titled the Morpheus.

The headset, which is still a work in progress, features a 90 degree display with 15 mm eye relief, with the manufacturers looking to get it up to 1080p in resolution. The current prototype features a 1000hz tracking system with a three meter working volume, which enables 360-degree head movement.

The headset uses similar technology to PlayStation’s Move controller, instead of accelerometers to track head movements. The PlayStation Eye camera will be required in order to get it to work.

A number of companies are already on board to develop for the Morpheus, including Epic Games, Havok and Crytek.

Sony will be demoing the headset throughout the week at its booth at GDC. There’s no word on pricing or a release date.

Source: GamesIndustry International

‘Project Spark’ Beta Opens To All

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Microsoft’s Xbox One/PC game Project Spark promises to change the landscape of how someone can play in a virtual universe – and now users can try it out for themselves with no limitations.

After launching in closed form earlier this month, Microsoft has made the Project Spark beta available to all Xbox One users, without the need to punch in a beta code to try it out.

The game experience allows users to do a number of great things in the virtual universe, utilizing a number of tools at their fingertips.

There’s no word on a release date just yet, but later this year seems very likely.

Source: Joystiq

New Oculus Rift Dev Kit Introduced

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As the Oculus Rift virtual technology moves closer to production, the team introduced a new development kit this week, one that replaces its initial first-generation technology with a number of improvements.

For $350, developers can get their hands on the latest hardware, based on the Crystal Cove prototype that was shown at CES earlier this year.

With the new kit, developers can take advantage of a depth-sensing camera to map real-world movement to in-game performance, as well as take advantage of a higher resolution, slated at 960 x 1080 for each eye. The case design is also better, along with a single wire connection link for HDMI and USB.

The development tech should be shipping out this summer, although there’s still no word on a final release date for consumers.

Source: TechCrunch

Game Cheat Unlocks Google Voice Search

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The “Konami code” – up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start – has been used in several games over the years, but the most notable one is the NES game Contra, where you could add 30 much-needed lives to your arsenal. Now, that code will give you a similar boost over at Google Voice Search.

Users who visit the voice-activated page can simply say, “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right” (no need to worry about the rest) and it’ll read “Cheat mode unlocked. Unlimited free Google searches.”

While the general search performance stays the same, it’s a fun little Easter egg, especially for those who grew up in the 8-bit Nintendo era.

Source: The Next Web

Two Million Homes Unplug Cable TV

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TV is just beginning to feel the brunt of the digital shift. In 2013, Americans who chose to pay for cable, satellite or fiber services saw a loss of nearly 2 million video subscribers. The picture is slightly different when segmented, with cable losing a majority of these customers while satellite actually gained 170,000 subscribers and fiber optics grew by 1.6 million users respectively.

Research from firm SNL Kagan tallied subscribers from the whole of the the paid TV industry to find that the numbers had dropped to 100 million. With cheaper (and online) alternatives, offering as much on-demand media as one can consume, it’s understandable by Americans are proceeding to cut pricey cable subscriptions.

“While seasonally driven quarterly declines have become routine for industry watchers, the annual dip illustrates longer-term downward pressure even as economic conditions gradually improve,” said SNL Kagan.

 

Source: AdAge