Video games need 'realism boost'

Crysis

Games like Crysis are hoping to push the boundaries of realism

More than good looks are needed to make a great video game, according to Glenn Entis, chief technical officer at games giant Electronic Arts.

Mr Entis told the Siggraph conference that games makers had to use much more than graphics to make their creations believable, engaging and fun.

Game worlds must not just look lifelike, he said, they must also react in a realistic manner too.

Tools that let players create content were also becoming important, he said.

Siggraph, held in San Diego, is the world's leading computer graphics conference.

During his speech, Mr Entis warned against assuming that games which look lifelike automatically take on the characteristics of the real world.

He said this problem was most acute when creating believable human video game characters.

Exquisitely sensitive

Humans were so exquisitely sensitive to how other people move and behave, said Mr Entis, that the smallest differences undermine the almost perfect physical representations of people becoming possible on next-generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

"When a character's visual appearance creates the expectation of life and it falls short your brain is going to reject that," he said.

Improvements in graphics would not boost believability, he said. "Just adding polygons makes it worse."

He said that to add authenticity EA had made extensive use of motion capture to catalogue how stance, gait and the tiny movements of facial muscles combine when people display different emotions.


Every part of nature that can respond will respond
Glenn Entis, EA

Using this, he said, the game maker had created a movement system for characters that unites these gross and fine-grained changes.

"It gives us alertness and empathy that we have never really had in our games before," he said.

"Model and motion are what gives fidelity for non-interactive characters," said Mr Entis, "but it is responsiveness and intelligence that really brings them alive."

"Players have to relate to the characters they are holding in the palm of their hand," he said.

Movement matching

The emotion and movement matching system was going to get its first airing in the next release of EA's basketball game, NBA Live.

Similar demands held true for game worlds as well as the characters that inhabit them, said Mr Entis.

Game worlds must also react in a lifelike manner to whatever people do, he said. Often this can be done via good physics that dictates how scenery reacts when blown up or how liquids or gases move to produce an engaging, thrilling game.

"Every part of nature that can respond will respond," he said.

Mr Entis said the forthcoming Crysis title was a good example of a game in which the responsiveness of the world made it more fun to play.

"It's about worlds that look beautiful but behave beautifully as well," said Mr Entis.

Finally, he said, easy to use tools for players were growing in importance and in some cases had become as important as the gameplay itself.

EA research

For example, he said, EA research had revealed that more than half the people that played The Sims spent more than half the time they play it just making stuff - be it characters or game extras such as furniture.

"They love making the stuff so much that it becomes the game," he said.

EA was now working on a European Xbox 360 title called Virtual Me that gives players unprecedented control over the looks and wardrobe of the character they create. The game will be released alongside a TV programme put together by Big Brother creator Endemol.

The move by the games industry to give players more tools, such as the much-anticipated Spore game by Sim City creator Will Wright, was like the trend towards user-generated content seen on the web, said Mr Entis.

"It's an exploding area," he said.
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website, San Diego

The Tech Lab: Lesley Gavin

BT futurologist Lesley Gavin looks ahead to a time when real and virtual worlds mix as easily as making a mobile phone call.

Second Life
The virtual and the actual world could merge in the future

Social networking sites are essentially communication spaces where you can see and talk to friends, but in a slightly different way than you would face to face, or by email or text.

The fact that these sites have become increasingly popular suggests that this "slightly different" way of communicating fills some purpose or need that we have. They give us an extra awareness of our friends and of the context or mood they are in.


WHAT IS THE TECH LAB?
The world's leading thinkers give a personal view of future technologies

They allow us to choose whether or not to interact with them at that moment or later.

In parallel, we've seen enormous interest in 3D virtual environments as communication and meeting spaces, Second Life is just one example, where people have fun creating avatars, developing role play and spending virtual money.

It's also interesting that as users become older (the original virtual world users are now in their early twenties) we are seeing a trend for real world mega-clubs such as Oceana, offering numerous different themed environments under one roof.

These are places where you can dress up and role play in a real world environment. Virtual worlds are great for meeting lots of people from around the world while sitting in your favourite comfy armchair at home.

However they don't yet meet the asynchronous communication requirement we have as provided by Facebook, Bebo and Myspace.

In the future these environments are likely to merge. Interfaces will improve, and more specifically, personalised applications will be built on top of them.

Virtual worlds will also become integrated with real environments. Buildings or public spaces may offer virtual world counterparts.

Perhaps the local cinema will offer the latest sci-fi world, or historic sites will offer us worlds where we can go back in time.


Lesley Gavin
Virtual worlds will also become integrated with real environments. Buildings or public spaces may offer virtual world counterparts
Lesley Gavin, BT Futurologist

Rather than view virtual worlds on devices, in the future you could use active contact lenses .

These would of course allow you to see the real world - but you could adjust them to see the virtual world, or a mixture of the two.

For example, you may be walking along the street and get a call from someone in a virtual world, and instead of talking on your mobile phone, you instantaneously switch into the mixed reality environment.

Alongside these developments we will have fully networked homes with embedded sensors. These sensors will capture movement and speech, so that when you are travelling, and away from loved ones you could pop in your virtual contact lenses and step into your very own virtual home world.

In an instant you could be on your sofa with your kids watching Tracey Beaker. Of course as soon as your child hits teenage years you are going to be unlikely to find them, as they will be wearing some T-shirt that interferes with the houses motion capture system.

And what of the skills our children are learning in these 3D worlds? Role play means that duality is commonplace and easy to deal with.

Multi-channel communication is another skill that is becoming highly developed, as is cross cultural understanding within these truly global environments.

As new technologies integrate more closely into our real lives I'm interested in the developing social norms that go alongside this.

It is now illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving - it is recognised that our mind is at least partially in another world, a different communication space.


Second Life


My friend has created one that follows her around the virtual world complimenting her

People on mobile phones often walk a bit strangely, sometimes pacing up and down the pavement without fully realising what they are doing.

With increased use of mobile, alternate worlds this will increase. What will our pavements be like when people start waving or hugging their virtual friends?

The next stage for virtual worlds is embedded intelligence. For example, in some worlds you can create 'bots'.

These are avatars you can programme by adding behaviours or giving them tasks.

My friend has created one that follows her around the virtual world complimenting her - 'Barbara, you're looking great today' - a great boost to her confidence.

In the future these bots will be able to collect information for you, store it and process it. Perhaps your bot will go round the world making friends, so when you are next online there are a whole host of interesting people for you to meet.

As these worlds become more familiar and sophisticated, we are likely to use them as communication spaces for work as well as play, perhaps to collaborate with remote workers or encourage new kinds of creativity.

A fully functioning, easily accessible, intelligent, well hosted, knowledge based global communication space would be a great invention.

But hang on, wasn't that the Holodeck?

Sony up despite Playstation woes

PS3 boxes
Sony's PlayStation 3 launch was delayed
Sony profits for the April to June period have more than doubled as robust demand for its cameras and a weak yen offset losses at its games unit.

Net earnings for the first quarter at the electronics giant rose to 66.5bn yen ($552m; £269m), up from 32.3bn yen last year.

The fall in the Japanese currency against the US dollar and euro helped boost the firm's overseas earnings.

But its Playstation 3 console continued to struggle in a tough games market.

PS3 troubles

Problems with the company's next generation games console - designed to compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii - caused its launch to be delayed.

Despite Sony cutting the price of the PS3 in the US, sales of the system still significantly trail Nintendo's Wii machine. Sony's games division saw losses widen to 29.2bn yen.

Sony said it aimed to increase shipments of the PS3 to 11 million units by 2008. On Wednesday, Nintendo upgraded sales forecasts of its Wii console to 16.5 million machines for the year to March 2008, up from a previous forecast of 14 million.

Elsewhere, performance was strong in Sony's electronics division, which benefited from strong demand for Handycam video cameras and Bravia liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets.

With sales of conventional TV sets in decline, Sony faces a tough battle to win a share of the flat-panel market against LCD TV market leader Samsung Electronics.

Sony maintained its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2008 of 440bn yen. This is up sharply from 71.75bn yen in the 2006/07 financial year when it was hit by costs relating to the delayed launch of the PS3 and a recall of faulty laptop PC batteries.

No price cut for Euro PS3 console

Sony in the US say the price cut will boost sales

Sony is not cutting the price of the PlayStation 3 in Europe, but will offer free games and accessories instead.

There is also no word of plans for an 80GB version of the console in Europe.

Last week Sony said it would drop the US price of the 60GB PS3 by $100 (£50), and introduced a new 80GB version at the original price of $599 (£300).

In Europe gamers will get a "starter pack" at an unchanged price of £425 for the 60GB machine, with two games and two controllers included.

The new pack was announced at the E3 games conference in Santa Monica, in California. Sony says it is offering gamers £115 worth of added games and controller, for no extra charge.

But the firm could face criticism from gamers for deciding not to reduce the price of the 60GB PS3 and not announcing the 80GB machine.

Earlier this week, Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said he thought the US price cut would at least "double" the sales of PS3 in the country.

But in an interview with games website Gamesindustry.biz, David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, revealed that once the stock of 60GB machines was sold out in the US - probably by the end of July - the model would no longer be sold.

That would mean that US gamers would once again have to pay $599 for a full-spec console with features such as wi-fi, not available on the cheaper 20GB model.

In the UK, the PlayStation 3 remains £125 more expensive than the equivalent Xbox 360 bundle of console and games and £225 more expensive than the Nintendo Wii with two games.

Xbox revamp hits Europe in summer

The Elite machine is capable of storing more high definition video

A revamped Xbox 360, designed to store and display high-definition video, will go on sale in Europe on 24 August.

The black Elite console has a 120GB hard drive and outputs high definition video through a digital connection.

Microsoft's Shane Kim said he did not think recent reports of faulty Xbox 360s would damage future sales.

Speaking ahead of the E3 games show, he added there were no plans for an Xbox 360 price cut, saying they were "very comfortable with the price".

"We are selling the Elite console as fast as we can make them," he said of the black Xbox 360, but was unable to give specific sales figures.

He said Microsoft felt no need to reduce prices in light of Sony's cut of $100 (£50) from the cost of the 60GB PS3.

"Since our rivals launched last year, in the US we are neck and neck with the Wii and we are just about double the sales of PlayStation 3," he added.

Mr Kim, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, said he did not feel Sony had genuinely cut prices as the firm had maintained a $600 (£300) price point for the 80GB PS3.

"We really feel like we are driving the next generation console market," he said.

Mr Kim assured consumers that the firm had taken steps to resolve concerns over many Xbox 360s being returned because of faults.

The firm has set aside more than $1bn (£500m) to cover the cost of offering extended warranties.

'Remove concerns'

"It's been somewhat positive because we had been able to remove people's concerns and show that we are standing behind the product.

"Customers have responded very well - reaction has been neutral to positive."

A new Halo 3 trailer was shown

Microsoft also used the E3 press conference to reaffirm its commitment to a video download service for Xbox users in Canada and Europe.

"We're launching in UK and Ireland, France and Germany first and then rolling out to other countries as soon as we can," he said.

In the US, Xbox Lives' video marketplace offers more than 2,100 hours of content from 28 networks and studios, with nearly 500 hours of high definition content.

A Microsoft press conference in Santa Monica highlighted some of the key titles being launched on Xbox 360 this year, including Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV.

A new trailer for Halo 3 was shown, featuring some of the first video of the single-player campaign in action.

Microsoft also unveiled a "digital short film" made by Neill Blomkamp, who had been ear-marked for the stalled Halo movie, in conjunction with Peter Jackson's special effects wizards Weta Workshop and Origami Digital.

The company also trumpeted another title to move to the Xbox 360 after years of Nintendo and PlayStation exclusivity: Resident Evil 5 will make its debut on the console next year.

The award-winning first-person shooter Gears of Wars was also unveiled for Windows PCs.

How to make a CSRDS on windows OS

This is tutorial or howto make Counter Strike Source server on WinOS (If you want to make real server, I suggest to use Linux as OS)

Minimum system requirements: Cpu: 2GHZ; >512mb of RAM; VGA - forget it!!! :D

First, create a folder where the files for the dedicated server will be located. In this manual, C:\srcds will be used as the server directory. Verify 1 GB of free space is available on the drive.
Next, download the HLDS_UpdateTool from here:

HLDS_UpdateTool

Copy this file where you like. Doubleclick it and follow the instructions. The destination folder to use is: C:\srcds. Some files will be copied to this directory when finished, one of them is: HldsUpdateTool.exe
Doubleclick on HldsUpdateTool.exe, so it will update itself. We will be using this file in the next sections.

Download the Server Files Now, we download the server files that are required to run the server. Depending on your connection this could take from a few minutes to a few hours.

The next section need to be completed via the DOS command line. To go there do this:
Click Start, then Run, Type in cmd then click the OK button. Once the Command Prompt is up, we need to change directory by typing this in the command line: cd C:\srcds

Now type the following in the command line or copy from here:

hldsupdatetool -command update -game "Counter-Strike Source" -dir c:\srcds

This will download all the server files needed to run a Standalone Source Dedicated Server.
Once finished retrieving the files, this text will appear:

HLDS installation up to date

If it's not working the first time then try again, again and again

From time to time you will need to update your server, just follow the same steps to do this or make a batch file.

Creating a shortcut to run the server
Go to your C:\srcds directory. Find srcds.exe Right click on it and create a shortcut. Now right click on the newly created shortcut and go to properties. Click on the tab shortcut, in the Target line you see probably the following: C:\srcds\srcds.exe. Now we need to add the following behind this line to get the server started properly.

-console -game cstrike -autoupdate -tickrate 100 +maxplayers 12 +map de_dust

Don’t forget the space between srcds.exe and -console! So the complete line would be like this:

C:\srcds\ srcds.exe -console -game cstrike -autoupdate -tickrate 100 +maxplayers 12 +map de_dust

What else we can add? Here are only a few things:
-console – enables console
-autoupdate - enables autoupdate
-game – game modification
+maxplayers – player limit
+map – map with who server will start
+hostport – gives a different port, the default port is 27015.
-tickrate – changes a server tickrate, the default tickrate is 33, but usually, tickrate is 66, CW 100
-insecure – disables VAC
+ No DWP – turns off dynamic pricing

Click OK when finished.

Start the server.
All you need to do now to start your server is doubleclicking the shortcut you created.

If your server lag’s you can try to open task manager and set the priority of csrds.exe @ high. I don’t know will it help to you, but it works great to me…


References:
Lady Racquel,
Wrecked,
Eitleg

PlayStation 3 launched in Europe

It was all smiles for the first in the queue in the UK

Sony has launched its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console in Europe and Australia, hoping to retake its gaming crown.

The company trails Microsoft and Nintendo in sales of next generation consoles and the launch has been beset with problems in the last year.

But the PlayStation brand remains strong with gamers and one million PS3s will hit shops on day one.

At the London launch everyone who bought a PS3 also received a free 46-inch HD television and a taxi home.

In total, the giveaway amounted to £250,000 worth of televisons to more than 100 gamers.

At the head of the queue, 17-year-old Ritatsu Thomas said the giveaway and PS3 had been worth the 36-hour wait.

PS3 HITS EUROPE Clickable guide to the PS3 A voyage around the hardware

He said: "I feel fantastic. I'm delighted that everyone here also gets a television."

Sony has declared its launch of PlayStation 3 to date as a success, saying early sales are faster than those of its predecessor PS2.

It believes that the combination of a high-definition Blu-ray DVD player, online capabilities and gaming powered by the Cell processor will convince gamers to spend £425 (599 Euros) on the machine.

"High definition is very important to people," said Ray Maguire, head of Sony Computer Entertainment in the UK.

"A lot of people have bought flat panel TVs and they want content to go on it and PlayStation 3 is one of the few places they can get that kind of experience."

Mr Maguire said the TV giveaway in the UK was a reward for gamers' patience.

Sales figures from the United States, where the console launched last November, suggest that PS3 is being outsold by rivals. Recent figures from sales trackers NPD show that the Nintendo Wii is outselling the PS3 by more than two to one.

HAVE YOUR SAY I enjoy the escapism of computer and console games, but the PS3 is something I can well do without Keith Hutchinson, Sunderland

But the NPD figures also show that the PS3 is selling slightly faster in the US than the Xbox 360 did at the same stage in its release.

More than 200,000 consoles were made available on launch day in the UK, four month's later than originally planned.

Phil Harrison, Sony's head of worldwide studios, said the delay was "regrettable".

"But there are benefits for European consumers - there are more games available, more Blu-ray movies and we've updated the online PlayStation network."

Virgin's flagship store on Oxford Street, London, opened at midnight on Thursday despite concern from police about potential muggings.

Sony said the free taxis were to ensure people who attended the launch get home safely.

Gartner principal analyst Paul O'Donovan said: "The Wii is definitely outselling the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the moment."

But he said he expected Sony's brand will help the PlayStation edge ahead of rivals by the end of 2007.

"The real issue for Sony is whether they can get back the momentum they had with PS2. The only thing that is going to drive that is the number of titles available."

Motorstorm is one of the most anticipated launch titles

John Houlihan, editor of Computer and Videogames.com, said the initial line-up of games for the machine was "fairly decent".

"It lacks a must-buy, stand-out game. Six months down the line we will see Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo and more PlayStation bankers."

He added: "PlayStation is still the world's most successful gaming brand ever."

Mr Maguire said the risk in investing in PlayStation 3's technology was in proportion to the returns the company expected to make.

"We're confident we have got the right technology," he said.