New OpenAL Installer 1.9.1 For Windows (Driver Update)

Creative Labs has released an update for OpenAL. OpenAL is a cross-platform 3D audio API appropriate for use with gaming applications and many other types of audio applications. The library models a collection of audio sources moving in a 3D space that are heard by a single listener somewhere in that space. OpenAL is used in renowned titles such as Quake 4, Battlefield 2, UT 2004 or Doom 3.

Updated April 3, 2006 : Version 1.9.1

The OpenAL Installer for Windows will install the OpenAL 1.1 library, enabling support for core OpenAL operations as well as extensions such as EAX and EFX. The installer supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Version note: Installs OpenAL32.dll version 6.14.357.13 and wrap_oal.dll version 2.0.8.0.

Changes and Bugfixes:

• The installer can install both 32bit and 64bit OpenAL run-time components. 32bit components are installed on all WIndows OS's, and if the installer is run on a 64bit Windows OS, the 64bit components are also installed.
• The wrapper (wrap_oal.dll) has been updated to support the new Effects Extension (EFX) to OpenAL.

Adobe Warns Of Critical Flash Flaw, Drive-by Downloads

Adobe on Tuesday warned that multiple critical vulnerabilities in its Flash media player put users at risk, possibly from drive-by downloads, and urged all to update immediately to the patched 8.0.24.0 edition. Microsoft also issued a security advisory Tuesday to tell customers of its Windows XP, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium operating systems -- all of which are bundled with a flawed edition of Flash -- to also update their players.

Security vendors quickly chimed in Wednesday. Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia, for example, labeled the threat as "highly critical," its second-highest warning rating. Although Adobe didn't specify the bugs, nor give a total vulnerability count, its advisory indicated attackers would have to create a malformed .swf (Flash content file) and dupe a user into opening it.

New Bug Can Crash Internet Explorer

Microsoft is investigating a newly reported flaw in Internet Explorer 6 that could cause the browser to crash when viewing a malicious Web page, the company said Monday.

Details of the security weakness in the Web browser were published on a popular security mailing list last week by researcher Michal Zalewski. "This might not come as a surprise, but there appears to be a very interesting and apparently very much exploitable overflow in Microsoft Internet Explorer," he wrote.

The flaw can be exploited by an attacker to crash IE, Secunia said in an advisory published Monday. The vulnerability has been confirmed on a fully patched PC running IE 6 and Windows XP with Service Pack 2, the security monitoring company said. Secunia deems the issue "not critical."

Nvidia And Havok Demonstrate World's First GPU-Powered Game Physics Solution

...at this year's Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Jose, California (March 21st through 24th).

The result of an ongoing engineering collaboration between Havok and NVIDIA, this new software product from Havok—called Havok FX™—enables the simulation of dramatically-detailed physical phenomena in PC games, when powered by GPUs such as NVIDIA GeForce®7 or 6 Series GPUs and further amplified with NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technology. The Havok FX product is currently in early release to select developers and is expected to be available this summer.

Through Havok FX, GPUs can simulate the interactions of thousands of colliding rigid bodies, a fundamental technique of physics computation seen in today's latest games. It's now possible to compute the components of friction, collisions, gravity, mass, and velocity that form the basis of rigid body physics. Havok FX is designed for GPUs supporting Shader Model 3.0, including the NVIDIA GeForce 6 and 7 Series GPUs.

Utilizing Havok FX and NVIDIA graphics technology, game developers can now implement sophisticated physical phenomenon such as debris, smoke, and fluids that add immense detail and believability to game environments. Game designers can include advanced physics effects without burdening the CPU and slowing game-play, since the effects are simulated and rendered on the GPU.

• PC Perspective's NVIDIA SLI Physics Tech Preview
• Rojak Pot's NVIDIA SLI Physics Tech Preview
• [H]ardOCP's NVIDIA SLI Physics Tech Preview

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview

Developers and IT pros: Download and evaluate the newest, layout-complete build of the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview - released on March 20th — and explore the improvements in security, user interface, and development platform.

Please note that this release is only for Windows XP. Currently x64 versions of XP and Windows Server 2003 are not supported.

Microsoft Unveils XNA Framework For Game Developers

In the face of escalating game development costs, expanding teams and ever more complex hardware technologies, Microsoft Corp. today delivered a pre-release version of the first XNA™ Studio tools and unveiled the XNA Framework to attendees of the Game Developers Conference 2006 in San Jose. Microsoft also announced that the company is opening its Xbox Live^® Server Platform to game developers and publishers, allowing them to innovate and extend the Xbox Live experience in their titles.

XNA Studio represents a set of tools and technologies Microsoft is building to help streamline and optimize the game development process.

“Developers need a better way to make games and manage the production process,” said Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. “XNA Studio enables all developers — from major development studios to the two guys moonlighting on a dream project in their garage or dorm room — to create games in new, more efficient ways.”

This community technology preview (CTP) represents the first public opportunity for game developers to get their hands on key components of XNA Studio. Included in the CTP is a pre-release version of XNA Build, which delivers mechanisms for orchestrating, debugging and optimizing the game build pipeline. XNA Build also provides studios with a foundation that helps them easily identify game asset relationships and dependency information to unlock a wealth of benefits, ranging from incremental content builds to assistance in identifying orphaned or unused content. Tools such as XNA Build enable game developers to spend less time building and maintaining their internal tools infrastructure, and more time creating great game experiences.

The XNA Framework contains a custom implementation of the Microsoft^® .NET Framework and new game-development-specific libraries designed to help game developers more easily create cross-platform games on Windows and Xbox 360 using the highly productive C# programming language. Using the XNA Framework, game developers will benefit from the ability to re-use code and game assets in developing multiplatform titles, without sacrificing performance or flexibility.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Construction Set Released

The Construction Set allows you to create your own content for Oblivion. It only works with the PC version of the game.

New Nvidia ForceWare Driver For TES: Oblivion

Nvidia has has informed us they will be releasing a new driver on Wednesday March 22nd at NZone. This new version ForceWare 84.25 will contain specific performance enhances to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion being released Monday the 20th.

Our developer relations team worked closely with Bethesda to optimize game performance, which also included making some driver changes to fix/enhance performance in certain areas.

Our performance testing shows no two benchmark runs are identical in exterior scenes, due to Oblivion randomly placing grass and rocks, changing the amount of grass, and varying other aspects of the terrain.

Nvidia ForceWare 84.21 WHQL

Nvidia has released a new set of display drivers. 84.21 WHQL is the certified version of the 84.20 beta release from earlier this month. Release Highlights:

• WHQL Certified
• Adds support for GeForce 7900 GTX, GeForce 7900 GT, and GeForce 7600 GT
• New NVIDIA PureVideo features and enhancements. Please visit the NVIDIA PureVideo website for more information on PureVideo technology and system requirements.
  • Support for high definition H.264 hardware decode acceleration on GeForce 6 and 7 series GPUs.
  • Support for high definition MPEG-2 inverse telecine.
  • Support for high definition MPEG-2 spatial temporal de-interlacing.
• Adds mixed vendor support for NVIDIA SLI.
• TV-Out/HD-out support for NVIDIA SLI.
• Added support for VSync on Direct3D games when running NVIDIA SLI.
• Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support
• For a full list of fixed and known issues please view the Release Notes.

HIS Shows ICEQ 3 Cooling Solution For Radeon X1900 Series

HIS is one of ATI's partners that wants and knows how to make a difference. Those guys finally made the ICEQ 3 cooler that can cool Radeon X1900 XTX much better than ATI's stock cooler. HIS is using a heatpipe design to top the reference cooler in efficiency.

These cards should be available in a few weeks and they can guarantee you that it will run at least 10 degrees Celsius lower than the ATI reference X1900 XTX cooler.

Link: HIS Digital Homepage

Elder Scrolls Oblivion To Be A Hardware Hog

German PC Games spinoff magazine - PC Games Hardware - is testing Oblivion since Monday. While the editors where very impressed by the detailed graphics they were also quite impressed by the demanding behaviour of Oblivion on todays hardware. There findings might be a blow to many RPG gamers as those were never so demanding until Oblivion. There findings to play Oblivion on max details at 1280x1024 resolution are:

- 3.8Ghz+ CPU
- 1GB RAM
- GeForce 7800GTX or equivalent GPU

Oblivion is going to be available in retail, starting next Monday the 20th of March 2006.

Nvidia Cuts TCP Offloads To End Data Corruption

Since the nForce4's release, the chipset's ActiveArmor networking capabilities have struggled to live up to their promised potential for reducing CPU utilization by handling TCP checksumming in hardware rather than on the host CPU. Over time, we've watched ActiveArmor's CPU utilization oscillate between impressively low and alarmingly high. Every new driver release seemed to change ActiveArmor's CPU utilization, and to make matters worse, many found that using ActiveArmor at all could lead to data corruption or instability.

NVIDIA claims the latest ForceWare drivers—6.70 for the nForce4 for AMD and 6.85 for the nForce SLI X16—have resolved ActiveArmor's data corruption issues for good, but the fix comes at the expense of CPU utilization. NVIDIA has today confirmed to TechReport that it's been forced to scale back ActiveArmor's TCP offload engine in order to avoid data corruption.

Thermaltake Releases First Dedicated GPU Power Supply

Thermaltake Technology’s innovational spirits have developed the world’s first patent design power supply unit that is dedicated towards the high-performance graphic cards today. Due to the high demand of the +12V rail as specified by NVIDIA and ATI, the Power Express 250W dedicated graphic card power supply is born. The power supply effectively assists the consumers to retain the original power supply they have been using before the upgrade of their video cards. The sole purpose of the Power Express is to provide as high as 21A of +12V for the video cards. The Power Express 250W is also equipped with a 24 pin main adaptors so that the unit can turn on and off at the same time the computer system is being turned on and off. The simple 5.25” drive bay is powered through an AC adaptor card in one of the PCI slots; this implementation of the unit enables easy access and easy installation of the whole system.

Nvidia To Show New nForce 500 Chipset @ Cebit 2006

Nvidia Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, yesterday announced the company will be conducting technology demonstrations this week of its new family of Nvidia nForce family media and communications processor (MCP) which will be available mid-2006. The new Nvidia nForce 500 series of MCPs will offer OEMs, system builders, and end users a compelling platform solution along with a true, dual x16 PCI Express architecture designed to provide the performance, features, and stability that discriminating PC users demand. In its booth, Nvidia will have on display its entire top-to-bottom product family of MCP solutions, including:

• The new Nvidia nForce 590 SLI MCP for the enthusiast, dual GPU segment
• The new Nvidia nForce 570 SLI MCP for the performance, dual GPU segment
• The new Nvidia nForce 570 MCP for the single GPU performance segment
• The new Nvidia nForce 550 MCP for the mainstream segment and
• The Company’s complete current product portfolio, including NVIDIA nForce4 MCP solutions for both AMD and Intel desktops and AMD mobile platforms

For the NvidiaA nForce 500 family, the company has integrated support for some of the industry’s most viable technologies aimed at providing users with some of the most feature-rich platforms possible. Among the features Nvidia has included into this next-generation product family are:

• Support for Nvidia SLI technology—including Quad SLI—the industry’s most stable and game-compatible multi-GPU solution and the only one designed for the use of up to 4 GPUs simultaneously
• Nvidia MediaShield technology supporting a myriad of storage options, including dual RAID 5
• Support for up to 10 USB 2.0 devices and up to six SATA 3Gb/s hard drives and
• Support for the upcoming dual-core AMD Socket AM2 processors

Spring IDF 2006 Conroe Preview: Intel Regains Performance Crown

Intel is very excited about their new Core architecture, especially with Conroe on the desktop. It's not really news to anyone that Intel hasn't had the desktop performance crown for years now; their Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors run hotter and offer competitive or lower performance than their AMD competitors. With Conroe, Intel hopes to change all of that.

AnandTech managed to borrow a Conroe test system at IDF, and have some early benchmarks of the machine stacked up against an overclocked Athlon 64 FX-60. The tests show a 2.66GHz Conroe consistently beating an FX-60 at 2.8GHz, in some cases by up to 42%. The gaming results are especially interesting, as they show large performance gaps despite running at 1280x960 and 1280x1024 with high in-game detail levels.

Before you get too excited, we should point out that both test systems were configured by Intel. AnandTech says it couldn't find anything fishy going on, but this isn't quite independent testing with production hardware.

OpenOffice.org v2.0.2

OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Currently the release build of 2.0.2 is only available via FTP servers.

View: What's new

ATI Buys XGI Company

ATI Technologies Inc. today announced the acquisition of Shanghai-based Macrosynergy, an XGI Technology alliance company, as well as related personnel working out of XGI Technology's Santa Clara, California location. With the acquisition ATI immediately increases its presence in Shanghai, China, considered to be the epicenter of China's burgeoning technology market. At the same time the company acquires the research and design expertise of an organization best known for its multimedia add-in boards for personal computers.

"This transaction brings ATI two important elements - presence in a country that is emerging as the next big technology market, and a team of engineers that are highly skilled in our key product areas," said Dave Orton, president & CEO, ATI Technologies Inc. "The XGI and Macrosynergy people bring additional breadth of knowledge and experience to an ATI team that is leading the graphics processor market."

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GONE GOLD

Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., today announced that the highly-anticipated role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has gone to gold master and will be available in stores in North America and Europe during the week of March 20. Oblivion will be available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC in both regular and collector's editions.

"Our most ambitious project ever is finally done," said Todd Howard, executive producer of Oblivion. "We're excited to get the game into everyone's hands and let them experience it for themselves. We hope they enjoy it. I think it's our best game yet."

Internet Explorer ActiveX Update

Microsoft has released a software update to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 for Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

This update includes minor changes to how Internet Explorer handles some web pages that use Microsoft ActiveX controls. Certain webpages will require users to manually activate Active X controls by clicking on it or using the TAB key and ENTER key. This update contains all previously released security updates. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

DriverCleaner Platinum Edition Released

Ruud "Spike" Ketelaars has launched the latest version of DriverCleaner "Platinum". Platinum edition will cost users 5 Euro to purchase but has a wider feature set. It has new updated and faster code, has a self update option to their servers and is fully skinnable. They also offer priority forum support for every registered member. Check out the new DriverCleaner website to learn more.

Quake 4 Beta Update 1.1 Available

This is the BETA of id's broad QUAKE 4 update. It fixes issues and adds gameplay elements throughout both single and multiplayer—including voice chat in multiplayer, a forecemodel option, a one-minute warning for tournament matches, fixed pure server autodownloading, Hyper-Threading Technology support, smooth stairjumping and a ton of multiplayer specific fixes which have been requested by the community and discovered during our own gameplay. In short, multiplayer is fixed. ;) For a complete list of new features, fixes, and changes, please see the ReadMe file.

New Update For Windows XP (KB913538)

Microsoft has released a new update for Windows XP Service Pack 2. Install this update to prevent Windows Management Instrumentation enumerations from being canceled before the client computer can finish using the enumerations. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

DirectX 9.0c February 2006 End-User Runtime

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.

The DirectX end-user installation includes all the latest and previous released DirectX runtime. This includes the bi-monthly D3DX, XInput, and Managed DirectX components.

Monolith Scaring Up New F.E.A.R.s

WBIE-owned studio announces sequels for PCs and "next-generation consoles." Sequel to lose F.E.A.R. name but continue storyline, keep character set, stay in existing universe.

Monolith Productions likes to scare people. The sadistic studio was responsible for two of last year's most frightening experiences with Condemned: Criminal Origins on the Xbox 360 and F.E.A.R. on the PC. Both games were produced with the same technology, which used dynamic lighting and realistic sound to give gamers goose bumps.

Today, Monolith announced it is continuing the story of F.E.A.R. on PCs and multiple next-generation consoles. However, due to Vivendi Universal Games owning the name F.E.A.R., the sequels from Monolith will carry a new, as-yet-unannounced title. The sequels' publisher has not yet been announced, nor has any release date.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two Confirmed

Valve confirms HL2: Episode 2 on Computer and Video Games offers the news that Valve is indeed working on another Half-Life 2 episode to follow their upcoming release. This is actually a no-brainer after the first follow-up - Aftermath - was renamed Episode One, but the story, based on a yet unpublished interview with Valve's Robin Walker, does shed some light on what these upcoming episodes will be like:

Valve's Robin Walker, designer/engineer on Episode 1, informed us that Episode 2 "has been in development for some time" in an interview that'll be winging its way to you shortly. Although he didn't elaborate further, it sounds as though Episode 2 may appear sooner than we could have hoped. We're definitely keeping trigger fingers crossed on that one, especially as the developer has aimed to offer "between 4 to 6 hours" of gameplay time with Episode 1, according to Walker - shorter, perhaps, than fans might have expected.

Microsoft Hints at Six Windows Vista Editions

A Windows Vista help page has provided some insight into Microsoft's packaging plans for the next-generation Windows release due out later this year. While the company has yet to make any official announcement, Microsoft is ostensibly preparing six different editions of Windows Vista.

At the bottom of the list is Windows Starter 2007, which will likely replace the current Windows XP Starter Edition SKU. This slimmed down version of Windows does not carry the Vista branding because it will not feature the new Aero Glass interface, and is designed purely as a low-cost option for emerging markets.

Microsoft will offer two Home editions of Windows Vista. Home Basic will serve as the recommended SKU for single PC homes, largely replacing Windows XP Home Edition. Vista Home Premium, meanwhile, adds Windows Media Center functionality with TV tuner and CableCard support.

Story continued at BetaNews...

Winamp 5.2 Released

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI,ASF,MPEG,NSV), custom appearances called skins (supporting both classic Winamp 1.x/2.x skins and Winamp 3 freeform skins), audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins (including two industry dominating visualization plug-ins), an advanced media library, Internet radio and TV support, CD ripping, and CD burning.