Blog posts

Strike Suit Zero (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

I've been following this game since I saw it at Rezzed and was even lucky enough to go see the game while it was in development thanks to the good people at Born Ready. While there they showed us a development build which had their first pass at multi-monitor support, we took the opportunity to give them some advise on what would be nice for multi-monitor support. And I'm pleased to say they implemented pretty much everything we suggested and the game has great multi-monitor support thanks to their effort, better then just about every AAA game from last year.

If I could recommend the game on that alone I would, but the game is a lot of fun for those looking to recapture the space combat simulators of old. The video/s below are my analysis of the games multi-monitor support and my thoughts on the game itself, said commentary gets progressively worse the more I play as I get more immersed in it.

The video itself is part analysis, part walkthough and part waffle, feel free to like or dislike my video and comment are always welcome too.

Direct Video Link: Strike Suit Zero Part 1 (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

Direct Video Link: Strike Suit Zero Part 2 (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]
Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/n11skid

While this video can be watched on any screen it has been encoded to look best on a multi-monitor system, so if your running such a system, then select original quality from the drop down box and watch in fullscreen.

Some screenshots can be found here.

Anonymous (not verified) on

Review: NuForce S3-BT High End Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers

A full hands on video review is up for everybody to take a look at if your interested in learning more about the NuForce S3-BT Speakers.
These are uniquely designed speakers that take advantage of AAC and Apt-X codecs in a bluetooth stream to give better file compression and thus higher quality audio when streaming wirelessly.
They still function as standard high end powered speakers with a wired connection, but the bluetooth is really the main feature and selling point.

Watch Here:

Watch on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/tXToEqY5sek

ViciousXUSMC on

2013 - The Year of DisplayPort MST

January always brings two things, un-kept resolutions and CES. And with CES we always get a plethora of leaks and pre-show releases. A number of recent releases are pointing to Display Port daisy chaining and MST hubs finally making a splash in 2013. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a post at TFT Central regarding model numbers of upcoming Dell displays. The post contained a scan of the DisplayPort 1.2 flyer from the Dell U2913WM. The flyer indicated that upcoming products (U2413, U2713H and U3014) would all include DisplayPort daisy chaining through including DP 1.2 MST hubs. I fished out my flyer, and have included a scan here.

Just a couple days ago, David Tjong from AMD make a couple of tweets that showcased the DP 1.2 Daisy Chain and an unbranded MST Hub (probably a prototype).

Good news is that the clutter-cutting technology is here and/or soon to be here. Also remember that the MST Hubs can work with non-DisplayPort monitors. You can use them to attach three DVI panels to a single DisplayPort connection. I've been wanting to step up from 1080p panels to 2560x1440. The U2713H with the DP 1.2 Daisy Chain may just be the ticket.

skipclarke on

Sonic Adventure 2 PC (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

Sonic Adventure 2 is an old Dreamcast game that has seen a couple of HD re-releases, and last month it appeared on stream. It's a 3D platformer and for a port of an 11 year old console game, it has better multi-monitor support then most A, AA and AAA titles this year. Cutscreens are the correct aspect ratio and centred, menus are scaled correctly and centred, the HUD is unfortunately spanned, but the game itself is horizontal plus.
The video itself is part analysis, part walkthough and part waffle, feel free to like or dislike my video and comment are always welcome too.

Direct Video Link: Sonic Adventure 2 PC (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]
Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/n11skid

While this video can be watched on any screen it has been encoded to look best on a multi-monitor system, so if your running such a system, then select original quality from the drop down box and watch in fullscreen.

Some screenshots can be found here.

Anonymous (not verified) on

Far Cry 3 (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

Far Cry 3 is a open world first person shooter from Crytek / Ubisoft. It has good multi-monitor support, no messing with the resolutions, menus and HUD is scaled correct and centred on my system, cut screens are 16:9 aspect ratio, unfortunately however the FoV is capped on multi-monitor resolutions, this results in an incorrect FoV ingame. HaYDeN has however released a fix for the FoV, currently the fix isn't perfect but it does the job well enough, the Flawless Widescreen tool can be found in the Mods, Tweaks, Tools & Tutorials section of the forums.
The video itself is part analysis, part walkthough and part waffle, feel free to like or dislike my video and comment are always welcome too.

Direct Video Link: Far Cry 3 Part 1 (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

Direct Video Link: Far Cry 3 Part 2 (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]
Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/n11skid

While this video can be watched on any screen it has been encoded to look best on a multi-monitor system, so if your running such a system, then select original quality from the drop down box and watch in fullscreen.

Some screenshots can be found here.

Anonymous (not verified) on

Unboxing & First Look @ NuForce S3-BT Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers

I have a few new product reviews on the way, and for today we are unboxing one of them and showing you what to expect in the box and telling you a bit about this very interesting product.

I have high hopes that something like this will be very useful to a lot of different people so make sure you stay tuned for the full review to come later this month.

More from ViciousXUSMC on YouTube

ViciousXUSMC on

Race The Sun Alpha (Hacked for Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

Race the Sun is a indie racing game of sorts from a company called Flippfly, the game is a little hard to classify, the basic goal is to race as far as you can before you hit something, the sun goes down, or your solar powered ship runs out of power. The current version of the game is locked to a 16:10 aspect ratio, but they will be unlocking all aspect ratios and resolutions before its final release, they also indicated they would look into removing the pillerboxing they are currently using so. If they do that then the only real issue this game should have left in terms of multi-monitor support will be the HUD.

But there is good news about that as well, similar to what Amplitude Studios are doing, anyone that pre-purchases the game gets votes they can use to help the developers choose what to work on, and they have said "there’s no reason we can’t put a votable item in next month for proper multi-screen setups, and let you guys decide if that’s important to you", so we can probably get them to implement it with enough support.

My conversation with the developer can be over on their forums here: Remove The Resolution and Aspect Ratio Limit
The video itself is just pure gameplay this time, I originally only made it to show the developers what their game cool do is they removed the limit, but since they've now published it on their social channels I'm putting it up publicly as well. To get this to work I did a sledgehammer to a walnut kind of hack to force the resolutions and aspect ratio change, the rest was automatically handled by Unity, the games engine.

Direct Video Link: Race The Sun Alpha (Hacked for Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]
Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/n11skid

While this video can be watched on any screen it has been encoded to look best on a multi-monitor system, so if your running such a system, then select original quality from the drop down box and watch in fullscreen.

You can find a demo of this game over on Kongregate, and if you wish to support the developers and pre-purchase and help with the multi-monitor vote when it comes around you can do that over on Flippfly's website. They are currently selling pre-purchases for 50% off, so only $5.

Some screenshots can be found here.

Anonymous (not verified) on

Strike Suit Zero Dev Version (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]

Strike Suit Zero is a space combat simulator being developed by Born Ready Games. Last Friday Born Ready invited the WSGF to visit their offices, show off Strike Suit Zero and talk about multi-monitor support.
The video and screenshots are taken from a development version of the game, that Born Ready demoed.

This rev is their first pass for multi-monitor support, and it turned out quite well. They've managed to get the correct aspect ratio and centre the UI in this first attempt. This is a great accomplishment, considering it was implemented less than 24 hours before Delphium and I arrived. There are a few remaining issues with some of the UI elements, but it's great for a first attempt.

During the visit Delphium and I discussed multi-monitor support, and what the community expects with multi-monitor support. We're looking for to the upcoming beta, to see how much they've taken onboard and have been able to implement.

Direct Video Link: Strike Suit Zero Dev Version (Triple Monitors / Eyefinity / Surround) [~4K]
Channel Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/n11skid

While this video can be watched on any screen it has been encoded to look best on a multi-monitor system, so if your running such a system, then select original quality from the drop down box and watch in fullscreen.
More details and some screenshots can be found here.

Anonymous (not verified) on

Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology: Now in Laptops

I saw today a advertisement image for the new MSI GX60 laptop that comes equipped with the AMD 7970M GPU. In that advertisement it showed eyefinity running 3 monitors from the laptop directly by using the HDMI, Dispaly Port, and VGA connections together.

This may not be the very first laptop to do this, but its the first that I have seen that really is catered to mainstream users due to price and availability and also a sign perhaps that we may expect more of this in the future.

It takes a lot of power to run eyefinity, so I would not expect the latest and greatest games to run great on a system like this but if your into older games especially things like say the source engine games, this could be an interesting idea for you.

ViciousXUSMC on

It Takes a Great Team

Many of today's popular games are about a co-operative experience. Shooters (both third-person and first-person) require at least a moderate amount of teamwork from their players, if those players expect to be successful. Squad-based shooters and tactical shooters require even more coordination and planning from players. Success in these games isn't the work of one person, it is the work of many moving parts reacting to situations as they unfold. Each person brings their own skillset, and each person is required to react dynamically as new needs arise.

MMOs such as World of Warcraft have expended this idea as well. The whole idea of a "raid group" is to design a much larger cooperative team, from a much larger pool of possible players and characters. The nature of an MMO means that your players are more variable in nature, and the characters (with all of the choices for race, class, skills, spells, armor, weapons, items, etc.) are infinitely more variable. But, even with the greater variances, many of these groups run like clockwork as they run through the end-game content over and over.

It may go without saying (and it often does), but it needs to be said - running a successful gaming website requires the same kind of teamwork. And I am lucky to have a great team. Our volunteer staff of Editors/Mods do a great job in the day-to-day running of the site, but I want to take a moment to really thank the Admin Team that works behind the scenes.

skipclarke on