News

Based on two reports from Engadget, both LG and Samsung are poised to showcase 105" Ultra HD TVs sporting a 21:9 "ultra widescreen" aspect ratio. Both displays are curved, and sport a resolution of 5,120 x 2,160 - a total of 11.06M pixels.

By comparison a "4K UHD" display has 8.29M pixels, making these sets basically 5.3K UHD". By way of comparison, a 5x1-Portrait Eyefinity configuration has 10.4M pixels, and an aspect ratio of 25.3:9 - just wider than the 21:9 aspect ratio here. Recently announced 3440x1440 21:9 displays have 4.93M pixels (roughly 2.5 HD), and just under half the pixels of these new massive panels.

If you've got the money for one of these new displays, you can compare performance to any 5x1-Portrait Eyefinity benchmarks out there. Until this resolution makes its eventual way to PC displays, you can keep on the lookout for the 34" 3440x1440 panels which will require half the horsepower.

Alright, enough teasing.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/223470/discussions/0/666828127203287049/

I've been helping with this for the past several months, and I'm happy to announce that the update's live, as in, RIGHT NOW, for all existing owners of Postal 2 on Steam, they'll be rolling the update out to other digital distribution services in the near future, but the game's on sale for a meager $2.49 at the time of writing, so... why wait? Buy one for yourself, buy one for your wife and kids*(see note)!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/223470/

Leaked details showed up today on Guru 3D regarding the Dell U3415W panel. And LG version was also recently leaked.

Details on the Dell model include an IPS panel and a 3440x1440 21:9 apsect ratio based off of 1440p vertical, rather than the 1080p baseline for the current 2560x1080 U2913WM. The inclusion of the U would indicate the panel is in the UltraSharp family, and the inclusion of the W would continue the nomenclature of the "ultra Wide" naming convention. The lack of the M in the name would mean a departure from LED backlighting.

The exclusion of the LED backlighting would be a step back for the 21:9 series, but the increase in size and pixel count is a definite step forward. Hopefully we will end up with a U2415WM. The 3440x1440 contains 4,953,600 pixels, which is close to 2.5x HD. This puts the panel at a better performance place than Eyefinity or Surround which are 3x HD, and considerably less than 4k UHD which is 4x HD.

Dell has released its first two 4k UHD panels. The UltraSharp UP2414Q is a 24" model sporting an anti-glare IPS LED panel with mini-DP, DP 1.2a and HDMI connections. The UltraSharp UP3214Q is a 32" panel with the same connections and an anti-glare IGZO LCD panel.

Both models sport USB 3.0 hubs. They can do 60Hz over the mini-DP or DP connections, and 30Hz over the HDMI. The UP2414Q retails for $1,399, and the UP3214Q retails for $3,499. Dell is also promising a 28" 4k UHD panel at "sub $1,000" pricing in early 2014. I'm wondering what features will be cut for to get this panel under $1000. I don't see them going non-IPS, as a TN panel at this resolution would be a waste. I'm guessing that it won't be part of the UltraSharp line.

The 24" seems a bit small for this many pixels, but the price is in line with the existing 30" panel. I'd love to get the 32", but right now that price is out of reach. Here's hoping the 28" panel has the right features.

As many users are aware the WSGF helped to Kickstart the Oculus Rift and received a dev kit. Since I didn't have time to play with the kit, I decided to pass it around local users here in the Houston area. Three of those members - Zencyde, TheDestroyer and Peanut - were interviewed by CultureMass about their experience with the Oculus Rift and their viewpoint immersion, virtual reality and motion input.

Click the source link and check out their interview. Thanks to CultureMass for reaching out to the WSGF for our input, and the chance to do this interview.

October 13th marked the 10th anniversary of the WSGF. On October 10th 2003, I registered widescreengamingforum.com. Three days later on the 13th, I had the phpBB2 forum up and running and waited on our first posts.

The last ten years have been a wild ride, and it wouldn't have been possible without this great community and our amazing volunteer staff. To help celebrate the anniversary, we are going to do a game giveaway (amongst other things).

For all the details, hit up this form thread - http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=26722

I wanted to let everyone know that we do have reviews in the works for the just announced Radeon R7 & R9 series. I have an R7 260X 2GB, R9 270X 2GB and R9 280X 3GB in my posession. I knew that AMD was having the Tech Day broadcast from Hawaii, but was surprised to learn soon after that I would be receiving cards. I actually got the cards delivered before I got the emails from AMD. Following the cards there was a press briefing last week, along with the usual slideshow press deck.

Prior to this I was neck deep in two articles for the WSGF. The first article was looking at the gaming power of the latest AMD A10 APUs. The second was a large CPU shoot-out to look at a range of CPU/APUs and their real-world impact on gaming. While I would have loved to jump into the new GPUs, I was simply too deep into the testing cycle on these existing platforms. That testing has completed, and I have updated my test rig to boot. I have migrated to an AMD FX-8350, and upgraded to a 480GB SSD as my primary drive.

Thanks for your patience, and please let me know if there are any particular titles you would like for me to test.

Today Steam announced its new "Family Sharing" Program. This announcement can only be seen as a leg up on the next-gen consoles, particularly in light of Microsoft's stumble with its own game sharing program.

The new program from Steam allows a user to share their Library with up to 10 other devices (e.g., friends, family, etc.). The sharing is done at the Library level - not the game level. If your Library is being shared, and you come in to play a game - any game - the sharing user will be ejected. They will have a few moments to exit the game, or buy it themselves. But, you can't have 10 different people playing 10 different games out of your library.

This new program could be real boon for people wanting to sample games prior to purchasing, especially those games that lack a demo. This program could also pay dividends for the WSGF in our game analysis and fixing. One option we will explore is the option of a WSGF Test library. The site would be able to purchase games that a core group of Editors/Insiders could use to create Detailed Reports.

A variety of different users could get access to the titles for testing in various configurations such as Eyefinity, Surround, 5x1-P, 21:9, 4k, etc. Users such as Helifax, HaYDeN and dopefish could also get access to create patches. If needed, we could even set up two accounts - one for testers, and one for developers. We had considered something similar earlier, but had concerns over being banned due to account sharing. The Family Sharing seems to make this vision now possible.

HDMI Licensing officially announced HDMI 2.0. The v2 spec has 18Gbps bandwidth and can carry 3,840 x 2,160 resolution video at @ 60fps. The connector itself is unchanged, and HDMI Licensing claims current high-speed Category 2 wires can handle the increased bandwidth. Additionally, some companies have suggested upgrade paths for UHDTVs already on the market, and the new spec will natively support 21:9 widescreen displays.