Hardware

VR Catching On?

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Interesting uses of Virtual Reality Headsets are turning up. Some examples:

Obduction – Of course games. This is a big Myst sibling puzzle game where you are magically transported to an alien world and have to figure out how to get home. The graphics are awesome. All versions of the game will have VR support. The game is out and the VR updates will be sent along.

Sketchfab: Largest Social Media Site for 3D Objects Adds VR Navigation – This is the first web site I’ve heard of that is designed for VR. The highlight isn’t the VR oriented content but the VR oriented site design.

Hospitals Try Giving Patients a Dose of VR – They are using VR to help with pain management. It’s a distraction thing.

Paraplegics regain some feeling, movement after using brain-machine interfaces – Surprising.

Gear VR – Samsung is selling their nice headset for the Note 7 for US$99. I am eligible for a new phone… tempting.

Politicians and Photo-Opts – I didn’t see this one coming. I’m hoping Wiener doesn’t find out about VR.

Nvidia Titan-X Pascal

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August 2, 2016 Nvidia released their top of the line video card the Titan-X. There is a previous generation Titan-X. To distinguish between the previous gen and the current generation we have to include the architecture descriptor; Maxwell (previous) or Pascal (new).

How much faster is this Titan-X Pascal than the previous one? Almost twice as fast.

You can see the card is about 30% faster than the GTX1080. 

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Nvidia vs AMD: Serious Problem

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In the last 10 minutes or so of the Third Party Developers’ Meeting the problem with AMD video cards problems came up.

It seems especially the R series of video cards (RX480 etc.) have a problem with OpenGL. See: BUG-20057 – Visual Artifacts with ALM enabled on some AMD graphics cards.

AMD Screen Artifact - No Fix
AMD Screen Artifact – No Fix

This bug is dependent on screen size. So, you may be able to escape it by changing your viewer window size or screen resolution.

There is a thread in the AMD forum about the problem. It is way techy. See: OpenGL display artifact on W7100.

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Hardware: DIY Power – How much?

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In building my new computer I needed to verify my calculation of the amount of power required. What size power supply do I need?

By my, mostly in my head, calculation as I selected parts I need 500-550 watts at peak demand. I select a continuous supply rating based on my anticipated peak demand. While power supplies have built in the ability to handle peak loads that exceed their continuous rating and that often gets advertised, that ability usually comes from considering what all the parts can stand when pushed to >100% of their design spec.

Computer Power Supply
Computer Power Supply

Humans can walk all day at 5 mph. But, we can only run at 20 mph for a few minutes. Sort of the same thing with computer power supplies. At some point in time they overheat or an individual component overheats by too much and the unit fails. Some units have anti-self-destruct protection, which reduces the power supplied to save itself. And what does that do to the rest of the computer? Nothing good. 

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Video Cards: GTX1060 vs RX480

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There is debate in the SL Forum as to which video card is a better choice for Second Life™. I’ll try to provide the information needed to make a decision. But, I don’t see a deal maker or breaker that would pull the choice to any one card.

Also there are no good benchmarks, yet, of which new cards work best with Second Life. The following benchmark tests show the cards’ performance are very dependent on how the game is designed.

In the above video he is testing DirectX12 verses Vulkan. Vulkan is the next generation OpenGL. While development on OpenGL has not stopped, it appears to be similar to SL and Sansar. Except I have no doubt Vulkan will be the render engine of choice for most game makers moving on from OpenGL. 

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The Novice Computer Upgrade Series: Memory

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Regular readers will know I am in the process of building a new computer capable of handling VR, Sansar, Obduction (from the makers of Myst), and Second Life. I mostly deal with web tech and repair or upgrade of old computers. I do a lot of repair and upgrading of Core2 vintage machines.

So, when I decided to upgrade I started looking for what is best, fast, and cheap. In the process I realized I haven’t been keeping up with the tech. Helping people in the SL Forum I realize there are a lot of people also unaware of the changes in tech. A lot of bad advice is handed out in the forum. So, I am starting a series of articles on the current state of computer technology. Starting with a tutorial on computer memory.

Memory

Computer memory is called: RAM – Random Access Memory.

DDR4 Top - DDR2 Bottom
DDR4 Top – DDR2 Bottom

Memory chips like all other tech advances. Memory gets better, meaning faster and using less power. So, can you put faster memory in your existing computer? May be. 

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