Archive for February, 2005

ATI Technologies showcased on Thursday its first graphics card with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, especially noticing that the design challenge about the actual board was not that serious. Still, it is yet unclear whether and when such products are projected to emerge in retail. “I wouldn’t think this would be a substantial rework, certainly not like designing a new board design from scratch,” ATI’s spokeswoman Patricia Mikula said.

ATI RADEON X850 XT 512MB graphics card looks similar to ATI’s RADEON X850 XT 256MB flavour: both have nearly the same power supply circuitry, coolers, etc., the actual difference is in memory layout. ATI Technologies, the world’s largest supplier of graphics and multimedia processors, will demonstrate its graphics cards with 512MB of onboard memory at the Texas Gaming Festival in Dallas, February 25th to 27th, 2004.

More at XBit Labs

Counter-Strike: Source

-New hostage rescue map cs_compound
-Added Source version of de_train
-Upgraded version of the CT player model
-Location names are shown in radio/team chat, and under the radar
-Server tickrate can be specified with -tickrate
-Added radio command aliases
-Added mp_humanteam cvar [any | ct | t] (forces human players onto specified team useful for humans vs bots)
-Added new match mode for bot_quota — If bot_quota_mode = match, bot count = (human count) * bot_quota
-Bots no longer automatically follow humans (bot_auto_follow now defaults to 0)
-Bots are balanced before humans with mp_autoteambalance
-Bots can open simple +use doors
-Bots change their names to match the prefix when bot_prefix changes
-Several improvements to bot behavior when paths become blocked — solves problems specific to cs_havana
-Bots wont throw grenades if something is blocking their throw
-Bots are better at only breaking objects that are in their way
-Fixed bug where a bot occasionally dithered rapidly between two or more targets without firing
-bot_kick and bot_kill console commands use the bot’s base name without the bot_prefix
-de_piranesi – bots avoid the breakable crates better.
-A bomb exploding just as the round restarts no longer kills players at the start of the next round
-Grenades being thrown when the player dies no longer disappear
-Increased mp_limitteams bounds to 0-30, where 0 will disable this functionality
-Players arms and hands can be hit by bullets now
-Target ID font is proportional, and it doesn’t resize incorrectly after a resolution change
-Overviews don’t show player locations when mp_fadetoblack is on
-Players with spaces in their names can be selected in the spectator GUI
-Observers can change their name at round restart
-Throwing a grenade right at round restart no longer results in holding a ghost grenade viewmodel at respawn

Source Engine
-Fixed a bug where snd_mixahead was not working properly. Should fix some sound popping problems for certain sound hardware when running at a low framerate
-Added support for a new surround sound buffering technique that streams six discrete channels instead of using DirectSound3D. Use snd_digital_surround in the console to enable this. This allows for support of Dolby Digital 5.1 on nForce2 hardware
-Allow mp3 playback at rates other than 44100Hz. This was requested by the MOD community

Master Server Query Protocol

-Added a challenge number to A2S_PLAYER and A2S_RULES server queries
* setting “sv_enableoldqueries” to 1 (default) allows old style (no challenge/response) queries to work. By default queries don’t require a challenge number for clients on the same B class network, change “sv_allowlocalquery” to 0 to disable this functionality

-Changed A2S_INFO server query to require the string “Source Engine Query” appended to the end of the query packet.

Half_life 2: Deathmatch

-Fixed model exploit that would allow players to select an invalid player model
-Added weapon type to server log

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 has just been released. A minor update, this version fixes a few security holes and some other bugs. If you’re currently using Firefox 1.0, you want to install this release.

Firefox 1.0.1 is a “branch build” serving as an interim update to Firefox 1.0. It addresses critical security and performance issues that resulted after the release of Firefox 1.0.

This build is NOT to be confused with recent Mozilla 1.0+ nightly “trunk” builds.

Mozilla Firefox v1.0.1

Approaching Beta!

Day of Defeat: Source, Valve’s World War II-themed multiplayer action game, is approaching beta and will be available early this spring via Steam. A team-based multiplayer game that cast players in the Axis vs. Allies battles of Western Europe circa 1944, Day of Defeat: Source leverages the power of the Source engine to introduce integrated physics simulation technology, all new audio, updated maps, enhanced effects and more. More information about Day of Defeat: Source will be released in the coming weeks.

Ok, its been a few days since I posted last but only because I’ve had homework and been setting up this bloody Media Center .

I’ve had hell getting the TV Tuner card working with it but finally last night I DID IT, after like 3 reformats. Now just to get everything else working…I’m not even half way

School has been boring – way too much Physics work but other than that everything seems to be going great

Onto the major tech news:

-Critical Patch for Windows XP SP2 @ WindowsUpdate
-MS AntiSpyware annouced as being free
-Force update to Windows XP SP2 on April 12th
-Some random change in Windows XP Product Activation
-AMD to Demo Dual Core chips
-Intel releases new CPUs!
-Internode “ADSL2″ Plans
-Winamp 5.08e
-Nero 6.6.0.8
-Longhorn has a real name?
-UT2004 Retail 3355 Patch
-IE 7 News
-Gainward 512MB Video Cards
-Trilian 3.1 Beta 1 Build 121 (via AutoUpdate)

Also there will be a Steam Update tomorrow with new CSS Maps (de_train and de_compound I think). Maybe more, stay tuned

Yay its Saturday the weekend w00t.

Just updated the blog to v3.15 to fix the mail exploit in MT.

Tech News:
-A Rumored NV50 set of specs
-Updates to Steam Client, HL2:DM, Source Engine, Source Dedicated Server, Source SDK
-New build of ICQ 5.03
-Trillian 3.1 Beta 1 Build 118 (Update via Auto Update)
-SpeedFan v4.21

Read More for Steam Changes:

———–

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
* Added SLAM, Stunstick and Crowbar
* Added dm_steamlab
* Fixed game_score entity not awarding points
* Added team specific spawn points ( info_player_combine, nfo_player_rebel)
* Optimized weapon firing effects bandwidth usage

Source SDK
* Added source code for Half-Life 2 multiplayer (Run the ‘Create a Mod’ link)
* Added ability to create new shaders. See Authoring Shaders In Source for documentation
* Added new tool and source code of DemoTool.exe — which shows the high-level structure of .dem files
* Added source code for Source Model Viewer included (src\utils\hlmviewer)
* Added source for Half-Life 2’s Airboat model
* Fixed issues with Steam account names with “..”
* Fixed FacePoser flex sliders
* Hammer limits framerate in 3D views to 300fps — eliminates overheating problems

Source Engine
* Fixed screenshots/save games being saved in the wrong place
* Fixed hang in rcon server
* Fixed server crash where banned players could retry/cancel quickly during connection
* Fixed crash when a user specifies a heapsize that is too large
* Fixed “play” command crashing on dedicated servers
* Fixed bspzip’d assets in maps not loading properly
* Added FCVAR_CHEAT to r_shadowids
* HLTV port/server can be completely disabled by command line parameter “-nohltv”

Source Dedicated Server
* Added Half-Life 2: Deathmatch to the dedicated server UI
* Temporarily disabled SourceTV beta for backend changes

I’ve started to put together the MCE PC but still waiting on RAM, DVD Burner and Card Reader

Pics: http://digitaldj.net/mcepc/

In Tech News:
-FireFox hits 25M in 99 days
-Microsoft 1337 speak guide
-MS Anti-Spyware Free and Updated
-Longhorn update at WinHEC 2005
-Hijack This 1.99.1

Few small bits:

-IE7 Beta to be here Summer 2005 (US Summer of course)
-CPU-Z 1.27 Released
-Possible R520 Information
-Bigpond attempts Hard Caps (won’t affect me )

Well..it would seem I completely forgot to post after InLAN.

ANYWAY….Our clan sA won the “exhibition” CSS match against [sW] and I came 2nd in the HL2 DM comp which won me a FlexiGlow UV Reactive IDE cable (yay), losing to Necron the yay rockets camper (damn him!).

Anyway, A few parts for the media center arrived today from AusPCMarket

Pics will be available at http://digitaldj.net/mcepc/

the Albatron 6600 Vid Card, MCE Remote/IR Blasters and Zalman HS has arrived.

InLAN is tomorrow out at Blackwood lots of people going (11am start).

Also WinBeta.org reports that a new MSN Messenger 7 build will leak (probally) and has posted some screenshots.

http://www.winbeta.org/comments.php?id=2573&catid=1