AMD vs. NVIDIA: Anti-Aliasing in Batman: Arkham Asylum

There's an on-going war of words being exchanged between AMD and NVIDIA, and in some cases, also Eidos and Rocksteady, regarding the recent PC hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum. The story surfaced well before the game's launch, but spread like wildfire when it became available to consumers, as gamers began to experience a downside when running the game with an ATI card installed: no anti-aliasing. While AA is indeed possible with ATI cards, the method of applying it is complicated, compared to any in-game solution.

With all the details boiled down, it appears that NVIDIA is the one in the hotseat, as multiple sources, including developer Rocksteady, claim that the company disallowed the in-game anti-aliasing code to be applied for non-NVIDIA cards. This of course enraged AMD and gamers alike. Simply changing your ATI card's vendor ID to match NVIDIA's would enable anti-aliasing once again, adding even more fuel to the fire.

The story is long and complicated, but Bright Side of News*'s Theo Valich has taken an exhaustive look at the situation from various angles, and has even gotten comment from developers not at all related to the game. Some have praise for NVIDIA, stating that its dedication to game developers is unparalleled. In some cases, NVIDIA has been known to provide not only hardware to developers, but support at no cost. AMD, on the other hand, seemingly does the bare minimum.

The case has a sticking point, though. Half a year before the game's release, Rocksteady approached both AMD and NVIDIA regarding Unreal Engine 3's lack of native anti-aliasing support. NVIDIA went ahead and wrote some code, while AMD decided to focus more on DirectX 11 titles, as the company knew it would be way ahead of the curve (and it is, although we've yet to see such titles). The argument is that if NVIDIA wrote the code required, why should it allow AMD's graphics cards to take advantage? NVIDIA states that AMD didn't do anything to help with the development of AA in the title, and therefore, it's at fault - not NVIDIA.

Believe it or not, despite the fact that Unreal Engine 3 (mentioned earlier here) is one of the most robust engines on the market in terms of features and performance, it doesn't natively support anti-aliasing. This is proven by loading up almost any UE3-built game, including Unreal Tournament III. Players do have the option of forcing AA in the graphics driver's control panel, but that's a less-than-elegant solution.

Not much is sure to come from this, but two things do seem to be proven. For one, Unreal Engine should include native anti-aliasing support. It's kind of absurd that the engine has been around for years, and hasn't included a feature that's been around for well over ten. Second, AMD really has to step up its game (no pun of course) when it comes to catering to game developer's needs. I've heard this from game developers first-hand in the past, so it does seem to be a real issue.

What got AMD seriously aggravated was the fact that the first step of this code is done on all AMD hardware: "'Amusingly', it turns out that the first step is done for all hardware (even ours) whether AA is enabled or not! So it turns out that NVidia's code for adding support for AA is running on our hardware all the time - even though we're not being allowed to run the resolve code! So… They've not just tied a very ordinary implementation of AA to their h/w, but they've done it in a way which ends up slowing our hardware down (because we're forced to write useless depth values to alpha most of the time...)!"

Are Retailers Slow to Catch onto the Current Consumer?

When the recession hit last fall, or even earlier based on some opinions, retailers didn't know what to do. It's not too often that most of us are affected by something all at once. The reality hit most people that money is important, and shopping sprees aren't. So, naturally, retailers such as Walmart dropped prices on a lot of merchandise, in order to entice the casual shopper. It wasn't just retailers though, but car prices went down in some cases, as did lodging, and even food.

But as an MSNBC.com report shows, retailers might not be cluing into how the current consumer operates, and they may be hurting themselves more than helping by offering rock-bottom prices on a lot of popular merchandise. The number one reason for this comes down to the fact that the current consumer has come to expect ridiculous deals on product, so when the economy does improve, people are going to continue expecting the same kind of pricing.

There's also the issue that, again, due to the economy, product manufacturers aren't exactly giving people a reason to run out to the stores this season to pick something up. What's the "must have" product? According to the article, there doesn't seem to be one. The question is also raised, if a product is sold for a low price, but consumers don't need it, is it really a deal? After all, spending money on something you don't need and won't use doesn't seem to make much sense.

Some retailers are going even further with their deals this year than last. Walmart, for example, has already had leaked fliers that show Black Friday-esque deals that will happen soon... long before the official and usual date of Friday after Thanksgiving. What are your thoughts on this? Are retailers doing the right thing by charging so little, or will it come to bite them in the rear in the fiercest way possible?

Many retailers are aiming to lure shoppers with marketing messages appealing to sentiment but focused on value. Home products retailer Crate & Barrel, for example, is touting "holiday moments at prices to celebrate." Analysts say customers in this post-bubble era are looking for value, but that means more than just a great sale price or alluring marketing message. Today many consumers are thinking carefully about whether they need the product on offer, even if the price seems too good to pass up. "A bargain on something you don't need isn't a bargain," Flickinger notes.

Epic Releases Unreal Development Kit

In what should please up-and-coming game developers everywhere, Epic today announced the release of the "Unreal Development Kit", a full-blown toolset based around Unreal Engine 3, for free. That's right... the same tools that were used to develop such games as Batman: Arkham Asylum, BioShock, Borderlands, Gears of War, Mass Effect and of course, Unreal Tournament 3, can now be had to anyone looking to utilize the tools to either learn, or develop their own non-profit game.

That last point is the main caveat. Although Epic is kind enough to release its robust tools for free, publishing games developed with the tools is restricted to non-profit games or applications. For commercial software, you'll need to refer to Epic's licensing page. Depending on the number of game developers, the prices given could be manageable even if a modest fee for the game was made, but there are far too many angles to look at things from, to say the least.

Even though this kit is to be used for non-commercial / educational use, its release is a huge win for game developers who have wanted to experiment and learn the tools but were previously unable to. This should help give developers exactly the experience they need with such a mainstream engine, and hopefully land them a good job. It's also a great thing for hobbyists, or mod-builders, who do intend to release their product for free.

What the entire kit includes is the Unreal Engine 3 engine itself, and its editor, the Content Browser that makes searching and using game assets a breeze, UnrealScript, an OOP-based programming language, Unreal Cascade, an advanced editor for particle physics and environmental effects, and even support for NVIDIA's PhysX, should you want to take advantage of it. There's much, much more to this, so I recommend reading through the press release, and then going to download the UDK.

An unprecedented milestone in game development, the release of UDK awards free access to the same world-class tools and technology used by many of the world’s best video game developers and publishers. Unreal Engine 3 is a constantly evolving game engine, and UDK contains all the most recently added features and technological enhancements, including many that have yet to be seen in an Unreal Engine game. Furthermore, Epic Games will release ongoing, upgraded builds of UDK for free.

Intel to Include USB 3.0 Support in its Chipsets in 2011

For those who were hoping to see some USB 3.0 support in an Intel chipset, you'll have to wait a while. Oddly enough, it was NVIDIA who began pushing the fact that Intel's chipsets won't support the new standard until 2011, but judging by comments from Intel employees, it looks as though it's true. The reason NVIDIA has anything at all to say about it is because its taking an opportunity to boast the fact that its own chipsets have always been rich with features.

The reason NVIDIA might have reason to raise concern is because Intel essentially pushed them out from being able to create chipsets based around its latest processors. In a sense, Intel won't support USB 3.0 now, but won't allow others to, either. In that sense, I have a hard time disagreeing with NVIDIA on this one, because we've been lead up to the USB 3.0 release by Intel for quite a while, and it's even a technology that Intel has a hand in, so to not see a chipset support it until 2011 is a little strange.

It's important to note, however, that motherboard vendors, such as ASUS and Gigabyte, are fully capable of adding in USB 3.0 via additional chipsets on the board. This is not uncommon, as most of today's motherboards include extra chipsets for other components already, such as an additional LAN port, and also additional S-ATA ports. Without the support in Intel's chipset, it means we all pay a wee bit more for the support.

The reason behind Intel's decision to not roll out USB 3.0 in its chipsets right now is unknown, and whether NVIDIA would have actually had a chipset prepared now with such support is also. But the good thing is that those looking for USB 3.0 support aren't going to have to go without. Boards might cost a little more, but they'll be there for those who want them. Now, let's just see more USB 3.0 devices, so we have something to get excited about!

"We [have also] learned that Intel is postponing USB 3 introduction until 2011. With no competition in chipsets, it seems Intel has decided that innovation is not needed for USB any time soon," said Burke. "With no one to push Intel to innovate, PC enthusiasts are left with Intel chipsets and the features and performance they deliver, or lack there of."

Tech Roundup - November 5, 2009

Motherboards & Processors
• AMD Athlon II 620 X4 - Overclock3D
• AMD Phenom II X4 965 125W - Benchmark Reviews
• AMD Phenom II X4 965 125W - Overclockers Club

Displays & Video Cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD5750 and HD5850 CrossFire - Bigbruin
• Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X - Elite Bastards
• Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X - Legit Reviews
• Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X - Overclockers Club
• Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X - PureOverclock

Memory & Storage
• Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 SAS 2.0 600GB - TweakTown

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Cooler Master Storm Sentinel Advance Gaming Mouse - Hardware Canucks
• MP4Nation Beta Brainwavz In-ear Headphones - techPowerUp
• Thrustmaster Ferrari Wireless Gamepad 430 Scuderia - i4u

Cooling
• Thermolab BADA CPU Cooler - FrostyTech
• Xigmatek Bifrost VD1065 CPU Cooler - DeXgo

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Antec Two Hundred Chassis - LanOC
• Antec Mini Skeleton-90 Open Air Mini-ITX Chassis - TweakTown
• In Win Commander 850 Watt Power Supply - Pro-Clockers
• NZXT Lexa S Mid-Tower Chassis - BCCHardware
• NZXT M59 Classic Series Chassis - Bona Fide Reviews
• Thecus N7700 Ultimate NAS Server - Virtual-Hideout

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Augmented Reality: State of the Art VR Technology Today - Digital Trends
• Canon PowerShot S90 Digital Camera - Digital Trends
• Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 Notebook - TechReviewSource
• Contest: Ultra X4 850W Power Supply - BCCHardware