Not only that, but a lot of people seem to overlook the fact that their monitor is only capable of a certain refresh rate. Many LCDs only do 60hz at their native resolution, which is basically "locking" you down to 60FPS regardless of how fast your video card is rendering.
It is still good to have a high average frame rate though. If you average 80FPS, it may dip much lower (like 40-50FPS) in some games, which will look noticeably stuttery (probably more stuttery than if you just ran at a constant 40FPS).
By the way, if you are getting 400FPS you are either A) Playing really old games or B) Running much lower settings/resolutions than you should. People still can't run Crysis at even 50FPS (constant) with uber overclocked systems, and that has been out for more than a year. Many people are struggling to even get 30FPS in recently released GTA4. So there is a point to having these really fast rigs, even if most games easily run fine on slower hardware. I don't think it's worth the cost (I generally stay about 12-24months behind the cutting edge), but it does make a difference on some games.
Actually a few games are beginning to take advantage of quads (GTA4 is probably the most notable), but they are the exception. Most games will still be faster on a higher clocked dual-core. That's why I decided to get an E8400 (which can go to 4ghz relatively easily), rather than a quad core. Also, dual cores are cheaper and consume less power. I do some video encoding too, but my preferred programs are still only dual or single-threaded, so the quad wouldn't have made sense.
One would hope/think developers will find a way to make use of more and more cores as time goes on though, since that's the direction the CPU makers are headed.
I realize SSD's are still pretty expensive for large capacity storage, but they will come down in price over time. They are already a great solution for smaller capacity needs. SSDs can detect when a cell of the drive is going to fail, and write the data somewhere else automatically (unlike with traditional HDDs these failures tend to occur on writes rather than reads). If you put two or more of these together in RAID, that's a pretty secure backup.
It doesn't solve the problem of natural/environmental problems of course, but I suppose you could make monthly off-site backups if you really wanted to (to either a standard HDD or another SSD).
No, "Pirates of Silicon Valley" gave far more credit to Apple than they deserved in the early days, and is an example of some outrageous revisionist history.
I agree, but it's still a good movie. I don't watch movies and expect them to be accurate, even when they are "based on true stories". In fact, even (or perhaps especially) documentaries should be taken with a large grain of Na
LOL, thanks for the link. Even if you don't agree with his opinion the reviews are still hilarious "I was busy shaking down the corpses for cans of baked beans":D
Not only that, but I'm sure there were a lot less people trying to crack Cubase than a high-profile game release such as GTAIV, especially since R* has been making a big deal out of how "uncrackable" their DRM is. Videogames are a lot more popular than music production programs, and GTA is one of the most popular games there is.
FYI, a quick look at thepiratebay and I see the Cubase3 release has 300 peers, while GTAIV has 70,000.
I agree with both your points. However, you can google "css hacks" or something similar and find tons of hacks that are undetectable. It would be nice if Valve could make the effort to find those hacks themselves and figure out how detect them.
The wallhacks are particularly bad in this regard. There are wallhack packages that were released YEARS ago that still work. All it would take is a quick scan of the users "materials" folder every once in awhile, like every 20th time they join a server. I realize there are custom skins and whatnot, but wallhacks are easily distinguishable from new gun skins (for example).
I hardly even play it anymore though, and when I do I tend to just play on servers with admins (only the less obvious hackers can get away with it then, and they are killable;))
Meh, kind of. It does permanently ban people if they get caught cheating, but their detection system is nearly worthless. For Counter-Strike Source alone there are probably 100+ different hacks (aimbots, wallhacks, no-recoil, etc) that simply don't get detected.
So to activate off-line mode you have to be on-line? *head explodes*
The only games I play on steam are online/multi-player anyway, so not a big deal for me. For people wanting to play single-player or against bots though, that's completely retarded. Better off pirating if you are playing single-player games I guess..
Slashdot Mirror
Not only that, but a lot of people seem to overlook the fact that their monitor is only capable of a certain refresh rate. Many LCDs only do 60hz at their native resolution, which is basically "locking" you down to 60FPS regardless of how fast your video card is rendering.
It is still good to have a high average frame rate though. If you average 80FPS, it may dip much lower (like 40-50FPS) in some games, which will look noticeably stuttery (probably more stuttery than if you just ran at a constant 40FPS).
By the way, if you are getting 400FPS you are either A) Playing really old games or B) Running much lower settings/resolutions than you should. People still can't run Crysis at even 50FPS (constant) with uber overclocked systems, and that has been out for more than a year. Many people are struggling to even get 30FPS in recently released GTA4. So there is a point to having these really fast rigs, even if most games easily run fine on slower hardware. I don't think it's worth the cost (I generally stay about 12-24months behind the cutting edge), but it does make a difference on some games.
Actually a few games are beginning to take advantage of quads (GTA4 is probably the most notable), but they are the exception. Most games will still be faster on a higher clocked dual-core. That's why I decided to get an E8400 (which can go to 4ghz relatively easily), rather than a quad core. Also, dual cores are cheaper and consume less power. I do some video encoding too, but my preferred programs are still only dual or single-threaded, so the quad wouldn't have made sense. One would hope/think developers will find a way to make use of more and more cores as time goes on though, since that's the direction the CPU makers are headed.
I'm glad someone else noticed this. I read it 3 times thinking I had misread..
I realize SSD's are still pretty expensive for large capacity storage, but they will come down in price over time. They are already a great solution for smaller capacity needs. SSDs can detect when a cell of the drive is going to fail, and write the data somewhere else automatically (unlike with traditional HDDs these failures tend to occur on writes rather than reads). If you put two or more of these together in RAID, that's a pretty secure backup.
It doesn't solve the problem of natural/environmental problems of course, but I suppose you could make monthly off-site backups if you really wanted to (to either a standard HDD or another SSD).
What a random and unsubstantiated thing to claim. This reminds me of hippies who say the entire world would be peaceful if we all took LSD.
Why would it even matter if he was a linux guy? That's doesn't even register on my radar of things I care about when it comes to our next president.
What's next? He uses Colgate instead of Crest? He likes his eggs sunny-side up?
No, "Pirates of Silicon Valley" gave far more credit to Apple than they deserved in the early days, and is an example of some outrageous revisionist history.
I agree, but it's still a good movie. I don't watch movies and expect them to be accurate, even when they are "based on true stories". In fact, even (or perhaps especially) documentaries should be taken with a large grain of Na
He's just trying to get you to look at his leet userID
LOL, thanks for the link. Even if you don't agree with his opinion the reviews are still hilarious "I was busy shaking down the corpses for cans of baked beans" :D
"That said, the "babies" have gotten out of control moving the balance between the creator and public too far in favor of the creator."
Yep. The music industry is really bad in that way. The 'balance' is clearly favoring the middle-man, not even the creator (nor the public)
All I can really say is...WHOOSH
Not only that, but I'm sure there were a lot less people trying to crack Cubase than a high-profile game release such as GTAIV, especially since R* has been making a big deal out of how "uncrackable" their DRM is. Videogames are a lot more popular than music production programs, and GTA is one of the most popular games there is. FYI, a quick look at thepiratebay and I see the Cubase3 release has 300 peers, while GTAIV has 70,000.
Welcome to slashdot, where we have moderation trolls :)
If only we could see it from Alaska..
They pet cute furry bunny rabbits, make rainbow paintings, and have bingo night to raise money for starving children in Africa...DUH!
I agree with both your points. However, you can google "css hacks" or something similar and find tons of hacks that are undetectable. It would be nice if Valve could make the effort to find those hacks themselves and figure out how detect them.
The wallhacks are particularly bad in this regard. There are wallhack packages that were released YEARS ago that still work. All it would take is a quick scan of the users "materials" folder every once in awhile, like every 20th time they join a server. I realize there are custom skins and whatnot, but wallhacks are easily distinguishable from new gun skins (for example).
I hardly even play it anymore though, and when I do I tend to just play on servers with admins (only the less obvious hackers can get away with it then, and they are killable ;))
Meh, kind of. It does permanently ban people if they get caught cheating, but their detection system is nearly worthless. For Counter-Strike Source alone there are probably 100+ different hacks (aimbots, wallhacks, no-recoil, etc) that simply don't get detected.
So to activate off-line mode you have to be on-line? *head explodes*
The only games I play on steam are online/multi-player anyway, so not a big deal for me. For people wanting to play single-player or against bots though, that's completely retarded. Better off pirating if you are playing single-player games I guess..
I'm pretty sure you are reading that wrong. It says it has LESS THAN 1.5% the normal amount, not 1.5% LESS THAN the normal amount.
IE, if a normal comet has 200 "units" of CN, this one has 3. Not a normal comet has 200, and this has 197.
Wow I haven't seen graphics like this since my Sega Saturn
"The United States effectively has a one-party system, the business party, with two factions, Republicans and Democrats." - Noam Chomsky
I never would have guessed John Travolta visits this site.
That tends to happen when you actually plug them in (unlike the parent poster)
Since when have facts stopped lawyers?
could go wrong?