amd posts

Last week Bit-tech.net posted an interview with AMD's GPU developer relations manager Richard Huddy where he was quoted as saying that Microsoft's DirectX API for game graphics was " ... getting in the way" of game developers using all of a PC's hardware and graphics power and that game developers have told him to, "Make the API go away."

Now Huddy is quoted in another interview with the CRN web site stating that his remarks last week were taken out of context. While he admits that a small number of high end game developers such as Digital Illusions and Crytek have in fact wanted to go around DirectX in order to get more performance for games, he also said. "It's not something most developers want. If you held a vote among developers, they would go for DirectX or Open GL, because it's a great platform."

DirectX has been the graphical API that most PC game developers use to make their game titles. Microsoft created the API years ago and has issued new versions around the time it also releases new versions of Windows. The latest version, DirectX 11, was released in the fall of 2009.

Now one of the PC hardware's biggest names, AMD, says it's perhaps time to do away with DirectX11. Bit-tech.net quotes Richard Huddy, the developer relations manager of AMD's GPU division, as saying that PC games should look a lot better than console titles because PCs have better hardware specs. However that's not the case and Huddy says, " To a significant extent, that's because, one way or another, for good reasons and bad - mostly good, DirectX is getting in the way." In fact he says that game developers have told him, "Make the API go away."

Programming graphics for game consoles do allow developers to program directly for the hardware. While PC game developers can use DirectX as a way to solve many problems, the software layer also prevents game developers to develop directly into the PC game hardware and thus keep them from using much of a PC's hardware. While its likely that DirectX will continue to be around for a while, Crytek's R&D technical director Michael Glueck states in the article that as PC GPUs become more like general purpose chips, the less an API like DirectX will be needed.

[Via Blue's News]

It's been another busy day. How many of you are now fully immersed in playing Dragon Age 2 right now? Make sure to check on our review of the game in the near future.

• Blizzard has pulled the 1.3 beta patch for StarCraft II off its public test server until further notice.
• Speaking of StarCraft II, Blizzard execs played the game on Monday at the NASDAQ stock market.
• Check out some of the new creatures you will have to fight in Elemental Fallen Enchantress.
• Homefront's single player campaign is just five hours long. Hopefully they are a fun five hours to play.
• Check out the side-by-side graphics for the PC and Xbox 360 demo versions of Crysis 2.
• AMD launched its $700 high end Radeon HD 6990 graphics card today. Pricey.

The PC Gaming Alliance, the non-profit organization who has been both promoting and trying to improve the PC gaming industry, may have lost two of its founding members. The official PC Gaming Alliance web site no longer shows Microsoft and Nvidia listed as members of the group. In addition another founding member, AMD, is now listed as a contributing member of the organization rather than the higher Promoters membership tier.

The PC Gaming Alliance was first announced in 2008 during GDC and since then a number of members have both left and entered the organization. However if Microsoft and Nvidia have indeed left it would be the biggest defection that the group has had since it was first formed. We have contacted the PC Gaming Alliance's president Matt Ployhar for comment along with Microsoft and Nviidia

[Thanks Mikko]

We have a lot of news to catch you up on tonight so let's not dilly dally:

• Steam has new automatic updates available to download for Magicka and Monday Night Combat.
• AMD has released new Catalyst graphics drivers (version 11.1) for its Radeon graphics cards.
• Speaking of Radeon graphics cards, want to see the massive and upcoming Radeon HD 6990 card? Here you go.
• Direct2Drive has added all of the previously released Postal games from developer Running With Scissors to its line-up.
• Game Informer has a new video that takes a look at the art design and direction for The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim.
• Finally the creator of Minecraft is going on a much deserved vacation.

If you are a PC gamer you have had only two real choices for your gaming rig's processor; one from Intel or one from AMD. Now Nvidia has announced it is throwing its considerable hat into this ring. At its CES 2011 press conference today the company revealed plans for "Project Denver", an Nvidia-developed CPU that will be based on the ARM architecture. The CPU will be integrated with Nvidia's GPU graphics chip.

Nvidia says that it will extend the ARM architecture, which is mostly used inside mobile phones and devices, for its CPU to include being used on PCs. That means in theory your next gaming PC could have Nvidia-made or designed parts for your processor, motherboard and graphics chip. There's no word on when the first "Project Denver" CPUs will be released. In a separate press release, Microsoft announced today that the next version of its Windows operating system will support ARM-based processors.

Several years ago, PC processor maker AMD announced plans to release a new product that would combine both a CPU and a GPU in one. The product was named, not surprisingly, Fusion. After years of waiting, AMD announced today that the first Fusion-based PCs (desktops, notebooks and especially netbooks) are now available from a variety of PC makers.

The graphics core in the Fusion processor supports DirectX 11 graphics. The Fusion is expected to be a big contender in the netbook PC business which may mean that more high end PC games may actually be playable on netbooks. AMD will be showing off PCs with Fusion at this week's Consumer Electronics show and a number of game developers and publishers will be showing off games running on Fusion including BioWare, Firaxis, Turbine and more.

As 2010 draws to a close, we look back and marvel at how far PC gaming has come over the past decade. The start of the new millennium brought technology and trends that will resonate for years to come. So we take this opportunity to examine some of those technology trends and see how they might grow over or fizzle out over the next ten years. Here are our predictions of what PC gaming might look like in 2020.

It's less than two weeks away from the big day. Have you sent out your holiday cards yet? Yeah, we haven't either. We've been too busy with getting some end-of-the-year features ironed out.

• AMD has just released new 10.12 Catalyst driver updates for its Radeon series of graphics cards.
• Steam has a new Guardians of Graxia patch update available to download.
• If the Call of Duty games were ever adapted into one of those Lego-style game, this is what it might (sort of) look like.
• StarCraft II's list of the top 200 players in North America has been updated again.
• It was inevitable: WikiLeaks: The (Flash) Game.

Bigfoot Networks has been releasing its gaming PC-specific network cards for some time. While these products are a tad expensive, they have been proven to have positive effects on latency while playing PC games. Now the company has gone a step further and has teamed up with graphics card maker VisionTek to combine its network card with a graphics card after showing a prototype of such a product earlier this year.

The result is the newly announced VisionTek Killer HD 5770, which allows gamers to combine an AMD Radeon HD 5770 graphics chip and a Killer E2100 networking card onto one PCI slot on their gaming PC rig. The price for this unusual combo card is $199 It's currently due for release sometime next week.