Blog

Project Cars developer Slightly Mad has spoken out to deny accusations that it intentionally sabotaged performance of the racing game’s PC version for people using AMD cards. How did we get here? The author of a detailed and in-depth Reddit post summed up his point by claiming, “The entire Project Cars engine itself is built around a version of PhysX that simply does not work on AMD cards.”

Not so, according to Slightly Mad.

In its own lengthy statement, Slightly Mad responded to the author’s claims, which the developer labeled “erroneous.”

Among other things, Slightly Mad stressed that it didn’t favor Nvidia over AMD for Project Cars, noting that it has a “good working relationship” with both companies.

Slightly Mad’s full statement can be found below, courtesy of PC Gamer.

For more on Project Cars, which was released earlier this month on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, check out GameSpot’s review and what other critics are saying.

Slightly Mad’s Project Cars statement:

“For the past few days, erroneous information posted on Reddit and other websites has spread misinformation with regards to Project Cars’ performance on systems using AMD GPUs.

To correct the wrongful assumptions regarding Project Cars’ performance on AMD GPUs, the Madness engine, and the degree of involvement from our third-party technical partners, Slightly Mad Studios feel compelled to point out the following facts:

• Project Cars is not a GameWorks product. We have a good working relationship with Nvidia, as we do with AMD, but we have our own render technology which covers everything we need.
• NVidia are not “sponsors” of the project. The company has not received, and would not expect, financial assistance from third-party hardware companies.
• The Madness engine runs PhysX at only 50Hz and not at 600Hz as mentioned in several articles
• The Madness engine uses PhysX for collision detection and dynamic objects, which is a small part of the overall physics systems
• The Madness engine does not use PhysX for the SETA tyre model or for the chassis constraint solver (our two most expensive physics sub-systems)
• The Madness engine does not use PhysX for the AI systems or for raycasting, we use a bespoke optimized solution for those
• The physics systems run completely independently of the rendering and main game threads and utilizes 2 cores at 600Hz
• The physics threading does not interact with the rendering, it is a push system sending updated positional information to the render bridge at 600Hz
• Any performance difference with PhysX would not be reflected with differences in comparing rendering frame rates. There is no interaction between PhysX and the rendering
• Overall, PhysX uses less than 10% of all physics thread CPU on PC. It is a very small part of the physics system so would not make a visual difference if run on the CPU or GPU
• Direct involvement with both Nvidia and AMD has been fruitful in assisting with the game performance at various stages of development. Both AMD and nVidia have had access to working builds of the game throughout development, and they have both tested builds and reported their results and offered suggestions for performance improvements.
• Testing of the game with different driver versions has produced a variety of performance results on both Nvidia and AMD hardware. This is entirely to be expected as driver changes cannot always be tested on every game and every card, and this is the reason why both companies produce game-specific driver profiles, to ensure that they can get the best out of the game.
• Project Cars does not use Nvidia specific particle technology–the system we use is a modified version of the same technology we used on the Need for Speed: Shift and Shift Unleashed games, and was entirely developed in-house. The reason the performance drops when there are a lot of particles on screen is simply because processing a large number of particles is very expensive.”

Powered by WPeMatico

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the wacky and weird team-based shooter from EA’s PopCap team, has received a permanent price drop. The game is now available for just $20.

PopCap announced the news through Twitter, pointing out that the price drop applies to all platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

EA Access members on Xbox One can play Garden Warfare for even less, as it’s one of the many titles included for free with the subscription program.

The announcement of the price drop comes not long after EA confirmed that a sequel to Garden Warfare, described as “bigger and bolder,” will be revealed at E3 in June.

As for the original Garden Warfare, the third-person shooter was released in February 2014, receiving a generally positive reception from critics. GameSpot scored the game a 7/10, with critic Carolyn Petit writing: “It’s that rare shooter whose world and characters might put a smile on your face, making it a refreshing entry in a genre that usually takes itself really seriously.”

Powered by WPeMatico

Oculus VR will be revealing more about its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset during an upcoming special press event. The event will take place in San Francisco on June 11, as reported by IGN. An invitation to the event itself is accompanied with a picture captioned “Step into the Rift.”

Earlier this month Oculus VR released a list of recommended PC specifications for running the Oculus Rift. A blog post from Oculus explained why the specs are so hefty, “The goal is for all Rift games and applications to deliver a great experience on this configuration… Ultimately, we believe this will be fundamental to VR’s success, as developers can optimize and tune their game for a known specification, consistently achieving presence and simplifying development.”

Oculus recently announced that it was putting development for the Mac and Linux operating systems on hold in order to focus on “delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows.”

Joining Rift next year will be Sony’s PlayStation 4 headset, Project Morpheus. Meanwhile, the Vive headset, from Valve and HTC, is due to launch later this year. For a comparison of confirmed specifications for the three headsets, check out our round-up feature.

Powered by WPeMatico

Sony is the latest video game company to join the effort to support Nepal in the wake of the recent earthquakes that devastated the country.

The company has introduced a new area on the PlayStation Store where you can easily donate money in increments of $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100. Every cent of the money donated in this manner goes to charity–Sony says it will be directed to both the American Red Cross and Save the Children’s efforts in Nepal.

By donating, you’ll receive a theme “inspired by Nepal” for PS4 (above) or PS3 (below).

You can donate either through the PlayStation Store on consoles or right through your computer by going here (PS4 theme) or here (PS3).

Other game companies to get involved with Nepal relief include Bungie/Activision, Ubisoft, and Eve Online developer CCP Games.

Powered by WPeMatico