Table of contents for August 2015 in Maximum PC

THERE’S A LOT OF RAW RENDERING needed for Oculus Rift to work its magic, as it runs at 2160x1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays. That equates to 233 million pixels per second, versus a traditional 1080p game at 60Hz that requires 124 million shaded pixels per second. In order to pull that off and play games on Oculus Rift, the company recommends that you have an Intel Core i5-4590, or faster, processor, at least an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card, and no less than 8GB of RAM. In addition, you’ll need Windows 7 SP1 or newer, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI 1.3 video output. In other words, a well-equipped PC.…

AMD launches its latest and greatest mobile APU, Carrizo, to bolster its laptop offerings. With more and more demands being placed on laptop processors to be power efficient and effective at competing in other areas, such as 4K streaming and gaming, we caught up with AMD’s product manager Scott Stankard and business units CTO Joe Macri, to garner their insight into what this new APU brings to the marketplace. Maximum PC: We’re here at AMD’s Carrizo APU launch. Beyond the fact that it’s AMD’s latest APU, can you tell us a little bit more about what makes Carrizo so special? Scott Stankard: This is our sixth-generation A-Series processor, and what we’re really trying to do here is optimize around the key use cases that most people do with their mainstream…

“CPUs have become more critical to your PC’s performance. Keeping track of AMD’s plans is never easy. But here’s the good news. The latest update provided by AMD for investors makes for seriously sexy reading for PC enthusiasts. It’s exactly what we wanted to see. In short, it’s all about a brand-new CPU architecture called Zen. It looks like everything else either dies or is on hold until Zen is out of the door in 2016. That’s good because Zen is a new high-performance x86 core that AMD says addresses all the shortcomings of its existing Bulldozer-based CPU designs. Out goes the Bulldozer’s modular makeup with shared floating point units for each pair of integer execution resources. In comes something that looks a lot like an Intel CPU. That means…

As its 29 July release edges ever closer, the full details of Windows 10 are coming into focus. Much, however, remains unclear. We know, for example, that Win10 marks the end of Windows Media Center. It’s gone, not to be replaced. That’s big news. But all we know is that it’s dead, nothing more. Our full preview of exactly where Windows 10 stands right now, and what it can do, starts on page 46. For the moment, here’s a little more detail. THE RELEASE DATE Well, we know that you will be able to get Windows 10 for PCs and tablets, in 190 countries and 111 languages, on 29 July. Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users will be able to upgrade, for free, at any point within the first year.…

Microsoft has confirmed seven different versions of Windows 10 will hit smartphones, PCs, tablets, HoloLens, and enterprise devices later this year. Windows 10 Home is the consumer desktop version for PCs, tablets, and 2-in-1s. Xbox One owners will also be able to play full games on any Win10 PC upon its release. Windows 10 Pro, meanwhile, offers a higher level of control over PCs, tablets, and 2-in-1s, and is geared toward small businesses. Alongside these sits Windows 10 Mobile for phones and smaller screen devices that will function in much the same way as its desktop sibling, thanks to the universal Windows apps used across Windows 10 Home and Mobile. Enterprise customers will see a dedicated Windows 10 version that builds on Windows 10 Pro with a more advanced set…

Dear Esther Dan Pinchbeck’s mod was more about atmosphere than doing anything, but it’s possibly the most beautiful firstperson game around. Players wander an abandoned island while a narrator talks about his failed life and a ghost story unfolds. It’s being rebuilt to be even more stunning. Garry’s Mod Making its creator, Garry Newman, a multi-millionaire, his mod was and is a multiplayer sandbox that allows players to mess around with the tools and creatures from the Half-Life universe. It’s based around building, rather than winning and losing in the traditional gaming sense. It’s also got a secondary use as an excellent animation studio. The Stanley Parable A series of choices leads you down a random set of paths, through obstacle courses, narrative foibles, a nuclear countdown, and a Minecraft…

Apple Watch Sport About iFixit iFixit is a global community of tinkerers dedicated to helping people fix things through free online repair manuals and teardowns. iFixit believes that everyone has the right to maintain and repair their own products. To learn more, visit www.ifixit.com. BACKGROUND: You may have heard of the Apple Watch. Apparently, there’s been some hype. You may also have heard about the IHS Technology report, which claimed hardware costs only account for 24 percent, or $83, of the Watch’s $349 retail price. So, is Cupertino’s latest something to get excited about? MAJOR TECH SPECS: • Flexible, touchscreen AMOLED Retina display • Custom-designed Apple S1 SiP (System in Package) • 8GB onboard storage, Watch OS • NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 • Accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitor, mic,…

HEIMDAL SECURITY Strengthen your PC’s security with either the Free or Pro versions of Heimdal, found at http://bit.ly/1zMdODv. THERE ARE STACKS OF ANTIVIRUS, anti-malware, and other security products on the market, and it’s important to have one you trust installed and working at all times. Heimdal is a little different, though. It’s a small, lightweight program that’s designed to work together with your existing antivirus program, and continually monitors any third-party software installed on your PC that might be vulnerable to hacks. Upgrade to the paid-for Pro version and Heimdal can do even more. It analyzes and blocks malicious links to keep you safe from phishing attempts, scans for and deletes malware, and checks all Internet traffic to ensure that sensitive data, such as passwords and credit card details, aren’t…

ANOTHER DAY, another company you may not have heard of before. Only established in 2013, Raijintek is yet another marriage between German designers and Taiwanese manufacturers, producing a range of fans, cases, and coolers. One of its latest products is its first liquid cooler, the Triton All-In-One. The first thing you’ll notice, releasing the Triton from its box, is the quality of the components. They’re not quite up to the same standard as other AIOs we’ve looked at lately, such as Corsair’s Hydro H110i. But a glance at the Triton’s price tag might explain why—it’s significantly cheaper. The pump unit is a beast, quite a bit taller than the one on the Corsair Hydro H110i, for example, and runs almost silently. The unit is made from clear acrylic with a…

TURTLE BEACH is perhaps better known for the gaming headsets it’s been making for many years, but it's increasing its holdings in the peripherals market with a range of keyboards and associated pointing devices. They’ve all got something in common: They’re as black as a panther at midnight and are sturdily built, with the kinds of features you’d expect to see from more established desktop manufacturers, such as Logitech. The Impact 500 is a mechanical keyboard with the number pad amputated, a kind of keyboard carbine for the sort of close-quarters typing that means waiting until you see the whites of your enemies’ eyes before you unleash a barrage of trash talk. There’s even a removable mini-USB cable (that’s nicely braided), so you can make a swift escape from a…

AFTER FOUR YEARS in open beta, there surely can’t be anyone with even a passing interest in spaceflight who hasn’t tried Kerbal Space Program yet. You drag and drop engines and fuel tanks to build a rocket, you strap strange little green dudes into the cockpit, and you fire them into orbit. But if you tried KSP a few versions ago and weren’t hooked, or exhausted everything the early sandbox game had to offer, is version 1.0 worth a second look? The big change is that the aerodynamic simulation has been vastly improved, to match the already realistic orbital physics. Gone is the infeasibly thick “soupmosphere” that required you to fly straight up for 10km and then pitch over 45 degrees to fly into orbit. Not only is the air…

THE PATH to Windows 10 has been riddled with unexpected twists and turns. Even the name came as a surprise—while most assumed the successor to Windows 8/8.1 would be called Windows 9, Microsoft decided, at least publicly, that the next version of its OS would be such a generational leap forward that it warranted skipping over Windows 9. Conspiracy theorists still point to other explanations, such as lazy coding, but that’s not the point. One thing we’ve come to realize about Windows 10, now confirmed as being made available for PCs and tablets from 29 July, is that we should expect the unexpected. Toward that end, Microsoft’s second major surprise came when the company announced free upgrades to Windows 10 for existing Win7 and Win8.1 users for the first year.…

> GTA Performance > $300 Graphics Cards > Thunderbolt Pains Dual Graphics? Greetings Doc. My rig consists of an ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+, an AMD A10-7850K APU, two Crucial 240GB SSDs in RAID 1, and 8GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3 at 2400 MT/s. My question is which would be a better graphics solution? Install a Radeon R7 250 in the PCI slot and enable AMD’s Dual Graphics tech, or forget the on-die graphics and install a Radeon R9 (or something comparable) in the PCI slot? —Rick Stephenson THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: If you’re using a Mini-ITX mobo, Rick, the Doc can’t help but wonder if your small form factor chassis can accommodate a dual-slot PCI Express card. Assuming it can, though, and that you have plenty of room (and airflow) in your case,…

Microsoft Edge (previously codenamed Project Spartan) is the new browser for Windows 10, and it’s actually functional already, so it’s time to get judging. Getting started, there’s currently no way to move your Favorites and bookmarks from another browser, but expect that to change. The final browser will also support extensions, which developers can easily port from Chrome. Plus, Edge has a fancy new "globe" logo, but that also feels distinctly unfinished. Where Edge is impressing us, is in terms of raw performance. Pages render super quickly. Using Sunspider 1.0.2 to test JavaScript performance, Edge gave us a score of 201ms. This doesn’t compare favorably with Internet Explorer 11, which scored 137ms. But it’s better than Firefox 37 (260ms) and Chrome 43 Beta (303ms). Not too bad, considering it’s far…

By the time we’d started writing this article, the event that prompted it had… vanished. Valve had announced that modders could sell their creations on Steam, starting with several paid mods for the community’s favorite project, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It seemed a natural move after its careful introduction of the Steam Workshop for free custom content and then Steam Marketplace for paid-for items in games like Team Fortress 2. But, by the time we got around to writing about it, Valve had already rescinded that decision, closing the marketplace and refunding anyone who’d bought the mods. That’s because a subset of both players and modders had gotten extremely angry. Now, the toxicity of the response wasn’t surprising—the PC gaming community has a tendency to start a lynch mob…

UNITY PERSONAL EDITION Download Unity 5 Personal Edition and the Standard Assets pack, for free, from http://unity3d.com. DEVELOPING GAMES ISN’T EASY. At least that’s the general perception. And it’s true if you’re talking about creating a game from scratch in a general-purpose programming language. But these days, it doesn’t have to be anything like that hard. There are tools available that happen to cost absolutely nothing, and which make the whole process of creating a game a pleasure, rather than a chore. Almost a game in itself. Unity, as an example, offers the kind of graphical interface that you’d more commonly find in a simple-to-use 3D modeling tool, with cameras, light sources, and models. You can have something impressive up and running in a matter of minutes, as we’re going…

1. TURN IT OFF AND ON AGAIN “Modules” enables you to turn on and off specific parts of Heimdal, for example malware detection. 2. TWEAK IT In “Advanced,” change parameters, such as how often Heimdal scans your PC, and whether to update software automatically. 3. KEEPING TABS “Statistics” shows you everything Heimdal has done up until now, including updates applied. 4. STOP THE ROT The “Malware” tab is pretty simple. Most of the time (hopefully), it should be empty, indicating that no malware has been discovered. 5. KEEP IT CURRENT The “Software” tab shows you which plugins are being monitored on your PC and whether they’re up to date. 6. OVERVIEW Gives you an at-a-glance look at the state of your PC’s health according to Heimdal, complete with a percentage…

IN MANY WAYS, The Witcher 3 has that classic “difficult second album” feel, despite being the third in the franchise. The original game was a buggy, unremarkable RPG that surprised us by spawning an outstanding sequel. Few of us really expected Assassins of Kings to be the incredible game it was— it’s not just one of our favorite RPGs, it’s one of our favorite games. So, Wild Hunt has a lot to live up to, but with most of the same team, a new game engine, and a huge scale, it could be the best fantasy adventure of this generation. But developer CD Projeckt Red is playing a dangerous game with The Witcher 3. It was only at 20-odd hours in that we were actually feeling it. It seems to…

THERE ARE ROUTERS on the market that claim they’re MU-MIMO-ready, but to the best of our knowledge, all of them are still waiting on official firmware to support the feature. That’s not the case with the Linksys EA8500 ($280 MSRP)—it’s ready to go right out of the box. Supporting MU-MIMO is an important part of the evolution of routers. According to Linksys, the average home now has more than eight connected devices. The router you’re using now can only accommodate one of those devices at a time, meaning all the others have to get in line. You might not notice it much, if at all, because single-user MIMO routers are fast, they’re just not as speedy or efficient as MU-MIMO-enabled routers. One place you might notice this is when streaming…

TRIUMPHS NET NEUTRALITY MARCHES ON The FCC wasn’t moved by a petition filed by US cable companies and telecoms seeking to delay new neutrality rules. Good try, though! AMD SHARPENS SHEARS AMD revealed new 7000 Series APUs for mobile systems, plus cut prices for existing A-Series desktop APUs. MORE OF MOORE’S LAW Gordon Moore predicted the shrinking of computer circuits will continue at the current pace for at least another five to 10 years. TRAGEDIES LENOVO GOOFS UP Lenovo apologized after posting pics of its LaVie Z 360 in Tent and Stand modes, neither of which it supports with full screen rotation. NO WIN10 PREVIEW FOR YOU! Microsoft told early Surface 3 owners not to install the Windows 10 Preview because Intel hadn’t yet released Atom x5/x7 CPU drivers. R.I.P.…

1 CRYSIS Due to how taxing it was, Crysis is the most iconic pixel-pushing game ever. 2 HALF-LIFE 2 Valve’s beloved shooter combined crazy Havok physics with highdynamic rendering. There was a crowbar too. 3 UNREAL The Unreal engine combined rendering, AI, and scripting in one package. 4 QUAKE Unlike Doom, Quake rendered polygonal models and had true 3D level design. 5 DOOM It took the visuals of Wolfenstein 3D to the next level with full texture mapping. 6 SIM CITY 2000 Maxis introduced the iconic isometric perspective, spawning a new genre. 7 WOLFENSTEIN 3D Developed primarily by John Carmack, Wolfenstein introduced the FPS.…

REMEMBER WHEN processors were the single sexiest PC component? Whether it was the first chip to smash the 1GHz barrier, or the move to multicore, CPUs were not only the beating heart of your system, but also the biggest headline grabbers. They were the measure of the PC’s progress as a platform. Today? Like they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. For pure CPU performance and innovation, you could argue there’s been some stagnation. Believe it or not, it was nearly a decade ago that Intel launched its first quad-core processor for desktop PCs, albeit one that had two dual-core chips wrapped in a single package. Here we are in 2015 and you can make the case for relatively little progress. Intel’s mainstream PC processors still top out at four cores,…

We all know that Windows 10 is coming. We even know exactly when, 29 July. For PCs and tablets, at least. The rough date was at first inadvertently leaked by AMD’s CEO Lisa Su, in an earnings call, before being confirmed by an official Microsoft statement, on 1 June. And it's a perfect fit with Microsoft’s previously stated intention to release "this summer." AMD will be glad for the release, and not just to save its CEO's blushes. Like many hardware manufacturers, AMD is hoping for an uplift in sales as people rush out to buy new machines and/or hardware to get the most from the latest major OS system. Indeed, an indicator of a market that’s waiting for a new Microsoft OS is that sales in PCs tend to…

Microsoft picked up Mojang’s Minecraft last year for a cool $2.5 billion. The loyal fanbase was apprehensive of what the acquisition would mean, but it looks like Microsoft understands the community better than many gave it credit for. At Build 2015, it announced that modding tools for Minecraft have been incorporated into its Visual Studio development environment via an addin. This enables some of the basic functions of the game to be changed easily, and also supports templates that have been created by other modders. Microsoft showed off what was possible with help from Aiden Brady, creator of the popular Mekanism mod for Minecraft. With a few lines of code, he was able to change the size of the TNT explosions using the Intellisense feature with Visual Studio. This isn’t…

Microsoft revealed at the Ignite conference, at the beginning of May, that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows. Before you reach for your digital "the end of the world is nigh" placards, this doesn’t mean Windows is going to disappear. Instead, Microsoft is working toward delivering the OS as a service. This is something the company has talked about before, but it looks like it’s finally set to pull the trigger. Instead of releasing an entirely new version of its desktop OS every few years, Microsoft will take an Apple-like approach, delivering regular improvements through software updates. This could explain some of the vagueness of the release dates. Maybe we won’t have all the features we’ve been talking about on 29 July, but they will be added…

Fall From Heaven Now 10 years old, this mod for Civilization IV is a dark fantasy game based loosely on D&D. Players control a human race after an apocalypse. It introduces spellcasting units, unique Heroes, Angelic, Elven, Dwarven, and Demonic civilizations to encounter, plus strange religions. Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge A total conversion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by the semi-pro mod team SureAI, Nehrim took four years to make, providing an entire new world to explore, new races, and a voice-acted main plot. SureAI has also produced two Morrowind mods, one Fallout 3 mod, and it’s now working on Skyrim total conversion Enderal: The Shards of Order. The Third Age: Total War 2013 A terrifyingly comprehensive and polished Lord of the Rings conversion for Medieval 2: Total War…

WINDOWS TIP OF THE MONTH CLEAR YOUR HARD DRIVE CLUTTER Disk Cleanup is great for deleting unused files, but it can’t detect what’s eating up space. JDiskReport solves this by showing the biggest files. Download it at http://bit.ly/1zZE8dE, and use “Scan a file tree” to choose where to look. You’ll see a pie chart showing where large files are lurking. Right-click a slice and click “Open Explorer” to zap those huge files. MICROSOFT HEADS FOR THE EDGE! So, the name Project Spartan is no more. The next version of Internet Explorer is going to be called, simply, Edge. That’s much less geeky, a good move Microsoft. As a fan of distorted guitar effects pedals and hiding my receding hairline under beanies, I’m stoked. But any resemblance to members of U2…

Game graphics have improved hugely over the years, but the basic format has stayed the same. Objects are made up of meshes, which in turn are made up of polygons, usually triangles or quads. Think of these as chicken mesh bent into shape with papier mache over the top. You get a 3D shape, but no detail or color onto which materials are applied. Materials start with a texture, which is called Albedo in Unity 5. It has the basic color information in it. Added to this are extras, such as a Normal map, which defines details such as grooves, cracks, bumps, and scratches. A material might also have an ambient occlusion map, which tells Unity where areas of constant shadow are, or a specular map, which controls which part…

1. SELECT PHOTOS Click this button to discard the currently loaded images and choose a new photo, or set of photos. 2. PREVIEW WINDOW Use this window to crop your image, plus preview the effects and image edits as you select them. 3. USE PREDEFINED FRAMES Each preset comes with a recommended frame. Use it, rather than select your own, by ticking this box. 4. EDITING CONTROLS Options for editing your photo are hidden behind five tabs: Effects, Crop, Rotate, Color Adjustment, and Resize. 5. TAB CONTROLS This area displays different options (or instructions, when Crop tab is selected), depending on which tab you have selected. 6. PRESET EFFECTS Vintager has 17 different aging and coloring effects. Click one to apply it to the photo. Fine-tune until you’re happy.…

TURTLE BEACH is really onto something with the soft coating it’s dipped the Grip 500 in. Its molecules spun and woven to feel like the firmest marshmallow beneath the hand, the mouse kisses your fingertips like a nymph newly spawned from a pool of inky black water, begging for protection from a pursuing satyr. Other things we’d like to see dipped in this stuff include the door handles on lingerie shops, those massive KFC containers you should never try and finish on your own, and most glorious of all, the insides of our socks, so we could wiggle our toes against it all day and get a little shiver of excitement each time. Back to the mouse. You get seven buttons, all programmable with commands or macro sequences but not…

ALL WE KNOW is that PC racing games have traditionally fallen into two camps. You could either have sexy visuals but dumbeddown realism courtesy of a typical Grid or Need for Speed instalment. Or, alternatively, the likes of Live for Speed or SimBin’s GTR series, which would challenge driving talent, but be less concerned with taxing your graphics card. The rich realism and jaw-dropping visuals offered by modern Gran Turismo and Forza incarnations haven’t quite been matched by a single PC title, but Project Cars aims to change that. This is a game that strives for total realism, both dynamically and visually. It doesn’t matter which of the 60-plus cars you choose—take it for a spin at dusk, with sun flares enabled and postprocessing effects on full, and Project Cars…