Mar 25
NVIDIA has detailed the Android KitKat update for SHIELD, as well as giving the portable console a temporary price cut as it pushes gaming notebook support and remote play. Android … Continue reading
Mar 25
Those of you with keen eyes for name-changes will recognize a bit of a switch-over this week with NVIDIA’s mobile processor lineup. While each successive generation has been named Tegra … Continue reading
Mar 06
Recoil Games have come back with their PlayStation 3 title Rochard this week with a full Android port optimized for NVIDIA Tegra 4-toting devices. This means that if you’re rolling … Continue reading
Jan 28
It’s been years – at this point – since NVIDIA released their TegraZone, a place where the groups that the company had worked with hand-in-hand to optimize games for their … Continue reading
Sep 18
The first thing you’re going to need to understand about the tablet called NVIDIA Tegra Note is that it’s not going to be released like SHIELD – it’s headed to market like an NVIDIA graphics card would. This tablet will be brought to market by hardware hard-hitters like EVGA and PYN Technologies, taking Project KAI […]
Jul 23
Riptide GP 2 Review
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe developers at Vector Unit have this week unveiled Riptide GP 2 for the public, having created the original well over a year ago to waves of Android devices that still continue to jetski forth with this classic today. What we’re seeing with Riptide GP2 is a full-on sequel to the original, here working with an NVIDIA Tegra 4 optimized bit of software on none other than NVIDIA SHIELD, a device that the public will be getting their hands on later this month.
This game takes on the original simple-yet-effective gameplay of Riptide GP the first, here attaching itself once again physical gamepad controls – here with SHIELD, but working just as well with other 3rd party setups. This game is the first to make use of what this group calls Vector Engine 4, a system that you’ll find brings it into a rather realistic – but not so realistic it’s creepy – vision of ski racing on water.
NVIDIA lets us know that they’ve worked with the developers of this game to once again bring it to a new graphics-borne level with HD graphics, complex shaders, high-resolution textures, and dynamic lighting. You’ll find real-time shadows following your ski wherever you go, and the water splashes your view remain intact – just as oddly enticing as they were when we first saw them with the Tegra-enhanced version of the first game.
This version of the game works with upgradable hydro jets, upgradable riders, and so many color choices your eyes will scream. There’s a brand new career mode that did not exist in the original and you’ll find a much more immersive system of tricks in store as well.
You’ll not just be limited to the stunts that are built-in with your racer from the start, you’ll be able to expand with virtual cash trade-ins as you go along. Learn a double front-flip or forever hold your crashes down the front of a wave.
This game joins titles like Shine Runner and Hydro Thunder Hurricane (a Windows-based boat-racing title), as well as Beach Buggy Blitz as Vector Unit’s ever-growing family of race-based titles for mobile gameplay. Riptide GP 2 will cost you a cool $2.99 USD with Google Play through NVIDIA’s own TegraZone Riptide GP 2 portal.
Riptide GP 2 Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jun 07
This week the folks at Mad Catz have made it clear that they’ll be joining the Android In The Living Room fad with a gaming console known as Project MOJO. This device will take on a form not unlike the gaming console known as OUYA and will also be going into competition with the BlueStacks
May 29
Today the team behind NVIDIA’s SHIELD device have spoken on the activities and preparations made for showing the device on “P-Relase” day. P-Release signifies the device is ready for production, and what the team has shared today is what went on behind the scenes right up until NVIDIA’s most recent quarterly internal company meeting where CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off the very first SHIELD production unit. This device was first introduced back at CES 2013 earlier this year, and it’ll be shipped to the first wave of pre-order users in June.
The first run of SHIELD devices spoken about in this telling of the process was a small set of 220 devices – though its not clear whether this was the first full run of devices or not, the intense construction process behind the device is.
Two weeks before pre-orders for this device were set to go up and a “quick turn” manufacturing team is lead by a man named Brant. Brant spoke briefly to the team about how they’ll go about hands-on testing of this first set of 220 devices, then flew to the contract manufacturer taking the bulk of the assembling for SHIELD.
This quick-turn team has a set of deliverables that includes, amongst other things, a 100 page packet of assembly instructions. Details as small as how long each unit is charged before being shipped are covered in full. The fact that this machine works with elements like directional pads, physical buttons, and a clamshell display mean it’s also significantly more complex to put together than the average smartphone or tablet.
At around 24 hours before SHIELD would be announced fully “P-Release” ready, NVIDIA’s marketing team sat in a room speaking about what they’d be demoing the next day. They added a set of 30 games to the device itself (most of which won’t be on the final device, but will be available through the NVIDIA TegraZone). They plugged an SD card full of media into the device with movies like Thor and Iron Man.
The team made an effort to “wittle down” the app lineup that’d be launched on the device in this session as well. Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp were suggested, and the final set was selected. Though there is a unique set of apps on this device, SHIELD remains “pure android”, as they say, working with an un-skinned version of Android Jelly Bean.
P-Release was revealed to be just three days before publications like SlashGear arrived to test SHIELD out – just days before Google I/O 2013, as well.
The device is now being produced in its first full run, while the initial pre-order set is coming in less than a month. SHIELD is made to work with Android apps on the device itself with its NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor as well as (in Beta mode, for now) streaming from GeForce GTX-powered gaming PCs.
SOURCE: NVIDIA
NVIDIA SHIELD final hours recounted before Production Release is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apr 16
It’s not the system Microsoft thought it’d be – Windows RT, the alternate to Windows 8 for lower-powered systems. It’s like the tablet version of Windows 8, but with many of the same bits and pieces of the full deal. This week Dell’s head of tablet and high-end PC business Neil Hand spoke with CNET, saying that based on what they’ve seen thus far, the Windows RT wave of machines hasn’t exactly been the success story they’d hoped it’d be.
With our reviews of Windows RT devices you’ll find that we’ve not been too impressed. Have a peek at the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 Review we did earlier this month and you’ll see that while the hardware is basically a masterpiece of bits and pieces, the system is less than spectacular. With a full Windows 8 we’d have given the machine much higher praise. It would appear that Dell has been seeing similar responses for their newest RT devices.
Dell’s first Windows RT device on the market is the Dell XPS 10, a machine we got some hands-on with with in Germany this past season at IFA 2012.
“Demand is not where I would like it to be at this point in time. The amount of market information about it is not good enough, and the market sentiment is still pretty negative.” – Neil Hand, Dell
It was added that the Windows app experience for Windows RT has “not been as strong as it needed to be.” If you’re looking at a machine with Windows RT vs a machine with Windows 8, you’ve got a number of apps that literally work on your machine that’s less than Windows 8 – and Windows 8 supports less apps than we’d like, too.
On the flip side, groups like NVIDIA have made an effort to boost the market with their own NVIDIA TegraZone for Windows RT, a system that, like it’s Android counterpart, shows users that work with their processors that there are fabulous apps to be had. With several Windows RT machines on the market today you’re working with an NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor – with that, you’ve got games that will blow you away, even if you’re working with less than Windows 8.
Have a peek in the timeline below for additional news about Windows RT as of late and let us know if you’ve got a Window RT machine at your desk right this minute!
Dell Exec: Windows RT response is “still pretty negative” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 14
It’s time to bring out the big guns with The Conduit HD for Android, a game that’s been boosted into the mobile space by the developers at High Voltage Software assisted by the Tegra team at NVIDIA. With this version of the game you’ll be rolling out with everything you saw on the original Wii version and more – 9 mission of furious blasting of alien beasts from the comfort of your own smartphone or tablet! This game is out this week for Tegra-toting machines, here in the mobile universe for the first time!
What you’re seeing here is a rather radical environment in which your mission is to destroy a mysterious and other-worldly enemy with a dynamic user interface available right from your touchscreen device or wirelessly with your own Bluetooth-connected gaming controller. You’ll be using pistols, machine guns, and a fabulously strange “All Seeing Eye” device (ASE in the game) to explore this strange new world and puzzle solve as you blast through the opposition. Below you’ll see the game running on the Google Nexus 7, the ASUS-made tablet working with NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor under the hood.
You’ll be able to control your gameplay from start to finish with control options everywhere from flipped tapping to auto-fire mode. You’ll be able to change the layout of the buttons and controls, change the way you target and move, and you’ll have – specifically – GameStop Controller support as well. This is the more “traditional” way to play the game, they say, with Bluetooth-connected blasting on your side.
The weapons you’ll be using number to 18, unique firing modes and actions for each, with the ASE to back you up from start to finish. You’ll be destroying your enemies which number to 14, for starters, both human and alien creatures coming at you not just from straight up in front, but below and up above as well. Head down the stairwell, watch out for snipers up on a second level, and toss grenades all around.
And the best part is the graphics have been given a bump between the original Wii version and here with NVIDIA’s Tegra SoC. With the Tegra 3 quad-core processor you’ll be blasting up and out with what the Chief Creative Officer of High Voltage Software, Eric Nofsinger, calls “console-quality visuals on mobile devices.” This includes enhanced lighting in all your darkest corners, higher resolution graphics than ever before, and “much-improved” visual fidelity compared to this game’s original release.
This game will be available to you immediately if not soon from the Google Play app store through the NVIDIA TegraZone with a rather unique pricing structure. You’ll be able to download the game for free, and the first two levels are completely free. After that you’ve got the option of buying the whole rest of the game at once for $4.99, or you can buy each of the two halves of the game for $2.99 each. At the moment we can’t imagine why you’d only want half the game, but to each their own.
Have a peek at the timeline below for more Tegra-enhanced games available in the NVIDIA TegraZone right this minute, and don’t forget to hit up our own massive Tegra Hub too for more NVIDIA mobile action than you can handle!
The Conduit HD Android Tegra Enhanced Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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