Technologizer

Your Questions, AMD’s Answers

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

[A NOTE FROM HARRY: Here's the inaugural edition of a new feature: Technologizer Q&A. We'll give you the opportunity to pose questions to interesting technology companies. First up is chipmaker AMD--many thanks to VP of Advanced Marketing Pat Moorhead for answering these queries. Got nominations for other companies you'd like answers from? Let me know--I'm lining [...]

Big Hair’s a No-Go In Video Games

Thursday, May 28, 2009

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Ever notice how your favorite video game characters wear close-cropped ‘dos, shave their heads, tie their locks back in a ponytail or just wear head dressings? They may be doing it for style, but they’re also conveniently hiding the difficulties of rendering lifelike video game hair. This isn’t a new revelation, but the issue came to [...]

Who Needs Photorealism in Games, Anyway?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

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Just in case the haunting wastelands of Killzone 2 and Gears of War 2 aren’t realistic enough for you, one game engine programmer suspects that true photorealism in video games is 10 to 15 years away. I say, who cares? To understand why, read the rest of Unreal Engine programmer Tim Sweeney’s comments to Gamasutra: “But there’s [...]

Nvidia Might Get Into the x86 Business

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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It’s more than a rumor but less than a fact: Nvidia is apparently considering branching out from its core business of making graphics processors to make system-on-a-chip products that combine a CPU and a GPU on a single chip at some point in the next few years, putting it in the most direct competition imaginable [...]

What Computer Graphics Were in 1984

Monday, January 19, 2009

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It’s not multi-touch. Hey, it’s not even single touch by modern standards. But the Atari Touch Tablet that Vintage Computing and Gaming’s Benj Edwards recently bought was still in its original, unopened packaging. And so Benj took the opportunity to do a new unboxing of a really old gadget–and we’re delighted to publish it here. View [...]

Atari’s 1984 Touch Tablet: A Retro-Unboxing

Monday, January 19, 2009

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The next time you use your shiny new Wacom tablet and Adobe Photoshop CS4, think back to a time before time–a time before blends, morphs, heal brushes, and 10-megapixel images. A time like 1984, which, for computer graphics, was darker than the Dark Ages. It was a time when you could buy an $89.95 Atari [...]