Yeah this would have been bad on so many levels. Now we can continue using it without MS fucking it up.

Also don't like mega corpo moves like this. Like Nvidia trying to acquire ARM, just no.

Even more news!

DirectX 12 Agility SDK Announced and Released Today by Microsoft

https://wccftech.com/directx-12-agility-sdk-announced-and-released-today-by-microsoft/

Basically what it does is that before, in order for gamers to have new Direct X 12 Ultimate features, they would need to upgrade their version of Windows 10 to the latest version. Due a number of reasons, not everyone does that. So for a developer to build their games around the latest and greatest features, they typically wait until enough users upgraded to the latest versions of Windows. Direct X 12 Agility makes it possible so that the new Direct X 12 Ultimate features will work even on older versions of Windows going back to Windows 10 November 2019 Update.

Pretty awesome news for Ampere, Turing and RDNA 2 users!


DirectStorage news from Microsoft's Game Stack

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/muwsn8/directstorage_for_pc_will_support_pcie_30_nvme/

Direct Storage for PC will support PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives, too. All DirectX 12 compatible HW will support the feature. Confirmed by Microsoft. This means RDNA 1, Pascal and every other GPU that supports Direct X 12 will also support Direct Storage. However the performance will vary and the GPUs that have full Direct X 12 Ultimate support will have the best experience by being able to combine Sampler Feedback with Direct Storage. Limited Developer Preview this summer.

More slides at the link

You know, if the hardcore weebs weren't so up their own arse about buying this shitty ports out of pure fear that publishers will stop releasing on PC, and actually standing against this kind of shit, we wouldn't be seeing crap like this happening often with Japanese PC ports. 

Like I love my animu, my doujin shit and some JRPG's, but I don't like seeing Japan just taking PC for some two bit whore, that'll accept less than what the console got decades ago, at a higher price and not even any support for sodding K+M. Like c'mon Atlus, it's fucking 2021, not 2001. There's no real excuse for 30fps cap on PC at this stage, and no excuse for the higher price, when there's cut content and no support for PC's main peripherals.

What's sad is that I can see this game still selling decently, because I've seen all sorts of bad Japanese PC ports over the years, to know that the weebs on Steam will just eat up anything that falls into their laps, regardless of poor quality/pricing.

I just wish they'd grow a bit of a spine. Some on the Steam forums are complaining about all of this, but there are still the usual diehard fans that are coming into those threads to defend Atlus or basically call people poor/broke (great attitude to have in the current world's economic situation /s) . They are possibly one of the few groups on PC that I cannot stand, simply because they allow bad shit to pass by and become the norm for PC. Like I really fucking want a list of SE games, but a majority of them are bugged, broken, or stuttery as shit, and none of that flies in my books, and it sucks, because a Jap publisher like Square is so fucking stubborn/arrogant to not fix their shit, and Atlus is looking that way to me already with this crap. 

Yea, it feels like PC is still being treated as second class by a number of Japanese game devs. Hell, even someone as big as SE didn't bother to Fix Nier until recently... After MS gave them money... And right before their next Nier game releases on Steam...

Like are they telling me that people who paid for their games don't matter? The only way they will bother to patch it is if a big company like MS gives them money to do it? A game that potentially sold over 1 million units on PC? It's like urghh

That's the one problem with PC is that unlike Xbox or Playstation that has a big corp watching over them, we are on our own. If nonsense happens, we gotta rely on the modding community to fix the problems even though they aren't getting a cent outside of donations.

But the bright side is that eventually, companies do care, it just takes a long time for them to care. Especially Japanese game companies.

I just don't get it. Like Japan knows PC is a money maker for games these days, hell the West knew this for years, but Japan's late to the train station for this, and I don't mind that.

What I mind is this whole stigma of "oh, you want this from us?, beg for it, take it or leave" attitude, like Japan still thinks it's the 90's, when it was at the center of gaming, but we're in 2021, Japan for sales in general is on a massive decline, Europe and other Western publisher/devs have been making insane amounts of money, some banger IP's, practically introducing us to another genre (BR), and the vast amount of games that come out these days are from those two parts of the world. With Japan it's like weeb shit or some obscure weeb shit, not much else, so I dunno why they feel like they can just do this and expect shit to be fine lol.

SE not fixing their shit on PC has to be a crime, like when Cyberpunk was a state on consoles, Sony pulled it and said "oi, we're havin none of this son, fix your shit". I guess Steam or other storefronts/companies don't have a much needed clause of "don't release a game on this storefront if it's broken and doesn't work as intended".

See it's no wonder why people emulate and pirate shit on PC, when you see half arsed releases like this, costing much more (20yrs fucking later) and giving you so little. Shit like this is why I've become less and less interested in Japanese gaming, because half the time, if not 90% of the time, I'm always finding issues that hold me back from either playing the games, or wanting to buy them. I wanna buy DQ Builders 2, but fuck that price, fuck the infinite loop tutorial bug. I wanted Pirates Warriors 3, but fuck that price, fuck the PSP level port job and the cut content...

Even then you get IP's like One Piece. I got Unlimited World Red, and yea I know it's a port of the game from years ago, but jesus is it so basic and bland, like I don't wanna paint a big ol brush over Japan, but a lot of strictly Japanese designed games, just feel bland to me, or busted in some way, be it for consoles or PC (I know the West also releases buggy and bland shit, but japan's supposed to be the example/trend setter here for all the funky shit that country gives us).

What sucks about us being on our own, is that one the one side, we have modders to actually save our games from being complete garbage, but on the other side we have the die hard fanboys who will buy en mass and turn a blind eye to the lesser port jobs, ultimately telling the publishers that we love being given busted, high priced ports, and people like me are just drowned out by the people who lack any standards for wanting just some good quality port jobs at a decent price (like god forbid we get some decent treatment).

It's even worse when you're stuck on a pre-rendered scene for pressing a button or pulling a lever or things like that, that could be easily avoided.

Guys, this will be a kind of busy afternoon for me so the news will likely arrive later than usual.

Xbox Velocity Architecture: Faster Game Asset Streaming and Minimal Load Times for Games of Any Size

They show a demo of how it all works and this applies to PC as well if you have a Direct X 12 Ultimate GPU. It can essentially be summed up into this:

Significantly lowering Vram usage. I think this is why Nvidia went for bandwidth instead of capacity as there are quite a lot of technologies coming out that specifically lowers the games Vram usage.

AMD enables FidelityFX technologies for XBOX Series X|S consoles

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-enables-fidelityfx-technologies-for-xbox-series-xs-consoles

This isn't Super Resolution, just their usual Image Sharpening, Variable Shading or ray traced shadow Denoiser.

Der8auer breaks GPU clock speed world record with 3.225 GHz on PowerColor RX 6900 XT Liquid Devil Ultimate

https://videocardz.com/newz/der8auer-breaks-gpu-clock-speed-world-record-with-3-225-ghz-on-powercolor-rx-6900-xt-liquid-devil-ultimate

There were also a number of new announcements at the Apple event yesterday but the one that I found a bit neat was their new iPad Pro

https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/

It gets their new m1 chip from their macbooks and imacs, it comes with 8 or 16 GB of ram depending on the super expensive storage options. But the most interesting part is the new display on the 12.9 inch model. It has 10,000 mini-LEDs with over 2500 local dimming zones and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It also has 1000 nits of full‑screen brightness and 1600 nits of peak brightness. And to top it off, it's 2732x2048p 120 hz screen.

Now while I don't care much for apple products and that ipad certainly ain't cheap... But that is one hell of a combo! And to be fair, the $1200 12.9 inch 256GB + 8GB + Mini LED display model ain't half bad pricing. Especially with all the additional stuff like Cameras. Too bad iOS is so damn limiting though...

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Call of Duty Warzone surpassed 100 million players
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-duty-warzone-surpassed-100-million-players/
Activision has announced that Call of Duty Warzone has surpassed 100 million players on all platforms. COD Warzone came out in Marc 2020, so it took almost one year for Infinity Ward and Raven to hit that milestone.

Frostpunk has sold 3 million copies worldwide
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/frostpunk-has-sold-3-million-copies-worldwide/
11 bit studios announced that Frostpunk has reached the incredible milestone of 3 million copies sold. The popular city-building survival sim’s apocalyptic weather froze the world to the bone when it landed on PC in 2018.

GOG's Midweek Sale is full of "games that fit every occasion" with up to 85% discounts until Saturday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210421_midweek_sale

Steam has a new daily deal and several other offers:

• The new daily deal is Men of War: Assault Squad 2, 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/244450/Men_of_War_Assault_Squad_2/
• The Tropico franchise celebrates its 20th anniversary with up to 77% discounts until tomorrow 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/2021TropicoFranchise
• The Desperados franchise also celebrates its 20th anniversary, by putting its games between 50 and 75% off until Friday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/DesperadosAnniversarySale
• A Plague Tale: Innocence is 75% off until Friday 23: https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/
• Publisher HandyGames celebrates its 21st anniversary with up to 90% discounts until the 25th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/2021HandyGamesBirthdaySale
• Publisher Sekai Project brings its games up to 80% off until April 26: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/vaxsp-publisher-weekend
• And publisher 11bit Studios brings a Bundle Madness Sale by offering its bundles between 85 and 89% off until the 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/11bitBundleMadness

Fanatical has two novelties:

• The Insanity Sale is back with lots of flash deals to take advantage of: https://www.fanatical.com/en/insanity-sale
• And there's a new giveaway with the chance of winning one of four prizes: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/win-1-of-4-insanely-good-gaming-prizes-fanatical-giveaway

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

UNIGINE Engine 2.14 released, improves water, clouds, vegetation and physics
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unigine-engine-2-14-released-improves-water-clouds-vegetation-and-physics/
Unigine Corp has released a brand new version of its UNIGINE Engine. According to the team, UNIGINE Engine 2.14 comes with a new Landscape Generator. Moreover, it improves water, vegetation, clouds and physics.
Going into more details, UNIGINE Engine 2.14 features a new 3D volumetric multilayer cloud system. This system comes with ten types of clouds in nature: Altocumulus, Altostratus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Cirrus, Cumulonimbus, Cumulus, Nimbostratus, Stratocumulus, Stratus.
Furthermore, the new Landscape Generator comes with a lot of UI/UX improvements and a set of new features. Developers can use raster (elevation, imagery, and masks) and vector data sources from their local storage device. Additionally, they can connect to open online services or private tile servers.

Steam will no longer crash for the few people who own over 25,000 games
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-will-no-longer-crash-for-the-few-people-who-own-over-25000-games/
There are currently just over 51,000 games on Steam—but it turns out that, until recently, the client was prone to crashing if you owned even half of them.
An update for Steam's beta client pushed yesterday fixed a possible crash for owners with over 25,000 games in their library. As noted by the r/pcmasterrace user who spotted the patch, this could mean that someone who currently owns such a vast collection noticed the issue and reported it to Valve.

Rumor: Microsoft planning new Windows Store that doesn't suck
https://www.pcgamer.com/rumor-microsoft-planning-new-windows-store-that-doesnt-suck/
According to Windows Central, reliable sources say that Microsoft is working on a new Windows 10 app storefront to replace the current, much-disliked Windows Store. The aim, they say, is to "introduce a modern and fluid user interface, as well as bring changes to the policies that govern what kind of apps can be submitted to the store by developers".
One of the main changes would be to let developers submit programs as unpackaged Win32 apps, rather than having to convert them to the MSIX package format—which itself was introduced to fix the issues people had when everything on the Windows Store had to be a UWP app.
>> Well, it shouldn't be too hard, right? XD

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This 1.1GB HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4 adds 10 thousand trees
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/this-1-1gb-hd-texture-pack-for-fallout-4-adds-10-thousand-trees/
Modders Oynlen Silverfox600 Stavetskaya have released a 1.1GB HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4. This HD Texture Pack adds around 10 thousand more trees to the existing Boston Natural Surroundings framework.
As the modders noted, this was carefully done by selecting meshes that fit in amongst pre-existing clusters of trees. This mod mostly features extra aspens (textured as birches) and the scots pines. There are also new textures for ground types, rocks and some trees.
Since this is based on the Boston Natural Surroundings mod, it comes with all of its features. For instance, it has 3D LODs for the Spruce and Scots Pine’s (so no more billboards). It also packs NeuraLOD for even better distant LOD.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Mod makes its world more immersive than ever
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/red-dead-redemption-2-mod-makes-its-world-more-immersive-than-ever/
Juliet G has released an amazing mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 that makes its world more immersive than before. This mod aims to enhance numerous things and make its world more player-driven than ever.
Going into more details, Enhanced Entity and World Persistence 1.3 will track your actions. As such, these actions will no longer be undone immediately when you leave a town or other places.
The mod will track by default all objects, vehicles, weapons, horses, and corpses. Thus, if you leave a corpse in a town, that corpse won’t disappear once you leave the town. Instead, it will be there once you re-visit it. As a result of that, the witness system is now more interactive.
Additionally, any Entity you interact with will be added to the “Persistence Ring” which can be user configured. The modder has also made many optimizations to ensure the game runs as well as its un-Modded state. By default, the mod has a Performance Monitoring System in place that will dynamically activate and deactivate the mod based on a user-configurable frame rate.
>> You'll find it at Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

Star Wars KOTOR Remake is reportedly under development by Aspyr
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-wars-kotor-remake-is-reportedly-under-development-by-aspyr/
In January 2020, we informed you about a rumored Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game. And yesterday, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier claimed that this KOTOR game is real, and is basically a remake of the first title.

Here are 10 minutes of gameplay footage from Hood: Outlaws & Legends
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-10-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-hood-outlaws-legends/
GameStar has showcased 10 minutes of new gameplay footage from Hood: Outlaws & Legends. This gameplay footage will give you an idea of what you can expect from this upcoming PvPvE heist game.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown gets a brand new trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/test-drive-unlimited-solar-crown-gets-a-brand-new-trailer/
NACON and KT Racing have released a brand new trailer for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. This is a cinematic trailer for this new Test Drive Unlimited game, and – unfortunately – does not pack any gameplay footage.

Tales of Arise is coming to PC on September 10th, gets new gameplay video
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tales-of-arise-is-coming-to-pc-on-september-10th-gets-new-gameplay-video/
Bandai Namco has announced that Tales of Arise will be coming to PC on September 10th. In addition, the publisher released a new video that showcases 7 minutes of gameplay footage that you can find below.