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| 11-29-11 / 11:22 PM : Doom 3 source code : iodoom3 (cjed) |
| Source code of Doom 3 is available through iodoom3 project. |
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| 11-28-11 / 11:04 PM : Kurzweil PC3K6/PC3K7 available (cjed) |
| Kurzweil PC3K6 and PC3K7 are available. They include PC3 sound set and features from previous K series. s |
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| 11-26-11 / 01:39 PM : Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack : discount (cjed) |
| Steam provides Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack at 9,99 euros only for a few hours. The collection includes GTA, GTA2, GTA3, GTA Sand Andreas, GTA Vice City, GTA IV and GTA Episodes From Lliberty City. GTA San Andreas is still available on the Mac App Store for 5,79 euros, however comments report very deceiving performance even on fastest macs. The PC Steam version under Crossover Games (see compatibility list here) may then run faster. About GTA IV (also supported through Crossover however still requiring high resources on Windows), using Bootcamp may be better. We can also found on Steam Deux Ex : Human Revolutions at 24,99 euros (50 percent discount). |
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| 11-25-11 / 11:38 PM : Sonokinetic : free samples (cjed) |
| Sonokinetic provides some free samples from its samples libraries (750 MB download - 1,27 GB uncompressed). We find 960 loops (1 GB) from Sultan Strings (the full version includes 5 GB of instruments and 5 GB of loops, for 79,90 euros), a carillon (200 MB) and some other percussions (100 MB). |
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| 11-25-11 / 12:40 AM : X-Plane 10 : pre-order / demo (cjed) |
| X-Plane 10 has been announced for December, 7 (79,99$). It now uses 3D modeling instead photos mapping. We can still download a demo version (Global Scenery not included, and time limited) and watch videos here and there. |
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| 11-25-11 / 12:20 AM : Discount : AC Brotherhood/CoD4/Portal 2 (cjed) |
| Macgamestore provides Assassin's Creed Brotherhood at 33 percent discount (26,77$), reported as smoother than Assassin's Creed 2, and also Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at 19,95$ (50 percent discount). Steam provides Portal 2 at 14,99$ (50 percent discount). |
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| 11-25-11 / 12:08 AM : Shade 12 Standard : discount (cjed) |
| Shade 12 Standard is provided at 72 percent discount (99$) until November, 28. This version brings, compared to the Basic version available at the App Store, displacement mapping, volumetric textures, particles system, enhanced animation tool (with Hair Salon, Toon animation), and effects. |
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| 11-24-11 / 11:52 PM : Native Instruments : discounts (cjed) |
| Native Instruments provides 50 percent discount on many instruments, samples libraries and effects until November, 28. |
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| 11-24-11 / 11:40 PM : Camel Audio Himalaya: Vintage (cjed) |
| Camel Audio presents Himalaya: Vintage, a 600 MB samples library (150 sounds) for Alchemy Player : 28 Bass, 22 Pads, 19 Synths, 19 Leads, 17 Arps, 10 Brass, 9 Strings, 7 Sound Effects, 6 Soundscapes, 6 Keys, 5 Vocals, 2 Mallets. Audio demos are available. It is priced 49 euros. |
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| 11-23-11 / 10:17 PM : Katie Melua : Secret Symphony/sample (cjed) |
 Next Katie Melua's album, Secret Symphony, is now planned for March. Following the two latest (and deceptive) ones, this one brings back the initial producer, who will provide some new songs, besides covers of other artists's songs that content will consist most of.We can still listen to one, Gold in Them Hills. |
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| 11-21-11 / 11:04 PM : VSL Ensemble Pro 5 / MIR Pro (cjed) |
 VSL presented Vienna Ensemble PRO 5 (215 euros), that also includes Epic Orchestra (9 GB of samples, featuring Appassionata Strings Ensemble, Woodwinds Ensemble, Oboe d'amore, Epic Horns, Fanfare Trumpets, Drums and Percussion). A demo version is available (requires a ViennaKey).VSL also provides Vienna MIR PRO, now MacOS X compatible (795 euros), and a bundle at 835 euros. |
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| 11-21-11 / 10:48 PM : Android : audio latency problem (cjed) |
| Android faces a high performance problem (very high audio latency, see also here) that prevents from using it to develop software samples players and effects units). Some gain can be achieved by customizing kernel's settings (differ from all hardware vendors) however it can't match the required low buffers, and Google still didn't provide any solution in Android 4's SDK : The WHOLE audio architecture is a joke. http://www.netmite.com/android/mydroid/development/pdk/docs/audio_sub_system.html It's one of the worst over-engineered pieces of software i have ever seen in my life. I believe that most people who had the unpleasant experience to look at the sources will agree: the amount of layers and complexity added above the linux sound system is ridicolous. Whats the point? You don't gain any extra functionality. Security? Priority handling (Phone calls)??? If that is Googles concern then the solution is at best amateurish and doesn't really work (i have killed/locked the audio system several times - by accident - with my audio tests). The "standard" way to do audio I/O would be to use interrupts which access ring buffers in a locking-free way - this idea is at least 20 years old. What makes this even more worse is that Google: - doesn't care/understand the problem - doesn't respond to this issue - ignores a huge market (games, music apps, ...) - provides wrong solutions - a configuration option (android.hardware.audio.low_latency) is not enough. - defining 45ms as low latency? are you serious? shows again lack of knowledge. 5-10ms would be low-latency. - OpenSL ES !? Again, a new (very complex) layer above AudioTrack without solving fundamental issues - great :( you only get rid of the Java layer. In addition the hardware buffers on some devices (afaik Qualcomm at least) are huge and are required to filled before any audio output can be started. This prevents low-latency audio on some devices. Finally the scheduling frequency (20 ms or so) of Android further limits the minimum size of any buffers. IK Multimedia may have found some trick, however the workaround won't be available before months (and may be restricted to their applications), and couldn't circumvent Google OS design limitations : high number of layers, lack of skills in audio management principles, use of JNI). Recent graphical performance tests with Google Nexus 2 (3 times slower than iPhone 4S) also confirm that Google does not have experience beyond javascript, while Apple have had a long time with assembly and kernel development. |
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| 11-17-11 / 09:59 PM : Mafia II soon on mac (cjed) |
| Feral anounced Mafia II: Director’s Cut for mac (available this December - 35 euros). |
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| 11-17-11 / 12:12 AM : Cappuccino 0.9.5 available (cjed) |
| Cappuccino 0.9.5 is available. Among new features we can find MacOSX Lion type scrollbars, Popover controls, predicates, a new installer and a more powerfull objjc tool. |
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| 11-15-11 / 11:50 PM : Commodore 64 x Ultimate/Extreme (cjed) |
 Commodore USA presents the Commodore 64 x Ultimate (Dual Core 525 Atom, nVidia ION2 graphics chipset, 4 GB DDR2) and C64x Extreme (Intel Sandybridge Core i7, Intel HD Graphics, 8 GB DDR3), fitted with 1080p HD video out, 6 HD audio channels and Wifi. The new OS Vision system (available soon at download, beta version now) brings a modern user interface and audio/video softwares, and allows to play original 8 bits games. A Windows compatibility layer (based on Wine) is also included, as well as Virtual Box.They are priced respectively 999$ and 1499$, and ship with Ubuntu 10.10. |
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| 11-15-11 / 11:40 PM : Special prices : Cod 4 / Sims 3 (cjed) |
| Macgamestore provides Call of Duty 4 at 19,98$ (50 percent discount) and Sims 3 at 29,99$ (25 percent discount). |
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| 11-15-11 / 01:32 AM : AdSense : review and alternatives (cjed) |
| As Google closes AdSense accounts without prior message and blocks all gains in case of incorrects clicks detected (also gains before these), and that claim request does not lead to account restore in most cases (and do not provide any hints, see here), some are reporting doubts on this service (see here), as it happened for accounts that were close to the payment treeshold (that is also higher than initially). Moreover we can't open a new account once a previous one has been closed. We can however find many alternatives (see also here and there). There is also to note that Google provides free Ad Words gifts, however the user then agrees to pay for additional amount in case of many clicks (above the provided amount). |
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| 11-15-11 / 12:56 AM : Steinbers/Yamaha Vintage Plugin Collection (cjed) |
| Steinberg presents Yamaha Vintage Plugin Collection, a plugins collection (VST and AU format) that includes Vintage Channel Strip (compressor and EQ), Vintage Open Deck (tape saturation) and Vintage Stomp Pack (phaser, flanger, wah-wah). They are available online for 379 euros for the first collection, and 199 euros for the two others. Demo versions are downloadable (30 days trial). |
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| 11-10-11 / 01:00 AM : IK Multimedia Vocalive for iPad (cjed) |
 IK Multimedia presents Vocalive for iPad, an application that provides 12 effects types for vocals (50 presets, and also a voice cancel), 4 simultaneous effects and a 8 tracks recorder (19,99$).A free version is also available (reverb and double effects only, however also voice cancel, metronome and audio phrases). The additional effects can be added by in-app purchase. |
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| 11-10-11 / 12:55 AM : Driver San Francisco / Rimelands (cjed) |
| Driver San Francisco Deluxe Edition is available as pre-order at macgamestore (54,99$). Rimelands:Hammer of Thor, that originated on iPhone, is now also available for mac (a demo is downloadable here). |
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| 11-10-11 / 12:44 AM : End of Flash and Silverlight, CSS shaders (cjed) |
| As supposed since 2009, Adobe announced the end of Flash (at least the mobile version for now) and Microsoft may release the last version of Silverlight, as both are now focusing to HTML5. Adobe indeed submitted CSS shaders proposal to W3C FX task force. These would allow to apply vertex shaders and fragment shaders to any HTML element of a page, instead being limited to the WebGL's Canvas container element (its content). |
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| 11-10-11 / 12:16 AM : Facebook acquired Strobe (cjed) |
| Following its buyout of Sofa, creator of Aristo theme for Cappuccino (and EnStore solution), Facebook acquired Strobe, the company founded by the creator of SproutCore since he left Apple. With skills now in HTML5 frameworks besides design, it shouldn't be difficult to do better than Google Plus. |
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| 11-10-11 / 12:02 AM : iAd Producer 2 available (cjed) |
 Apple provides iAd Producer 2. This new version brings new animations, a validation feature for project's resources (and performance optimizing), as well as an inspector (Object List) to easily access to elements. |
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| 11-08-11 / 11:19 PM : Batman: Arkham Asylum review (cjed) |
| InsideMacGames provides a review of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game uses Unreal Engine 3 and the port seems well done. We can then expect good performance on a mac mini with Nvidia 320M chipset. |
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| 11-04-11 / 01:16 AM : Overloud Breverb 2 (cjed) |
 Overloud presents Breverb 2, a plugin (AU, VST and RTAS) modeled after famous hardware reverb from 80's and a more modern one (including the output section), that provides 7 algorithms (Hall, Room, Plate, Inverse, Spaces small, Spaces large, Sources), 270 presets, an EQ section, a non linear section and Motion parameters to add liveness and musicality (less static sounding reverb trails). Moreover its latency and CPU usage are low.A demo version is downloadable, and it is priced 149 euros instead of 199 euros. |
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| 11-03-11 / 12:01 AM : Toontrack Metal Machine EZX (cjed) |
| Toontrack presents Metal Machine, an EZX extension that includes 3 metal kits (3 kicks, 7 snares, 3 collections of toms and many cymbals). Audio demos are available, and it is priced 69 euros. |
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| 11-02-11 / 11:47 PM : Prominy V-Metal (cjed) |
 Prominy presents V-Metal, a 19 GB samples library for Kontakt 5 player that features metal guitars. The V-METAL SPM (Super Performance Multi) technology allows realtime switch of playing style, and an auto-sustain mode is provided. Pre-recorded chords are also included. Demo videos are available.It is priced 199$ initially at bestservice. |
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