AMD Pulls Graphics Driver After 'Anti-Lag+' Triggers Counter-Strike 2 Bans

AMD has taken down the latest version of its AMD Adrenalin Edition graphics driver after Counter-Strike 2-maker Valve warned that players using its Anti-Lag+ technology would result in a ban under Valve’s anti-cheat rules. From a report: AMD first introduced regular Anti-Lag mitigation in its drivers back in 2019, limiting input lag by reducing the amount of queued CPU work when the processor was getting too far ahead of the GPU frame processing. But the newer Anti-Lag+ system — which was first rolled out for a handful of games last month — updates this system by “applying frame alignment within the game code itself,” according to AMD. That method leads to additional lag reduction of up to 10 ms, according to AMD’s data. That additional lag reduction could offer players a bit of a competitive advantage in these games (with the usual arguments about whether that advantage is “unfair” or not). But it’s Anti-Lag+’s particular method of altering the “game code itself” that sets off warning bells for the Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) system. After AMD added Anti-Lag+ support for Counter-Strike 2 in a version 23.10.1 update last week, VAC started issuing bans to unsuspecting AMD users that activated the feature.

“AMD’s latest driver has made their ‘Anti-Lag/+’ feature available for CS2, which is implemented by detouring engine dll functions,” Valve wrote on social media Friday. “If you are an AMD customer and play CS2, DO NOT ENABLE ANTI-LAG/+; any tampering with CS code will result in a VAC ban.” Beyond Valve, there are also widespread reports of Anti-Lag+ triggering crashes or account bans in competitive online games like Modern Warfare 2 and Apex Legends. But Nvidia users haven’t reported any similar problems with the company’s Reflex system, which uses SDK-level code adjustments to further reduce input lag in games including Counter-Strike 2.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – AMD Pulls Graphics Driver After ‘Anti-Lag+’ Triggers Counter-Strike 2 Bans

Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Says The Game Was A Lesson In Avoiding Crunch

Callous, crunch-heavy work culture keeps shaking the games industry, but it seems like some developers are at least trying to safeguard against it. Colin Walder, a CD Projekt Red engineering director with over a decade of AAA audio programming experience, discussed game industry leadership during Inven Game Conference…

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Source: Kotaku – Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Says The Game Was A Lesson In Avoiding Crunch

GeForce RTX 3080 FE Cooler Teardown Exposes An Odd Defect, Should You Be Concerned?

GeForce RTX 3080 FE Cooler Teardown Exposes An Odd Defect, Should You Be Concerned?
The NVIDIA RTX 3080 GPU is one for the record books, with its $699 MSRP enticing gamers to splurge. It also came during a turbulent time of the great GPU shortage, causing its street price to sky rocket. This likely means we also have many gamers still using this fantastic graphics card in 2023, due to its still powerful performance. There

Source: Hot Hardware – GeForce RTX 3080 FE Cooler Teardown Exposes An Odd Defect, Should You Be Concerned?

Best Buy CEO Blames Taylor Swift for Sales Slump and 'Funflation'

It’s Taylor Swift’s world, and we’re all just living in it. In an economy racked with corporate greed-induced hyperinflation and a population evermore saddled with student loan debt, younger generations are apparently more interested in shelling out for experiences over at-home tech luxuries—and Best Buy’s CEO says…

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Source: Gizmodo – Best Buy CEO Blames Taylor Swift for Sales Slump and ‘Funflation’

Read the First Chapter of Queer Space Opera Debut These Burning Stars

Bethany Jacobs’ debut novel, These Burning Stars, hits shelves tomorrow—but io9 has the first chapter here for you to read today. Do you like sci-fi tales of revenge, dark secrets from the past that threaten to re-emerge, and thieves plotting schemes on forgotten planets? Read on for more!

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Source: Gizmodo – Read the First Chapter of Queer Space Opera Debut These Burning Stars

Super Mario Bros. Wonder Leaks Online, Raise Your Spoiler Shields

Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the latest 2D platformer from the masters of the form at Nintendo, is due out this week, on October 20. So it’s unfortunate news for both the Japanese gaming giant, and everyone who wants to avoid spoilers, that it’s already leaked online.

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Source: Kotaku – Super Mario Bros. Wonder Leaks Online, Raise Your Spoiler Shields

AMD ROCm + PyTorch Now Supported With The Radeon RX 7900 XTX

While Friday’s release of ROCm 5.7.1 hadn’t mentioned any Radeon family GPU support besides the aging Radeon VII, it turns out AMD’s newest open-source GPU compute stack is ready to go now with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and is complete with working PyTorch support…

Source: Phoronix – AMD ROCm + PyTorch Now Supported With The Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Stack Overflow Cuts 28% Workforce as the AI Coding Boom Continues

Coding help forum Stack Overflow is laying off 28 percent of its staff as it struggles toward profitability. From a report: CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar announced today that the company is “significantly reducing the size of our go-to-market organization,” as well as “supporting teams” and other groups. After the team doubled its employee base last year, Chandrasekar told The Verge’s Nilay Patel in an interview that about 45 percent of those hires were for its go-to-market sales team, which he said was “obviously the largest team.” Prosus acquired Stack Overflow in a $1.8 billion deal in mid-2021.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Stack Overflow Cuts 28% Workforce as the AI Coding Boom Continues

You Can Get This 4K Smart Samsung Gaming Monitor for 50% Off

Best Buy is offering the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7, a 43-inch 4K smart gaming monitor, for half the price, currently at $499.99 (was $999.99). This is the lowest price it’s been for the past three months, according to Honey’s price history. Here’s what you can expect from this gaming monitor.

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Source: LifeHacker – You Can Get This 4K Smart Samsung Gaming Monitor for 50% Off

GeForce NOW Prices Are Going Up For Some Gamers, How To Lock Your Current Rate

GeForce NOW Prices Are Going Up For Some Gamers, How To Lock Your Current Rate
Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service has taken on new importance in the wake of Stadia’s untimely demise. Some of those who fled Google’s failed streaming platform for Nvidia are in for a rude awakening, though. Nvidia has announced a price hike for select markets, one of which will see the base subscription price jump by 40%.

If you’re

Source: Hot Hardware – GeForce NOW Prices Are Going Up For Some Gamers, How To Lock Your Current Rate

Red Hat’s Ex, Jim Whitehurst, Is Now Temporary CEO at Unity Software

Three-and-a-half years after handing over the reins at Red Hat, Jim Whitehurst has the job he likes best again, although only temporarily. It’s been no…

The post Red Hat’s Ex, Jim Whitehurst, Is Now Temporary CEO at Unity Software appeared first on FOSS Force.



Source: FOSS Force – Red Hat’s Ex, Jim Whitehurst, Is Now Temporary CEO at Unity Software

The Nissan Leaf now qualifies for a partial EV tax credit

A white Nissan Leaf parked outside a modern house in the desert at night.

Enlarge / The Leaf was given a midlife facelift last year. (credit: Nissan)

While it is true that the recent wave of new electric vehicles has been anything but cheap, there are still a few relatively affordable EVs out there for people who don’t mind smaller cars— including the Nissan Leaf. An early pioneer in the electrification game, the venerable Leaf has been rather forgotten. Well, forget no more because there’s now Nissan Leaf news: The car once again qualifies for a federal tax credit.

We saw a big revamp of the federal EV incentive this year thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. Before, the tax credit was tied to the storage capacity of the car’s battery. Now, it’s determined by how much of the pack was domestically sourced or assembled.

For this year, if at least half the pack’s critical minerals were refined in the United States (or a country with a free trade agreement with the US), then the EV is eligible for a $3,750 tax credit, provided that final assembly also occurs in North America. Another $3,750 is available if half or more of the pack’s components were assembled in the US.

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Source: Ars Technica – The Nissan Leaf now qualifies for a partial EV tax credit

Like A Dragon Gaiden Won’t Include a Key Feature At Launch

Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, the upcoming spinoff in Sega’s Yakuza series, is set to release on November 9. But unlike several recent games in the franchise, it will not launch with an English dub version. Instead, English audio will come to the game in a post-launch update. Sega has yet to…

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Source: Kotaku – Like A Dragon Gaiden Won’t Include a Key Feature At Launch

Wall Street Watchdog Says AI Will Cause 'Unavoidable' Economic Collapse

There’s a calamity on the horizon if you believe Gary Gensler, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). America’s top Wall Street watchdog has issued a dire warning about artificial intelligence: if regulators don’t act now, Gensler said it’s “nearly unavoidable” that AI will trigger a financial…

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Source: Gizmodo – Wall Street Watchdog Says AI Will Cause ‘Unavoidable’ Economic Collapse

Analogue’s next project is an accurate, hardware-emulated Nintendo 64 replica

The Analogue 3D is the company's next FPGA-based retro console, but the company isn't showing the whole thing off yet.

Enlarge / The Analogue 3D is the company’s next FPGA-based retro console, but the company isn’t showing the whole thing off yet. (credit: Analogue)

Retro game enthusiasts will know Analogue for its consoles’ dedication to accuracy. From the original Analogue Nt, which used chips harvested from broken NES consoles, to the Analogue Pocket, which uses an FPGA chip to accurately emulate handheld hardware, the company has always focused on modern hardware that can play actual game cartridges while preserving the idiosyncrasies of the original game consoles.

Today Analogue is announcing the Analogue 3D, a console that will use an FPGA to run games made for 1996’s Nintendo 64. Because FPGAs emulate consoles at a hardware level, they’re much better at replicating all of the specific quirks of the original hardware, making games look and run like they would have on the original consoles without any performance problems or rendering inaccuracies. Like Analogue’s other home console replicas, the Analogue 3D is designed to play original cartridges and not ROM files, and the cartridge slot is region-free, so it’ll work with games from all over the world.

Analogue didn’t reveal a price or a specific launch date for the Analogue 3D, just that the console will show up at some point in 2024. It also didn’t show off the design of the console itself or the controller, though it did tease both—if you look closely, you’ll see an 8BitDo logo on the controller, the same company that made Analogue’s replica controllers for its Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx retro consoles.

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Source: Ars Technica – Analogue’s next project is an accurate, hardware-emulated Nintendo 64 replica