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Intel means to win: the capture of Igromir was successful

Exhibitions of Igromir in Crocus Expo have long been an autumn classic for Muscovites. Vendors and studios are preparing for this event in a few months, they come to the event from other cities and even countries, and every time they say that "last year was better." However, people have always been better before, and cyborg we have here, it seems, is not among the readers.



Of course, Intel was also represented at Igromir. It was difficult to walk past a huge pyramid with gaming PCs and bright blue decorations. And believe me, there was something to look at. But for Intel, not only its own platform was important, and for several reasons ...

Intel booth contained a huge hashtag #says for it. While DX12 and Vulkan are not very common - the processor plays the same important role in games: if you want to enjoy the maximum graphics settings, stable high FPS and already got 4k-monitor or VR-helmet and one or two hi-end video cards - you know what it is about.
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Graphics in games is formed in layers: three-dimensional models are transformed into a flat image, a depth map is created, textures are applied, shadows are calculated, special effects are applied. Each subsequent special effect, which makes the graphics more and more realistic, requires more and more new calls for rendering, which the processors transmit to the video cards along with a set of instructions “what to do” and “exactly”. Well, as the resolution grows, the load on the video card grows exponentially. For us - bright explosions, juicy clang of tank tracks, impenetrable fog and photorealistic faces, and for the computer - routine, building the illusion of reality from a heap of "fraudulent" technologies that use approximations, simplifications and small tricks to reduce the load on iron. And this has its magic.

They are everywhere


As we have said, our own stand is an important part of Igromir, but Intel is not proud of it alone. You could come to whatever arena, wherever there are computers, amazing modding, spectacular overclocking with clubs of liquid nitrogen vapor, a tournament on a toy or a demonstration of new technologies, you could see the familiar logo.

Here it is on the joint booth mvideo and @lenovo: the heart of gaming laptops and Lenovo PCs are the latest generation Core i5 and Core i7.







The huge ASUS ROG cube is also decorated with Intel logo:



It was visible from any end of the exhibition. For many years, ASUS motherboards have been considered among the best. Do you want to build a gaming PC capable of displaying a picture on a VR helmet that fits in an ITX case? Or do you need a real computing monster with 64-128 GB of RAM? ASUS has solutions in both cases. And, of course, laptops with discrete graphics from NVIDIA. With brand cooling and factory overclocking from ASUS, of course.

Their eternal rivals from Gigabyte also release motherboards and custom versions of video cards. And the Gigabyte booth was also full of solutions for our processors.







MSI is another famous vendor. Motherboards, video cards, one of the best series of gaming laptops with excellent features and a keyboard with software from SteelSeries ...



Their stand forever surrounded by a crowd of spectators.



Own mini-quest, constant contests, cosplayers on the stage and a huge, noticeable logo.



A well-known manufacturer of PCs and laptops Hewlett-Packard has recently created a “gaming” unit, which produces ready-made PCs under the Omen sub-brand. Just look at this sinister handsome:



Inside this monster - Core i7 6th generation. Impractical? May be. But damn attractive!

And most importantly, such a picture - everywhere. Wherever you go, in what corner of PC gaming on Igromir you didn’t look, where you wouldn’t take pictures of an impressive computer with water cooling, fluids in the UV light flux inside, gold inlay or in a strict black case ...





The heart of the system has always been Intel processors. A bunch of Intel + NVIDIA has become a classic PC gaming. Here is a proof from the main PC-boyars gaming platform, the share of NVIDIA and Intel is only growing:



And at the Sony booth all these days it was boring. Probably because we all know what is inside their consoles. : D


However, not only Intel was on the stands of partners. Many popular vendors showed their models in our bright blue decorations. Hyper PC, Invasion Labs, MSI and Acer showed completely different computer form factors. Small and inexpensive solutions for casual gaming, large but powerful machines for those who like to play modern and demanding games, supercompact, expensive and very cool solutions with advanced cooling for those who have little space, but big appetites ... there was a place for everyone.

Gaming platforms


Most of the hardware resources when building gaming PCs put the Core i3-6100 or Core i3-6300 above the eight-core competitors: high clock speeds, energy efficiency, an amazing price-performance ratio made even the younger i3 a welcome purchase in gaming platforms.

They are paired with NVIDIA 960 or 1060 with 3 GB of video memory, 8 GB of RAM (if you switch from old hardware, you can use the available DDR3 reserves and save a little, if the old computer is still useful, it makes sense to take DDR4 - it is cheaper, and the prospects for development / upgrade will be), well, it is desirable if not the fastest, but SSD: in any case, it is a hundred times more responsive and more pleasant to work than a classic hard drive. Such a system will allow you to play in FullHD resolution with medium-high graphics settings (especially if you take 1060), and with the release of the games on the API Vulkan - also get a good performance boost.

The solution that will satisfy 90% of the players, of course, is a bunch of i5-6500 + GTX 1070 with 8-16 GB of RAM. Games at maximum settings with a resolution of 2560x1440, VR, working with a multimonitor configuration - this team is all along the way.

Well, for the most demanding, of course, there is a line of Core i7 processors in two versions: with overclocking and without. Those who really lack the capabilities of i5 quad-cores and need eight-stream i7 and are so well versed in hardware, our advice to them is useless.



In addition, there were probably some of the world's most compact powerful PCs on the stand - branded Intel NUC Skull Canyon. Quad-core i7, integrated Intel Iris Pro graphics and up to 32 GB of RAM in the case, the size of a good WiFi router or a small book: about 20 centimeters in length, 10 in width and two and a half in height. It may not be possible for him to play Battlefield 1 at the maximum settings, but he perfectly digests the toys easier: MOBA, the same World of Tanks, games on the Source engine and various strategies go with a bang. If you understand the beauty of a supercompact and productive solution - you know what to choose.

Intel igromir


We told about other stands, it is time to pay attention to our game Olympus. Multi-tier design with gaming PCs from our partner MicroXperts made it possible for everyone to find out in the first days of the exhibition who has the longer barrel in tank battles, but who is driving in the fields of Crossout.



If everyone is familiar with WoT (albeit not personally), then the second game has not yet become so popular. Imagine cars from MadMax, crossed with a Lego, and, of course, complete battles in compact arenas. A kind of mix of car ugliness in the spirit of FlatOut, designer-sandbox, in which you can build a four-wheel monster to your style of play, but all this with the support of VR.



Yes, yes, you heard right. In the VR demozone, it was possible to try Crossout to work with the Oculus Rift VR kit. The system of the ugly duckling of the first versions grew into a slender swan: the controllers are very accurate and amazingly responsive, the delay in the image in the helmet has become invisible: now, when using, the vestibular apparatus does not appear out of sync (well, or it has become much smaller and is tolerated by the body easier), and management You can to some extent be called intuitive: after a couple of minutes you stop confusing buttons, and a visual display of the position of the controllers makes it easy to navigate in space and manipulate the object E.



To build your own car in VR from blocks, and afterwards - to ride on it with a breeze, destroying the paltry tins of virtual opponents - is a terrific experience. From the side it looks ridiculous, but once we were amused by people who talk “to themselves” on a Bluetooth-headset. And now nobody looks at them even.



The second interesting VR project is a secret game from mailru , which was present at the stand as a technical demonstration. Sci-Fi first-person shooter, made in the style of TRON'a amazingly addictive and bright stuff. The release is scheduled for this fall. VR Invaders will be available in Steam stores for HTC Vive and Oculus Store for Rift. In the meantime, you can watch a short video. There is no gameplay in it, but you can check out the design:



This piece is played very cheerfully. Enemies of the rod from all sides, their behavior is different, at your disposal - various guns, working differently on opponents, in general ... this is such a hybrid from the early arcade games and virtual reality that we were shown in the films. Cool, fun, turns and delays.



Another VR-shooter - Arizona Sunshine - uses a somewhat hackneyed theme of the post-apocalyptic desert and attempts to survive in a cruel world inhabited by the living dead - zombies, if in a simple way. But if adapted to VR, having already “won back” its Valve project (Left 4 Dead 2) itself looks like the monster of Victor Frankenstein, here the game was created initially and purposefully for using the VR platform. That is, gameplay features, level design, the behavior of opponents and controls are completely sharpened for work with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. And that means playing Arizona Sunshine with such a gadget is much more fun than its eminent relative.



On the third day, the tournament was launched on the famous MOBA from Blizzard: Heroes of the storm. On the one hand, all games of this genre are extremely similar to each other, mechanics obliges. On the other ... HotS differs from DotA 2, which is very scary, and the speed of the game, the duration of the session, and the various game mechanics: there are more battle cards, fights are more varied and fast, and the gameplay itself is much more accessible for beginners and also entertaining for experienced players . To get involved in HotS is much easier than in alternatives, and if you are looking for a simple competitive game with a session of 20-30 minutes for a fight, perhaps it will suit you.



On the same day, a battle was launched against the eternal rival of the “potato” - “snail” WarThunder. The relationship of the two companies can be judged by the April Fools ’day of Gaijin Entertiment alone. Physics and complexity make the "tundra" more interesting for players who are tired of the dominance of shkoloty and the characteristic features of World of Tanks. We will not get involved in another holivor, but perhaps this is the first time in history when both games were presented on the same stand, albeit on different days.

The near future


The new APIs in the face of Vulkan and DX12 will reduce the processor-dependent graphics operations, which means the picture quality will increase, the number of frames per second will not, either, but this does not mean that powerful CPUs will no longer be important for the gaming industry.

Even if you do not consider the VR technology (for which, most likely, the future), now there are two trends in PC gaming: a departure from 60 frames per second to 100-120-140 and an increase in the resolution of monitors. If a couple of years ago, 4k was something fantastic (and in order to play in this resolution, you needed 2-3 flagship video cards), now monitors with such a resolution are actively winning a place in the sun, and even with the “Vulkan API” srednyachkam "like the GTX1070.



With the development of technology OLED and QuantumDots we are waiting for high-speed, accurate and high-quality displays that can work at high speed, which means that even with new APIs you will find something to load the processor: you can only imagine how much to calculate the game that runs on 120-140 frames per second? .. But there will still be VR technologies, that is, you will need to draw a picture for each eye, process the position of the controllers, work with pattern recognition ...



Intel is also working in this area: we already have a Realsense system that can recognize people, gestures, objects, and the world around us. In addition to it, we recently announced a Project Alloy VR headset, which next year should be an open source solution. That is, manufacturers will be able to offer something of their own, and we are waiting for a large number of VR-devices and VR-content.



It seemed that yesterday VR was an unpretentious and expensive toy for geeks, and today it is becoming more accessible at all exhibitions. Let's see what will happen next year? See you at Igromir in 2017. And remember, it resolves! ;)

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/398149/


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