- "Tested the 6 wheeled tank. All the suspension and
new wheel force dynamics seem to work fine with 6
wheels.
- Added particle emitters to the wheels. They
currently emit smoke particles when a tire slips.
- Switched the way the vehicles are controlled.
Vehicles are Control Objects which have special
properties; including Soonest-Possible transmission of
state data to clients, Move processing and
client-server synchronization. Once you took control of
a vehicle, you basically dropped control of your player
"body" (itself a Control Object). This is how Tribes 1
works, but for T2, we wanted to add the ability to
free-look the player's head while controlling a
vehicle, so I added the ability to control other
Control Objects through the player. Because of the way
we process and synchronize client/server Move
processing, this turned out to be an interesting
addition :) The end result is that the client can now
always control his player, and the player can filter
the moves it forwards to it's Control Object (though a
client can still control a vehicle directly). Since the
player doesn't have to be mounted to an object to
control it, you can be standing on the side of a hill
controlling a vehicle down in the valley (an RC racing
mod comes to mind :)
- Added the player free-look. You can now free-look
while controlling a vehicle. The player's head moves
independently of the body, so you can see pilots
looking around :)"

3dfx will be showcasing dual VSA-100 processor boards running on the PC and Mac in booth 616 at the San Jose Convention Center, from Friday, March 10, through Sunday, March 12. The company will demo the VSA-100 boards and the games utilizing 3dfx's new full-scene anti-aliasing capability.

"The Charisma Engine™ is the world's fastest geometry processing unit and is also the first to incorporate advanced game character acceleration for 3D skinning and key-frame character animation. These effects are critical for enabling game characters to reveal life-like facial expressions and to achieve fluid movement and motion.

The Pixel Tapestry™ Architecture features the world's first GigaTexel rendering engine, and includes support for deep multitexturing and new 3D effects with eye-popping photorealistic impact. It easily deals with complex elements such as metals, liquids and wood and their complex interaction with lighting and shadows."

The Pentium III processor 1 GHz achieves the highest PC performance scores ever, based on today's most current industry standard benchmarks. The Pentium III processor 1 GHz achieves a SPECint2000* benchmark rating of 410 and a SPECfp2000* result of 284, versus 355 and 256 scores, respectively, for an Intel Pentium III processor 800 MHz. Using the BAPCo's SYSmark* 2000 running under Windows* 2000, the Pentium III processor 1 GHz delivers a score of 188, besting the previous record of 170 held by an Intel Pentium III processor 800 MHz. For Internet performance, using Ziff-Davis' Internet benchmark iBench (using Windows 98), the Pentium III processor 1 GHz outpaced the 800 MHz by 14 percent for loading complex Web pages.***

At the Intel Developer Forum last month, Intel showed production-level PCs from Dell, HP and IBM featuring the Pentium III processor 1 GHz and its processor line up for the balance of this year. The company demonstrated its next generation microarchitecture for performance PCs - code named Willamette - operating at 1.5 GHz. Eight workstation and server manufacturers showed Intel's new 64-bit microarchitecture - the Intel* Itanium* processor - in systems targeted to reach the market later this year. These Itanium processor-based computers will become the engine for e-Business. In addition, Intel showed Timna, a product that features smart integration to enable PCs that will cost less than $600, also targeted for the market place this year.

Intel's Pentium III processor 1 GHz is available now in limited quantities and is being offered by leading computer makers targeting today's PC enthusiasts, who demand state-of-the-art performance for media-rich Internet sites and advanced applications such as digital photography, video editing, music, voice recognition and 3-D gaming.

Last October, Intel introduced Pentium III processors featuring an integrated Level 2 cache that runs at the full speed of the processor core. This feature, named the Advanced Transfer Cache, enables application performance to scale with increasing clock frequencies. This technology is a key to the outstanding performance of the Pentium III processor 1 GHz.

Most other processors on the market offer older technologies that keep the cache memory from operating at full frequencies, limiting the PC's full ability to deliver performance to the user.

The Pentium III processor 1 GHz in SECC2 packaging is priced at $990 in 1,000-unit quantities, and is available now in limited quantities. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products.

AMD will try to trump Intel by releasing a 1-GHz Athlon processor on Monday, sources said today, although it's a good bet that Intel will try to move up the release of their one-gig chip to the beginning of the week as well.

The two companies are locked in a race to get the first PC processor running at 1-GHz, or "one gig," out the door first. Two weeks ago, chips running at this speed weren't expected until the middle of the year. Intel, however, recently moved up the release of its 1-GHz Pentium III. Intel's release has so far been planned for Wednesday, sources said.

Computers will be announced along with the new chips. Compaq is expected to release an Athlon system while HP and IBM are likely to introduce Pentium III 1-GHz systems. Low-end Athlon systems with monitors are expected to start below $2,500 and comparable Pentium III PCs around $3,000 and above. Higher-end models could approach $4,000, sources said.

Along with its 1-GHz Athlon, AMD will also come out with 900-MHz and 950-MHz Athlon processors, various sources said.