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Stepto’s Personal Blog and XBL Account Hacked – Hacker Boasts via YouTube

Bryce Wilson — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:31:49 +0000

Xbox LIVE is made up of some pretty amazing and awesome personalities, Stephen ‘Stepto’ Toulouse being one of them.

It would appear however that the Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE doesn’t have as much control and power over the infamous ban-hammer as he would like.

Through a series of unforseen events, his personal blog ‘www.stepto.com’ and also his Xbox LIVE account “Stepto”, were infiltrated and taken over by a hacker some time today.Stephen commented on the matter earlier via Twitter;

He seems to be rectifying the issue with the help of Network Solutions however, updating people on the status with his latest Twitter update;

Until control of Stepto’s website has been fixed he’s asking people not to send personal emails to his webserver as they’re no longer private.

Update #1:

Said hacker has now uploaded a video to YouTube of Stepto’s Xbox LIVE Account being hacked with social engineering. See for yourself:

He says this is payback for Stepto console banning him 35 times. Apparently no one, not even Stepto, is safe from The Predator.

Update #2:

It seems that Stepto has regained full control of his blog and Xbox LIVE Account.

Stay tuned to RipTen as this story continues to unfold

Nvidia Blogs About Image Quality vs. AMD – Says They’ve Got ‘Em Beat

Dave Oshry — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:34:03 +0000

Did you know Nvidia had a blog? Me neither. Well apparently they do and they’re using it to take direct aim at rival AMD.

To sum up the long blog post you could very well read the end of it which states:

We believe our customers would rather we focus our resources to maximize performance and provide an awesome, immersive gaming experience without compromising image quality, than engage in a race to the IQ (Image Quality) gutter with AMD.

The blog post was written by Nick Stam – the Technical Marketing Director for Nvidia. It goes into great detail about AMD seems to be making compromises and how many unbiased reviews have backed up that claim:

PC gaming enthusiasts understand image quality (IQ) is a critical part of the PC gaming experience. They frequently upgrade their GPUs to play the latest games at high frame rates, while also dialing up the display resolution and graphical IQ effects to make their games both look and play great. Image quality is important, and if it were not important, we’d all be playing at 10×7 with no AA!

Important Benchmarking Issues and Questionable Optimizations
We are writing this blog post to bring broader attention to some very important image quality findings uncovered recently by top technology Web sites including ComputerBase, PC Games Hardware, Tweak PC, and 3DCenter.org. They all found that changes introduced in AMD’s Catalyst 10.10 default driver settings caused an increase in performance and a decrease in image quality. These changes in AMD’s default settings do not permit a fair apples-to-apples comparison to NVIDIA default driver settings. NVIDIA GPUs provide higher image quality at default driver settings, which means comparative AMD vs. NVIDIA testing methods need to be adjusted to compensate for the image quality differences.

What Editors Discovered
Getting directly to the point, major German Tech Websites ComputerBase and PC Games Hardware (PCGH) both report that they must use the “High” Catalyst AI texture filtering setting for AMD 6000 series GPUs instead of the default “Quality” setting in order to provide image quality that comes close to NVIDIA’s default texture filtering setting. 3DCenter.org has a similar story, as does TweakPC. The behavior was verified in many game scenarios. AMD obtains up to a 10% performance advantage by lowering their default texture filtering quality according to ComputerBase.

AMD’s optimizations weren’t limited to the Radeon 6800 series. According to the review sites, AMD also lowered the default AF quality of the HD 5800 series when using the Catalyst 10.10 drivers, such that users must disable Catalyst AI altogether to get default image quality closer to NVIDIA’s “default” driver settings.

Going forward, ComputerBase and PCGH both said they would test AMD 6800 series boards with Cat AI set to ”High”, not the default “Quality” mode, and they would disable Cat AI entirely for 5800 series boards (based on their findings, other 5000 series boards do not appear to be affected by the driver change).

We have had internal discussions as to whether we should forego our position to not reduce image quality behind your back as AMD is doing. We believe our customers would rather we focus our resources to maximize performance and provide an awesome, immersive gaming experience without compromising image quality, than engage in a race to the IQ gutter with AMD.

Filter Tester Observations
Readers can observe AMD GPU texture shimmering very visibly in videos posted at TweakPC. The popular Filter Tester application from 3DCenter.org was used with its “ground2” texture (located in the Program Files/3DCenter Filter Tester/Textures directory), and texture movement parameters were set to -0.7 in both X and Y directions with 16xAF enabled. Each video shows the split-screen rendering mode of the Filter Tester application, where the GPU under test is on the left side, and the “perfect” software-based ALU rendering is on the right side. (Playing the videos with Firefox or Google Chrome is recommended). NVIDIA GPU anisotropic quality was also tested and more closely resembles the perfect ALU software-based filtering. Problems with AMD AF filtering are best seen when the textures are in motion, not in static AF tests, thus the “texture movement” settings need to be turned on in the Filter Tester. In our own testing with Filter Tester using similar parameters, we have seen that the newly released Catalyst 10.11 driver also has the same texture shimmering problems on the HD 5870. Cat 10.11 does not work with HD 6000 series boards as of this writing.

AF Tester Observations
ComputerBase also says that AMD drivers appear to treat games differently than the popular “AF Tester” (anisotropic filtering) benchmark tool from 3DCenter.org. They indicate that lower quality anisotropic filtering is used in actual games, but higher quality anisotropic filtering is displayed when the AF Tester tool is detected and run. Essentially, the anisotropic filtering quality highlighted by the AF Tester tool on AMD GPUs is not indicative of the lower quality of anisotropic filtering seen in real games on AMD GPUs.

NVIDIA’s own driver team has verified specific behaviors in AMD’s drivers that tend to affect certain anisotropic testing tools. Specifically, AMD drivers appear to disable texture filtering optimizations when smaller window sizes are detected, like the AF Tester tool uses, and they enable their optimizations for larger window sizes. The definition of “larger” and “smaller” varies depending on the API and hardware used. For example with DX10 and 68xx boards, it seems they disable optimizations with window sizes smaller than 500 pixels on a side. For DX9 apps like the AF Tester, the limit is higher, on the order of 1000 pixels per side. Our driver team also noticed that the optimizations are more aggressive on RV840/940 than RV870, with optimizations performed across a larger range of LODs for the RV840/940.

FP16 Render Observations
In addition to the above recent findings, for months AMD had been performing a background optimization for certain DX9 applications where FP16 render targets are demoted to R11G11B10 render targets, which are half the size and less accurate. When recently exposed publically, AMD finally provided a user visible control panel setting to enable/disable, but the demotion is enabled by default. Reviewers and users testing DX9 applications such as Need for Speed Shift or Dawn of War 2, should uncheck the “Enable Surface Format Optimization” checkbox in the Catalyst AI settings area of the AMD control panel to turn off FP16 demotion when conducting comparative performance testing.

A Long and Winding Road
For those with long memories, NVIDIA learned some hard lessons with some GeForce FX and 3DMark03 optimization gone bad, and vowed to never again perform any optimizations that could compromise image quality. During that time, the industry agreed that any optimization that improved performance, but did not alter IQ, was in fact a valid “optimization”, and any optimization that improved performance but lowered IQ, without letting the user know, was a “cheat”. Special-casing of testing tools should also be considered a “cheat”.

Both NVIDIA and AMD provide various control panel knobs to tune and tweak image quality parameters, but there are some important differences — NVIDIA strives to deliver excellent IQ at default control panel settings, while also ensuring the user experiences the image quality intended by the game developer. NVIDIA will not hide optimizations that trade off image quality to obtain faster frame rates. Similarly, with each new driver release, NVIDIA will not reduce the quality of default IQ settings, unlike what appears to be happening with our competitor, per the stories recently published.

We are glad that multiple top tech sites have published their comparative IQ findings. If NVIDIA published such information on our own, without third-party validation, much of the review and technical community might just ignore it. A key goal in this blog is not to point out cheats or “false optimizations” in our competitor’s drivers. Rather it is to get everyone to take a closer look at AMD’s image quality in games, and fairly test our products versus AMD products. We also want people to beware of using certain anisotropic testing tools with AMD boards, as you will not get image quality results that correspond with game behavior.

AMD promotes “no compromise” enthusiast graphics, but it seems multiple reviewers beg to differ.

We have had internal discussions as to whether we should forego our position to not reduce image quality behind your back as AMD is doing. We believe our customers would rather we focus our resources to maximize performance and provide an awesome, immersive gaming experience without compromising image quality, than engage in a race to the IQ gutter with AMD.

What remains to be seen is if AMD will write up a counter-blog. We doubt it. :-)

Castle Crashers Finally Coming To PSN

Dave Oshry — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:20:02 +0000

The wait is finally over … almost!! The Behemoth has announced pricing for the PSN, and promises the game will be available … soon!!

But that’s not all, they will also be bringing Castle Crashers to PAX Prime in a whole new way … arcade style!! Yes, old school four player standing in front of a booth Ninja Turtles arcade style beat em up action!! Here’s a mockup of what they are talking about:

Looks like I know where I’ll be hanging out during PAX!!

Anyhoo, here’s the rest of what The Behemoth had to say.

So let’s talk Castle Crashers. For people on a continent whose last name is “America,” the price will be as close as we can get it to $15. Maybe $14.99. Maybe $15.01. Somewhere right around there. The long and the short of it- Castle Crashers is coming to planet earth like a speeding train ready to fly off the tracks and crash into a village. That village is your PS3.

Meanwhile, we are also getting ready to attend the Penny-Arcade Expo on September 3-5th, in Seattle: Booth #3102. We’re bringing with us our latest build from BattleBlock Theater, awesome merchandise for all of your consumption needs, and a never before seen 4-player Castle Crashers arcade cabinet, just for PAX. Say what? Did we just say arcade cabinet? Wait a second am I talking to myself? What is going on?

As for a release date, sources very close to The Behemoth have told us, “Really, really soon.”

Keep up to date with all things Behemoth at their Dev Blog.

COD4 Update Now Available Through Xbox Live

Dan Landis — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:10:09 +0000

Hopefully people will now actually die when you shoot them in the head.

It’s been talked about for months, rumored for weeks, and now it’s finally here. The Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4 has now been officially patched. The title update will be available the next time you load up the game (as long as you’re connected to Live). Airstrike the link to get the full details on what this patch features.

The following information is courtesy of FourZeroTwo via his site IAMfourzerotwo:

New Kill Cams – Everything that can kill you has a Kill Cam now. Grenades, Airstrikes, Claymores, C4, M203 Rounds, RPGs, anything. So jump online, get owned alittle and check them out. They’re awesome, especially Grenades and M203 shots that go across the map and through a window.

Host Migration – Host migration was added, so now when the host leaves you won’t get dropped back to your own lobby by yourself. Everyone will stay together. Host Leaves, everyone returns to lobby, selects next best host, and the game starts up again. No more re-inviting, re-partying up because a host ended the game.

Improved Sniper Accuracy - The Sniper rifle accuracy has been improved. No more, WTF? shots now. Your cross hair will be a better representation of where your shot will ultimately land. Try out a sniper class today, let us know how the new accuracy feels.

Improved ACOG Scope Accuracy – ACOG scopes accuracy on any weapon has been improved. Test it out, throw it on one of your classes and give it a go.

Upgraded Spectator Cam - Now when you’re a spectator you have the option to follow in 3rd person or 1st person. As well as rotate 360 degrees around the player you’re watching. Next time you’re dead in Search and Destroy and just watching your team mates do stuff you know you can do better, now do it in 1st person or rotate around them.

Quick Mute Option – Now you can easily and quickly mute players in-game or in-lobby without ever going through the Xbox Live blades. Just go to their gamertag on screen and hit ‘A’ to quick mute in lobby, or via the in-game scoreboard if playing. Quick. Easy. Salvation!

In addition to these feature additions there will also be:

Improved Network Performance For Larger Games – 18 player games now require more bandwidth to host, resulting in smoother performance for players.

Optimized Server Selection for First Match – Server selection is now optimized to select best bandwidth servers associated by LSP.

Fixed “Playlist Older Than Host” Error – Player will no longer get this error when entering games.

Additional Start Spawn Locations in All Maps – Added a minimum of 9 extra start spawns on each side of all maps.

Warhawk Importers Shafted on Downloadable Content?

Patrick Steen — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:21:22 +0000

Many Europeans were impatient and imported Warhawk from the US. In fact my brother picked up Warhawk from the US and it works perfectly on my PAL Playstation 3, but we might now be shafted with region coding.

In a reply to the question “Will the downloadable content be region coded?”on the Official Playstation Blog, Dylan Jobe of Incognito responded with:

More or less yes…it’s not based on hardware region code, but based on the region where you purchased the game Warhawk. USA, Europe, Japan, etc.

This presumably means that Warhawk importers need to buy the US Omega Dawn Pack, which isn’t possible since foreigners can’t buy content from the US Playstation Store.

There may be a get around, since there is an online Warhawk store which will prompt you to buy the pack. The store might recognise that you have a US copy of Warhawk and thus forward the US pack to you. However, this would make the region-coding slightly pointless.

I for one am not willing to buy the pack with my hard earned monies to discover if this does indeed work, even though the pack appears to be up early. I should have grabbed it when it was free.

Leave us a comment if you’re in the same situation.