Author: easyfilo

• 

  Cyberpunk 2077, patch 1.5, PlayStation 5, ray-tracing mode. [credit:
  CD Projekt Red
  ]

While video game consoles have finally reached the age of ray tracing, performing those graphical calculations in real time can still be tough on consumer-level hardware. A PS5 game like Gran Turismo 7, for instance, can only handle ray-traced visuals in replays thanks to the processing requirements.

With a newly filed patent, though, Sony engineer Mark Cerny lays out a method that could significantly speed up the ray-tracing process by offloading certain calculations from the GPU to specially designed ray-tracing unit (RTU) hardware. The outlines of the new ray-tracing process are laid out in a patent application titled “System and method for accelerated ray tracing with asynchronous operation and ray transformation.” The application was published in the European Union last week after being filed last August.

In Cerny’s method, the RTU hardware is specially designed to efficiently traverse so-called acceleration structures in a 3D environment, going through a stack of bounding volumes to identify points where a virtual light ray intersects with an object. Those intersections are then sent to a shader program running on the GPU, which determines whether the object is opaque (a “hit” for the ray-tracing algorithm) or transparent (i.e., the intersection can be ignored).

Enlarge / UHBR-certified DisplayPort 2.0 cables. (credit: VESA)

VESA, which makes the DisplayPort spec, today announced a certification program aimed at helping consumers understand if a DisplayPort 2.0 cable, monitor, or video source can support the max refresh rates and resolutions the spec claims.

Technology certifications, like DisplayPort and HDMI, generally provide an overview of associated products’ capabilities to give shoppers an idea of expected performance, like a monitor’s max speed or cable’s max bandwidth, before even using them.

VESA’s latest certification is around DisplayPort 2.0. The spec can support a max throughput of 80Gbps compared to DisplayPort 1.4’s 32.4Gbps. This enables extreme uses, like 16K resolution with display stream compression (DSC), 10K without compression, or two 8K HDR screens at 120 Hz.

Enlarge / Tipasa, a Roman site in Algeria, faces a high risk from sea-level rise. (credit: Ethel Davies)

Climate change is poised to impact not just our present but our history as well. According to the IUCN, climate change has now become “the most prevalent threat” to heritage sites around the world. Many wealthy countries like the United States have data about what’s likely to be impacted, but other parts of the world are facing a dearth of information on this issue.

New work performed by an international team of 11 researchers across various disciplines aims to address this lack of data for the continent of Africa. The team identified hundreds of sites with cultural importance and compared their locations to where future sea-level rise flooding and erosion is expected to occur in the future. “If you have erosion, you’re more likely to have flooding, and vice versa,” Joanne Clarke, a professor of archaeology at the University of East Anglia and one of the authors, told Ars.

Clarke noted that this information could be used to help protect the sites and better understand which parts of the continent need more protection. Further, she argued that the ways in which we look at the issue of climate change and heritage sites is skewed toward wealthier parts of the world, which are better able to manage the worst of the world’s shifting climate.

Enlarge / The new version of Dishy McFlatface. (credit: Starlink)

SpaceX is sending Starlink user terminals to Ukraine after a request from a government official. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation, used Twitter to make a direct plea to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Saturday, writing:

@elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars—Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space—Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.

About 10 hours later, Musk responded, “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.” A bit later, Fedorov sent a tweet thanking Musk and another tweet thanking Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, “for swift decisions related to authorization and certification that allowed us to activate the Starlink in Ukraine.”

We asked SpaceX for details on how many Starlink user terminals are being sent to Ukraine and how they’re being distributed and will update this article if we get any information. Starlink was recently used to provide broadband in parts of Tonga that were cut off from Internet access by the tsunami.

Enlarge (credit: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto)

Big Tech companies, for the most part, have been able to have their cake and eat it, too.

By pitching themselves as neutral platforms that prioritize free expression—while at the same time bowing to local pressure to remove or restrict certain content—they’ve enjoyed rather broad access to nearly all the world’s markets. Even Russia, which for decades during the Soviet era fought to keep Western media out, has let them in.

That may be about to change, though. 

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Windows 10 and 11 both include a system reset option that will revert your Windows installation to a pristine state, useful when you’re trying to fix weird behavior or get your PC ready to sell or give to someone else.

When it’s working properly, this system-reset feature offers to wipe all of your data from the disk to prevent the next owner from accessing any of your stuff. But a bug in the newest versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10 is keeping that feature from working properly for some locally stored OneDrive data, leaving it unencrypted and fully accessible even if you had been using disk encryption before the reset.

Microsoft acknowledges the issue on its page of known issues for Windows 10 and Windows 11 and provides further details on the data that’s being exposed. Specifically, if your PC runs “apps which have folders with reparse data, such as OneDrive or OneDrive for Business, files which have been downloaded or synced locally from OneDrive might not be deleted when selecting the ‘Remove everything’ option.” The files can be exposed whether you’re wiping your system yourself or an IT administrator is wiping a system remotely—that could be especially problematic for institutions attempting to wipe a lost or stolen laptop to protect the data on it.

Enlarge / Alienware AW720M. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Specs at a glance: Alienware AW720M
Sensor	Optical (model not disclosed)
Connectivity options	USB-C to USB-A cable, USB-C dongle, Bluetooth 5.1
Programmable buttons	8
Onboard profiles	1
Lighting	1x RGB zone
Size	4.93×2.43×1.49 inches 125.22×61.72×37.85 mm
Weight	3.14 ounces (89 g)
Warranty	2 years
Price (MSRP)	$150
Other perks	Wireless extender

Lefties are dealt a tough hand when it comes to finding an advanced mouse. Mice are usually built for right hands, with any side buttons typically located on the mouse’s left side and curves that favor right thumbs. Lefties seeking a mouse with high functionality have few options—even fewer if they want a cable-free mouse.

Alienware’s AW720M ($150 MSRP as of writing) is the type of mouse that makes lefties rejoice. It’s truly ambidextrous, with side buttons on the left and right sides. It is also feature-filled, with the ability to connect to PCs via a wireless dongle, Bluetooth, or cable.

But beyond its flexibility, less exciting is its price and a smooth chassis that easily gets clammy.