Wondering if your PC hardware has what it takes to support VR? Valve has the answer for you
So you’re not afraid of the pricing for various virtual reality headset. You’re looking at grabbing yourself one of HTC’s Vive units, perhaps? Then you’re going to need to see just how much extra hardware your PC is going to need in order to keep up. Thankfully, if you’ve been keeping current, then it might not have to be much of an upgrade – if any at all. Valve has all of the answers and all you have to do is visit the link below on the PC you want to check. You’ll be directed to the SteamVR Performance Test download, which is downloaded through the Steam client. Once you’ve got all that, just run the test and you’re either going to be pleased (because you only need to shell out R15,000 or so for the HTC Vive) or really, really, annoyed (because you need to replace almost every component you have). Here’s hoping it’s the latter.
Oh we’ve been waiting to use a headline like this one for a while. Microsoft, in December 2015, sent a little care package to the International Space Station containing a few Hololens AR headsets. The point of the headsets is to help with NASA’s Project Sidekick, which could help astronauts by allowing engineers on the ground to provide directions. Or interactive user manuals are on hand, or… you get the point. The astronauts have had some time to get used to Hololens and Sidekick, though someone needs to tell Tim Peake and co that video games are for people who can’t see the entire planet from their bedroom windows. No matter, though. Above you’ll see a test video of people trialling Hololens before it was sent to space, inside NASA’s C9 jet. Looks… fun?
Skype is killing Qik. What’s Qik, you ask? We have no idea…
Did you know that Skype Qik was a thing? The past tense is appropriate here because it’s pretty much gone now. Skype bought standalone video messaging app Qik and converted it into Skype Qik, where users would be able to record short video messages and send them to people via their mobiles. Yeah, that’s going away now. Skype are integrating those features into the main Skype app and canning the Qik version come 24 March this year. If you’re still using it (surely someone is), then you have until then to save any messages that you can’t bear to lose. Afterwards, Skype Qik will stop working but its features will live on. Huh, that’s the second time that Skype has closed Qik now.
Filming on the new Star Wars involves a whole lot of security drones
Star Wars fans are a determined lot. You may not know it but some information about The Force Awakens was gleaned because folks were using drones to peek in on filming. Disney, as you might imagine, wasn’t all that happy. So much so that they were considering a drone defence system. Instead, it seems, they’ve opted for a drone army of their own. A Croatian website claims that there will be 600 guards keeping out external parties when Episode 8 starts filming in that country later this year and that some of those guards will be in control of anti-drone drones. Which is awesomely appropriate but if none of those drones are shaped like the Millennium Falcon (like this one) then the filmmakers are missing out on an incredible opportunity. They’d better be dressing the guards up like Jedi as well. Just saying…
