The internet has been paying attention to LizardSquad and Anonymous recently, overlooking and partially ignoring the other hacking groups that are out there. One such group that you may know of is H4LT. They leaked the Xbox One Software Development Kit onto the internet and tweeted screenshots and the like directly to Xbox themselves in a bid to draw attention to the fact.

When asked if there was a point to leaking the SDK, they stated: “We leaked it to the community because if something is shared then.. progress is achieved faster than alone”…” Something kept between us will not achieve anything. Share it with the community = creativity and research. Shared is how it should be.”

“The SDK will basically allow the community to reverse and open doors towards homebrew applications being present on the Xbox One.” They also said that they do have plans for further software leaks in the future, though didn’t give specifics on the matter.

[Source]

Have you ever wanted to create your own wacky Saints Row missions and show Volition how it was done? Good news – the developer has plans to release the full SDK for Saints Row IV with the first editor allowing you to create your own weapons. Head here for Release A.

The first release will come with all the tools and templates, along with tutorials, for creating weapons. To make the choice all the more diverse, weapons from Saints Row The Third have also been included. Unfortunately, these created weapons and editing tools will only be available to PC gamers. There will also be a skin for a weapon from the upcoming Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, namely the Damned Impaler.

It remains to be seen what other tools Volition will release but it certainly makes the wait for new official Saints Row content easier. Have you started creating your own weapons yet? Let us know below.

You may not know it but as the next generation of consoles really gets rolling, middleware companies like Graphine Software and their products like Granite SDK are becoming all the more visible. Granite helps in compressing HD textures while still maintaining strong details, which will become all the more useful in PS4 and Xbox One game development.

It’s application with DirectX 11.2+ could give it an edge on the Xbox One and PC though. GamingBolt spoke to Graphine CEO Aljosha Demeulemeester to find out what Granite could potentially offer when used together with the API.

“The Granite SDK supports both software and hardware virtual texturing. The latter is also called ‘Tiled Resources’ in DX 11.2 or Partially Resident Textures in OpenGL. The benefit with hardware virtual texturing is that the hardware now takes care of filtering across tile borders as well as fetching the correct pixel from the cache.

“This makes the shaders less complex and faster to execute. Another big advantage is that you don’t need to add pixel borders to your tiles so that the memory usage can be reduced. The Granite SDK will automatically switch to hardware virtual texturing if it is available on your system, or it will fall back to software virtual texturing if it’s not.”

It’s interesting to note that DirectX 12, at the moment, sounds very similar to AMD’s own low level API, Mantle, and as such the differences are not very clear at the moment. Since DirectX 12 will allow coding which will be more closer to the metal, it will no doubt have a positive advantage when used with Graphine’s Granite SDK. The SDK has been used in Dragon Commander which bought a reduction of texture memory by 82% on the GPU side, and since DX12 will allow for a more direct access compared to the previous iterations, it will be interesting to see how Granite will evolve when DirectX 12 launches late next year.

Update: We were able to get more on clarification about DirectX 12’s integration with Granite SDK. You can check it out here.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

This has changed today as Microsoft has announced the release of 22 code samples for the Kinect. These codes finally let programmers now how to track faces, interpret gestures, determine colours and much more. It’s currently available now as an open source download on Codeplex.

This move was made in keeping with helping developers to further improve the software and come up with solutions that Microsoft never dreamed of. The blog itself is new, so keep checking back for new code samples as the Kinect code changes, according to Microsoft spokesman Ben Lower.

What are your thoughts on this? Yay or nay for future Kinect projects?

Source: BBC

It’s a bit pricey in India due to customs and other charges and will set you back by Rs. 19,990. The Xbox 360 version is comparatively cheaper but you cannot develop new apps for it using the official SDK.

“The incredible amount of innovation on Kinect for Xbox 360 this past year shows the potential for Kinect as a platform for developers and businesses to experiment, explore and create new offerings. Furthermore, this is just the beginning,” said Anshu Mor, Business Group Lead – Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft.

“This proliferation of great new content for Kinect, which we call the Kinect Effect, will expand even further with our commercial release of Kinect for Windows. We are excited around the new possibilities that Kinect will enable on the Windows platform, and the many different ways each Kinect for Windows based scenario could enrich lives and make using technology more natural for everyone.”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Microsoft’s confirmed that they’ll be officially releasing the Kinect for PC in March.

Initially, it would be released only for non-commercial usuage.

A commercial release would follow suit however, but they didn’t give out any dates yet.

The software is only compatible with Windows 7.

Microsoft games boss Don Mattrick made the announcement on Monday during a session with journalists on the firm’s Redmond campus.

Microsoft’s shipped more than 8 million Kinect units for Xbox 360 till now.

Thanks, VG247

The Trioviz for Games SDK allows 3D viewing on traditional 2D displays, and full 1080p support.

French outfit Darkworks has partnered with stereoscopic 3D specialists Trioviz SAS to create the technology, and they are currently looking at ways of synching it with the Playstyation 3.

“Launching with little support for console games, 3D TVs present a chicken-and-egg dilemma; consumers are waiting for a critical mass of 3D content to justify the purchase while developers are waiting for an installed base of 3D TVs that justifies the development investment,” said Jon Peddie, president of the Peddie Research Group.

“The Trioviz technology serves as an excellent bridging solution. Developers and publishers don’t have to invest in multiple 3D solutions for multiple platforms, and consumers can play the same 3D console title on their existing HDTVs and then on their new 3D TVs.”