Gadgetory

hey guys this is Austin and today I'm here with the top 5 coolest new gaming tech from GDC this year and number 5 we have the new steam machines and controller while it'll be just a little while before we see steam machines start popping up in the wild that was showing off the latest version of their controller at GDC this time they've dropped the touchscreen in favor of a d-pad and standard Xbox like buttons they work well enough although the position is a little weird due to the touch pads speaking of this is a very different controller than what you're probably used to built in or what are essentially 2.click pads that work similarly to a trackpad you just swipe instead of pushing a stake and for the most part it works that said it definitely takes some getting used to so there's a bit of feedback when you swipe on the pads almost a little bit like rolling a ball in an arcade cabinet while I will be playing titanfall with this steam controller any time soon you will be seeing steam machines before much longer the show valve had their own custom boxes that they sent to beta testers with a seriously overkill GTX 780 inside there was also a much more reasonable Intel iris Pro box from gigabyte which is much more like the steam machines that you'll be seeing at launch coming in at number 4 is the new DirectX 12 if you're not a game developer and the DirectX might not be the most exciting thing in the world but it's actually a fairly big deal so if you're not familiar DirectX is essentially the glue that goes between a game and your computer DirectX 11 is what most games on the PC and Xbox one are using these days however dx12 plans to crack open even more performance if you guys follow PC gaming you'll probably have heard of AMD's mantle which allows you to get extra performance in games like Battlefield 4 well DirectX 12 is very very similar to mantle except that it'll be working across both gaming pcs the Xbox one and even some windows phones and tablets it works by allowing developers to dig deeper into the hardware which is helpful especially in CPU bound games unfortunately it'll be just a little while before it comes out so games based on directx12 should start shipping late next year for both the PC as well as Xbox one well it might not be an enormous improvement I'll definitely take some free performance when I can get it at number three we have a pair of accessories the virtuix Omni and pre OVR we'll all the craziness around virtual reality at GDC this year there are also some very cool add-ons pretty OVR is essentially a ton of motion sensors you strap on to be able to use your entire body in a game the version I tried was a very early prototype with wires all over the place and using a couple wee controllers hacked together once you strap in you're all set and the demo I tried was full of smashing zombies all together it feels a little bit like the Wii as well as the Kinect kind of mixed into one so the motion tracking definitely wasn't perfect everyone at work it was actually pretty cool on the flip side we've got virtuix Omni the best way to describe it would be a stationary treadmill that translates your movements into the game put on the special low friction shoes and buckle yourself into the harness and you're ready to go they had a couple demos but the best one was with oculus and a gun accessory which makes you run on the omni to move in the game well I definitely wouldn't be playing fallout 3 on the Omni it's a very cool concept and if they're able to figure out a way to make it a little bit smaller so it doesn't take up half your room it could be very cool at number two we have the new oculus rift Developer Kit 2 with the big news that Facebook is bought oculus there's been a ton of internet uproar however that the topic for another video what is new is the latest developer kit at GDC based on the Crystal Cove prototype I did a video on back at CES this latest oculus pairs an OLED 1080p screen inside the headset to deliver the best VR experience yet built in or motion sensors like you would find it a phone to keep track of your movement and new our series of IR lights that are hidden all over the oculus that an included camera tracks you with so you can really move in full 3d space if you haven't tried Virtual Reality yet oculus really is the place to start the screen has gotten so much better as has the tracking and the feeling of being entirely immersed in the game is so awesome on top of that the new developer kit 2 is actually on sale now so you can pre-order it it should be shipping in the next couple months it runs you a fairly reasonable $350 finally at number one we have the sony project Morpheus for the ps4 this was easily the biggest draw of GDC as there are a ton of people who are really and see what so do you would do with first for reality though wanting to try it wrapped around the booth the second the show floor opened and for good reason one look at Morpheus and it looks like someone shopped the - Punk helmet up and it kind of works admittedly it's way bigger than the oculus or even the pictures show but once you put it on you'll find it's pretty impressive it's also featuring a 1080p screen which looks good although not quite up to the oculus but then again Morpheus is a very early prototype one of the big advantages of Sony is that they have all kinds of tech that they can pick up right off the shelf with a standard PlayStation camera the ps4 is able to track your motion thanks to the bright LEDs on the headset the light bar inside the ps4 controller can also be used depending on the game and they also had a demo with the PlayStation Move which works decently but is about the dirtiest thing I've ever seen right now Morpheus is connected via couple cables however Sony said they'd like to actually make it Wireless by the time it ships regardless it's awesome to see Sony jumping in big time and bringing virtual reality to a console so what do you guys think is there anything at GDC that you're excited for let me know in the comments below also huge shout-out to audible for making this video possible audible.com is a leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature including fiction nonfiction and periodicals as you guys know audible has been a longtime supporter of the channel helping me make videos like this possible and it's the thing I love using weather in the car going to sleep or flying all day to go to GDC for you guys audible is offering a free audiobook if you try them out and one great choice is a Storm of Swords by george RR martin to download a storm of swords or another audiobook for free just head over to audible.com slash Austin like I said audible has been a huge supporter of the channel so if you want to go get yourself a free audiobook and help support what I do definitely go to audible.com slash Austin anyway guys thank you so much for watching and I will catch you in the next one