Nvidia’s 2-Day Montreal Event (Updated)

Nvidia invited the media to Montreal for a two-day event to showcase their program, The Way It’s Meant to be Played (TWIIMTBP).  A live feed was available yesterday at 10am EDT 7am PDT and it will also be available for the same time today.

For the Day 1 event, Nvidia started out with Nvidia’s Vice President Tony Tomasi presenting the new initiatives in GameWorks.  It is exciting to watch what was concept less than 2 years ago at Nvidia’s GTC 2012, come to life in real time for playing PC games.  For example, fire rendering as a technique used in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film was demonstrated as possible only 3 years ago, is now being used in PC gaming and in real time as FlameWorks.

Tony Tamasi demonstrated new software tools and technologies coming soon to the Nvidia’s GameWorks development platform including Flex PhysX which allows for far more physics interactions than now.  Mr. Tomasi pointed out that Nvidia’s GameWorks employs 300 software and visual effects engineers, plus a huge library and amazing software tools are made available to game developers.

This event is being held in Montreal as both Warner Brothers (Batman: Arkham Origins) and Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag) have large development studios there.  Ubisoft and Warner Brothers each made presentations at the event and they stressed the new visuals that are going to be seen in their shortly upcoming next generation games.  After the presentation, the media was invited to visit the Ubisoft studios.

For full details and a recap of the event, follow all the links from Nvidia’s Blog.

2013 Holiday Gaming Bundle

Also announced at the Day 1 event is Nvidia’s new holiday gaming bundle.  Gamers who buy a GeForce GTX 660 or GTX 760 will receive a free copy of Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.   Gamers who purchase a GeForce GTX 770, GTX 780, or Titan, and will also receive Batman: Arkham Origins.   In addition, GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 760 buyers will also receive a voucher for $50 off Nvidia’s Shield portable gaming console, while GeForce GTX 770, GTX 780, and Ttitan buyers will receive a voucher for $100 off Shield.  All of the details can be found in Nvidia’s blog.

A recap of event photos, videos, and a copy of yesterday’s presentations can also be found on Nvidia’s site.

Day 2

Friday, October 18, 2013 is day 2 of this TWIIMTBP event and it will again stream live beginning at 10AM EDT (7AM PT).  There are rumors of a major announcement coming today as Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang (Jensen) will be the keynote speaker.

To stay up with the very latest news as it happens in real time, make sure to follow these events on ABT forum and we will also update you here on the events of Day 2 at Nvidia’s TWIIMTBP event in Montreal.

Day 2 Updated

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen (Jen-Hsun Huang) was the keynote speaker.  There were three major announcements: Game streaming, Gsync, and a new GeForce GPU.

Game Streaming

Jensen outlined the Nvidia’s vision for a connected gaming ecosystem, and at the center of this is a new streaming technology standard called Nvidia GameStream, due to launch on October 28th.  GameStream combines the high performance of GeForce GTX graphics cards with advanced Wi-Fi to deliver low latency portable gaming.

GameStream effectively puts the desktop GeForce GTX gaming experience into mobile gaming.  It launches with support for over 50 top PC games. Initially, Nvidia GameStream will be available for local PC Streaming, however, longer-term it will also support GRID cloud gaming services.

As part of this connected gaming ecosystem, a brand new feature called “Shield Console Mode”, transforms the Shield into a full gaming and entertainment console for the big-screen TV allowing you to play your PC games with GameStream. In addition to streaming PC games, Console Mode enables gamers to play Android games, browse the web, and watch movies in 1080p HD.

G-SYNC

Jensen detailed Nvidia’s frustration with the fundamental issues with display technology not synching up properly with the graphics card.  Screen tearing, input lag, and stutter are a part of every gamers experience.  One must always compromise with the settings – without Vsync, there is tearing; and with, there is input lag and stutter.

Nvidia’s solution is G-SYNC, which eliminates screen tearing, VSync input lag, and stutter.  By building a G-SYNC module into monitors, it allows G-SYNC to synchronize the monitor to the output of the GPU, instead of the GPU to the monitor.  By using this G-SYNC adapted display with a GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost or better GPU, age-old frustrations will be eliminated.

 The new GTX 780 Ti

Jensen’s final announcement was a new GTX 780 Ti.  It appears to share the same cooler with the Titan.  No details were given although we are to expect it for sale in mid-November.  We will update our readers as more information becomes known.

To stay up with the very latest tech news as it happens, make sure to follow us on ABT forum.  Next up, you can expect an review of Genius KB-265 lighted gaming keyboard.  We’ll follow that with a surprise driver performance analysis, a EVGA GTX 780 product review, and a VisionTek R9 280X evaluation.