It?s hard to believe I?m writing these words, but here goes! After 10 crazy and wonderful years, I?m handing off my current presidential duties at Epic, and transitioning into an advisory role as well as remaining on the Epic board of directors.
If you haven?t heard, I have a baby boy on the way. I?m fortunate that with Epic?s success and generosity, I can be a stay at home dad for a while. My wife Julianne and I are very happy in Raleigh, and other than cleaning up baby barf, I don?t have much planned. I might do some teaching, spend more time on creative writing, and maybe get more active with a few charities.
After dedicating a decade of my life to Epic, and with so many close friends here, it?s impossible to just walk away. I absolutely love this company. If you cut me, I think I probably bleed nanoblack and Imulsion. (Wow, just think about what mixing those would do?) Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney and other board members asked me to stay on the board, and I?m thrilled to do so as I?m truly excited about our future games and Unreal Engine 4.
As I mentioned above, I?ll continue to be available as a resource to Epic, to provide context or advice where I can. Whatever I can do to help in Epic?s success, I?m in! I?ve got great confidence in our executive team ? VP of Development Paul Meegan is new to our Raleigh HQ, but we?ve worked with him for years, and I can only contemplate this retirement knowing that he and VP of Operations John Farnsworth can manage development better than I ever did.
Our partners and customers can reach me anytime on my Epic email address, and I?ll still be posting the occasional foodie and gamer musings on @epicactual. As a member of the board, I?ll help keep the ship pointed directly towards Na Pali, and make sure that everything we do is Epic.
Posted by FlakDec 04, 2012Last Updated Dec 04, 2012
Sure, you've heard of a 20-sided die, but what about a 20-button mouse? Logitech's G600 MMO Gaming Mouse features a score of buttons that can be can programmed to work with popular games such as "Guild Wars 2" and "Star Wars: The Old Republic." In addition, the $79.99 mouse has switchable DPI and three onboard memory profiles. But are all those buttons handy or a handful?
Design
Click to EnlargeThe G600 is intimidating at first glance. Thanks to its deep, swooping vertical grooves and asymmetrical shape, the 4.6 x 2.9 x 1.6-inch, 3.98-ounce device looks more like the guidance system for an interstellar vehicle than a computer accessory.
Our ring, middle and index fingers fit easily into the G600's black matte plastic grooves while our palm rested comfortably on the mouse's base. The right side of the mouse sports a rubberized finish with a honeycomb pattern, ensuring our pinky had a firm grip. The left side of the G600 is higher than the right, making room for the 12 backlit buttons embedded in the glossy black plastic thumb panel. The top features a small black matte scroll wheel made of soft-touch plastic and a pair of buttons, one of which activates the mouse's alternative command functions.
A small gray G600 logo sits on the rear while a larger Logitech insignia resides on the bottom above the laser sensor. We're also fans of the 6.5-foot black braided fabric cord. It's more durable than a plastic cord and gives the mouse a touch of sophistication.
Buttons
Click to EnlargeThe G600 has a whopping 20 buttons that can be customized for your fragging, questing or fighting pleasure. Twelve of the buttons, numbered G9-G20, are located along the left of the mouse in a 4-by-3 grid. However, the buttons are small and lack the spacing of the Razer Naga's thumb panel. This led to us pressing the wrong button, which put us on the business end of a head or gut shot far too many times.
Two buttons rest below the clickable, tiltable scroll wheel. There are also three primary buttons cleverly hidden in the top panels of the mouse: The traditional left and right buttons are complemented by a third button that rests under your ring finger. All of the buttons and panels delivered strong, springy feedback. But if you feel like you can use a few more options, you can hit the G-Shift button below the scroll wheel, which activates the buttons' secondary functions.
Macros
Click to EnlargeSetting up macros and profiles can be incredibly simple or complex, according to your preferred level of customization. The mouse has three profiles where gamers can store all their lighting and button preferences. This really comes in handy when you're using the mouse with multiple PCs. However, it would have been nice if Logitech could have included the Logitech Gaming Software on the mouse, instead of making us download it from its site.
Once we downloaded Logitech's software, we were almost overwhelmed by the all the choices. Automatic Game Detection enables the mouse to use game profiles stored on the computer. Amazingly, the software already recognized 248 titles, including "Assassin's Creed," "Mass Effect" and the "Rainbow Six" series.
We chose the "Borderlands 2" profile and tweaked button commands to fit our gameplay, placing weapons, health and eagle vision commands among the top six buttons on the left of the mouse. Assigning macros was simple -- just drag and drop the command over to the corresponding button. When we were done, we saved and began gleefully blasting Bullymongs and Psychos. Gamers can also add custom commands by entering single or multiple keystrokes, depending on the desired action.
The G600 can also be used for more mundane productivity tasks with a few button changes. Logitech's software is configured to perform Windows commands such as Copy, Paste, Show Desktop and Close Window. There are also seven multimedia commands (Play/Pause, Stop, Previous Track, Next Track, Volume Up, Volume Down and Mute) that can be mapped to the button.
Features
Click to EnlargeWhen we plugged the Logitech G600 into an Alienware M17x R4, the thumb panel buttons immediately began to glow, rotating between deep greens, blues, reds and purples, similar to the M17x's customizable backlit keyboard. Our favorite feature of the Logitech software was the ability to customize the color of these buttons. The software only has two effects (Pulse and Cycle lighting), but you can create a wide variety of colors to give the G600 some flair. Better yet, you can assign colors to specific game profiles to give each title its own unique look.
The Logitech gaming software also let us toggle pointer settings including DPI (Dots Per Inch), Sensitivity Levels, Report Rate and acceleration speed.
Gameplay
Click to EnlargeAs we played "Borderlands 2" and "Guild Wars 2," the G600 skated as smoothly across our desk as Apolo Ohno. Switching DPI on the fly allowed us to kick things into overdrive, zipping our aiming reticle over the field to quickly lay down cover fire with the assault rifle. We ramped down dpi for more precision shots with our sniper rifle.
The top six buttons on the left side of mouse were easy to reach. Reaching the bottom six, however, was like trying to scratch a hard-to-reach itch. We compensated for this by mapping some our least-used functions to these buttons. We had a much easier time hitting all the buttons on the Razer Naga. We were able to play "Borderlands 2" for more than three hours without so much as a cramp.
Verdict
Click to EnlargeThe Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse crams a lot of power into a relatively small package. For $79.99, gamers get a highly customizable piece of hardware. Gamers can spend hours creating custom macro loadouts and color profiles. The adjustable DPI delivered speed and precision while the 20 buttons made saving the world a whole lot easier. We prefer the Razer Naga, which offers customizable side panels, larger, snappy buttons and unlimited profiles for the same price. Overall, the G600 is a very good choice for fans of MMO-style games such as "World of Warcraft" or "Star Wars: The Old Republic," but FPS fans might want something better suited to their play style.
Driverless vehicles expected to navigate intersection of safety, speedPublic release date: 4-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Nystrom tansy@vt.edu 540-231-4371 Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech study of autonomous vehicles at intersections wins recognition
How do driverless vehicles navigate through intersections? Faster and safer than if humans were in charge, according to researchers with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
Autonomous vehicles will turn themselves over to an automated intersection controller, which adjusts the trajectory and speed of the vehicles to prevent crashes, said Ismail Zohdy of Cairo, Egypt, a Ph.D. student in civil engineering at Virginia Tech, and Hesham Rakha, director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the transportation institute and professor of civil engineering at the university.
Their research on "Optimizing Driverless Vehicles at Intersections," presented at the Intelligent Transportation Society World Congress in Vienna, won the Best Scientific Paper Award for North America. ITS also stands for intelligent transportation systems.
"The paper develops a step-by-step procedure, or algorithm, for managing driverless vehicles through intersections," said Zohdy. "The proposed system considers the vehicles' location, speed, and acceleration plus the surrounding environment, such as weather and intersection characteristics."
"The proposed intersection controller, which allows vehicles to keep moving, reduces the delay for each vehicle compared to traditional intersection control," said Rakha. "Keeping vehicles moving is also more fuel efficient and reduces emissions."
But, with driver behavior considered to be the leading cause of more than 90 percent of accidents, safety is the primary motivation for driverless vehicles.
"Somewhere in the future, you will not be driving your car anymore; you will be driven by your car," said Zohdy. "A driverless vehicle can much more accurately judge distances and velocities, and react instantly to situations that could cause an accident due to a delayed human reaction."
"We are not talking about the distant future," said Rakha. A May 5, 2011, article in the New York Times reported that after the successful test of the Google driverless vehicle, Nevada passed a law that could let self-driving cars on the road as soon as March 1, 2012. This provided the motivation for Zohdy's work on developing innovative optimization algorithms for controlling such vehicles, and the Intelligent Transportation Society's interest.
"Intelligent transportation systems are an interaction of many complex entities that communicate with each other, such as vehicles, traffic signals, and advisory signs. Driverless vehicles would be capable of interacting with these other entities," said Zohdy.
"Many such intelligent systems already exist, such as dynamic routing and congestion management, and intelligent traffic control," said Rakha. "Autonomous vehicles are inspired by the research done on robotic control."
In Zohdy and Rakha's research, the intersection controller governs the vehicles within 200 meters from the intersection. The vehicles report their physical characteristics, such as power, mass, speed, location, and acceleration.
"The aim of giving complete authority to the controller is to overcome any selfish behavior by an autonomous vehicle and benefit all vehicles in the intersection zone," said Zohdy. "The controller determines the optimum speed and acceleration at each time step for every vehicle within the intersection zone by processing the input data through a real-time simulator/tool."
The research was done based on a four-way intersection with one vehicle entering from each direction and moving straight through. It has since been expanded and tested on more congested intersections involving not fully deployed systems and comparing this type of control to traffic signal and roundabout control.
"We were testing it if only 10 percent of the vehicles were automated and the other 90 percent were regular vehicles with driver control. We varied the level of automation from 10 to 100 percent at 10 percent increments," said Rakha. This effort has resulted in two papers that will be presented that the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in January 2013.
Zohdy and Rakha will also be testing their system on a roundabout on the Virginia Tech campus as part of the Connected Vehicle/Infrastructure University Transportation Center.
###
Founded in 1991 as a Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Department of Transportation and now operating as a nonprofit organization, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is the leading advocate for deployment of technologies that improve the safety, security and efficiency of the nation's surface transportation system.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Driverless vehicles expected to navigate intersection of safety, speedPublic release date: 4-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Nystrom tansy@vt.edu 540-231-4371 Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech study of autonomous vehicles at intersections wins recognition
How do driverless vehicles navigate through intersections? Faster and safer than if humans were in charge, according to researchers with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
Autonomous vehicles will turn themselves over to an automated intersection controller, which adjusts the trajectory and speed of the vehicles to prevent crashes, said Ismail Zohdy of Cairo, Egypt, a Ph.D. student in civil engineering at Virginia Tech, and Hesham Rakha, director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the transportation institute and professor of civil engineering at the university.
Their research on "Optimizing Driverless Vehicles at Intersections," presented at the Intelligent Transportation Society World Congress in Vienna, won the Best Scientific Paper Award for North America. ITS also stands for intelligent transportation systems.
"The paper develops a step-by-step procedure, or algorithm, for managing driverless vehicles through intersections," said Zohdy. "The proposed system considers the vehicles' location, speed, and acceleration plus the surrounding environment, such as weather and intersection characteristics."
"The proposed intersection controller, which allows vehicles to keep moving, reduces the delay for each vehicle compared to traditional intersection control," said Rakha. "Keeping vehicles moving is also more fuel efficient and reduces emissions."
But, with driver behavior considered to be the leading cause of more than 90 percent of accidents, safety is the primary motivation for driverless vehicles.
"Somewhere in the future, you will not be driving your car anymore; you will be driven by your car," said Zohdy. "A driverless vehicle can much more accurately judge distances and velocities, and react instantly to situations that could cause an accident due to a delayed human reaction."
"We are not talking about the distant future," said Rakha. A May 5, 2011, article in the New York Times reported that after the successful test of the Google driverless vehicle, Nevada passed a law that could let self-driving cars on the road as soon as March 1, 2012. This provided the motivation for Zohdy's work on developing innovative optimization algorithms for controlling such vehicles, and the Intelligent Transportation Society's interest.
"Intelligent transportation systems are an interaction of many complex entities that communicate with each other, such as vehicles, traffic signals, and advisory signs. Driverless vehicles would be capable of interacting with these other entities," said Zohdy.
"Many such intelligent systems already exist, such as dynamic routing and congestion management, and intelligent traffic control," said Rakha. "Autonomous vehicles are inspired by the research done on robotic control."
In Zohdy and Rakha's research, the intersection controller governs the vehicles within 200 meters from the intersection. The vehicles report their physical characteristics, such as power, mass, speed, location, and acceleration.
"The aim of giving complete authority to the controller is to overcome any selfish behavior by an autonomous vehicle and benefit all vehicles in the intersection zone," said Zohdy. "The controller determines the optimum speed and acceleration at each time step for every vehicle within the intersection zone by processing the input data through a real-time simulator/tool."
The research was done based on a four-way intersection with one vehicle entering from each direction and moving straight through. It has since been expanded and tested on more congested intersections involving not fully deployed systems and comparing this type of control to traffic signal and roundabout control.
"We were testing it if only 10 percent of the vehicles were automated and the other 90 percent were regular vehicles with driver control. We varied the level of automation from 10 to 100 percent at 10 percent increments," said Rakha. This effort has resulted in two papers that will be presented that the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in January 2013.
Zohdy and Rakha will also be testing their system on a roundabout on the Virginia Tech campus as part of the Connected Vehicle/Infrastructure University Transportation Center.
###
Founded in 1991 as a Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Department of Transportation and now operating as a nonprofit organization, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is the leading advocate for deployment of technologies that improve the safety, security and efficiency of the nation's surface transportation system.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
It?s hard to believe I?m writing these words, but here goes! After 10 crazy and wonderful years, I?m handing off my current presidential duties at Epic, and transitioning into an advisory role as well as remaining on the Epic board of directors.
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Public release date: 4-Dec-2012
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