Alienware’s 34-inch curved monitor supports NVIDIA G-Sync

Gaming monitors are becoming more specialized and less useful for regular movies thanks to widescreen and often curved designs. Alienware is a good example with its latest 34-inch displays, the curved AW3418DW and flat AW3418HW (or the “A W 3 4 1 8 H W,” as some genius Alienware typography designer wrote it). Both use 21:9 widescreen designs, with 3,440 x 1,440 and 2,560 x 1,080 resolutions, respectively.

The screens have tiny bezels, support NVIDIA’s G-Sync for smoother graphics, and feature 4 millisecond refresh rates for maximum gaming snap. The curved model with a (1900 Radius) supports a 120Hz refresh rate, while the lower res model goes up to 160Hz. Both of those rates are overclocked, because apparently you can overclock monitors now. Each also feature LEDs on the back that glow to match your gaming system tastes.

The high-res curved model is launching today for $1,499, while the flat, 2,560 x 1,080 model will arrived in “late fall” at $1,199. Not cheap, but perhaps worth the edge.

Follow all the latest news from IFA 2017 here!

Acer’s Switch 7 hybrid tablet has dedicated graphics without a fan

Acer’s Switch 5 tablet wasn’t something to write home about. The kickstand was clever, but what else was there to lure you away from, say, a Surface Pro? The company has a better answer today. It’s launching a slew of new PCs at IFA 2017, and the headliner has to be the Switch 7 Black Edition. While the 13.5-inch slate is larger and heavier (2.5lbs) than the Switch 5, it’s also the first fanless 2-in-1 to pack dedicated graphics — in this case NVIDIA’s GeForce MX150. You probably won’t be playing Destiny 2 on this machine, but the extra visual oomph should help with video streaming and creative apps while giving you enough peace and quiet to concentrate.

Other tricks? The 2,256 x 1,504 display takes advantage of an included Wacom-powered (and now battery-free) stylus, and an 8th-generation Core i7 should give it some brawn in general-purpose tasks. A fingerprint reader along the bezel should help with quick sign-ins as well. The Switch 7 Black Edition should hit stores in December for $1,699 US and €1,999 in Europe. That’s pricey by most standards, but it could be justifiable if you want a tablet that can handle Photoshop as well as some nicer laptops.

This isn’t Acer’s only portable PC on deck. It’s also launching the Nitro 5 Spin, a 15.6-inch convertible laptop whose GeForce GTX 1050 makes it well-suited to “casual gaming.” Those who don’t need gaming-grade hardware can spring for the Spin 5 in 13- and 15-inch flavors (though the larger model has a GTX 1050 option). And if you just want an ultraportable laptop, the Swift 5’s combination of 8th-gen Core chips and a sub-2.2lb weight might do the trick. The regular Spin 5 arrives first, shipping in September with a $799/€899 starting price, but it’ll be quickly followed up in October by the Nitro 5 Spin ($999/€1,199). The Swift 5 arrives last, hitting shelves in December for $999 in the US and €1,099 in Europe.

Follow all the latest news from IFA 2017 here!

Source: Acer

Xiaomi to Debut Mi Mix 2 Smartphone the Day Before Apple’s ‘iPhone 8’ Launch Event

Xiaomi has announced that it will unveil the second-generation version of its nearly bezel-free Mi MIX smartphone on September 11, just one day ahead of Apple’s expected “iPhone 8” launch event in California.

The Chinese mobile maker confirmed rumors of its event in Beijing next month by sharing a launch poster over microblogging site Weibo featuring a profile of the “full screen” Mi Mix 2 and the accompanying phrase “Evolution, approach to final perfection”.

Xiaomi turned heads in October of last year when it unexpectedly announced the 6.4-inch Mi Mix, which it called “the world’s first edgeless display” smartphone, just as iPhone 8 rumors were beginning to gain steam. The device was pooh-poohed by some as “vaporware” when Xiaomi described it as a “concept phone”, but the company began shipping the Mi Mix in December in limited quantities and received some respectable reviews.

Once again, French designer Philippe Starck is said to have worked with Xiaomi on the Mi Mix 2, which is expected to feature an even higher screen-to-body ratio than its predecessor, but will adopt a slightly smaller 6-inch display with an 18:9 (2:1) aspect ratio.

Speculation suggests Xiaomi may choose a metal rather than ceramic chassis to make the handset easier to mass produce this time. Internally, the Mi Mix 2 is thought to include a Snapdragon 835 chipset, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 3,400mAh battery. Prices are expected to start at around $600, with a higher tier model featuring 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for around $750.

Other China-based smartphone vendors rumored to be launching all-screen handsets to rival Apple’s so-called “iPhone 8” include Huawei and Gionee, with others expected to follow suit. Apple will reveal its first iPhone with edge-to-edge OLED display alongside upgraded versions of its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus next month.

Tag: Xiaomi
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Logitech’s new Lightspeed gaming peripherals trick bosses with no-frills designs

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for peripherals that blend into the office environment but provide the performance PC gamers demand, then Logitech’s new mouse and keyboard are just for you.

On Tuesday, August 29, Logitech introduced a pair of new wireless peripherals under its Logitech G gaming brand: the G603 mouse and the G613 mechanical keyboard. Both are based on the company’s proprietary Lightspeed wireless technology, which promises fast 2.4GHz connections so that your key commands and mouse movements are immediately received by the parent PC as if the devices were wired. They’re also surprisingly ideal for the work space.

Logitech G G603 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

With the G603 mouse, Logitech is introducing a brand-new optical sensor called Hero, short for High Efficiency Rating Optical. It was built from scratch for power efficiency and performance, providing up to 10 times more power efficiency than Logitech’s 3366 mouse sensor, and up to four times better performance than its M010 and M000 sensors. Logitech essentially created a new bracket with Hero so that the parent mouse isn’t chewing through batteries while it performs like a wired peripheral.

For the curious, the sensor aspect includes an infrared LED that shines through an elbow-shaped illumination lens. This lens bounces the infrared light off the desktop surface, and into a specially shaped “capturing” imaging lens. This lens then reverses the beam and shoots it into the actual Hero optical sensor, which consists of hardware for turning the captured light into a pixel-based snapshot. This snapshot is then sent to the mouse processor.

Of course, there’s a lot more going on with the Hero sensor than what’s described in our simplification. But one of the Hero sensor’s highlights is that it relies on unlocked firmware. Typically, mouse firmware is locked, making changes to the tracking algorithms and the sensor’s communication process with the mouse processor impossible. But with Hero, Logitech can update the firmware with fixes, optimizations, and “use-case” changes.

But the Hero sensor is just one piece of the G603 puzzle. As previously stated, the peripheral relies on Logitech’s Lightspeed wireless technology, promising wired-like connectivity. Because of the high-performance low-power Hero sensor, Logitech says the mouse already increases battery life. But the company introduced Lightspeed High and Low modes because office work just doesn’t require high precision input. The mouse can even connect via Bluetooth if you don’t want to deal with the miniature USB-based Wi-Fi dongle.

According to Logitech, the Lightspeed High Mode has a high, one-millisecond report rate, which is what you want for PC gaming. The Low Mode has an eight-millisecond report rate while Bluetooth ranges between 7.5 and 11.25 milliseconds. A report rate is how many times the mouse updates the parent PC with its position, and a faster report rate requires more energy. That said, the High Mode promises four to six months of battery time, and the Low Mode (along with Bluetooth) promises 18 months.

The mouse relies on two AA batteries, but if you’re using Lightspeed Low Power or Bluetooth modes, you can use only one battery. These can be added and replaced by simply removing the top plate comprising of the palm rest and mouse buttons, which appear to be held into place with magnets. Along with the two battery beds, you’ll also see a small compartment for storing the mini USB dongle.

The mouse itself doesn’t look like a gaming peripheral. It’s simple in design and built for right-handed users. It consists of the right and left click buttons, a clickable mouse wheel, a button for adjusting the sensitivity, and two thumb buttons mounted on the left side. All buttons can be configured through Logitech’s free desktop software.

What you won’t find on the G603 mouse is a USB port. Logitech is extremely confident in the peripheral’s low power consumption, and its high performance stemming from the Hero sensor and the Lightspeed wireless technology. But that low power draw is also due to the absence of any kind of illumination on the device, which is typically a feature on many PC gaming peripherals.

That said, there’s no visual flare with the G603. It blends into the office environment so the boss can give you props for purchasing productive hardware when in secret you’ve bought something built for PC gaming. The mouse comes with on-board storage, too, for using the peripheral on PCs without Logitech’s software installed, such as an office computer. Otherwise, Logitech’s gaming software will automatically apply settings for a particular game, or you can create profiles and have them automatically load when a specific PC game launches.

Overall, the mouse feels extremely responsive despite its wireless connection. It’s comfortable to use but feels slightly more bulky than other gaming mice. There are no rubberized grips, but they may not be necessary given the bulk of the device and its office-focused design. A switch is provided on the bottom for moving between High and Low Lightspeed modes, or turning wireless off altogether. Another button is available for syncing the device via Bluetooth.

Finally, note that the new G603 mouse is not compatible with Logitech’s new Powerplay wireless charging system. That’s because there’s no rechargeable battery in the G603, and no compartment for the Powercore module.

Here are the specifications:

Processor:
32-bit ARM-based chip
Sensitivity:
200 to 12,000 DPI
Maximum acceleration:
Around 40G
Maximum speed:
Around 400 inches per second
Switch durability:
20 million clicks
Dimensions:
4.88 (H) x 2.68 x 1.69 (D) inches
Weight:
3.14 ounces (mouse only)
3.96 ounces (1x AA battery)
4.79 ounces (2x AA battery)
Includes:
2x AA batteries
Mini USB dongle
USB dongle extender
Shipping:
September 2017
Price:
$70

Logitech G G613 Lightspeed Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

As for the G613 mechanical keyboard, it’s a no-frills solution as well. It doesn’t look like the standard PC gaming keyboard, and there’s no backlighting on purpose, again to conserve battery power. It relies on two AA batteries as well, but there are no High and Low power modes as seen with the G603 mouse. Instead, the keyboard provides a single Lightspeed wireless connection promising a one-millisecond report rate.

The drawback in using Lightspeed connectivity is that it requires a mini USB dongle. If you’re already using the G603 mouse, the keyboard can’t use the dongle already installed in the parent PC. Instead, if you want to use both the mouse and keyboard, you’ll need both mini USB dongles plugged into the parent PC. The keyboard also connects using Bluetooth if you don’t have a free port.

But what’s cool about the G613 is that it includes a multi-mode feature. For instance, you can connect the peripheral to the host PC via the Lightspeed mini USB dongle, and connect to another device using Bluetooth. To tell the keyboard which device you are currently accessing, simply hit the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth button located above the Print Screen/Scroll Lock/Pause buttons. The keyboard can remember up to 10 Bluetooth devices.

According to Logitech, the keyboard promises up to 1.5 years of battery life “with normal gaming usage” versus only 40 hours if the peripheral included backlighting. Meanwhile, the Romer-G switches mounted under the caps promise a durability of 70 million key presses. These are Logitech’s proprietary mechanical switches installed in a multitude of its gaming mechanical keyboards, providing an actuation distance of 1.5mm, and an actuation force of 45g. The result is a quick acknowledgement of your key press, a quick processing of that request, and an extremely fast transport of that key press to the parent PC.

On an audible level, Logitech’s Romer-G switches have a muffled but clicky sound, and the keys themselves don’t require much pressure to actuate your commands. But what we noticed is that in a quiet environment, something inside provides a constant metallic echo/hum while we type, as if someone is banging a hollow aluminum flagpole way out in the distance. It’s not loud at all, but distractably noticeable nonetheless, and a sound not usually present in mechanical keyboards built for PC gaming.

Again, the G613 is a no-frills keyboard visually, but it does provide handy media control buttons along with volume controls. There’s no USB port for wired connectivity, and the wrist rest cannot be removed. But it’s still a PC gaming keyboard, thus it provides six “G” keys to the far left that you can program using Logitech’s free desktop software. These keys can be programmed with individual assignments, mouse inputs, multi-key macros, and so on.

Here are the specifications:

Romer G switch durability:
70 million key presses
Actuation distance:
1.5mm
Actuation force:
45g
Total travel distance:
3.0mm
Dimensions:
18.81 (L) x 8.50 x 1.32 (H) inches
Weight:
3.10 pounds without battery
Includes:
2x AA batteries
Mini USB dongle
USB dongle extender
Tablet/smartphone stand
Availability:
September 2017
Price:
$150

Logitech G Logitech G840 XL Gaming Mouse Pad

Finally, you can’t complete a new mouse/keyboard duo without a new mouse pad. The G840 XL is huge, measuring 35.43 inches wide, 15.74 inches deep, and 0.12 inches thick (3mm). Designed to spread across your entire desk, it provides a cleaner, more uniform look while you use the associated G603 and G613 products. A rubber base keeps it stationary on the desktop while a cloth-based surface enables precise optical mouse tracking, and optimal friction. It’s optimized for Logitech’s new Hero sensor along with Logitech G sensors installed in the company’s other gaming mice.

The G840 XL will ship in September for $50.

Logitech’s latest no-lag wireless gear includes a mechanical keyboard

Logitech’s ultra-low lag wireless peripherals are quickly expanding beyond mice. It’s introducing two more peripherals that take advantage of its Lightspeed tech, including its first keyboard. The G613 (above) has the mechanical switches that many gamers prefer in a keyboard while offering the virtually undetectable 1ms latency inherent to Logitech’s. If you combine this with a Lightspeed-equipped mouse, you’re theoretically eliminating two wires without losing your edge in twitch-happy games. Thankfully, there’s a new mouse on offer as well.

On the surface, the G603 mouse looks like a lower-cost alternative to the G703 and G903 with a relatively plain five-button layout. However, it’s the first Logitech gaming mouse to include the new High Efficiency Rated Optical (HERO) sensor. The upgrade promises an extremely high 12,000DPI sensitivity (with no acceleration or smoothing) while offering just shy of 21 days of battery life. So long as you have even a modest charge, you shouldn’t have to worry about your mouse conking out in the middle of a gaming marathon.

The G613 won’t be a trivial expense when it ships before the end of August for $150/£130. However, the G603 is definitely a bargain over its pricier counterparts at $70/£70. In other words, Logitech just lowered the price of entry for Lightspeed — you don’t need to drop $100-plus to see if the concept works as well as promised.

Source: Logitech (1), (2)

CeX hack puts as many as 2 million accounts at risk

Second-hand gaming retailer CeX has been left red-faced after being forced to admit that an “online security breach” may have put as many as two million customer accounts at risk. In an email to customers, the company said that personal information — including first names, surnames, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers — were stolen. Financial information was also pilfered “in a small number of instances”, but CeX confirmed that the encrypted data included only expired credit and debit cards up to 2009.

It appears that the attack is only limited to the CeX website, which stopped taking financial data eight years agp. In-store personal membership information isn’t thought to be affected, but the company has warned all of its customers to change their store passwords, as well as any other accounts that share the same login details.

“We take the protection of customer data extremely seriously and have always had a robust security programme in place which we continually reviewed and updated to meet the latest online threats,” it said in a statement. “Clearly however, additional measures were required to prevent such a sophisticated breach occurring and we have therefore employed a cyber security specialist to review our processes. Together we have implemented additional advanced measures of security to prevent this from happening again.”

CeX joins TalkTalk, Three and the UK parliament in admitting that it has been the target of a large-scale online attack. While you may have received the email from the company, it doesn’t mean that your details have necessarily been stolen. CeX has said it has contacted all of its website customers as a precautionary measure.

Via: The Sixth Axis

Source: CeX

Western Digital Debuts New ‘My Cloud Home’ Personal Cloud Storage Solution

Western Digital today announced the launch of its latest personal cloud storage solution, the My Cloud Home. My Cloud Home is designed to make it easy for customers to set up and use a personal cloud storage solution to meet all of their storage needs.

The company is aiming to make My Cloud Home the one stop storage destination for all of a person’s devices, aggregating photos, videos, and files from smartphones, computers, USB devices, social media accounts, and more.

As a connected cloud solution, the My Cloud Home is available on any tablet, smartphone, or computer with an Internet connection using the My Cloud Home mobile app, and because it’s a local storage product, there is no subscription fee.

Consumers seek a way to effortlessly consolidate their growing mounds of photos, videos and other files with a solution flexible enough to accommodate content from all of today’s devices – from smart phones to computers and from drones to social sites,” said Jim Welsh, senior vice president, Client Solutions, Western Digital. “Enabling consumers and professionals to master their digital lives from anywhere in the world is a priority for Western Digital.”

My Cloud Home can be set up to automatically copy content from smartphones and computers to provide a hassle-free backup solution, and it connects to social networks and other cloud services like Dropbox. TV Shows, movies, and other content stored in My Cloud Home can be played in Plex through an integration with the Plex app.

Western Digital is offering the My Cloud Home in 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8TB configurations. There’s also a My Cloud Home Duo with 4, 12, and 16TB of storage space, designed with RAID 1 functionality to duplicate content onto a second drive for extra security should one drive fail.

The My Cloud Home next to the My Cloud Home Duo
The My Cloud Home and My Cloud Home Duo are available today from Best Buy and other major retailers. Pricing starts at $159.99 for the 2TB solution. 3TB is available for $179.99, 4TB for $199.99, 6TB for $259.99, and 8TB for $319.99.

The My Cloud Home Duo is priced at $309.99 for 4TB, $399.99 for 8TB, $549.99 for 12TB, and $699.99 for 16TB.

Tag: Western Digital
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Uber has its new CEO: Dara Khosrowshahi

Uber’s board of directors (which still includes the previous CEO Travis Kalanick) has made its pick for a new leader official, selecting Dara Khosrowshahi. The former CEO of Expedia, he was reportedly selected over former HP CEO Meg Whitman and former GE CEO Jeff Immelt, who withdrew his name from consideration a few days ago. In a statement, the Uber board said “We’re really fortunate to gain a leader with Dara’s experience, talent and vision. The Board and the Executive Leadership Team are confident that Dara is the best person to lead Uber into the future building world-class products, transforming cities, and adding value to the lives of drivers and riders around the world while continuously improving our culture and making Uber the best place to work.”

Uber has had a well-documented run of bad behavior, resulting in lawsuits and investigations coming its way from regulators, former employees, drivers and passengers. The new CEO has a lot to deal with immediately following Kalanick’s June resignation, and he may lay out some of his plans in a meeting with employees tomorrow.

Excited to welcome Dara Khosrowshahi as our new CEO—looking forward to the road ahead, @dkhos. https://t.co/VjVNqLHuhy

— Uber (@Uber) August 30, 2017

Source: Uber

There’s a VR game to go with Netflix’s new ‘Voltron’ series

If you thought Netflix’s Voltron Legendary Defender was a great new take on the old series, there’s more where it came from — not in animation, but in VR. On September 26th, fans can play the virtual reality game DreamWorks Voltron VR Chronicles on PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive for $15.

Players embody a Paladin of Voltron and fight alongside the series’ five man band in the struggle against series villain Zarkon. While it’s not too clear what you’ll do in Voltron VR Chronicles (aside from “solving puzzles and conquering challenges”), but the cel-shaded animation looks straight from the show.

Players who pre-order the game on the PlayStation Store get 20 percent off, though its listing notes it will be released on December 31st, 2017, contradicting the press release’s assertion that the game will be released across all platforms on September 26th. If console VR players get stuck waiting longer than Oculus or Vive owners, at least they can take comfort that the show’s fourth season will air on October 13th on Netflix.

Can you blame a bad game on a shoddy engine? Developers say, no way!

The next time you think to blame a game’s engine for its woes, hold up. There’s more to the story.

Imagine a jigsaw puzzle. Now, imagine that same puzzle with each piece made by a different person, from a different substance, with different tools. Some pieces are whittled from wood, others gnawed from human bone, and some socket together like Lego. It’s a weird puzzle, but somehow — it works.

That’s game development in a nutshell.

Even the simplest games on the market likely harnessed the creative output of a few thousand individuals, each one with their own weird piece of the puzzle. Fitting it all together requires a lot of specialized tools, and none is quite so contentious as the humble and oft-maligned game engine. Steam communities and comment boards are filled with complaints about Unity and other game engines like Unreal, Frostbite, and id Tech. Such critics often claim certain engines have a “look” which spoils the gameplay experience, or that certain engines are incapable of making good games.

That, however, simplifies the truth about game engines. To dispel the myths surrounding game engines — what they are, what they aren’t, and how developers really use them to make the games you play — we sat down with developers from Motiga (Gigantic) and Guerrilla Games (Horizon: Zero Dawn) to discuss the dark alchemy of game development.

What engines are, and aren’t

It seems the more we love video games, the more apt we are to slag them on Twitter for failing to live up to our lofty expectations. When we play games we don’t like, we blame developers, publishers, even technology.

A game engine is a tool, like a Swiss Army Knife, to create the game you want.

Game engines are frequently invoked as a slur against games we, or the collective internet, have decided not to like. Gameplay isn’t your cup of tea? Well, that’s probably because Unity is a garbage game engine for garbage people! — or so Twitter would have you believe.

In truth, a game engine is only a part of the effort made towards creating a finalized, playable experience. “A game engine is a set of technologies that allow you to make a game. It not only takes care of drawing the screen, animating the graphics, and playing sound, but also streaming the data off the disc or storage drive,” said Guerrilla Games’ tech director, Michiel van der Leeuw, told Digital Trends. “What people often also consider to be ‘the game engine’, but is really quite separate, is the toolset that comes with the engine to make the game content.”

Many game engines have a pre-made toolset, as is true of Unreal or Unity. These broadly available engines are sold to developers who want to build a game using commonly known software. However, some games have a custom-built game engine, like the one Guerrilla Games used to create Horizon: Zero Dawn.

“A retail game engine that is developed by an external company usually has a generic set of features that can be utilized in many different ways […] It’s a tool, like a Swiss Army Knife, to create the game you want,” said Brad Pendleton, lead engineer on Motiga’s engine team.

It is true that each game engine has its own set of features, and in some cases, those features may be better suited for some tasks than others. Yet the creative potential offered by even the most basic game engine is immense. Unity has been used to create tightly focused games like Poly Bridge, yet is also behind large open-world games like Yonder: The Cloud Catcher. The result is a reflection of the people using the engine, not the engine itself.

All Unity games look the same!

Many players accuse specific game engines off a specific, canned visual style. Just look at Battlefield 1 and Star Wars: Battlefront. They tackle wildly different subject matter, but there’s a certain similarity in the way light plays off of the environment, and in the way the game feels — right? There is, but it’s not because they both use the Frostbite engine.

How a game looks and plays is largely a part of a developer’s unique style, their individual fingerprints, not which tools they used to create their games. Battlefield 1 and Star Wars: Battlefront have some strong stylistic similarities, but that’s because they’re made by the same developer, not because they share an engine.

Even the simplest game on your phone likely harnessed the creative output of a few thousand individuals.

Bioware’s use of Frostbite delivers the perfect counter example. The famous RPG developer used Frostbite to build Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda, which have little in common with DICE’s Battlefield series. Yet Bioware’s games have unmistakable similarities to each other, both in how they play, and how they’re presented.

“Sometimes you can see, or guess, if a certain engine was used as they sometimes have a very specific look, or feel to them. More often than not it’s hard to see, as the signature look of a developer is often stronger than the signature look of the engine they’re using,” van der Leeuw said.

Identifying a game’s engine with the naked eye is like trying to pick out which brand of camera was used to shoot a movie. There might be some giveaways here and there, but it takes an expert eye to pick them out.

“Usually the scale of the game is a good indicator. With [Unreal Engine 3], it was often easy to spot the screen door effect used to fade out distant objects in game,” Pendleton explained. To a developer, such a tell may be noticeable, but players are unlikely to pick up on such subtleties if the developer has utilized their chosen engine properly.

Bioware’s games once again offer a great example of how a developer’s style is often more important than a game engine’s look. Consider, for example, the difference between Mass Effect III and Mass Effect: Andromeda. They’re nearly identical in visual style. Even light behaves the same — those signature lens flares are just as present as ever, and transparent glass has the same feel to it.

Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda (top), Supershot and Hearthstone (bottom)

These two games exemplify what stylistic similarity looks like. They look the same on purpose, though they were built using completely different tools. Mass Effect III was made with the Unreal Engine, and Mass Effect: Andromeda was made with EA’s proprietary Frostbite engine.

As a counter-point, consider the look of Superhot and Hearthstone. One is a stylized first-person shooter, the other a highly addictive and polished collectible card game. Both were made using Unity. They were built using the same toolkit, yet they could hardly have less in common.

Practical differences

This isn’t to say game engines have nothing to do with the games they’re used to build. The engine can have an impact in subtle ways, or even significant, ways.

“Some engines are better in 2D games, some better in 3D. Some of them support many platforms, and some of them only support one. Some engines come with good toolsets, and some are very arcane,” van der Leeuw said. “There are engines that are free and made by enthusiasts, and there are engines made by commercial companies. There really are all sorts.”

The signature look of a developer is often stronger than the signature look of the engine they’re using.

Platform support is a big part of the equation. An engine like Unity sees a lot of use not only because it’s more financially accessible than other engines, but because it supports basically every platform. It works with Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, the list goes on. While the use of Unity doesn’t dictate the look of the game, it does make multi-platform development easier.

Choosing the right tool for the job means taking a hard look at what the development team will need for any game. Platform support is one example, but there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing which engine to use. Game engines can impact things like file size, available rendering features, and how well the game utilizes multiple processor cores.

“If I were to make a shopping list of must-haves they would start with: stability, documentation, source code, excellent tools, platform support, performance, great tools, flexibility to change features, easy to use tools, and quick iteration times,” Pendleton said, describing what he looks for in a game engine. “My shopping list is focused around quality of life in development; the easier it is to use the game engine, the more productive you will be.”

Building from the ground up

A third-party engine like Unity or Unreal is usually the right tool for the job. Sometimes, though, a developer needs to make a custom coffee machine, something tailor-built for the kind of weird brew they want. House-made engines give developers full control over the tools they use to make their games.

“The biggest advantage of an in-house engine is that the engine that you have is very specifically tailored towards the game that you’re making,” van der Leeuw explained. “This means you can be more creative and it can be easier to make use of all of the hardware features. Of course, it also means you need to have a big engine team, which is a downside.”

Designing an engine internally might require a larger team, but it’s a bit easier than making a retail engine like Unreal – which is why not every game engine becomes a platform for other developers. Building a custom game engine means making an engine only for a studio’s games, and it can have tools designed for very specific use. An engine like Unreal has to be big enough and versatile enough to handle all kinds of games, and it must include a package of tools and documentation that makes it accessible to others.

“A great deal of effort is required to package up a game engine that is versatile enough to be used in many different games,” Pendleton said, describing retail game engines. Internal engines let developers build the tools they need, and only the tools they need. “Why add a scissor tool to your Swiss Army Knife if no one ever needs to cut string with it?” Pendleton added.

Played a bad game? Blame the developer, not the tech

Even if you’ve played a few terrible games made with Unity, Unreal, or any other engine, crawling up into a game developer’s mentions and calling them out for using it is never a good idea. It’s a lazy, uninformed critique with the stability of wet sand.

Game engines are versatile tools, yet they hardly shape the final game. Games aren’t defined by the instruments used to build them — they’re defined by the people who wielded those instruments, the people who placed every rock and tree, the designers who tuned, re-tuned, and re-re-tuned gameplay mechanics until they hit just the right note.

Not every gamer needs to be an expert on the fine art of game design, but understanding a little bit of the behind-the-scenes work can deepen the appreciation of game developers, and game development as a whole. Understanding more about game engines makes gamers less likely to go flying off to Twitter every time they see a Unity splash screen.