geekosystem

It's getting to be that time again, folks: Out with the old Unreal Engine and in with the new. E3 2012 was host to a trailer of the new Unreal Engine 4, and it doesn't look half bad. That other half, though? Give it a watch and you decide. I can't tell if I'm just expecting great graphics in 2012, or if this just isn't as much of an improvement over current gen PC graphics. If you want a deeper look at the engine, with a bunch of developer explanation, head on past the break and check out the much more informative and in-depth look at the engine. Remember, though, graphics never look as impressive as they do at the beginning of a cycle than they toward the end.

We all know the Metal Gear Solid isn't done, even though Metal Gear Solid 4 tried really, really hard to end the series (and would've been a satisfactory send-off at that), and Konami likes to remind us about the continuing saga from time to time. This time, though, Konami showed off the Fox Engine, which is the engine being used to develop that next MGS. Instead of simply showing off the incredible visuals of which the engine is capable, they placed said visuals next to shots from real life and challenged us to pick which was computer generated. Left column or right column?

THINQ.co.uk is reporting that Apple has pushed out a significant OS X software update, designed to improve performance and visual quality in the Mac version of Valve's Steam client. Since Steam was released for the platform three months ago, many sources have lamented the performance of the games compared to their Windows counterparts. Some have even gone as far as to set up Windows partitions using Boot Camp to avoid the reduced frame rates in the Mac client.

That's all changed now, thanks to the Apple's graphics update and some Steam optimizations added by Valve. By tightening up some software inefficiencies pertaining to how the OS drives the graphics hardware, the games no longer have such a pronounced reduction in frame rate when running at higher resolutions or with cranked-up visual settings. One of the most hyped of these visual improvement is known as an "occlusion query," or as the guys at Valve put it: