Month: August 2022

CS:GO Source 2 has been rumored for a while now, with fans of the biggest game on Steam expecting the online shooter to get upgraded imminently to the same engine powering Half-Life: Alyx. Well, CS:GO Source 2 is now a reality, and it even has gameplay footage. It just doesn’t come from Valve.

A team of game-makers and modders, represented by the long-standing Valve content creator channel Gabefollower, has rebuilt CS:GO in Source 2 from the ground up, using the community creation platform and spiritual successor to Garry’s Mod, S&box. The team claims that they have remade CS:GO without using a single line of code from the original game, and has created all the systems and mechanics from scratch. At the moment, the project is still in its infancy, with the first gameplay footage simply demonstrating a “vertical slice” which will be continually updated in the future. However, the team claims to have developed this within six months, suggesting that a full version may not take an enormous amount of time.

In July, an exploit in Discord’s rich presence feature — which allows players to display game data on their profiles such as score, duration, and map — was used to determine that a new version of CS:GO was being played. Its map names used the suffix “s2”, which led some Valve content creators, such as YouTube’s Tyler McVicker, speculating that this signaled the game was being tested at the studio internally. Regardless of Valve’s own progress on CS:GO Source 2, the Gabefollower team says it will eventually release its own version as an open-source game. “Counter-Strike: Source 2 is a community driven, open-source project,” the team says. “We did not use a single line of code from CS:GO and eventually we’ll publish the full C# codebase on github.”

Recently, Steam stats revealed that CS:GO players have collectively been killing one another for the last 50,000 years. There is also a new CS:GO game mode whereby hitboxes are randomized from round to round. If you want to try that out, we recommend our guide to CS:GO ranks and also CS:GO console commands. Alternatively, you might want to try something entirely different, either from our list of the best FPS games, or one of the best multiplayer games, which, of course, also includes CS:GO.

SpaceX tested the engine of the Super Heavy launch vehicle to fly the new Spacecraft. During the previous tests, which took place three months ago, the accelerator broke in.

Source: SpaceX.

SpaceX is starting the first study orbital flight of the Starship system, which consists of a big, heavy upper stage and spacecraft. The total height of this system is 120 meters. According to the available data, Elon Musks company plans to conduct a first orbital flight of the new ship from September 1, 2022 to March 1, 2023. The Super Heavy Booster 7 rocket and the Ship 24 will be used for this purpose.

The test runs were done by the Starbase site, South Texas. This time, only one of the 33 Raptor engines ran, but it ran for more than 20 seconds. The tests were aimed at investigating the engine’s quality. It’s assumed that during further testing SpaceX will gradually increase the number of engines that are launched simultaneously.

Remember that SpaceX plans on using a giant Starship system to fly to the Moon, Mars and more distant space objects. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tested the possible possibility of the project, using the Starship design as the first lander to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface as part of an Artemis program. As for the next test flight, Booster 7 will splash down in Mexico at a moment, while Ship 24 will fly over the Earth before splashing down in the Pacific on Kauai’s Hawaiian island.

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The Lumina Desk doesn’t seem out of the ordinary, akin to many high-end motorized desks you would see at a local retailer, however this one has a catch. The folks at Lumina decided to embed a 24in OLED display right into the surface of the desk.

Capable of functioning as a standalone or secondary display for your desktop or laptop, the company claims it to be “the ultimate workspace for productivity,” and it certainly looks the part. The display rests beneath a sleek black surface and is intended to nestle snuggly between your keyboard and monitor with ample room for a desktop, laptop and a beverage of choice, or anything else for that matter.

Onto specs, the 24in OLED display features a 60Hz refresh rate with a peak brightness of 1,200nits. No word on resolution and it is not touch capable either, but if the promo images are anything to go by, it does appear of outstanding quality. According to Lumina, the tech is “an always-on, ambient display that passively feeds you information,” the company has also built its own custom Lumina OS and a software development kit is available to developers. For now, the list of software applications includes Google Calendar, Instagram, Zoom, Robinhood, Twitter and more, including task lists and social feeds.

As for desk features, besides it being sit-stand capable with motorized control and supported memory functions, it measures 1500mm x 750mm and height can be adjusted anywhere between 750mm and 1200mm. Expect nothing but premium materials used here. The legs are made with a blend of anodized aluminum and stainless steel, while the dark surface table top is made of anti-glare reinforced glass.

Additional features include two hidden compartments located at the far end, each capable of 826 cubic inches of storage space, making cable management a breeze, and has a total of six built-in power outlets and six USB-C ports. You can also wireless charge any peripherals with Qi-charging support, as the desk features dual 20in wireless charging pads alongside the display, capable of delivering 100W each.

Lumina’s not the first to experiment with imbedded desktop displays, back in the early 2000’s Microsoft brought promise of a future where our tables would resemble the sci-fi flicks we grew up watching – the Surface Table (remember that?) indulged our Blade Runner and Tron-era fantasies and featured a massive fully interactive display, complete with speakers and multi-touch control.

We also saw the release of the Surface Hub and Surface Hub 2S, although these interactive surface computing platforms were reserved for business, retail, and commerce sectors, and the technology is yet to transition to the consumer space in a meaningful way. Many others tried to bring their own versions to market, albeit to limited success.

The 16-year-old PixelSense table does have one up on the Lumina Desk, besides being full-touch capable, it could sense any stationary objects on top of the screen, so you wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally clicking on something. Truly ahead of its time.

No Pricing and availability just yet, though you can expect the Lumina Desk at some point in 2023. Pre-orders aren’t available, but for those interested you can sign up for up-to-date notifications as it moves closer to production. It certainly won’t come cheap, but that shouldn’t deter anyone who fantasizes over Mr Dillinger’s desk…