DCEmu Featured News Articles

Voice chat and wardrobe management is just the start of what's to come to Home tomorrow when client version 1.4 goes live.

Sony's put out the full list of changes and it's a long one. Home users will, as of tomorrow, be able to set up groups of up to eight people, send invites to other players no matter what they're playing/watching on their PS3, send private text messages, set their character status and a whole lot more.

Here's the full list:

NEW FEATURES

Groups

* You can now create groups in Home.
* Groups consist of up to 8 different people.
* You may invite your friends and anyone in the same space as you to your group.
* Groups work no matter where anyone is in Home - different public spaces, personal spaces or club houses.
* Groups have their own voice and text chat channels that work between all group members wherever they are in Home.
* If you leave Home then you leave your group.
* If the leader leaves a group then leadership is automatically transferred to another member of the group.
* The chat log has two tabs "Text" and "Voice". The text tab handles all text chat while the voice tab handles all voice chat.
* Communication in the chat log has been separated into multiple chat channels.

The Chat Log

Local: The existing proximity based text chat in a space.

Group: Text and voice chat through the group channel. Works between all group members anywhere in Home.

Club: Text and voice chat through the club channel. Works between all club members anywhere in Home.

- You can only be in one club channel at a time.
- If you are in multiple clubs then you can switch the channel between each one.

* Each channel has its own prefix and colour scheme so that you can tell them apart in the chat log and understand where chat is coming from.
* As part of this change we have removed the display of custom pop-up colours from the chat log.
* The label on each tab is coloured and prefixed according to the channel you will send chat to if you type or speak.

Text

* Complementing the telephone call system you can now send private text messages to other people through the chat log as well.

Voice

* The voice tab lists all of the people in your current voice channel along with a status icon which indicates:

-Speaking
-Has microphone
-Does not have microphone
-Blocked, ignored or muted

* In addition to the standard menu options there are special slash commands for switching channel or sending private messages quickly:

- "/local" or "/l"
- /l hello
- "/group" or "/g
- /g howdy"
- "/club" or "/c"
- /c greetings
- "/privatemessage", "/private" or "/pm"
- In the case of a private message you also need to specify who the message will go to.
- /pm how are you?

Wardrobe

* We have replaced the old wardrobe background that was tied to the Harbor Studio apartment with a simpler, more neutral one that loads more quickly.
* You can now tag "favourite" items in the wardrobe.
* It is possible to filter the wardrobe view to only display favourite items, purchased items, rewards or recently acquired items.
* Each category in the wardrobe can have the items in it sorted by time acquired and when it was last used.
* New items will have a new icon on them (as will categories that contain new items).
* There is a storage section into which you can put items that you don't use very often. Putting some of your items into storage will mean:

- The wardrobe loads faster (and depending on how much is being stored Home may load faster as well).
- There will be fewer items to scroll through in each category.

* You can browse your storage section and swap items back into your main wardrobe whenever you want to.

- You can keep a maximum of 500 items in your main wardrobe at any one time. The rest go into storage.
- When you load Home for the first time after the patch we will automatically put some of your items into the storage trunk if you happen to have more than 500 items already.

* There is a new "Both Ears" category in the wardrobe.
* The "Glasses" and "Headphones" categories have been replaced with "Face Accessory" and "Head Accessory".
* Within each category the first option will keep your current selection.
* Your character can now be set into one of several different statuses:

Character Status

- Normal
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Confused
- Busy
- Wants help
- Wants to chat
- Wants to play

* Setting a status will update the information in your character label and in some cases may change the expression on your character's face and your idle animations.
* We have added a simplified carousel of three main options (Navigator, Wardrobe and Settings) to the first page of the Menu Pad.

IMPROVEMENTS

Menu Pad and the Navigator

- All of the existing menus can be found under "Settings" now.
- The carousel view can be turned off in the settings if you wish.

* The Navigator can be accessed directly in Home by pressing and holding [START] without having to go through the Menu Pad.
* Extra icons have been added to the side of each space in the Navigator to indicate if this space is a favourite and whether it has any friends in it.
* There are extra options in the Menu Pad and Home Safe Screen for setting preferences as to how much of the new character labels you ...

Nintendo has filed a trademark request for the phrase 'It's on like Donkey Kong' with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The pop-culture saying has been around for decades and was popularised by rapper Ice Cube in the song 'Now I gotta Wet'cha'.


But Nintendo's only just jumped into action, weeks ahead of the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

xoeo has hacked his way back onto PlayStation Network (PSN). The modified payload for 3.15 and 3.41, re-enables PSN access…for now. The hex files can be flashed to the PS3YES or any other device equipped with the AT90USB162 at 16MHz and AT90USB1287 at 8MHz. Other builds will follow when people start to compile it for their boards or to help others.

Be careful though, Sony will likely be all over this and will be fixing it quickly. However, they may even detect that you’re using a hacked PS3 which puts you at risk of getting banned.

Download files and source can be found in source link.

Source: A9VG (Chinese) ...

xoeo has hacked his way back onto PlayStation Network (PSN). The modified payload for 3.15 and 3.41, re-enables PSN access…for now. The hex files can be flashed to the PS3YES or any other device equipped with the AT90USB162 at 16MHz and AT90USB1287 at 8MHz. Other builds will follow when people start to compile it for their boards or to help others.

Be careful though, Sony will likely be all over this and will be fixing it quickly. However, they may even detect that you’re using a hacked PS3 which puts you at risk of getting banned.

Download files and source can be found in source link.

Source: A9VG (Chinese) ...

Development staff at Warner Bros’ new Montreal outfit are said to be angered at management’s decision to shift the studio’s focus to social and mobile games.
Warner Bros needs to grow its Montreal workforce to 300 employees by 2015 – a strategy first conceived for triple-A production.
Yet Warner Bros Montreal’s existing 26 employees are, according to Canadian newspaper Lapressaffaires, being told to work on bite-sized mobile/social games and a microtransaction-based MMO.
“Some staff were surprised by the change in philosophy, sometimes to the point of leaving the company,” the paper alleged.
The studio’s general manager Martin Carrier said the focus is a response to a games market in flux; with the social and mobile spaces offering lucrative alternatives to triple-A production.

"Before, we perceived the [social/mobile] market as a secondary market, but today is a growing market with the democratization of video games. Commercially, we believe we can sell more than games on a grand scale," Carrier told the paper.
Local politicians have invested a $7.5 million grant, as well as various tax credits, in the studio.
Projects underway and in place at Warner Bros Montreal will draw from DC Comics-related IP.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-social-switch ...

Development staff at Warner Bros’ new Montreal outfit are said to be angered at management’s decision to shift the studio’s focus to social and mobile games.
Warner Bros needs to grow its Montreal workforce to 300 employees by 2015 – a strategy first conceived for triple-A production.
Yet Warner Bros Montreal’s existing 26 employees are, according to Canadian newspaper Lapressaffaires, being told to work on bite-sized mobile/social games and a microtransaction-based MMO.
“Some staff were surprised by the change in philosophy, sometimes to the point of leaving the company,” the paper alleged.
The studio’s general manager Martin Carrier said the focus is a response to a games market in flux; with the social and mobile spaces offering lucrative alternatives to triple-A production.

"Before, we perceived the [social/mobile] market as a secondary market, but today is a growing market with the democratization of video games. Commercially, we believe we can sell more than games on a grand scale," Carrier told the paper.
Local politicians have invested a $7.5 million grant, as well as various tax credits, in the studio.
Projects underway and in place at Warner Bros Montreal will draw from DC Comics-related IP.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-social-switch ...

Movie rental service LoveFilm has arrived on PS3 today with users able to stream TV episodes and movies from their console.
The firm has also partnered with Push Button who will bring the service to other digital platforms across the world. The developer previously brought LoveFilm on-demand to Sony Bravia TVs and Blu-ray devices.
As well as streaming movies, PS3 owners are also able to sign up to LoveFilm in order to receive DVDs through the post. A monthly subscription currently costs £5.99.
“Today's announcement will allow LoveFilm to build upon our leadership in launching compelling and ground-breaking video content on many different platforms,” said LoveFilm’s group digital officer Lesley Mackenzie.
“Push Button’s ability to quickly get to grips with delivering to a diverse range of digital platforms including consoles, internet TV and handheld devices is second to none.”

Push Button’s MD Paula Byrne added: “Pushbutton is delighted to be chosen by LoveFilm as its digital partner and looks forward to bringing the LoveFilm service to a wide variety of digital devices.”

It was revealed last month that LoveFilm would be coming to PS3.
LoveFilm currently has 1.4m members and 67,000 titles available for rental.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41723/Love...aunches-on-PS3 ...

Microsoft has sued Motorola over patent fees for Xbox 360 technology licensed from the phone maker.


According to MS, Motorola has breached contractual obligations to fairly license patents on wireless networking and video coding featured in its games console.

"Motorola has refused to extend to Microsoft a license consistent with Motorola's promises for any of Motorola's identified patents," MS said in its complaint, according to Bloomberg.

"Instead, Motorola is demanding royalty payments that are wholly disproportionate to the royalty rate that its patents should command under any reasonable calculus."

Unsurprisingly, Motorola tells a different story.

"We worked with Microsoft to reach an agreement that would have allowed Microsoft to use our proprietary technologies without infringing Motorola's patents," said company spokesperson Jennifer Erickson.

"Unfortunately, despite a fair offer from Motorola, Microsoft was unwilling to enter into a licensing agreement."

Three weeks ago Microsoft also filed patent-infringement claims against Motorola in a bid to block US imports of the firm's Android phones.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

David Braben has again said that his studio’s upcoming title Kinectimals will not include any tech developed for the Lionhead project Milo & Kate.
Speaking to VG247 during the Kinect launch party in London last night, the Frontier boss was asked what contribution Lionhead tech had made to the game, and responded “none at all”.
Braben previously attempted to end persistent tech crossover rumours in July of this year, saying that Kinectimals had been in development since before Milo & Kate was revealed.
“It is built using Frontier’s own technology shared with other Frontier games in development, and ideas evolved from earlier games like Dog’s Life,” he said.

“There has not been any involvement in the technology or design by Lionhead. Milo & Kate is a completely separate, and intriguing, development from Lionhead.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...in-Kinectimals ...