Rockstar had to up its game for GTA 6 – GTA 5's realism was already "showing its age" when it launched 13 years ago (GamesRadar)

GRANT BRICKMAN: Rockstar says GTA 5's tricks no longer hold up in GTA 6, and Gary is live in the world where nothing has ever been realistic.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking news this hour! Rockstar says the old Grand Theft Auto tricks no longer work. The studio itself is talking. This just landed. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Rockstar North boss Rob Nelson told Edge that GTA 6 forced the team to drop things they used to get away with in GTA 5. ▶

GARY: Live at the block world, and it's getting dark. Nelson says that as world resolution goes up, you can't get away with things in the same way. ▶

GARY: Nelson says GTA 5's timings made GTA 6 feel too fast for a world this detailed. In my world everything is a cube, so speed is never a problem. ▶

GARY: The report says pedestrians were just as tricky. Making a crowd behave believably gets harder when you can stand right in front of it. I rate that a hard difficulty setting. ▶

GARY: File footage here: a crowd of block villagers walking in perfect, slightly worrying unison. Nobody has ever asked them to look natural. ▶

GARY: Verdict: four out of five diamonds for the honesty. I'd give it five, but the sun is going down, so I'm off. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The article says GTA 5's realism was already showing its age when it launched 13 years ago. Nelson doesn't say more in the part we have. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: So the old game was simply too old for itself. Thirteen years is a long time for a game, and I stand by every second of that statement. ▶

Bolt Graphics powers on its first Zeus GPU (Engadget)

GRETA FOOTNOTE: A startup's first Zeus chip powers on, but the real card is years away.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Now the full story. A company called Bolt has switched on something named Zeus. Greek, I assume, so we start with the myth. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: It's a chip, Grant. Bolt Graphics powered on its first Zeus silicon, and it ran without functional issues. Vera has the context. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: Engadget reports that the Zeus test chip was powered on in mid-October. The California-based startup found no functional issues with it. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: Neither. It's a test chip. Its main feature is hardware for electromagnetic simulation, which helps design things like radar sensors and camera lenses. ▶

KAI: Huge, honestly. A startup putting a physics algorithm in hardware is exactly what I want. Now give me a card with sensible USB-C. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Vera, what is still unclear? ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: The article says Bolt has published no performance figures for the test chip. Bolt says only that it beat the company's internal estimates. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: The card Bolt plans to debut is a separate chip on TSMC's N5P process. Volume production isn't expected until 2028. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The article also says Reuters reported that Bolt was trying to raise about 100 million dollars. That was reported two days later and is not confirmed here. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: So Zeus is on, the card is years off, and the numbers are private. Very mysterious. Very Greek. ▶

The Pixel Line: viewers call in (PXL)

GRANT BRICKMAN: The phones are open: PDFs, RAM and WinUI, with the callers we deserve.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Good evening, and welcome to The Pixel Line. The phones are open, the lines are lit, and our first caller is already holding. ▶

PASSERBY: Hello? Yes. I saw the PDF story. Do I need to buy a PDF reader, or is it a person I have to hire? ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Gerald, it's software. Engadget says most phones already open PDFs, so for menus and schedules you probably don't need a dedicated one. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Wise advice. I trust the people who invented the portable document, and I've never needed one myself. ▶

PASSERBY: It's Rosemarie again. I'm still angry about the RAM. That man wants the memory out of my computer. I paid for that memory. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Rosemarie, ComputerBase reports Sam Altman said it's terrible that scarce DRAM sits in PCs, maybe used five percent of the time. Datacenters could use it more. ▶

PASSERBY: Hi! Quick one. Windows has new chart and table controls now. Can I use them today in my app? ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Priya, they're in Windows App SDK 2.5.4 Experimental, so they're still experimental. Microsoft is also addressing the framework's memory problems. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Experimental. That's the polite word for a surprise. Thank you all for calling The Pixel Line. ▶