NVIDIA Buffs Out Half Life 2 And Portal Visuals For Tegra K1 On SHIELD Tablet
A pair of classic game titles developed by Valve have now been ported over to NVIDIA's recently launched Tegra K1-powered SHIELD tablet. The classic games include Portal and Half-Life 2, though these aren't straight (or lazy) ports -- both feature a wide variety of high-end and exclusive visual effects built to showcase the 192-core Tegra K1 chip in NVIDIA's SHIELD.
According to a blog post on NVIDIA, these exclusive effects -- render-to-texture shadows, bump mapping, specular highlights, motion blur, and higher quality texture filtering -- make Portal and Half-Life 2 just as visually appealing as the full PC editions. In addition, Valve optimized both titles to utilize the SHIELD tablet's optional ultra low latency Wi-Fi Direct SHIELD wireless controller.
According to a blog post on NVIDIA, these exclusive effects -- render-to-texture shadows, bump mapping, specular highlights, motion blur, and higher quality texture filtering -- make Portal and Half-Life 2 just as visually appealing as the full PC editions. In addition, Valve optimized both titles to utilize the SHIELD tablet's optional ultra low latency Wi-Fi Direct SHIELD wireless controller.
If you need a refresher, the SHIELD tablet sports an 8-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1200) display with multi-touch support, NVIDIA's Tegra K1 GPU, 2.2GHz ARM Cortex A15 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB (Wi-Fi only) or 32GB (Wi-Fi + 4G) internal storage, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, mini HDMI output, micro USB 2.0 port, microSD card slot, 3.5mm stereo jack, 5MP front-facing camera, 5MP rear-facing camera, and various other tidbits.
You can pick up the SHIELD tablet now for $299 (16GB); the 32GB model ($399) will be available soon.
You can pick up the SHIELD tablet now for $299 (16GB); the 32GB model ($399) will be available soon.
