NVIDIA is showing some love for Star Wars: The old republic in there upcoming driver release. In the new beta release NVIDIA is adds native Ambient Occlusion witch is a visual effect that was originally developed by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and used in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor. Hardware support has been available since 2003 with NVIDIA’s GeForce FX. One of the first games to use ambient occlusion was Crysis, which was developed by Crytek and released in late 2007. In 2009, NVIDIA added Ambient Occlusion as a Control Panel feature in its v185 drivers. An up-to-date list of games that support ambient occlusion through the Control Panel is given at the end of this article. What It Is and How It Works: One of the most difficult challenges in 3D game design is realistically modeling the behavior of light and its effects on various textures and surfaces without compromising frame rate….
Author: Soeren Kamper
TOR TV: Directive 7 Hard Solo
Youtube user NadaButH8 posted a video of him soloing Directive 7 on  Hard mode.  Pretty impressive stuff if you think of how good gear you have to optain for your self and your companion before doing this. Boss fights are played at normal speed, everything else is 2X (Bonus Boss was not attempted) Boss name–Time -Assassin Droids– 2:20 -Interrogator– 7:45 -Bulwark– 11:23 -Assembler– 16:52 -Mentor– 19:20
Knights of the Old Republic: Shadows of Corruption
Seaichfilms new psychological Star Wars fan film “Shadows of Corruption””. The film is based off the expanded Star Wars Universe of the game series Knights of the Old Republic. Darth Revan continues his rule of tyranny in the galaxy. Conquering system after system the Sith Lord comes across the discovery of an ancient Sith artifact. He swiftly aims his resources to recover it in hopes to gain the advantage in the ever growing war. Republic intelligence catches wind of the artifacts existence and head to the planet Syres to try and recover it. The long awaited live action Knights of the Old Republic film is finally here in its entirety! Part 1 has also been remastered and reinserted into the film. Seaichfilms is proud to release the complete “Shadows of Corruption” fan film to the public. “”Shadows of Corruption” is a new kind of ‘Fan Film’‘. Yes folks, a fan…
How to not suck at Huttball
The kind of people who just kill farm in mid or are generally terrible at following objectives won’t be reading this. But here is is. Basics Huttball is not Warsong Gulch. Don’t play like it is. Your team scores when the ball is carried over the opposing team’s end zone. Tie games are won by the team holding the ball when the game ends, or in the case of a neutral ball, the team who most recently held the ball. You can pass the ball to another player. Passing wins games. Passing Passing the ball is a ground-targeted AOE ability. Find it in the general tab of your ability book. It takes a few seconds between throwing the ball, and the other player receiving the ball. If no one is within the targeting-circle (an incomplete pass), a new ball spawns in midfield. This is important. If only an opposing team player is within…
1.3.6 Patch Notes 8/21/2012
Servers are back up, an here are today’s patch notes. General After a player uses the “Reset Local Phases” option, they now must wait 30 minutes to use it again, increased from the prior wait time of 2 minutes. Companion Characters Xalek Many of Xalek’s personal conversations can now be had in Cantinas as intended. Flashpoints and Operations General Using combat revive abilities now consistently returns the revived player to combat if an encounter is still active. Non-boss enemies no longer occasionally respawn after an Operation group has been defeated and re-enters the Operation. Group Finder Pre-made groups of four players that queue for Group Finder now correctly receive daily mission credit. The “Travel Now” dialog no longer fires more frequently than intended. Players now receive an error when attempting to manually add a new group member while queued in Group Finder. Items (Items and Economy) Several Imperial head slot…
Gamescom 2012: Interview with Matthew Broomberg
German Gaming site gamesaktuell.de has an interesting interview with Matthew Broomberg General Manager at BioWare Austin. Here is the highlights: First answer to question some people love it, some people hate it, what do you think of F2P… answer, read straight from the PR briefing “It brings new players, I don’t think that’s a bad thing””. Fluff…. 3:05 “F2P is not as big a deal as people make it” A lot of people make too much of the business model change. Question “no free-to-play did it withing 9-11 months”. answer “you should be innovative and aggresive”. “the game is lightyears on from where it was at launch.” They want to bring players “back”“. Some waffle about Warhammer Online. ~6:00 “pay-to-win”? “We would never want to do anything to harm the game, obviously” “vanity, convenience, that’s easy” “save time, new players, speed up levelling” “that’s a long way-a-way form play-to-win, we would never do…
Patch Notes: 1.3.5b 8/16/12
As you properly already know, BioWare took down the servers today, to do  an unscheduled maintenance for Star Wars: The old republic.  Apparently there was a bug in the world witch was fixed. Check it out in the patvh notes below: 1.3.5b Patch Notes 8/16/2012 General Resolved an issue that could allow players to obtain The Grand Acquisitions Race items without completing the appropriate missions.
Community Q&A August 10 – 2012
In this weeks Community Q&A Damion Schubert goes solo, and answers all questions you may have about the “Free to play” model. This will also be the last community Q&A in this format, as BioWare are changing strategy and will instread be focusing on bringing us more frequent and consistent developer responses in the forums instead. Check it out below: ButeoRegalis: Are subscriptions the only way to gain Cartel Coins (CCs) in the future, meaning, aside from the bonus coins we’re getting until the Free-to-Play option goes live? Can you purchase them without a subscription? Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer):Â All players will be able to purchase Cartel Coins by purchasing them on our website and eventually in-game. These coins are used to buy various virtual items from the Cartel Market. Free-to-Play members can also use Cartel Coins to unlock certain game restrictions. Samohnat: Will Cartel Coins be available via…
1.3.5a Patch Notes August 9, 2012
BioWare took down the servers this morning, to fix a bug that accrued around the Explosive Conflict operation Below are the patch notes: Flashpoints and Operations Operations Explosive Conflict The Minefield Probe Droids are now able to be revealed during the encounter with Colonel Vorgath.
A Message from the Community Manager
Community manager JovethGonzalez Took the stage yesterday as he posted a rather lengthy post on the official forum. The post updates the community on the future plans of the community team, without really saying much. He does go on promising more communication from the team in the future. The last few months have probably been crazy at Bioware and has been very hard on the staff. But at this point, all we want/need to hear is about the future of SWTOR for paying subscribers. We want to know what is in the works for Operations, flash points, space “secrets”, Warzones, class balances and designs, dual spec, world pvp, achievements, expansions?, pazzak and other mini-games, and a million other requests and possible upgrades that could come to the game. With respect and gratitude, we would love to hear about any of these as soon as possible!! We need to know that Bioware (and especially EA) hasn’t given…
TOR TV: The Smuggler Story Trailer
This video was made by youtube user lvl0zilch, The video is a player made trailer for one of my favorite classes in Star Wars: The old republic – the Smuggler. The movie is really a success, and I can not wait for future update from lvl0zilch. Awesome job man!
1.3.5 Patch Notes, August 7, 2012
Servers are back up so it’s time to enjoy your new pet + 25 black hole commendations for server transfer rewards. Below are this weeks patch notes. No news on upcoming events, but I would not expect much before the game goes Free to play either. I find the Legacy nerfs quite ridiculous in the patch. I guess BioWare is catering to the casual crowd and the people who just want to play the 8 stories without having to grind levels. And I guess that’s understandable. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Sentinel Combat Saber Storm: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, as Combat Sentinels are performing within expectations. This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill. Sith Warrior Marauder Carnage Sever: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning…
Swtor collectors edition now 30 bucks at Kmart
Star Wars: The old republic collectors edition is now at sale for 30 bucks at Kmart. This is might be somewhat depressing considering what we paid for it at release, but this could also be an especially good deal for players when the Free to play version launches. Think of all the cartel coins you will get. A BioWare CSR has confirmed that it is indeed possible to upgrade your account to the collectors edition. You also get access to the Collector’s Edition Store if you upgrade it now, and of course the Darth Malgus statue!
TOR TV: Zin Legacy Episode 2 – Buttslap Baras
This video is basically some SWTOR showoff warped in techno music. The video is created by youtube user Christopher Henry, and while not a huge machinema, he still manage to show swhat an amazing experience it can be playing Star Wars: The old republic. You can also check out his first video here.
TOR TV: VENDORS – EPISODE 1
Vendors is a new animated series based in the era of Star Wars: The Old Republic made by TheWarpZone. The guys thought it would be fun to explore the lives of the unsung heroes of galaxy, the Vendors. Hope you like this one and stick around for more. At first I was a bit put off…and then the guy got stabbed with the lightsaber. Well done fellas
The Guild Sphere: Harbinger
It’s time for another guild interview. Today I had the chance to speak to Tomppa from my own server Tomb of Freedon Nadd. Tomppa is guild leader of the guild Harbinger, a Finnish republic guild currently looking for active players of any class. Where did your guilds name come from? To be honest i dont know the origins of the name since i am not the original GM, but i would imagine that someone had played Mass Effect 2 a lot 🙂 Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? Harbinger is somewhere between hardcore and casual, when the game launched we were pretty much an hardcore guild but since that we don’t play that much anymore. Overall we are a very relaxed guild, probably 20-30% of our mumble talk is someone laughing. How did your guild come about? Most Finnish guilds are playing on the empire side, so it was the people who wanted to play as…
Community Q&A: July 27th, 2012
This weeks Questions and answers are up. Nothing really interesting this time. Servers having trouble since 1.3 with chat lag, warzone lags and unscheduled maintenance every three or four days, but the last question makes it sound like server perfomance has actually been improved. So when you’re stuck in the login screen next time or you’re chatting 10 minutes into the future than don’t worry, the server itself is reliable! Check it all out below: Skendra: Question about Legacy! Under Character Perks -> Travel, at 1.2 there was buff for Sprint Speed but locked and now in 1.3 it was changed to Priority Transport. Why? Will Wallace (Senior Designer): There were both internal and external balance concerns about allowing players to purchase upgrades to Sprint speed, especially as it related to advantages in Warzones. We don’t want someone to feel like they have to have an optional purchase to be competitive in PvP….
TOR TV: Assassin Kills Darth Malgus on Hard mode (Solo)
Darkness Assassin taking down Darth Malgus in HM The False Emporer. Well done for accomplishing such a feat but I can’t shake this feeling of this sort of stuff being unwanted amongst the devs. Being able to solo a HM boss, plus last through enrage with only a companion healer seems a bit too much for a single tank to do. I’m guessing when this news spreads out more, they’ll either do something about soloing HM’s or nerf assassin’s, because I doubt other tanks could accomplish this feat, since Vanguards/PT and JG/SJ have no passive self healing for their stance So after roughly 6 combined hours over 3 days of attempts I finally managed to solo Darth Malgus in HM FE on my Assassin. I just feel I have to show people ;D this is one of the hardest challenges I’ve had on my tank yet (it’s relatively easy though…
1.3.4a Patch Notes July 26, 2012
As you might have noticed, the servers was down for a brief time this morning were BioWare fixed a bug with crafting that certain players were exploiting. Â Here are the patch notes: General Fixed an issue that could allow players to gain unearned items or crafting materials.
TOR TV: SWTOR Explained: Sith Triumvirate (Pre-Kotor 2)
ZeroTolerence55 returns to make another SWTOR Explained video, this time focusing on the Sith Triumvirate and the state of the galaxy leading up to Knights of the Old Republic 2. We have posted quite a few video from ZeroTolerence55  before, so if you haven’t seem the already you should deffetnly do so. Yout might even learn some lore 🙂 SWTOR Explained: Sith Emperor Backstory SWTOR Explained – Revan’s Backstory (Pre-Kotor) and his involvement in the Mandalorian Wars SWTOR Explained: Revan Part 2 (Jedi Civil War) SWTOR Explained: Knights of the Old Republic Story (Revan Part 3)
1.3.4 Patch Notes July 24, 2012
Servers are back up after some Scheduled Maintenance today. The most important fix must be the Warzone group frames bug.   Playing with friends became an exercise in someone counting down in vent, “Ok, click in 3…2…1…”. Another interesting “fix ” is this:  Soa’s orbs, lightning balls, and mind traps no longer grant social points. And this is what happens when you abuse a mechanic, people. 1.3.4 Patch Notes General Players can now use vehicles on Coruscant in the large areas of the Black Sun, Old Galactic Market, The Works, and the Jedi Temple districts. Classes and Combat > General All class “stun break” abilities now properly remove blind effects. For example, the blind effect caused by a Sorcerer’s Backlash skill can now be broken with each class’s “stun break” ability. Companion Characters > General Centurion Weaponmaster’s head gear no longer causes non-human companion heads to disappear. Crew Skills > General The crafting…
SWTOR Community Q&A: July 23rd, 2012
Last Fridays Community Q&A were postponed and released yesterday. This time the BioWare devs answers questions about Campaign gear,class balance and other PVP issues. Chimerashot: The way Campaign gear is set up, some DPS classes have the Armoring with more Endurance instead of their main stat. Can we expect this to change /what was the reasoning behind this? David Hunt (Systems Designer): It’s an undesired interaction between the distribution of the mods and the move to set bonuses on the armoring. Future gear provides set mods will use the primary stat over Endurance for all DPS classes. Achyllis: Why don’t cool downs all reset on death in PvP? Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer): Doing this would encourage a couple of things that, so far, we don’t necessarily want to encourage. When you take a position from another player or group of players in a Warzone, holding that position is harder when…
TOR TV: My Sith is a Jerk 8 Correlia’s Reckoning
My apologies my lord, But I forgot all about this “show”. It most be months since we last posted any of  TheDrunkAndThePwned videos, but they are still funny as ever. Here is the latest video, and if you haven’t played the Sith inquisitor yet, you might come across some spoilers. Watching all his videos today, I’m starting to believe this one might be the best of all the “My Sith is a Jerk” videos. The crowd scene edit produced audible laughter.
Scheduled Maintenance: July 24
As usual, BioWare will take down the servers for scheduled maintenance on this upcoming Tuesday July 24. The servers will be down from 2AM CDT to 6AM CDT, and when they come back up, players will have to download a patch. CourtneyWoodsHello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM AEST). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended. This weekly maintenance is done in order to make general improvements and to check performance of the game so that we can continue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but not always) after a maintenance period there will be a patch to download….