The Developer Show — TL;DR 028

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Highlights: TensorFlow, Parsey McParseface, AnyPixel, Google Creative Lab, Project Tango, Google VR.

The Developer Show is where you can stay up to date on all the latest Google Developer news, straight from the experts.

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TL;DR 028 — June 10th, 2016

SyntaxNet goes open source

SyntaxNet, the world’s most accurate parser, is now open source. It’s a neural network framework implemented in TensorFlow that provides a foundation for Natural Language Understanding systems. The release includes all the code needed to train new SyntaxNet models on your own data, as well as, Parsey McParseface, a parser already trained for you that you can use to analyze English text. Actually, it’s the most accurate model of it’s kind in the world. Visit the post for more information and the GitHub link.

Interactive displays controlled through the web

Make big, unusual, and interactive displays controlled through a web page using the newly open sourced library, AnyPixel dot J-S. The Google Creative Lab built it for a really cool interactive display made from six thousand light-up arcade buttons acting as interactive pixels. Check out the video and grab the code from the post.

Virtual cats and Project Tango

Project Tango has a new tutorial project that enables you to place virtual cats in your augmented reality environment. It’s got a simple interface, and well, cats. Lots and lots of cats. Check it out.

Daydream Labs

In Daydream Labs, the Google VR team is exploring the possibilities of Virtual Reality and sharing what they learn with the world. In this recent post, they describe one of their app experiments — a keyboard made out of tiny virtual drums that works really well.

Mobile Ads Garage

The Mobile Ads Garage is a new series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and Doubleclick For Publishers. Check out the series and the newest episode now available with a detailed explanation of the interstitial ad lifecycle, how to load ads, and how to display at just the right time.

Ads and analytics for a mobile-first world

Every year, there are trillions of searches on Google and over half of those searches happen on mobile. And across the millions of websites using Google Analytics today, we’re seeing more than half of all web traffic now coming from smartphones and tablets. To help marketers succeed in this mobile-first world, we have redesigned AdWords, from the ground-up, and re-thought everything from creatives and bidding, to workflow and measurement. Check out the post for highlights of recent announcements and links to learn even more.


I built an awesome VR rig and you can too

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Traveling the stars in Elite Dangerous

Introduction

I loved going to virtual reality conferences as a kid. I even build my own rig with a modified nintendo power glove for input, fresnel lenses tapped to my monitor for stereoscopic viewing, and REND386 running on my 486DX to support it all. Yup, totally retro. That machine had a 212MB hard drive. Huge!!

Anyway, things have been ramping up for a second wave of VR and I decided it was finally time again to build a rig for exploring cyberspace (and maybe building bits of it too). Only this time, the hardware is way more advanced and way cooler. Electric blue liquid cooling cool.

Electric blue liquid cooling. Cool!

This system rocks. I’ve been spending hours in space jumping between star systems with precious cargo, painting in 3D, slicing fruit with a samurai sword, and defending against zombies. And you can too.

There’s lots of ways to explore VR, including that awesome computer in your pocket called a smartphone. However, for this article I’m going to focus on the components I selected for a desktop machine to run room-scale VR.

Build notes

What you’ll need:

  • Basic tools like a screwdriver and patience
  • Basic computer hardware knowledge like what goes where and how to minimize static electricity

Seriously, that second point is important. If you haven’t built a computer before, you’ll want to read up on that separately.

The parts list

Selected and assembled in early 2016

Parts notes

Graphics processing unit (GPU): Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti OC

This is the most key decision for a VR system. The GPU is the workhorse for your graphics-intensive applications. Although sound is mostly a solved problem (the integrated sound support on the motherboard I’ve selected is plenty good enough) graphics cards are still evolving rapidly. The card I selected was based on the most recent Nvidia chipset. Was. They’ve got a 1080 series that just started shipping in May 2016. It has some great VR-specific capability. So, you may want to look for one of those instead.

These cards typically come in a reference version (built by the chip maker) and a licensed version (built by other manufacturers). The differences are often varied and subtle. I recommend finding an article like this one that does all the work and then let’s you know the overall best performing card.

Central processing unit (CPU): Intel Core i7–6700K

I just went for the best Intel chip that my budget would allow. Chips always get better, so it doesn’t help to think about this one too hard.

CPU Cooler: LEPA Exllusion 240 Liquid Cooler

The last system I built just had a hunk of metal on the CPU to radiate heat. Processors today heat up a lot more and therefore require much more cooling. I went for liquid cooling to reduce overall noise. A quiet machine makes for a nicer room as well as less distraction while gaming. Also, this cooling unit comes with transparent tubes and dye — so I matched the coolant color with the light blue of my fans.

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming 5 LGA1151

This needs to support your processor type and allow for all your peripherals to connect. I’d heard some folks recommend this one and it met all my connection needs.

Storage: 512GB SAMSUNG 850 Pro Series SSD

Data read latency can interrupt the experience, which will break immersion (the feeling of being there). So, you’ll want an SSD. This is a solid one that should last a long time. Wirecutter likes it too.

RAM: Patriot 16GB (2 x 8GB) Viper Elite Series DDR4 3200MHz

For the same reasons listed in the previous section, you’ll want a substantial amount of fast RAM. I chose a set at 3200MHz because it was at the right place in the effective speed / price curve. Way more details here.

Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W

Admittedly, this is overkill. I’m not using this much power. However, at the time I spec’d this machine, I thought there was a possibility I would eventually run two GPU boards in parallel. In that case, the extra power would have come in handy.

Case: Thermaltake Core V31

Not too big, but big enough to contain everything listed here. Also, it has a window so you can see all the pretty lights.

Cross-posted to Medium


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