APC_Australia_Issue_442_June_2017

feature » windows 10 creators update
GET THE CREATORS UPDATE
The Windows 10 Creators Update is a
free download for every Windows 10
user. The good news is that this means,
at some point in the future, your PC
will let you know that the update is
ready to be downloaded and installed.
All you need to do is make sure your
work (or any game progress) is saved,
then let Windows Update do its thing.
However, to stop the millions of
Windows 10 users all trying to
download the rather hefty update all
at once, and potentially breaking part
of the internet, Microsoft is rolling out
the update to PCs around the world in
waves, and it’s been a bit coy about how
long this rollout process will take.
So you might get the Creators Update
in the next few days, or you may have
to wait weeks — even months — before
it appears in Windows Update.
However, like the Good News Fairy
that we are (think the Tooth Fairy, but
with a beer belly and faded Half-Life 2
T-shirt), we have more glad tidings:
there’s a way to manually update to the
Creators Update yourself, so you don’t
have to wait for the rollout.
To manually download Windows 10
Creators Update, head to the Windows
10 Update Assistant web page
(www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwaredownload/windows10),
then click
‘Update now’.
The tool downloads, then checks
for the latest version of Windows 10,
which includes the Creators Update.
Once downloaded, run it, then select
‘Update Now’. The tool does the rest for
you. Your PC restarts a few times — so
make sure you save your work first —
and then your PC is updated with the
Creators Update, while all your files
and settings remain where they were.
That website also allows you to
download an ISO image, which you
Use the Windows 10 Update
Assistant to manually download
and install the update.
can then use to update your current
installation of Windows 10, or perform
a clean install with the new
Creators Update.
WHAT’S NEW?
With the update installed, what new
features await you? Well, one of the
most exciting additions is a new
program called 3D Paint. We know
Beam: Tools for
broadcasting
Video game streaming is incredibly
popular, with Twitch gaining 100 million
monthly unique users watching over
2 million monthly streamers since it
launched in 2011, with around 241 billion
minutes of content being broadcast,
so it’s little wonder that Microsoft is so
keen to get involved. It has done this
by acquiring the Beam service last year,
and integrating it into Windows 10’s
Creators Update and the Xbox One.
Classic Microsoft.
Of course, with the success of Twitch
and other established services, Microsoft
has an uphill struggle to convince
people to move from their preferred
service to Beam. However, it has a few
tricks up its sleeve.
For a start, it has a focus on super
low latency, something Microsoft
is describing as the “Beam Faster
than Light SDK”, which allows for
broadcasting with virtually no latency.
By having almost no perceptible pause
between the action in the game, the
broadcaster is playing and what the
audience sees, it makes conversations
between the broadcaster and the
audience even better. You could now tell
a broadcaster to look out behind them,
and they’d react, rather than telling
them, only to find out three seconds
later that they are already dead.
Microsoft also plans for Beam to have
a full suite of interactive elements for
its streams. These range from simple
soundboard apps (which allow viewers
to trigger specific sound effects) that
can be applied to any game, through to
Beam wants to make
watching Let’s Play
streams more interactive.
more complex interactive elements,
introduced as part of Microsoft’s
‘Interactive 2.0’ initiative, launched at
GDC earlier this year.
When implemented into a game,
these features (combined with the
low latency) will enable viewers to be
almost as involved in the action as the
streamers themselves, “blurring the
lines between playing and watching”,
as Microsoft puts it.
64 www.apcmag.com