When that tree is sawn into boards, those growth rings produce grain and figure that's straight, consistent and predictable.

NPR: Excerpt: 'A Splintered History Of Wood'

While Chinese officials boast the country has met its grain production quotas for six years straight, consumption is rising at about 5 billion kilos a year and production was close to consumption last year at 530 billion kilos.

FORBES: Grain's The New Oil, SocGen's Grice Says

There's an inescapable urge to look everywhere but straight ahead while in Epic's Citadel world, even if the wood grain textures on the buildings were a bit more muddy than we'd like.

ENGADGET: Hands-on with the newer, larger Oculus Rift prototype (video)