OMG! Xbox without any controller! Project Natal!

ManipUni said:

The demo is very gimmicky and unrealistic.

The camera technology behind it interested me for a while until I read a few of their papers and determined that they're just using shadows yet again for depth determination. Which is ideal in ideal situations but will diminish greatly if you are for example wearing the wrong clothing or have a poor or low light levels.

It is a great PR victory though. They might even build a box with a couple of cameras and microphones in them for depth capture/voice capture and try and pump out a few gimmicky games. See if they sell. Or more likely see if they sell 360s to otherwise Wii converts...

Hopefully someone with a ton of money and free time is working on better 3D capture technology or taking what we already have forward. Like laser scanning for one example. Because this junk will not hold out under day to day trials.

So Manip what you're saying in your characteristically cheery way is that if you're a Goth it's not gonna work.

Well news flash, yes it's a gimmick we all got that, just like the Wii is a gimmick. It is going to take investment and refinement to get it to an ideal but it's version 1.

Minh - I can't see this system being used for long game like Halo but I can see a new breed of shooter/explorer game and all the better if you get some real exercise (I didn't want to say but your avatar has gained afew pounds over the years  )

Okay, before we all get over-excited, let's remember so far, we just have demos. 

But having said that, if MS can really pull it off then it really is a game-change (NPI)

I mean forget about the tyre-changing thing. Imagine what they can do with exercise/fitness software.

I'm wondering.. there's a bunch of genres that don't work all that well on consoles, due to the lack of a keyboard/mouse. RTS games are one thing, MMO's with a lot of actions you have to bind are another. Obviously, you could try to reimagine the traditional interfaces for those genres to fit the existing controllers, but would this thing, if it indeed works as advertised, be able to bridge that gap? If it recognizes hand gestures, you could select units, action bindings et cetera with your index finger. For an MMO, you could make it like a multitouch thing where you can use your hands to zoom in and out on the battlefield, drag a box around the units you want to select with your index finger, and then point to where you want them to attack.

There's been talk about Blizzard talking with Microsoft about a new Xbox, but I'm suddenly wondering if they're not planning to simply use this, and extend the life of the 360 instead.

Bas said:

I'm wondering.. there's a bunch of genres that don't work all that well on consoles, due to the lack of a keyboard/mouse. RTS games are one thing, MMO's with a lot of actions you have to bind are another. Obviously, you could try to reimagine the traditional interfaces for those genres to fit the existing controllers, but would this thing, if it indeed works as advertised, be able to bridge that gap? If it recognizes hand gestures, you could select units, action bindings et cetera with your index finger. For an MMO, you could make it like a multitouch thing where you can use your hands to zoom in and out on the battlefield, drag a box around the units you want to select with your index finger, and then point to where you want them to attack.

There's been talk about Blizzard talking with Microsoft about a new Xbox, but I'm suddenly wondering if they're not planning to simply use this, and extend the life of the 360 instead.

I just watched the demo...

"You ever wonder what the bottom of an avatar's shoes look like? Well bam! there it is!"

W.

T.

T?

Dan said:

Our Coding4Fun team was exchanging emails on this as it would be amazing to make hackable like the Wiimote control Brian Peek had done a while back. I've emailed the XNA team to see if there's a dev story there, but it would be awesome if there was so you can build Windows apps/games with this too

I'm actually thinking more for applications if it runs on XNA/Windows

My fear is that is is a technology that MS licenced... and whoever owns it has the rights to make a generic PC version... and might make MS lock it down...

MS unlocks the gamepad & camera & such.. but I think this device is entirely a different ball game

Sabot said:

ManipUni said:

*snip*

So Manip what you're saying in your characteristically cheery way is that if you're a Goth it's not gonna work.

Well news flash, yes it's a gimmick we all got that, just like the Wii is a gimmick. It is going to take investment and refinement to get it to an ideal but it's version 1.

Minh - I can't see this system being used for long game like Halo but I can see a new breed of shooter/explorer game and all the better if you get some real exercise (I didn't want to say but your avatar has gained afew pounds over the years  )

Minh - I can't see this system being used for long game like Halo but I can see a new breed of shooter/explorer game and all the better if you get some real exercise (I didn't want to say but your avatar has gained afew pounds over the years  )

Hey, those are lean pounds! >  

Maddus Mattus said:

Human controllers!

Whahaha

Wiiiiiiiiiiii eat your hart out!

I would love to see this integrated into Windows Media Center,.. Where's the remote dammit!

I was seriously, seriously impressed with the Milo demo & Media Centre integration was my first thought too.

Win 7 voice recognition works well (ie out of the box with my brit accent - no training required) but the style is a bit OPEN APPLICATION-NAME . A Milo conversation seems way more natural.

Looking forward to the day when this happens:

[Simo slumps on sofa]

Simo: Hey TV.

TV: Hey, you look tired. Do you want to veg out & just watch a show?

Simo: yeah I am knackered. Got any recorded stuff I haven't seen yet?

TV: A tonne of your partner's CSI shows and last night's Ashes to Ashes. Would you like to sync your zune before we start?

Simo: Stick on Ashes, oh and TV ... about the Zune

TV: Yes?

Simo: I have an iPod like everyone else.

ManipUni said:

The demo is very gimmicky and unrealistic.

The camera technology behind it interested me for a while until I read a few of their papers and determined that they're just using shadows yet again for depth determination. Which is ideal in ideal situations but will diminish greatly if you are for example wearing the wrong clothing or have a poor or low light levels.

It is a great PR victory though. They might even build a box with a couple of cameras and microphones in them for depth capture/voice capture and try and pump out a few gimmicky games. See if they sell. Or more likely see if they sell 360s to otherwise Wii converts...

Hopefully someone with a ton of money and free time is working on better 3D capture technology or taking what we already have forward. Like laser scanning for one example. Because this junk will not hold out under day to day trials.

Where did you read these papers? That's not how the camera works at all.  It works similar to radar except with light.  It emits IR pulses and measures time for them to reflect back.  You can render a grayscale map that shows the depth of each pixel. Closer objects are lighter shades of gray, and so on.

I can imagine it in FPS and Racing game. It is not really full motion control, but I like to peek the camera a bit side ways. You know, like check the left window if I move my head left. Or actually if I "turn" my head right and turning my eyes to see screen on the left, I should see the left window. It is just temporaryly checking on the sides using camera, but no controller.

Now Sony has a motion thing too! Interesting times, for sure. Too bad it's all 2010.

Simo said:

Maddus Mattus said:

*snip*

I was seriously, seriously impressed with the Milo demo & Media Centre integration was my first thought too.

Win 7 voice recognition works well (ie out of the box with my brit accent - no training required) but the style is a bit OPEN APPLICATION-NAME . A Milo conversation seems way more natural.

Looking forward to the day when this happens:

[Simo slumps on sofa]

Simo: Hey TV.

TV: Hey, you look tired. Do you want to veg out & just watch a show?

Simo: yeah I am knackered. Got any recorded stuff I haven't seen yet?

TV: A tonne of your partner's CSI shows and last night's Ashes to Ashes. Would you like to sync your zune before we start?

Simo: Stick on Ashes, oh and TV ... about the Zune

TV: Yes?

Simo: I have an iPod like everyone else.

Just what I need, someone besides my wife talking about my problems,..

I would hope they would build some really hot chick, who never has a headache,..

errrr

No matter, too many bad thoughts atm