Still looks more promising to me than move and at least you only have to buy one kinnect if there are two of you playing as opposed to two sets for either move or wii so the cost becomes negligible between all of them.
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"Natal" is now "Kinect"!
- Thread starter Taustin Powers
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But, I like shooting aliens, with a controller. That is my definition of fun gaming. PEW PEW PEW
We don't. All the regulars here own more than 1 console, some own all. Some own all AND THEN SOME (glares at MRU).Why do some ppl hate everything that comes from Microsoft? Oh wait...this is a Mac forum!
The Wii's attach rate is only fractionally behind the Xbox's.I hope you know that the XBox has the highest attach rate (games per system) and it also sports 2 of the most blockbuster series ever. Here's the footage from the actual demo for you to judge for yourself rather than just spew your, OMG, this is soooo stooopid rants. I think some of you are jealous that you will be clobbered by all the tiny-teens that will play this...and litterally beat you to the ground!
Good use of wording, since Nintendo own the 2 most blockbuster series ever (Pokemon+Mario).
Ironically the last thing you said makes you sound like one of those tiny-teens.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=296
Voice and gesture control for videos? We've had voice control on OSX for years. I used to hook my Mac up and use it as a media centre. Number of times I tried voice control? A few. Number of times it was any use or better than the little Mac remote? None.
Wii Fit was £60 when it launched here. Natal/Kinect looks to be double that. It's not a small difference.The Wii Fit wast $100 and it was only for exercise...and they sold 22 million of them.
I don't think they really need anything really high rez to get the outline of your body. But maybe in a future version where it might recognize facial expressions like in some of those old demos...you'd either have to be close, or need a Kinect 2. And you gotta be pretty darn fast to make 30 fps not fast enough for some of these games I think. Unless you're like a karate master.
A lot of current gen games run at 60fps. 30fps camera input would mean the camera has to guess what you're doing for half that time. Which could be very noticeable in these action games they keep demoing.
Try it if you have a video camera now. Double the frames would mean a better interpretation of any precise movement, be it fast or slow. I guess it's limited to 30 due to resource costs with the ram/CPU. There's already a lag, can you imagine if that lag was doubled?
That's why RPGs and Tower Defence games dominate my PSP library, platformers dominate my DS library and pinball and Rockband are the only games I play on my Xbox. Who in this thread are you trying to stereotype?
I’m pretty sure the end-to-end processing of your movements will take a bit of time making the 30 vs. 60 lag negligible. And 60 Hz is used because it that’s where most people would not notice excessive blur with their own eyes...which are faster than the human body. In the extreme case where you can throw a punch and retract it so fast that it can’t be captured in 30 fps…you’d be better off replacing Bruce Lee in the archives rather than playing games.
Wasn't there a 3 person dance thing in one of those demos? In a previous demo I saw, I think a family was playing one of those twister like games where they make a "group shadow" shape?
Do they mean 2 "full" people? What about that ad where you saw ppl playing a question game and hammering their palms with thier fists?
The company that makes the technology that MS uses to make Kinect is called PrimeSense. Here is some info talking about what you are questioning...
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/19/kinect-how-it-works-from-the-company-behind-the-tech/JoyStiq said:
So, there is still a while before it launches, and it could be updated down the line, but I think it is safe to say that you will probably only have 2 players playing most all games. But really, that sounds fine to me. I can't say 4 people jumping and flailing around my living room would work very well, so a limit of 2 is ok.
Perhaps rather than 4 "flailing people", you can have the software isolate just the hands part of 4 ppl and run "calculations" on those with the limited hardware. Therefore, assuming that the people are relatively still, it can track those 4 small spots and tell who slams first. I would guess that this is likely even less intensive than a full skeleton.
Maybe, I'm not really sure. To me though, it seems like if the software has to scan you to figure out what part is an arm and a what is a leg, etc, then 2 people might be the max. But again, I really have no clue.
The way I understand what they are describing in the snip, it would prolly have to "scan" you to tell where your hands are (and not your feet, etc.). But after that initial scan, it can ignor the rest of your body and just track your hands...or the area where your hands are. This way, the positions of your two hands will be the only thing the computer has to focus on while the rest of your body doesn't need to get computed. Of course this depends on the software. If the license involves the device just outputting 1/2 skeleton configurations, then the game dev can only work with 2 ppl. If the game dev has more control over the sensor tracking, then they can do more body parts...or isolated areas of the screen.
The Black Knight rejoices on the news that Kinect might not require full bodies to play...Why are all your friends decapitated or missing limbs?
I found this...regarding the kinect sensor.
All sensory information (depth image, color image and audio) is transferred to the host via a USB2.0 interface, with complete timing alignment.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/project-natal-xbox-360-primesense-motion-control,news-6326.html
So if this is the case, that would mean that processing the scene is up to the either the game developer...or XBox patch software. If the developer has direct access to the feed (as opposed to having to use whatever the XBox software provides) then they can potentially use as many people/objects as they want...given hardware limitations.
Maybe the patch software will initially give devs 2 skeletons so they can work with this to speed up making the first games. But over time, either Xbox engineers can make it more versatile, or devs will figure out different ways to use the sensor.
This is pretty interesting. If the feed spec / algorithms are available or can be reverese engineered, you may see some interesting applications of the Kinect sensor crop up arround the internet like the Wii sensors. Although admittedly, the Kinect, as a vision system, is not as simplistic as the Wii Mote, many hardcore hackers might be able to come up with all sorts of gadget projects.
Price is now confirmed at $150 for Kinect + Kinect Adventures. Also confirmed is a new 4GB Arcade 360, based on the slim design, retailing in a bundle with Kinect for $299 (or $199 for the 360 by itself), giving a $50 discount on the total cost.
My thoughts? Too expensive to bother with! Kinect costs nearly as much as a console itself, which is far more complex.
[EDIT: £129 in the UK, bundle price at £249]
My thoughts? Too expensive to bother with! Kinect costs nearly as much as a console itself, which is far more complex.
[EDIT: £129 in the UK, bundle price at £249]
I believe it can track 4 people with two active players. Add up the costs for move controllers or wiimotes and you'll see it's very competitive.
There was already a very slim chance that I would buy Kinect anyway, but now at $150 it is a definite pass for me. I have practically zero interest in motion controls for my gaming needs, and when it costs that much, it gets even worse.
The cost doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is the potential of leaving it on and proceeding to have sex on the couch, inadvertently launching nuclear war heads on Russia.
Haha, they would have to PAY ME 150 bucks to play any of the kinect games they have revealed so far!!
And I'm not even sure about that....how do you put a price on your dignity?
And I'm not even sure about that....how do you put a price on your dignity?
The £130 price was to be expected. $150 = £99ish, add VAT and you're on just under £120, which is what Amazon will probably sell it for anyway. At least it includes Kinect Adventures for that price.
Had a look at Kinect game trailers on Xbox.com earlier with the kids, which was a rather daft thing to do. My daughter has now decided that Kinectimals is the greatest thing ever created. She really enjoys EyePet and now wants a pet tiger to play with. My boy is really into Sonic at the moment, so he wants Sonic Free Riders and also Adrenalin Misfits which looks like great fun; I'll be playing that with him. Adventures also looks like good fun, especially riding the rapids.
I can see this being a very entertaining Xmas this year....
Had a look at Kinect game trailers on Xbox.com earlier with the kids, which was a rather daft thing to do. My daughter has now decided that Kinectimals is the greatest thing ever created. She really enjoys EyePet and now wants a pet tiger to play with. My boy is really into Sonic at the moment, so he wants Sonic Free Riders and also Adrenalin Misfits which looks like great fun; I'll be playing that with him. Adventures also looks like good fun, especially riding the rapids.
I can see this being a very entertaining Xmas this year....
I wonder if it can also detect objects. Like a foam sword or perhaps if it had some tansmitters on the ends or something.
It would also be cool to use a gun/rifle controller with this too.
It would make "duck and shoot" have a whole different meaning.
It would also be cool to use a gun/rifle controller with this too.
It would make "duck and shoot" have a whole different meaning.
...or glowing orbs on the ends maybe - you're right, that would be pretty cool!
I don't know how "positionally accurate" that PS3 thing would be. Since you really need 2 points (which can actually be found by the range imager alone, albeit you need to add "this is not part of the body" algorithms into it) to define a line, holding a "sword" in various angles might present a problem with the bulb. And I don't know why they used that glowing ball. They could have used IR and it wouldn't look so retarded.