Microsoft new technology is AMAZINGG

[rossipoo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8077369.stm

wow.
This is really incredible stuff.
watch the whole thing.

[Bill]

Stuff like this makes me not want to die. At some point I won't be able to see what comes next.

[algenpfleger]

Goooooooooood please tell me his voice is generated in realtime!!

[~Faust~]

No way it is, no advanced AI would deliberately talk with that accent!

[Bill]

I'm guessing this will revolutionize the Pron industry.

[kikindaface]

wow amazin stuff ! i hope i'll still be alive when it will be released :p i hope there will be great games with that, tough it will be hard to do some war games with this technology " move move, go to the riiiiight ! an enemy at 10 h kill him KILLL HIIIIIIIM ! LOL it would be funny :D

[chriskot]

Am I the only one who is a little skeptical here?

My problem with the video is that so much of it is clearly scripted that I find it difficult to tell what isn't. Milo's speech, for example, is all obviously prerecorded, so I don't know what the technology is doing there (deciding which track to play based on tonal analysis of her voice, perhaps?). As for the hands creating ripples in the water and the face tracking, that's stuff that Nintendo's DSi is already capable of, and that's only a handheld system. The recognition of her drawing also reminds me of something Sony already demonstrated in a tech demo for the Playstation Eye (although if it really did scan it in properly, then I am impressed that it didn't need something like a table to hold it steady on).

It's good technology, no doubt, but none of it really seems all that new to me. It's essentially all of the same tracking technology that allows my dad's camera to automatically find and focus on people's faces, just with a more powerful machine running the calculations and putting out better graphics. I kind of wished that the demonstrator had tried to psyche out the machine when she was handing it the paper or something like that, just to prove how well the technology was working. Instead, everything she did was perfectly fluid and all at the same constant speed, almost like she was trying to keep in step with a recording, which didn't really tell me much about how their system works when interacting with your clumsy everyday user.

[Brashen]

Always knew Peter was a Pedo :P

[Ghostbrush]

looks cool, but I just cant quite believe its as seemless and interactive as it looks in the video, looks too good to to be true.

Wont call that my final opinion however, completely prepared to be blown away by it!!!!!!

can you imagine playing Silent Hill with that interface 0_0 I think I would end up behind the sofa if the level of interaction was the same

[Gloominati]

fucking sweet!!!

[Grief]

do your own damn homework milo. chop chop, princess aint gonna save herself.

[Brashen]

Honestly I highly doubt anything molyneux says.....time and time again he promises 'revolutionary design and tech' and fails to deliver.....case in point Movies or whatever that poor excuse for a game was..... Even Black and white 2 for all it's visual glory was a pile of shite riddled with bugs.

[tobbA]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3-project-natals-molyneux-and-milo-interview

Here's an interview with Eurogamer... Appearently the A.I can only recognize a set number of words, but he can figure out if you're joking and such by listening to the tone of your voice...

[Shard]

lionhead video is more of a teaser,looks good but as far as showing the potential of the device didnt impress me too much..
i'm lucky enough to have given the thing a try, and the tech is actually good..you can see more demos online in different gaming situations..
its a full 3d motion capture camera that can detect depth as well..it allows it to track a user's body movement in 3D and the info is used to move the 3d model's skeleton/joints.
and works amazingly well at this early stages!! :)

[Jovian M]

They should've gotten someone who isn't Peter Molyannunsunux to talk about this. I mean, he totally delivers on his promises at E3, 'n all, but I just don't think he's suited for it.

Fucking Fable.

[RB2610]

How does it work in regards to the player moving and turning in the world, using this tech in most genres seems limited by the ability to move within the world, arcade style railshooters are fun and all but if you are going to be dishing out lots of money to buy one of these (and a 360) there are going to have to be some worthwhile games on it.

From what you've said I assume it could recognise the player jogging on the spot and use that as a cue to move forward, turning seems an issue though :S

I would love to see some decent fighting games on this, I think that is where it will really shine, and sword combat, I assume from how it recognised a drawing on the tech demo it will also be able to recognise the player holding a sword prehipheral (or a stick :P)
Then they could give the game to that starwars kid, then he wont look like such an idiot anymore :D

[Jason Rainville]

On most nerd forums I'm on it's instantly dismissed as gimmicky. I don't care what the immediate applications are, holy crap that motion recognition was accurate. Now it's less about moving a controller to trigger a certain animation, it's more about you precisely controlling the animation.

As for the kid, of course it was scripted. Still, the word from people who've played around with it is pretty good.

[RB2610]

There was an interview on another website somewhere where they tried it out and explained it, he didn't actually understand most of what she was saying, he is programmed to respond to emotions and stuff, so I don't think it is as scripted as you would think. (but probably still scripted to some extent)

[nonie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXN7vLPsDSM

[Shard]

yeah a good solution for moving around is not going to be easy, turning is not a problem but
I guess its going to be a combination of moving on the spot or leaning towards the direction you wanna go..developers can use any body movement they want to trigger whatever char movement.
a fighting game using this would be definitely awesome!!

[Cthogua]

All this talk about the controller being the reason video games don't make people cry is fucking bullshit. I find it especially humorous coming from someone who writes for games, because I think THIS is atleast 90% of the reason video games aren't producing compelling, humanistic, emotional experiences. Books make people cry, and there's no motion tracking camera needed there. True, interactive worlds hold the potential of making that experience significantly more immersive...maybe. Immersion however is a pointless sideshow if the thing you're being immersed in is poorly written or constructed. Then you're just immersed in crap :P Video games are going to have to deal with the "game/toy" aspect of the medium before all this promise of in depth, player involved emotional experiences can be realized.

My second issue is one of feedback, stirring my hands around in the air watching a bunch of ripples track my motion is neat, but i doubt I'd be able to shake the feeling that I'm waving my arms around in nothing. Half of the Wii's "motion control" seems like it boils down to flailing.

I think in terms of a general interface addition it's pretty neat, and will probably lead to a lot of the recently envisioned "moving stuff in the air" kind of computer interactions. Revolutionizing games though? eeeeh, perhaps adding an extra layer like a 3rd or 1st person camera that used head tracking to look around, but that seems more like an evolution rather than a revolution. There are always going to have to be things in video games that are abstracted, and require the controller, or some simplified move inorder to trigger. Handing Dudley the computer boy a piece of paper is one thing, but what about your double hyper powerup space warp attack? Anyway, blah blah blah...I'm a doubter.

[Rist]

its gonna be expensive to buy :(

[MichaelNoel]

I think it's a start, but I feel like immersion that involves a headset is going to work better than one that involves a tv. As of now, this is just a glorified version of DDR or pretty much just a different version of the Wii (which I think still wins in terms of simplicity and functionality).

How are you going to be immersed in a game when you are doing friggin jumping jacks to play? I think a system based on totally immersing your point of view- regardless of which direction you look- is the only way something like this would ever work. How you move/control the game is secondary- first person shooters on the pc proved this.

[iambanana]

It's gonna suck. Everything Microsoft has done, are doing or will ever do will suck.

And who says video games don't make people cry? MGS4 anyone?

[DeadlyFreeze]

lol @ anyone who think tech demos are real

[Jason Rainville]

It's gonna suck. Everything Microsoft has done, are doing or will ever do will suck.

Please, PLEASE don't bring the dick-waving, flame-inducing and all-around juvenile act of console fanboyism in here. The 360 isn't perfect, but so far it has the largest library of core games and most successful online community. At least they have interesting things to say/new developments at their conference. Nintendo's so far is a repeat of 2008.

[RB2610]

Nintendo's is failure at its best, I'm not even bothering to watch it really, just reading blog posts on gamespot to see if there is anything interesting, someone posted this:
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:D:D:D

[Gloominati]

meh I am getting enough of all the guys who just wait for something like that to appear on the forums so that they can respond "uaaah, that SUUUCKS!!!". It's a bit like that "most overrated movies ever"-thread going on somewhere here on the boards where people rate some of the best animated movies ever as being a complete failure. I mean, c'mon, being able to build a plane out of a piece of paper which doesn't even fly very well MIGHT be something that sucks(although I have to say that I am the kinda person who can even find joy in something like that :D )....but that? I mean that is far beyond being something that "sucks"........

......or is it just me??

[Robert.B]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXN7vLPsDSM


http://www.vimeo.com/4952629
(http://www.vimeo.com/4952629)

[s.ketch]

Please, PLEASE don't bring the dick-waving, flame-inducing and all-around juvenile act of console fanboyism in here. The 360 isn't perfect, but so far it has the largest library of core games and most successful online community. At least they have interesting things to say/new developments at their conference. Nintendo's so far is a repeat of 2008.


Wow the nextgen console that came out first has more games? More successful online community compared to what? Nothing like paying for a game then paying a monthly fee to pay it online. Spinning facts to make one particular console sound better than it is? Getting pretty fanboy in here.

360 and PS3 are pretty much the same. I hate to admit it but it's true. The PS3 is slightly more difficult to develop with. 360 lost out on HD-DVD so it sucks to be them. Wii, while making a pretty neat new controller, got old pretty quick among hardcore gamers. Nobody wants to wave their arms around for 2hrs while trying to play a game. They all suck in a lot of ways due to stupid next gen hype and competition. I guess the greatest thing to come out of this round so far is the innovation in visuals. Fun time to be an artist in the game industry. Purely visuals don't make good games though so now the three companies are in a race to tackle the next supposed "problem", peripherals. Too bad neither of these things will ultimately force developers to create good games.

[XanaChama]

The people making the "pose" looked like one had stuck their head up the other's butt. I was trying so hard to figure out what that pose was supposed to be but that's all I could see...

[Hookswords]

Cool tech but I question the usage...

Welcome to Xbox 360, thanks for signing in. You're probably sitting on your couch smoking a bowl before an online deathmatch in the latest blood covered gorefest shoot em up. While loading, talk to this sweet little chimney sweep about fish

[Jason Rainville]

Wow the nextgen console that came out first has more games?

Naturally, but it's not just that, I'm talking about good core games, the ones that average gamers want to play. Nintendo seems to be focusing on games that are actually collections of micro games.

More successful online community compared to what?
The other two consoles?

Nothing like paying for a game then paying a monthly fee to pay it online.

MMOs are quite successful you know... more service = more money.

As for spinning facts, I know full well that microsoft's hardware debacle has been a nightmare and they should be rightfully embarrassed. Their attempt to tap into the casual game market with blatant nintendo-ripped aesthetics is transparent, and the way they handle downloadable content is greedy.

And I was talking more about what each console was brining to this conference, not necessarily the consoles themselves. So far, it's easy to see that microsoft made a better show. I'm watching sony's now, and I'm actually pretty sure they'll do the best with a solid lineup of games, something the other two failed to present.

[Baron Impossible]

What is that video meant to represent? Surely they can't expect us to believe that technology has suddenly leaped forwards 100 years. So, it has face recognition and ability to interpret tone and pose (allegedly). Fine. If they'd have said that straight out I would have said yep, that's a great innovation, but for some reason they feel the need to bullshit us. Everything these days seems to be 99% hype and 1% substance.

[Rist]

I don't know why people debate about which console is most successful. Its pretty obvious, lets just roll onto the NEXT generation consoles. Who would be better SONY or Microsoft? :D oh sorry and the Nontendo

[Dave_]

First note, what the fuck is wrong with a controller? Acting like its all a pain, after years and years of development, tweaking it has come to this, intuative controllers whom look good and have enough buttons to play a game in a decent way, while not having to much and fuck you up? And now its this 'barrier'? it kinda pissed me off.


However, the lineup for software was amazing. The titles they announced where epic and the xbox live features are pretty wicked.

[Cthogua]

Cool tech but I question the usage...

Welcome to Xbox 360, thanks for signing in. You're probably sitting on your couch smoking a bowl before an online deathmatch in the latest blood covered gorefest shoot em up. While loading, talk to this sweet little chimney sweep about fish

Yeah there's a scary 1984 implication there. If it can tell what you're doing, and knows you're being naughty I hope it would be "cool" and not call the po-po :P I remember being a little freaked out the first time I realized Word knew my name. Maybe you could hold the bowl up to the camera and the "kid" would have a virtual puff with ya. It could argue with you about getting skipped in the rotation and when you imply that it's not real, get pissed off and lock you out of your game system, and send you an email saying "WHATCHOO GONNA DO NOW STONER" :P

hehehe, sorry I just had too much fun imagining that scenario.

[Brashen]

Tsk tsk.....we all know that consoles and innovation dont go together in the same sentence....WHATEVER the console is.....PC fanboy here.

[petitemistress]

I'm with Dave_, i love the controller. N64 fangirl to the end. bring back the trident, mofos! D:
but yeah, ahem. I own 2 next gens out of 3 and would get the Xbox if I could spare the cash. All this unilateral fandomism thing is beyond me. I just like good games.
(which are too few and far in between lately if you ask me T_T damn casual gaming bs)

[Flashback]

Tsk tsk.....we all know that consoles and innovation dont go together in the same sentence....WHATEVER the console is.....PC fanboy here.

PC gamer also.

[Shard]

yeah nothing wrong with controllers..
easy to imagine that since everyone is crazy for the wii, msft wants a slice of pie too but cant copy the remote as I bet nintendo patented every single screw of it,
so they had to come up with something quite different to do pretty much the same thing.. :)
but i dont see the standard controller going away any time soon..

[German-s]

Will have links soon but Sony just dropped their motion control system at their E3 press conference and it looks like it's camera based too.

[Rist]

The gaming industry does seem to be a little stale, with no real new gameplay and surprises. I guess they think a new innovation is needed; just a shame all they could think of was changing to a control-less system. I think to make a control-less system work they also need to be with a visor (like the one in Jason X) to make the immersion complete.

[German-s]

hell, i'm looking forward to gaming to get to the holodeck!

[Jason Rainville]

Or we can play fulfilling and deep games like mount and blade, galactic civilizations 2 etc. and forget about mainstream gaming :)

The more we support good, lesser known games the more they will pop up.

[XanaChama]

Tsk tsk.....we all know that consoles and innovation dont go together in the same sentence....WHATEVER the console is.....PC fanboy here.

Burn... My SO said "Spoken like a true mod player" LOL

[Brashen]

Burn... My SO said "Spoken like a true mod player" LOL

I'm sorry WUT!!!??

Or we can play fulfilling and deep games like mount and blade

QFT

[Hookswords]

Yeah there's a scary 1984 implication there. If it can tell what you're doing, and knows you're being naughty I hope it would be "cool" and not call the po-po :P I remember being a little freaked out the first time I realized Word knew my name. Maybe you could hold the bowl up to the camera and the "kid" would have a virtual puff with ya. It could argue with you about getting skipped in the rotation and when you imply that it's not real, get pissed off and lock you out of your game system, and send you an email saying "WHATCHOO GONNA DO NOW STONER" :P

hehehe, sorry I just had too much fun imagining that scenario.


Not only the invasive bit of it, but what they've formatted here....doesnt scream Xbox 360 to me. I understand this is more of a tech demo but it seems out of the demographic of 360. Wii maybe. Now, I could see this sort of tech working into squad based first person games or something like that. Giving orders to AI team mates and what not. It's pretty exciting but I could see it squandered or being too gimmicky. We dont want Milo to become the Segway of video games.

[Bill]

hell, i'm looking forward to gaming to get to the holodeck!

Holodeck? Pffftttt!!... This is where "Danger Room" technology begins.

[Arshes Nei]

Playing games is too much work :/

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Personally I find tech like SixthSense (http://technabob.com/blog/2009/05/22/sixthsense-wearable-gestural-interface/) much more interesting.

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[Bronke]

It's exciting and interesting but yeah it's still gimmicky. It's gimmicky because it doesn't really add much to gameplay experience and even somewhat of a hindrance (i.e. playing with a controller is still more intuitive and faster twitch). Maybe in a generation or two it could be up to par where it actually adds to the experience.

Still though, very cool stuff.

[Max Challie]

It's all about the games. There's no point in buying a console that doesn't have any games you want to play, because you'll never have a reason to play it. So I'd love to see more innovative games with less focus on competition, "mature" themes, and gore. Less ideas that are selected from a list of cliches and directed towards a large crowd of people with no taste. But, that demographic makes money.

The problem i have with all this "immersion innovation" is that it's not necessary. What we have works fine. I don't care about immersion, because that's what the game is for. When I started out, I was looking down at the controller until I got a feel for things. 2 hours later, I only looked at the screen. The controller was never a problem for me, because I wanted to play the game. Controllers are never an obstacle, people simply aren't interested in playing games. And, that's a obstacle for developers. So they water down the experience for people who do want to play games.

While I'm at it, I might as well explain why I dislike casual games. Videogames are all about being sucked into another world, and doing things you wouldn't normally be able to do. So, why would you want to simulate things you can do in real life? Why buy a Wii and play its bowling or tennis when you can do IRL anyway? At least with the real thing, you don't have to deal with the artificial nature of Wii hardware. It makes sense with games like Test Drive Unlimited, since very few people are able to drive around Hawaii in really fancy cars. But I cannot understand what is so appealing about playing the Sims and simulating the life you already have.

Some examples of what I'd like to play more of:

- Homeworld
- the experience of playing GTA San Andreas with the "cars fly" cheat
- Wip3out without a focus on competition
- Anything that allows me to explore a large environment without any tedious grinding on becoming better at something that isn't important.

[GriNGo]

Yep Max, games should make you do stuff you can't do in real life, like conquer civilizations, and such.... not try to emulate real life (sports like tennis, SIMS WTF!!). But still, when I try to imagine playing God of War with these Natal motion sensors, I can only express amazement... talk about a work out. Wii Fit can suck my balls, fitness for losers.

[Fallout]

Well, yeah, someone is apparently goona make us cry. I'm sure he'll succeed :rolleyes:. Anyways, 'revolutionary' or not, can't they find a better name?! Natal?!

[iambanana]

Alright, I admit my comment was a tad simple and arrogant, but I'd still like to make a few more serious comments on this technology.

If Project Natal does everything it says it can do in that advertisement perfectly (Which many people including myself are a bit sceptical towards), then this will be a HUGE leap forward for the things you can use the 360 for. I agree that this will undoubtedly bring a few previously unrepresented demographics into gaming. Casual gaming, at least.
However, I just can't see how a couple of cameras and a mic will be of any use to anyone beyond the stage of casual gamer. We've already seen it happen with such technologies as the PS eye and the Wii. For hardcore gamers to start using this tech it will require an incredible degree of responsiveness. If not, they will simply revert back to their trusty controller.
Also, if Microsoft are hoping to use the technology for such things as Milo anywhere else than in english-speaking countries, they have a huge job infront of them making the voice-recognition compatible for the worlds other languages. Although one may think it, the swedish software probably wouldn't be compatible with norwegian-speaking players, or perhaps not even with other dialects of swedish.
"Why don't you just speak English?" you say. Well, simply because it feels unnatural for a Norwegian to be standing in his living room speaking English to his television. I have no troubles speaking English fluently (I used to live in the US) but still it'd feel strange. The players from other countries would never feel completely immersed in the game world if they are required to speak English.

Microsoft probably already realizes this, but in order for this to be the success they want it to be, they have quite the job on their hands in order for this to not just be another party-game accessory.

[chriskot]

The more complicated you make an interface, the harder it is to program it to work properly and consistently. Look back at the video that nonie posted on the previous page. When he says "BAM!", the arms are at crazy angles and the rear knee is backwards. It messed up 3 out of 4 limbs. When you try to track too many points and move them in front of one another, some will often either get mixed up or lost when they disappear behind other body parts. I'm sure that this system will work fine most of the time when it's just trying to track simple extremities like hands and maybe heads, but things get a little less manageable beyond that point. I wonder if there are issues if someone quickly runs between you and the TV? They go to get the phone or make a sandwich and suddenly Natal locks on and thinks it's them playing?

The other problem with full-body tracking is that the camera actually needs to see your full body. Easy enough on a big stage, but I don't think there's a single place in my house (other than the hallway) where you can set up a camera and a TV to see my entire body, head to feet, without a piece of furniture or something in the way.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see this thing go to market and perform flawlessly (motion controls are frickin' awesome when they actually work properly), but I just don't think that it will be able to do a lot of the stuff under regular conditions. Right now, WiiMotion+ and Sony's new tech just seem more practical.

[Shard]

When you try to track too many points and move them in front of one another, some will often either get mixed up or lost when they disappear behind other body parts.

indeed, if you look at the guy just before that happens he does a full 360 turn.
I guess if the thing is working on the image of your silhouette and you start spinning it doesnt know what's facing what anymore..
also as it needs to see your body properly I wonder if different lighting conditions in the room affect the performance..