Posts Tagged ‘fighting’

Kinect Sports

Kinect Sports was the second game shown at the 2010 E3 demo after Kinectimals.

Here’s a trailer:

Family playing hurdles:

Project Natal Renamed Kinect?

Sorry about the lack of updates, I’ve been busy with political causes and my personal life.

But according to rumours, Microsoft has accidentally let the cat out of the bag, and the new name for Project Natal is Kinect.

And among other games, Kinect will have the following “Kinect” named games:

“Kinectimals: A virtual ‘big cat’ trainer that lets you train and play with 20 different feline members of the animal kingdom, including tigers, lions and cheetah.

Kinect Sports: Microsoft’s answer to Wii Sports, Kinect Sports features table tennis, boxing, bowling, soccer, beach volleyball, and track and field; all controlled using your body.

Kinect Adventures: This game combines a river raft simulator (recently seen on Youtube) and obstacle course for up to four players. Rafting works in pairs, with players working together and moving in the same direction to steer. Jumping will also grant access to secret areas.”

But keep checking back over the next couple of days for a lot more information, as E3 will bring loads of official announcements.

Stereoscopic 3D TVs and Project Natal

One thing we haven’t heard much from Microsoft about is stereoscopic 3D (aka S3D) support for Xbox 360 and specifically for Project Natal. A couple of games that I can think of support stereoscopic 3D on the Xbox 360: Avatar, and G-Force. And there are lots of new stereoscopic 3D TVs hitting the market now.

Stereoscopic 3D means each eye sees a separate image because it is seeing the scene from a slightly different angle. Your brain automatically looks at the difference between the two eyes and calculates depth from it. That’s why people have two eyes.

Anything that’s at the same screen position for both eyes will look like it’s at the same distance as the screen is. Which is what normal TV looks like. But anything that’s drawn further to the left on your right eye, and further to the right on your left eye, looks like it’s popping out in front of the screen. On the other hand, anything that’s drawn further to the left on the left eye, and further to the right on the right eye looks like it’s behind the screen. Your eyes are very sensitive, and even one pixel difference is enough for you to see the difference in depth.

By now you should have seen that effect at a stereoscopic 3D movie. If not, go and watch Avatar 3D. It is really, really cool. You feel like you can reach out and grab things that are in front of the screen. And just as good is feeling like there is a whole huge world stretching far out into the distance behind the screen.

atokirina': Avatar 3D seeds

Of course in Avatar when you reach out and touch the floating seeds that seem just in front of you, you can’t actually grab them and hold them and move them around in your hand. You’re probably thinking: “Well, duh! Of course not!”. But with Project Natal you can actually do that!

You see, project Natal already knows exactly where your hand is in 3D space. And it knows exactly where your eyes are in 3D space. So if you tell Project Natal exactly where your TV is in 3D space, by telling it what size TV you have and where you put the Natal sensor bar, then it can very easily calculate the line from your eye to your hand to the point on the screen that you are grabbing. So it knows which part of the scene you are touching.

More importantly, it knows exactly where to draw something so it looks like you are holding it in your hand! Imagine that 3D in front of the screen effect in Avatar but with a sword, gun, baseball bat, or even a weighted companion cube, that is drawn at the exact location of your hand and follows your hand precisely whenever you move or rotate your hand, and compensates for moving your head. It would look exactly like you were holding the virtual object in your real hand right in front of your eyes. You wouldn’t have to mime anything, because you can really see and hold the virtual object in your hand.

So, what’s the catch? Well, it only works when your hand is in front of the TV. When the 3D object looks like it should cross in front of the edge of the TV, the edge of the TV actually goes in front of it instead, and half the object disappears and it spoils the illusion. So you need a big enough TV, and you need to be close enough to the TV.

And there’s the catch that the hilt of a sword or the handle of a gun that is supposed to be drawn in front of your hand can’t actually be drawn in front of your hand because it’s drawn on the screen and your hand is in the way. The rest of the gun or sword would look right, but not the part that should be covering your hand but instead your hand seems to be covering.

The other catch is that the image on the TV is a bit out of focus and blurry when you look at your hand. Even if the image is in stereoscopic 3D and looks like it is right next to your hand, either the image or your hand will be out of focus because in reality they are at completely different depths. That would be OK, except that it is actually hard for your eyes to focus on one depth while they are converging (aiming) at a different depth. That makes it hurt to look at 3D that is too far in front of the screen. So you need to be reasonably close to the screen, and have your hand a reasonable distance away from your eyes. Or you just need to not look directly at the object in your hand and focus more on the rest of the scene.

Another catch is that there is lag. You would move your hand, and 100 ms later the thing you are holding will move. The same with moving your head.

I still think it would be awesome though. Especially with a big screen.

Ricochet's avatar (from Scientific American)

Think about the Project Natal game Ricochet. You don’t actually hit balls with your body. Your avatar on the screen, in it’s own virtual world, copies your movements and hits the virtual balls. Meanwhile you are outside in the real world and balls never come out of the screen towards you. But with Stereoscopic 3D, the real world and the virtual world can share the same space out in front of your TV in your living room with you. So the balls would come all the way out to your real hand, and you can hit them with your real hand, or catch them with your real hands, and even hold them and move them around in your hands. The same with fighting games, or sports games, or shooting games. Wouldn’t it be cool to have to physically duck projectiles that are really coming out of the screen at you.

Most project Natal games that we have seen have an avatar interacting with things on your behalf, instead of you interacting with them. Except for Milo and Kate, Burnout Paradise (the racing game), the quiz game, and the first part of the fighting game when you talk to the opponent. Wouldn’t Milo and Kate be better though if the thrown goggles really did seem to come out of the screen? And if you really could catch the goggles? And if you could see the goggles in your hands? And if you could really put them on? Obviously you wouldn’t be able to feel them, but you could see the goggles in your hands and responding to how you move them.

To some extent the things that I’ve said above can also be done without stereoscopic 3D, and only using the Johnny Lee head-tracking 3D effect, but it wouldn’t be quite as realistic (unless you only have one eye).

With stereoscopic 3D support, Natal would need a new slogan:
“No avatar required. You are the avatar.”

Project Natal Innovation Journey Parody

If you watched the video “Innovation Journey” from CES 2010 that I posted a while ago, then you might enjoy this parody of it: “Transformation Journey into Sameness” by ScrewAttack. If you haven’t watched the original CES video, then view Project Natal at CES 2010 first.

I think Project Natal will be great, so don’t be offended or think I am criticising Natal by posting these parodies.

For more spoof videos about Project Natal, just click on the “parody” tag below.

Project Natal at CES 2010

Project Natal’s most recent appearance was at CES 2010 earlier this month.

At CES, Microsoft gave a really boring introduction, then showed a new video called “Innovation Journey”.

This is my favourite video, since it actually explains how Project Natal works, shows what Project Natal’s depth sensor is actually seeing, and talks a bit to some of the people behind it. And of course it tells us the release date!

Note in particular the scenes where it shows on the screen a 3D view of what the depth sensor is seeing, with the different object types colour-coded. Notice how there is a black hole in the background where the camera can’t see what’s there because it’s blocked by you standing in front of it. But aside from that, it has a very good 3D model of the scene. You can see how easy it would be to recognise different kinds of objects from this sort of information, even without the colour data that you also get. Much more powerful than just a camera like eye-toy.

We also get to see a (blurry) close-up of the back of the project natal hardware.

At CES 2010, Microsoft also talked about Xbox Live, and their own version of Nintendo’s Virtual Console. The Xbox is getting a virtual arcade called Games Room, where your avatar can walk into a 3D arcade and see and hear all their purchased arcade games in their 3D cabinets in attract mode before you play them. You can also invite friends and play against them online. They have 30 different arcade games that you can buy.

And they talked about how people will be able to rent and watch videos online quickly, using Xbox Live.

Other Japanese developers supporting Natal

Namco Bandai weren’t in the panel at TGS 2009, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t at TGS to support Project Natal.

We already saw one Namco Bandai game for the Project Natal demonstrated live for many people to try: Beautiful Katamari.

But Namco Bandai are better known for their fighting games: Tekken, SoulBlade/SoulEdge/SoulCalibur, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja, Dragon Ball Z, etc.
They’ve also produced a few baseball games over the years, and many, many other kinds of games.

video link

Yozo Sakagami
General Manager, Planning Unit 2
Planning Division, Contents Production Group
NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.

“You don’t need anything but your hands. Like in Science Fiction films, where people control holographic interfaces by their hands. Being able to do this in reality is very futuristic and exciting. We have worked with motion capturing in fighting games for quite some time. Realistic movement has been one of our strongest interests.

“We were all excited, like kids with a new toy. Everyone on the team was coming up with new ideas. We talked about things like how a ball was thrown in a baseball game. We were all quite excited. In fact, it’d been a while since we had so much fun. We hadn’t encountered anything as innovative.

“On the other hand, the experience itself that people enjoy, really hasn’t changed. So it may not be about creating something that is completely new and different, but rather to deliver an experience that everyone could imagine and relate to.

“Motions and gestures are very real in form, and they are also very personal features. It’s not only about the looks, but how a person moves is also very unique. I think being able to integrate this into a game could be a big step forward.”

Tecmo are famous for their Dead Or Alive fighting games. And also for Ninja Gaiden, Fatal Frame/Project Zero, Monster Rancher, Gallop Racer, and others.
Since this interview, Tecmo has merged with Koei, so hopefully that brings Koei’s games on-board too.

video

Keisuke Kikuchi
Executive Producer
Tecmo

We’ve put a lot of thought, but there’s others who do more. That’s why we keep putting more thoughts into it. We want to do better than them. Our team has started planning for games to play on Natal and we came up with 72 ideas all together. When we saw these ideas, we started seeing a trend. My first impression was to become something in a game, but as we went on, we started seeing these ideas in categories.

For example, let’s say there is a small wall. In real life, you do a little jump over this wall. But if your character jumps to the 2nd floor of a building, it makes you feel as if you really were jumping that high.

This is more about the physical experience, but the experience as a whole. I am thinking about a content where you interact physically, and enjoy a more intimate experience within the game.

From Software were also interviewed. They are the developers of a couple of my favourite games: Tenchu and Armored Core.

I can just imagine playing Tenchu and accidentally making a sound in the real world and having the guards you are trying to sneak past hear you and try to catch you. I did find some of the gestures in the Wii version of Tenchu disturbing though, such as having to mime breaking someone’s neck.

video

Masanori Takeuchi
Managing Director / Game Producer
FromSoftware, Inc.

“I think Natal is beyond the concept of any existing game. With Natal, I thought that we’d be able to do something new on Xbox 360 again. I honestly thought it was going to be a lot of fun.

I think Natal is more about enhancing the experience. If evolution would leave behind our current fans, I want to be careful not to do so. I hope to expand the current gaming experience, rather than to evolve gaming into something irrelevant to current gamers.

Things like movement and facial expressions could not be reflected into the game through a handheld controller. But with Natal, this becomes possible.

I believe Natal will become very interesting, when combined with games that work with the players’ emotions.”

Kojima are the developers of Metal Gear Solid. But they also made Boktai. Boktai was a revolutionary gameboy advance game that uses a solar sensor as an input device, along with a clock. The game character had a solar gun that he used to shoot vampires, but the gun only charged when the player was outdoors in the sunlight. The stronger the sunlight, the faster your gun charged. Sunlight also affected other things in the game, such as slowly rotting fruit and nuts in your inventory. Sometimes in the game darkness is preferable. Time also affected things in game. That gives you an idea of where they are coming from.

They also made the game PoliceNauts for some ancient consoles, which was unusual in that it supported various console peripherals such as Mice and Lightguns.

video

Kenichiro Imaizumi
Senior Producer
Kojima Productions

During our previous production, we tried to build our own controller. We ran a lot of experiments. We tried running electric shockwaves, install a pulse reader, we also tried to build a controller that’s receptive to the strength of the grip. We tried a lot, even a transforming controller. Kojima came up with these ideas, and we worked directly with the manufacturer.

But all the way along, we thought we had to have a controller. And now Natal tells us that we don’t need a controller. We can use our movements, our voice, or the recognition of colours. That’s how we interact with games. It was quite revolutionary to us, we really never thought of it that way. We had imagined it before, but we never thought it would come so quickly. So it took us by surprise.

What we will create on Natal would be something that has no limitations. Ideas from outside the box. I have a strong feeling that Natal will allow us to create things that we really want to create.

More fighting and zombie games for Project Natal

Capcom’s Head of R&D, and Managing Corporate Officer, Keiji Inafune was interviewed at TGS 2009 too.

Capcom are the creators of Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Devil May Cry, Bionic Commando, and Lost Planet, among many other games.

I’m sure you can imagine the potential of some of these games on Project Natal, and let’s hope Capcom can too. He doesn’t say much useful, other than that Natal will allow them to have more complex and detailed game actions by not being limited by the number of buttons on the controller. I’m not sure how he’s going to make videos that are interactive like he says at the end. I’m imagining a cross between say the cutscenes in Resident Evil 5, and a simplified Project Milo, would make for interesting and immersive story telling between chapters in any type of game.

Japanese talking head videos are getting a bit boring, but here’s the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9TWrikZBI

And here’s the transcript:

“I believe many creators feel suppressed or even bored with the current trend of game development. But at the same time it’s a challenge for us to produce something beyond what we are so used to doing. I am certain that Natal will bring on that challenge. This doesn’t mean that it’s being replaced, but rather, it’s being enhanced. And by it being enhanced, it allows us to do more.

Take for instance, the number of buttons on an average controller. We were working on a very limited interface. But if we could create games without limits, it allows us to make it more interesting, for example, the physical experience. Its not something that reacts only to your fingertips. You can use your fingers too, but it doesn’t limit you to them. Being able to use a variety of things is what makes it so ground-breaking and innovative.

In that sense, by mixing in videos for instance, and a variety of other interactive elements may be the key to creating new gaming experience.”

Japanese Game Developers Back Project Natal

With any luck the Xbox 360 should be getting lots of new games supporting Project Natal. Which is good, because most existing Xbox 360 games probably aren’t going to have Project Natal support added.

At TGS 2009 (that’s the Tokyo Game Show), Microsoft featured a panel with Japanese game developers. And they announced that most of the big game development companies are keen on supporting Project Natal.

The following game companies have been confirmed as currently developing for Project Natal: Activision Blizzard, Bethesda Softworks, CAPCOM, Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, Konami, MTV Games, Namco Bandai, Sega, Square Enix, THQ Inc., and Ubisoft.

Those companies make up 70% of the third party games sold for recent consoles. So don’t fear that we won’t get any games for Natal.

As mentioned in the video above, representatives from Konami, Capcom and Sega (left to right) gave a special panel presentation at TGS. Here’s a humorous snippet:

Project Natal Parody

This parody has nothing to do with Milo. It is a parody of most aspects of the original Project Natal announcement video. It’s very funny:

Project Natal Video at E3

Microsoft first showed Project Natal to the public at E3 in June 2009. And people were stunned.

First they showed a video that they had prepared earlier, featuring a happy family playing on their XBox 360, using only their bodies, voices, and a real skateboard:

First it demonstrated recognising when a user entered the room, and which user it was. This is a confirmed feature that Project Natal will be able to do.

And it demonstrates a virtual character maintaining eye contact with the user as they walk around in front of the screen. That is also quite easy for Natal to do.

And it demonstrates the virtual character addressing the user by name in a sentence full of emotion. Which means either Microsoft has made a massive leap in speech synthesis technology; or more likely, that game makers could get their voice actors to record many of the most common names in various contexts, so users can feel personally involved. I’d like to see this more in games, even if some users with uncommon names miss out.

Then it demonstrates the virtual character responding to spoken dialog like “Let’s do it.” with an appropriate response and doing what it’s told.

Then it demonstrates how Natal could be used for 1-to-1 fighting games, where real punches, kicks, and blocks are used, and the avatar follows all the users moves perfectly. I can’t wait to try that kind of game.

Next came car racing with tracked hands steering in the air, and changing gears. I can’t see how they are controlling acceleration and braking, but Natal could do that by tracking your feet. It allowed multiplayer and didn’t get confused by others’ hands. And it allowed actual pit-work with 1-to-1 motions. That’s pretty impressive. But I suspect gamers would rather have a split-screen multiplayer racing option.

As we’d already seen, there was tracking of all your limbs in a rampage-like game. But this time they went for a mirror view rather than looking at the back of a transparent avatar. The impressive part is the roaring and breathing fire. I don’t know if that was done with the microphone or the 3D camera, but it looked cool.

Then they showed soccer with full body tracking. I can see that being popular, since sports games have always been successful with innovative but realistic controls. I’ve never been able to get into sports games much, but it was fun on the Wii.

I really like the part when the XBox 360 scans the appearance of the skateboard, and uses it as an in-game object. Users like being able to customise their game characters, but consoles have never before had an easy enough way to draw or send designs to the program. I doubt Project Natal can really project a flash of visible light onto it, but the video could be showing us the camera view as it’s displayed on the TV screen.

And the hand gestures to control the menu are good, but could get annoying if you have to go through a long list one item at a time. In real life when you spin something it has momentum, and spinning it harder makes it go faster. Unfortunately there is no haptic feedback, so there is no easy way to measure how hard someone is pushing, only how fast they are pushing.

Skateboarding games could work well, without the need of a Balance board like on the Nintendo Wii.

Then it goes back to facial recognition like at the start of the clip, to log into instant messaging, and voice commands to call someone. Who surprisingly answers the call instantly without complaining about being interrupted in the middle of something.

The video phone system looks good. But I can’t help noticing the video of your friend is in 2D. Project Natal has a 3D camera. So it wouldn’t be hard to have the friend extending out in front of the frame, especially when she does the hand gestures. It would look better on a stereoscopic 3D TV, which I really hope XBox 360 will be supporting one day, with or without Project Natal.

Since Project Natal can make a 3D scan of your whole body and use it as an avatar, the dressing up your avatar while online shopping could be useful. You could virtually try it on, and move around in it. But that would require significant effort on the part of clothes shops or manufacturers. Perhaps it would just be used for downloading clothes for your avatars.

The quiz game looks interesting, if it can do the hand tracking accurately enough to tell who pressed their “buzzer first”. But the video gets one thing wrong. The host is trying to draw out suspense with “Millard Filmore is… ” before saying “correct”, and the players are worried. But the fact that the game show host recognised the name and was able to say it back shows that the game makers programmed it in, which they wouldn’t have done for a random wrong name.

It also shows online play against another family.

And last of all, it shows a media player controlled by gestures and voice commands.