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MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

gizmodo.com

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Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#11

Post by [deleted] »

snprbob86 wrote: post #7
jerf wrote: post #3

At first I was really skeptical that the motion stuff was more Hollywood demo than reality. Then I took a closer look at the sensor bar: http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/e3xbox/e3xbox300.jpg I don't think that yellow thing to the left is a camera, but if both those other holes are cameras, then that would mean the XBox could indeed be getting full 3D information on you, and that really does open up some interesting po…

There are indeed two cameras and a microphone array. The hardware design is still not final, but it is able to extract accurate depth information. Similarly, the software is not final, but the skeletal tracking demos which I have seen have been pretty impressive.

[deleted]

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#12

Post by gchucky »

chaosmachine wrote: post #10
viggity wrote: post #5

Here is a video of the Natal. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03thQvGRVvQ&feature=playe... I just hope it works as advertised and I hope it has an easy to use API/SDK.

Yikes. I wonder how Nintendo can respond to this. Microsoft is really going for their throat here.

Just to rub it in Nintendo's face a bit more, during the demonstration at E3, the guy explaining the system said "This isn't a game where you end up on the sofa just kind of using some preset waggle commands."

Ow.

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#13

Post by potatolicious »

gchucky wrote: post #12
chaosmachine wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes. I wonder how Nintendo can respond to this. Microsoft is really going for their throat here.

Just to rub it in Nintendo's face a bit more, during the demonstration at E3, the guy explaining the system said "This isn't a game where you end up on the sofa just kind of using some preset waggle commands." Ow.

'Tis true though. I've worked briefly with the Wiimote, and it really isn't as capable as advertised - forget tracking any sort of complex gestural movements, it's really only good for jerks and twists - i.e. something that saturates the sensor good.

This thing is going to absolutely destroy the Wii, if it works as advertised...

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#14

Post by anigbrowl »

whatusername wrote: post #8

The voice recognition stuff also looked impressive. Buzz (Quiz game) with voice recognition is a killer feature. (My mother in law would probably buy one for that)

With the camera and internet play (see the other family) it's going to be bad for that segment of the TV market, because it'll be easy to set up tournaments with cash prizes. Way more people will compete to win $1000 than will watch TV to watch someone else win $100,000.

On an unrelated note, I wonder if/how they're going to prevent it being used for porn. Obviously they won't allow porn games but the video chat + bored teens makes that kind of activity pretty much inevitable.

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#15

Post by stcredzero »

jrockway wrote: post #6

I hope Natal works out as well in real life as it does in the ads. I really like some of the motion-sensitive Wii games... but Wii games have terrible graphics, and I find that distracting. Having games that are both motion sensitive AND full HD will be wonderful. (I wonder if there will be a Mirror's Edge 2 that takes advantage of this.)

If Natal works, there's tremendous applications in terms of interactivity at work. How about we leverage this stuff for "Minority Report" type interfaces with 50" flat screen TVs? How about rear projection? Imagine collaborative picture or movie editing over the net? Can stuff like this be leveraged for pair programming? How about animated CRC cards which can execute and animate their functionality? Such things have been possible for awhile now, appearing in places like TED. Natal and the dropping price of big TVs can make them easily accessible to small and mid-sized companies.

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#16

Post by stcredzero »

anigbrowl wrote: post #14
whatusername wrote: post #8

The voice recognition stuff also looked impressive. Buzz (Quiz game) with voice recognition is a killer feature. (My mother in law would probably buy one for that)

With the camera and internet play (see the other family) it's going to be bad for that segment of the TV market, because it'll be easy to set up tournaments with cash prizes. Way more people will compete to win $1000 than will watch TV to watch someone else win $100,000. On an unrelated note, I wonder if/how they're going to prevent it being used for porn. Obviously they won't allow porn games but the video chat + bo…

Obviously they won't allow porn games but the video chat + bored teens makes that kind of activity pretty much inevitable.

There are already porn avatars aplenty. That will make "sexting" visible -- instead of writing and imagining it, you'll just see it. The imagery is probably better with well written text, though. Your imagination is the most vivid rendering system there is.

All that has to happen is for SecondLife to get the interface.

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#17

Post by trezor »

chaosmachine wrote: post #10
viggity wrote: post #5

Here is a video of the Natal. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03thQvGRVvQ&feature=playe... I just hope it works as advertised and I hope it has an easy to use API/SDK.

Yikes. I wonder how Nintendo can respond to this. Microsoft is really going for their throat here.

If any of this is true and actually delivers, coupled with technical limitations on the Wii (1), it would seem the story is that they can't. At least not without pumping out a new console.

What will be interesting to see is how Sony responds to this. If the Xbox 360 software wasn't already a million times better than the PS3 software, project Natal seems hellbent on making it so. And Sony, unlike Nintendo, have a platform which to some extent allows expansion and further development.

Definitely interesting times ahead in the console world.

1: http://hackmii.com/2009/02/why-the-wii-will-never-get-any-be...

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#18

Post by buugs »

viggity wrote: post #5

Here is a video of the Natal. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03thQvGRVvQ&feature=playe... I just hope it works as advertised and I hope it has an easy to use API/SDK.

Yeah I don't think it will work quite as well, especially since it says actual features and functions may vary.. reminds me of them hyping the Microsoft surface.

If it did work that would change games and tv apps so much more than the wii could ever do.

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#19

Post by axod »

So they announced twitter integration, facebook integration, last.fm stuff.

Call me ridiculous, but have they not considered the possibility of releasing a web browser instead? Then people could have twitter, facebook, last.fm, and whatever else they want. Why is this so hard for microsoft to do?

Having said that, the xBox hardware is so noisy it's not a good machine to use for much apart from gaming.

Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox

#20

Post by chris11 »

chaosmachine wrote: post #10
viggity wrote: post #5

Here is a video of the Natal. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03thQvGRVvQ&feature=playe... I just hope it works as advertised and I hope it has an easy to use API/SDK.

Yikes. I wonder how Nintendo can respond to this. Microsoft is really going for their throat here.

I don't know how much of a threat this is. I personally don't like the wiimote a lot, so there is definitely room for improvement. But the wiimote comes with every wii, and can be used on every game.

So the problem Microsoft has is that there will not be a large library to take advantage of the Natal. It seems like it'll be another eyetoy. The Natal will probably sell a decent amount, but its use will languish from a lack of compatible games.

And right now the wii is known for family and group games. One good product launch by Microsoft is not going to change that. Also, unless Microsoft lowers prices, or puts a new bundle out, the wii will probably be cheaper.

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