Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
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Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
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Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#2Holy crap. I hadn't bothered to look at the video about this project yet (I thought only Nintendo cared about the way I want to game, since XBox and PS3 distinctly lack all the stuff that makes gaming fun for me on the Wii). But, that is simply astonishing. I knew the Wii-mote wasn't anywhere near the peak of technology in this direction, but this is dramatically cooler than I expected in the next couple of years.
So, when can I buy it? I'd buy an XBox to play games that are controlled this way.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#3This is phenomenal, but devil is in the details in terms of sensitivity. They have to be using a really phenomenal camera and processor to get any real level of precision.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#4Maybe I'm paranoid but isn't he basically saying that the demos don't reflect what's possible today in a shipping device i.e. the proverbial "vapourware".
Other comments, here and elsewhere, reflect everyone loving this, yet when I watch the demos I think a) that's not actually possible, and far more importantly b) even if it was possible, it doesn't look like fun.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#5Maybe I'm paranoid but isn't he basically saying that the demos don't reflect what's possible today in a shipping device i.e. the proverbial "vapourware". Other comments, here and elsewhere, reflect everyone loving this, yet when I watch the demos I think a) that's not actually possible, and far more importantly b) even if it was possible, it doesn't look like fun.
> isn't he basically saying that the demos don't reflect what's possible today in a shipping device
That's the impression I got too.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#6Maybe I'm paranoid but isn't he basically saying that the demos don't reflect what's possible today in a shipping device i.e. the proverbial "vapourware". Other comments, here and elsewhere, reflect everyone loving this, yet when I watch the demos I think a) that's not actually possible, and far more importantly b) even if it was possible, it doesn't look like fun.
Looks pretty fun to me.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#7Microsoft has poured lots of money into basic research R&D over the years, which did not seem to pay off much in terms of popular products. Apple, Nintendo, Google, etc. seemed to come out with more innovative products, despite spending nowhere close to what Microsoft spends on R&D.
This looks like a big exception to that. Johnny Lee, as a recently minted PhD, certainly knows the state of the art in this field, so if he says it is way beyond what other researchers are doing I believe him.
If they can deliver the kind of sensing, voice and face recognition in the demo, along with higher end graphics than the Wii, they should easily own the next generation of consoles.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#8Maybe I'm paranoid but isn't he basically saying that the demos don't reflect what's possible today in a shipping device i.e. the proverbial "vapourware". Other comments, here and elsewhere, reflect everyone loving this, yet when I watch the demos I think a) that's not actually possible, and far more importantly b) even if it was possible, it doesn't look like fun.
Want to clarify and expand on (a) for us? Impossible is a big word.
As to (b) - The voice recog Buzz looked pretty amazing to me. Some of the mini games - not so much... The face tracking stuff was cool though.
(I think MS might be setting themselves up for a fall though - I agree this comment makes it look like this tech wont work as well as the ad makes it out to be)
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#9Maybe I'm paranoid but isn't he basically saying that the demos don't reflect what's possible today in a shipping device i.e. the proverbial "vapourware". Other comments, here and elsewhere, reflect everyone loving this, yet when I watch the demos I think a) that's not actually possible, and far more importantly b) even if it was possible, it doesn't look like fun.
Well, I don't know that it really matters. If Microsoft knows what they're doing, the only way they're going to release this thing is either bundled with a game that's expected to be popular, or as a part of the next Xbox.
Console perhipherals released in other ways have historically not been successful, no matter how good they are.
Given this, I'd bank on them shipping the thing with the next Xbox. That should give them a few years to work the bugs out.
Re: Johnny Lee (of wiimote hack fame) was involved in Natal
#10Microsoft has poured lots of money into basic research R&D over the years, which did not seem to pay off much in terms of popular products. Apple, Nintendo, Google, etc. seemed to come out with more innovative products, despite spending nowhere close to what Microsoft spends on R&D. This looks like a big exception to that. Johnny Lee, as a recently minted PhD, certainly knows the state of the art in this field, so if…
I think the key word there is probably "product"; there's certainly been some great demos that have come out of MSR. A thought that comes to mind is that this could be the ideal product for those demonstrators: the concept has been proven successful by Nintendo, and they can apply their research to take it to the next level.