If this is as cool as it looks, it's one hell of a response to the Wii.
That said, I'm a little skeptical, the lack of any sort of tactile feedback, even just holding an object, may be awkward.
MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
21–30 of 37 posts
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
In the Rayman: Raving Rabbids games, one of the minigames involves tracing an outline on the screen with as much accuracy as possible. I don't know whether or not you'd consider that "complex", but it certainly involves a little more than jerks and twists. (Just the first thing that came to mind :) )
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#23Here 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.
I wasn't aware that Surface didn't work, although it would explain the lack of news on it. Natal actually seems similar to Surface; I wonder if the two are at all related.
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#24Is this real or just a "product vision" kind of video based on no concrete technology?
If they have actually solved the hard problems involved in making this technology work, it's extremely cool.
If they have not, it's somewhat akin to a video suggesting that they'll build technology to allow people to fly without any equipment, just by flapping their arms.
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#25Is this real or just a "product vision" kind of video based on no concrete technology? If they have actually solved the hard problems involved in making this technology work, it's extremely cool. If they have not, it's somewhat akin to a video suggesting that they'll build technology to allow people to fly without any equipment, just by flapping their arms.
They demoed it live on stage. They didn't just play this video for everyone in the audience...
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#26Can't wait to put my hands on it and start hacking some crazy software. Of course someone will have to write some drivers for it...
I'm guessing that it's USB or Bluetooth, like existing hardware for the system. Windows Vista actually has drivers for the Xbox 360 controllers out of the box. This may end up being surprisingly hackable.
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#27So 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.
The lack of a web browser is indeed a glaring hole in the system capabilities, but the optical drive noise is a bit of a red herring these days with the ability to install games to disk. It runs silently when you do that.
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
'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...
In the Rayman: Raving Rabbids games, one of the minigames involves tracing an outline on the screen with as much accuracy as possible. I don't know whether or not you'd consider that "complex", but it certainly involves a little more than jerks and twists. (Just the first thing that came to mind :) )
The pointer and the accelerometers are two separate things. I haven't heard many complaints about the pointer accuracy (which is what Rayman uses for the section you're thinking of).
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#29So 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.
The lack of a web browser is indeed a glaring hole in the system capabilities, but the optical drive noise is a bit of a red herring these days with the ability to install games to disk. It runs silently when you do that.
That's actually another gripe of mine. What the hell is the point of giving me a HDD to copy games to, if I still have to insert the disc to play it. Complete and utter failure.
Also on mine at any rate, the noise from the fans it most of the issue.
Re: MS just announced some pretty awesome stuff for the Xbox
#30The 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)
Not only is it voice recognition, but the microphone array determines the direction of the sound and correlates it to a body... so it knows exactly who is talking and where they are talking from. Pretty bad ass.