News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[Cyan]

MSFT should be really careful not to upset existing users. Imo it is not worth it for a couple % of extra performances to upset the 5 millions users they have at the moment.

The last thing they need when about to launch a cheaper XB1 is actual xb1 owners badmouthing them, especially after all what MSFT went through since the one unveiling.

Now that Kinect is dead, I can tell you that it's not a big deal losing the voice controls (the ones I commonly use the most are "Xbox Record That" and "Xbox Turn off" "yes", but I don't speak much to the console otherwise) and skeletal tracking, or knowing who is who when you are playing a multiplayer game.

It is an option to have, and especially useful for Kinect only games, as Tottentranz has pointed out already. Those I'd be happy even if the took 50% of the console's reservation just for Kinect, as long as they were good. It didn't happen...

Mere mortals won't care in the slightest and won't use voice controls/skeletal tracking much except for specific functions.

While Xbox record that works perfect, Xbox go home is slower than just pressing the Xbox guide button, except if you don't have the gamepad nearby. Xbox go to settings is an example where Kinect shines. -point is, those more obscure options are the least used-

There goes my hope to talk to an AI on the console's interface though. The great thing about Kinect is having the whole experience as granted if used well, but this was a dream that never came to fruition, althouguh standalone functions people won't complain in the end.

 

[LightHeaven]

Now that Kinect is dead, I can tell you that it's not a big deal losing the voice controls (the ones I commonly use the most are "Xbox Record That" and "Xbox Turn off" "yes", but I don't speak much to the console otherwise) and skeletal tracking, or knowing who is who when you are playing a multiplayer game.

It is an option to have, and especially useful for Kinect only games, as Tottentranz has pointed out already. Those I'd be happy even if the took 50% of the console's reservation just for Kinect, as long as they were good. It didn't happen...

Mere mortals won't care in the slightest and won't use voice controls/skeletal tracking much except for specific functions.

While Xbox record that works perfect, Xbox go home is slower than just pressing the Xbox guide button, except if you don't have the gamepad nearby. Xbox go to settings is an example where Kinect shines. -point is, those more obscure options are the least used-

There goes my hope to talk to an AI on the console's interface though. The great thing about Kinect is having the whole experience as granted if used well, but this was a dream that never came to fruition, althouguh standalone functions people won't complain in the end.

Xbox, go home might be slower than pressing a button, but Xbox Go to some app or game, or xbox snap app is a lot faster done with voice than with the controller.

Not requiring to have a controller on to set up the console to play a movie for instance, or to play music at a party is also a very welcome plus.

 

[XpiderMX]

Xbox, go home might be slower than pressing a button, but Xbox Go to some app or game, or xbox snap app is a lot faster done with voice than with the controller.

Not requiring to have a controller on to set up the console to play a movie for instance, or to play music at a party is also a very welcome plus.

I agree, openning apps/games with voice commands are better/faster than doing the same with the controller. Or making Skype calls, for example.

And "Xbox Bing blahblahblah" is faster too.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yah, maybe. You turn your console on and you get recognized and log in.

Exactly how the facial recognition works on PS4.

 

[blakjedi]

also the controller turns off after a while so hitting the xbox home button waiting for it to activate and then tapping again is slower than "xbox go home"

I found that the louder your voice the less likely Kinect is to respond... i literally just speak in a low whisper and it catches it 99% of the time. Its counter intuitive that way.

 

[Cyan]

Xbox, go home might be slower than pressing a button, but Xbox Go to some app or game, or xbox snap app is a lot faster done with voice than with the controller.

Not requiring to have a controller on to set up the console to play a movie for instance, or to play music at a party is also a very welcome plus.

What you say is certainly very true, and now that Kinect woke up from an apparently wonderful dream, those are still useful and quicker with voice commands, but most people criticising Kinect 2 and owned the console complained about only using it as mic and letting it take dust for everything else.

I was decided to wait, and have patience, 'cos there was/is great potential imo.

The expectations were really high, 'cos Kinect 2 seemed to be truly IT. Remember how the Xbox One was presented?

Kinect and TV integration seemed to be the ultimate thing -a sybaritic console indeed-, and Microsoft's attitude was very arrogant before last year's E3.

That attitude got etched on my memory and I blamed it on Kinect having precise voice controls and the fact that they wanted the best experience in every single country with customised voice controls in each language.

I was kinda okay with that if it were worth it and a justification.

Thing is, I especially remember this eastern European guy asking Microsoft support about why Xbox One wasn't being released in his country and why if he bought it in another country he couldn't use it in his native nation, and that he felt bad 'cos of it.

MS support replied with a cold response, the guy responded: Welcome PS4.

And the MS support again replied "Thanks for your interest, we will be here if you need us" (or something along those lines). Cold and ugly support which was like that because of orders from the people above.

I was like..., why the console is being released in Germany but not in Hungary? Why is it being released in Spain and not in Portugal?

In the end it turned out to be 'cos of voice controls functionality and TV services, as they wanted the most customised features for every country and provide the best service they could, allegedly. Okay...

That would be fine and dandy, but I think Microsoft didn't know what they were selling. 'Cos if you act like you are selling the ultimate thing, that something should be the ultimate thing.

And let me tell you, it wasn't just simply because voice controls and Kinect needed a previous calibration and moving it around is not a good idea, because it means recalibration.

They clearly overrated what Kinect 2 could do for the console and the TV in its early stages.

Maybe with enough time and testing, it would prove useful and it'd fit the initial idea, but the true testing waters is having lots of people to use it.

Microsoft had uber expectations in something they treated as the ultimate product and it didn't deliver in the end -not the console itself, which I enjoy a lot!! the Xbox One as a console is fine in my eyes- but the whole idea of the TV compatible, voice/gesture controlled device you should feel "fortunate" to have and use.

So the original vision was a mess, they maybe got enthusiastic because voice recognition seemed to be working and people would love the novelty, but when it wears out you want consistency...

I am glad those people above who were in charge aren't driving the Xbox division anymore. And Phil and others there now have a greater sensibility.

 

[LightHeaven]

I agree, openning apps/games with voice commands are better/faster than doing the same with the controller. Or making Skype calls, for example.

And "Xbox Bing blahblahblah" is faster too.

Exactly, if you use voice to try to mimic the same usage scenario than a controller it's probably going to be slower. The advantage comes when you do crazy stuff that is impractical to do with a controller all at once.

I can't wait to have more context inside voice commands, so I can give better instructions, for instance: "Xbox record the last minute of gameplay, and once finished upload to youtube". "Or xbox, start a party and invite all my favorite friends to it".

If we ever get to this point it's gonna be so good.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Exactly how the facial recognition works on PS4.

And how it works on Xbox One now. It wouldn't be a change in functionality in terms of how things operate when you're in a "system" view. I believe the way this will work(speculation) is that when you "minimize" your game to go back to the home screen, skeletal tracking and all of the Kinect functionality will turn back on. When you switch to your game, it will turn off if the game has opted out of those features. I may be wrong, but that seems to be the way the system works, dynamically adjusting the hardware resources between the VMs depending on the state the game is in. There was a chart that explained the various states the game VM could be in and how the resources were divided in each state, but I have no idea how to find it anymore.

 

[Cyan]

I agree, openning apps/games with voice commands are better/faster than doing the same with the controller. Or making Skype calls, for example.

And "Xbox Bing blahblahblah" is faster too.

Well, to me it doesn't matter anymore. Any improvement like those listed by Lightheaven is welcome, but I am disappointed and I don't want to use Kinect anymore, maybe except for regular chatting and Skype.

If it weren't for that I'd happily unplug it. Plus I need the space in my study desktop table and a thing I learnt from betting on 3D TV and Kinect and stuff, is that something that won't work doesn't deserve a single ounce of your energy anymore.

I am eagerly awaiting for them to revamp the UI, into a more controller-friendly UI, which means it will be easier to get around.

Additionally, I also hope they free up the resources used in SHAPE and the rest of the block audio for games only, disabling Kinect when possible.

 

[XpiderMX]

My Kinect turn on/off my TV and sound system, without Kinect, I will not be able to do it. EDIT: yes, I can use my remote control, but I like how is do it using Kinect..

 

[bkilian]

How's that going to work? Will games that use the freed resource not function with Kinect? Will players of those games have to use a button instead of calling out 'Xbox do stuff'? That'd be a pretty annoying split experience, encouraging the abandonment of voice controls at least in games just in pursuit on consistency.

Any chance these resources are fairly dynamic and a button press can activate voice controls? Could just look at hitting a framerate and accept it drops when voice is in use. TBH voice controls are only active a tiny fraction of the time, so the opportunity to request them as needed makes a lot of sense.

Voice commands don't use the 10% reserve. Some of that reserve is, however, used by snapped apps. I imagine it's a pretty small portion though. 10% reserve is about half a 360's worth of graphics.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Well, to me it doesn't matter anymore. Any improvement like those listed by Lightheaven is welcome, but I am disappointed and I don't want to use Kinect anymore, maybe except for regular chatting and Skype.

If it weren't for that I'd happily unplug it. Plus I need the space in my study desktop table and a thing I learnt from betting on 3D TV and Kinect and stuff, is that something that won't work doesn't deserve a single ounce of your energy anymore.

I am eagerly awaiting for them to revamp the UI, into a more controller-friendly UI, which means it will be easier to get around.

Additionally, I also hope they free up the resources used in SHAPE and the rest of the block audio for games only, disabling Kinect when possible.

Wow, you're taking this really hard. I'd leave the thing plugged in and keep using the voice control if you enjoy it. If you unplug the thing out of spite, you're just cheating yourself out of something you actually like to use.

While I think Kinect is being lowered significantly as a priority, it's not dead. The next update is supposed to offer an opt-in program to help improve voice recognition. I know I'm going to take part. As much as I'm not happy that's it's been shifted to peripheral status, I still like it as a peripheral, and I'll take any improvements I can get.

 

[Dave Baumann]

XBOX fitness or Dance Central 2014 or Sports Rivals don't suddenly stop working!

 

[Rangers]

Yah, maybe. You turn your console on and you get recognized and log in. Then you start your game and play. Game turns off skeletal tracking, so if someone else walks in the room the game loses the ability to switch profiles when you pass the controller back and forth. Sounds like it's going to be opt-out, so games that want that functionality could still keep it if they want. Most games are single-user games, so it's probably not an issue. How many people really playing COD online and pass the controller back and forth with their buddies? The game doesn't switch users and log the stats to a different player anyway. So basically, it would mostly be the same as is. You'd just have to go back to the home screen to login another person, if you wanted.

5-10% more GPU in exchange for losing THAT? Sign me up. I mean, who cares.

I guess you can say it might be equivalent to another "free" GPU upclock, since that upclock was 6.7%.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

5-10% more GPU in exchange for losing THAT? Sign me up. I mean, who cares.

I guess you can say it might be equivalent to another "free" GPU upclock, since that upclock was 6.7%.

Seems to me that losing that is losing the major benefit of Kinect, especially considering they've never been able to demonstrate a gaming use for Kinect and apparently don't have anything coming down the pipeline any time soon in the gaming arena for Kinect.

The handing the controller to your buddy in the room and the Xb0x automatically knowing that you've changed play profiles was one of the coolest things it had going for it.

But, the reality is that it seems that most people used Kinect for the voice controls. Which is interesting because Chucklehead stated that very thing is the main reason they removed Kinect - because of voice localization and their inability to get those voice controls to work in other regions.

I'm curious to know how the PS4 handles those same voice localization problems because every PS fan seems to say that the PS4 can do all the same voice commands the Kinect can do without the expensive added hardware.

How is it that the PS4 can voice recognize people from Tonga as well as they do people from North Carolina but the Kinect with all its extra cost and hardware can't?

I'm just really confused about a couple of things:

1) as I stated above, if the main benefit of Kinect was actually voice controls, yet localization is the limiting factor in launching in other areas, how is it that PS4 owners keep saying that the PS4 can do the same things as Kinect voice controls with no mention of localization issues?

2) how can Kinect resources be freed up for gaming uses without eliminating or degrading the experience that Kinect users currently have? I don't see how it can. Sure, if you don't care about the loss of skeletal recognition in terms of handing a controller to other players and having it automatically load their profile then you are losing functionality that you don't care about - but that's the same as any tradeoff. Some people will care and others will not. Losing features is still losing features.

 

[XpiderMX]

Halo 5 tomorrow?

http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/video-games/getting-halo-5-reveal-tomorrow/

 

[eastmen]

Halo 5 tomorrow?

http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/video-games/getting-halo-5-reveal-tomorrow/

Timing would be really weird wouldn't it ? Some random Friday in may ? Of course it could be to sweep all the negative news about Kinect down the way side

 

[XpiderMX]

Timing would be really weird wouldn't it ? Some random Friday in may ? Of course it could be to sweep all the negative news about Kinect down the way side

Well, Sunset Overdrive in May, Kinectless Xbox One and new Xbox Live Gold things in May, even Far Cry 4 in may.

 

[whome0]

My Kinect turn on/off my TV and sound system, without Kinect, I will not be able to do it. EDIT: yes, I can use my remote control, but I like how is do it using Kinect..

but XboxOne still has an industry standard hdmi so CEC commands do just fine? PS3 does that in my living room so does cheap RaspPI. Kinect device brings nothing to that functionality excep maybe a stone age infrared?

 

[XpiderMX]

New tv show with interactive contents next year:

http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/13-...series/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

but XboxOne still has an industry standard hdmi so CEC commands do just fine? PS3 does that in my living room so does cheap RaspPI. Kinect device brings nothing to that functionality excep maybe a stone age infrared?

My sound system is not connected using HDMI. Kinect works like a IR remote control, it can control even the Xbox 360 or my WD TV Live.