PlayStation suite

[patsu]

Hmph, I missed quite a few news for the past few weeks (months ?).

Good to catch up on PS Mobile here. By renaming to PS Mobile, I suppose the stack is not coming to Sony TV and PS3 ? (i.e., They want to focus on mobile devices).

They should treat the PS Mobile stack with the utmost care coz this thing can subsume other console connectivity and extension efforts.

EDIT:

This is now called Playstation Mobile and HTC is the first third party hardware to support it.

Also found this little video of someone who coded a remote desktop app:

Ah yes, I was thinking it should be able to do or integrate AirPlay, RemotePlay, SmartGlass like apps in a cross platform way.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I was just discussing Sony strategy with a dev friend, and he feels Sony are really uncertain in strategy but the direction they are taking is this cross-platform approach. He was talking about multi-screen interaction being an intended strategy, with device cooperation with iPhones and tablets along with consoles, just like Smartglass. I'm surprised nothing like that was shown at E3. Sony are going to look very 'me too' next to MS.

 

[Arwin]

My main worry is that after all this time, most of the development work that is close to the heart of Sony is still done by too small a team, that may be too close to the core of the company. What is happening with PS Mobile is definitely very promising, but I'm still waiting for them to go balls all out and focus every thing they share doing and taking all the great ideas that exist within their ecosystem and run it to its limits.

Mind you I regularly accuse myself of the same thing. And I am definitely seeing a change in the company, good shifts in priority, smart people in key places. But they need to get ready to take a leadership position soon. Their aim should be to get a team of elite programmers and designers to put Apple and Microsoft to shame. I am not saying they can and have to succeed, but that is what their aim should be if they want to become at least good enough.

They definitely have the potential. Mobile is in some ways very elegant and the core is definitely good. And Mobile is definitely not a platform for Vita ported to phones, but actually more the other way around, with the Vita implementation trailing the phone implementation slightly. But there have also been some obvious things not in there that belie some blind spots. The beta does a good job of finding them though and it will be interesting to see how and how well they will pick up on them.

 

[Xenus]

I was just discussing Sony strategy with a dev friend, and he feels Sony are really uncertain in strategy but the direction they are taking is this cross-platform approach. He was talking about multi-screen interaction being an intended strategy, with device cooperation with iPhones and tablets along with consoles, just like Smartglass. I'm surprised nothing like that was shown at E3. Sony are going to look very 'me too' next to MS.

Here in lies the problem with Sony of late. They have a lot of great ideas. PS suite, eye toy. and originally OLED but they are so wishy -washy with their support of this ideas that after they reveal them they seem to not really support them. Then companies come out full support behind their ideas and they are stuck standing but but I had that idea 1 year or years ago... and instead end up looking me too. They need to either release something and support it fully or not release it at all.

 

[upnorthsox]

Here in lies the problem with Sony of late. They have a lot of great ideas. PS suite, eye toy. and originally OLED but they are so wishy -washy with their support of this ideas that after they reveal them they seem to not really support them. Then companies come out full support behind their ideas and they are stuck standing but but I had that idea 1 year or years ago... and instead end up looking me too. They need to either release something and support it fully or not release it at all.

I'm looking at the HMZ-T1 as I read this..........

 

[patsu]

They try to do too much, plus don't sink in long enough time to harvest the benefits. ^_^
The fundamental problem seems to be: All the top execs are not software product guys. They are sales, marcom/PR, hardware, or contents folks. The financing and accounting work very differently from their perspectives. In many occasions, they actually clash with each other (e.g., hardware folks will sweat over pennies, software people will want to throw it out there and evolve quickly with big money behind them).

Hope PS Mobile works out for them. It looks like all the top people are excited by it.

HMZ-T1 and TDG-BR750 are pretty cool, but one-off. We will have to see how long they stick to their 3D vision. It's great to see John Carmack working on his own 3D visor.

RemotePlay was limited by PSP's 802.11b. They didn't plan and market it properly. I remember there was a small port to VAIO to gauge user interests. The problem is they need to flesh out the entire concept first before the users can see the benefits. All these small efforts seem to be pushed by the techies but didn't get the bigwigs' attention (e.g., PS Move Server).

EDIT: OTOH, I see them bet on _hardware_ products like PS3 and Vita. They should form a bigger and unified platform vision with these 2, plus their Mobile arm and VAIO. A continuous and major update on Sony Entertainment Network and PS Mobile would be cool.

In particular, I am interested to see how they intend to integrate the Vita OS and PS Mobile stack into mainstream platforms like iOS and Android. I assume PS4 and future Sony tablets will use a variant of Vita OS foundation layers ?

 

[deathindustrial]

I'm looking at the HMZ-T1 as I read this..........

. . . and wondering what Sony was thinking releasing a consumer focussed $800 headset that needs to be tethered with 2 different cables?

=)

 

[patsu]

. . . and wondering what Sony was thinking releasing a consumer focussed $800 headset that needs to be tethered with 2 different cables?

=)

What 2 different cables ?

They need to combine HMZ-T1 and TDG-BR750 somehow. ^_^
Where are your product marketing people Sony ?

EDIT: Come to think of it, they also bet big time on 3D broadcast infrastructure tech, TV programming and channels.

 

[deathindustrial]

What 2 different cables ?

HDMI + power. I noticed they don't talk about cable length in the product description.

Cheers

 

[patsu]

HDMI + power. I noticed they don't talk about cable length in the product description.

I remember there is only 1 cable from the processing box to the visor. The processor will have to take both HDMI in and power though.

The HMZ-T1 is meant for "big-screen" movie watching in a small room, or outside the house. The user should be sitting down for a 2 hour program.

I think John Carmack's 3D visor will be more tailored for gaming, including motion gaming. Based on his findings, the HMZ-T1 has too much (built-in) lag.

 

[Arwin]

And, importantly, too small fov, 45% against something like 120% if I remember correctly.

I am not so sure Vita OS is suitable for anything else than Vita to be honest. And I don't know they'd have much to win/gain.

But in terms of games machine, Vita is much stronger than most people give it credit for. Very good potential there for Sony, but they must get it out before the end of the year. I think they will, but I hope we'll see a new version of the beta soon so we can gauge their progress a little.

 

[patsu]

And, importantly, too small fov, 45% against something like 120% if I remember correctly.

Yap !

I am not so sure Vita OS is suitable for anything else than Vita to be honest. And I don't know they'd have much to win/gain.

Their CTO mentioned that they designed Vita OS with an intention to extend the stack elsewhere. What's more important is the foundation, and how they can make the run-time portable to other OSes.

EDIT:
BTW, here's RemotePlay for Vita:

Although part of the Vita stack, it should be ported to "PS Mobile" hardware. The same for Cross-Play APIs. While it's unique to Vita today, Sony should take it to "PS Mobile" hardware also. These technologies/capabilities can be commoditized quickly. It's the (Playstation) library and business model that're more interesting.

Microsoft won't stop at SmartGlass. There could/will be custom Win8 RT portable hardware running SmartGlass, and with optional dual stick (Should be soonish if Microsoft want to keep their momentum).

Apple is already almost there with a huge casual game library, consumer friendly pricing model, and AirPlay (1080p). There are third party controllers for iPad, which I suspect Apple will stay away from.

 

[patsu]

Okay, I got home early to setup my spanky new AppleTV.

Gave AirPlay a test drive. It works just like that. ^_^

Support is supposed to be universal since you can start AirPlay whenever the iPad "task bar" shows up.
I'm seeing some rough edges (e.g., some streaming movies may stall halfway in AirPlay mode, some will only play audio but not video). In iOS6, they will undoubtedly refine AirPlay further.

In comparison, RemotePlay pushes video in the opposite direction (from PS3 to Vita). Setup requires clumsy pairing, and wasted 2 intermediate screens before RemotePlay starts up.

As mentioned above, perhaps PS Mobile should add an abstract "Mobile Play" API on top of these native implementations (AirPlay, SmartGlass and whatever Android will have). That way, a PS Mobile game can take advantage of the native OS network play features.

Sony can throw RemotePlay into the mix for Playstation compatibility also.

EDIT: Will try to find playing time with Mountain Lion beta + iOS6 beta + AirPlay and Playstation [strike]Suite[/strike] Mobile. Arwin, how's your PS Mobile tests coming along ? ^_^


EDIT 2: .... and done ! I have redeemed all my Blu-ray digital copies to AppleTV for free. ^_^ The UltraViolet digital copies will have to be done via PS3 and PC though.

 

[Arwin]

I've been working on and off on a 'game' that I'm writing on PC first, and then the first rewrite will hopefuly be on Vita, where I should only have to write the UI, most of which I can then do with my framework. But I want to see .99 now before I continue, as it may save me some time.

I just found this, which is really simple and obvious, but I thought what stands out is the value of buttons in this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5kQ2Bx2qBo&feature=player_embedded

We've requested access to the back touch on vita, which would make this nicer.

 

[Arwin]

Looks like Playstation Mobile v 0.99 is out now. There's an update for the development assistant, and it also requires me to update my firmware to 1.69. Look forward to seeing what has been fixed!

Also, in the new SDK:

In-App Purchase library
Digital Signature & Encryption library for content protection
GamePad support for UI Toolkit library
ModelViewer for previewing .mdx files on PC
50+ bug fixes

 

[Arwin]

The guy who did the playstation mobile version of remote play to PC, showing off Left 4 Dead, released his project to the public, so you can test it yourself. I tried it, and it works ok. I don't think it is something I will use a lot, but the fact that it works with touch for mouse control, analog sticks and even tilt support with so little lag is impressive. You can use two finger drag to reposition the view by the way.

If you want to try it, this is a good thread to check out:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=481415&page=5&highlight=playstation+mobile

 

[Arwin]

As the client side code for the remote control was released, users can tweak the code to optimise for certain games, add game specific buttons client side, etc. Smart.

Here's someone who did that for MineCraft:

 

[Shifty Geezer]

PSMobile has been announced for ASUS. Any explanation if that's all ASUS tablets, or just future Ps Certified tablets? If it runs on my Transformer, I'll be more interested in giving it a look.

 

[Arwin]

PSMobile has been announced for ASUS. Any explanation if that's all ASUS tablets, or just future Ps Certified tablets? If it runs on my Transformer, I'll be more interested in giving it a look.

I think it will come to some existing Transformers as most of them should match the requirements. My guess would be that the hardware cut-off point would be whatever matches the Tablet S or something in that vein.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If it comes to existing devices, TF101 is the same spec as the Tablet S. If it's down to ASUS to certify devices though, then there's not much point in them investing in already sold devices. The Nexus 7 would make sense, and future TFs, but what's in it for ASUS to add PSM support to millions of customers who have already parted with their money? Whereas if certification is something Sony are wanting to undertake, then the Transformer series offers one of the largest homogonous markets and would provide a good few million devices to help prop up PSM's install base and attract devs. I doubt Samsung will be interested at this point, who'd be the prime choice I guess.