SIXAXIS uses

[patsu]

After a brief encounter with Folklore, I remembered our old SIXAXIS threads on this forum:

+ http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=34455&highlight=SIXAXIS (Think of new, fun ways to utilise the SIXAXIS on PS3 games).

+ http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=42271&highlight=motion (PS3 motion control idea for FPS)



Implemented
=========
It looks like one or two of our ideas have been implemented independently by developers:

bRoNx:
"in war games, you could use it to throw grenades" -- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Arwin:
"- in a racing game you could try to steer using the tilt..." -- like MotorStorm ?

"- in games like loco roco and mercury, I don't think I even need to explain" -- LocoRoco for PS3 under development (rumor or for real ?)
[EDIT: This entry turns out to be wrong. See http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1057204&postcount=21 for more details]

A few people (infinity4, Shifty) also mentioned using SIXAXIS to control head/camera separately from weapon orientation (like in Warhawk ?).


The devs came up with more:

Folklore: Tug of war (Although bRoNx mentioned fishing here: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=849469&postcount=11)

Little Big Planet: Some form of puppeteering ?

Playstation Home: Gesturing ?

Super rub-a-dub: 2.5D navigation + jump

flOw: 2D navigation

Warhawk, Lair: Flight acrobatics

CoD: Rifle-butt enemy

Resistance: Shake to extinguish fire or remove tags, show/hide menus

Uncharted: Balancing on tree trunk

Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament: Guided projectiles (player remains stationery)

Ratchet & Clank: Independent weapon movement and character movement at the same time (e.g., Tornado gun)

NBA 08: Advanced basket ball maneuver (See http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1056147&postcount=2)



Unimplemented
==========
rounin: "I would like the ability to use 2 controllers to control in Fight Night 3, one for each hand of the boxer. Detection of position should be done by integrating acceleration twice wrt time."

MasaC: "A table tennis game where you hold the controller in one hand and play like with a real table tennis racket, perhaps? Together with an EyeToy camera and the computational power of the Cell processor it should be doable."

Angelcurio: "In a boxing game, using the motion sensing funtion to dodge attacks. Just think about the old snes punch out and think about it using the sixaxis controller to dodge attacks, it would be awesome to see it implemented in a game like Fight Night."

rabidrabbit: "A game based on the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail"?"

Npl: "What Id like to see is subtile horror-games silently recognising patterns of your movements and trying to understand your current mood, and then act based on that.

ie. That guy has no fear of spiders, but each time a flying enemy shows up he`s twisting the pad like mad - wait till he has calmed down then occasionally freak him out with sounds/shadows of his biggest fear"

...plus someone mentioned a sword play game.


Any more bright ideas ?

 

[Crossbar]

Impressive compilation , maybe this could be added to the list:

Erich Waas // Sr. Producer for NBA 08:

We’re tying animation to SIXAXIS functionality and going beyond jukes, cross-overs and spins. You’re able to rock the SIXAXIS controller back and forth to dribble the ball between the legs. You’re able to move the ball around while in a “triple threat†situation to help keep defenders from stealing the ball as well as improve your chances of a successful pass. Along with this, you can select between bounce passes, chest passes and lob passes. Conversely, on defense you’re able to get high or wide by tilting the SIXAXIS controller forward or backwards. By widening the defender’s stance and arms on defense, there is a greater chance in deflecting a bounce pass or closely defending the ball handler to keep them from successfully executing a juke move (although this will fatigue your player faster). By putting the defender’s hands straight up in the air, there’s a better chance of tipping a lob pass and the shot percentage of a shooter is reduced.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

"- in games like loco roco and mercury, I don't think I even need to explain" -- LocoRoco for PS3 under development (rumor or for real ?)

GameTrailers have a vid. Strangely it appears to not use tilt.

 

[.Melchiah.]

From Gamespy's UT III PS3 preview.

http://au.ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/unreal-tournament-2007/816242p1.html

We then asked what sort of Sixaxis functionality we can expect from UT III PS3. The fast and short of it is that you'll be able to steer your hoverboard, which sounds like something we'd expect to hear. The other one we hadn't expected, however, was the ability to steer a Redeemer shot. We're intrigued by the idea of driving the most destructive weapon in the game into some poor bastard, Dr. Strangelove-style, with our controller.

Controlling the redeemer missile sounds similar to how the cannonballs are controlled in Heavenly Sword.


Oops. just noticed it was already posted.

 

[Arwin]

If I got it correctly, we do in fact get a PS3 version of Loco Roco that supports motion control. But the video I've seen seems to not use tilting the whole screen anymore, but some other method. I'm not sure what that was, as it had lots of different and independently controlled loco rocos. But I did read that there would be a PS3 version with sixaxis support anyway. I just think we haven't seen it yet.

Anyway, Mercury got a motion control version on Wii, using the exact same technical features that the sixaxis has, so in a sense it's there.

Didn't I mention the idea with boxing, being able to move your upper body with the sixaxis' tilt? If so, that's a lot like the stuff that LBP uses.

From Resistance you are missing some more features I think. I thought you could tilt your sixaxis to bring up the weapons screen in multiplayer for instance? Not sure as I haven't tried that myself yet.

 

[oramay]

I'd like to try using left & right tilt to apply curl to shots and may be also long balls in soccer games.

Another possible use in soccer games would be to use tilt as part of the input for a long passes and shots. The current system of power meter etc. should stay. On top of that, if the Sixaxis is tilted upward at a steep angle, make the long pass or shot more like a high lob.

 

[DJ12]

That would be great (aftershot bend), I already do that motion anyway just at the minute it doesn't do anything

 

[Shifty Geezer]

But the video I've seen seems to not use tilting the whole screen anymore, but some other method. I'm not sure what that was, as it had lots of different and independently controlled loco rocos.

Looks to me like the player controls the butterfly to lead the Locoroco's who have some autonomy. More like Lemmings than Locoroco.

 

[Crossbar]

An obvious use of the Sixaxis that I would like to see in adventure style games, is the capability to walk up to an object of interest put the object in focus and press a "grab" button and then your hands on the screen pick up the object and from then on you can examine the object by turning and twisting the Sixaxis and the hands on the screen move in the same way and turn and twist the object.

When you are done you just press a release button and the hands will let go of the object, maybe you can do it at the same time as you are moving the Sixaxis and thereby throwing the object away from you.

I think such an employment would add a lot to the first person feeling in a game.

 

[Naboomagnoli]

An obvious use of the Sixaxis that I would like to see in adventure style games, is the capability to walk up to an object of interest put the object in focus and press a "grab" button and then your hands on the screen pick up the object and from then on you can examine the object by turning and twisting the Sixaxis and the hands on the screen move in the same way and turn and twist the object.

When you are done you just press a release button and the hands will let go of the object, maybe you can do it at the same time as you are moving the Sixaxis and thereby throwing the object away from you.

I think such an employment would add a lot to the first person feeling in a game.

You could do the same with a shiny thing (e.g. a mirror or a dagger) to peer round corners by holding the object out and twisting the pad to change the angle of the object. I'm sick of characters blatantly popping their heads out and not being seen, or using 3rd person camera trickery to give the player a ridiculous advantage.

The reins of a horse seems like such an obvious idea. Lair apparently uses dragons' reins but it doesn't sound at all like what I had in mind - for a start, snapping the reins should speed a horse up, not tell it to do a 180. This would be awesome in a game where being on horseback is not the only thing you ever do - Assassin's Creed, Oblivion, SotC all spring to mind here.

 

[patsu]

From Resistance you are missing some more features I think. I thought you could tilt your sixaxis to bring up the weapons screen in multiplayer for instance? Not sure as I haven't tried that myself yet.

Yes you're correct. Added to the list above.

I do not know how LocoRoco controls, so I'll leave it as is for the moment.

Heh heh, people are full of ideas. The NBA one makes my head spin just reading it. Can people really play it ?

I also added Ratchet and Clank to the list: The player can control the Tornado independent of the player using SIXAXIS.

 

[SenatorMonkey]

When I first saw Motorstorm, I was really, really hoping they'd use Sixaxis for body positioning, while using analog for steering. At least in the lighter vehicles (bikes, ATVs, dune buggies), you could have counterbalanced some really tight turns, and used gestural stuff for attacks (punches, etc.). In the heavier vehicles, obviously shifting your body weight would have no impact on your maneuvers, but you could still 'assault' other vehicles with gestures (slam controller left while in a semi truck to pop your door open and knock a passing biker off his bike, for example).

Could have been cool.

I'd like it to be used for an analog 'lean' in FPS games now, and coupled with Killzone's cover system, that could work well (lock into cover, tilt left and right to peek in those directions, tilt 'up' to peek over a wall).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That would have been an excellent use. So far, it seems to me (from reading. Haven't tried SIXAXIS yet myself) it's very much about tacked on features. Insomniac talked about using it for weapons, but it seems to have only been used for the tornado, and even that's quite dubious.

 

[patsu]

You should try: flOw, Super rub-a-dub, Folklore and Lair. SIXAXIS is an integral part of their gameplay.

 

[itch]

I would like to see FPS games use tilt to peek out around corners. The more you tilt the controller the more you tilt your head out.

 

[Arwin]

You should try: flOw, Super rub-a-dub, Folklore and Lair. SIXAXIS is an integral part of their gameplay.

Not to mention Motorstorm, which believe it or not makes that game accessible to non-gamers. It's also my preferred control method, because as braking isn't necessary most of the time, I can play the game nearly completely one-handed that way. And it's more precise too.

 

[sevanig]

Not to mention Motorstorm, which believe it or not makes that game accessible to non-gamers. It's also my preferred control method, because as braking isn't necessary most of the time, I can play the game nearly completely one-handed that way. And it's more precise too.

Ha, I still use the D-pad

I couldn't use the motion control on any of the harder levels...
The opponents are bastards once u get to Level 4

 

[DJ12]

Yeap, I had to switch from motion control on the later levels too.

I still prefer motion controls though, it involves you more in the game.

 

[SenatorMonkey]

You should try: flOw, Super rub-a-dub, Folklore and Lair. SIXAXIS is an integral part of their gameplay.

The Folklore implementation is nice (just based on the JPN and US demos), but I hope that they mix it up more in the later parts of the game. Knowing that I either only have to tilt back and forth, or time a 'yank' (was going to use 'jerk', but that just sounded a little... strange , it pretty limited. I'd love to see a boss that you have to do multiple motions with during the same 'struggle'. Bash it back and forth for a bit to weaken it, then have it try to pull in different directions while you yank the controller in the opposite direction to reign it in, finally perhaps doing a timed 'pull' while it tries to retreat back inside the body. That said, I had a lot of fun in that demo, and I'll very likely be picking that up this fall (collecting the folks and upgrading them will nicely sate any OCD tendencies as well .

With Lair, I understand somewhat why they did what they did. I talk with Julian at most shows, and back at GDC he mentioned that they wanted to have one control method for each action (not one unified system, but only one option). They focus-tested the game a lot, and while the more 'hardcore' testers liked it (I think he said something like 50%-60% would recommend it to their friends), the less hardcore players really liked the motion control for flying (90% recommendation). He's said that a few times publicly since, basically saying that it's not a hardcore-focused game. I do wish they had exploited combinations of analog+motion, just like I suggested above for Motorstorm. On the ground, use the tilt to control the dragon's head (hold down the 'burn' button and tilt back and forth to cast a swath of flamey death , and in the air I wish they had fully adopted the idea that you were flying a living, intelligent creature (independent targeting, since the dragon's 'weapon' is not fixed in a direction, it can aim independent of the body's facing). Combine that with a few different attacks depending on either button pressure, combinations or something else (low-power fireballs, charged shots for structures (like torpedoes), fire streams for fly-by attacks, etc) and it would have been a more complex air-combat system. Would have also loved the melee attacks to be more ZOE-style, or even jousting-style fly-by attacks with almost a RPS combat system.

Well, that was a longer ramble than I intended. Hate when the backseat designer in me gets out of his cage .

 

[patsu]

The Folklore implementation is nice (just based on the JPN and US demos), but I hope that they mix it up more in the later parts of the game. Knowing that I either only have to tilt back and forth, or time a 'yank' (was going to use 'jerk', but that just sounded a little... strange , it pretty limited. I'd love to see a boss that you have to do multiple motions with during the same 'struggle'. Bash it back and forth for a bit to weaken it, then have it try to pull in different directions while you yank the controller in the opposite direction to reign it in, finally perhaps doing a timed 'pull' while it tries to retreat back inside the body. That said, I had a lot of fun in that demo, and I'll very likely be picking that up this fall (collecting the folks and upgrading them will nicely sate any OCD tendencies as well .

Agree with your comments. I hope later bosses will present more advanced and different challanges as well. As it stands, the demo is pretty unique and fun. Looking at how the difficulty and imagination ramps up, I suspect subsequent bosses will not be push-overs. They will most likely have their own flavor of defense mechanisms. Not sure if these translate into more SIXAXIS shennigans.

I wouldn't be surprise if an enemy boss attempts to snatch my soul up in retaliation.

I also had a little trouble collecting the flying folks earlier in the game. From the description of the folks, it sounds like there are elemental affinity in gameplay too. I think there are a lot of possibilities in this game.

Lair comments

Lucky you ! I have not had a chance to play it yet. So I can't comment.

Well, that was a longer ramble than I intended. Hate when the backseat designer in me gets out of his cage .

Good comments and stories are always welcomed.