The non-standard game interfaces discussion thread (move, voice, vitality, etc.)

[Arwin]

Yes, I just wonder if Sony missed a trick tho...maybe they should have been looking at more ways to implement AR into gaming, it's odd because obviously there's loads of examples with all the eyetoy games. I guess my point was that that would be totally different to Wii (being able to put you into the game with a weapon)

Start the Party works great, but it wasn't well received. For EyePet I'm slightly disappointed that they couldn't make it work so that it doesn't need to be placed so low to the floor, because otherwise that's a pretty good game.

Other than that, in general AR / Move suffers quite a bit from the image quality not being great in the first place, and then often being optimised for Move detection rather than image quality, which makes it look worse. But Start the Part was nevertheless a big success with the kids, and is probably under-marketed. For instance at Media-Markt, there was a demo setup for Sports Champions, but that didn't work great with the Move controller tied to a heavy chain ... Something like Start the Party would have worked much better there, and would also have drawn in the kids there a lot more.

 

[goonergaz]

Does anyone else have an issue with cursor 'drift' with Move (or more to the point with the KZ3 demo)?

I'm sitting pretty much square on and resting the Move on my lap - within a few mins of play I am no longer pointing at the centre of the screen...I tried recalibrating but it just drifts off again? I thought it might be just the online demo but it's also doing it on the SP game...am I doing something wrong!?

 

[Arwin]

Does anyone else have an issue with cursor 'drift' with Move (or more to the point with the KZ3 demo)?

I'm sitting pretty much square on and resting the Move on my lap - within a few mins of play I am no longer pointing at the centre of the screen...I tried recalibrating but it just drifts off again? I thought it might be just the online demo but it's also doing it on the SP game...am I doing something wrong!?

This is actually an issue that comes up. There are various possible causes for this (lights, magnetometer and stuff like that are mentioned often), but I think the most common one seems to be warmth. If you hold the controller in your other hand, you may well see that the controller drifts in a different direction (I've tested this myself). You can also test it with holding different heat-sources near to it. Turning off the magnetometer sometimes helps too (it seems not to be necessarily/helpful in most cases).

What makes this problem stand out a bit more versus a game like Sports Champions, Start the Party or EyePet, is that the Move controller actually continuously auto-calibrates versus the camera. If you make a figure eight in the direction of the camera, you'll probably see that you're properly aligned again. But if you're holding it perfectly still, then the drift comes the most apparent. It's the primary reason why the pointing for rail-shooters for the Move isn't always 1:1, though I have a personal theory that the other reason is that pointing is typically done with only the gyro, and if they would use the camera detection as well this problem could be pretty much eliminated (but has other disadvantages of course, such as the controller having to be visible to the camera).

There was a discussion in Iwata asks on how Nintendo solved this heat-sensitivity (to some extent at least - I still had to regularly put down the controller to allow it to calibrate, so the gyro there is clearly not perfect either) by pre-heating the components once to a high level, an expensive process apparently. But it does indicate that this is generally a vulnerability in gyroscope tech.

You can also try playing with a glove to see if that stops or mitigates the problem.

I personally find by the way that you will typically adjust to it automatically, and just aim relative to the direction your gun is pointing or the direction your last bullet went rather than a more specific aim. But of course ideally you'd be able to do both and there would be no drift at all.

 

[ShadowRunner]

Did you recalibrate the mangnometre in XMB or just run through the games own calibration process? You could also try disableing the magnometre altogether and see if that makes a difference. Also when calibrating within the game make sure you line up the move with the camera and aim at the middle of the screen. You can try resetting move aswell, i think there is one of them wholes you put a pin in to reset somewhere on the device.

 

[ShadowRunner]

I personally find by the way that you will typically adjust to it automatically, and just aim relative to the direction your gun is pointing or the direction your last bullet went rather than a more specific aim. But of course ideally you'd be able to do both and there would be no drift at all.

Yes, its best to treat it like a mouse rather than a lightgun so you control the cursor relative to its last position, rather than in an absolute sense.

 

[goonergaz]

Thanks for the input guys.

I have 4 Moves, do I need to do the XMB calibration for all of them? (I didn't even know about that!)...KZ3 is the first time I've had any issues at all, in fact I played lots of SC and didn't notice any issues whatsoever nor when playing RE:5 :S

 

[Nesh]

Its funny and amazing how history repeats itself

 

[patsu]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/03/02/aspiring-developers-take-note-move-me-unveiled-at-gdc/

So, what exactly is Move.Me? In short, Move.Me is a server application that runs on the PS3 system. It allows anyone with a PS3 to experiment with motion controls and is officially sanctioned and supported by Sony Computer Entertainment. Move.Me sends the complete state of the PlayStation Move and navigation controllers to the PC, giving you the exact same data that licensed developers typically have access to.

What does this mean to you? We see Move.Me as an opportunity to satisfy the need for new, innovative interactive technology in fields like academia, healthcare, and more, as well as to support new developers and inspire applications that we could never have imagined. We hope it will be used to discover new ways of connecting individuals with information, and maybe even discovering a new healthcare application or two. We know that some of you out there are aspiring software developers yourselves and we’re eager to see what kinds of applications Move.Move inspires. Maybe an aspiring developer like you will create the next big thing with PlayStation Move!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This'll be the same system they were using for developers to use Move with PC apps, I imagine. If so, Sony should release their device controllers and setup, so artists can go straight into Z-Brush and use Move.

The requirement of a PS3 seems rather excessive though. The same calculations are performed in OpenCV. I expect community PC drivers to be more appreciated, but then they may not write - Move has been out a fair few months without much PC support.

 

[patsu]

On the Move.me client side... if they make a mouse driver for the PC (or Mac !), we can use Move as the pointer for all PC/Mac apps. PCs and Macs already "know" how to display to a TV anyway.

 

[whome0]

The requirement of a PS3 seems rather excessive though.

Yes, this is a rather heavyweight setup to give us PC Move support. I have used PSEye as a standalone webcam in PC and its a very good video quality. Only missing standalone thing is Move bluetooth native driver hack and a smart analysing software to give meaninfull xyz coordinates. I think Move.Me ps3 app provides all the dirty software job for free. This does provide us PC-Kinect and Move+PSeye combination run on PC machine.

 

[patsu]

Move.me demo:
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/03/03/hands-on-the-playstation-move-powered-robot/

Using two PlayStation Move controllers I drove a robot across the floor of Sony’s GDC booth. Holding down the trigger buttons on both wands makes the robot roll forward. Since each trigger controls a different wheel you can hold down one trigger to make the robot spin in a circle. That’s probably the more complicated way to make the robot turn, moving the wands left or right works too.

See the red ball? The robot can grab it with a claw mounted on front. Press the Move buttons and extend your arms out, as if you were the claw, to open it. Move your arms back together to close the claw and grab the ball.

I suspect NGP would be a better robot controller than Move because of the built-in screen (You're not tied to the TV). NGP is also a lot more expressive than the Move controllers.

They should have built a direct manipulation, precision control app (like a 3D modeling app on PC. e.g., Google Sketch ?) with Move instead, or a home entertainment app.

 

[Rotmm]

Following one of the biggest launches in consumer electronics history, Kinect for Xbox 360 continued its momentum in 2011, reaching 10 million Kinect sensors sold worldwide to date. Not only were sensor sales an overwhelming success, but Kinect drove significant game sales with more than 10 million standalone Kinect games sold worldwide to date.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Press/archive/2011/0308-Ten-Million-Kinects

I must admit, I'm somewhat surprised to see Kinect continue selling in such numbers past the holiday rush. I'm less surprised at the 1 game + Kinect Adventures attach rate.

 

[Tap In]

fastest-selling consumer electronics device

In a nod to the recent sales success of Kinect, Guinness World Records has officially named Kinect for Xbox 360 the fastest-selling consumer electronics device , which sold an average of 133,333 units per day for a total of eight million units in its first 60 days between November 4, 2010 and January 3, 2011. The record confirmation comes just after the latest release of theGuinness World Records 2011 Gameris Edition, which features dedicated sections to Kinect.

"The sales figures here speak for themselves," said Gaz Deaves, Gaming Editor for Guinness World Records. "According to independent research, no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, which is an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector."

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's quite incredible. A remarkable attach rate for a peripheral espeically considering limitations like space issues. I'd love to see a breakdown by nationality.

 

[liolio]

That's quite incredible. A remarkable attach rate for a peripheral espeically considering limitations like space issues. I'd love to see a breakdown by nationality.

Indeed I can't say I'm not tempted by Kinect but clearly my apartment is too tiny

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There was an episode of QI that showed average house sizes by country, and the UK was the smallest of some dozen countries on view, about the quarter the size of US homes. I wonder if that is having significant impact on regional uptake.

 

[Arwin]

There was an episode of QI that showed average house sizes by country, and the UK was the smallest of some dozen countries on view, about the quarter the size of US homes. I wonder if that is having significant impact on regional uptake.

Heh, yeah, I don't catch QI that often, but I saw that episode too (didn't you just love that little house building amoebe, and they way they handled the 'divorce'? )

 

[scently]

There was an episode of QI that showed average house sizes by country, and the UK was the smallest of some dozen countries on view, about the quarter the size of US homes. I wonder if that is having significant impact on regional uptake.

Well it might but kinect has been and still is a success in the UK going by the weekly charts. But yeah, it might acheive an even higher level of success there if the houses are bigger but then there is no way that I know of that can be used to qualify or quantify that statement either way.

 

[Arwin]

I agree its impressive. Hope to see Move grow a little too thanks to good Killzone 3 reviews (combined with Dead Space Extraction), but well we'll see - I don't think Move could ever hope to grow as fast without a few more high quality and high profiled dedicated casual titles, that still can show its uniqueness. Sports Champions was basically still too hardcore ...

Which is not to say that I'm complaining - I'm getting way more out of Move already than I'd anticipated to be possible so soon. Who'd have thought that I'd play an AAA shooter like Killzone 3 with it within half a year, and not only like it, but now never want to go back to DS3 for shooters ever again? (So Insomniac, better ask GG for their controller code or you'll lose at least 1 sale ). And The Fight has become a go-to game for me as well.

(Funky Lab Rat is quite amusing too by the way, a game not unlike playing Trine with just the wizard)