What will define the next generation of consoles in your mind?

[almighty]

I hope they ditch all the social media and connect crap and just become what they once were.... A box to play games and only games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Huh? The difference is a little software, which you can choose not to use. That's like asking smartphones to lose all the cameras and touchscreens and just be used to call people, or wanting PCs to be unable to play games and go back to what they once were as just work machines.

 

[almighty]

Huh? The difference is a little software, which you can choose not to use. That's like asking smartphones to lose all the cameras and touchscreens and just be used to call people, or wanting PCs to be unable to play games and go back to what they once were as just work machines.

Pretty much.... Consoles were much nicer in my day.....

Seems that all this added crap is just taking away time from making decent games.

If the rumours are true just look at how much hardware are chucking at kinnect in the next Xbox?

That hardware would be much better used for games and not for powering the software that runs kinnect

 

[Nesh]

Huh? The difference is a little software, which you can choose not to use. That's like asking smartphones to lose all the cameras and touchscreens and just be used to call people, or wanting PCs to be unable to play games and go back to what they once were as just work machines.

Well, the guy who just wants a phone that makes calls and a PC that just does work will prefer a device that costs less since it wont have the flashy stuff. Just what he needs

 

[Shifty Geezer]

But it won't cost less! The hardware is the same, the difference is only software. Buy a cheap ass phone now and it still has texting, music playing, etc. which adds virtually nothing to the cost of the device. Remove those features and you'll produce a simple phone that costs the same as its rivals but offers less value. Likewise, a console that just plays games alongside one that costs the same and offers media and social functions is throwing value away for no good reason. Even Nintendo, stoic proponents of the 'it;s all about the games' mantra, have grasped this and are clumsily trying to develop the necessary software and services to add value to their console beyond just games.

The real problem is the naffness of execution more than anything IMO, like Sony's PS3 browser being more trouble than it's worth, still, after the update. I'd much rather have that browser work well when wanting to look something up in the living room rather than having to get up and go looking for my tablet.

 

[almighty]

Strip out all the unneeded crap and make a console a console and you end up with a very light OS that uses less resources and leaves more for the games.

Just look at how much PS3's OS eats?

 

[Squilliam]

Seems that all this added crap is just taking away time from making decent games.

If the rumours are true just look at how much hardware are chucking at kinnect in the next Xbox?

That hardware would be much better used for games and not for powering the software that runs kinnect

Would games be better if they had 8* the performance of the Xbox 360 to throw at them or would they be better if they had 7* the performance of the Xbox 360 to throw at them but with new gameplay options offered by Kinect 2.0? We're talking a fraction of the performance to get more than just a prettier version of exactly the same game, 1/7th isn't much of an improvement anyway next to the general improvement from the generational leap.

 

[almighty]

Would games be better if they had 8* the performance of the Xbox 360 to throw at them or would they be better if they had 7* the performance of the Xbox 360 to throw at them but with new gameplay options offered by Kinect 2.0? We're talking a fraction of the performance to get more than just a prettier version of exactly the same game, 1/7th isn't much of an improvement anyway next to the general improvement from the generational leap.

I go with the first option..... Motion controls are nothing more then a gimmick that people get bored of or hardly use.

When I play a console I don't want to waving my arms or jumping around like a prat, I want to be sitting down comfortable enjoying my game of choice.

 

[Billy Idol]

Would games be better if they had 8* the performance of the Xbox 360 to throw at them or would they be better if they had 7* the performance of the Xbox 360 to throw at them but with new gameplay options offered by Kinect 2.0? We're talking a fraction of the performance to get more than just a prettier version of exactly the same game, 1/7th isn't much of an improvement anyway next to the general improvement from the generational leap.

You are only talking hardware resources...how much time do game developers have to spend to implement said feature, e.g. Kinect? These additional costs could certainly be spend to improve the game in other areas...

 

[Squilliam]

I go with the first option..... Motion controls are nothing more then a gimmick that people get bored of or hardly use.

When I play a console I don't want to waving my arms or jumping around like a prat, I want to be sitting down comfortable enjoying my game of choice.

You are only talking hardware resources...how much time do game developers have to spend to implement said feature, e.g. Kinect? These additional costs could certainly be spend to improve the game in other areas...

If the game can be made better and hence more popular by implementing Kinect then they would have more resources to throw in any direction. If Kinect doesn't add anything to the game then the resources shouldn't be devoted to them and hence won't take away from the overall game design or the performance of the title itself. If for instance only voice commands make sense then the design work will only revolve around those voice commands.

 

[almighty]

If for instance only voice commands make sense then the design work will only revolve around those voice commands.

That to me just shouts gimmick....

 

[Squilliam]

What's wrong with giving options instead of saying that every game must work within the constraints of the one controller configuration? Sometimes it makes sense to say yes instead of 'press A to say yes'. The limitations of controllers were a large part of the reason why the Wii was successful.

 

[jonabbey]

PC World has a very nice article up discussing some of the projects going on at Microsoft Research, including a lot of Kinect based stuff.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2020268/meet-microsoft-the-worlds-best-kept-randd-secret.html

 

[Squilliam]

I quite liked this one!

Microsoft’s working on a solution, and it’s based on the infirmities of the flesh. The human eye can only view a limited area in full detail. Our peripheral vision is much less sensitive. A computer with eye-tracking hardware—like, say, the holodeck mentioned above—can take advantage of this by determining where we’re focused and rendering objects in the periphery with less detail, using an antialiasing algorithm to smooth out the lower resolutions found off-center.

Microsoft calls this technique Foveated Rendering and has already conducted successful trials. Users couldn’t tell the difference between the normal image and the one with reduced detail. Yet the less detailed image required up to six times less power to render! “The result looks like a full-resolution image but reduces the number of pixels shaded by a factor of 10-15,” the research team notes.

And this one

Microsoft’s current prototype “window” already supports glasses-free 3D by beaming specific stereoscopic images to each of your eyes, and it’s able to beam different images to different users. Basically, you could be immersed in one scene while your friend standing next to you stares at something else entirely. (And yes, it tracks your head motion.)

 

[ERP]

Microsoft’s working on a solution, and it’s based on the infirmities of the flesh. The human eye can only view a limited area in full detail. Our peripheral vision is much less sensitive. A computer with eye-tracking hardware—like, say, the holodeck mentioned above—can take advantage of this by determining where we’re focused and rendering objects in the periphery with less detail, using an antialiasing algorithm to smooth out the lower resolutions found off-center.

Someone should have asked what the resolution required to do accurate eye tracking, and what the cost of the cameras required is. I've seen it demonstrated, but the camera used cost $10K.

This stuff is all great, but none of it is ready for a commercial product now.

 

[Rangers]

I'm a lot more excited about Oculus Rift type stuff than Kinect.

Kinect was a good idea but I think MS maybe went down the wrong road with it. In the end it's just too buggy.

I think Nintendo+Ocolus Rift type technology could be the next cool thing. I think Nintendo cause they need a gimmick and I believe Wii U is very doomed.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Someone should have asked what the resolution required to do accurate eye tracking, and what the cost of the cameras required is. I've seen it demonstrated, but the camera used cost $10K.

This stuff is all great, but none of it is ready for a commercial product now.

It's also the antithesis of social gaming.

 

[Squilliam]

Someone should have asked what the resolution required to do accurate eye tracking, and what the cost of the cameras required is. I've seen it demonstrated, but the camera used cost $10K.

This stuff is all great, but none of it is ready for a commercial product now.

Did they use a $10,000 dollar camera because they wanted the best possible results or because it was necessary? I understand that Kinect has infrared illumination capabilities so that is covered but the question really is what resolution would be required? Are we talking HD, 1080P, 4K or 8K camera? And at what framerate?

 

[tuna]

Well, the guy who just wants a phone that makes calls and a PC that just does work will prefer a device that costs less since it wont have the flashy stuff. Just what he needs

Buy it then! I do not get the problem....

 

[tuna]

It's also the antithesis of social gaming.

Even if you have to render four (possibly overlapping) areas you should still save pixels. But split-screen gaming would not work well with this approach.