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Microsoft's Future Immersive Gaming System :: New patent application

If it can't control traditional games and only these simple casual experiences, then it's the definition of a gimmick. Now tell me from that picture how you are going to control something like GTA 5?

If you look at my first response to this, it was generally negative as well. I'm just saying seeing it as a "race to the next gimmick" isn't how I see it. I see it as companies trying to create something that will stick and be the next big thing. I think Oculus Rift is much closer to a sensible solution though, I don't understand how a room projector would really enhance the experience without being incredibly overpriced an ineffecient.

edit: and how much processing power would it take to have a 360 degree view? With virtual reality it gives you the sense that its all around you, but thats because the image moves with your head movement.
 

eso76

Member
i'm wondering..
why would they put a tv there ? isn't it kind of useless/redundant ?
also, what's projecting the image on the wall ?
 

TRios Zen

Member
Because I have yet to see any of these gimmicks able to control the types of games we get now. The games they can control are always much simpler and worse than what we have played for over a decade. I understand tech has to start somewhere but I wish it would hide away in some lab until they can come up with something that can at least play current games.

I hear what you are saying, but you have no idea how the tech would work or how it controls. I mean, why couldn't the character depicted be just as easily seated holding a controller?

Are their challenges to overcome? Sure. And if you don't want to try it if/when it's released, no problem; but I'm not against trying new things that might move gaming forward.

Shouldn't we endorse folks that are taking chances?
 

Izick

Member
People keep telling me to just get into PC gaming to avoid all this stuff, and that offer tempts me more and more every day.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Shouldn't we endorse folks that are taking chances?

I only do that when people are making games, something that's apparently becoming a lost art with all of these damn gadgets. It just sounds too much like Kinect to me. People were preaching about how revolutionary that would be and blah blah and it ended up being an on rails simulator, because that's all it could handle.

Izick said:
People keep telling me to just get into PC gaming to avoid all this stuff, and that offer tempts me more and more every day.

You may as well. As a lifelong console gamer up until this generation I've already been reduced to 1 console for now and next gen doesn't look very appealing with all of this shit.
 

Sciz

Member
The most futuristic thing about that is the ridiculous resolution the system would have to be able to render at in real time.
 

pvpness

Member
I only do that when people are making games, something that's apparently becoming a lost art with all of these damn gadgets. It just sounds too much like Kinect to me. People were preaching about how revolutionary that would be and blah blah and it ended up being an on rails simulator, because that's all it could handle.



You may as well. As a lifelong console gamer up until this generation I've already been reduced to 1 console for now and next gen doesn't look very appealing with all of this shit.

I get where you're coming from and we mostly agree, but at one point shoulder buttons and analog sticks were gimmicks before they were standards. The worst thing for this industry would be to see companies not even attempt this absurd shit.
 

GhostSeed

Member
He's just playing games with friends what could go wrong...

oUXvD.png
 

Randdalf

Member
Say goodbye to good frame rates if you want this, imagine the resolution you're going to have to render at to fit all this in and yet keep it affordable.
 

Derrick01

Banned
I get where you're coming from and we mostly agree, but at one point shoulder buttons and analog sticks were gimmicks before they were standards. The worst thing for this industry would be to see companies not even attempt this absurd shit.

Additional buttons to a controller is never a problem though. It opens the door for more commands and gameplay mechanics to be used, the worst potential problem being that you make it too complex and hard to control.

These things without controllers are worse and encourage dumber games for the sake of some gimmicky immersion experience.
 

Alx

Member
IMPOSSIBLE to project detailed and moving images, especially of the size shown, using such a little projector. and how the fuck do you diffract the light so that images both fit and align with the walls.

Have you calibrated Kinect guys? Do you imagine the process of calibrating that thing?

The calibration could be quite easy and automatic actually. A depth sensor would already know the shape of the objects in the scene, what it needs to know it the relative position of the projector. And since both can be "talking" to each other (assuming they're both controlled by the same "computer"), the projector can emit a specific visual pattern that the kinect will match with the shapes it detects (actually that's already similar to how the primesense depth sensor works).

But as someone who plays both with kinect and projectors, I can see a big difficulty for such a system : most objects in a living room are not reflective enough for image projection. If you have a coloured couch, whatever you project on it will be barely visible. (it's even worse if it's in a material that doesn't reflect IR, since the depth sensor won't "see" it anyway).
I also wonder if the image projections won't disturb the depth measurements, but that could be avoided by having non-overlapping wavelengths.

So, I don't really expect to see such a thing in living rooms soon (not at this scale anyway). But it could be done for smaller applications (like having a "screen extension" on a wall), or in other contexts (amusement parks, simulators, ...)
 

TRios Zen

Member
I only do that when people are making games, something that's apparently becoming a lost art with all of these damn gadgets. It just sounds too much like Kinect to me. People were preaching about how revolutionary that would be and blah blah and it ended up being an on rails simulator, because that's all it could handle.



You may as well. As a lifelong console gamer up until this generation I've already been reduced to 1 console for now and next gen doesn't look very appealing with all of this shit.

Are you suggesting that the resources invested in making these "damn gadgets" would be better used making games? IF yes, then you probably wouldn't like their games anyway, and if NO, then why do you care that they are trying something different?

Again, if you don't like it, don't buy it, it's a real straight-forward proposition.

Also, I don't agree that good games haven't been released this gen, or even lately, so I'm not following that making games is somehow a "lost art", but to each his own.
 

Interfectum

Member
Shouldn't we endorse folks that are taking chances?

I'd rather chances be taken with game design, graphics, AI, physics, story, etc. Having to rearrange my house so I can jump around with a pretend gun in a very shallow first person shooter is not why most of us love games.

But, unfortunately, hardware gimmicks are an easy way to get mainstream press and massive initial sales (until everyone realizes the tech is actually shit and move on, see Wii and Kinect).
 

derFeef

Member
wait, so if i understand correctly there arent 4 projectors constantly drawing an image on all 4 walls, but a single projector (you might wear on your head for example) projecting only the portion of game world you're currently looking at ?

It's just an example, I suspect it would be possible with one projector in the Kinect device.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
I'm definetly interested in seeing how MS will pull this off...

But there are no non-HMD pieces of tech that I know of that can pull this off in a manner that would be reasonable in cost and reasonable for mass market consumption.

Without that... you're not going to get people interested in developing content for your new multi-projector immersion system, as cool as it is.
 

pvpness

Member
Additional buttons to a controller is never a problem though. It opens the door for more commands and gameplay mechanics to be used, the worst potential problem being that you make it too complex and hard to control.

These things without controllers are worse and encourage dumber games for the sake of some gimmicky immersion experience.

Yeah, like I said we mostly agree. I don't see a future without some type of controller in my hands, but who knows what the new kids will want and history shows they run shit in this industry.
 

Mr.Green

Member
People keep telling me to just get into PC gaming to avoid all this stuff, and that offer tempts me more and more every day.

If you're satisfied with what's there then run, don't walk. Personally I'm glad that the big 3 are trying to break new ground. Like others have said, we might see a lot of gimmicks along the way but some of that crazy stuff is going to stick and greatly improve gaming as a hobby.
 

Derrick01

Banned
I don't get it. What's wrong with big picture mode?

There's nothing wrong. As an initial beta release it's really well done and they're going to be constantly improving it and adding new features. Pretty soon it'll probably be a lot better than the 360 dashboard. It's already faster and doesn't have a billion ads all over it.
 
Ugh, no. Imagine the hassle to set this thing up. To me this thing seems to have the same problem as Kinect: a really great and innovative idea that just can't work commercially with today's tech. It doesn't work if you cut corners with the hardware, and you have to cut corners to be financially feasible.

As far as VR in general goes, I don't care until we have Holodecks, I don't want anything in between. Although things like Razer Hydra and Occulus Rift are cool, I'm interested in them as more of an intuitive way to control games than a way to immerse myself. I'll still be wearing a headset and holding controllers.
 

Izick

Member
There's nothing wrong. As an initial beta release it's really well done and they're going to be constantly improving it and adding new features. Pretty soon it'll probably be a lot better than the 360 dashboard. It's already faster and doesn't have a billion ads all over it.

That's what I figured. Valve usually does things right the first time.
 
If you're satisfied with what's there then run, don't walk. Personally I'm glad that the big 3 are trying to break new ground. Like others have said, we might see a lot of gimmicks along the way but some of that crazy stuff is going to stick and greatly improve gaming as a hobby.


Exactly. I think we're in an awkward phase with new control types, but once the controller methods improve and devs are more comfortable, we'll see larger dividends.
 
How can MS pull this off, give us something that actually works, come out with a system that has true next gen quality tech inside of it AND keep the price point low enough for people who won't pay more than $500 for a new console while they talk about not wanting to pay more than $500 for a console on their $600 iPad?
 

Alx

Member
If you're satisfied with what's there then run, don't walk.

Yeah, if you choose a specific hardware, go for what you like, not to "avoid" something (if anything, PC gaming is much more active in the field of alternate controls, crazy concepts and expensive technology than consoles will ever be)
 

TRios Zen

Member
I'd rather chances be taken with game design, graphics, AI, physics, story, etc. Having to rearrange my house so I can jump around with a pretend gun in a very shallow first person shooter is not why most of us love games.

But, unfortunately, hardware gimmicks are an easy way to get mainstream press and massive initial sales (until everyone realizes the tech is actually shit and move on, see Wii and Kinect).

Wait are you talking about Kinect or this new, unannounced, un-detailed tech?

Cause...I didn't realize you had to re-arrange your room for this tech and certainly didn't realize there was an announced, very shallow FPS game for it already.
 
Cool, seems completely impractical for the average consumer though. This would be great for a large arcade though. A dollar a pop to play and I'd be down with that.
 
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