140°

Kinect is an experiment

Mark Rein, vice-president of Epic Games believes that Microsoft is using Kinect as a test run for the future of their motion control plans.

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examiner.com
hakis865473d ago

If this is true, then they are kind of lagging behind Sony, IMO - who had the Eye Toy for the PS2 as sort of a test.

The_Zeitgeist5473d ago

@ hakis86

Please tell us what rational you use when saying

"Sony, IMO - who had the Eye Toy for the PS2 as sort of a test."

Triella5472d ago (Edited 5472d ago )

He means that Sony used the Eyetoy technology as a basis to develop it's own motion control scheme : a camera tracking an object's position (the controler) in 3d space based on it's shape and colour.

MysticStrummer5472d ago

It's rationale... and it's obvious.

Quagmire5473d ago

So was the nuclear bomb once

StoneySweatLeafs5473d ago

Yeah but the difference is that nothing Microsoft builds ever works right.

SOAD5473d ago

Windows XP and 7 work pretty well.

120FPS5473d ago

Neither did my first 3 PS2'S or my lithium battery for my Sony laptop

MaximusPrime5473d ago

@ SOAD : yea just 2 of them.. the rest is a failure

SOAD5473d ago

@Maximus Prime

According to you, the success of two Operating systems over the span of 35 years as a company is what made Microsoft one of the most profitable companies in the world even despite the major economic downturn the world is suffering?

MisterNiwa5473d ago

Well, I guess I'm not alone when I say, I wish that Microsoft (didn't even exist back then, I know. >:[) built the Nuclear Bomb so it wouldnt have destroyed whole Hiroshima.

Poor Japan back then, no country deserves this.

StoneySweatLeafs5472d ago

@ MisterNiwa

Yet like the atomic bomb Mircosoft should have never been created.

I kid....I think

PirosThe4th5472d ago

@Maximus Prime
They succeeded because of people are stupid enough to buy anything from them...
Also because is "USER Friendly"...
IMO they don't deserve shit from us... they screw everyone over with overprice software that doesn't work well... WIndows 7 did work and does work pretty well (I have it) but that thing should have been free... to make up for all the other shit...

kasasensei5472d ago

Windows Seven is working pretty good buddy. And the first xbox was really reliable, so..

MysticStrummer5472d ago

They succeeded because they made deals that insured their inferior operating system would be standard in most home computers. I'm a MS hater since well before they even announced the Xbox. My friends in the IT biz hate them also. One of them says Bill Gates is Satan.

Double Toasted5472d ago

SOAD...don't argue with fools!

ArmrdChaos5472d ago (Edited 5472d ago )

Does that mean you hate Sony also...or did you enjoy those rootkits?

How about Apple? What signal strength you reading on your Iphone now?

There are usually plenty of reasons to hate most companies...if that is what you are into of course.

krisprolls5472d ago

@soad : are you seriously asking ?

If so, yes, basically MS succeeded in 2 things, Windows and Office.

But OF COURSE it's enough and you can fail everything else, when those 2 things bring you BILLIONS in profit every year.

Funny thing this myth people believe in that MS is somehow successful. Strange really. They just happen to have 2 cash cows keeping them alive.

Even as market cap they're now behind apple, and they failed basically EVERYTHING outside Windows and office :

Zune, Vista, Xbox 1, HDDVD, RROD, recently Kin... Everything failed. Everything.

Kinect is only the latest entry on that list.

+ Show (9) more repliesLast reply 5472d ago
Red-Dead-Roar5472d ago

and we've used the nuclear bomb every day since.... ? was that your point !?

xYLeinen5473d ago

Microsoft have so much money on Kinect that they already have implemented support for it in the next Windows (possibly named 8, I dunno)

krisprolls5472d ago

Unfortunately their phone Kin is already an epic failure costing them billions, they stopped sales after one week (lol) with only a few thousands sold, epic !

Kinect is probably going the same way.

SOAD5473d ago

Does MS really have that much money to blow? If so, why won't they buy a few studios? Just a thought.

PirosThe4th5472d ago

They have money but they are waaaaaaaaaay too cheap...
See how they fixed the RROD and the disc damaging 360... it would cost them 2 or 3 more dollars to do so for each console... but no thats too much for them :D! XD

mastiffchild5472d ago

@SOAD-indeed. I don't go in for the amount of MS bashing that most do(seriously, they're all just after our money and none of them give a sh1t about us so why the rabid loyalty or rabid hatred?)but confess to being annoyed at a coupe of things they managed this generation.

First and foremost was the period where they were closing down studios that should have been making good exclusive 360 content because of the economy yet still kept on handing out massive cheques to the likes of R* for timed exclusivity and, seemingly, every jrpg maker out there for the same damn thing and even, allegedly, for a weeks exclusivity on the RE5 demo!

Secndly, I don't think it's fair to make us pay twice to take our games online but IF that's their model then don't justify it by little features which do little to set your system apart or improve core gaming. Had they helped, by using some of the cash wasted above, make devs use dedicated servers for games on Live I'd seriously think about resubscribing as it would be a REAL reason for them to say their service was best and , maybe, worth the outlay. As it is they hold a gun to your head and expect XGC to make up for it-and to me it really doesn't as I don't even like the bloody feature as it ruins certain games and I think it's only good manners to give people your FULL attention anyway so would rather always wait to talk to mates gaming elsewhere.

Naturally, there's also the reliability issue we had due to them rushing to be out first, not testing the 360 enough pre launch and people making out the three year warranty is somehow a good thing when, really, it was just to avoid court and a mass recall while they sorted it all out. I understand why MS rushed the 360 out and it did it's market share and exclusive nabbing job perfectly but it did feel a bit like they used gamers to get it done.

Thing is we could moan about Sony or Nintendo and things they've either stupidly, arrogantly or short sightedly done over the years and it just, imho, happens to be that MS have done a couple more crappy things THIS generation than the other two. However, when all sides have vociferous fanboys willing to excuse, loudly, anything they do even when it's plainly wrong and damaging to us all to do so how will things ever improve? Might be MS this gen but it could be anyone next behaving the worst of a bad bunch and the day we gamers stop be so in thrall to faceless corporations might be the day we earn a little more respect from them as the people who pay all their wages.

krisprolls5472d ago

@Soad : That, Soad, is an incredibly good question.

All MS had to do to compete on the long run was buying studios and making games like Sony does. Yet they wasted all that money in this stupid Kinect project with Failure written on it, or in timed exclusives and DLC nobody cares about.

I think overall MS management is one of the worst in the history of big corporations, especially since Gates retired...

Show all comments (48)
90°

Epic Games Asks Judge to Force Apple to Unblock Fortnite on iOS

The saga of the legal battle that sees Epic Games fight Apple in the attempt to bring Fortnite back to iOS has just gained another chapter.

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simulationdaily.com
PapaBop42d ago

Damn, I'm going to need to restock my popcorn if this keeps up.

230°

Epic's Tim Sweeney shares first details about Unreal Engine 6

In an interview with Lex Fridman, Epic Games' Tim Sweeney shared the first details about the next version of Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 6.

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dsogaming.com
Vits55d ago

It’s going to come packed with a bunch of flashy, buzzword-filled features that no one will actually be able to use without tanking performance. And just like every iteration of that engine before it, the excuse won’t be that it’s poorly optimized, no, it’s "forward-thinking" and the hardware just isn’t ready to keep up.

But since it saves studios from having to invest in developing their own internal engines, it’ll still end up being widely adopted across the industry.

VenomUK54d ago

But will it have micro-stutters?

Vits54d ago

But of course, even compatible with VRR, so you can really feel it.

rlow154d ago

What cracks me up, is a lot of games utilize Unreal 5 and yet gaming has become more expensive. So all that BS that they shoveled out the last big reveal hasn’t translated into savings and if it has, then the industry is just plain ol’ lying.

1nsomniac54d ago (Edited 54d ago )

You mean like “going digital will bring down costs for customer dramatically. Because there will be no packaging/distribution.” Or maybe the “games going forward, will be cross-buy so you buy it once and will be able to access it across all platforms you own.” Or even the “if we increase the rrp it will mean we can get rid of micro transactions altogether.”

… I could be here all day quoting the lies from this industry.

abstractel54d ago

Scope of games are way bigger than even just 10 years ago. Also keep in mind that Epic charges 5% for using their engine, Steam charges 30% just like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft's stores. That's 35% of your revenue gone. Steam infuriates me because they don't have nearly the overhead console manufacturers have but they know people are unlikely to migrate to Epic Games Store (which charges 15% instead but has a shit storefront compared to steam). I love UE5 (for the most part) and it has pushed the envelope in ways that would be too long to list here. I think UE6 will push things further and make it possible for devs who don't have Rockstar resources to make amazing games even further. Time will tell.

barom53d ago

@1nsomniac Going digital did make things cheaper though. Games are dropping in prices at much faster rate than before and you’ll find plenty of sub $10 games on sale all the time, whereas before we had to wait for “greatest hits” label. Not to mention the indies basically have a levelled playing field now.

Pyrofire9553d ago

In the same way that you make all these assumptions and judgments on the future of UE, I see you making these assumptions and disregard any opinion you hold.
I see no value.
There is nothing constructive, just ire on what was and the willingness to believe nothing will get better.
You have given up on the possibility of joy and will not find it.

Profchaos54d ago

Will it have games or just more decade long projects

IanTH54d ago (Edited 54d ago )

I find this odd. How am I expected to be excited with future promises when mired by the current legacy of UE5 and its myriad of technical shortcomings that have yet to be solved, even years after release.

Of course they should be working towards the future, but talking about it while UE5 still has many unsolved issues years after it has been the de facto standard? An engine used by so many, after so many years, with the backing of a company as grossly cash-rich as Epic shouldn't have so many problems still.

And the optics - even if not the truth of the matter - is you're putting time & resources into UE6 at the expense of UE5; your current product still needs quite a lot of attention. Unless the message is "we're abandoning UE5 because it's issues are systemic, and we hope UE6 can address that mess by moving on as quickly as possible".

IanTH54d ago

I was attempting to reframe my comment as I watched more of the video, but the edit timed out. So here is a nearly completely different comment lol:

The number forks/fragmentations of UE5 feels like - from a laymen's perspective - a plausible explanation for why the engine, 3 years post release, has continued to have the same problems today as it did from day 1. Sounding as if they can't really find a way to cleanly coalesce each of the seven disparate variants, it seems hopes lie with being able to do so in the years leading up to the launch of UE6.

That said, if they have so many specific versions, then it does still kind of boggle the mind why issues, like compilation stutter, are still so pervasive. Seems in this specific scenario, the fragmentation could potentially be useful for at least helping to narrow down platform specific issues/solutions.

Clearly not the case, so hopefully they can make UE6 more unified to allow for more focused, streamline engine development.

PixelOmen54d ago

Compilation stutter hasn't really been much of an issue for a couple years now if the devs know what they're doing. The problem is not all the devs know what they're doing in that regard. The real problem is traversal stutter. That is nearly universal.

IanTH54d ago (Edited 54d ago )

I sort of ended up mentally putting both of those under the category of compilation stutter, which is surely too reductive. I should have just said "stuttering/fametime issues in all their incarnations". Because while there are improvements to comp stutter, even games that force you through long, even 30 minutes shader compilation stages before playing haven't managed to fully solve that issue. Heck, even consoles, with fixed hardware that can ship with pre-compiled shaders can't even seem to fully escape it.

Traversal stutter is definitely its own issue, though, and has only been exacerbated thanks to older cards being held onto longer, and companies - primarily Nvidia - opting to put 8GB VRAM buffers into cards for way the eff too long. If you don't have the top of the line CPU and high-end, overclocked RAM kits - most of the PC playing population - to help shuffle that info between system memory and the GPU, you're more screwed than most. And Nvidia could help the issue as well, if they could improve their years-long issue with high driver overhead. Freeing up any extra CPU usage, especially for those with weaker CPUs, would really benefit.

I really hope these things can have some kind of solution found for them sooner than later. As it is, it just feels like games are taking two steps forwards and two steps back a lot of the time. Improved pixel quality (world detail, lighting, etc), at the expense of degraded image clarity (softer image, heavy reliance on upscaling, increased artificing) and smoothness/performance (stuttering/poor frametimes).

And the fact this stuff occurs, when dev times are longer than they've ever been, with budgets creeping ever higher, it's that much worse to feel like a lot of experiences just aren't wins across the board. Especially as deep into this generation as we are, and with as much time as devs & engine makers have had to iron out issues. It feels like we may need to pump the brakes on the pace of research into graphics tech and rebalance towards optimization. Image clarity (native res, especially) continuing to fall further, with poor frametimes for a myriad of reasons, as the generation goes on doesn't feel the best.

PixelOmen54d ago

I'm not just talking about shader compilation stages. There are games like Expedition 33 that barely have any pre-compilation stages (in the background on the main menu) and have almost zero comp stutter. It has to do with the way you use shaders and make your materials. It still has some small traversal stutter though.

Noskypeno54d ago

It feels too soon to talk about UE6. It feels like UE5 barely got tapped, only a handfull of games really showed its potential.

Show all comments (24)
210°

Epic Games files lawsuit against Fortnite player for violating rules

Another day, another Fortnite lawsuit. This time, Epic Games sued a player who violated in-game rules,

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videogamer.com
KwietStorm_BLM181d ago

Hide ya kids cuz Epic suing everybody out here

Azurite180d ago

"This is a player who cheated in tournaments and tried to avoid the ban using multiple accounts."

INMATEofARKHAM180d ago

I don't follow all of Epic's lawsuits, nor do I play Fortnite, but there's been many times that I wish other companies took cheating in their MP content this serious.

So good for Epic. (And I say this as someone who detest Epic so much that he doesn't even bother to add their free games to an account.)

Inverno180d ago

I don't think avoiding being banned warrants a whole lawsuit. Seems like a misuses of the system, and something that only a company with too much f-u money could do. Not like they couldn't possibly implement an anti cheat that actually works as intended.

shadowfax33180d ago

now if only activision would do the same...

CrimsonWing69180d ago

If you told me back in the day game devs could sue you for cheating in a game, I’d have looked at you with a blank stare as I plugged my NES cartridge into a game genie.

INMATEofARKHAM180d ago

Big difference between enjoying the a game in single player/off line play and ruining the experiences of others in a MP/Online game.

CrimsonWing69180d ago (Edited 180d ago )

Ok, so ban them? Repeatedly if necessary. Like, suing for cheating in a video game is kind of absurd to me. What’s next? Suing someone who modded a game? They’re video games… so weird.

LG_Fox_Brazil180d ago

Read the article Crimson, it's not that hard

CrimsonWing69180d ago

@LG_Fox_Balrazil

How does the article change what I’m saying?

Inverno180d ago

People seem to think it's a good thing that they can abuse the justice system for something as petty as cheating in an online game. It's that way of thinking that we're where we're at. Then we wonder why these companies can over step their "authority", and it's cause of backwards logic from your average Joe. It'll get to the point where people will get sued for buying games on steam rather than on Epic and people will defend that too.

CrimsonWing69180d ago (Edited 180d ago )

That’s kind of my point. This is a video game, if people are cheating, you ban them… not f*cking sue them. I just feel it on the level of most absurd things to get sued over. Can Hasbro sue you for cheating in Monopoly? Like if you’re playing the board game of Monopoly with multiple people and you cheat, could the other players sue you?

Inverno180d ago

People don't think that allowing something like this happening for such a stupid reason just opens the flood gates. Rules aren't law, nor do they hold as much weight.

Software_Lover180d ago

I don't understand what they could be suing for. Just ban him/her. Unless they are suing for the payroll used for already banning them multiple times.