Posted on an article about the PSN Eye Kung-Fu game:
"True it's not 3D mocap
but with this tech and the PSMove it can fully be just that.
The point I was making was that Natal claimed that placing the player into the game was not possible on any other system. Yet here it is on the PS3 before we have yet to see it done on Natal... other than the faked marketing vid."
Yeah, and the PS3 "Only Does Everything". Way to go with the double standard. No matter what Microsoft over-promises about their tech, Sony has already done the worst possible over-promise right there. Unless... you know... you took it with a grain of salt like any other rational person would...
You're not getting it. This is NOTHING like Natal. Not even close. To say this is "doing it before Natal" is an insult to the collective intelligence of gamers everywhere. This is like a kid asking for a Wii and their parents bringing home one of those knock-off, battery-powered plug-and-play games from China.
This tech in the Kung-fu game merely subtracts the background and extracts a 2D image of the player, then does some pretty lite analysis to determine poses and moves moving on a 2D plane, much the say way you would do DSP on a voice to extract words. What it does with that image is quite impressive... but not anything better than what's already been done with EyeToy and 360 games like In The Movies, also with the same 2D camera.
Natal is a 3D infrared camera that can natively detect depth. If it were a display technology instead of an input technology, it would be "holographic". If you've seen Minority Report, it's like the protagonist's home videos. The Move wand can only do 3D position because the size of the bulb on the wand is a known value. That's still a single point in space. On the other hand, Natal can generate an entire array these points in space, like a tessellated (wrinkled, draped) sheet covering the scene.
Move... which in MY personal opinion has much better gaming applications than Natal thanks to having an actual controller component... STILL does not natively sense depth the way Natal does. I'm more interested in and excited for the Move, but I can't stomach the flagrant inaccuracy with which Natal has been portrayed in these articles.
Watch this video from 1:17 and tell me if the Eye can do that: http://www.gametrailers.com...
Skewed and Reviewed have posted some gameplay from the new game.
The legendary composer celebrates forty years of game composing with a new collection.
Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"There is a reason that the Castlevania franchise is so beloved and even is seen as part of what started the whole metroidvania genre, given that half of the franchise’s name makes up the genre of course. These titles see players explore vast, generally 2D limited locations where players will battle against all different manner of foes, unlocking new powers and weapons along the way that will help them gain access to previously unreachable areas or breach a barrier blocking their way. Throughout the years, these metroidvanias have each added their own unique takes and quality of life features to try to set themselves apart and make a mark of their own, but how about one that sticks almost as close to the original Castlevania as possible?
Chronicles of the Wolf happens to be just that as Migami Games has made sure to stick as close as possible to the original Castlevania elements for better or worse while putting their own lore on things. Does this retro approach that adheres heavily to the old-school formula work out well for this one or was this hero’s adventure better left for the wolves?"
Ther was an add on that did the exact same thing as natal on the SNES. its not as good as MS make out.
i watched your vid, and yep it is still pretty much the same as playstation eye
You do know that the "Kung-fu" at one point was going to be multiplatform, right? Its a 3rd party game that Sony just happened to get exclusively. Then again, MS might have rejected it because its too "primitive" in terms of what Natal fully has to offer.
Not that there's been anything offered in regards to what natal can do as far as extracting and replacing backgrounds. That much about just hasn't been shown.
Natal is one of a kind. It's new tech, not only is it the biggest gaming technology this year, but Microsoft has said it's the biggest computer technology coming this year. Voice commands, scan items into it, it learns from you. It's amazing. I am looking forward to it. I am happy that MS didn't go with a Wii Knock off, because I wouldn't have bought something like that. I am glad they went with something more. I mean what started out as the best hard core gaming console has now turned into a great media device as well and this adds to that. I cant wait.
Actually, the Move does detect depth very accurately -- that's what the glowy ball is for.
In a sense, Natal detects a "depth field" -- it knows that one part of an incoming image is closer or further away from the camera than another, whereas the Move only detects a "depth point". The Move's depth accuracy is considerably more refined, but it is just that single point.
The real question for MS is... can that field of depth information be utilized for interesting gaming purposes, or is it just additional info, without any real purpose?
great post and its a great start at countering some of the inaccuracies that are floating around.. move is faking its depth of field and i would hardly call it refined.