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Augmented Reality Quake
DrGonzo writes "Take a tour of campus an shoot some monsters. The Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia has developed a
prototype wearable Quake suit. " I'm a little skeptical
of this, but it sure would make the frisbee golfers on campus look like the normal
ones.
Ack!
-- If it ain't broke - overclock it more.
...more on 9 News at 11.
But if it really works like is shown on the site, it'd definitely be something worth looking into.
I could just imagine it:
"Die you worthless demon die!"
"Billy! Stop pointing that thing at Grandma"
Casual Games/Downloads
http://webpages.mr.net/bobz/ttyquake/
It has to suck to be playing a multiplayer game of augmented reality quake, and respawn where you died. Of course, now you have physical recourse against spawn campers.
Roschambeau?
Black and grey are both shades of white.
now that's augmented reality with a market!
cz
That would be the ultimate form of paintball for me. Laser Tag meets Paintball meets Quake III Arena.
I know I have something witty to say here but I can't stop thinking about live action first person shooter death tournaments!
Although the picture of that guy with the gun makes me wonder how many people would get shot by cops not knowing the difference.
Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit.
without the silly suit. Hold on one sec while I reload my bfg...
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
Please tell me someone wrote a GTA mod for
Quake 1 some where way back when.. I want to
get points for stealing cars in real life.
On second though, nevermind... That wouldn't go over well at all with campus security....
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
because now I'm going to have to rent a stadium!
daed si luap
This could take personalized models to an all new level. Wonder what happens when they gibb your model (like blow up your corpse).
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
I know that the division between reality and gaming can be confusing for many people but this is a new extreme. Doesn't anyone else think it would be a little disorienting to see horrifying monsters running around your campus? (not with standing fellow undergrads of course:)
I stole this Sig
You'd definitely want to let campus security know before you went out ot play your first game.
Looks like it wouldn't be that comfortable, and of course you'd look out of place. Otherwise cool. I wonder if the shots they show are real or what they propose it would look like.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
That doesn't look like much fun really. A better use of such marvelous technology would involve fully animated imagery of that Mexican songstress Shakira, a forty ounce of the funk, and some "self time".
That one shot with the bridge is scary. I can't tell if the bridge is really there or not. With sufficiently good graphics, you could easily break a leg/neck.
-prator
Photoquantigraphic Lightspace Paintball, played by Steve Mann and his "cyborgs" at the University of Toronto. Wearcomps and flashguns to paint the Univeristy and the players in their own mediated reality. Fun, fun, fun.
- In hell, treason is the work of angels.
I'd better start training now if I want to win some deathmatches.
Damn energizer bunny geeks!!!
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13 comments and this is all the website is spitting back:
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One of these days the editors will drop 'the admins' a line prior to sending an avalanche of traffic their way!
Hey, watch it about the Disc Golfers!
:)
Hey at least we can get "Augmented Reality" for about five or ten bucks... depending how much the mushrooms are going.
This seems to be paying a lot to do the same thing
Get your Unix fortune now!
Finally an affordable Holodeck setup.
I want this real bad....
http://www.millnet.se/ GO/U d- s+:+ a C++ UL++++ P- L+++ E W+++ N+ w++ M-- PE+ t+ X++
If people can't separate reality from Quake or other future games, they have a bigger problem than we care to address.
want to keep an idiot occupied for hours? CLICK HERE!
It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.
More commonly known as 'Beer Googles'...
Michael Loves Me!
Anybody got a mirror?
CmdrTaco certainly does have a knack for attacking all the masive power blocks in our society. When will he stop his suicidal habit of making powerful enemies, such as Microsoft, Scientology and the all powerful Frisbee Golfers, with their hordes of vicious lawyers? If the Frisbee Golfers don't get this article eaten before 5 PM, I will be surprised.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
::drool::
Wow, I almost got arrested for playing real (not augmented reality, without guns of any type) capture the flag the other night. This just multiplies the fun.
This guy could be Professor Mann's child :)
-----
Can't afford Apple's hardware? How about a raffle ticket?
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
If you wanted to play paintball, but didn't have any friends who did, this would be a great way to get outside and have some fun. It could also take the paintball/lasertag-style game to the next level. Instead of just shooting each other, you could launch a coordinated attack on the horde of monsters at your school. Buffy expansion pak, anyone? I don't play paintball, but I imagine that it's mostly running around and you only shoot a couple of times. This sounds like you could shoot stuff all over the place.
The obvious problem is looking like a complete idiot in public. But for some of us, that happens anyway, so who cares?
The obvious useful application for this is the military/police force. I can imagine them setting up common scenarios that soldiers/officers would be required to run through on a regular basis. This would almost be like getting real experience, and it would keep everyone in shape, too. Much better than computer simulations where they sit down, or are confined to a room. I wonder if they plan on making a bundle selling this to various enforcement agencies.
c-hack.com |
The main problems with the system seem to be
Has anyone told Stef about this yet?
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Does anyone remember de gargoyls from snowcrash?
i'd give a lot to have something like that, enhanced vision with added tags to identify items around you!
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:)
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Poor admins!
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
I think it's less likely that people will run around campus with these things on and more likely that laser tag arenas will adopt this (since the gear looks roughly similar and will add a new dimension to gameplay.
...because without the ability to bunny-hop constantly, I will get 0wn3d. I knew that I should have learned how to aim better...
"she says i'm lousy conversation. as if that's supposed to help."
WHAT? You mean you actually want me to get EXERCISE while I am englazed in a trance of joy playing video games?
NO THANK YOU.
Can anybody say "Photoshop"? Jesus, I've always heard people complaining about how the Slashdot editors don't verify their stories, but at least look at the linked images, for Christ's sake!
Just stamp "I'm a huge dork" on your head and save some serious cash.
Really the cops wont shoot you. People who hate geeks will kick your butt and take away your toys.
This is in a word - lame.
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
The last picture on the page was obviously directly copied from George Lucas' film archive. That was the early Boba Fett prototype when Lucas was on a budget.
Given the popularity of Vampire: the Masquerade and similar games gone live-action on nearby campuses, I can envision these adapted to enhance reality for less aggressive, slower-twitch games. And once people are used to walking around campus in a cape as a flag to other players they're someone to talk to in character, a headset kind of thing isn't any bother. It'd be useful for flagging the invisible players instead of having them have to walk around with their arms crossed over their chest and saying "You can't see me!", thereby breaking the whole mood/suspension of disbelief thing.... d
Believe it or not, discs are actually different than frisbees. They have a smaller surface area, greater mass, more accuracy, better aerodynamics, and if you tried to catch one it would probably bruise you quite badly.
What do you have against disc golfers anyway? Is it any sillier than ball golf?
WWJD? JWRTFA!
I would love to have a get-up like this. Maybe wait till it doesn't look so stupid, but I'd definitely like to get one.
Currently, at my LAN parties we sit on our asses all night and consume a weeks worth of calories in soda, chips and pizza. It would be awsome to turn that into a physically demanding sport where I can burn off some calories and get my fat ass into shape.
Nothing burns calories like a real-world deathmatch!
I would really like to see some virtual reality gear become commercialized bastardized and available at my local http://www.thinkgeek.com . They had lame 640x480 headsets back in the descent/doom days with (bad)head tracking for around 700$. I know I'd pay the same for something based on todays technology that looked nice and worked well. Anybody else think so or is VR just dead?
jeremy
Yeah.. people running around schools shooting things that only they can see.
That's a good idea.
baka^2
I have a few issues with this. I wouldn't care what other people thought I looked like but I would care about being hit by a car or jumping into someone. Are there alternative to differentiate between humans walking around or do the monsters pass through them? Is there anyway to "recognize" a moving object to warn the user not get "hit" by it? I see enough people have trouble walking without the added distraction of playing a game at the same time. For many people, I think mixing reality with electronics is a recipe for distaster (ie: cellphone and accidents).
Bill, can you factor this prime number for me?
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more like the
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
In Lain, the conspiratorial organization known as the Knights of the Eastern Calculus attempts to break down the boundaries between the real world and the "wired", or online world. One of their mechanisms for doing so is a game called "PHANTOMa", an augmented-reality role-playing game. As it happens, the particular technologies the Knights use to "augment reality" have some unfortunate psychological side effects for the players.
Augmented reality is an interesting idea, but I really have to wonder whether we really need or want any more mediation in experience than we already get.
imagine construction site where a electrical tech is installing some wire and with the goggles sees a overlay of blueprints for pipes or other wires and such.
Or Helping a person walk through his new house before the walls are finished.
Even Firefighters with a systemlike that overlaying blueprints of a apartment complex so when they are walking through the smoke they could see general things like walls.
Oh the fun that can be done with this.
Well besides video games.
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
It aint that off topic and it's cool
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Mod it up some more - I'm fascinated.
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Just a bit of advice...
That light grunting sound that the game makes when you jump from a 20 foot ledge isn't a accurate representation of the pain that occurs in reality.
This sounds like the best possible way to combine my two favorite things. Disc Golf and Quake!
Hippies and drunks have been running around shooting at things that aren't there for years now..
Those are some pretty good ideas. Take a lot of storage for some of those things. And a lot of infrastructure as well - but pretty cool none the less.
I like the firemen one.
They are already toting around a bunch of gear anyway. If this stuff can be minituarized to some extent the added equipment wouldn't even be noticed.
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Is the best!!!!!
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
The site is already slashdotted.. check this out until mirrors are available.
0 2q uake3_street.html
http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2002/02/h1302
- RakeBoy
I would definately buy it, it would be so fricken cool. On the other hand, could you imagine if this thing got a virus:
"Holy shit what the hell is- ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!"
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
...tripping somebody and shoot them while they're down? I mean come on, how hard is it to make a geek fall? :)
Considering that your average Quake-playing geek can't even run a mile in under twenty minutes, virtual Quake would consist of mostly panting and water (or Bawls, if you enjoy poisoning your body) breaks rather than shooting and strafing.
-- I'll cut you up so bad, you'll wish I'd never cut you up so bad!
I want to see what happens when you try to rocket hop
That is such an obvious fake, if it's real, why, I'll eat my hat. Eat my hat I will.
Those things hurt like a mofo. Watch out Taco!
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
Sure, it's designed to work for Quake now, but could you imagine law enforcement running around with HUD built into thier helmets?
The 21st century is finally here!
crazy dynamite monkey
Well, I don't think you could actually steal cars in 'Quake Rally', but I'd settle for driving around with a rocket launcher strapped to the roof.
::boom::
::boom::
"Get off the fscking phone, SUV-driving soccer-mom!"
"Use your turn signal, Mercedes-boy!"
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/images/projects/beng un1.jpg.
If there is one thing that gets chicks, its gotta be that suit.
-Vic
Rocket jumping would suck, and youed get tired, but its would be a good way to work of the pounds running around shooting your freinds.....
shoo shoo, go read it if you are intrested in this sort of stuff.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
...a beowulf cluster of these
fear my zig!
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the site has been
thelikesofwhich.com
It needs those dog training shock things... then reality would really bite.
I think this qualifies as a form of birth control.
Of course that is not to suggest I think kids should be playing many of these games... not little kids, but that is my job as a parent to decide not to enforce on others. Therein lies the problem with many others' approach and therein lies the problem with ANY socialism and liberal ideology.
Noclip doesn't work! I thought this thing would let me walk through walls... I wonder if God mode works... I could take on the entire police department!
---
Next at eleven: Psychopath challenges entire police department to gunfight. Psychopath dies.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Not only could the Firefighrters see the buildings blueprints but also, with a relatively simple radar system they could see the objects ahead of them hidden by the smoke.
What a very good idea.
coffee | nose > keyboard ©
Hey, this sounds like a really expensive way to play a game similar to paintball, but not nearly as fun. Why not just play paintball instead? Or if you want to go the more 80s route, you could play Lazertag instead.
Off to the patent office I go.
Hmm.. Could see easy way to do this.
Put little LCD above the eyes at a angle so it reflects off of the visor they wear. Program the view backwards so it matches with reality. Then incorperate Radar to position aprox images of items on the display where it could appear.
Heck that would be fun for joggers running at night being able to see if there is anyone else around them also help with night vision.
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
I, for one, would love to see the US military's augmented reality program. Imagine the boost to soldiers who have to storm a structure, or even just quickly locating friendly forces visually from miles away.
How much paint you use depends greatly on a lot of things. For example, I sometimes play at a course frequented by church groups and father/son beginners. You'll get 20 minute games (with regeneration, so you're never "out" for long) on 2 acre fields with like 60 people. That means lots of targets, so that means lots of shooting. I once played on a real small hyperball field (about two basketball courts in size, with large tubes and such for cover) with 25 people per team. I went through a lot of paint then too. But then again, I've played on large foresty fields with 5-10 players per team, and haven't shot more than a hundred rounds or so in 15 minutes.
The type of gun you have means a lot too. I recently upgraded to an electronic gun (a Matrix, in case you wondered) to replace my older semi-auto mechanical Spyder (a decent entry-level gun). The electro shoots like 22 paintballs per second, although I can't shoot that fast (it's semiauto only unless you upgrade the chip). But I can shoot it a lot faster than the Spyder. Much faster. I used to go through about 1000 paintballs per day (that's all day: 9am to close, playing every match), now I can go through more than a case of 2000 easy. Meaning I have to stay mindful of my paint consumption. But I usually play as a "back player" (hang out in the back/middle and longball people running around), so that means more paint. Think one step up from spray-and-pray. :-) But I have a big, heavy, accurate and quiet gun, so that's my lot in life (although the Matrix makes a great hide-and-go-seek gun since it's about the quietest gun there is, so I play that way every fifth time or so).
Back in the old days of pump guns and single shot pistols with powerlet cartidges, going through more than 50 paintballs was really shooting it up. Now, that's nothing. The hoppers hold 200 rounds, and you see guys carrying 1200 rounds in their pod carriers (six 150 round pods) who are using electronic semiauto guns with 88cu. in. compressed air tanks filled to 4500psi. I always carry at least 800 rounds with me every match, even though I rarely use that much in one go. My wife sometimes runs out, my buddy drops some, etc. Where paintballs are concerned, it's always better to have extra than not enough.
But, yeah, most people shoot a lot when they play paintball. And the more expensive your gun, the more paint you tend to shoot. BTW, paintball isn't so much running around as it is sprinting a little and crouching a lot.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Right now, the main research is focused on AR - augmented reality, of which the "research" mentioned in this /. article is part of.
As far as "virtual reality" is concerned, number one, it isn't called VR anymore - it is called "virtual environments" (and I even think use of that term is being "discouraged"), or "VE".
Basically, most researchers are having a hard time getting funding for anything with the word "virtual" in it, as it is seen (by potential investors) as a money hole.
It doesn't look like there are going to be any "breakthroughs" soon - you probably aren't going to go out and buy an HMD at Fry's within the next 5 years. It is strange, but it is mainly because of "no market". What is strange is that there is a HUGE market - FPS players. However, FPS players won't be satisfied with just an HMD, they will want at minimum full tracking of head and "gun" position. I think if a home version of Q3A coupled with the HMD, "wand", and tracking system of a Virtuality 2000 came on the market cheap enough, people would flock in droves to it, but it won't happen, because the HMD and tracking isn't cheap.
It is crazy, because the tracking should be cheap - there have been (and still are) a few projects on the net to homebrew magnetic trackers, many with enough details to replicate them yourself. Sourceless head trackers are also fairly cheap (though you can't use them with a mag tracker). HMD's are hard to homebrew, but it has been done. Parts are cheap enough, though plans are scarce. I have a ton of the plans from the early 90's, but no rights to reproduce them. Some are available online, though.
If you are real lucky, you might manage to scrounge a "pro-level" HMD off of ebay (there is pro level VR gear on ebay - stuff that used to go for thousands, now goes cheap - I have seen polhemus mag trackers on ebay, and last year I managed to "snag" a General Realities CyberEye CE-200M HMD with head tracker CHEAP).
Most of what is on Ebay is the old stuff, but it can be had fairly cheap, too - old Victormaxx HMDs and Forte VFX-1s go fairly cheap. Powergloves can be found as well, though they are starting to get real scarce.
Your best bet, if you really want to see this personally, is to build it - that is really the only way you or I will get to use this kind of stuff, and it is likely that the homebrew people will be the ones to really create the apps...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
A bunch of us talked about this way back when (Doom days), and thought it would be cool to be able to (virtually) pick up BFG's etc, and the (real) gun you are carrying just becomes (virtually) better.
We also imagined it would be in a laser tag type setting, not running around in an uncontrolled eviron.
You know how parents always complain that their children sit around all day and play computer games, thus getting violent...
Well, this would solve all that.
Now they could run around all day and play computer games, effectively getting exercise while training for the army, and on top become violent because it's so realistic...
So instead of a wave of semi-fat high school shooters, we'd have a beefed up well trained army of them.
I can just imagine the unfortuante accidents associated with this becoming popular... "Local college student was hit by a car today, claiming that he had been insturucted to kill it..."
Ok, how fucking nerdy is this? Hey, the techs nice, but I wouldn't want to be caught dead wearing it just as I wouldn't want to be caught dead wearing a pretty pink ballgown.
Someone start up a donation jar to get these nerds laid. Some tits and pussy action till fix those nerdy fuckers right up and make men out of them.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
Should have based this on a more "realistic" game such as Rainbow Six... then the whole rocket jump thing wouldn't be an issue.
The motion capture people have been struggling with this for years. Motion capture in big spaces is still a problem.
...just leave something reeeeel stinky...
Sometimes VR _is_ better.
I just can't wait till they make augmented-rality virtual tennis, or PGA golf...
how cool will this tech be in 10 years-- you'll be able to augment your everyday reality! imagine how cool it would be if your world looked like the a Jetsons cartoon!
Or hook it up into a walkman and have it superimpose visuals based on the mood/tempo of whatever you're listening to..
When you die, where do you re-spawn?
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
Seeing this makes me wonder about the possibility of a backpack mounted system that does edge detection, motion detection, sound analysis in real time, designed to give an edge to ground troops. What immediately came to my mind was the thought of Quake III troops *equipped* with this kind of gear... which led me to wonder about the practical applications of backpack mounted analysis and targeting gear. Does anyone know if the DOD research labs are doing investigations into that kind of augmentation? I assume that they are, but I've not seen links to anything.
Come on, I could take pictures and add to them in MS Paint like anyone else... you guys cannot seriously believe this stuff do you? If it looked any more fake you'd see the artists initials in the lower corner of each picture.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
you tub of lard
Dude!
That kid looks just like Boba Fett!
Tyler's words coming out of my mouth.
How does it handle rocket jumping?
the special effects are so much better that way.
Vernor Vinge's Hugo-nominated short story, Fast Times at Fairmont High, shows a our society becoming dominated by AR, 25 years in the future. People change their clothes, housing, decor just by updating the shared database. Kids even cover up their zits with AR rather than Clearasil. There are no more computer monitors because you can conjure up a virtual monitor and attach it to any surface or just let it hang in mid-air. It's an astonishing technology in Vinge's hands. (...more on the story's use of AR )
Then take a look at some current work in the field, with videos showing a small CG clock tower superimposed on a piece of cardboard being waved around. It jitters a little but overall it looks pretty good.
virtual flowers in her e-mail i assume.
After what happened last week in Germany with a kid using CS to train for a school shooting, I don't think that any of the college students over there are going to get the chance to play with this technology any time soon.
I know you're joking, but the post demonstrates an underlying societal reverse sexism that I make a point of whining about often. Imagine! I have to call it "reverse" sexism for anyone to even imagine that sexism could apply to men.
Stick to flowers. your success rate will greatly improve.
It's not every guy's goal in life to get a date at all costs. There are some of us who don't go around throwing gifts at anything with a vagina, begging and pleading with our female masters for their priceless presence on a date. Since when does every relationship have to be started by the guy? I've had five girlfriends, and four of them did the asking. I never gave gifts to any of them except on their birtday or on special occasions, and one of them insisted on paying for half of everything. Kudos to them. Not to you.
PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER -CNN scrolling banner, 10/15/2004
Patch this up to The Sims and get yourself a Vibromatic Bed and have some serious fun!
Freaks!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I believe what you're looking for is called LSD :)
Lasertag is still going strong! The one in San Diego is pretty nice... lots of locals go there pretty often...
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
I've filled their minds with visions of going down the street, viewing a building and immediately being presented with info such as the architect, the date it was built, the street address, and what company occupies what office.
I've also teased them with the potential for gaming with this such as city-wide murder-mysteries, macro-tag, first-person shooters augmenting reality, scavenger hunts enhanced with virtual clues and objects, and more.
I'm not Nostrodamus or a psychic-friend, but based on the past 15 years it's easy to see that this technology will be commonplace in the next 10 years. The future is wireless high-speed data and wearable computers. We just need entrepeneurs and companies that will provide the data and the services to connect to and make it all possible.
m.mmm..myyy
hey, it would be great to have an augmented suit counter-strike party. You could rent out paint ball places and instead of getting nasty welts, you could have a great game of cs and own people.
. . .Am I the only one who finds it funny to attack a (real live) shambler with nothing but a popgun?
We Are Familiar With Elephants By Virtue Of Their Size.
What's better than virtual reality?
** REAL Virtuality!!
(** Just in case noone has ever coined that expression first, I did it first and I'm copyrighting or trademarking or patenting it or something...)
Hey, where I come from, it's called folf.
If you expect flowers and get easily turned of by cool gadgets then I suggest you start trolling for boyfriends on a different forum. This is "news for nerds" my lady, not "news for meatheads."
;) Geek Girls are a rare and wonderful thing. :D
Thank you for reminding me why I love my girlfriend. Forget the roses, give her the newest distro of Debian and she will do what ever I want.
Well, you assume that every shot means one splatter. My new gun is pretty accurate, and I could maybe hit a paper plate 5 times out of 10 at, say, 40 yards. With no wind. And the first shot I'd have to use to guide the rest in. And I'd stand a good chance of having maybe one in four paintballs being slightly out of round, having a seam stick up, etc. which would make them fly weird. That's accurate in paintball. Rental guns are wildly inaccurate. You probably couldn't hit that paper plate once in 100 shots. So you tend to use a lot of paint just shooting "at" someone.
Sometimes, you have to pin a couple guys down behind a bunker so a buddy can advance. Here's where speed comes into play: if I can spit out at least 10 balls per second, then figure I can be just as useful in providing covering fire as maybe 5 guys with rentals or slow guns. And you don't always use convering fire -- it's a really good way to get everyone on the other team to shoot at you (so a quiet gun is good). But if there's three or four guys keeping down a teammate who wants to move up, 10 balls/second hitting the board in front of you is enough to make you want to stay down, believe me. :-)
Paintballs have a very bright, albeit highly soluble, paint. Some paint is thicker than other paint. Some is like Crisco/butter/wax consistency. I use bright pink, waxy paint. It's hard to claim you weren't shot. But it happens. It's called "wiping", and wipers get kicked off (sometimes for the day) if the ref catches them. Wiping is to paintball as a stick in the spokes is to bicycling. It's the #1 no-no.
Again, here's where fast is good: If you jump up and run and I shoot you once (because I have a slow gun or something), you may or may not know you're hit. Balls bounce off all the time. It has to break on you to count. So you get shot once, maybe have a little splatter, maybe not. But you have to check, and you'd do it when you get to where you were going. If you jump up and I lay into you with a fast stream, you probably get hit 5-10 times (depending on when you said you were out, how far away you were, etc). See, I keep shooting until you yell "out!". After a couple hits, you just know you're hit. One hit, you don't just yell out automatically. Also, it's impossible to wipe off four or five hits. Everyone knows you're hit, so you leave.
As the day wears on, you get to know who the wipers are. You shoot them more. Everyone does. They know they are cheating, and they know they'll get hit more because people want to make sure. But there's nothing sadistic about "lighting someone up" like that. It's part of the game. Now, if you do it to a guy you know is out, or he's really close, that that's bad form and not nice. Might get you punched, too. I've seen it happen, and it's really unpleasant to watch. Beginners do it a lot. I ususally give them the canned "sportsmanlike conduct" speech, and they usually listen since I'm a pretty big guy (and it's usually a kid who does it).
People do shoot back when they are hit. I've seen people kinda keep shooting even though they know they're out. It's kind of a judgement call at that point. If you know you got the person out first, by a wide margin -- like they were walking off and shot you -- then you just keep playing. Like when your own team shoots you (again, this is usually from a kid, and usually at the start of the game), you have to decide if you want to get out or not. If it's late in the game and I'm in a weird place (like on th eother team's side; I tend to do flanking stuff a lot and sneak around) and I get shot by my own team, then I call myself out. I figure at that point, they'll have lost a good player and the team's match will suffer so they'll learn to check before shooting.
A corollary to this is blind-fire. It's where someone holds the the gun up in the air and shoots at stuff they can't see -- while they hide behind a bunker or something. It's a cowardly, dangerous (you never know if someone has their mask off) thing to do, and I usually call the ref if I see it. If I get shot by blind-fire I stay in (since you can't blind-fire legally, any paint launched that way is illegal and therefore doesn't count -- like if someone from another field shot at you) and hunt the person down and shoot them real close if I can. That sounds mean, but there's no other way for them to learn that they could blind someone because of how they break the rules. I nearly always talk to them about blind fire. Again, it's typically a kid with a rental.
The respawning thing is something you see every once in a while, usually on big fields with a lot of players. It keeps things moving (and it keeps people shooting, which is one reason why you see it more on fields that make you buy the more expensive paint from them instead of bring your own). It can also be a part of the game you're playing. For example, one game I play is called "Attack and Defend". It's very commmon. On the field I play at, the defenders have lots to hide behind and they are at the top of a hill. Their flag is out in the open, though, and easy to get. So you have to aggressively defend it. The attackers have to cover open ground, uphill. So when an attacker gets shot out, they go back to the bottom of the hill, out of site. Every couple minutes, the ref there will send the group who's been shot back into the game. This makes another wave of attackers. Trick here is that defenders are out for good once shot. Did you ever see Starship Troopers? It reminds me of that. Just waves and waves of attackers, relentlessly coming up the hill, through bushes, etc. It's scary. Think of it as The Alamo or something. You'd think being a defender would be nice since you have good cover and you don't have to run around a lot, but you shoot a lot and they just don't stop coming. And the attackers get better after they'v been out a couple times. If you have a neat trick or a hidey hole you're shooting them from, trust me, they'll come back and try to find you. Being an attacker is hard work, and you get shot a lot, but you have fun trying to outwit an entrenched defender.
But that's one type of game. There are probably hundreds of types of games. Heck, I know of groups of a thousand or more people that get together once a year to recreate battles like D-Day at Omaha Beach. Seriously. They turn old golf carts into "tanks" and such. There are companies that make paint mortars, claymore mines, grenades, etc. Check this out. Yeah... Heh heh. That's a little out there for me. But usually, it's standard "capture the flag" stuff. It's basically Quake in real life, which is why I play. It's hellaciously fun, and good exercise.
As an aside: I once was in a paintball store and a guy came in and asked the fella working there "What kind of paintballs hurt the most?" Everyone in the store wanted to beat him up. The owner told him to get out and never come back. Those are the sort of people I'd like to see never play again. I'm very much into playing fairly and having fun. It's all about fun, not putting some other guy down, or being sadistic. The guys that want hard paintballs are the kinds that tortured animals as kids or hit women. They have personal self-worth issues and need to hurt others to make themselves feel good. They are honorless and I have no respect for them.
The satisfaction in paintball is not hurting people by shooting them. Paintballs don't hurt all that much anyway. The real satisfaction is trying like mad to run/sneak/hide/shoot/whatever better than the other guy. I like the games where it takes a couple minutes to survey the landscape, get some real teamwork going, figure out a plan, and then execute that plan. It's being out of breath, trying to burrow cover behind a 10" tall log, fire coming in from all sides, adrenaline pumping and then finally figuring a way out. It's running over a hill and finding ten members of the other team in front of you. Run or shoot? Think fast. The fun is taking five minutes to slither through the bushes and sneak up behind the enemy team to get the drop on them. It's making that "I only have 10 paintballs left, so fsck it" mad dash for the flag. It's looking for and finding the sweet cover so you can play like you're a machine gun nest and ambush a couple flag runners or holding an entire half field at bay. It's having one "nemesis" who's been shooting you out all day and finally working your way into a place where you can get him. And it's also just plain fun laying down a suppressing fire by shooting a lot of paint "over that way" where the enemy is running around. :-) If you play with really good players, better than you are, and you can outwit them, then that's the real fun.
Anyway, sorry for the long-winded response. I haven't been able to play for well over a month, so I was vicariously re-living the moment. You ought to try it some day. Take a look at warpig.com, pbnation.com, or pbreview.com for more info.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Way I'd do it: When a user dies, require him to walk back to a real-world location indicated by AR beacons. Upon reaching this point, the player would be "reintegrated" into the game world, but not until then.
I'm the stranger...posting to
I would love to see a RPG set up for this. As a sociologist, it is amazing to me the confidence that people exhibit online, while their "real" social life suffers. Perhaps this could be a breakthrough to allow that familiarity of the online world whilst providing a way to meet "real" people. Or at least, as a past poster mentioned, a way to augment their chests! lpret
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
"To read more, click on the thumbnail of a newspaper article about us, which was recently published in an Adelaide newspaper"
The story in "The Advertiser" is dated May 2, 2000. Not all that recent, really...
Why is there only one Monopolies commission?
i want one.. how much?!?!?!?!?
Think counter-strike.
:)
:)
You just get killed, suddenly you see yourself in front of you dying and the monster stands over you gleefully.
A prompt lights up in your display: "please return to your predesignated spawn point where the game will resume" of course.. the spawn point is about 2 miles back THAT >>> way
I think this is great, now instead of sitting down at the computer getting fatter while I play, I can run around getting excercise the whole time
Turns out i work with one of the people that worked on this - it was an honours project done 3 years ago.
They could have one person running around in the (very pricey) head gear etc (carrying a laptop and a small car battery on their backs - unfit geeks beware), while others played on regular pcs (mmm. multiplayer - only one set of gear tho).
With more current technology, this could be made a lot more useable - think embedded linux etc.
Some of the interesting things my colleague said:
- it was very immersive - sometimes they had to stop someone running onto a road to pick up the ammo they saw.
- a quake map was made then used to model the real world - that is, it used the pregenerated map to do get occlusion info etc
- they used quake 1 becuase the source is available
- the issue of a 'respawn' point was never dealt with - guess they all got so good at quake they never died ?
Wyzfen
I highly prefer this for strange geometric shapes floating in the air. Mushrooms tend to just mess w/ my perception of depths. (Like a coffee mug looking about the size of a shot glass)
But again, these are my personal experiences - others may have a different experience.
not trying to steal wee's thunder, but to the problem is without knowing at least in general where you are that it's hard to say, you need to find a group of people in your area who play many people will loan their guns out to newbies who ask nicely. also a couple of issues of "Action pursuit games" could help. If you are anywhere in the northeast texas area, I'd be happy to show you a place in Longview TX who has great rental guns(tippmann prolite) otherwise your gonna have to just find someone in your area
Cheap, droppable beacons:
A small transceiver and battery in a rugged housing (with dirt spike? velcro?) that you place in designated areas, that correspond to beacon points on your world map. 400ft outdoor range can be had fairly cheaply, 100ft indoor.
The beacons fire off in series, and each beacon must be within range to hear the last one.
The gear: Throw out the GPS, inclinometer and digital compass, replace with three antenna on seperate axis mounted somewhere on the user. Use the signal from the beacons to precisely triangulate X, Y, Z and orientation in space, and send position updates to the control system as usual.
Sound workable? Next, one would want a cheap hand-held LIDAR system to generate quick scans of areas, and then go in and touch 'em up by hand later. Okay, so the LIDAR notion is kind of pushing the idea of 'cheap', but hey, gotta dream.
"Avast! Prepare for the rodgering!" THWACK! "Arrr.. me nards.."
Lasergaming has the benefit of not being potentially physically painful or even dangerous. Plus you don't get dorks who bring their own ammo, pre-frozen solid.
Note that my paintball knowledge is secondhand, but I do like lasergaming. Depending on how you play, you can get a lot of excercise out of it. You're also packed in more tightly together, which makes it a bit more exciting, IMHO.
If this gets out we might see less fat kids! They will have twisted minds, but they will be fit.
> You've gotta sin to get saved.
Three things:
A. Geeks earn lots of money
B. I'm a Geek. I'd buy that. I'd pay up to $2000.
C. It's difficult to pirate hardware.
Because paint grenades are nowhere near as cool as a BFG.
Just like teleconferencing, someone will get the bright idea to rent these suits in a confined and standardized 'game arena' that's duplicated all over the world in other buildings and not only will you get to play ARQuake, but you'll get to play it against real opponents who aren't (necessarily) in the same room as you.
BoB[C@L-WA] sucks down kILLER-=NYNY=-'s rocket!
I tested this theory of yours with a few fellows who agreed with your viewpoint as targets. While you are correct that both the audio, video and tactile feedback was substantially improved, it created problems with regards to respawns.
Since running over their corpses repeatedly did not lead to an increase in ammunition as is the case with the virtual weapons, it has to be my conclusion that this is not a good gameplay development, and virtual guns are the way of the future.
I'd like to thank my fallen comrades for being volunteered for this experiment, which was obviously so needed.
(Whether what was needed concerned either the fallen comrades or the experiment, the author declines to specify)