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Haptic Battle Pong... Future of Game Interface?
An anonymous reader writes "The Sensable Phantom is a premier force-feedback haptic device and sells for a few thousand dollars now, but when that number comes down, the game industry will be jumping all over the idea of six-degree-of-freedom, precision-force-feedback video games. It looks like Haptic Battle Pong may be the first attempt at a true 6-dof, force-feedback game. It's not Quake, but maybe this is the next big thing in video games?"
Thats nothing compared to my classy joypad
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
That device looks remarkably like the tools 3D developers use to model objects based off sculptures. These basically read coordinates from the real 3D space that your working on, such as a sculpture of a bust, and then places vertices in the corresponding 3D space in the computer program, Maya, Softimage, etc. These devices cost a lot because of their precision. If you wanted to get laser-mouse quality movement & precision, you'd need to buy one that cost $2000+. I imagine this Phantom device follows the same system as the 3D coord mapping device. As mentioned in the write up, these devices would definately be able to have a very full range of motion, otherwise gamers would be breaking these things a lot for any range of reasons. Looks interesting however, we shall see where this goes.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
Hey, that would actually be a cool idea. Use a force feeedback device to simulate weightlifting. Much better than trying to bring dumbells to work.
I don't want the real world, I want to escape it.
Can I bum a sig?
but this seems like the technology to make the light sabre game I've been dreaming about since I was 12.
The greater the difficulty, the more you had to be dead on with blocking laser blasts or opposing sabres (your sabre becomes thinner and more damaging with greater difficulty). The format would be arcade, much like the virtual cop style where you move from scene to scene, then hold steady and fight. Except the scenes would change frequently, and you would have the standard force abilities at your disposal.
Then, the PC version comes after the tech gets cheap enough for people to buy it, and you use the keyboard to navigate, and do the other flips, jumps, etc. Third person view, I'd think.
Anyway, thats what I do during class. That and think of how Yoda should've fought Dooku.
GTA3 PC barely supports reconfiguring the mouse and keyboard to anything managable. I really have to work around the awkward controls.
It's impossible to steer the car very well in mouse steering mode, and it's impossible to walk around and look easily where you are going without using the mouse for walking. So you get this lameness of having to change your hand positions whenever you get into or exit a car. The game rocks, but more freedom in binding the controls would go a long way.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
The big danger behind the game is it's usage. Games like this are meant to played a bunch. Why's that a problem?
Guess what the #1 cause of Carpal Tunnel is.
It's vibration. So when you have this vibrating combined with the repetitive movements, you can easily get carpal tunnel and tendonitis very quickly.
But hey, should be fun tho'.
Wow, a Slashdot post I actually feel qualified to post about. I used to run a site on haptics when they first made their way into gaming (Force One), and actually had the chance to visit some of the people breaking ground in the industry, including Immersion and Sensable.
The Sensable people are focused on industrial and research applications of force feedback (haptics) - and while the 6dof stuff looks like fun (and it is) there's no real application in any type of gaming for something like this. Someone else made the point that this would wind up in a sex chat room - and I agree! That's the mantra I've been chanting for years now.
Immersion, on the other hand, is at the forefront of mainstream FF technology. They're behind almost every major force-enabled interface device on the mainstream market - they made everything for Logitech's FF joysticks and wheels, and even Microsoft's stuff as well (although MS bought another company for their preliminary products).
I hope Sensable's technology gets the killer mainstream app it needs.
Well sure, I've got used to it as well, but I'd far rather be switching from wheel and pedals to mouse... I guess my point is really that we (as purchasers) do demonstrably put up with and work around developers skimping on control options. I don't see the advent of these devices as offering a compelling reason for developers to spend even more time developing and testing with yet another possible control device, when developers today don't have time to even support the most obvious devices.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has an interesting project on using Haptic Brushes for virtual painting, which is pretty neat.
They have something called Interactive Haptic Painting with 3D Virtual Brushes which was also presented at Siggraph. Very cool.
Descent didn't give you feedback in all dimensions. One or two at best.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.