Slashdot Mirror
Gaming on the IMAX
JavaTenor writes "The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA, is holding the 1st Annual MaxGames tournament on August 15, 2002. The final matches for each game will be held on the IMAX Dome screen, so if you've ever wanted to play Halo eight stories high, this is the event for you."
If you want to play Halo 8 stories high, all you have to do is stack up 8 Xboxes. ;)
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
WOW! What an amazing way to illustrate what low fidelity images are provided on your television than to blow them up onto the IMAX screen :)
I think IMAX is really cool, but things not designed to play on an IMAX screen don't necessarily translate well. The IMAX screen over at Navy Pier in Chicago does showings of various non-imax movies during weekends at midnight. So, some friends of mine and I went to see the Matrix there.
The problem is that it was filmed for being shown in a normal theater. So all of the quick cuts are just totally overwhelming on that screen. Furthermore, the images end up being rather grainy because the scale is so much bigger than is natual. And if you happen to see it on a dome IMAX, then you've got that as another impact on it. The sound was awesome, but man it's hard to watch.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
This sounds a little better then it will be in reality. The San Jose 'IMAX' theatre is in fact an OmniMax or Dome theatre format. The 180 degree (ish) * 360 degree (ish) view giving you pretty much full periferal vision if you look straight at the center. Not the super resolution rectangular 5 story high IMAX format that would make for some awsome gaming! They will either display the games on a small awkwardly stretched rectangle or stretch it beyond recognition over the whole screen.
The sound system on the other hand features 6 channel 13000 watts of quad-damage (to your ears as much as your avatar) coming from 44 speakers.
set fov reallyreallyreallyhigh
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
"Won't this look kinda bad?"
:)
Quite possibly. IMAX movies use 70mm film because 35mm doesn't quite have enough resolution. IMAX movies also run up to 60 fps because at 24 strobing is far too distracting.
However, there is a far bigger problem to playing games on the IMAX screen: They video card (or the software) has to warp the video so that it'll look correct on the screen. It doesn't look right if the regular image is projected on the screen.
Why would anyone play this? I can think of a really good reason right now: peripheral vision. I depend on peripheral vision while I'm driving, I'd LOVE to have that capability in a video game. It'd definitely be an interesting experience.
Having grown up near the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park in San Diego, I saw many movies filmed in IMAX ...
... a midnight Led Zeppelin laser show, what do you expect?
Because of this I am absolutely positive that you could collect a full day's worth of complete "documentaries" that were not much more than a collection of helicopter/plane flights for no real reason other than to induce vertigo.
One documentary I know my whole family jumped at the chance to see was entitled "Speed". If I remember correctly, the first five minutes or so were computer generated tunnels which, of course, got faster and faster until people were practically passing out in their seats. They had cockpit footage in formula racers, jets, land-speed-record type vehicles, etc.
The most thrilling scene I ever saw in an IMAX documentary was the escape procedure taken by astronauts in case of a critical emergency on the launch pad. It involved strapping onto a line that's connected somewhere around the top of the shuttle and then zipping along into a net at ground level. It was completely unexpected in a fascinating documentary primarily dominated by shots of Earth from space.
Of course, none of this tops when I got a little older and started going to watch the midnight Led Zeppelin laser shows baked out of my mind, though. So I wouldn't worry about at least that theater allowing more adolescent activities. I mean
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
How Big is the IMAX Screen?
A: The IMAX theater screen is a huge wrap around dome. We'll be able to project the games onto an image about 40' by 60'.
I play Nerd-Folk!
so if you've ever wanted to play Halo eight stories high
No, not really
However imagine nethack at that size!
check it out here.
anyway -- playing games on that would be rediculously hard. the point of IMAX is so that your entire peripheral vision is occupied. except that in games etc, the part of the screen which is now at the far end of your p.vision actually conveys important information... so i would imagine this won't come out too well.
but it's all about the bragging rights afterall, i guess.
My life in the land of the rising sun.