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Location-Based 3D Audiogame Debuts
Ant writes "Demor is a location-based 3D audio shooter - according to the official site: 'This highly innovative game was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of seven EMMA-students for the Bartimeus Institute for the Blind. Demor does not only focus on the entertainment aspect of computer gaming, but also attempts to contribute to the emancipation of the blind and visually impaired people in order to enhance their integration with the 'sighted' world. It is a proof of concept developed on the basis of theoretical and practical research' - there's a preview of the game over at AudioGames.net, who also cover Drive, a demo of an audio racing game created for the same institute."
'Dramatic Radio?'
Don't park drunk, accidents cause people.
No, wait...
Do you think an audiogame like this will recieve the same attention as videogames for "forcing" youths etc. into being violent? I mean, surely we shouldn't be affraid of those that cannot aim?
(fyi: This is humor.)
Go here for teh [sic] funny.
It really need VR glasses to make it 'happen'... The technology is sweet...
Now imagine if you could 'see' the battle field, and you and 63 of your friends could mass at a local soccer field and play things like this -in real life- -in VR- while actually having to scramble around, duck, weave, etc... There'd be no more whhite, pasty geeks!!!
Seriously, I think the technology is cool, but I don't tihnk it will take off due to the LACK of graphics, completely... but the concept is _very_ cool...
Computer games require alot of time and money to make. I wouldn't think that there would be that big of market for a game that only the blind are going to play... Also with all the extra stuff you need, laptop, gps, and "the head tracker", this would be a very expensive game to get. Not to mention the cancer causing radio waves from this head tracker travelling right through your skull... But hey, if the blind love it...
"Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin." --Teddy Roosevelt
walking around with a headset and holding a joystick connected to your plastic backpack is not really the best way to "enhance [one's] integration with the 'sighted' world." (more like the best way to integrate yourself with a "kick me" note taped on your plastic backpack.) that said, it is fairly cool technology.
sorta offtopic, regarding 3-D audio technology (EAX, A3D), does anyone else find them to be highly lacking? For example, in America's Army, I've noticed in the training missions when you are required to listen to someone talking to you, the best sound comes when you've turned your head 90 degrees to the speaker, so one "ear" is directly facing him. The only time one needs to do this in real life is if one is hard of hearing, or in an environment full of background noise. Its like the designers have the right idea, they're just not implementing some facet of how we process sound properly. I can't see how the algorithms currently in use could be implemented in the game the article refers to. Hopefully software developed for people who use their hearing as the primary sense of input does a better job of capturing the real world phenomena (and that it eventually makes it's way into gaming audio technology)...
this is just what we need, a whole bunch of blind people going a little too far off the soccer field and into auto traffic because they are "chasing a demon"
Sure it sounds nice but I think I'll hold off my opinion until I see some screenshots. /going straight to hell.
IIRC, Duke Nukem 3D was the first FPS to utilize stereo sound hardware for positional audio. It was the first one I played, anyway.
It was possible, though not easy, to make it past the first level with the monitor turned off. Since rockets had a finite travel speed and made noise on impact, they could be used like "sonar" to determine distance to walls.
When a tree was hit, it would burn and make a crackling sound. When a fire hydrant was hit, it would burst open and make a water-spraying sound. All of these sounds would continue for several moments, during which the player could use them for position feedback while moving through the map.
As a decided retro-geek with a fondness for old hardware, I'm glad there's finally a new game that doesn't require a 3-d graphics card!
This reminds me of this slashdot story about on-campus digital "ghost" assistants: which are auditory and invisible.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
All in play has a multitude of card games available for deaf players. They also debued an audio-queued version of Quake several years ago at the monthly Boston Post Mortem, but have yet to release it to the general public.
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Thank you I will be here all day. Try the veal.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Make it work on my IPOD or PDA.. it would be great fun to play FPS while driving in your car or walking on the street. Even better make it work on my Cell Phone, and i could play online games while shopping with my girl friend. MAKE IT HAPPEN....
spelling is for people who doens't know better...
I'm sighted you insensitive clod!
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Ever thought I might like radio waves travelling through my fucking skull? Oh yeah, gives me them superpowers, it does! Last night I stapled my chicken to the side of my head and fried it in the deep freeze. With a side of paper it was very tasty. But that pales in comparison to the fucking horror called CmdrTaco. You know why he's called that? Because he's a chick. Chicks with dicks. His "taco" is hidden under a thick layer of scrotal tissue.
Well, yes, in fact, you do have a "crosshairs" sound queue. It actually sounds like a sitting duck quacking. Your opponents have footsteps when they walk. There is also a sound queue for scraping along the wall (positioned to let you know the angle of the wall), and a queue to let you know that you are facing a narrow hallway. I forget what the queues for weapons and powerups sounded like. All of the queues that require aiming do a form of mutated 3D sound, so that it gets significantly louder when you are facing directly at it, and quieter when you aren't.
It also had buttons for 90 degree turns, and all of the blind players that were any good didn't do any rotating at all, just strafing and making 90 degree hops. They generally wiped the floor with the sighted players at the demo. Man, could those guys hop.
BTW, the Quake levels they created were entirely 2D. Much easier to play that way.
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