BodySurf — Audiosurf Meets the Wii Balance Board

Chardish writes "Forget the hype about Wii Fit — the coolest thing about the Wii Balance Board is its potential as a game controller, and what better way to christen a new peripheral than by rigging it to work with games that predate the peripheral's existence? BodySurf is a (somewhat lengthy) GlovePIE script that manipulates the input of the Balance Board to work with the PC music game Audiosurf. It's fairly sophisticated, and includes Wiimote motion controls, special controls for each character, weight calibration, and a few play options."

Comments

Audiosmurf

[stainlesssteelpat]

oops read that as audiosmurf. methinks it's time for bed.

Re:Audiosmurf

[stormguard2099]

audiosmurf i would sooo play that game

Re:Audiosmurf

[Bandman]

The sequel was better.

Smurf Smurf Revolution

Re:Audiosmurf

[Shadow Wrought]

I loved that game. I played it until I was blue in the face.

Re:Audiosmurf

[stainlesssteelpat]

Soundtrack by Chris Cornell??

Re:Audiosmurf

[geekoid]

Smurfkakai?

WiiWare

[Translation Error]

Sounds like Audiosurf would make a great WiiWare title. You can already load MP3s onto an SD card and play them in certain games (Excite Truck), the balance board is a natural controller that can make the game more interesting (without being incredibly hard to add support for), and the price of Audiosurf fits in with other WiiWare games.

Inaccurate controls

[Anonymous Coward]

Its really too bad that his video examples aren't exactly stellar, it seems to lurch in sort of increments which I would imagine makes play very difficult.

I play eraser with a high DPI mouse. The balance board, while cool, seems to be just a bit gimmicky

Re:Inaccurate controls

[glittalogik]

That's how I play eraser too! MS Paint just isn't the same without a decent gaming mouse. It must suck on Xbox...

Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

I actually thought the balance board was rather counter intuitive as a controller, for certain things at least. For example when you are ski-ing or snowboarding, sure you have to balance (though if you are able to stand still in a certain position without falling over I'd say you were balanced okay), but your direction of movement is largely decided by the angle of your skis/board rather than where your center of gravity is - if you get your center of gravity in the wrong place you'd fall over sure, but your board or skis would be going in the direction that your feet had them carving. I found myself trying to push down on the board with my feet a lot more than just shifting my balance. Or I'd move my head but leave my center of gravity where it was for example. I've only used one for about half an hour, and I was getting used to just shifting my center of gravity around instead of doing anything else by the end, but I think it's a rather awkward control system in and of itself. Combined with other methods of input it could have some novel uses though..

It also predicted my body age as 33 which I was a bit miffed about, as I think my balance is pretty good. I was doing a lot of martial arts last year and still have noticeably better balance when standing on one foot than the years prior (I'd done a bit of martial arts when I was in primary school too but over the years my ankle strength and balance ability relative to my body mass obviously dropped off a bit!), though perhaps I tend to wave around a bit when I'm standing on both feet..

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[drinkypoo]

It also predicted my body age as 33 which I was a bit miffed about, as I think my balance is pretty good.

Are you by any chance a big-nosed barbarian? Check to see if your region is set to Japan :D

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[KillerBob]

actually thought the balance board was rather counter intuitive as a controller, for certain things at least. For example when you are ski-ing or snowboarding, sure you have to balance (though if you are able to stand still in a certain position without falling over I'd say you were balanced okay), but your direction of movement is largely decided by the angle of your skis/board rather than where your center of gravity is - if you get your center of gravity in the wrong place you'd fall over sure, but your board or skis would be going in the direction that your feet had them carving. I found myself trying to push down on the board with my feet a lot more than just shifting my balance.

That's actually a lot like how skiing and snowboarding are in the real world. You steer the skis by turning them, which is, by far, easiest by leaning to the side you want to go, especially at speed. Your actual direction is determined by the direction your skis are pointed, rather than the direction you're looking.

t also predicted my body age as 33 which I was a bit miffed about,

I'm 27. With the balance tests I've seen my "age" vary between 22 and 40 over the last month, with the bulk of the scores being in the 24-28 range. (the 40 is an anomaly, I did the balance test right after doing 30 minutes of step aerobics, aside from that one time, I've not seen an "age" over 33). I wouldn't take it too seriously. It's a video game, after all.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[Krater76]

It also predicted my body age as 33 which I was a bit miffed about, as I think my balance is pretty good. It's a worthless metric. No one is quite sure how it's calculated but it's not done by anything resembling a valid or worthwhile calculation.

It's been posted here before but you should check out the experiment done by Vinnk over at 4-Color Rebellion. If you read the entire blog his balance age widely varied even as he was getting into good balance shape. Great read if you have the time, just be sure to start at the beginning.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

Heh.. I don't have time to read that now as it's 12:40AM, but the guy says he finally finished the marble rolling game on day 55.. I did it on my second go after using the board for about 20 minutes (though maybe he was doing the advanced version rather than the beginner one) :s I'm 24 btw. I do think the age thing seems pretty weird because I stayed well in the balance circle thingy, I'm thinking they just try to make people feel bad at first and then let it get better over time to try and show that they have 'improved' somewhat? It's especially hilarious when it suggests that you should lose weight. I was *right* on the line between healthy and obese, but seeing as nobody but the most anorexic person would dare call me fat (it's muscle, honest!). To lose any significant weight I'd probably have to just stop eating entirely and stop doing anything that uses my muscles :P

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[andi75]

IIRC it also tells you somewhere that heavily muscled people do have a higher than normal BMI and the 'traditional' scale (20-25) does not apply.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[Anonymous Coward]

"I was doing a lot of martial arts last year and... "

Wow, another great white ninja. Just curious what it is about Slashdot that seems to always promt geeks out to drag out their meager martial arts experiences as some kind of prowess?

And no, I'm not dismissing the rewards of such training, just the people that think a year's worth is some kind of great life changer. Especially if they aren't currently keeping up with it.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[nullchar]

You steer the skis by turning them...

With the "new" shaped skiis (more parabolic than hyperbolic) you roll them. It really is a matter of moving your mass from side to side, which puts the curved edge of the ski into the snow. Then you just ride in the direction of the curve.

Of course by forcing your feet, you can turn your skiis, but that requires much more energy.

That said, I've not used the balance board yet so I don't know how realistic the skiing/boarding is.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

I thought of it as relevant, because my balance is still improved over what it was a couple of years ago. I was only referring to my balancing 'prowess' which I consider to be pretty good anyway, I can skateboard/snowboard okay. I had noticed my balance wasn't as good as it used to be though, and even after doing Choi Kwang Do for a couple of months I was definitely more able to do stuff like stand on one foot and do up my shoes, that kind of thing. That's dragging it out now, but originally I was just commenting on how my balance is pretty good.

I was going to say that sure it's not a life changer, but the more I think about it, it is. Doing martial arts improves your awareness over your body, improves your balance, improves self confidence (not just because you think "I could take that person in a fight" type thing, it's just that the martial arts tend to to instill self confidence through good body posture etc), increases your flexibility (I was surprised how little flexibility I've lost over the years anyway but pretty soon I was back to being as flexible as I was when I was 10, if not moreso, I can still touch my head off my knees even after not going for months..). I'm probably not going to go back anytime soon as I've been wanting to spend time doing other things, but it was a 'great life changer' to me at that time in my life as I'd gone through a bit of a rough patch and just having something to aim for (I went up 4 belts in 6-8 months) and getting exercise was good for me, and there was a very positive change in my concentration at work and general mood. And that was after only a few weeks. So unless you've done such training for a year yourself, I don't think you're in a position to comment on what kind of effect it has? I'm not doing martial arts atm but I am getting other forms of exercise and I generally just enjoy running around and jumping off of things :p

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[Anonymous Coward]

The skiing in wii fit requires you keep your "balance" on that blue bar in the upper right hand side of screen... it considers you unbalanced if you are under that. If you do stay in the blue your mii moves faster since it's roughly where a pair of real skiis would need to be if you were really leaning foward and trying to go fast downhill on skiis. The left right movement is what the directions say is the main part, but it's really sort of a lean foward left right movement to get good speed times. The "balance" part of that game doesn't have so much to do with getting between the flags so much as it does getting between the flags while staying in the blue and moving very fast all at the same time. Getting between flags while out of the blue is pretty easy... just slow down and move left or right. Getting between the flags while staying in the blue the whole time is a lot harder since your mii is sort of hunched over with the poles up behind his/her back and is moving fast enough that you see little woosh marks flying down the mii's back. I can't hardly ever get under 1 minute without trying to stay in the blue. In the blue I can get around 45 seconds... maybe less if I tried harder.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[KillerBob]

That said, I've not used the balance board yet so I don't know how realistic the skiing/boarding is.

I don't snowboard, so can't really comment on how realistic that part is. As for the skiing, I found it's too responsive. I used to race GS and Super GS on my school team, and the Wii version thereof is far too responsive... hugely oversteering. That could be the difference between parabolic skis and traditional skis... the last pair I bought was a pair of 210cm K2 Extreme, almost 15 years ago. I want to get back into the sport, but I'm still recovering from a serious knee injury. :( (trauma... torn meniscus, ACL, and fractured patella and tibia)

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I have been training for quite a number of years in 3 styles (Not all at once; Contemporary Wushu, Bagua Zhang, Chen Taiji). I will always be a student. I only mention this at all because you specifically asked for my ability to comment; otherwise it has no place on slashdot. 4 belts in 6-8 months? I would say that right there is a comment on the quality (or lack thereof) the training. I own a couple black leather belts and brown one for work to match my brown dress shoes. I also have never met a school that would let a student advance by that number of levels if he can just hold his balance tying his shoes.

Sure it was a great life changer for you, but how does the fact that you scored a body score of 33 play into the fact that you had done one year's worth of martial arts, that you are not keeping up? All it says is that you really needed it before, still need it now, and have likely backslid. Was it really a discipline builder and life changer if you only lasted a year or did it help because it was a distraction?

I am likely quite older than you since I am 3 years above the body age that had you unimpressed and can still do left and right splits, can put my chin past my knees (bending at the hips, not all curving the back and waist), and love training my empty stance to the wushu standards. Even though I no longer do the contemporary stuff because of my age, the fact I am able to do this at my age, and you are finally feeling comfortable about not falling over tying your shoes, then a body age of 33 probably is quite realistic, martial arts or not.

My comment was also based on the general need for certain people to immediately point out their small pieces of martial arts training on slashdot. You were today's lucky winner. You could have said excersize, but you though martial arts would sound cooler.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

As others have pointed out the body age metric is very variable even in people who have been doing Wii fit for month and as such isn't reliable at all. I suppose you could say it was 2 belts but there are lower and senior grades on each belt so they did actually give me a new belt each time (senior ones have stripes). The quality of the training was pretty good actually (I too have done a few other things over the years, tho the fact that my family moved around a couple of times which meant I never managed to get to grading level with anything before, as well as the fact that most gradings are on sundays and my parents didn't agree with that since they were Christians). I was just giving the tying laces as an example, and talking about with one foot in the air while - I could do it before but would have to hop around a bit. I was simply more stable after doing a bit of exercise for a few months because I had a bit more ankle strength, so less/no hopping required :p

I am 24 btw. You should look into Choi Kwang Do, it's a very interesting style - it's been designed to get a good balance between power and stress to your body, and in fact a few people in the class were older (as in over 50), as well as some people closer to my age. I like to think I have a good control of my body and good balance. Each belt level only introduced about 2 more techniques and another patter to learn (that uses techniques from the levels below so that you can keep refining them) and practicing for 1.5 hours twice a week, as well as some practice on my own at home (I occasionally still do the yoga stuff from the start of the class on my own) didn't seem too much to me. The teacher in our class is the highest blackbelt level in Scotland (that's not saying that much since it's a small country, but she is a good teacher).

I didn't think exercise in general has anything to do with balance, I have been walking to work which is good exercise, but I don't feel it is doing anything but building up a bit of leg muscle (there's a big uphill section, which I jog down in the evenings).

Yes, martial arts sounds cooler than exercise. And it's a lot more fun too, while still being good exercise. I get bored on treadmills.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

Link to a CKD website. The guy who invented CKD is the guy who brought Tae Kwon Do (which was probably my favourite martial art out of the judo, Karate and Tae Kwon Do I'd done as a kid) to the UK and North America. He'd done lots of martial arts all his life and it was taking a toll on his joints, he was in a wheelchair at one point. He then designed CKD so that you could practice without locking out your joints, and making the most use of your whole body. For example to punch you start off by rotating your hips (which also uses your rear leg for a rear punch so rear punch should be stronger) and then flicking out/round your arm, rather than just using your arm's force alone. For round punches especially you can get an awful lot of force even for targets right in front of your face. Likewise with kicks we started off very simple and a lot of attention is given to technnique - for example lifting your heel off the ground while you kick and then not dropping it back down until your other foot is fully on the ground, which ensures that your hips follow the proper movement rather than just staying stationary. It doesn't apply to all kicks but for basic front kicks and rear leg front, knee smashes, round knee, and the kicks that start off with the same technique as round knee (took a good couple of month or two before I'd built up the muscles to lift my leg properly for executing the proper movements for side kick.. it really quite tiring but in the end you end up with a much better technique than if you just lift your leg up rather than swing it round).

So even from the basic front punch and front kick you are going through the proper body kinematics from the very start. I still have all that stuff in my head (I had to unlearn a couple of bad habits I'd picked up from Karate and Tae Kwon Do even though I hadn't done them for over 10 years gor example), so I don't agree that the teaching wasn't very good :p It makes you very aware of all parts of your body and makes you think about where the power is coming from, and you don't grade until the teacher thinks you have mastered the techniques. You sound like you think I'm some feeble bodied and minded person who can't tie his shoe laces, but that is not the case :P It's not like I picked everything up amazingly quickly, there were a few techniques where I just didn't get it and asked a lot of questions until I understood the purpose of certain movements (for example in a side kick you have to spin your base foot round so that your toes are facing away from your target, which I thought was really weird and pointless, but the purpose is that when you put a lot of force into the kick you don't end up damaging your knee if the target comes towards you or whatever, as your knee can bend naturally rather than have the joint forced out sideways. We'd never done it like that at Tae Kwon Do (which I found to be a lot more natural in general) but after having it explained I saw the point in it. I'm sure I would be capable of teaching others the same techniques quite well too - we often helped each other out in class when doing shield work (one person holding a padded shield while the other attacks).

So if you decide that you are getting too old for your other styles, you should probably look into something like Choi Kwang Do. Is Chen Taiji "Tai Chi"? I would think you'd be able to carry on something like that until you die basically..

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[nullchar]

Yeah, with those old GS straight sticks, you really did force them to turn, pressing more forward and down on the inside edge, than a roll to the side. After reading your description, I'm excited to try the skiing on the balance board.

Knees suck. When they feel good, you should really try the new shaped skiis -- I'm sure you'll hate them at first, but once you get used to rolling instead of digging in, they are quite fun to ride. Carving is just so smooth.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[Anonymous Coward]

Taiji, yes tai chi. Just better pronounciation, less anglosized, more Mandarin. And yes I still do it and Bagua Zhang.

If you look up Wushu on youtube, you will see why I cannot do it at age 36, and you will see real body awareness, balance and power. It is a sport style, but is the ultimate in conditioning for traditional styles. Better yet, watch it's Olympic competitions this summer.

"to punch you start off by rotating your hips ", this is a very beginner understanding of how to punch. Look into Wing Chun for a better understanding of where the power of a punch should be generated. The shift of the hips slows you and telegraphs your intention. Using the hips in that manner is considered a very bad habit by most styles that have actually been around more than a decade or two. It is a beginner technique. The lifting of the heel in a kick is a great loss of power, and reduces your grounding to a minimal area. The fact that you would even list such a thing as being to move your hips properly just shows your lack of actual knowledge. It throws your hips out of alignment and pushes forces towards your back. Its a crutch for real flexibility in the legs and hips as it allows you to relax the hamstring of the leg that is not kicking. If you are on your toes, then the slightest tap of your leg while the other is up is going to put you squarely on your ass. So is a little loose sand, etc, on the ground.

Sorry, but frankly your understanding of techniques and body kinetics is minimal to nil. The more you go on and the more you put in "sticking out my tongue" emoticons, the more you sound like a 12 year old rather than a 24 year old.

I stand by my "Great White Ninja" claim. In all respect, I do recommend that you try a Wushu school, especially since you said you like running around and jumping off things. Also look at styles such as Wing Chun, look for a school that keeps the Martial aspect in taiji, try Hung Gar, Bagua Zhang (Pakua Chan), Okinawan Karate, etc. If you really want to learn power of martial moves, try Krav Maga or a real Jujitsu school.

"You sound like you think I'm some feeble bodied and minded person who can't tie his shoe laces"

"I was definitely more able to do stuff like stand on one foot and do up my shoes"

Just repeating what you said.

"Yes, martial arts sounds cooler than exercise. And it's a lot more fun too, while still being good exercise. "

I rest my case.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[Anonymous Coward]

roflmao

Just finally saw this: "... practicing for 1.5 hours twice a week, as well as some practice on my own at home"

That is hardly intensive. That was not even a single Wushu class for me at 2-2.5 hours each and 3-4 of those a week. With coaching junior classes on top of that, and my own workout times, it was alot more. I wasn't even considered hard core since I took a day or two off a week and only did those numbers of hours a day since I had to work. Sessions with masters and coaches from China constisted of 16 hours days since we were working with limitted time frames. One long weekend with them likely totalled more actual training than you did in your entire year.

This is definately the end of this conversation, "Great white Ninja" I claim, and so you stand.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

I didn't say it was intensive. You're meant to give your body a rest from exercise every couple of days too you know, otherwise your body doesn't have time to recover.

Your elitist attitude shows that you haven't learned much from your training or even being an instructor, either that or your classes are purely about physical force and not cultivating a good attiude. Just because I'm white doesn't mean a damn thing, and I would have done longer classes if they were available, but they weren't (unless I kept training and instructed a few classes myself). Anyway I have other things to do than spend 16 hours each day purely on training o_0 If you think that's more training than I did in a year then you really do spend too much time training and not working on your mind, because if you trained for 5 days straight with no sleep, that would be 120 hours, and 3 hours a week comes to 156 hours a year. I'm pretty happy with my body as it is thanks and don't feel the need to work out for hours each day, plus my technique is fine for the techniques that we were learning, Choi classes focus on quality, not quantity (only at blackbelt level are lots of techniques thrown in). Anyway when you've had to stop your classes 'in a few years' because you wore out your body as Master Choi did (and I doubt you are anywhere near as hardcore as he was), then you might consider techniques that are designed to work with your body instead of in-spite of your body. You don't need to have superhuman strength to win a fight, it's all about technique. Spending time practicing your techniques is good, but I wasn't training to enter any competitions or anything, I was just doing it for a more natural form of exercise than going to the gym. I for one would encourage anyone wanting to even try martial arts for one class a week to go ahead and do it, because there are a lot more benefits than just the training, which I repeat: you seem to have none of, as you're being a jerk.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

Slightly better tone but not much. Your elitist attitude is far more immature than me using :p which signifies an element of jokiness.

I am quite aware that swinging your hips slows down the technique a bit (especially if you are inexperienced at it sure). It definitely is more powerful though and fine for a confrontation with a belligerent drunk or general idiot. I was not learning to compete at competition level (in fact there is no competition in Choi), I was training for a bit of exercise and basic self defense. My legs are quite flexible (compared to average, maybe not to yours :P ) so I can kick up to my head even without stretching etc.

You make fair points about reduced balance while on the balls of your foot, but that was basically entirely my point in the first place - I have *better* balance because of practicing techniques like that. I can balance fine on the ball of my foot for kicks and knee strikes.

Any successful kick to your leg is going to throw you off balance or break a bone. The ball of my foot provided enough grip for me to make a full power front kick (the most basic but also the most powerful kick that doesn't also use rotational technique). Having slightly less grip on a foot is good if it lets you move with an enemy's attack anyway (as long as it isn't meaning you slip when performing the attack normally), especially if it's from the side of the leg for example. Just pointing out one of the benefits, it's easy to play devil's advocate. Better to fall over and be able to get up again than to break your knee - which is very easy to do if pressure is applied in the right place. Having a too rigid style will always be bad for that. You can go on about my 'lack of knowledge' all you want but I doubt you have perfect knowledge either. Relaxed muscles are better for speed, and speed is more important than pure strength for a lot of techniques, as you pointed out about the slow punching. You're meant to be relaxed up until just before the point of contact (well, that was only what I was taught at least). Again if you think that any of that is stupid, go read up about Master Choi. He had over many decades of training and fighting at international tournament level, in several styles, and in his day could probably have taken any of your Chinese masters. I don't want to make it into a my penis is larger than yours contest, I know you've had more training than me, but your attitude leaves a lot to be desired. I'd rather have a bit of respect and manners towards others and get along with them than know for sure that I'm going to have to try and kick their ass when I piss them off. One day the other guy just might be better trained than you.

Nothing wrong with 'throwing your hips out of alignment' if it's giving you extra rotation, forward momentum and power either. I hate the rigid styles of things like Karate, they lack any kind of dynamic compared to Tae Kwon Do and Choi Kwang Do. As I've said before, Choi Kwang Do works with your body rather than in-spite of it. It's stupid to think that you can't be good at martial arts just because you're past 36. Wushu simply means 'art', it is not meant to denote any particular style. Choi Kwang Do style of punches may not be as fast as some other techniques but you get good power out of them even if you aren't physically large or strong, because you are making the most of what you have. With practice the techniques can also be performed quite quickly though, and are designed in such a way that you can chain them together in quite a fluid manner.

I enjoy learning and hearing what you think I'd enjoy, but if you don't want to talk to me anymore because you think you're above me somehow, that's fine with me too. I can be quite a petty person sometimes, but I'm not sad enough to think I'm better than someone just because I do a lot of martial arts; I just mentioned it in passing and you had to pick up on it to prove you were better.

Re:Balance board as a controller..

[somersault]

*sigh* thinking about this some more while walking home (oh am I allowed to call it 'walking' by the way or is that insulting hillwalkers everywhere?). Could you be any more arrogant and insecure about other people doing martial arts? You're like a high school football coach saying that people aren't allowed to mention the word 'sports', they have to call it 'exercise'. I maybe shouldn't have said 'a lot' of martial arts but I was consistently practicing 2 times a week as well as home practice as I said, with full stretching and then working up a sweat from practice, not just a couple of light hearted practices of my patterns. I am sounding like a 'white ninja' (nice racist remark btw), but since you are so insecure about it then it's quite likely that you used to be considered as such by others..

By the way I don't have access to many different styles of classes round here, and most of them are on sunday, which until recently was a problem. I may consider it now because I have stopped going to church, but if the people at Wushu classes have such a disparaging attitude as yours, I don't even want to try one. Good job. At least the japanese and korean arts I know of are based on self control, self improvement and general good will to others where possible.

Frets on Fire with Wii guitar

[PIPBoy3000]

People have also had some good successes hooking up other Wii devices to their PC.

I personally bought a bluetooth adapter specifically for trying out these sort of things.

But is it fun?

[LoudMusic]

That really doesn't look like much fun. It looks awkward and uncomfortable. Alternate input devices should be more than just alternate, they should bring something to the experience. I'd rather just hit the left / right arrow keys.

Re:But is it fun?

[Chyeld]

Given it looks like a direct analog to the Soccer game in Wii Fit (dodging objects/heading balls = avoiding and hitting blocks), I'd have to assume that it would be alot of fun. I spend most of my fitness credits in the balance games (mostly because I need to work on mine).

Re:But is it fun?

[Anonymous Coward]

Read: i don't like to move and exercise 'cause i'd rather just hit keys and be a slob

AudioSmurf drinking game

[LordEd]

1. Stand on balance board
2. Watch episode of Smurfs
3. Drink every time the word 'smurf' is said
4. Last one standing wins