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Details On Natal's Motion Capture Technology
An anonymous reader writes "Following yesterday's announcement of a late 2010 launch date for Natal, more details are emerging on exactly how Natal works. Alex Kipman, the project's lead developer, explains that Natal uses only 10-15% of the Xbox's resources to calibrate to a new player inside 160 milliseconds, track one or two players simultaneously, and use rudimentary knowledge of body anatomy to estimate where hands or other body parts are even when they can't be seen by Natal — for instance when they are held behind the back."
Here is a tech demo showing a Peter Molyneux demonstration of a game using Natal.
The ramifications of a system like this are pretty important I think. Honestly, this is what I had hoped the Wii would become... Not to start a Wii controller vs. Natal debate or anything, but I feel like games using full body motion capture would be much more interesting to me. At the end of the day, when I tried to play Wii tennis using proper motions and what not, I felt like an idiot after looking over and seeing someone else accomplish the same thing by flicking their wrist.
That said, I am interested to see how finely grained the sensitivity will be tuned to Natal recognizing people and motions. IE: if person A is playing a single player game and person B walks up and makes a hand motion, will Natal disregard that motion, or will it do whatever person B did? If so, it could seriously dent the efficacy of games being played by one person... Part of the benefit of having a physical controller is that someone else has to take it from you when they want to play, haha!
Natal sounds cool, and might just be what i'm looking for for a reason to buy a 360 to compliment my PS3. I'm still concerned about the complete lack of buttons, and am wondering if MS is going to be releasing a controller you can strap to your arm or hold with 1 hand for when you need a button to say change weapons. Also the lag issue remains to be seen. This is one possible advantage Sony's motion MIGHT have.
But in the end it's all about the games. Both techs have the potential I think to be fun, just need to see the actual implementation. And I wonder what Nintendo has in their R&D to combat this (other then that Vitality Sensor) All very interesting, although I don't see this gameplay replacing old fashioned "sitting down with a controller in your hand" gaming, just another form of entertainment.
All of this talk makes me pretty excited for what comes after this current gen...
The article says that 31 limbs are tracked
So even many-limbed deities like Vishnu and various spider gods can play? That's so thoughtful of Microsoft to include the divine.
Given how every other video game system camera fails to work correctly in typical home lighting environments, this is the thing I'm most curious about.
For instance in my home, when we want to use the Eye Toy to play something like Kinetic, we have to drag out a shop-light and a couple of reflectors to stage the room and assist the contrast detection. Otherwise, the accuracy is garbage. If this thing can't work in a dark room then this also pretty much kills playing games in a room with the lights out (which is how I generally play racing games and FPS games at night).
My expectations are less than low and I'm just waiting to hear about how ever single player to use the system will need to have a Live account (with your avatar adjusted to R/L body mass).
31 limbs isn't out of the question if it's something like a multiplayer party game. That could be, for example, seven people, three of whom are men.
I think Natal is amazing
I dunno.. I'm kinda scared of this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/5/