Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Kinect Hacked To Play Max Payne, Left 4 Dead 2

Posted by Soulskill on from the neverending-hacks dept.

TechieAlizay points out a post at Geekword.net about a man who hacked Microsoft's Kinect to play Max Payne. "This hack was possible due to FAAST (a toolkit for Kinect), OpenNi/Nite and GlovePIE. Here's how the hacker describes the different control gestures: 'As you can see, the leaning left and right stuff is all there – and moving your body forward and back moves you back and forward. The reload and interact gestures are becoming pretty standard for me now, and pain killers are popped with an upward motion of the left hand. What makes this special though is the leg movements that activate bullet time. The result is bullet time diving for real! When this game hit just after the Matrix film came out, it caused a big stir – with Kinect augmentation it gets even better. The one thing that needs fixing is weapon select; this will be handled by the +/- buttons on the mote in future, I think.'" Another video shows Kinect controlling Left 4 Dead 2. In addition to future PC support, Microsoft is reportedly working on an official SDK. Yet another recent hack of note allows a human to control a humanoid robot with an impressive level of accuracy. Just be careful if you play the Kinect boxing game; somebody might call the police.

30 comments

  1. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But can it run Crysis on full graphics?

    1. Re:Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sure can! ...just as well as my rumblepad 2. -_-

  2. Max Payne by dragonhunter21 · · Score: 1

    I imagine Max Payne might cause an inordinate amount of broken ribs with all that jumping around. L4D2 could be fun, though.

    --
    Sent from my CR-48
  3. Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 1

    You need the right tools for the right job and it's no different with gaming. Keyboard&mouse for first person shooters, arcade sticks for fighters (or so I'm told; not a fan of the genre), and controllers for platformers.

    I have seen only one game that the kinect best fits and that's the dancing one from the commercial. I'd never play it but it fits. An exercise game would work, too. Everything else just looks like extremely awkward and inappropriately shoehorned in (see 3rd party Nintendo DS and Wii games).

    1. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by morari · · Score: 1

      I agree. Those videos made playing look just as much fun as falling on a rusty nail.

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    2. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by lyinhart · · Score: 1

      This is true. Part of what makes video games fun is that with one button press, you can jump 10 feet in the air, make a headshot from 30 yards away and do all kinds of stuff you couldn't do in real life. These motion control hacks are interesting, but also clunky and weird - extend your left foot to run? Um... okay. That kinds of defeats the purpose of motion control since your gestures have little or nothing to do with what your onscreen character does. Motion controls are best (and I use that term loosely) when how you move is directly translated on the screen. Like in the Mocap boxing arcade game - you lean left, your character leans left. You punch, your character punches. Either you have motion controls that directly translate to the screen like those, or you just stick with joystick/analog stick/digital pad and buttons (preferably the latter).

      --
      Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
    3. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by SoVi3t · · Score: 1

      several other games work just fine. The fitness games are great, and the Kinect Sports game is fantastic, even thought the physics and AI is horrible at times. The whole point of this is that it shows that 3D movement can be done on the 360's Kinect. Sure, you may not agree with the current ways of moving the character, as shown in the videos, but the options ARE there now. Currently most games on the kinect (or in development) are rail shooters and games that only allow limited movement (ie Table Tennis allows you to move side to side, and closer and further from the table). Now we see that full 3D movement can be done, and with relative ease

      --
      Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
    4. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 1

      The trouble is that either the movement is realistic (table tennis) but limited to games where you always return to the same spot (fitness type games) or it's unrealistic movement because you have to stay in view of the camera (no combat roll, good luck turning your character around while viewing TV still). I don't think that it was hard. I just think that it's not the best (by a loooooong shot) controller for these games.

    5. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by SoVi3t · · Score: 1

      The trouble is that either the movement is realistic (table tennis) but limited to games where you always return to the same spot (fitness type games) or it's unrealistic movement because you have to stay in view of the camera (no combat roll, good luck turning your character around while viewing TV still). I don't think that it was hard. I just think that it's not the best (by a loooooong shot) controller for these games.

      the best? no. Better? yes

      --
      Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
    6. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The camera moves to track your movement - sure it doesn't have a massive range of movement but it's probably good enough for most homes where you don't have masses of space in front/to the side of the TV anyway.

    7. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 1

      Better than what? For a third or first person shooter, I'd take (in order from best to worst) keyboard&mouse, wiimote, dual analog stick controller, and I guess kinect would be about here because I can't imagine anything worse. Ok, I would put kinect above punchcard computers. Other than that... ok, above or maybe on par with DS games that require you to blow on the microphone. Or any game that requires voice input.

      Besides, I yell at my games enough.

    8. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 1

      Ok, so I move left to take cover then I decide to try to backtrack down the hall (further left). What do I do? Keep moving left until I bump into the wall of my living room or do I signal the kinect to ignore me moving right and again signal it to watch as I move left again?

      Those dance and fitness games work only because you don't go running all around. A track&field game would work because you can run in place.

    9. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by Dr+Max · · Score: 1

      I’m not sure how they are doing it with Max Payne but if you throw in heads up display goggles with 3d then you have something pretty cool (cause you don’t have to keep facing a tv). For movement you have three options, 1: multidirectional treadmill / giant hampsterball / rope tied to your ceiling, polished floor boards, and fuzzy socks; 2: a small amount of physical movement (looking round corners, backing up a step or two) mixed with an analogue stick kept on the front of the gun (for longer distance); 3: augmented reality, you take your lounge room and overlay the biggest circle that will fit, then translate your position within that circle as movement speed and direction. Something’s would be faster on a keyboard and mouse but I believe I would be quicker at aiming and turning around with a setup like this (you would have to amplify the height of your jumps (which would be weird cause it would look like your still falling when you had already hit the ground)).

      --
      Rocket Surgeon.
    10. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by Ambvai · · Score: 1

      I really liked shouting 'OBJECTION!' though...

    11. Re:Still looks uncomfortable, still stupid by ThinkWeak · · Score: 1

      The Kinect isn't all bad. Party games are fun and I could see it having a definite market. I think it will need a handheld peripheral to accommodate shooting, but that's nothing more than a battery and a button.

      I'm interested to see what they do for Steel Battalion and the Star Wars game.

      As a sidenote, you mentioned general gaming catagories (FPS, Fighter, Platformers). Perhaps this is the official beginning of a new genre?

  4. Solution in search of a problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who in their right mind would actually want to physically move around to control a FPS? I think movement is an ok control scheme for certain (sub?)genres, but FPS is clearly not one of them. I'll admit it is kind of cool from a conceptual point of view, but it is totally impractical.

    1. Re:Solution in search of a problem. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      It can actually add to the experience if the input is flawless. Because, well, I don't know about you, but I do sometimes "move" behind the keyboard, without even noticing it, involuntarily and in reflex. This can actually enhance the experience and even lead to better results as the mostly learned (and not reflex supported) movements of keyboard and mouse.

      I do not know the kinect yet, so I cannot judge its accuracy or speed, but so far all "real life" input devices failed horribly due to exactly NOT using that reflex input in my favor.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Solution in search of a problem. by grumbel · · Score: 1

      That completly depends on the actual implementation, TrackIR for example seems to be quite popular and allows you to do more in a game then you could with just a keyboard/mouse or gamepad. Similarly I could easily imagine a game where you for example would throw a grenade via a Kinect motion or lurk around a corner by tilting your body or just give hand gestures in multiplayer.

      The whole running and jumping, yeah, that won't be of much use other then party games until everybody got an Omni-Directional Treadmill and a VR helmet in their home.

  5. Wii controller? by Yuioup · · Score: 1

    Why is the Max Payne player holding a Wii controller?

  6. The more I read about Kinect hacking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The more I read about Kinect hacking, the more I become convinced that there's already a sex simulator for Kinect out there. I just don't want to go searching and find out.

  7. Sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I want to play an FPS, not Dance Dance Revolution. Put your left leg in, take your left leg out, put your left leg in and shake it all about. Do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around....

  8. stiff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah the aim looked real stiff like with gamepad players aiming at the ground or sky becouse of the recoil mouse players ajust on the fly without even thinking about it

  9. Glovepie by leuk_he · · Score: 1

    In the summery is written he is using GlovePIE That can be sued to use all kind of controllers, including wiimote, on a PC.

    Since having a controller to control traditional (not made from the ground up kinect) games is a good idea i think the wiimote is a good alternative for this:
    -It has a button. (shoot)
    -It has a joystick.
    -It is wireless (bluetooth), and can be connect quite easy to a PC.
    -It was reverse enigeered some time ago, no hard hacking to do.

    And lost but not least:

    Why not?

  10. I don't care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every time someone hacks some old game to work with Kinect, it's on the front page on Slashdot. Stop posting the same story over and over!

  11. Ballmer supports Kinect hacking! by LordSnooty · · Score: 1

    Well very begrudgingly, he said they knew about the efforts of PC enthusiasts and didn't mind. UK users can see the short interview for Click at the CES here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m9ry

  12. Kinect hacking by Dexter+Herbivore · · Score: 1

    The more I read about MS Kinect hacking, the more I become convinced that there's already a sex simulator aimed at Kinect. I just don't want to go searching and find out.

    1. Re:Kinect hacking by dragonhunter21 · · Score: 1

      I'll save you your sanity- there is. Right now it's limited to simple fondling, but they're not done yet. (Well, sort of- MS has already stated that it won't be available through any official means, so unless the devs are cool with it being released to the homebrew market, they're SOL.)

      --
      Sent from my CR-48
    2. Re:Kinect hacking by spamking · · Score: 1

      Wonder what type of controller it would ship with . . . and if you'd get your very own bottle of "kinect-y jelly".

  13. Kinect Hacks by trancemission · · Score: 0

    Most Kinect hacks are blogged here: http://kinecthacks.net/

  14. Too much lag. by triso · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, there is too much lag on the Kinect for any serious gamer to use.