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Skyrim Is Getting Kinect Support, Dragon Shouts Included
jjp9999 writes "Bethesda announced they're bringing Kinect support to Skyrim. It doesn't sound like this will include motion detection. Rather, it will be around voice commands — tons of voice commands. It supports dragon shouts, trading, navigation, switching weapons, and a whole lot of other features that usually require you to assign hotkeys or to sort through menus. They also gave a brief hint at new content, stating they've 'been hard at work on creating the first set of game add-ons that will be exclusive to the Xbox 360. This additional content will add new quests, locations, features, and much more to the world of Skyrim.'"
Instead of adding new stuff, please fix the bugs first.
Depending on what gets voice commands, you can have a lot of fun by walking up to someone playing this with a Kinect.
"Hi Bob, looks like that giant is geting a bit close... EQUIP FEEBLE DAGGER."
... I yell "LeRoy Jenkins!" ??
I am not sure what the big deal with this would be? You can easily get a voice input program (dragon, open source solutions etc) and bind a vocal command to a key press and roll your own. It wouldn't be expensive or difficult at all. Add a cheap USB headset, and you are done.
There Can Be Only One...
Except that the kinect is what is doing the voice recognition. It's not just being used as mic input.
Maybe it is on their plate. After all, there is kinect support coming to PC as well. but as far as PC goes, it's extremely easier to go through menus than it is on the console.
You mean like this?
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=5626
These kinds of mods are exactly why I prefer PC gaming.
Since the speech-recognition algorithm probably runs on the CPU, and doesn't care much what kind of microphone recorded the speech, couldn't you do this with a normal (headset) microphone on PC?
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
The problem would be using shouts. You would have to switch shouts manually, whereas this (I imagine) would allow you to just speak them.
Because using the kinect to do all the voice recognition means they don't have to do it themselves?
There's a mod for PC that does this. One of the guys mentioned this in the comments on TechZwn - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofC3TW30fGQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Motion-based commands would be incredibly awkward for a game as complex as Skyrim. The game was not designed with a gesture metaphor in mind. It would just be incredibly tedious and flaky given current technology. Voice command is really where it's at for this game.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Damned lucky they didn't add voice commands. My flatmate would have hated me if I had spent a month sitting around the living room shouting "Fuuuus Ro DAAAAH!!!" every few minutes.
Blocked at work, can you post a description?
There Can Be Only One...
it's called thuumic, it has some similar features for PC.
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
PC gamers already can FUS-RO-DAH in Skyrim with this mod - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=5626
Enough with the conspiracy theories. Your paranoid sense of persecution is unwarranted.
I put my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Demonoid, ISOHunt and Pirate Bay. Search for 'Michael Cargill'
Did you bother to read any other comments? They're using the Kinect API to do voice commands, they didn't roll their own voice recognition (as that is much more difficult). Furthermore, there is apparently a mod that allows you to do this on the PC. Not everything is some terrible thing Microsoft did to fuck you over.
Sheesh, where are my mod points when I need them.
Must have been either the arrow to the knee. Or maybe someone stole their sweet role!
This sig is false.
One reason is they don't have to deal with 5 billion calls a day as to why some obscure $1 microphone doesn't behave the way they intend. The kinect does do a better than average job trying to compensate for things and is a good baseline. Just letting anyone try and hook up their crappy 10 year old mic and hoping it works would be a potential support nightmare.
Actually, I should have been more specific in my elitist whining. I'm annoyed about the Xbox specific DLC - "They also gave a brief hint at new content, stating they've 'been hard at work on creating the first set of game add-ons that will be exclusive to the Xbox 360." I don't have any interest in the Kinect angle.
Still no support eh? If I yell "Equip sword and axe" what happens? BSOD?
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Looks pretty cool, though I think they shouldn't have the game character repeat the shout if you already shouted it.
To be honest, I wouldn't be able to remember the shout names. (I always relied on my bow. Yes, I play the archer-thief, don't like hack/slash. :P) I'm sure my 10-year old nephew, who's read the strategy guide and knows the name of all the characters and creatures and quests and artifacts and holds and..... would be able to though, heh.
You are aware that there is a Kinect for PC, right? They could just state that they will only support that and use the exact same libraries they are using on the XBOX.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
"LYDIA"
"Yes, my thane."
"OFF WITH YOUR CLOTHES"
"I am sworn to carry your burdens."
Except that the kinect is what is doing the voice recognition. It's not just being used as mic input.
So? They created a PC version of the Kinect. I don't see any reason for them to make content exclusive to a specific system. Besides, I am sure they could just process the mic input themselves instead of having the Kinect do it.
PC gamers aren't upset about the lack of voice control. We've had that forever by comparison.
What we ARE upset about is:
"...been hard at work on creating the first set of game add-ons that will be exclusive to the Xbox 360. This additional content will add new quests, locations, features, and much more to the world of Skyrim."
@Whee
While I don't understand why they can't use the PC version of the Kinect for the PC version of the game, I am also more concerned with the new content they are making exclusive to the Xbox 360. What about the rest of us?
That's a fair point. I imagine it's mostly a matter of Kinect for Windows not having nearly the install base as Kinect of XBox, so they don't want to spend even the marginal extra effort to support it.
This additional content will add new quest
I'm sorry, I just started the game earlier this week, and I'm having trouble wading through the sheer number of side-quests between me and the big plot quest. I like the compact nature of the world. There's just enough annoying travel between points of interest. Which is not much. It makes for some silly bandit camps literally outside the king's window, but it works. But with this compact nature means that every three steps you get yet another slob with a problem and they want YOU to fix their shit. And it honestly sounds fun, so I'm up for it. Sure, I'll clean out those zombies, no problem. Happens all the time.
So I'm investigating an interesting hut on the side of the road while on a side-quest I got in the city that I got transported to as part of an ambushed-HAHA-YOU'RE-ON-A-QUEST-NOW sort of mission while on my way to the big plot. When I apparently hit a stack overflow on the number of tangents I was diverging onto, because that's when the thing bluescreened.
(It was actually when swapping some amulets, but I was certainly feeling the quest stack buildup)
tl;dr I'm feeling there's plenty of quests. At least around lvl 10.
I still don't understand what there is to be upset about.
The PC version has it's own advantages with the controls, performance, graphics, mods and whatever else.
The console versions have their advantages too which includes exclusive content that has been commissioned by the console manufacturer.
You win some and you lose some.
I put my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Demonoid, ISOHunt and Pirate Bay. Search for 'Michael Cargill'
They were paid to do so. Just like anyone does platform exclusive things.
I'll hit both sides in this case.
The first consideration is that PC Gamers, who already spend a ton of money on the gaming rigs and have a lot more capability than any console's half-decade-old tech, feel now like the game manufacturer is treating them like second-class citizens. PC games that have Console-optimized content, focus on the console development over PC development, generally a perceived lack of respect for the PC gaming population. Literally to the point where, in this case, development of mods for the PC is not only effectively almost Open Source, but Bethesda isn't even making any official mods except HD packs that don't look as good as the third party ones.
It's to the point where the people who spend the most money on their hardware have the least support. Then the fact that the game is throttled to work best on what is effectively nearly ancient technology these days, their super-hardware does them little good. Try using a 1x3 surround-screen setup and you'll quickly discover that the menus and UI are sized based on the width of the screen without accounting for the height. Unusable. Skyrim could have been a beautiful experience for the high-powered gamer, but it isn't unless the gamers themselves fix it. Fixing it is often a battle against the official developers also, as official patches that fix a handful of things also break dozens of third-party fixes.
Now that it's to the point where PC gamers are feeling like they're being told "Sorry, your gaming experience can be far too much better than those peoples'. We need to give you a handicap.", we're getting less and less pleased. Here's a comparison: What would you do if Amazon.com said "We're giving out cool stuff to people who buy things from us! But... We decided not to give it to anybody who lists a book on our system. Sorry, Michael, you've got all the benefits of publishing a book, so you can't have this stuff." I would expect you to potentially feel slighted. All in all, it's human nature to not want to be considered an afterthought, unsupported, inferior market segment, etc. People buy high end PCs to have a better gaming experience than the people who spend a quarter as much on a console. They don't expect to be tossed the scraps and told to fend for themselves by the game developers just because they have better hardware.
On the other side of the coin, there are many times more users buying it for the consoles. It's just a "business decision" to make the important stuff for the bigger market. One can also consider that the "additional content" probably has a strong propensity for carrying a cost, so the highest revenue will come from the larger market segment. Money speaks, after all.
@Whee
Your Amazon analogy doesn't work though; none of that money spent on PC hardware goes to Bethesda.
I spend money myself on upgrading my PC and I also have an Xbox 360 and a PS3.
At no point have I ever felt slighted one way or another when I didn't own all three systems.
I put my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Demonoid, ISOHunt and Pirate Bay. Search for 'Michael Cargill'
I am also more worried about xbox exclusive content than kinect support. Why xbox only? Why not for ps3 too? What about PC gamers? It makes no sense to me for it to be exclusive for xbox UNLESS it's related directly to kinect, in which case.. uh... yeah, you probably can keep it for yourself. Let's just hope bethesda doesn't shoot itself in the foot with this exclusivity move.
I don't care if I'm wrong. I only care about everyone obtaining something from the discussion.
Then I shall say "Good for You". :) It's all subjective and your comprehension or lack thereof has no impact for good or bad, so your lack of upsetness simply indicates a good duck back or apathy, and either way you're avoiding being upset.
@Whee
Kinect for Windows isn't intended for games, which is part of the reason it's twice the price. It's actually meant for practical applications (natural UI, etc).
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Why can't it be used in games as well as practical applications.?
Actually no. The Xbox 360's Kinect drivers will not work on Windows, and the code is very likely not cross-compilable. Also, Kinect for Windows is not meant for gaming, it's for actual practical applications. It even says it in the product description. It also says "this is not a consumer product" and "this is a Kinect development product for Windows, intended for commercial clients and developers". There is no way Microsoft would permit Kinect to be integrated into a game as an advertised feature.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
The simple answer is that they cannot use Kinect for Windows because you aren't allowed to make games with it. It's for actual practical applications as it says in the product description: "this is not a consumer product" and "this is a Kinect development product for Windows, intended for commercial clients and developers". Even more blunt: "Not for Gaming Use". There is no way Microsoft would permit Kinect to be integrated into a PC game as an advertised feature.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
We put Kinect in your Skyrim so you can Fus Ro Dah while you Fus Ro Dah.
Because Microsoft explicitly forbids it. Says it pretty plainly in the product description everywhere that sells it. So you can be sure there's no way Microsoft will tolerate a Triple-A studio like Bethesda including support in a Windows game.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Or they could just fix the horrible existing UI.