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Neal Stephenson Reinventing Computer Swordfighting, Via Kickstarter
New submitter toxygen01 writes "Neal Stephenson, sci-fi writer mostly known for his books Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon, takes on revolutionizing virtual sword fighting with help of crowdfunding. Inspired by the little-known fictional universe of 'Mongoliad,' an interactive book he is collaborating on, his company is trying to develop hardware (low-latency motion controller) and software for realistic medieval sword fighting. From what is promised, it will try to be open for other developers by having API and SDK available for further modding." Very few Kickstarter drives have a steel longsword as one of the rewards for investing.
There's been a bit of a transition in the use of Kickstarter. Initially the idea was to provide seed funding, to cover expenses for a project that someone wouldn't be able to do otherwise unless they got conventional funding (e.g. grants or angel investors). So, for example, $5k for supplies and a few months' rent to support an art project. Then there were perks just as thank-yous to supporters.
It seems to be slowly transitioning to a pre-order system where the perks are the point, though. Neal Stephenson is a multi-millionaire; he does not actually need this seed funding to pay his rent and expenses. If he wanted, he could self-fund the entire project. So why would he use Kickstarter? My guess is to get early buy-in from potential customers, to validate the idea's appeal, to build buzz, etc. Essentially a business-strategy use of the platform rather than a seed-funding use.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
This has already been discussed to death on Slashdot. I'm not going to dig for a link, but some other poster came up with a good solution. If you wildly swing through something physically, when your virtual sword has stopped, your character becomes staggered until they physically reposition their weapon to sync up with the virtual representation. Eventually you'll become good enough at recognizing how your virtual sword will interact with the enemy's virtual sword (or body) and you won't be wildly swinging through as though you could slice through them. Eventually you'll train your muscles to anticipate the impact of the virtual swords and stop mid-swing (at the point where the virtual swords would clash) and begin the next move, possibly pulling back for another strike or pushing forward to knock back the enemy. Hell, add the Kinect so that you can kick or so the game can incorporate other body movements as well.
Eventually you'll train your muscles to anticipate the impact of the virtual swords and stop mid-swing (at the point where the virtual swords would clash) and begin the next move, possibly pulling back for another strike or pushing forward to knock back the enemy
Of course, doing that means the movements become stunted and artificial -- because the idea is always to swing *through* your target and not *at* your target -- thus defeating the purpose of making a realistic swordplay game...