That's not a fair comparison, though. Most companies want a game based on previous work. For instance, take the Quake engine, tack on some different levels, sprites, and scripts, and sell it to the company. Development costs, while certainly not zero, are going to be fairly low compared to developing the game in the first place.
This would be more like going to Spielberg and asking him to spend a couple of months remixing a previously-filmed movie and adding a couple of extra scenes for $5m.
To reach the billion-dollar mark, the market will have to overcome the common wisdom that games are inherently not serious.
The whole problem seems to be the name itself. Games. Of course, the "fun" connotation can be removed. Consider a game of poker (stakes can be very high, fortunes can be made or lost), as a "serious" game. Even better, consider war games, or a nice game of chess. Games don't have to be serious, but calling them "games" makes it an uphill battle. Maybe if companies added a little spin, and called them "computer-aided training simulators" or something, business would take them more seriously, and would invest more time and money in utilizing them.
How expensive is it compared to the machine that goes "ping?" Pocket change. Why, the machine that goes "ping" is the most expensive machine in the whole hospital! It cost over three quarters of a million pounds. Not to worry, though. You see, we lease it back from the company we sold it to, and that way, it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
Evolution is . . . a study of how the universe came to be.
Bzzzzt. Wrong. Evolution has to do with changes in the genetic makeup of populations of living organisms. It has nothing at all to do with the origin of the universe (or even with the origin of life).
The word "theory" used to mean "an unproven idea, still in its 'best guess' phase", basically, what we now call a "hypothesis". Evolution was a theory. Now it's a hypothesis.
Bzzzzt. Strike two. A theory, in the scientific sense, has always meant (to quote Wikipedia) "a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation."
Evolution was and still is a theory. Not the common usage that means "guess" or "hypothesis", but the scientific usage that I quoted.
However, comma overuse, you see, is something that, though sometimes problematic, can also, in my opinion at least, be a bit subjective, owing to the fact that, in certain instances, things could be expressed in multiple ways, and the expression with fewer commas may not be, to the average person, immediately obvious, or even desirable, depending on the circumstances.
boo to those who can't live past the "glory" of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Bah. Everyone knows that "A Link to the Past" was the greatest Zelda game. Even though I thoroughly enjoy the 3D Zelda games, I'd love to see what a 3/4 isometric view could look like on modern hardware.
It's not like Zelda hasn't changed before. I mean, the jump from 2D to 3D was fairly dramatic. And seriously, we've all seen where being formulaic gets you; Just look at the movie industry. That's the type of rut that I'd rather see one of my favorite game franchises avoid, if at all possible. I say, as long as some of the staples are preserved (sword combat, heart containers, and that little "you found a secret!" chime. Just enough to remind you that, yes, this is a Zelda game) then by all means try something new.
A theocracy doesn't sound bad to me as long as the government is just following a good set of beliefs rather than creating new ones.
Religion, by definition, takes things to be true on faith. A theocracy, then, would pass laws based on faith rather than on reason. For instance, a Catholic theocracy might ban all birth control for being "immoral". Likewise, in a theocracy, it's a very small step to forbidding anyone of the "wrong" religion from holding office, or even forcing everyone to at least pretend to be the national religion.
Hero: "Hello, bartender."
Bartender: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "Wow, that sucks. Can I get a beer?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "Yeah, I know. But cats do that sometimes. Who knows, maybe it'll come back. Now, how about that beer?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "We've gone over that already. Beer? Please?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "What the Hell?! Just do your job and get me a damned beer!"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "I KNOW that you want me to find the damned cat already! Fine! I'll find your cat! Never mind that I'm busy hunting down an evil sorcerer who intends on enslaving the entire kingdom. Cats take priority, right? If it's a cat you want, it's a cat you'll get. Okay? Satisfied? Now how about one for the road . . . the road I'm taking to find your cat?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "That DOES IT! I'm just going to kill you and TAKE the damned beer. How's THAT sound, huh?!"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "Gaaaaaaahhhhhhh" *hack* *slash* *chop*
[Your reputation for evil has increased by 200. Townsfolk will no longer trade with you (yes, that includes beer)]
Sounds like a perfect place to use MS speech recgonition:
Computer: "Where do you want to go today?"
You: "Nowhere."
C: "I heard 'Microsoft Validation Site'. Is this correct?"
Y: "No!"
C: "I'm sorry. I heard 'Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete all'. Is this correct?"
Y: "NO!!"
C: "I understand. So 'Microsoft Validation Site' was correct. Redirecting now. Thank you for using My Microsoft Live Enterprise Genuine Advantage Ultimate. Have a nice day."
I should hope the GP doesn't lose all depth perception when he closes one eye
Humans compensate for this in several ways. One is to move the head slightly side-to-side. This parallax information can help you in determining distance. Here's an example. Note that this requires extra information, so it's not useful in the case of upsampling 2D to 3D.
Another method is to notice when one object occludes another. That could possibly be automated, but you'd need some very sophisticated image recognition and tracking technology. Possibly some pre-processing, too, to avoid objects suddenly "jumping" along the z axis as their size changes force their calculated distances to be modified.
There's also the fact that we tend to know the relative sizes of various common objects, and comparing that to their perceived sizes can give rough distance information. That would require image recognition technology of a degree that we don't currently have, though.
So it looks like occlusion is probably the only method that could glean 3D info from a 2D source with any degree of accuracy, and I can't imagine that that's be very accurate or, indeed, always possible. Plus, I suspect the results would look like a pop-up book, with different portions of the image represented as flat objects on different planes rather than 3D objects.
I can't imagine anybody using that controller for more than 10 minutes before getting sick of it
Why, exactly? I mean, how is moving your hand slightly (over-exaggerated arm motions are optional, but not required) significantly different than moving your hand slightly when playing a game that uses a mouse? Yet very few people get "sick of" playing PC games because of it.
Remember the infamous Power Glove?
You mean the same Power Glove that was not made by Nintendo, and which was not designed from the very beginning as the primary means of control for a game console? Yeah, I remember it. What of it? The Virtual Boy sucked, too, but I doubt you'd see the sense in extrapolating from that to in order to judge current VR technology.
But nobody complains when a new cell phone comes out that costs $500.
Cell phones tend to have very similar functionality; their purpose is to call people. I can call anyone on any phone, and all the extra features are just gravy. So I can get $500 phone if I have money to burn and really like the extras, or I can just get a cheap phone and be done with it. Compare that to a game console, which is designed to play games, and where each console has a certain subset of games available only on that console. Further, there are only three major contenders.
Imagine if there were only three noteworthy cell phones coming out this generation, and each one could only dial a subset of all phone numbers. Maybe I'd really like to call up my Aunt Mable, but wouldn't you know it, I can only do that with the $500 phone. You'd see a lot of complaints.
Nobody complains that Nvidia just came out with a $700 video card.
The card's not necessary to play any given game. It makes a difference in the overall presentation quality, obviously, but that's similar to playing a console game on an HDTV. It looks nicer, but it's not necessary. You can still play any game you choose on a cheaper TV.
But Sony is charging too much. Even though they are taking a loss on each unit. Right, whatever you say...
"Too much" is a function of what people are willing to pay, not whether or not Sony is turning a profit.
He's following company policy. He works there... it is not his problem, it's the companies.
It most certainly is his problem. From TFA:
A spokeswoman said: "It is not our policy to refuse business from adult customers of any age group. However, we do ask our agents to use their discretion when dealing with older customers."
So the entire thing was at the agent's discretion, and he decided to deny this woman service based on her age. My sentiments are the same as the GP's: I hope this guy was reprimanded.
The real difficult part is feedback. You swing a sword from right to left. Halfway through the swing, on screen, your opponent puts out his sword and blocks the attack. Your hand keeps going. Now your hand is all the way on the left, but on the screen, your sword is in the middle of the screen, confusing the heck out of the player.
I don't think this will be a problem at all. When the on-screen sword is impeded, you could treat further deviation of the controller from the virtual-sword's position as applying force to the opponent's sword. Keep moving far enough (within reason), and you could begin to push the opponent's sword back. Move the controller back the way it came, and your avatar slowly lets off pressure, allowing the opponent's sword to advance. Combine this with the rumble feature, and you end up with even greater control over your virtual sword.
Simplify this to having the on-screen sword simply attempt to move in a straight line from where it is to where you want it to be (perhaps with some on-screen indicator to show where you're currently pointing), with the force of the attempt controlled by the distance left to travel, and you could do all kinds of cool stuff. To use your above scenario:
Halfway through the swing, on screen, your opponent puts out his sword and blocks the attack. Your hand keeps going. Now your hand is all the way on the left, but on the screen, your sword is in the middle of the screen, as your avatar struggles to push back your opponent's sword. You then swing the controller straight up, causing your sword to slide upward along your opponent's in a shower of sparks while still holding it at bay. As soon as it's clear, you flick the controller down and to the right, easily splitting your opponent's head.
I believe that option's been available since Win95. Just go to the mouse settings in the control panel, and (in XP) go to the "Pointer Options" tab. The very last option is "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key".
Is there anyone out there who is surprised by this news? I was under the impression that it was now common knowledge that Infinium Labs is a swirling vortex of waste and misery.
Slashdot Mirror
That's not a fair comparison, though. Most companies want a game based on previous work. For instance, take the Quake engine, tack on some different levels, sprites, and scripts, and sell it to the company. Development costs, while certainly not zero, are going to be fairly low compared to developing the game in the first place.
This would be more like going to Spielberg and asking him to spend a couple of months remixing a previously-filmed movie and adding a couple of extra scenes for $5m.
Bzzzzt. Strike two. A theory, in the scientific sense, has always meant (to quote Wikipedia) "a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation."
Evolution was and still is a theory. Not the common usage that means "guess" or "hypothesis", but the scientific usage that I quoted.
However, comma overuse, you see, is something that, though sometimes problematic, can also, in my opinion at least, be a bit subjective, owing to the fact that, in certain instances, things could be expressed in multiple ways, and the expression with fewer commas may not be, to the average person, immediately obvious, or even desirable, depending on the circumstances.
What's next? Air-filled water balloons at parties?
Or what about an air-filled liquid-filled-airbag to protect people in automobile accidents? Genius!
It's not like Zelda hasn't changed before. I mean, the jump from 2D to 3D was fairly dramatic. And seriously, we've all seen where being formulaic gets you; Just look at the movie industry. That's the type of rut that I'd rather see one of my favorite game franchises avoid, if at all possible. I say, as long as some of the staples are preserved (sword combat, heart containers, and that little "you found a secret!" chime. Just enough to remind you that, yes, this is a Zelda game) then by all means try something new.
Pay over 400 bucks apiece for a console and the peripherals.
Or go to a bar, find the biggest redneck you can, insinuate that he likes guys and that you slept with his mother, and street fight for real...
I guess kombat's more fun when it's manufactured.
You mean no more of this?:
Hero: "Hello, bartender."
Bartender: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "Wow, that sucks. Can I get a beer?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "Yeah, I know. But cats do that sometimes. Who knows, maybe it'll come back. Now, how about that beer?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "We've gone over that already. Beer? Please?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "What the Hell?! Just do your job and get me a damned beer!"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "I KNOW that you want me to find the damned cat already! Fine! I'll find your cat! Never mind that I'm busy hunting down an evil sorcerer who intends on enslaving the entire kingdom. Cats take priority, right? If it's a cat you want, it's a cat you'll get. Okay? Satisfied? Now how about one for the road . . . the road I'm taking to find your cat?"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "That DOES IT! I'm just going to kill you and TAKE the damned beer. How's THAT sound, huh?!"
B: "*sigh* I've been so depressed since my cat ran away".
H: "Gaaaaaaahhhhhhh" *hack* *slash* *chop*
[Your reputation for evil has increased by 200. Townsfolk will no longer trade with you (yes, that includes beer)]
H: "Oh Krom-dammit."
Sounds like a perfect place to use MS speech recgonition:
Computer: "Where do you want to go today?"
You: "Nowhere."
C: "I heard 'Microsoft Validation Site'. Is this correct?"
Y: "No!"
C: "I'm sorry. I heard 'Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete all'. Is this correct?"
Y: "NO!!"
C: "I understand. So 'Microsoft Validation Site' was correct. Redirecting now. Thank you for using My Microsoft Live Enterprise Genuine Advantage Ultimate. Have a nice day."
Truly you have a dizzying intellect.
...intend on welcoming our mind-reading overlords (as they well know).
Another method is to notice when one object occludes another. That could possibly be automated, but you'd need some very sophisticated image recognition and tracking technology. Possibly some pre-processing, too, to avoid objects suddenly "jumping" along the z axis as their size changes force their calculated distances to be modified.
There's also the fact that we tend to know the relative sizes of various common objects, and comparing that to their perceived sizes can give rough distance information. That would require image recognition technology of a degree that we don't currently have, though.
So it looks like occlusion is probably the only method that could glean 3D info from a 2D source with any degree of accuracy, and I can't imagine that that's be very accurate or, indeed, always possible. Plus, I suspect the results would look like a pop-up book, with different portions of the image represented as flat objects on different planes rather than 3D objects.
You mean the same Power Glove that was not made by Nintendo, and which was not designed from the very beginning as the primary means of control for a game console? Yeah, I remember it. What of it? The Virtual Boy sucked, too, but I doubt you'd see the sense in extrapolating from that to in order to judge current VR technology.
Imagine if there were only three noteworthy cell phones coming out this generation, and each one could only dial a subset of all phone numbers. Maybe I'd really like to call up my Aunt Mable, but wouldn't you know it, I can only do that with the $500 phone. You'd see a lot of complaints.
The card's not necessary to play any given game. It makes a difference in the overall presentation quality, obviously, but that's similar to playing a console game on an HDTV. It looks nicer, but it's not necessary. You can still play any game you choose on a cheaper TV.
"Too much" is a function of what people are willing to pay, not whether or not Sony is turning a profit.
It most certainly is his problem. From TFA:
So the entire thing was at the agent's discretion, and he decided to deny this woman service based on her age. My sentiments are the same as the GP's: I hope this guy was reprimanded.
I don't think this will be a problem at all. When the on-screen sword is impeded, you could treat further deviation of the controller from the virtual-sword's position as applying force to the opponent's sword. Keep moving far enough (within reason), and you could begin to push the opponent's sword back. Move the controller back the way it came, and your avatar slowly lets off pressure, allowing the opponent's sword to advance. Combine this with the rumble feature, and you end up with even greater control over your virtual sword.
Simplify this to having the on-screen sword simply attempt to move in a straight line from where it is to where you want it to be (perhaps with some on-screen indicator to show where you're currently pointing), with the force of the attempt controlled by the distance left to travel, and you could do all kinds of cool stuff. To use your above scenario:
Halfway through the swing, on screen, your opponent puts out his sword and blocks the attack. Your hand keeps going. Now your hand is all the way on the left, but on the screen, your sword is in the middle of the screen, as your avatar struggles to push back your opponent's sword. You then swing the controller straight up, causing your sword to slide upward along your opponent's in a shower of sparks while still holding it at bay. As soon as it's clear, you flick the controller down and to the right, easily splitting your opponent's head.
I believe that option's been available since Win95. Just go to the mouse settings in the control panel, and (in XP) go to the "Pointer Options" tab. The very last option is "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key".
As pointed out above, that is incorrect; you're combining two seperate acronyms.
LED = Light Emitting Diode.
LCD = Liquid Crystal Display.
Is there anyone out there who is surprised by this news? I was under the impression that it was now common knowledge that Infinium Labs is a swirling vortex of waste and misery.