Xbox 360 camera plus poker equals immersion
by Jennie Lees 
{ May 10th 2006 at 5:55AM }
After the Microsoft keynote we managed to spend some time with one of the games supporting the 360's camera peripheral, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions. In this game, the camera is used to take a frontal and sideways shot of the player's head, which is then turned into a 3D representation of the player.
The process takes about three minutes, and is a little rough around the edges, but the immersiveness from seeing your opponents' faces both in 3D and in a superimposed webcam display is undeniable. The PMS Clan ladies demonstrating the game were impressed, describing it as a way to increase the addictiveness and realism of online poker, and wondering when they'd see their own faces in their favourite FPS. However, we find the concept of seeing our own dead bodies disturbing enough without adding our faces to it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tony @ May 10th 2006 6:38AM
back at E3 99, Nintendo was showing off similar technology hooked up to Perfect Dark. I played 4 player death match with my own face and it was uncanny...but I believe they scrapped it because of concern people wouldn't like to see themselves die or perhaps worse, they'd take photos of their teachers, parents etc and then shoot them up in-game.
gavin @ May 10th 2006 6:44AM
Immersiveness?
For some reason I don't think watching my virtual opponents play an entire game with a single facial expression is going to add much immersiveness to my poker experience.
I never liked playing poker anyway.
Mattias @ May 10th 2006 7:44AM
gavin: poker face you know! ;)
Jackie Chan @ May 10th 2006 7:50AM
I put my face on Tony Hawk 3 a long long time ago on Playstation. This isnt new, how comes people dont jump on M$ like they do on Sony and Nintendo?
Gareth @ May 10th 2006 7:57AM
Hey Gavin, if you had only told Microsoft that YOU don't like this idea I'm sure they'd have scrapped the whole thing and moved onto something else. Doh!
You just can't please some people. My ex was the same - born to complain about every f*cking thing under the sun.
Saxon @ May 10th 2006 8:05AM
And if you got so rude every time you two had a difference of opinions, I wholly understand why he/she's an ex.
Gareth @ May 10th 2006 8:20AM
It's not a difference of opinion. It's one person being a miserable bastard that does nothing but complain about everything, and the other person's sick of all the whining and would rather everyone just got along.
This topic is about Microsoft trying something new with their games. With people like Gavin around, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Give them a break. Get laid or something.
Dave @ May 10th 2006 8:29AM
How long do you think it's going to be before people realise that it's not just your face that you can take pictures of and have pasted on your online characters head?!
Fuzz @ May 10th 2006 8:48AM
Any bets on how long before someone uses this to replace their players head with their wang? This just looks open to all sorts of abuse.
George @ May 10th 2006 8:53AM
To the trolls:
a. Who said there was just 'one facial expression'? - the 3D heads are fully articulated and animated.
b. With regard to photographing something else instead of a head - don't you think MS haven't thought of this. Could it not be perhaps, that there is something in the software that actually finds facial attributes and thereby prevents the inclusion of something offensive?
One of the above posters is right - some people have to find SOMETHING to gripe about (even if they haven't seen the thing iwth their own eyes. Grow up!
someone @ May 10th 2006 9:57AM
takes camera aims lower, lower, CLICK. hahahahha
Pantsmonkey @ May 10th 2006 10:23AM
For the love of god man look at the Bunny!.
I am guessing its the same tech here folks =) Nothing but awesome possibilities there!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7qZLgA2g7Ow&search=orbit%20cam
This stuff is only the better for Gaming and will be super rad for future boxing games. The face mapping is pretty slick.
carnyl @ May 10th 2006 10:33AM
"However, we find the concept of seeing our own dead bodies disturbing enough without adding our faces to it."
No kidding. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch..
I would love to be able to throw my own face onto an online FPS (Battlefield: MC for 360 anyone?) ... Not only do I believe myself to have a handsome mug that i'd love to see virtualized, but I want my FPS victims to see it before they pass to greener pastures (or at least until they respawn and seek revenge).
gameclu @ May 10th 2006 11:17AM
I have no interest in putting my face out there on Xbox live. I'd rather design a face, like you can in Oblivion. But I guess I could always wear a halloween mask for games like this when capturing my head.
Gareth @ May 10th 2006 11:31AM
Hey man that Quickcam face-mapping rocks!
Wonder how easy it is to make 'custom' effects. ;o)
007craft @ May 10th 2006 12:03PM
I would like to put my face in all my FPS games and this poker game I will be playing. I will not be purchasing the 360 webcam to do this however. I find the need of a console webcam to accomplish this task is pointless considering we can simply upload pictures from a digital camera via are networked computers or get our PC cameras to take the pictures. Obviously Microsoft could allow us to do this but would rather release a proprietary camera to get more of our Money. I guess im stuck with playing without my face for now.
Eric @ May 10th 2006 12:13PM
I wonder if they could get facial expressions out of someone's inappropriately pictured junk...
That would be so hilarious I would pee a little bit.
Having a cock talking smack to you would kill me.
Nate @ May 10th 2006 12:53PM
Well said Gareth! The negativity around here is sometimes comical...Everything is a 'stupid idea' or 'I see nothing next-gen about it'. Must be a sad, dark world they live in, when nothing is good enough.
And you CAN see the other person's expression: "the immersiveness from seeing your opponents' faces both in 3D and in a superimposed webcam display is undeniable." Superimposed webcam display = 2D live webcam picture-in-picture
brad77 @ May 10th 2006 12:54PM
It'd be cool if they could couple this with face-tracking technology that could capture expressions and put them on-screen. Logitech has done a good bit with this using their webcams. Here's a video from Make:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/04/logitech_quickcam_orbit_mp_1.html
The video shows camera controlled avatars about half-way through.
Clay @ May 10th 2006 1:42PM
"they'd take photos of their teachers, parents etc and then shoot them up in-game."
And thus I will buy an Xbox 360.
hohoho @ May 10th 2006 1:54PM
it's nice to see that the trolls are not all out in force in accusing another of ripping off another idea.
Strange way of playing poker....
james mann @ May 18th 2006 2:22PM
I don't know if most of you had a chance to use the camera, but I did and it was really cool. Not only did it use my picture on the model, but it actually generated geometry based on my face/head. I did it and my girlfriend did it, and the model was completely unique. I was too preoccupied with how cool this was to see myself in-game, but I did see someone else playing there head in game and it did animate completely.
So all you nay sayers can lick my foot.