TGS 2009: Japanese developers love on Project Natal

Masanori Takeuchi: Why are you doing this? Please, I just want to see my family.

Shadowy Figure: No worries Mr. Takeuchi, your family is fine. And they will stay that way, as long as you read from this teleprompter.

Shadowy figure: See here Mr Toshihiro Nagoshi, your daughter is on the phone

Daughter (On the other end of the phone): Daddy! Save me!

Toshihiro Nagoshi: Please, let her go, this has nothing to do with her

Shadowy figure: You can save her, just talk about how great Natal is and how it will change the future, thats all.

Toshihiro Nagoshi: No...I can't

Daughter (On the other end of the phone): Daddddddy!!

Toshihiro Nagoshi: Okay, I'll do it

I'm glad Microsof is using tons of money this gen. I sincerely hope they deliver some cool 1st gen motion games and cement the controller in gamers.

Wow, how much Microsoft paid them?

@ Ridgecity

It's bad netiquette to reply to a post that has nothing to do with what the original poster said.

Ok, so it doesn't overlap when in full screen mode...

BUT I can still complain about the annoying nikon camera ads. I click X and it takes 1 fucking long second to close thus making me lose the subtitle I was trying to read.

Seriously thats irritating as shit. I mean its not just the joystiq logo cutting off the words at the end of some sentences. They also past in game advertisements in the way of the subtitles.

What next are we going to have a halo odst add in the middle of the video with a soldier walking around and shooting at elites.

Dear Joystiq,

Pay no attention to Ashitaka's request.

Can you make the 'Joystiq' logo larger to I don't have to read the subtitles? Better yet, smack a giant Google ad right across it.
Ahhh... that's better. Ok, what was he saying now?

The touch, the feel of cotton. The fabric of our lives.

Sorry, forgot to close that tag.

/sarcasm

There we go.

What's the function of the middle finger?

@makimak22:
I think it is
/fu

I don't know, Japanese people aren't really the bribey type (they don't even accept tips there!) If anything, Microsoft reps probably just went through all the different businessman etiquette to ask these company people to speak about Project Natal. They obviously will want to be polite and say nice things, but that's not to say they aren't speaking things they actually believe. They probably DO believe Project Natal is cool, they just aren't being rude and mentioning any of the downsides (e.g. "Wtf are we going to do with it?")

The hardware sounds really cool, I don't think there's any consumer device with a depth sensing camera. It ends up functioning like a cheap 3D laser scanner.

you know sony fantards are pretty damn pathetic, that they down vote you. funny that there are more of them visiting this topic than xbox owners.

i dont understand why people act like this you know that had natal been developed by sony these same idiots would be gushing all over it... :/

Didn't the wii do videos of devs clamoring about the Wii when it first was announced? How is this any different. I remember hearing about "awesome" ideas in the Wii videos that were never done. In fact, we all know how third parties used "large amounts" of resources to make their mini games.

Once again, I'll believe it when I see it. Talk is cheap. I was fooled to buy one console because of it, I won't do that again.

Agree 100%

Wake me up when Natal, the Wii mote or Sony's motion controller works intuitive in a creative way on a game I want to play because it's a good game. Not a game I want to play simply because it has motion controls.

lol Thats pretty much a given.

That made me laugh... and cry... sad sad tears... so sad.

Your idea of head tracking is fundamentally flawed, simply because if you turn your head 90 degrees to the right and the in game camera perspective changes, you won't be able to see it as your head is not facing the screen anymore (unless your eye moved the opposite way).

Dude Sony already showed head tracking that gave the illusion of depth and so has Nintendo (actually EA) with the Wii. Thats nothing new either. It got scrapped at the last second on the Wii from Boom Blox I believe it was. The proof is in the pudding.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/02/27/playstation-3-head-tracking-no-gimmicks-no-glasses-just-a-camera-watch-this/

I think Chris was talking about the virtusphere

http://science.discovery.com/videos/popscis-future-of-virtusphere.html


Another cool thing ...

http://science.discovery.com/videos/popscis-future-of-forcefeedback-vest.html

In my opinion those two devices are more practical in their applications even though they are to cumbersome and clunky at this point.

@makimak22

I'm not suggesting it track the direction you're looking, I'm saying it should change the perpsective on the screen based on where your head is relative to it. When you look out a window, the view does not change when you turn your head obviously, it changes when you move to a different place. If you're closer to a window, you see more of the outside. If you're to right of the window, you see more of whats to the left outside, etc. Natal could do this, it could make your TV behave like a window to the outside.

Raffi

Yes head tracking is really cool but thats nothing that can't and hasn't already been done (conceptually) on the PS3 & 360. So, again, you haven't given a single practical example of something Natal can do that the others can't.

The difference between what raffi is talking about and what you two are saying already exist is massive. The sony tech demo you linked to showing head tracking is still only tracking your movements on an x,y axis(left and right, up and down) With some software trickery, depth sensing can be faked by telling the console that if the objects being tracked get bigger, they are closer to the camera and vice versa. It works, but it lacks the accuracy needed to be useful beyond novelty games and tech demos.

Natal has a depth sensor that uses infrared pulses to track the objects distance from the camera, and map the object in 3D. This gives natal the ability to see the player in total darkness, as well as accurately determine his position right down to the movement of his individual fingers.

I think the most practical application of this technology, outside of the casual game bs, would be for use with an rts game. Natal would easily be able to recognize your hands and fingers. Simple gestures like closing your fist and pulling it towards you could be used to grab the camera and zoom in. Zooming out, and panning would be handled by grabbing the camera and moving it accordingly. Unit selection could be as simple as pointing with your finger and menus could be accessed by simply saying menu and using your hand to navigate through it.
Before natal, web cams lacked the accuracy and dedicated processing needed to be effectively used this way.

Im not a big advocate of controller-less gaming, but Natal has the necessary hardware to at least make it plausible.