[Feba]

MTV Multiplayer PlayStation 3 Head-Tracking — No Gimmicks, No Glasses, Just A Camera (Watch this)

(No, I don't actually read mtv websites, I got it through kotaku.)

Anyway, nice way to show off, Sony.

Obviously a better method needs to be implemented, still, given it picks up random faces.

[Icemage]

I'm impressed. And I absolutely adore my PS3 Eye - anyone who has played The Eye of Judgment or The Trials of Topoq can tell you just how cool the camera really is for the PS3.

It's way more intuitive than the motion sensing of either the SixAxis controller or that of the Wiichuk.


Icemage

[Feba]

While I'm sure as a card game Eye of Judgement works very well, camera based tracking systems are still pretty hard to control (although the same applies to some of the more poorly made Wii games)

This would never replace a controller, although if someone can come up with a good way to implement headtracking it could make a huge change to the way people play video games.

[Pai Pai Master]

Purely innovative technology. Since Sony was showing this off at GDC, I'm really hoping they're on a mission to get developers to try something with it. Considering it doesn't require special glasses or other peripherals other than the PS Eye and your face, it's pretty accurate at this point in time, and will only get better.

camera based tracking systems are still pretty hard to control

Play Trials of Topoq and be amazed. It really is a step-up from anything I've played before with a camera...even if it's not the meatiest game ever.

[Feba]

I'm not saying they can't be quality games, I'm just saying that if you have anything happening around you that the camera sees it's going to cause problems that just won't happen with a controller.

[Pai Pai Master]

Yeah, with early technology that will happen. I don't doubt that Sony wouldn't use this in a game unless it was perfected, however. This is the first time we've seen it work without any peripherals, so it's only a matter of time. It's also an issue associated with the fact that the Eye is capable of tracking multiple faces. It's a busy environment so something like that is to be expected.

Here's hoping whatever games may use this technology in the future don't have me accidentally playing with my cat.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Feba

I'm not saying they can't be quality games, I'm just saying that if you have anything happening around you that the camera sees it's going to cause problems that just won't happen with a controller.

True, but 99% of the time the only person playing is you, so unless you're in a party game atmosphere where there's a lot of people around you, or you're doing something odd like playing a console inside a bar (yes, I've heard of this!) it shouldn't really ever be a concern.

Besides, having multiple people around isn't necessarily a bad thing with these sorts of interfaces, depending on the implemetation; Operation Creature Feature on the PS3 is another camera-based motion sensing game, and it actually gets more fun with more people as you have to work together and not get in each others' way.


Icemage

[Feba]

This is the first time we've seen it work without any peripherals, so it's only a matter of time.

I wouldn't say the Eye isn't a peripheral. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw this stuff come up in console packages in a few years, like the Wii Sensor Bar has, and become a vital part of some games.

True, but 99% of the time the only person playing is you,

Exactly, the people playing are easy to track. It's the people that aren't playing. What am I supposed to do when my dog or cat is walking around, or someone walks by to sit down/get up? What about just having someone next to me taking a drink?

And while things like making shadow puppets might be more entertaining with more people, things like gameplay are not-- this sort of technology will also never replace having a real piece of plastic with buttons for things like shooters, or any game where button presses are needed.

There's also the case that pure motion sensing gameplay would be extremely tiring. Just look at Wii Sports, and that doesn't even require much effort. My wrists get sore enough playing SMG for too long, what if to make ANY move I had to wave my arms in a certain way?

Still, headtracking will not work for multiple people in any case.

[Icemage]

I think it could be made to work in interesting ways.

What if you could play a game like Myst with this, tilting your head to pan the view around? To avoid the issue of interference from environment, you could have some sort of calibration setup where you instruct the camera to only look for movement within a specific field of view, and discard the rest of the video input (or use it for other things).


Icemage

[Feba]

Has anyone seen a demonstration of this with more useful graphics? Looking at floating targets is nice, but it doesn't quite represent how good this could be.

it could be like Wiimote, where simple abstract things work well (Wii Sports), but more complex things (think Legend of Zelda) aren't quite so good.

It shouldn't be too hard for someone to rig up the Wiimote program to work for some PC game. I believe there's a version of Crysis hacked to use Wiimote over bluetooth on PC, that would be interesting. Would be very simple to shoot a video of once it's working, too.