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Author Topic: Kinect  (Read 501 times)

Offline Lazybones

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Kinect
« on: November 05, 2010, 08:45:41 AM »
True 1:1 full body tracking is here.


... Just make sure you have a giant free space infront of your tv to enjoy it.



Only played for a few min last night so I will update my impressions after more play.


Pro:
- true 1:1 movement tracking
- latancy is not a problem, it is quick

Con:
- you need a lot of free space to jump around in
- no flat tv mount included
- voice control and connect hub apps limited (zune store works but DVD and Netflix don't. ?)


Offline Mr. Analog

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2010, 01:02:48 PM »
No flat panel mount??? What the heck!!
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Offline Thorin

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2010, 02:29:15 PM »
Is it supposed to be above or below the tv?  Is it big and intrusive, or does it blend in well with the rest of the electronics?  Does it look easily breakable?
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Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2010, 05:17:40 PM »
- It can be above of below the TV... basically the same placement as the Wii sensor bar, but it is bigger than the Wii sensor, more like the size of a wii mote.
- Found that I could rest it on top of my TV since it is just thick enough, however a more secure anchor would be better.. It did work in front of the TV but I am afraid of little hands getting it.. Also mounting it higher since my TV is very low gave a better viewing angle and area of play.
- It has an up/down tilt motor, if forced this is likely what would break..
- MS makes a mount and there are 3rd party ones, but no one has them stocked yet... I assume they will start to appear VERY soon.

Most impressive thing about it so far is that it really tracks your arm, hip and leg position.. Playing dance-central you really have to move your body right.

Found some issue in Kinect adventures with reaching far out very fast to hit balls, but I think it is a calibration issue or where I was standing last night... It is actually impressive how well it seems to handle fast motion..

Biggest problem so far is people walking near you when playing.. it tends to latch on to anyone standing, but this seems to be reduced if you have used the Kinect ID feature as then it knows who you are and ties you to your avatar..

Also Pausing / brining up the guide is a bit slow, you can do a special hand gesture that takes about 5 seconds or walk out of frame.. However it isn't like pressing a button to pause instantly.... A little annoying if the phone rings or something.


Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2010, 08:44:27 PM »
More feedback...

Con:
Voice control mostly fails, but not due to accuracy...
- Voice commands are not user specific, you just start with "xbox" and then the command... This is a problem if your 3 year old likes to mimic your and say "no xbox" right after you say "xbox"
- the voice enabled features and menus are too limited.. I can can launch zune videos, select a category but then can't seem to select a title by voice.... However once selected by gesture or controller I can control playback with voice.... "xbox pause" is kind of handy.
- if you are discussing the "xbox" in the room while on voice enabled menus you may navigate to something else by accident.
- CLEAR the room of ANY children when doing ANY of the calibration steps, well other than if they are old enough and tall enough to register an ID (must be over 40 inch tall)
- Pausing a kinect game is a slow process, there is a special gesture/possition to bring up the guide menu, or walk out if its view.. however if you walk out and someone else happens to be STANDING in view it may lock onto them.

Pro:
- Once you have registered your identity with kinect, it knows who you are just by waving at it.... It is kinda creepy actually (it does facial recognition)
- Once you have properly calibrated it to your room gesture control of menus is rather accurate even from the couch minority report style without the gloves.
- Kinect will mostly ignore small children and other people moving around, as long as they do not walk IN FRONT of the player... Even then with my 3year old walking in front of me while playing Dance central I only lost points for my legs not being in the right possition.


Offline Darren Dirt

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Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2010, 09:45:26 AM »
More thoughts...

Mounted my TV on the wall in such a way that the Kinect was at its max hight of 6feet.. This really improved game play while standing and seemed to really improve the field of view for the Kinect allowing me to stand closer to the TV and in general give more play space.

The voice recognition features are mostly useless / frustrating regardless of calibration... hopefully this improves.

I can't play Guitar Hero or Dance Dance style games, but I CAN play Dance Central and enjoy it... It just seems so much more natural to repeat moves of a virtual human than to try and click or tap to dots or arrows streaming down a screen.

On the down side both Kinect Adventures and Dance Central take photos of you while playing and remind you how silly you look while playing. However worrying about this is probably only a problem while playing sober... It is still lots of fun regardless.


Offline Melbosa

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2010, 10:27:10 AM »
I asked for one for xmas.  We'll see if I get it.

Saw a Microsoft rep at Futureshop playing Dance Central on the highest difficulty.  Very cool program for sure!  I so want to try it myself.
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Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2010, 11:28:35 AM »
I asked for one for xmas.  We'll see if I get it.

Saw a Microsoft rep at Futureshop playing Dance Central on the highest difficulty.  Very cool program for sure!  I so want to try it myself.

Difficulty is sort of strange in Dance Central each song has a relative difficulty and then there is a difficulty setting for each song that mostly has to do with the number of DIFFERENT moves you will have to do.

For example "Pump up the Jam" is much harder on easy than "Poker Face" on hard.. Mostly has to do with the SPEED and complexity of each move.


Offline Melbosa

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2010, 11:50:42 AM »
Wow that seems a bit skewed... unless the songs are sorted by difficulty first, then you set the varying difficulty at selection.
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Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2010, 12:00:13 PM »
Wow that seems a bit skewed... unless the songs are sorted by difficulty first, then you set the varying difficulty at selection.

yes they are, as you scroll down the play list they get harder, when you go into each they have Easy, Medium and Hard settings.

The songs are a real mixed bag... I assume DLC will start filling in various tastes over time.

Also I think when you UNLOCK stuff you get harder moves to to to the easy songs as I see the icon for "Poker Face" beside a locked item way down the play list.


Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2010, 01:21:07 PM »
How much room do you need.....

It varies  based on how high you have mounted the Kinect... the higher you go the closer to the kinect the closer you should be able to stand.

Kinect adventures lets two players stand side by side and this is the situation that needs the most space... Kinect adventures also has on screen indicators to let you know if you are too close or are off the side of the screen.

Games also need to to step forward and backward at times so while people where playing I marked the floor and them measured it afterword.

In my living room with the Kinect at 6ft high from the floor, I found that the cut off for two player was at 7ft from the wall (my TV is wall mounted). For two people to play you also need a fair amount of width to allow them to move, about 6-7ft wide.

The space requirement is much less for one person playing, I find it lets me play in front of the 7ft mark in the aread 5-7ft from the screen.

Also if you actually want kinect to remember you you need to have enough light... it is the same requirement of a typical web came otherwise the facial recognition will not work and the photos it takes will be poor. Lighting however does not impact the motion tracking.



Online Tom

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2010, 05:32:37 PM »
I saw this Kinect video posted today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo

Its funny :D
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Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2010, 05:41:37 PM »
I saw this Kinect video posted today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo

Its funny :D

Ya I saw that today... Kinect Adventures and Dance Central won't let you getaway with that.


Offline Melbosa

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2010, 06:44:29 PM »
Grrr you really make me want to play it, but I left it to an xmas prez.... oh well back to Fable 3
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Offline Lazybones

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2010, 06:52:56 PM »
Grrr you really make me want to play it, but I left it to an xmas prez.... oh well back to Fable 3

If it makes you feel any better I really want to get Assassins Creed 3 the brother hood.. Apparently it is the best in the series and the multiplayer is supposed to be excellent, but since we just got kinect and dance central I guess I have to hold off..


Offline Darren Dirt

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Re: Kinect
« Reply #16 on: November 22, 2010, 08:38:43 AM »
I saw this Kinect video posted today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo

Its funny :D

Ya I saw that today... Kinect Adventures and Dance Central won't let you getaway with that.

lol @ top comment:
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