Microsoft's
Aaron Greenberg has opened up to our buddies over at
Joystiq about the future direction of Project Natal, and the big takeaway from their chat is that Redmond intends to use the new hardware primarily for "brand new experiences" designed specifically for it. Essentially, this means the majority of Natal-enabled games will be Wii-like in their focus and promotion of motion as the control scheme, but before you dive into a vortex of panic, there were also reassurances that "developers will have that out there at their fingertips if they want to enable those features." We now know that
10 to 15 percent of the Xbox 360's processing power will be sucked down by Natal, which may or may not be a reason for this shift away from what was expected -- layering Natal on top of games as an alternative control scheme -- to this shpiel about "unique" experiences. Either way, so long as we get to play
Burnout on this thing, we could care less what others do with it.
posted January 10th 2010 12:40PM
*couldn't care less.
Never understood how no Americans can get that saying right...
@Shokz
yup, that would be how you say it, but I could care less about grammar-nerds on the internet... ;)
@Shokz
And the worst part is that whenever you correct someone, they're always like "What? I don't get it..."
Common sense people.
Anyway, I'm holding all judgment for Natal until I see a real demo on an existing game like Call of Duty, Gears of War, or Assassin's Creed (please let those games be usable. PLEASE.)
And no, that Half-Life 2 snippet doesn't count.
@Shokz He's actually not American... Not that that matters. I suppose your from a country where people don't make mistakes.
Never understood how so many non-Americans can be so judgmental.
@maddawg579:
Assassin's Creed would be epic but a little awkward.
Imagine jump-assassinations! The stuff.
Also, it'd be cool to use some sort of cheap prop for a "gun" in FPSs, too.
Although for running, you'd run on the spot, I guess?
I hope I get to try this out.
@Shokz
yeah, its obviously an american thing.
@Shokz
http://incompetech.com/Images/caring.png
@Shokz
I have never cared for the saying.
"I know, right?"
I don't know if you know. I know what I know I don't know what you know, don't ask me to confirm what you believe.
@Shokz think you meant to say *can't get that right*
@Shokz
> Never.. no
Teehee.
@Edobe "I suppose your from a country where people don't make mistakes."
I think you meant to use the word "you're" there. ;)
@foobar If natal is going to suceed, microsoft is going to have to make a clear divide between Natal and the conventional 360. If games are going to have both types of controls, the more serious game developers are going to go elsewhere. On the other hand, It's surprising to see that some still don't have any idea what Project Natal really is. Let's just say this is the type of technology that will bring a whole new shift on the way we used our console devices before. Sounds too ambitious but way too hard to miss. Project Natal Details: http://bit.ly/project-natal-will-change-our-world
@Shokz
You need to get out more.
@User Formerly Known as Dave
"I think you meant to use the word "you're" there. ;)"
I think you meant to use "contraction" instead of "word".
@Don G
No he meant can. "No Americans can get that right"
Eh... I generalise and make assumptions...
Assumed he was American because this blog is American.
Generalised because every American I know that's ever used that phrase have said could instead of couldn't; presumed it was an American nuance.
@(Unverified) "I think you meant to use "contraction" instead of "word"."
I think you're wrong. Saying 'word' was perfectly cromulent.
@Edobe ... and Americans can be judgmental as well. Why make generalizations?
@YpoCaramel That's actually the point i was trying to make if you read shokz comment then re-read mine.
@Shokz
When people say they "could care less" that means they care some but, not much. I could be quite wrong but, that was my understanding.
imagine gears of war with this.
you'd control someone similar to the movie gamer, wouldn't that be awesome?
@creepin
GoW with this would be terrible. Its good that Natal takes up so much resources, makes it less likely to be in AAA games.
@creepin haha... that's a very common thought. People really need to take a moment and think about what they want ;) Natal is a FULL body motion system. It's not like the Wii where you can fake it by sitting on the couch and flick your wrist.
So playing something like Gears of War with Natal "might" be fun, but let's face it, most gamers are not exactly fit :) More than half the people in the match will drop after 3 minutes of play just from being tired.
I wish they would put it in Halo though! Maybe then the players will quit bunny hopping all over the place after a minute or so :)
@Nazeeh It's not a case of Gears of War with Natal being fun or not, the problem is it simply wouldn't work. How would you run forwards? You've got no control stick or buttons to press so the only way you could indicate that you want to run forwards would be to run towards the television. You therefore wouldn't be able to advance more than a few feet into the game since you'd run out of space in your living room.
As for Engadget wanting to play Burnout, it looks to me that Burnout works far better with a regular controller than in the Natal video. So far Natal seems totally useless for games. The only actual game they've shown are the ball blocking minigame which looks about as entertaining as the average Wii minigame. If they can show a compelling game I'll be interested but I rather suspect that all they'll be able to produce is a load of minigames as this thing seems pretty much useless for serious gaming.
@Frith
I think something people don't understand about Natal is that the controller can still be used. The cameras could be used to do some things while the controller could be used to aim a gun, run, etc.
@Nazeeh
Don't think it would matter in halo that game has so much auto aim the thing basically will play itself.
ipod -> zune
google search -> Bing search
ipod touch -> zune hd
wii -> Natal
@Titanium Man there are more if you search...
@Titanium Man
Exactly, they take other things and make a better product similar to them. EG: Ipod-> Zune+Zune HD, they are far more better.
And Natal isn't anything like the Wii. The Wii uses a crappy stick to do motion, this uses your body.
@zaboomafoo1212 they copy something usually and use their recources from windows to add stuff the original creator didnt add,due to budget or not so big recources.
@steliosco Really? Apple doesn't have enough resources? That's surprising seeing that all they do is add one new feature to each device every year and sell millions more just because it's the new thing.
@Titanium Man
agreed
@zaboomafoo1212 There really isn't anything interesting in the Zune HD to make it a marketable item capable of competing against the iPod Touch on features that consumers want. Zune HD launched without the same level of sophistication in its browser, without anything akin to iTunes, without a vibrant software market and lacking useful support.
@Titanium Man
I read that and I think:
Fatal error: call to a member function on a non-object in line 1
@Titanium Man
I find it funny that people downranked my post when i didn't say anything negative about Microsoft. Do they disagree with the fact that those Microsoft products were made as a response to their respective competitors?
@Titanium Man
You were downranked cos your post was stupid, immature, and added nothing to the debate.
Do you see?
You weren't downranked because people disagree with your controversial opinions /s
@HighestRanked
-The Zune Marketplace is akin to iTunes (although it's not quite on the same level).
-The Zune HD is a more powerful device that is beginning to get some really good games with better graphics than could be accomplished on the touch.
-The Zune HD has a better screen (better for watching movies)
-The Zune HD provides a better media experience all around.
-The Zune HD is (in my opinion) built better as it does not have the stupid glossy back that just gets scratched to hell without a case
So I really think the Zune HD has some big advantages over the iPod touch. That being said, I have an iPod touch that I bought after the HD came out so I obviously think it is better at some things too.
@Steve B OLED is not that great. OLED performs considerably worse in bright light because OLED is 100% emissive rather than being partially transflective so they become washed out and unusable under sunlight. OLEDs don’t last long, because the electroluminescence layer degrades far more rapidly than regular LCDs with blue pixesl dying first. The original color reproduction gamut of brand new OLED displays is already worse than standard LCD, resulting in less natural-looking colors from the start that only get worse. OLED doesn’t use any ambient light to brighten its picture, as LCD does, 100% of the image comes from emitted light output, which requires a bigger drain on the battery.
Tegra is all hype. Tegra uses a conventional ARM11 family CPU core (ARMv6), the same generation CPU core used by the original iPhone (from 2007), the Zune, Nokia N95, and the HTC Hero. The Tegra’s CPU/GPU package also uses DDR1 memory, introducing significant real world RAM bandwidth limits no matter how powerful the embedded GPU core is rated. The CPU in the Tegra is a single ARM11 core. Even if the Tegra did supply multiple CPU cores, the Windows CE kernel used by the Zune HD doesn’t support multi-core SMP. In contrast, the modern Cortex-A8 used in the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, Nokia and N900 represents the latest generation of ARM CPU cores. It also employs a DDR2 memory interface, erasing a serious performance bottleneck hobbling the Zune HD’s Tegra. NVIDIA’s own demonstrations of Tegra’s ARM11/integrated graphics show it achieving 35 fps in Quake III. The same software running on a Coretex-A8 with SGX GPU core achieves 40-60 fps.
@HighestRanked
Thats the problem, you posted information you found on the internet without knowing half of what you are talking about, no less not even trying the zune hd to confirm what you posted was even close to correct.
I have both an ipod touch and zune hd. Held both up in the light and both look exactly the same - in doors and outdoors. There is no different in visibility, not even 1% difference.
Color accuracy? haaha thats a major joke and it's obviously you never looked at an ipod touch either. Hold an ipod touch next to a color calibrated monitor and tell me the colors look even close. The blues on an ipod touch are completely washed out and are more green than blue. I've tested my ipod touch next to an IPS calibrated monitor. I then held up the zune hd next to it, is was very close to being accurate.
Try again with your FUD. Both devices work very good but the Zune HD is just a better device. It's smaller, has a true 16:9 screen, its lighter, has better firmware software, has better desktop software, has a faster cpu and better graphics and is much more coherent experience.
If you want to hate, atleast know what you are talking about, or continue to be one of the unwashed masses that keep buying ipods and shut up.
@HighestRanked
Boxee uses Tegra2. It is a Dual Cortex A9 CPU. SO, I stopped reading your tripe.
@jcrash
that guy probably has lots of stocks riding in on apple
@HighestRanked
OLED will officially become great with all AAPL fanboys when it's announced for the next iPhone. Same thing with Tegra, Tegra 2 or Snapdragon or whatever processor AAPL chooses for the next interation. What will be fun is seeing you all twist yourselves into logic pretzels defendning what you once derided as necessary.
@dwboston1
No kidding. Remember when all these braindead tools kept going on and on about how the outdated PowerPC was more powerful than Intel Pentium/Core2? Then Apple switched to Intel and all of a sudden Intel is okay in the mind of the sheeple.
You can't blame them, they just follow after each other and copy/paste (copy/paste on iphone bahhahah) the same thing over and over making themselves feel better for buying outdated devices. The problem with Apple and their products is they release outdated technology and the followers have to keep believing what they have is current technology, their notebooks, 'desktops' and devices all have outdated technology. That's the problem with being propriatary like apple is - you get sh8 then convince yourself that you overpaid for something thats good; too bad its all an illusion.
@fatslug
OLED's are not that efficient. Today’s OLED panels are much dimmer than standard issue LCDs: a typical maximum output of 200cd/m^2 compared to around 4-500 for mid-range LCDs. OLED also performs considerably worse in bright light because OLED is 100% emissive rather than being partially transflective. A good quality LCD actually uses ambient light to make its image brighter and more vibrant; OLED does not. This means when you take it outside, the OLED’s screen is completely washed out by sunlight. OLED also die at different times, with the blue pixels fading first. This results in a rapid shift of the color balance as the device ages. Additionally, the original color reproduction gamut of brand new OLED displays is already worse than standard LCD, resulting in less natural-looking colors from the start that only get worse. OLEDs still use more power than LCD displays most of the time because the OLED technology consumes power based on how bright the image it is displaying is. Essentially, OLED is the backlight. Microsoft tries to compensate by giving the Zune's OLED a dark, mostly black user interface. Unless you will exclusively be using your Zune HD to watch gothic movies in the dark, the screen will be gobbling up more power than an LCD. This is particularly the case if you want to browse the web, which involves a lot of white space. Showing a white background, OLED consumes as much as 300% of the power of an LCD. Because OLED doesn’t use any ambient light to brighten its picture, as LCD does, 100% of the image comes from emitted light output, which requires a bigger drain on the battery.
Tegra is just the runner up competition to ARM CPUs. Tegra isn’t a scaled down version of NVIDIA’s PC graphics GPUs. Instead, it’s based on technology NVIDIA acquired in its purchase of fabless chip designer PortalPlayer in 2007. If PortalPlayer sounds familiar, it’s because Apple formerly used its system-on-a-chip parts to build MP3 players up through the 5G iPod and the original iPod nano. Apple began sourcing SoCs from Samsung, bought its own fabless chip developer by acquiring PA Semi and secured a design license for Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX graphics cores (the gold standard in mobile GPUs). Basically the iPhone 3GS and the latest iPod touch models feature a mobile-optimized GPU core descending from the Sega DreamCast. Other mobile devices use multiple ARM processors for efficiency or cost savings, however there is nothing in Tegra that offers anything comparable. Apple has its own resources for designing and building advanced, state of the art mobile processors, and didn’t need to buy into the desperate hype NVIDIA is using to promote the runner up technology of Apple’s former SoC vendor.
@HighestRanked
Thanks for posting what you found on wikipedia. Like I said I have both devices, they both work great, and both screens look exactly the same in direct sunlight. I question if you have tried either device honestly.
OLED is the future, I can see why you keep insisting its' not; you like using outdated technology at future technology prices.
@fatslug I don't learn from WikiPedia. And no, I never said OLED is not the future. OLED has a lot of great things going for it, but not in its current form for mobile devices.
@HighestRanked
I'm very impressed with your copy-pasting skills.
@fatslug
ditto Active matrix oled is preferred for low power consumption and transflective LCD for visibility but even in 100% direct sunlight transflective LCD is still not all that visible and require some tinting. Contrary more manufacturers are moving towards OLED for displays in vehicles particularly AMOLED types though pricier.
@HighestRanked
No, you just learn by copying and pasting from Apple Insider. To wit: http://bit.ly/KHO0V
You fail, Sir.
What happened?