Future of gaming

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mhatter106
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Re: Future of gaming

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Quing wrote:I have a couple of predictions for the future of gaming. First, I think we're reaching a graphics cap. Computer-generated graphics can only get so good. As a result, I think we'll see an expansion into senses besides sight and hearing. I think that along with that, we'll probably get more systems like the Wii that are controlled via physical interaction. My second major prediction is that we'll probably get more games where what you do matters. What I mean by that is that we'll get games with more open-endedness, with a decrease in production of RPGs like the Suikoden series where you have a plot to follow. For all of the advances in technology, we haven't seen anywhere near the amount of utilization of that technology that could be done, and I suspect that that will change. Now granted, I don't expect these changes to occur in a major way even in the next generation of systems. Rather I think it more likely that we'll edge our way into these changes, and that we won't see a real change until a few system generations from now.
I dont think we've hit a graphics cap. Theyre awesome now, but they can always get better. I remember lookign at 16bit sega graphics and thinking it was amazing. NHL '94 was like real hockey. Now I look back on it and my NHL 2k8 and am like "okay.. THIS is like real hockey" Another ten years and I'm sure I'll reevaluate it all again.

As far as linear plot style stories, I dont think that will go away either. People like stories, whether it's a book, or a grandfather telling you it from an armchair, or going to the movies, and if you can craft a good story people will always be okay with linear. Thats a big if though.

As far as all the discussion of peripherals what I would like to see (and what should be attainable i woudl think in comign years) is a Helmet for FPS games. Someone showed me their Halo 3 limited edition helmet they got and I asked "Cool, can you wear it?". UNfortunately, you can't.

But why can't they make one? Wii has motion sensing and ps3 has sixaxis, it'd be expensive, but I feel like you could make a helmet with a small screen inside it that could sense if you were looking left, right, up, down, and basically take the place of the rigth analog stick in an FPS game.

Combing that with a Gun peripheral in your hands (like maybe the wii zapper or something) and thatd be awesome. You'd look like a blithering idiot from the outside, but youd have a rockin good time inside.
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Re: Future of gaming

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a helmet when playing the game? reminds me of Nintendo's failed Virtual Boy, where you have to stick your face on the device like an eye exam and you see all red! Considering the changes in technology, it could make a comeback..
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mhatter106
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Re: Future of gaming

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KFCrispy wrote:a helmet when playing the game? reminds me of Nintendo's failed Virtual Boy, where you have to stick your face on the device like an eye exam and you see all red! Considering the changes in technology, it could make a comeback..

did u ever try virtual boy? even though it failed, i always wanted to try one. i guess i could always buy one on ebay, but because its 3d ive never even really seen what a "screenshot" looks like
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Re: Future of gaming

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they had it at Toys R Us and plenty of people tried it out. it was a very strange experience.
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Re: Future of gaming

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strange good?
was it really 3d? fun?
i would think itd be kind of tough to get right since everyones face is different.

i just noticed it sells for like $25 now on ebay with 3 games.
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Re: Future of gaming

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i don't remember it too well but it was a black background with red lines. there may have been a foreground/middle/background type of setup where the foreground moves more and background moves less as your camera shifts... who knows. look for screenshots on the net!
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Re: Future of gaming

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yeah thats the thing tho. kind of hard to do a screen shot of something that requires stereovision. oh well.
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Zeikcied
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Re: Future of gaming

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mhatter106 wrote:I dont think we've hit a graphics cap. Theyre awesome now, but they can always get better. I remember lookign at 16bit sega graphics and thinking it was amazing. NHL '94 was like real hockey. Now I look back on it and my NHL 2k8 and am like "okay.. THIS is like real hockey" Another ten years and I'm sure I'll reevaluate it all again.
I disagree.

You're comparing 16-bit graphics to today's graphics as a way of saying "they will always get better." But there will be a point where adding 400 Million polygons to a game world (including characters) won't make any visual difference. If you can make something photo-realistic with today's hardware, then what good will it do to add more polygons to it? The extra polys become useless, because you can achieve virtual realism with what you have. You don't need more.

I'm not saying this generation is where the cap will happen, but if not this generation, then it will be the next. There will definitely be a point where you simply cannot make it look any better. The graphics tricks they have now, with Normal Mapping and High Dynamic Range Rendering, they can make images that look like real world photographs. You just can't improve on that with hardware.
As far as all the discussion of peripherals what I would like to see (and what should be attainable i woudl think in comign years) is a Helmet for FPS games. Someone showed me their Halo 3 limited edition helmet they got and I asked "Cool, can you wear it?". UNfortunately, you can't.

But why can't they make one? Wii has motion sensing and ps3 has sixaxis, it'd be expensive, but I feel like you could make a helmet with a small screen inside it that could sense if you were looking left, right, up, down, and basically take the place of the rigth analog stick in an FPS game.

Combing that with a Gun peripheral in your hands (like maybe the wii zapper or something) and thatd be awesome. You'd look like a blithering idiot from the outside, but youd have a rockin good time inside.
The problem with that is, as far as current technology goes, the helmet would need to be wired to the console in order to display video in the visor.

I think a wireless video transfer would cause too much lag. Unless the system is built in the helmet itself, but then it becomes a one-trick pony. Great in FPS games, and not much else.

They could do it, but like you said, it would be expensive. Plus, it would have to be tied to the console somehow. Plus, it would need a pretty good battery.
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Re: Future of gaming

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Zeikcied wrote: You're comparing 16-bit graphics to today's graphics as a way of saying "they will always get better." But there will be a point where adding 400 Million polygons to a game world (including characters) won't make any visual difference. If you can make something photo-realistic with today's hardware, then what good will it do to add more polygons to it? The extra polys become useless, because you can achieve virtual realism with what you have. You don't need more.

I'm not saying this generation is where the cap will happen, but if not this generation, then it will be the next. There will definitely be a point where you simply cannot make it look any better. The graphics tricks they have now, with Normal Mapping and High Dynamic Range Rendering, they can make images that look like real world photographs. You just can't improve on that with hardware.
stuff looks awesome currently, but you can still tell a cutscene thats done entirely in CGI from say a live action film scene from "Along Came Polly" (i dunno why that movie popped into my head). There is still something that CGI has yet to capture and that is to give the appearance of a human soul behind a rendered character. Stuff is amazing now, but I don't think you can say it can't get better.

On top of that, who's to say that graphics in the future will be limited to a 2 dimensional screen. Although that is something far far off (like the Jetsons far off)

as for the FPS helmet, hell let it be wired, I don't care. I'll have a blinding helmet on so I won't see the wire and I'll just think it's wireless.
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Re: Future of gaming

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Going back to the motion sensing fps thing where i suggested a helmet, this thign is sooo much coole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

This guy Johnny Lee uses a wii remote and sensor bar to create a demo of how you can use head tracking to make a seemingly 3D game. Not only is his video demonstration of it good, but he explains it very well too.

Yeah its 4 and a half minutes long but worth it, IMO.

Edit: I just watched some of his other stuff. If that link above interested you, check out his other videos, theyre all equally as cool. Or maybe im just easily amused.
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Re: Future of gaming

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mhatter106 wrote:Going back to the motion sensing fps thing where i suggested a helmet, this thign is sooo much coole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

This guy Johnny Lee uses a wii remote and sensor bar to create a demo of how you can use head tracking to make a seemingly 3D game. Not only is his video demonstration of it good, but he explains it very well too.

Yeah its 4 and a half minutes long but worth it, IMO.

Edit: I just watched some of his other stuff. If that link above interested you, check out his other videos, theyre all equally as cool. Or maybe im just easily amused.
I still think that kind of tech would only be for a niche market, and not really the "future" of games.

The helmet would be better suited for FPS games, but that would still have limited appeal.

This idea, on the other hand, makes you have to move around in order to look left or right. So you have to walk to your left to look right, or walk to your right to look left. At least that's what I saw. I had the sound muted, and I skipped over the talking parts. The title says it's for desktop applications, and I agree. It doesn't seem to have much application for gaming, beyond casual games.

Sure, it can make things look 3D, but it can't be used for FPS games, because you can't simply turn your head to look left or right.

You're trying to make a case for motion sensitivity being the wave of the future, but there is just no proof that it will translate to the mass market. Not all genres of games have any use for motion sensing, and even those that do haven't found how to best use it yet.
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Re: Future of gaming

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not really, i think a big point of the video is a way to get games to go from 2d to 3d.

so maybe the gameplay is relatively the same where you use a stick to move around like on a control pad, but the graphics are enahnced by the mere fact that because the machine can know where your head is, it can keep perspective so that what you see on the screen appears 3d.

liek the video says, even 3d game today are still just flat images on a 2d surface because the game doesnt know what angle you're looking from. with the head tracking tech, any game with 3d environments , even isometric ones like a suiko 5, wil benefit.

its limited in the fact that its 1-player specific, but it can be incorporated into most games today.
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Re: Future of gaming

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mhatter106 wrote:not really, i think a big point of the video is a way to get games to go from 2d to 3d.

so maybe the gameplay is relatively the same where you use a stick to move around like on a control pad, but the graphics are enahnced by the mere fact that because the machine can know where your head is, it can keep perspective so that what you see on the screen appears 3d.

liek the video says, even 3d game today are still just flat images on a 2d surface because the game doesnt know what angle you're looking from. with the head tracking tech, any game with 3d environments , even isometric ones like a suiko 5, wil benefit.

its limited in the fact that its 1-player specific, but it can be incorporated into most games today.
Well, if that's all it is, then it's likely not going to go anywhere.

I mean, honestly, this kind of thing isn't going to catch on. People won't want to have to wear something so the game can track their head.

It's an interesting gimmick, but there's nothing wrong with how games are displayed today, so why do we need something like this? The fact is that we don't, and that's what is going to kill it. If it doesn't have any potential to change the way people play games, then it probably won't reach a mass market. If it does, it will probably be on the level of the PlayStation Eye (and the Eye Toy), which is just a simple peripheral with a limited number of games available that utilize it.
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Re: Future of gaming

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Zeikcied wrote: Well, if that's all it is, then it's likely not going to go anywhere.

I mean, honestly, this kind of thing isn't going to catch on. People won't want to have to wear something so the game can track their head.

It's an interesting gimmick, but there's nothing wrong with how games are displayed today, so why do we need something like this? The fact is that we don't, and that's what is going to kill it. If it doesn't have any potential to change the way people play games, then it probably won't reach a mass market. If it does, it will probably be on the level of the PlayStation Eye (and the Eye Toy), which is just a simple peripheral with a limited number of games available that utilize it.
I don't know, I think the Wii has shown the market is ready to accept more interactive gameplay, and the techniques the guy is showing in the video increase your graphics experience and makes it more immersive. Objects in games already have their theoretical floating positing in space coded in,so even if it was just a peripheral, it seems like one that could be easily applied to a lot of games, like the rumble feature. But then again, not everyone likes rumble.

And hey, whatever, maybe this wasnt your cup of tea.
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Re: Future of gaming

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mhatter106 wrote:
Zeikcied wrote: Well, if that's all it is, then it's likely not going to go anywhere.

I mean, honestly, this kind of thing isn't going to catch on. People won't want to have to wear something so the game can track their head.

It's an interesting gimmick, but there's nothing wrong with how games are displayed today, so why do we need something like this? The fact is that we don't, and that's what is going to kill it. If it doesn't have any potential to change the way people play games, then it probably won't reach a mass market. If it does, it will probably be on the level of the PlayStation Eye (and the Eye Toy), which is just a simple peripheral with a limited number of games available that utilize it.
I don't know, I think the Wii has shown the market is ready to accept more interactive gameplay, and the techniques the guy is showing in the video increase your graphics experience and makes it more immersive. Objects in games already have their theoretical floating positing in space coded in,so even if it was just a peripheral, it seems like one that could be easily applied to a lot of games, like the rumble feature. But then again, not everyone likes rumble.

And hey, whatever, maybe this wasnt your cup of tea.
I'm not saying it as a matter of "I don't like it." I'm just saying that I don't see any real use for it.

The Wii motion sensing lends itself to drastically different (in some cases, at least) gameplay experiences. While not a whole lot of games seem to use it to its full potential (not that I would know for sure, as I don't have a Wii yet), the potential is still there.

But, I don't see any game changing potential in this peripheral. You mention rumble, and while that may seem minor, some games use rumble as a gameplay function. In other words, rumble can be used to alert players of something, or to help solve puzzles. It can be used for more than just force feedback.

I suppose this gimmick can be used to alter the perspective to find things off-camera, but that could just as easily be done by moving the in-game camera itself. Other than make it pseudo-3D, I don't see how it can be used to enhance gameplay. And that, in my opinion, is what's going to decide if it will take off or crash. I don't see game companies jumping to use this new idea if it has no actual impact on how the game is played. And I don't see gamers jumping to buy some sort of headset and sensing device just so some of their games can be pseudo-3D.
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