Kinect - Inital Impressions


Recommended Posts

How so?

wow, you have really been indoctrinated into using a controller, arent you?

dont you find that pressing a button is boring compared to actually pretending to do something?

hell, i'm using a touchscreen monitor myself, and let me tell you dragging the scrollbar with my finger is many times better than even the best scrollwheel in the world, since i am ACTUALLY dragging it, not doing some action which have to be associated in my head with dragging it... granted that ergonomically it might not be as good but i blame that on my monitor stand , and for scrolling through many pages its easier to use a scrollwheel... but the point is, nothing can beat the sensation of using your own body, rather than some peripheral

wow, you have really been indoctrinated into using a controller, arent you?

dont you find that pressing a button is boring compared to actually pretending to do something?

Indoctrinated? :/

No. Augmenting games I'm fine with (ala Wii/Move) if it adds to the experience, taking the controller away? No thanks. It's great for navigation like you said. If it's cheap I'll get it for that alone. I love that kind of stuff. I'd never go back to buttons on my phone now I can use touch on my HTC.

But how is it going to add to games I want to play that are coming up? I can use my arm to wave a grenade at someone? With Wii & Move I can no doubt point quicker than I can fiddle with the sticks. It'll leave me at a disadvantage against the hardcores but it gives me something more out of a game I'd normally not want to play on a console.

Until someone comes up with a convincing game for Kinect I won't be convinced that it's a home for shovelware for the casual gamer. Hell are there any proper 3rd party games on Kinect? Other than the fitness bull**** (don't start me on that either).

Augmenting games I'm fine with (ala Wii/Move) if it adds to the experience, taking the controller away? No thanks.

But the Kinect isn't necessarily without controls. you can use it with the pad, the wheel, or the guitar or anything else.

Indeed. They already said it will work in conjunction with the controller as well. Pretty nice.

It's been said a few times but you can use kinect + controller for hardcore games. Either have head tracking in shooters or racers etc, giving voice commands to a squad, gestures would be a plus also. The controller is limited to the buttons it has really, but with kinect you can either give a large number of voice commands, or hand signals like in real life that won't mess with the already crouded controller setup.

Cant wait to see this in action.

Who plays standing up in front of their tv's with a controller in their hands?

Oh recognizes you sitting on the couch across the room? Sure.

Detects your hands positioned in front of you holding the control? Oh, you have to let go of the control to make a gesture, gotcha. Hope you're not dead by the end of that.

Yea, doesn't seem like it'll be much efficient. Much less any fun at any real game.

Oh wait, thats right, voice commands! I forgot. Just don't wake up the kids, wife and/or parents during your late night sessions.

Have a little brother? Don't **** him off else its "Xbox OFF!" from the other room for you.laugh.gif

  • Like 1

Have a little brother? Don't **** him off else its "Xbox OFF!" from the other room for you.laugh.gif

I was just thinking this a little while ago... it doesn't feature any type of exact voice recognition does it? So in theory anyone can just walk in the room, give an "xbox blah" command and disrupt whatever it is you're trying to do.

I was just thinking this a little while ago... it doesn't feature any type of exact voice recognition does it? So in theory anyone can just walk in the room, give an "xbox blah" command and disrupt whatever it is you're trying to do.

hehe, nope. I'm looking forward to all the youtube videos that'll popup soon as this hits homes.

What I cant shake off is there is a reason why nintendo didnt adapt this tech . Nintendo saw it earlier then Microsoft did .Nintendo passed on it then microsoft bought the company. there had to be a reason why nintendo passed on this tech.

Wii wasn't powerfull enought? would cost the consumer too much in their opinnion? etc etc

*Wall of quotes from carmatic*

Oh, you have to let go of the control to make a gesture, gotcha. Hope you're not dead by the end of that.

This. Can't turn about and shoot when your hand is mid-wave. Can't break/gas on Forza either. Lots of little niggles when you go controller free.

*Wall of quotes from carmatic*

This. Can't turn about and shoot when your hand is mid-wave. Can't break/gas on Forza either. Lots of little niggles when you go controller free.

i mean like what do you think about giving hand signal orders (which are stealthy replacements for verbal orders) and shooting at the same time? even with a controller you wouldnt be giving orders and firing your weapon simultaneously, you will be deep in some menu system, hopefully you finish entering your memorized sequence of button presses before someone sneaks up on you ... with natal, there will be a delay as you move your hand back to hold the controller, but imho thats close enough to a soldier holding his gun ...

and why would you want to let go of your steering wheel when you are driving very fast?

Natal doesnt only track your hands, it tracks your whole body, so when you instinctively lean on your seat when you go around a corner, it will have an effect in-game

but you have to give it to the controller when it comes to shifting gears, only expensive real-life cars with paddle shifters can come close to the responsiveness of buttons

That can be used as part of the gameplay as well. Using your hand to throw the grenade, realistically mimics the way you can't do anything else while doing that anyway. and it lets you contorl how far and hard you throw the grenade by actually doing it. and then you don't have to dedicate any buttons to it at the same time.

Other gestures like head tracking, leaning, tilting, or even shrugs, don't require you to let go of the controller and can do any number of useful things. from leaning around corners, looking around, or leaning out over edges and so on.

I was just thinking this a little while ago... it doesn't feature any type of exact voice recognition does it? So in theory anyone can just walk in the room, give an "xbox blah" command and disrupt whatever it is you're trying to do.

It features body recognition. It will see that it's you in front of the TV, because the system recognizes your 3D make up. Nobody knows whether or not you can control the system with your voice if you are not present in the array of the camera of the Natal.

That can be used as part of the gameplay as well. Using your hand to throw the grenade, realistically mimics the way you can't do anything else while doing that anyway. and it lets you contorl how far and hard you throw the grenade by actually doing it. and then you don't have to dedicate any buttons to it at the same time. Other gestures like head tracking, leaning, tilting, or even shrugs, don't require you to let go of the controller and can do any number of useful things. from leaning around corners, looking around, or leaning out over edges and so on.

Here nor there, they are just looking for ways to continue to bash a product they already said they are not buying and sucks. It's like "but what if I happen to teach my dog how to say "Xbox: Shut off", and my dog happens to run through the room at the same time I was running with my care package and knife to get my 25 killstreak, and the dog shut the game off at 24 kills, thus ruining my chance to get the 10th prestige on the 4th Wednesday of the 2nd month of the year that follows leap year?"

Right.

Trick question? Those who own Wii's and Move?

Those seem rather irrelevant to the conversation dont you think, genius?

Pay attention to the whole conversation rather than get on my nuts once again on some dumb sh*t. I'm starting to think you like me. Ease up off huh?

We're discussing Kinect working along side a controller. in which case happens to be a gamepad obviously since ms doesnt have motion senstive controls. Those mentioned are motions controllers which aren't in discussion here.

Stay relevant.

  • Like 1

Those seem rather irrelevant to the conversation dont you think, genius?

Pay attention to the whole conversation rather than get on my nuts once again on some dumb sh*t. I'm starting to think you like me. Ease up off huh?

We're discussing Kinect working along side a controller. in which case happens to be a gamepad obviously since ms doesnt have motion senstive controls. Those mentioned are motions controllers which aren't in discussion here.

Stay relevant.

Seemed quite relevant to me. And you don't have to stand up. in fact some of the natal games more or less requires you to sit down.

Those seem rather irrelevant to the conversation dont you think, genius?

Pay attention to the whole conversation rather than get on my nuts once again on some dumb sh*t. I'm starting to think you like me. Ease up off huh?

We're discussing Kinect working along side a controller. in which case happens to be a gamepad obviously since ms doesnt have motion senstive controls. Those mentioned are motions controllers which aren't in discussion here.

Stay relevant.

You asked the question. Why are you getting so hell bent over something so trivial?

Those seem rather irrelevant to the conversation dont you think, genius?

Pay attention to the whole conversation rather than get on my nuts once again on some dumb sh*t. I'm starting to think you like me. Ease up off huh?

We're discussing Kinect working along side a controller. in which case happens to be a gamepad obviously since ms doesnt have motion senstive controls. Those mentioned are motions controllers which aren't in discussion here.

Stay relevant.

how about , natal turns an xbox360 gamepad into a motion sensitive controller as long as its within range and sight of the cameras?

so apparently the rumor that Natal uses 1 full core was baseless, it uses 10-15 percent of one of core's multiple threads. That is why Forza was shown runnning at 60fps and 720p with Natal

i wonder if natal's settings can be altered to give a performance drain vs response vs accuracy balance.... i would like to be able to talk to a developer involved in a natal game

i'd imagine that there isnt alot of fine processing involved in motion controls for a driving game, just the steering wheel and the shifter, and maybe the lean of your head, so fast processing can be done cheaply

i mean like what do you think about giving hand signal orders (which are stealthy replacements for verbal orders) and shooting at the same time? even with a controller you wouldnt be giving orders and firing your weapon simultaneously, you will be deep in some menu system, hopefully you finish entering your memorized sequence of button presses before someone sneaks up on you

SMH. Seriously that's the most convoluted way I've ever heard anyone defend motion controls. Congrats! :laugh:

Rainbow six Vegas, a title released years ago, You press 'up' and they go to cover. No menus and no letting go of the controller. You can still return fire. If you're in a menu then that's ****ty game design isn't it?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Gotenks98 is right... Outlook (new) is absolute trash. Doesn't Mozilla have an Enterprise Version of Firebird?
    • Microsoft Weekly: Surface Laptop Ultra, Windows 11 context menus, Build 2026 recap, and more by Taras Buria This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft announcing the new Surface Laptop Ultra, fresh chips from NVIDIA for Windows on ARM, a no-build week, fixes for Windows 11's context menus, gaming news, reviews, and more. Quick links: Windows 10 and 11 Windows Insider Program Updates are available Reviews are in Gaming news Great deals to check Windows 11 and Windows 10 Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. At Computex 2026, together with NVIDIA, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, its most powerful laptop to date, powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark processor. Details about this computer are currently scarce, as Microsoft has only revealed certain parts of its specs. So far, we know that the computer has a 15-inch mini-LED display, a rich set of ports, a powerful processor, and all-day battery life. It also comes with a new wallpaper, which you can already download here in full resolution. The Surface Laptop Studio is not the only NVIDIA-powered Surface, which Microsoft unveiled this week. At Build 2026, the company also debuted the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, an odd-shaped desktop with a 20-core NVIDIA Grace CPU and an NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores and fifth-generation Tensor Cores with FP4 precision, connected via the NVIDIA NVLink-C2C chip-to-chip interconnect for high performance. According to Microsoft, it can run models with up to 120 billion parameters locally without relying on cloud GPU infrastructure. These two new Surface devices are likely to cost quite a lot, and for those who need a more affordable device, Microsoft is preparing the next-gen Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. This week, details about these two devices leaked in plenty of detail. Other announcements at Build 2026 include the following: Microsoft unveils new security tools for IT admins and developers building AI products Microsoft announces Scout, an OpenClaw-powered personal agent for enterprise customers Microsoft unveils MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning and MAI-Code-1 coding models Microsoft announced a new Windows 11 native command-line utility Microsoft unveils Majorana 2 quantum chip, accelerating commercial timeline to 2029 Microsoft believes that AI agents will eventually replace apps through Project Solara Microsoft introduces Web IQ, a Bing-powered search system built for AI agents Last week, Microsoft released a new Experimental build, which introduced a major Start menu upgrade. It now lets you toggle off specific parts of the menu without affecting other features, resize the menu, and hide additional UI elements. We published a closer look here, so if you want to know what Microsoft is cooking without enrolling in the Insider program and installing unstable builds, check it out. Speaking of new features, many users are very annoyed about the way Microsoft delivers them. Recently, a frustrated user shared their experience with gradual rollouts, and even Microsoft engineers admitted there is a flaw in the system that prevents new features from applying properly. One of those new features includes the ability to uninstall AI models in Windows 11 with a single click. Windows 11 is finally getting fixes for its slow context menus. Marcus Ash from Microsoft confirmed that the company is working on fixing Windows 11's context menus. Reworked context menus are going to be faster, simpler by default, and "configurable to what you use most." According to Marcus, Microsoft will share more details soon. Windows Insider Program Windows 11 preview builds, released last week, are now available for download as standalone ISO files. These days, Microsoft regularly pushes new images, allowing users to clean-install its recent Windows 11 preview builds faster and easier. If you want to try the latest Windows 11 features without jumping through the Windows Update hoops, get those new images here. Sadly, Microsoft did not release new Windows 11 preview builds this week. Come back next time. Updates are available This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. Microsoft is preparing new features for Teams. Later this month, the messenger will receive a new download manager with auto-dismissing notifications, reducing clutter and making the overall experience less annoying when dealing with downloads. Mozilla released Firefox 151.0.3, a new bug-fixing update for the browser. It is a small release, which fixes problems with pasting into text fields and the oversized VPN button on the toolbar. The update is now available for all users in the Release channel. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: VS Code 1.123 introduces massive upgrades for persistent AI developer workflows Microsoft OneDrive is getting a simple yet much-needed feature Microsoft faces heat after quietly blocking promised Office features on Apple systems Microsoft resumes forced Copilot app installation on some Windows PCs Browser vendors pen an open letter to Microsoft, saying "enough is enough" Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: AMD Radeon Software 26.6.1 with optimizations for F1 25: 2026 Season, World of Tanks: HEAT, and various bug fixes. Reviews are in Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week Steven Parker dropped more mini PC reviews this week. GEEKOM Air12 2026 Edition is a low-power, affordable computer with an Intel Tiger Lake Pentium Gold processor, up to 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage, costing just $349. It is light, quiet, energy efficient, and has modern ports on the front. However, the front-facing USB Type-C is data-only, and there are some quirks with the computer's memory, so check out the full review. The AMD RX 9070 GRE has been released worldwide, and we published a benchmark review comparing this powerful graphics card to the RX 9070 XT, 7800 XT, the NVIDIA RTX 5070, and RTX 4070. It has solid, balanced performance, plenty of RAM, and low temperatures, but watch out for mediocre ray tracing performance and not the best efficiency. Also, we reviewed the Cuktech 10 Ultra, a compact, high-power charger with four ports and a big display full of various stats. This tiny charger can pull nearly 120W and spread that power according to each connected device's needs. It also comes with a high-quality 240W cable, three power modes, and retractable prongs. The best part? It is quite affordable, just make sure you have an outlet placed in the right spot to benefit from the built-in display. On the gaming side Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. Do you remember the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft's first handheld console designed in partnership with ASUS? This week, ASUS revealed a new version of the device to celebrate twenty years of its Republic of Gamers brand. The new ROG Xbox Ally X20 features an OLED display, a transforming D-Pad, TMR sticks, and other changes. However, the chip inside the console is still the same. Forza Horizon 6 launched last month to critical acclaim, but the game will soon have a new rival made by those who used to work on Forza Horizon titles. Mike Brown from Maverick Games announced Clutch, an upcoming racing game with a story-driven campaign, deep car customization, and rich multiplayer. The game is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 in Spring 2027. The next update for Minecraft now has a release date. This week, Mojang announced that Chaos Cubed will be available on June 16, 2026. In addition, Mojang published a teaser of the next Minecraft movie. A Minecraft Movie Squared has now been confirmed for a release somewhere in 2027. NVIDIA GeForce Now is getting 18 new games in June. Those include Jurassic World Evolution 3, Fatekeeper, GOALS, Gothic 1 Remake, NTE: Neverness to Everness, and more. If you are a Game Pass subscriber, you can also get new games soon: Persona 5 Royal, Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, and more are coming to the service this month. Sumer Game Fest 2026 happened this week, where we saw plenty of new games, including Alien Isolation 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, Gen Atlas from the Shadow of the Colossus creator, a new Cuphead game in 8-bit style, a new expansion for Mafia: The Old Country, and more. Finally, here are this week's Weekend PC Game Deals, full of discounts and the latest freebies from the Epic Games Store. Other gaming news includes the following: God of War Laufey announced, introducing Kratos' wife as the new protagonist Ori studio's No Rest for the Wicked 1.0 release and console plans announced Microsoft launches Godot Sample to streamline Xbox PC game development on the engine Great deals to check Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need. Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe - $389.99 | 39% off Sonos Sub 4 - Wireless Subwoofer - $759 | 16% off Logitech MX Creative Console - $159.99 | 20% off This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.
    • Let's goooooooo! I've been loving the entries so far! I still have to finish Rebirth (things have been busy!)! Excited for this next installment.
    • "Revelation?" I was hoping for this episode to be called "Reunion". Oh, well... In a related note, the Final Fantasy VII compilation has received an EC entry, short for Ever Crisis. For those who don't know, it already had AC, BC, CC, and DC entries, short for Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus. I hope it doesn't get an FC entry becaude that would be a freakin' crisis.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      X-No-file earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      JKR earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      moog19 went up a rank
      Rookie
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      515
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      277
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      76
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      71
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      68
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!