ARMA2 and Kinect

[TenBensons 10]

Well a lot of comments there, im not too sure about Kinect because of the lag, which in recent vids is reduced but still there.

My first post was mainly to see if Kinect could be used as a replacement for track IR, but as a few have pointed out Kinect could have other possibilities maybe used in conjunction with TrackIR?

Say TrackIR for the head and Kinnect for the arms/hands? I think this could be the most interesting part of Kinect in regards to ArmA just think of how much you use your hands in ArmA and the implications of actually having to open a door, climb to a gunners/commanders seat, battlefield clearance ect it could add an incredible amount of depth..... but the lag, the lag could kill it all.

Well the proof is in the pudding and im getting kinect at launch and will give it a thorough inspection and report my findings.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Ten Bensons
add video link

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

Myke;1772530']a camera recognizing if i lean in any direction for movement control (lean forward to move forward' date=' lean more to move faster), recognizes if i go prone, recognizes my hand signals and based on that give orders to my teammates.

[/quote']

I loved this old game at the arcades, but it wasnt popular. Still, multi motion, voice commands and maybe new controls to work in context with the new tech. Like a rifle with a thumb stick or d-pad for rough movement and motion for detailed movement like here might be good in the future when they obviously upgrade the tracking speed.

V5iD4ox6VUg

Lower the volume a bit before starting.

[BadgerDK 10]

http://openkinect.org/wiki/Main_Page

[Richey79 10]

MS have to be given some respect that some of their staff have come out and said noone will be in legal trouble for hacking Kinect.

It's good tech, so it will be interesting to see how independent developers manage to apply it in robots, on the PC etc.

As to leaning, proning, running around physically in Arma2: I think the problem with that is that most people play games to chill out, no to workout.

I can't believe the complete dirth of any kind of games to interest actual gamers on the Kinect at release. A very odd strategy from MS.

[therev709 10]

I think my parents got one for my younger brother for Christmas. I'll let you know how this thing works tomorrow ;)

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

I think my parents got one for my younger brother for Christmas. I'll let you know how this thing works tomorrow ;)

lol, your gonna switch name tags on gifts?

[BadgerDK 10]

lol, your gonna switch name tags on gifts?

Not name tags on gifts. Just name tags.

[Reverend Crast 10]

Still, Kinect is intended to use the entire body, not just the head, therefore from what I've seen I doubt the precision of it only monitoring your head will ever be able to surpass TrackIR, a tool made specifically for tracking head motion.

And this is eliminating Kinect's stupid price tag and its contribution to the prolonging of this motion control fad akin to the current (and useless) 3D fad.

It tracks head just fine, on TrackIR level, without wearing stupid hat. It all depends how software uses it. The problem is that we usually sit too close to the monitor (assuming kinect is mounted on top) for it to work properly.

If anything, between the two, I'd say TrackIR was overpriced.

(I worked and still work on 2 kinect based titles)

[CharveL 0]

It tracks head just fine, on TrackIR level, without wearing stupid hat. It all depends how software uses it. The problem is that we usually sit too close to the monitor (assuming kinect is mounted on top) for it to work properly.

If anything, between the two, I'd say TrackIR was overpriced.

(I worked and still work on 2 kinect based titles)

If you think Kinect can come even remotely close to the refresh rate, input lag performance, and CPU overhead TrackIR5 has for head tracking you may want to consider doing all your Kinect programming using a wiimote on a virtual keyboard to get work done.

Sorry but you have no idea what you are comparing here in hardware alone let alone the software interface if you think there would be any practical comparison.

[walker 0]

Hi all

At the moment Kinect has a lot of lag; almost .5 of a second. You have to predict on everything you do and watch the onscreen avatar carry it out after you have done it.

The system is still beta IMHO I think it has a future but it aint there yet.

Kind Regards walker

[armapaddy 10]

If you think Kinect can come even remotely close to the refresh rate, input lag performance, and CPU overhead TrackIR5 has for head tracking you may want to consider doing all your Kinect programming using a wiimote on a virtual keyboard to get work done.

Sorry but you have no idea what you are comparing here in hardware alone let alone the software interface if you think there would be any practical comparison.

Haha...work for the company, do you? ;)

From what i've played with kinect so far and the great results with headtracking using facetracknoir (which uses just a normal webcam), i'd say some pretty great headtracking software could be created using kinect.

Sure, it may never be quite as accurate as a dedicated piece of hardware but to be honest, it doesn't have to be. Kinect is already cheaper than trackIR and it has uses other than headtracking, plus you don't have to clip anything to your head.

Lets not forget, we aren't close to seeing the true potential of kinect yet - there is an update coming out for the 360 soon to increase the data transfer rates and double the current camera resolution; enabling it to track wrist and individual finger movement. Give people some time and some really great things will be made. I personally cannot wait to use kinect for headtracking in Arma 2.

Edited December 26, 2010 by armapaddy

[dmarkwick 261]

As Walker said, the Kinect has too much lag. I saw a pre-release demonstration where some guy was driving a car using just his hands with an imaginary steering wheel, and although he said it was very responsive, it was very apparent that there was a significant delay between moving hands and the onscreen response. Like half a second. Doesn't sound like much but it's a massive delay practically, they need to get that lag right down to < 10ms. A hardware solution would be the best approach IMO.

[armapaddy 10]

Official PC drivers:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/10/primesense-releases-open-source-drivers-middleware-for-kinect/#continued

Looks like it could be fast enough to me.

[dmarkwick 261]

Official PC drivers:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/10/primesense-releases-open-source-drivers-middleware-for-kinect/#continued

Looks like it could be fast enough to me.

Yeah, if that demo vid is not artificially synced that looks better, but it's still a software solution. That means that it'll work great when that's all that's running, but how will it function when running in the background with ArmA2 running in the foreground? We've already seen that software head-tracking can be CPU heavy where TrackIR is hardware and therefore more responsive. I'm not saying it won't happen :) I've seen enough "impossible" things to no longer have hard & fast opinions, but until I see a demo of something appropriately complex then I'll maintain my current hardware stance ;) :)

[TRexian 0]

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.

;) :)

[Craig_VG 20]

This Christmas my family purchased the kinect. After trying it out I noticed there is a significant amount of lag. I think it has a future, but it just isn't there yet.

[gossamersolid 155]

My dad bought a Kinect for christmas. It's really cool, but there is a half a second delay or so between your actions and I don't think it would work with ArmA 2. It's way better than the Wii at motion detection though.

[Murmur2k 0]

I think that it could work well in ArmA if responsive enough - the head tracking allows you to get a good 3D effect:

http://www.kinectaku.com/news/2010/12/kinect_head_tracking_could_do_3d_gaming_without_3dtvs

[katipo66 94]

Very cool stuff! i love seeing new tech coming along.. i dont see it as useless at all.

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

Are there any videos looking right, left or over the shoulder?

[Murmur2k 0]

Somebody has summarised in this link:

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-ng/1168180-only-real-kinect-fps-application.html

[Murmur2k 0]

Same technology now officially coming to PC courtesy of ASUS

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Motion-Sensing-Kinect-PrimeSense-WAVI-Xtion-Xbox-360,11874.html#xtor=RSS-181

[Placebo 29]

I have a Kinect and think it's awesome! But I mostly use it for exercising and the like, have three fitness games plus Kinect Sports :)

[kdjac 19]

I have a Kinect and think it's awesome! But I mostly use it for exercising and the like, have three fitness games plus Kinect Sports :)

Dance Central and beer are must have items.

[STALKERGB 6]

Seems to work ok on computer for stuff like RUSE, although there is still the lag there:

-tif-KBZ5Ko

I guess this tech is still pretty early in development, sooner or later I could see it ending up as part of the way people play (serious gamers that is) but personally I'll always stick with the old mouse/keyboard.