Something To Look Forward To

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

When in the 1970's word spread out about the mouse-window computer interface as opposed to entering text some people were excited. I am no longer excited about using a mouse and a monitor to play thief-like things. When time permits, (in a few years) I'm going to buy some equipment like

5DT Data Glove Ultra Wireless Kit

and

hi-Res800™ (2D/3D)

and try to make darkmod into what I wish it to be. The movements of hands will correspond generally to various forces applied around you in the environment (eg. climbing an overhead branch or beam, something that's not possible in traditional engines), deft maneuvering (eg. to snatch a purse or slide by in a door half-ajar) and gesticulations to control variables such as movement vectors and positions (crouching, holding breath, etc). It's nice to see that already people are having success viewing their favourite games in 3d (since all computers games are "3d rendered" now people call them stereovision to be clear), eg: medal of honour allied assault, system shock 2, (thief doesn't work), soul reaver 2, .. these guys got doom 3 working with 3d. http://forums.stereovision.net/viewtopic.p...1760&forum=5&10

site about drivers and computer game stereovision benchmarks: http://www.stereovision.net/toxicx/1050info.htm

[Macsen]

I'm going try to make darkmod into what I wish it to be.

Too much of that going on around here.

[Domarius]

Ah glad to see they can get things like stenciled shadows working in stereovision.

My stereo glasses broke a while ago, and I remember back then seeing some stenciled shadows in an OS 3D engine, and they were just drawn flat on the screen (level with the glass in terms of depth).

[ZylonBane]

I am no longer excited about using a mouse and a monitor to play thief-like things.

I'm no longer excited about using pedals and a steering wheel to operate my car, but you know what? That's probably the best solution there is.

[Domarius]

At the moment, you mean.

[Unstoppable]

Hi ZylonBane. Good to see ya from the Ionstorm Forums. Yay. =D

[ZylonBane]

At the moment, you mean.

As long as the interface is physical, which is likely to be for a long, long, long time.

 

I certainly wouldn't want a car that you had to control by waving your arms in the air.

[Domarius]

Haha, but I was refering to the target of your analogy.

 

Of course we can expect some sort of revoloution in computer interface sometime soon. It's only a case of when.

[OrbWeaver]

Everybody likes new, groundbreaking 3D interfaces that utilise the full range of your body's motion to communicate with the PC.

 

For the first 10 minutes, that is.

 

I wouldn't like to imagine what my arms would feel like after a 2 hour gaming session using such technology.

[Domarius]

Using more muscles than it takes to press buttons, my god, what will become of the human race?

[ZylonBane]

The whole point of videogaming is that you're NOT engaging in physical activity.

 

Those poor crazy bastards over at Nintendo are in for a rude awakening.

[sparhawk]

The whole point of videogaming is that you're NOT engaging in physical activity.

 

That depends on your favourite gaming habits, but I don't think this is generaly true. The whole point of video gaming is to have fun, and, as it is the case with RPGs and fantasy, to experience stories, that you normally wouldn't. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense for people to go to live action role playing games.

Even in case of sports games it is hard to argue that the people don't want to have the physical execercise (which may be true to some extent). Because the fun of playing a soccer simulation is also that you can play in a worldchampionship with all the big names. A simple 'proof' for this assumption is, that it is VERY important for a sport game to have the 'proper' licenze with all the real names.

[Ishtvan]

Personally, I like those semi-recent arcade games where they track you doing things like swinging a sword or ducking behind cover. Of course I probably couldn't play them for 8 hours straight, but it's a fun gimmick. On the other hand, Nintendo Olympics: not fun.

[Domarius]

The whole point of videogaming is that you're NOT engaging in physical activity.

I might believe you if it weren't for the existance of Time Crisis, Dance Dance Revolution, i-toy for PS2, etc, and all their fans.

 

I played a sword game at the arcade where you actualy held a fake sword thing, and the game picks up all your movements. No need for a block button, parry button - just do whatever, and if you're good enough, it works. It was awesome, it was like being in a manga movie. The cutting damage happened exactly where you cut, so you could cut things down, and aim for individual body parts on enemies. But the focus was the combat - seeing a sword swing come, and then pushing the sword in the right direction and angle to block it effectively. If you did it forcefully enough, you could sucesfully block it. If you pushed the sword the right way, you could even parry instead, putting the enemy on their back foot, and leaving them open for you to get a hit in.

 

The physics were realy good, it wasn't a bunch of pre-scripted moves, like a traditional controller game has to be...

 

Newflash - the Wii isn't doing anything new - it's just bringing it into the home.

 

The way things are going, it'll give some much needed excercise into this heavily armchair/computer chair based culture most of the world lives in.

[sparhawk]

Dom, I was thinking of the same games.

[Ishtvan]

@Dom: I played that sword game recently too. Very fun.

[Domarius]

Yeah how awesome was that... and I saw the promo video for the Wii show something just like it. After I check it out, I would buy the Wii (and call it that stupid name too) just for that game, heh.

[SneaksieDave]

And yet, didn't anyone play Die By The Sword? They did that (roughly) in 1998 with a mouse, and all anyone did was complain that it was "too hard, waah!" If players didn't become an expert within 5 minutes (when it actually takes weeks), it must be crap. Bunch of whiners, the lot of 'em. As a result, no sequel, and thus back we go to sword "combat" like Morrowind, precanned moves (love Blade of Darkness or not, it was as precanned as it gets), and the always innovative shooters. :\

[Domarius]

Amen.

[thestemmer]

I know this has been said before, but I think it bears mentioning again: Mount&Blade. Best sword combat I've seen with any mouse-and-keyboard interface to date, and an incredibly fun game in itself.

 

Pretty amazing, the entire project is the work of 2 or 3 people. It's in beta, but everything is fully functional, and it only continues to improve. Plus it's only $14 to get the full version of the game!

Edited May 15, 2006 by thestemmer

[Domarius]

Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to have a look at that.

[Arumakani]

Too much of that going on around here.

 

 

If they are going to give the tools why not mod it to what you want it to be? ALso I'll play through it first and then mod it.

[Domarius]

He was talking about during this initial creation phase, where everyone is deciding on what the toolset actually is.

[SneaksieDave]

I'll re-back up the recommendation of Mount & Blade. Great game, good combat (second best in my mind only to Die By The Sword) especially if you configure it with some freedom (don't use the automatic settings), good fun. I can't wait to see what Armagan (and fans) do with the full version. Even just trotting on a horse in battle or in a city makes my heart skip a bit.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

It's an honour to have Dom, Isht, and spar actively engaging in this thread. By the way, to humour you, I'm reading darkmod forums in Links after getting tired from learning bash scripting (I don't have X installed, nor do I really want to into my 32M of mem.) and it's nice to be able to quick reply and see that these forums are Links friendly.