PlayStation 3 Motion Controller: Behind the Scenes Vid

37
Sony's posted up a video featuring two developers behind the upcoming PlayStation 3 motion controller, Richard Marks and Anton Mikhailov.

The two R&D guys briefly explain what they're working on with the controller, and then wave the technologically-advanced sticks around for a bit.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 28, 2009 5:08 PM

    It sure will be great when MS and Sony pop these suckers out so we can stop listening to the screaming for the usual suspects about how 'gay' motion controls are. (Cause, ya know, once MS and Sony do them, they'll be totally cool and stuff not like that gay Nintendo stuff!)

    • reply
      August 28, 2009 5:32 PM

      This actually looks a lot more promising than what they showed at E3. The controllers are so god awful ugly though.

      I hope more Natal stuff comes out soon as well. I have no real interest in these but it's pretty cool how they are advancing this motion control stuff.

      • reply
        August 28, 2009 5:39 PM

        it's an unfortunate diversion from the virtual reality headsets we all wish they would work on

        • reply
          August 28, 2009 6:21 PM

          headsets are really the opposite of they should be working on. Viewing the images are not much of a problem. Interacting with games and software in a way that is more complex than "pull trigger and shoot" is.

          Shaking hands with someone in game to make a deal is more interesting than "Press X to accept" at least in some case. You could rip virtual clothes off of someone with this tech...... kinky.

          • reply
            August 29, 2009 1:00 AM

            this is so completely false, nothing is more immersive than turning your head to look around

            • reply
              August 29, 2009 12:43 PM

              I am not talking about immersion. I am talking about being able to make software that goes beyond point and click at everything.

              Think of it this way. In your full day, how many things do you interact with by pointing and clicking, and how many things fall into "other"

              • reply
                August 30, 2009 12:07 PM

                Ask that someone who sits in front of a computer all day long...

            • reply
              August 31, 2009 6:21 AM

              ^^^ agreed

    • reply
      August 28, 2009 6:02 PM

      The Sony motion control system looks like it is accurate and responsive enough that it might be useful for games in a way that doesn't suck. The Wii motion controller was an inaccurate POS right from the beginning. Maybe it is better now with the Wii motion plus, but the Wii's CPU and graphics hardware suck compared to the 360 and PS3. MS's Project Natal looks laggy and inaccurate compared to Sony's motion controller and it provides no tactile feedback (either active or passive) -- my prediction is that it will suck even more than the original Wii controller.

      • reply
        August 28, 2009 6:58 PM

        It helps that it is coming out well after the Wii I'm sure.

        • reply
          August 28, 2009 9:21 PM

          All this motion shit is just beating around the bush in an effort to dismiss mouse/keyboard as the best control scheme ever invented.
          This is comming from someone who owns a high end gaming PC, and over 30 current gen titles on console.

          • reply
            August 28, 2009 9:21 PM

            dammit I wanted this to be its own thread.

          • reply
            August 28, 2009 11:28 PM

            Mouse & keyboard is not the best control scheme ever. It's the best for first person shooters, real-time strategy games, and MMOs. But for racing games, I prefer a controller with analog sticks and triggers. And for simple games which don't require 10+ buttons, I also like controllers.

          • reply
            August 30, 2009 11:18 AM

            I don't agree that mouse and keyboard are the best control scheme ever. Certainly it is the most common and could be said the best for certain uses but not the best control scheme for every game style. I grew up on both Console and PC gaming with a SIGNIFICANT amount of gaming using Mouse and Keyboard on the PC. In my case Mouse and ProThrottle with custom buttons set to do complex actions...really cool and highly advantageous and by far a better control scheme than Mouse and Keyboard. Even with all that coolness over time I've grown to appreciate the use of controller for FPS and now prefer it over Mouse/Keyboard for many reasons. Basically as long as everyone is using the same controller (all on the same page) the game can be fun.

            IMO only one company has made me feel like mouse/keyboard is trying to be executed which is Nintendo. Although, MS is absolutely trying keep keyboards off the 360 consoles for use in games but theoretically it's possible to make use of a keyboard and there is a hybrid by using the Chatpad. Sony is the most open to the use of keyboard and mouse.

      • reply
        August 30, 2009 10:48 AM

        Actually...if you watch the video sony's controller also has a delay much like Natal. You may not have noticed it because they only show a few short clips of the user and the TV on the same screen. Looking at only the TV looks accurate because you have no frame of reference. This also applied to Natal. As for accuracy, I expect rotation and direction or the wand to be very accurate in Normal lighting.

        I wonder how it's going to work if the want becomes covered either partially or in full?

        Speaking of lighting, how is this wand going to handle everything but wand location in a dark or poor lit room? Natal is boasting you can play in the dark because it uses an IR camera for tracking movements.

        One design point that will be very limiting is that only the wand's position from the camera can be determined but the rest of the body, arms, head, etc.. The rest of the body like the direction of your body arms, legs, etc. will not, or at least not easily.

        The concept they describe of using the wand and ball on the end so the camera can determine distance and position is a rather simple concept and is already being done in a more complex way by Natal. such as hand position, hand direction, fingers, and all other parts of the body at the same time.

        With this controller having to process ALL inputs by the PS3's processor I wonder how much CPU all this will impact game processing? Video and audio processing may be quite a chore and without standardized development APIs for ALL capabilities I worry we may see splintered implementations, methods, and quality across games and development companies.

        Overall Sony's device is a very simple design implementation but will be very effective.

    • reply
      August 28, 2009 6:11 PM

      Most Wii motion controls consist of just shaking the controller around. That is lame. Motionplus fixed this, but Nintendo isn't going to force the transition to Motionplus, so Wii games are going to continue to use the typical waggle schtick.

      PS3's motion controls seem more accurate to the movements you're actually making.

    • reply
      August 28, 2009 8:00 PM

      Project Natal looks laggy enough to get confused easily... imo

    • reply
      August 28, 2009 9:26 PM

      Yeah, it seems that when Nintendo did something first, like rumble and the line, it was gay, but when Sony did it, it was innovative. You gotta love fanboys.

      • reply
        August 28, 2009 11:06 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          August 28, 2009 11:10 PM

          Thats great for us consumers, but Nintendo really needs to learn how to improve on their innovative designs or next gen will be gamecube all over again.

          • reply
            August 30, 2009 10:40 AM

            I agree. I've always been a huge Nintendo fan. I still enjoy the Wii on a regular basis, but I do admit that with my consoles, the X360 gets the most attention. I still have a nice sized Wii library with some great games, but the overall ratio of great games to shovelware is horrid.

            I think that the 3rd party developers are partially to blame for being lazy. It seems that they've made half assed games to try to cash in on the Wii craze. They put the waggle, as so many gamers say, and don't come up with immersive ways to use the controls. When the first videos of the wiimote were released, everyone saw great ideas, but to this date, most efforts have been poor. But the games they have been releasing are just shit. I find myself laughing at those videos like "Wii Breakfast", not because of Nintendo, but because of the mundane efforts that it reflects on many of the 3rd party developers.

            • reply
              August 30, 2009 8:30 PM

              I think this is mainly because the Wii has always been stuck with the 'B teams' of all the big development houses. All the best artists get put on next-gen because their talents can be put to better use. All the best designers get put on next-gen because they don't have severe memory restrictions forcing them to tone down their ideas. Poor sales for 3rd party titles also means that most of the time developers are stuck with either tiny budgets or doing shitty ports from consoles that use more traditional controls, meaning more hamfisted motion controls brought over from another platform.

              So yeah, that's my theory on the shovelware crisis.

    • reply
      August 29, 2009 12:40 AM

      LOL, so true!

Hello, Meet Lola