Thu, Jan 07, 2010 | 15:00 GMT
Natal consumes 10-15% of 360 CPU power
Natal may have been scaled back since its original concept, but it’s still going to take a neat chuck of 360′s processing punch when it releases later this year.
Natal’s lead developer Alex Kipman told New Scientist at CES this week:
“Natal has to work on the existing hardware without taking too much hardware processing away from the games developers,” noting that Natal consumes between 10 to 15 percent of the Xbox’s computing power.
“When we train this ‘brain’ we are telling it: this is the head, this is the shoulder. And we’re doing that over millions of frames,” Kipman added.
“When it sees a new image it can tell you the probability it’s seeing a certain body part based on that historical information.”
It was rumoured earlier that a processor has been cut out of the motion-sensing system in an effort to reduce retail cost.
Microsoft confirmed Natal for a 2010 launch in Las Vegas last night.
Thanks, TechRadar.
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Posted in: Hot, Microsoft, Xbox 360
Tags: Alex Kipman, CES 2009, project natal
6 comments
#1
Psychotext
07/01/10, 3:07 pm
As long as that’s just the CPU (which is likely), then it shouldn’t be too big a problem.
#2
airdom
07/01/10, 3:17 pm
I sure hope so, if it amputates my Xbox i’ll be pissed off.
#3
Eregol
07/01/10, 3:28 pm
The more I hear, the more I am convinced it definitely wont be 1:1.
#4
Psychotext
07/01/10, 3:35 pm
It’s 1:1 by default Eregol (it’s the inherent nature of the tech). How fast it updates is another story.
#5
RoarrrUK
07/01/10, 3:50 pm
Does anyone truly know the usage profile of many 360 titles in terms of cpu/gpu utilisation etc.
Is 10-15% a big deal? Could be or could not. I would doubt though that such numbers would be insignificant in some use cases.
#6
justiceblob
08/01/10, 8:54 am
Not many games use more than about 60%, so a 15% addition isn’t that much.