MS: Comments on Natal room space were “misinterpreted”

So how much room do you need?

I noticed they didnt actually say how much room you will need.

Neither did they mention the amount of clear space you need in front of the camera.

If it was misinterpreted he could have atleast gave corrections.

So, the Natal camera, now, even with it’s lower processing power, not only reads your movements in 3 dimensional space, but analizes the space you are in and adjusts the play space required accordingly?

Why do I hear cries of ‘Yeah Right’?

The only time I jump off the couch is when there’s a vagina to catch me.

@6 ^.^b

How much space do we need for EyeToy/PSEye? They seem to cope in a variety of room sizes without problems.

Hence there’s no fixed answer, since everyone’s room is different. All we need to know is that it will adjust itself for the room you’re in. Of course, the more players involved, the more space you’ll need, but that’s to be expected.

@5 – It’s not lower processing power, the image processing has simply been shifted from the camera to the console (yes an impact on games, but we can’t have everything ).

And regarding analysing the space you’re in? Why is that so unbelievable to you? Once installed, Natal will be in a fixed position, hence a quick calibration routine at the beginning is all that’s needed, and then it’s ready for use. Your room isn’t going to change size over night.

In my experience the Eyetoy didn’t cope without problems. In particular a fitness game which required a full body view (I forget the title) needed a lense adaptor and I still had to stand so far back that I was in a corner with little space to move. Of course the issue of getting the lighting right made it even worse.

Not sure how NATAL is going to deal with coffee tables.

“Hence there’s no fixed answer, since everyone’s room is different”

I don’t really understand this comment. Why isn’t there a fixed answer? Surely there’s a minimum distance between you and the camera needed in order for Natal to see your entire body with enough space to move around. Surely they could give out that figure for someone of average size?

Sure, our rooms are all different but the space requirement is a constant.

JPickford said: I still had to stand so far back that I was in a corner with little space to move.

LMAO!

@JPickford

You’ve stated part of the answer in your own post. A fitness game which requires the whole body to be seen will require you stand away from the camera at a certain minimum distance. How far back you have to stand will depend on the field of view of the camera (hence I assume the lens adaptor was to increase the FOV). I’m sure Natal would have this covered from the start.

However, that still doesn’t give you a minimum distance overall, since for example Eye of Judgement had the PSEye mounted 12-18 inches above the surface (or something like that). Likewise, if Natal is being used in a game which is only tracking the upper half of your body, or if it will track you whilst sitting down, then you don’t need as much space as a full body when standing up. And if there’s 2 or more people playing, then again, more space is needed to see everyone.

Hence there’s no quick and easy answer for a minimum distance, since such a distance will vary from game to game, depending on what the camera needs to see and how many are playing.

Anyway, with E3 just a few months away, there’s no need for MS to give exact details about Natal as yet, so let’s just wait and see.

Natal is about full body control. Everything they’ve shown is about full body tracking. There’s no reason they couldn’t tell us the minimum distance for an average sized person. That minimum distance does not vary according to your room size – it’s a fixed requirement and something a lot of us would be interested to know.

Lots of good questions being thrown around. I have no idea how advanced that technology is or isn’t, but if we assume JPickford is right and it is full-body, then you could just test it out with a standard webcam. I doubt Natal is going to be narrower in scope than that.

You just have to make sure you can extend your limbs within a reasonable margin, and bam, there’s your scope/distance.

@5 Yeah, they’re totally working on handicapping their own project before it’s even been launched, lulz. I kinda doubt it there, champ.

my big questions:
can i play in the dark?
how much space do i need?
can i play it in my room, with my bed in the middle of the way?
Do i have to take the xbox to the living room so i can play it? And then will i have to take my coffe table out off the way everytime i want to play?
How much power from the Xbox will it take to run natal?

oh.. i see a lot of “buts” here…

@JPickford who said “Natal is about full body control. Everything they’ve shown is about full body tracking”

Oh please. “Everything they’ve shown us” is based around the demonstration from E3 last year, where MS were getting the message across that Natal offers controller-less control. So of course that’s what we were shown, but that doesn’t mean ALL games using Natal MUST require use of your WHOLE body!!!

Did you see the PSMove game Motion Fighters? That game or similar would work perfectly with Natal, but it only needs to track your upper body, especially your hands. So why, prey tell, do YOU assume you MUST stand back far enough for Natal to see your whole body even when it’s not needed?

Are you really saying that with a Natal based game which only tracks your upper body that you cannot stand closer to the camera than a game which tracks the whole body?

So enough already, there’s no need for MS to give specific details now, E3 is only a few months away and THAT’S when we should expect to read about, watch and listen to all the necessary details about Natal.

@15

1) Yes (in general), since the 3D cam is InfraRed.

http://vimeo.com/4989633

2) Space will depend on the game

3) As long as the game doesn’t need to see your feet, I don’t see why not.

4) Only you can answer that.

5) Natal uses 10-15% of the 360′s computing resources.