Microsoft's newest tool for the Xbox 360...at first looked like another rumored MoCap gimmick....
When i saw this kid doing jump kicks I was pretty skeptical....
Then the paint app started to pique my curiosity....
Then this girl goes nuts with the mocap that seems to react really well...
...And then they introduce Milo.
Enter: the creepiest demo Microsoft has ever done. This can be amazing - Milo reacts to her facial movements, voice tones, and even SCANS IN a picture she draws and COMMENTS on it. o_O Or it can totally suck, with pre-rendered acting, etc. But they are live-demoing it to a private group throughout E3...so i guess we'll hear about it sooner than later!
From Engadget: Molyneux talking about "a boy called milo" A woman walks up and talks to Milo on screen. he talks back, recognizing her voice, responding to her questions. He reacts with emotion, not robotic voices. Milo shies away as Claire asks if Milo has finished his homework. Milo gives Clair goggles and she 'catches' them. She simply reacts and 'puts them on," now she's putting her hands in the water, as though it were real. Waving the water about, swirling it, trying to touch fish.
Official release:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jun09/06-01E3PR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases
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Yeah, at this point it's just a countdown to see who uses this to make the first truly interactive digital girlfriend.
...
You have to admit it has the potential to outsell anything ever, as antisocial and horrible as it is.
Motion sensitive loli-touching sim.
Seriously, though, Molyneux's presentation sold me on what this kind of tech will eventually be capable of. This seems fill in the interface hole in the full dynamic interactive narrative, and Lionhead may be on to the kind of AI that will govern proper digital actors. Between that, the dynamic soundscapes we've seen in a number of games, and Valve's AI Director work that can be applied to governing a narrative, I can just see enough light to start hoping that it's coming.
Over the next few years, it'll be interesting to see if we start seeing middleware companies spring up to start popping out robust facial expression and language processing for application in games.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
The future of gaming is without a controller.
Fuck you Natal.
That is all.
*pew pew* Scanned.
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
It is separate, but it cant be done without Natal
Edit: Geeorge!!!
...
X!!
Milo is a runaway, who needs a strong, guiding hand to help him get comfortable in his own skin.
But yeah, the future possibilities for this kind of technology is cool. Imagine a game like Oblivion or Fable where you can walk up to the NPCs and start up conversations. They'd probably be simple conversations, as something so fluid as that Milo footage is probably leagues away from reality (not to mention the time it would take to record and program all that would be ridiculous), but it would still be fairly neat.
I could ask what shop owners have for sale and comment on certain things instead of just going down a list and pressing a button. It could be immersive. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose.
I hope they sneak in some form of hidden 3D just so they can make it look like Milo is crawling out of the TV The Ring style
XBL, Steam & Tribes: elmartino333
I was thinking this as well...I'm SUPER curious to hear the hands-on impressions on the closed door demo...
D:D:D:
Remember, back when the Wiimote could do anything?
Yeah. Good luck with everything, Microsoft.
Or something.
edit - While it does look good, espescially with ricochet thing, notice how they had lots of balls at the same time to make it hard for you to track whether the moves were really responding properly.
edit2 - And that Milo thing looked insane, if thats real then like everyone else thinks people will ABSOLUTELY be making girlfriend simulators for Japan.
HEhehe
Yeah...they made the wiimote look like it could do even more than the upcoming motion plus will be able to do...
I neeeed to see what Natal can really do damnit!
And then Microsoft gets sued when people actually shoot their expensive HDTVs with a real gun instead of using the cheap plastic toy guns that do nothing to simulate gun-shooting.
Fuck balls, though. Give me a sword or lightsaber game with this. With these controls, I could not only slash my opponent, but kick them in the fucking face.
Exactly, hence my notes in the OP - it totally started to get my curiosity piqued. My initial reaction called 100% bullshit...but the Milo stuff could have easily been tweaked to look much better and MUCH more intuitive than we think...we will definitely see, hopefully soon!
Oh my god, we ARE back in 2005!
MUST INVENT TWITTER
Were you watching the same conference as me? Jerkiness and lag were fairly noticeable.
Maybe he was on a 56k connection?
:P
It looked fucked when McDouchebag Sunglasses was playing with it. The girl, though? I don't know, it seemed fine. It wasn't perfect by any means, of course not, but it didn't seem terrible. I was kind of zoning out during that whole segment - too many people I wanted to punch in the face - so perhaps I missed something.
I'm also going to punch you in the face, SimBen!
Yes, because the leap between what we just saw and fully digitizing a human mind is trivial.
This is just what worried me. If they had had her play that game slowly with one ball then you could see whether she was truly being mimicked by the onscreen avatar. If they truly had a perfect system they could just have had an avatar walk into the room and pick up a ball from a table using voice command, or typing on a virtual keyboard.
In fact, for a perfect demonstration then all you would do is show someone controlling something with a 360 controller, but without using a controller and just having the 360 apply their movements to a virtual controller inside the game.
It seems insanely impressive.
Edit: ooh, a virutal keyboard is a great idea. Would be perfect if holographic displays were up and running at a marketable level, but again this is exciting for what it tells us about the future...