Battlefield 4 PS3 and PC : Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracking play test 1

At Eurogamer 2013  DICE had four and sixty Xbox Ones playing Battlefield 4 ... all dev kits ... perhaps the entire dev kit contingent in Europe in one place ... Come the release though most people will be engaging in Battlefield 4 on a variety of platforms ...  Two of which I tested over the weekend

Whilst I did not get to try head tracking or the Cinemizer HMD with Battlefield  at the  Eurogamer Expo... I have done so over the course of the  Beta ... the release of which was nicely timed as Eurogamer 2013 came to an end ... 

First impressions, on PS3 and PC (64bit) , most importantly that little annoying browser launcher on PC is a lot less annoying than it used to be when launching Battlefield 3 on PC. 

Even at this Beta stage the launcher works...yes it still takes time to load levels , but it is significantly improved over the days of Battlefield 2 ... 

Traditionally DICE ( with all due respect) games launch on PC and are updated and patched as time goes by , not just fixes for faults but real improvements to the game ... this has happened with every Battlefield game on PC and does not detract from the greatness of the series... In fact I think it is cool the developers keep adjusting and fine tuning the game during the course of it's existence... 

This is vastly important to a game which models battles between 64 players ... because the game has to be in tune with how a herd of players play the game .. so the developers get to watch how we play and adjust how we play , allowing a DICE game like Battlefield to improve over time and age like a fine wine ....

The Beta then is just the beginning of the process of how DICE will mold and refine Battlefield 4 in response to how 64 player combat in a sandbox MMOFPS pans out .. like they learnt to long,long ago with Codename Eagle.. 

Here then is my first play with the PS3 version using the Cinemizer OLED HMD and Zeiss head tracker all FOV movement in the game is via use of the Zeiss head tracker alone on the PS3 ...You can see my ghost in the left hand top corner playing with the Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker.. 

the PS3 version is a world away in detail from the PC version , as far removed as Battlefield 2 is to Battlefield 3 :

This is the PC Open Beta of Battlefield 4 which is exclusively 64 bit only atm : Again all FOV movement is through use of the Zeiss head tracker alone and you can see my ghost over the video playing the game on the Cinemizer OLED HMD 

more to follow over the coming days when I have time to upload the footage...

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RIDGE RACER Driftopia free to play Early Access on Steam

A sign of the times when NAMCO Bandai launch a Ridge Racer game on PC, free to play and ask for feedback ... I wonder if they still have Reiko strutting her stuff in the intros... time to download Ridge Racer Driftopia and find out .. Roll on ACE COMBAT Infinity ... 

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Sony's HMZT 3 reveal: the more the HMZT series changes the more it stays the same

What is interesting about the Sony HMZT3 is the ways in which Sony is slowly evolving it's consumer HMD . And where it fits in the consumer arena.

The HMZT 3 will release in limited quantities later this year , I first learnt of it's coming in July at the New York Sony building whilst discussing HMDs with the staff , there was a total lack of HMZT 2s .. I was told they had been withdrawn and they were waiting for the next one... the  HMZT 3 .. 

The HMZT 1 was my first HMD , I mark it's coming as the beginning of the modern consumer HMD revolution.  I owned 3 , nay 4 counting a replacement for one unit. As we all know comfort , sweetspot ,optical and lack of portability issues really tempered the wow of the 750 inch cinema screen.

The HMZT 2 took a little weight off , but did not really improve on the original to the point where people were posting youtube videos of their granny allegedly using it ( like some prototype VR units I could mention) .

The OLED colours and black reproduction were gorgeous and ideal for light gaming as well as 3D film viewing. It was just that you could not see the whole screen or use the device for long, or indeed move your head like you need to when you wear a HMD or indeed  with a headtracker and have that image maintain fidelity corner pixel to corner pixel.

The first HMD to approach that was the LCOS based smd ST1080 . With a 100 inch 1080p res screen. That amount of detail made the pictures it produced look far more detailed than the HMZT series. 

The first HMD to achieve a clear corner pixel to corner pixel experience was the Cinemizer OLED HMD.. with a 40 inch display. 

Optically a wide field of view hmd , with a high magnification even when it is an OLED display throws up sweetspot issues .

Further 720p native seems to be the limit of  Sony's OLED technology . At this level of magnification through the optics you will see some visible pixels , nothing like that on the Rift though.

With the HMZT3 Sony have learned lessons of wide field of view hmds causing nausea and sweetspot issues . The HMZT3 will offer the ability to reduce the "screen size" . 

In practice we do this with software on the Rift all the time , it is completely untrue to think all Rift games are displayed using the entire FOV. Using the Tridef Beta can for instance give a "screen size" or FOV that looks like a distant flat screen , in cases less than other hmds..

Further innovations include a battery pack and wireless streaming. and you can connect your phones and tablets through MHL to HDMI .. which silly Endgadget journalists you can do with the previous versions too .. as well as the Rift , Cinemizer OLED , smd ST1080 and every other HMD that uses HDMI...

However far from being the Sony HMD equivalent of a Walkman , i.e. truly compact , the HMZT 3 is around the same size or in the same league of bulkiness as it's predecessor. 

Headphone tech continues to improve with each HMZT HMD. 

What you see is that Sony see the market for HMDs as experimental and limited , thus the changes are iterative , a tiny 10g shaved off the weight allegedly.. 

And most fascinating of all this latest consumer HMD from Sony shows the designers not even batting an eyelid over the hype regarding so called consumer versions of prototype VR displays. 

Sony then like other HMD manufacturers is going to gently move the HMD forward , without inflating the VR hype bubble ... after all that's what Oculus is for...

Will I buy a HMZT 3 .. considering it will be around £999 here and arrive late in November in the UK ,if before Christmas .. I don't know .. it will be interesting to try out at shows 

But the ergonomics really kill it for me , your HMD should be a pair of shades ..  

So then the HMZT 3 reveals the real world limitations of current OLED HMD tech. At 720p Sony is still mitigating optical , sweetspot ,fitting and weight issues.. 

At this stage we should expect native 1080p and true portability requires a weight of around 180g ... the smd ST1080 and Cinemizer OLED more than have this covered and with Zeiss headtracking... there are so many applications...


More when I get hold of one ...

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Google GLASS invites listed for up to $2000 on eBay : Original units sell for over 4K ..welcome to the cult of Augmented Reality

Google GLASS has issues that old Sergey really should take note of. 

Happy with all the plane jumping ,cake baking , super model adorning 720p videos storming Youtube over the last year or so , Google is getting ready to release the next GLASS ..updating all the old timer explorer devices in the process, part of which is sending out three invites to each explorer for their friends ..prompting the philosophical question do Geeks have friends ?

Well Geeks do have smarts which is why many of them are selling their invites on eBay for up to $2000 , whilst the old GLASS is can be had for a measly $4000 here 

Although this fits in nicely with my theory that people will pay anything for a HMD .. It should sound warning alarms at Google ..

GLASS is another prototype HMD, trying to wall garden HMD use ... By largely using bling and a very successful promotional explorer phase ...  For mass uptake GLASS has to reach real people too ..

As other HMD makers are learning, promotion does not equate with creating a market .. and having your prototypes being hawked , nay having the invitations for those prototypes being hawked for vast sums is not really something Google whose famous motto has something to do with staying away from negative vibes ... should ignore 

So Sergey Brin. ...over to you ..is this acceptable?

 International HMD fans can register interest for GLASS here 

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Star Conflict ...Free to Play Space Opera from GAIJIN ... manna for the combat starved Star Citizen?

Whilst we wait for the return of the multiple branching story line epic space opera genre to emerge from the black hole of development hell .. come on Chris where's the combat module? ... we can take solace in the fact that the awesomeness of the space opera genre or MMO space opera genre has not escaped the talents of other game developers ... and here is just one example Star Conflict , from Gaijin,yes the War Thunder guys ... and it looks stunning : 

Here are some 5120 by 1600 stretched screen shots, the game has a nifty stretched window option, so if you do not have a display or hardware that can render raw pixel resolutions you can at least stretch a lower res across multiple monitors...yes I was too lazy to up the resolution .. I will do though when I have more time for now check out how gorgeous the game is whilst you download the free to play game from Steam here

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LEAP Motion : playing Blue Estate Prologue (FREE) and Gone Home

LEAP Motion had the finest independent hardware launch of recent times, bypassing all the kickstarter and celeb hype treadmills and reaching out to developers and users alike directly. As as result I have been LEAPing for free, far in advance of getting my hands on the retail units I now use... 0 stress ... if only more products launched this way outside of kickstarter.. 

Any how ...the LEAP is real, retail and it's usage is  evolving all the time ... by this I mean I find new uses for it every day along with developers ... who are beginning to point (sorry) out how LEAP is different to all the other so called motion controllers...

For a limited time, Blue Estate Prologue ( no it is not a car simulator but a comedy LEAP Motion controlled shooter based on the Eisner Awards nominated Blue Estate comic books from Viktor Kalvachev ..) is free on the Airspace App Store. This is how it plays using a siliconmicrodisplay ST1080 hmd at 1080p native res ...

For several months I have used Dangermouse and the LEAP to interface with my desktop/game ..lately though I have been taking to Touchless ... another free AIRSPACE app . How useful something like Touchless is going to depend on your skill with it ..

Touchless is work in progress, which holds true for many LEAP apps...but we can already use it in retail PC games and combine it with other VR leaning control UIs like head tracking :

    

The retail LEAP does not heat up the way the dev unit did, has a funky new USB lead and can and does show it's potential to  revolutionise the way we interface with cyberspace ... 

There are a couple of nagging issues though.... first and foremost user fatigue ... that is the major limiting factor at present in mass uptake of the LEAP Motion ...

Tom Cruise could wave his hands around for a minute or two in Minority report, but what  happens when you have to do that all day, or in a 6 hour game of League of Legends ...?

In practise you can start to feel fatigue within a few minutes of use. Hence the "rest your hands" notices in the Blue Estate Prologue video above ... 

Solving the fatigue issue, whether through training bad habits out of the user or using minimal hand or finger movement in game and doing without wild Kinect like gestures is the challenge ... 

But this is not the only barrier...

You can see me having to re "learn" to use Touchless in the above videos... for each of the different applications..whether an on rails native app like Blue Estate, or a legacy non LEAP optimised game like Gone Home.. 

The LEAP then is not the universal  "mouse" of our generation .. any one can pick up a mouse, every one will move it in the same way to achieve the same result  and expect to achieve that result every time.. your mouse  is a standard UI control technique...with a far more certain almost digital 0 1 outcome , you click that left mouse button and you get the same result every time ...  the LEAP depending on what app you use can be very different .. with Dangermouse I am just using one finger and thumb as a very fast mouse replacement , with Touchless I am using 5 fingers , with Google Earth we are using " fly to " gestures and hand positions ... each app then can have it's own learning curve....and depending on your skill you may or may not achieve that mouse click ...by touching the air ..it is not always 100% as it takes time to learn how to use it..and your hundredth click/LEAP gesture or your second or third click may not be perfect through fatigue or "imperfect" finger or hand movements ..  you can never physically move your hands or fingers exactly same way in repetition.. even getting them to approximate the same movement twice can be an issue ..and this is further compounded by the fatigue issue ..

There is also no standard, your fingers moving into and out of the screen may represent touch in one app, zooming in another and a right mouse click grab in yet another ...

To use the LEAP then, you have to train casual users .. or wait for them to "learn"  and to fully exploit LEAP Motion in your app as a developer you are going to have to counter user fatigue ..as well as adjust gestures to suit all skill levels..including less "digital" and more "analogue" or chaotic mapping of hand and finger gestures replacing traditional digital mouse/keyboard/joypad and on screen actions..

Altogether though the LEAP is the real deal, if you have any passing interest at all in VR or AR leaning UI control you should not hesitate in getting hold of one ...  or two as I have plans to replace all my WSAD and mouse duties with LEAP..more on that later...and yes there are ways to play with two LEAPs! 

Mass uptake and usage will require users and developers to re learn how they interface with all things digital ...exciting times as  you can see from the videos above we are not already getting closer to the scifi Hollywood prediction of motion control but we already done gone and passed it ...

There is far more substance to the LEAP Motion brand than certain other celeb and Kicstarter hyped products this is thanks to the way LEAP Motion have gone about engaging users and developers directly throughout the inception, testing and retail release of the product. The LEAP is a device that frequently surpasses my expectations and there are few if any other products these days I can say that about..

Oh and it works great with current head mounted displays like the smd ST1080 and head tracking solutions...

More to follow..  

  

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Augmenting David Cage's Beyond Two Souls with Cinemizer OLED head tracking and head mounted display

Video games like every form of entertainment  ...entertain ..thrill ...some though strive to  illicit emotion ....

a few ...even leave you thinking ...about the consequences of your actions ...

For when a great game is played, it both brings the best of literature,music and cinema  and lets  you direct YOUR experience of it all .. transcending legacy media altogether ...

You can BE in a game, whereas you GO to a movie or imagine getting lost in a book... only in the video game medium can you combine all this ..at your own pace ..experience it over and over again go back and experience it differently..

And that's the groove David Cage and Quantic Dreams ride so well..

In 2013 we can go further, even further than a great developer like Quantic Dreams envisaged ..through playing using HMDs and head tracking .. so here I am playing this swan song for the PS3 .. probably the most unique video game to come out this last generation of consoles ..using the Zeiss head tracker and Cinemizer OLED HMD ..  I am Aiden .. I move him, not through a joystick but I look through his "souls"eyes, all through head tracking  .. as Jodie I look to where I want her to look, or use a  head movement to initiate in game actions, looking down at an object is far more impressive than simply moving a thumbstick down or swiping a touch screen ... and when you actually pull off moves like ducking through head tracking .. that's where you start to feel the game.. like you are there .. head tracking is here now in PS3 games even those that have 0 lines of code dedicated to it ... that's the magic of the Zeiss head tracker ... 

The Cinemizer OLED HMD weighs just 180g, what this means is I can play in nausea free OLED colours, feel the dark and move the fov/play the game with my head ..without fatigue .. stream this game to PSVITA TV and we don't even need a console ... 

 I am playing through the entire game with head tracking and the Cinemizer OLED HMD .. as you can see from the videos here  ..  this is a learning experience of course ... and  I am going to go back and play Nomad Soul this way... and Messiah too .. possess em ups rule! 

Beyond Two Souls refines the quick time control scheme of Heavy Rain, with far less finger knot tying required, what this means is I can use my head to control the game, from being Aiden to initiating actions or combat, all with the flick or movement of my head ... as I am wearing a HMD the view follows me.

Quantic Dreams are unique in that every game they create manages to transcend being classified as a mere "game" . Reviewers go out of their way to try to classify their games , but they defy classification .. Quantic Dream games somehow always manage to be more than the sum of their parts ...

I would venture to say the last thing approaching a traditional video game they were responsible for was the Nomad Soul, a game so ambitious it gave you multiple cities, realms, politics, music ...not just a sound track by the the Thin White Duke but his in game avatar and that of his missus as part of the game itself. The scope of the The Nomad Soul with cities you walk, ride, fly around and walk into the buildings of, has not been matched to date.. Even today the GTAs ,Crackdowns, or anything by Bethesda ..just do not come close to the ambition of Quantic Dreams Nomad Soul .. go pick it up on GOG or STEAM ... 

Following this game, Quantic Dreams started moving games beyond what we traditionally thought of them achieving .. none of the games they design could ever be considered in the same vein as the run of the mill cookie cutter corridor based FPS or MMORPGs that the rest of the "Engine" obsessed gaming developer community bores us with E3 after E3... one of which I will be playing later tonight...

Beyond Two Souls is as much Ellen Page's baby as it is David Cage's or Quantic Dreams .. you can finally see an actor act in a game .. not just in the cut scenes or quick time events .. but throughout .. she is there with you .. she is you...

Games like this should terrify Hollywood, currently having actors falling through space in falling space stations and out the other end falling to Earth in cross talk ridden 3D CGI to thrill an audience for just over an hour ... it's not a long story ... In 2013 cinema that is headed down the CGI thrill route does not take you anywhere near the fear, thrill , emotion and level of thought that a great video game like Beyond Two Souls .. 

Omikron The Nomad Soul showed ambition, Fahrenheit and then the seminal Heavy Rain carried on  Quantic Dreams unique style ...Beyond Two Souls just crowns it .. what a wonderful way to say good bye to your PS3 .. 

Right now the most unique form of video gaming entertainment is on an old gen console, not your monster PC Rig... in a few years time when we are bidding adieu to the PS4 we will be lucky to have a title that moves you the way  Beyond Two Souls can ..and does .. 

I played the game with the Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker to find out how .. check out how simple it is here  more to follow when I have time...

Oh and Quantic Dreams .. keep up the good work.. 

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