Portal 2 Fan Dumps Mouse for Kinect Hack

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Portal 2 Fan Dumps Mouse for Kinect Hack




Toss that mouse into an incinerator, you won't be needing it anymore.

Yesterday we discovered that you don't actually need portals [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109709-Portal-2-Player-Doesnt-Think-With-Portals-Wins-Anyway] to succeed in Portal 2 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002I0JIQW/ref=s9_newr_gw_ir03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1RVMFMH5R52KPM2NH8FX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846] and today it looks like you don't need a controller either. That's assuming, of course, you've got a Kinect sensor and you've hacked it to work with you PC.

YouTube user "cooleybrad08 [http://www.youtube.com/user/cooleybrad08]" hooked up his Kinect to his PC, and used the FAAST middleware to map various button presses to gestures. The controls seem pretty simple: Chell moves forward and back based on where the player's foot is, strafes when the player leans left and right, and jumps when the player raises his or her left foot. The player controls the mouse with his or her right hand, firing blue portals by extending his or her right arm, and orange portals by doing the same with his or her left arm. Finally, the player sticks his or her left hand out to the side to pick up and drop things, and crouches to, well, crouch.

As you can see from the video, it works pretty well, although Portal 2 isn't optimized for use with Kinect and some of the game's more difficult puzzles would be pretty tricky playing this way. Nonetheless, it's not hard to see how a first person shooter could work on Kinect with some slightly more intuitive movements, as long as players can get past not having anything in their hands.

Source: Dvice [http://dvice.com/archives/2011/05/playing-portal.php]



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Fasckira

Dice Tart
Oct 22, 2009
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This sounds a lot more complicated than just using a mouse and keyboard...
 

Mad1Cow

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Jan 8, 2011
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Burning calories while improving brain activity?

Now you're thinking with Portals B]
 

Tuqui

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Mar 2, 2011
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Fasckira said:
This sounds a lot more complicated than just using a mouse and keyboard...
It may be more complicated, but with a good surround system, it sure a lot more deep.(sorry can't get the word I'm thinking)
 

mew4ever23

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Mar 21, 2008
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Lot more interesting than the official software put out for the Kinect so far.

Tuqui said:
Fasckira said:
This sounds a lot more complicated than just using a mouse and keyboard...
It may be more complicated, but with a good surround system, it sure a lot more deep.(sorry can't get the word I'm thinking)
Would that word be immersive, perhaps?
 

Tuqui

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Mar 2, 2011
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oh yes, sorry auto-correct kept changing it to subversive no idea why.
 

Numachuka

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Sep 3, 2010
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Tuqui said:
Fasckira said:
This sounds a lot more complicated than just using a mouse and keyboard...
It may be more complicated, but with a good surround system, it sure a lot more deep.(sorry can't get the word I'm thinking)
I find standing up and awkward controls to be less immersive.
 

ryo02

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Oct 8, 2007
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this will need ALOT more work before its in a little bit usefull for most games
 

pdgeorge

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Dec 25, 2008
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Maybe the player can have something in their hand, like a fake gun or something.

Maybe it'd work a bit like a hybrid of the PSmove and Kinect, I'm not sure, I haven't used either but I get the general jist of them both.
 

hawk533

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Dec 17, 2009
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Numachuka said:
I find standing up and awkward controls to be less immersive.
Yahtzee would certainly agree with you. I find good controls to be immersive regardless of the form they take. A well designed controller with well though-out button mappings to work just fine, but the closer your body's actions mimic the action on screen the more potential for immersion.

Still, good control design should take top precedent over trying to shoehorn motion controls into a game where they don't belong..
 

Tuqui

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Mar 2, 2011
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Numachuka said:
Tuqui said:
Fasckira said:
This sounds a lot more complicated than just using a mouse and keyboard...
It may be more complicated, but with a good surround system, it sure a lot more deep.(sorry can't get the word I'm thinking)
I find standing up and awkward controls to be less immersive.
Well me too, when I saw the video all I though was that could use a lot of tweaking, I'm talking with a smoother control, of course.
 

Mister Benoit

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Sep 19, 2008
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hawk533 said:
Numachuka said:
I find standing up and awkward controls to be less immersive.
Yahtzee would certainly agree with you. I find good controls to be immersive regardless of the form they take. A well designed controller with well though-out button mappings to work just fine, but the closer your body's actions mimic the action on screen the more potential for immersion.

Still, good control design should take top precedent over trying to shoehorn motion controls into a game where they don't belong..
I think the reason why controllers are great for immersion is because eventually when you're comfortable with it you kind of forget it's there. We should never have to fight with controls and the second we have to because it's clunky or doesn't work well that's when immersion breaks down.
 

Catchy Slogan

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Jun 17, 2009
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While it's showing some of the potential for Kinect, it seems like it's making playing the game needlessly complicated.
 

MaxwellEdison

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Sep 30, 2010
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Wow, body controlled video games. This is about half of the virtual reality dreams I've had as a kid...The future is now!

Now we just need a holodeck for my dreams to be complete.