Kinect : Owners Manual Released.

[The_Deleted]

http://www.vg247.com/2010/10/05/entire-kinect-manual-photographed-play-distances-power-details-more/

Did you know two people playing Kinect need to stand 8 feet from the camera?
Did you know Kinect needs to be placed 2-6 feet high to work? Did you know that you don?t need a Kinect power pack if you own a 360 Slim?
You do now.

What's the betting this is sold separately?

VG247 has received photographs of the entire Kinect manual, revealing final, consumer-facing information on setting up and using the motion camera.

The required play distances are confirmed in the document: ?The sensor can see you when you are approximately 6 feet (2 meters) from the sensor. For two people, you should play approximately 8 feet (2.5 meters) from the sensor.?

The manual also provides height information for placing: ?For the best play space and sensor performance, place your sensor between 2 and 6 feet (0.6 and 2 meters) high, the closer to the low or high limit the better.?

You?re also warned that you should ?not put the sensor on your console.?

The peripheral?s manual confirms that an external power pack needs to be used unless you own a Slim.

?For Xbox 360 S consoles, power is supplied by the console. For original Xbox 360 consoles, you?ll need to connect the sensor to a standard wall outlet.?

If you own a Slim, the camera?s simply plugged into the AUX input.

Kinect comes with a software disc which needs to be installed for it to work. We?re going to assume this is included in the upcoming 360 dashboard update.

This is where it gets really interesting:

?Troubleshooting?

There?s a troubleshooting section at the back of the manual, which tells you how to fix stuff if it all goes wrong.

If the camera can?t see you, you should ?turn on lights to brighten the play space,? ?try wearing different colored clothing that contrasts with the background of your play space,? and ?prevent lights, including sunlight, from shining directly on the sensor.?

You?re also warned to make sure the system is ?well-ventilated.?

Check out the images below. There?s a page missing here which detailed how to install the software; the photo was really blurred.

Kinect launches in the US on November 4 and the UK on November 10.

So, anyone still interested? It seems to me like a piece of hardware that's not ready for the public to use, but a big company like Microsoft wouldn't try anything like that, right?

I'm not one for the usual fashionably dismissive put-downs that usually permeate on forums
like this one... Okay, this one... but this really looks like it could have EPIC FAIL written all over it. The casual player would soon get frustrated, and the core market would laugh it off as the joke it seems to be.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

The more I read about this thing, the more it seems like a complete and total disaster.

I'm looking at you, PowerGlove.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

What's wrong with that? I thought that was pretty standard stuff... no different from the eyetoy or anything else that distinguishes you from the background.

It sounds like it's ready to ship to me, and I may not be particularly excited... or even care much, but I'll give it a try.

 

[Pingieking]

Well, that basically kills any chance of me or my friends getting it. None of us have a setup that has enough space for more than one player.

 

[Dexiro]

These are all problems that I bought up when Natal was first announced. And I find it hilarious that MS didn't bother fixing any of them.

I don't care for your loss Microsoft ;D

"Kinect now come's bundled with the Mansion you need to play it in for just under $999999999"

 

[The_Deleted]

What's wrong with that? I thought that was pretty standard stuff... no different from the eyetoy or anything else that distinguishes you from the background.

This was my reaction, but the Eyetoy didn't cost the same as a Wii and promise the world...

 

[TPiddy]

I'm hoping it survives to see a next generation of the technology... but I won't be buying the first gen, so I guess I can't complain if it doesn't.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Let's wait and see what the reviews say. Yeah, the manual recommends these things, but I'm pretty sure hair conditioner recommends that you leave it in for about 2 minutes. No one does that, and people's hair is still fine.

EDIT: Okay, so that may have been a little confusing. What I mean is that those are the recommendations in the manual for optimal performance. If you don't follow these, the whole Kinect system could still work well enough.

That said, the recommendations are pretty lengthy...

 

[DustyDrB]

Those things mostly shouldn't be problems anyway. Yeah it sounds silly to say "don't have like shining at it directly", but you wouldn't anyway to keep glare off your screen. And how hard is it to change your shirt? Most of the rest is pretty standard (ventilation). A lot of people here are just dead set against this thing no matter what. Haters gonna hate.

 

[YourCriticism]

That's not exactly a way of them saying "do this or it won't work," the Move has similar recommended conditions, but it works fine for me and I play right in front of my window,

 

[StBishop]

I'm sorry but this all makes perfect sense. There's no new info in here at all.

They told us at E3 that we would need external power if we didn't have a 360S.

I don't see how the height is a problem either... put it in front of your tv.

I will bet money that it's going to be able to see you 9/10 times if you're in a well lit room, unless your skin, hair clothes and background are all the same colour. Even then, I'm betting it'll pick up movement.

I'm not sure about you guys but I'd be playing ~2 steps back from my TV anyway. You have to move around to play. How is this surprising.

What's this? I shouldn't put my expensive hardware ontop of my hot console? Outragious!
Why would you put anything on your console?
Why wouldn't you ventilate your gaming equipment?

I have to be honest, it seems to me that you're reading what you want to read.

I have faith in Kinect being at the very least, decent.

At best, pretty freakin' awesome.