Hasta La Gadget!

When Sony unveiled its PlayStation Move (nee Arc) controller at the GDC last week, it came along with some impressive promises: it would only cost developers 2MB of system memory (out of 256MB on offer) and it would respond to user inputs within a single frame of animation. Our own experiences with the thing felt a bit more laggy, and now Eurogamer is echoing those impressions and putting a bit of science behind them courtesy of a 60fps Kodak Zi6 camcorder. By filming the controllers and their on-screen representation, the site’s tireless statisticians calculated an actual lag (including that of the display) of 113ms — closer to 10 6.78 frames if a game is running at 60fps. Naturally much of this is thanks to the rendering of the result and not just the Move, but according to a 2008 GamaSutra test we found (linked as “More Coverage” below), the controller lag from the standard PS3 controller varies widely from game to game, with GTA IV measured at 166ms — almost 50 percent higher than seen by the Move. So, while we can’t draw too many conclusions about this single-game test from GDC, we can give a little advice: get back to beating up some underworldian goons as Kratos and don’t worry about it.

PlayStation Move controller lag detected, analyzed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long and painful four months since Pogoplug introduced its second generation NAS-ifier, but those who’ve been holding out for additional functionality can finally buy in. In an effort to cater to these so-called “gamers,” the company has enabled its device to stream multimedia content directly to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles; users will be able to access, share and stream media directly to their console from any local or remotely located Pogoplug, and if all goes well, your console should actually see the drives connected to the Pogoplug and the contents of other shared Pogoplugs automatically. In related news, the unit is also now capable of pushing out offsite backups through a new version of Active Copy (shown above), so all that’s left to do is hop online and suck down that tasty firmware update that should be waiting. Enjoy!

Continue reading Pogoplug now streaming to Xbox 360 and PS3, handling offsite backups

Pogoplug now streaming to Xbox 360 and PS3, handling offsite backups originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While it’s a crying shame that Sony’s PlayStation Move won’t have full four-player support, at least the technology is efficient; our buddies at Joystiq are reporting that the camera-and-wand based motion control game system will only minimally impact game performance. Quizzing Sony’s David Coombes, they found out that the advanced image processing required to make sense of your wild, flailing movements will take only 1-2 MB of RAM. Of course, when you consider that the PS3 has only 256MB of fast XDR memory to begin with, that 2MB isn’t as “insignificant” as Sony would have you believe, but coupled with the company’s claim that the whole shebang takes “under a frame” of the Cell CPU’s processing time, we’re inclined to think it won’t be much of an issue for the end user. Assuming they fix that nasty lag, of course. Check out our full PlayStation Move guide for more details.

PlayStation Move requires only 2MB of RAM, developers breathe sigh of relief originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you do your research, you read up on everything important about the PS3’s new Move controller, and you consider yourself well prepared for a future of wild merrymaking and multiplayer gaming parties. And then you find out you can’t use four full sets of controllers with your console. As it turns out, the PS3’s Bluetooth module is only fit to address up to seven wireless devices at a time, which poses something of a puzzler when you consider that you need a pair of Move controllers (or a Move plus a sub-controller) to get your money’s worth and four times two is, well, a number greater than seven. Perturbed by this, Gizmodo contacted Sony for an official response and the news gets even worse:

“Four PlayStation Move controllers can connect to a PS3 at one time (or two PlayStation Move Controllers and 2 PlayStation Move sub-controllers).”

That basically means you can have the full Move experience with only one friend, or you can share out the wands and have that tiny bit less fun with a quartet. Not a problem for the misanthropes out there — or most people really — but an important limitation to be aware of, nonetheless.

PlayStation Move will offer limited four player support originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Darkworks introduced its TriOviz for Games SDK yesterday during GDC, and while TriOviz technology has been around for years in Hollywood, it wasn’t until today that this same technology debuted for console and PC titles. Essentially, this software wrapper enables standard 2D video games to be viewed in 3D on a traditional 2D display, and we were able to sneak an exclusive look at the technology today at the company’s meeting room. We were shown a European version of Batman: Arkham Asylum on Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and we were given a set of specialized glasses (which were passive, unlike NVIDIA’s active-shutter 3D Vision specs) in order to enjoy the effect. So, how was it? In a word or two, not bad. It obviously wasn’t perfect, but you have to realize just how cheap of a solution this is for the consumer to implement. All that’s required is a set of special glasses, but given that these can be distributed in paper-frames form, you could easily find a set for a couple of bucks (at most), if not bundled in for free with future games. Users won’t need to purchase any additional hardware whatsoever, and what they’ll get is a deeper, more immersive image in return.

We could very clearly see the 3D effect, and even though it was subtle, it definitely enhanced our experience. We noticed a minor bit of blurring and ghosting during just a few scenes, but when you consider that this doesn’t actually change the underlying code in existing 2D games (that’s the cue for developers to breathe a sigh of relief), we didn’t feel that these minor quirks were unreasonable. The other interesting aspect is just how clear the image remained for onlookers that didn’t have 3D glasses on; we noticed slight image doubling at specific points, but it’s not something we simply couldn’t look at without acquiring a headache.

More after the break…

Continue reading Darkworks shows off TriOviz for Games 2D-to-3D SDK, we get a good look

Darkworks shows off TriOviz for Games 2D-to-3D SDK, we get a good look originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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