Black and White Played on Kinect Hack (FAAST) without Mote

Ladies and gentlemen - let me present another classic title which might as well have been designed for use with Kinect. This was the first game I ever wanted to convert to Kinect control, but sadly technology got the better of me.

At around the time I was going to bed this morning (2am GMT) I received an email from Evan Suma, the creator of FAAST, letting me know that he'd just released a new version (0.6). He started of small, mentioning a few bug fixes, syntax changes and additional gesture controls before hitting me with it - FAAST now supports relative and absolute (1:1) mouse emulation.

I started working on B&W a while back now - but at the time the mouse emulation via keyboard bindings (controlled by FAAST gestures) was not really suitable for this game, even with a 5 stage position based acceleration script I wrote using GlovePIE (see my Indigo Prophecy video). By taking Evan's latest implementation and adding it to my existing scripts for this game I was able to get up and playing in around 30mins.

Black and White is an all time classic from the legendary Lionhead Studios. Aside from older titles such as Populous, it was the first modern game to convincingly put you in the place of a God as you manoeuvred your disembodied hand around the world for good or ill. It featured pioneering creature AI which allowed you to train your creature as he grew - teaching him what to eat, where (and who) to poo on, what spells to cast and even what to take his pent up aggression out on. I remember being doubly impressed by its physics engine - long before the days of Havok 2 and Euphoria.

I hope you agree that this all time classic plays wonderfully with Kinect. Picking up villagers and objects, casting spells and interacting with your creature are all 100% intuitive. The chuck is used for WASD movement again, this could be done with gestures but I felt that it required too much co-ordination and created a barrier to the game. Mouse clicks are currently done with the C and Z buttons on the chuck. OpenNI/NITE/FAAST don't currently support open and close hand gestures - when they do I'll release a new video to show the full potential of B&W on Kinect. Leaning forwards tilts the camera down, kicking forward kicks it up. Leaning left and right also rotate the view (not demonstrated in this video). Hitting both C and Z at the same time let you zoom and rotate with your "mouse" hand.

From Project Natal to Kinect I remember thinking, "So Peter, when are you going to announce B&W 3 for launch?". I'm still waiting for this announcement and continue to hope against hope that this franchise hasn't been shelved and that one day we will see it implemented on Kinect/Primesense for 360 and PC. It wouldn't even take too much to repackage B&W2 to support the new control method and re-release - and I hope this video demonstrates that.

I earnestly feel that MS and Lionhead missed a trick here. They've certainly caught the casual markets attention - but just one title like this and they'd of convinced nearly every core gamer out there.

Watching the video back I'm a little surprised at how much I was smiling whilst executing my deadly designs. Perhaps the neighbours should be worried?

Once again this is only possible because of Evan Suma's work on FAAST at USC http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/faast/

And Carl Kenners long time project GolvePIE http://glovepie.org/

Carl hasn't asked me to, but I'm sure he would like me to add that all this stuff munches electricity like no bodies business so please consider your gaming carbon foot print.

Give 'em your support guys.

Also if you like interesting, unusual games check out "The Ship" from Outerlight. I used to work at Outerlight as Systems Manager and play tester before it tragically collapsed just before the release of "Bloody Good Time", published by Ubisoft. I'd love to see this company come back to life as the bunch at OL were just fabulous. http://store.steampowered.com/app/240...

Finally if you like wargames check out a project I collaborate on http://warheadsthegame.com

Kudos to my pal Chris, who slogged through the first mission and built the town I destroyed whilst I got a few hours kip on the sofa. He's currently enjoying being the second person in the world to ever control Black and White in this fashion.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Black and White
• Kinect Hack
• FAAST
• GlovePie
• Lionhead

[JustKOF]

one last ?. Do you think that the kinect would interfere with the IR signal from the Nvidia 3d fusion dongle?

[demize2010]

@JustKOF Erm I dunno, can I come over and find out? Sounds like quite a setup your getting yourself there! Kinect doesn't seem to have issue with other IR devices (or cause them issue) IR on a wiimote works just fine (but I haven't been able to find or hack together a good enough script for it yet) even if you have the sensor bar right on top of it (weird I know). Anyways, back to my PC made from reclaimed components I found lying around the house!

[JustKOF]

Do you think that it's possible to hold the wiimote in a gun attachment while using the mouse movement from FAAST? I'm thinking the accuracy would be far better then using the gyro or IR from the wiimote. Also, i still want to use the button to simulate actual shooting and feel the feedback. I'm still setting up my space (projector mount and kinect stand coming) so i haven't gotten around to working the kinect yet.

[demize2010]

@JustKOF I'll check this out for you tomorrow, its something I want to mess with too... well combining both really. Imagine this, gyros for turning and absolute positioning for aiming - with a bit of practice that would be better then mouse control!

[gtincan]

That's neat and all but did you have to smash that poor bastard's house :(

[demize2010]

@gtincan Power is intoxicating, what can I say. Was mainly just showing the physics and interface interaction ;)

[LZIM]

Kinect means nothing without this.

[KobaltKnight]

I've always thought that Black & White makes the most sense for a Kinect game. After all, you play the entire game as a disembodied hand which can cast miracles through various gestures. Top this with the fact that Lionhead clearly has an interest in Kinect and it seems like the perfect match.

[DieWeltIstSchlecht]

@patrik11patrik

Uh... buying?

[patrik11patrik]

I'm dying in boringness

[patrik11patrik]

Do u guys know where can I get this Frreeeeking COOOLL game?pls help me

[dedaj331]

that is lay he is all thats doing with wii controler not with hands

[Masterwalker99]

Dude ur holding s nun-chuck in ur other hand

[Crashomer115]

QUICK!! Send this to peter molen...something

[LetsPlayGamesGuy]

Why was it saying "Deaaaaathhhhh"?

[Jotto999]

Oh man, that is cool. Now I want to play Black and White again, that game is FREAKING COOL!