Wiimote headtracking at Nordic Game Jam 2008

Dodge or Die game using wiimote headtracking. Created over three days at the Nordic Game Jam 2008. Based on our favourite game engine Unity and a hacked Wii Remote used for head tracking (as suggested by Johnny Chung Lee). The five-man team featured Patrik Svensson of shiftcontrol, Joachim Ante of Unity, Kim Hansen of Pladen Over, Mikkel Eskesen of Game Audio Denmark, Allan Kemp of Stainless Games. Special thanks to Mads Ny Larsen for help with building the infrared tracking glasses.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• nordic
• game
• jam
• wii
• unity
• shiftcontrol
• headtracking
• wiimote
• http://shiftcontrol.dk

[ShiftControlStudios]

There's no distinction between movement & rendering with this technique. The effect comes from changing the perspective of what ever is rendered based on the input from the head tracking. Like prizegotti says, the effect is only evident to the person wearing the glasses.

[ShiftControlStudios]

It definitely has a future in games. It creates a VERY immersive experience and the technology is not complicated or expensive compared to other products shipping with games these days.

[ShiftControlStudios]

I think the implications of the extra freedom of movement in an FPS style game would require some extra work. The time consuming part of it was testing it and adjusting it to get it to look and feel good. We only got it good enough to show in a limited setting with me playing - getting it to work 'out of the box' is something completely different.

[ShiftControlStudios]

We actually discussed that a lot before doing this game, but in the end we went for a simpler 'light-gun shooter' style game. For us it was a matter of choosing something that could be done in a couple of days and by staying in one place we could limit the scope of the project a lot. Potentially I see a conflict between splitting up motion between actual movement and some kind of gamepad input. Should be tested though.

[ShiftControlStudios]

This was done with a Wii enabled version of Unity under Nintendo license, which unfortunately means that we're not allowed to publish any source or builds. I'd like to port it at some point to use either DarwinRemote or the WiiMote plugin for Unity and make it public, but it's not in the near future :(

There's some nice resources on the Unity forums and the Unity wiki on using the WiiMote Plugin that should provide enough for anyone interesting in experimenting with these things.

[MiskonceptioN]

Fantastic! Where can I download this?

[prizegotti]

thats because you can only see the 3d effect if you are the headtracker.

[warlockboyburns]

this game looks annoying as a hell

[Kibate]

put a camera on that guys head, i want to see what he sees

[inovatvstdios]

@Zacharia10F1vE there's a BIG difference between a critic and an industry insider who comprehends the short comings of these devices. More so from someone who followed all of these technologies when they were just core components and predicted all these obvious iterative gimmicks. The technology itself cannot fail, but the implementations created by developers can. WII is the best example of a motion tracking peripheral and it is still basically a gimmick, PS3 is too late, &kinect well we'll see

[Zacharia10F1vE]

@inovatvstdios I was referencing a quote from the movie alien vs monsters.

thats were the my comment "youve got a better idea nerd" came from. but seriously this is revolutionary technology your just another dumb critics who doesnt believe in any thing is going to work same thing goes for the dumb critics that believe that Kinect or playstation motion is going to fail they dont even know for certain that its going to fail at all .you guys dont even give the technology a chance.

[inovatvstdios]

@Zacharia10F1vE If I'm a nerd Then I probably know what I'm talking about. And yes I have better idea(s) (see plural) that don't involve utter gimmicky shit. Cmon.. moving your body around will never be nothing more than an arcade game concept. And worst yet, moving your head.. really. The only thing worse is bad eye tracking implementations. Besides, Unless we see a robust Kinect type framework on PC there won't be any innovations made in this field. ALien VS Monster? I don't comprehend

[BIGBMH]

@Zacharia10F1vE I certainly hope so. Microsoft's Natal seems like it would be able to use it.

[Zacharia10F1vE]

@BIGBMH I say headtracking has a future in real games weather it be for xbox360 ps3 or wii cant wait to see some games that implement this technology it will be very interesting

[Zacharia10F1vE]

@inovatvstdios just the the general from alien vs monsters says youve got a better idea nerd?

[inovatvstdios]

Sigh. More gimmicks. Why are geeks so uncool? Their websites always suck and beyond the obvious 1 to 1 peripheral substitution they can't think of anything remotely interesting. Good Job none the less.

[jeefness43]

nerd