Kinect Only Has 2 Player Support
By Damir Halilović on July 3, 2010 10:02 PM | Permalink | 578 Comments
Apparently, the Kinect tech specs have been leaked and surprisingly enough (read: not at all) they reveal a lot of horrible facts about the product. It would appear that the camera can only track two active players at any given time, setting us back to 1992, possibly even earlier in terms of player count support. Furthermore, it seems that there is a very narrow window in which you can stand in order for the camera to recognize you in the first place, 4 - 11 feet (roughly 1 - 3 meters) to be exact. Having done a very weak presentation to begin with, this information leaves a lot of doubt for the future of Eye Toy 2 Kinect.
Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Voice microphone array
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consolesField of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m - 3.5mData Streams
320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640x480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec
16-bit audio @ 16 kHzSkeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to LIVE AvatarsAudio System
LIVE party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox LIVE Gold Membership)
Echo cancellation system enhances voice input
Speech recognition in multiple
[Source: Kotaku]
Tags: kinect, microsoft, natal, xbox
578 Comments
NitroSquirril | July 18, 2010 5:54 PM
I had higher hopes for this thing :C
TelTura | July 8, 2010 6:08 AM
Two things, first, you can still design a game with multiple players where only one person is "active" at a time, not to mention that this is not a "miracle" piece of technology...really, how can you expect a single, localized machine to be able to track the space required for four players to move around in? Wait for the next release, Agent Bond.
Second, why the statement that two-player sends us back to 1992? I think you're forgetting a little console called the PlayStation and its descendants. Not to mention that a heck of a lot of games focus on 1v1 combat and are still wildly successful, from Tekken to Fight Night to even Starcraft in a pinch.
Such sensationalist pessimism.