Games

This Eurogamer article reports the concern over Kinect's ability to detect players sat down on sofas has been eradicated after Microsoft updated the software behind the tech. From the article: "Kinect's much-discussed difficulty detecting sitting and lying down players was caused by it setting the base node used to create skeletal models at the bottom of the spine.

When players were sat down with their knees raised in front of their pelvis, Kinect encountered problems.

In July Microsoft insisted that Kinect could recognise players who were sitting down, despite a recent developer comment to the contrary.

This evening Eurogamer can reveal how Microsoft has made this possible.

This joystiq article looks at the Microvision Tuatara Project: a game with a mouse-emulating gyroscopic gun controller with an ultra-portable video projector attached to it. Here's a promotional video about the project. From the article: "While it seems like the industry's penchant for hyperbole has long exhausted the best buzzwords, Microvision has coined a good one: "infinite reality." Not quite virtual reality, and not quite 3D, Microvision's "Project Tuatara" is a novel concept that enables a new kind of gaming.

Gamers the world over who are also Mac lovers can now rejoice: Steam for Mac could be accessible for download today. The rumor from the business is that Steam for Mac will work just like Steam for Windows – by integrating gaming, downloading, and content settings. So get your instant cash loan ready; Steam for Mac is set to steam up your gaming experience.

The basics of Steam for Mac

The Steam for Mac download is designed to provide the successful Steam platform for OS X. The network allows users to purchase, store and play their games entirely digitally. Steam distributes anything from the popular Left 4 Dead to the even a lot more popular Plants vs. Zombies. Steam enabled systems can play games that users have paid for on just about any other Steam enabled system.

Take a look at this this Science Daily article: "Engineers at Rutgers University have modified a popular home video game system to help teenagers with cerebral palsy improve hand functions. In a pilot trial with three participants, the system improved the teens' abilities to perform a range of daily personal and household activities.

The modified system combined a Sony PlayStation 3 console and a commercial gaming glove with custom-developed software and games to provide exercise routines aimed at improving hand speed and range of finger motion.

This Dayton Daily News article talks about the Virtual Army Experience at the 2009 Vectren Dayton Air Show. From the article: "The Virtual Army Experience was one of the most popular attractions at the air show this year. After all, the huge grey tent holding nearly 20,000 square feet of virtual reality entertainment was hard to miss.

The attraction launched in 2007, said Public Relations manager Amy Lindstrom, and this is the second time it has been featured at the Vectren Dayton Air Show.

This Science Daily article reports the Nintendo Wii may enhance Parkinson's treatment. From the article: "The Nintendo Wii may help treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including depression, a Medical College of Georgia researcher says.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disease that impairs motor skills. Dr. Herz theorized that the popular computer game console, which simulates various sports and activities, could improve coordination, reflexes and other movement-related skills, but he found additional benefits as well.

From this New York Times article: "Uh-oh! Another big bank is the subject of a depositor run amid charges its chairman has run off with customers’ money. Thankfully, this scandal is taking place in Eve Online, a space-age virtual reality created by CCP, a games developer and Iceland’s coolest company. But these troubles in the ether may offer some valuable lessons for earthly banking and regulation.

Eve is one of the more successful multiplayer online games. Some 300,000 people — as it happens, nearly equal to the population of Iceland — pay $15 a month to navigate characters that pilot intergalactic spaceships, manufacture and trade goods, mine resources and enter into big alliances, or bloody battles, with one another.

Visualization Library is a cross-platform OpenGL-based C++ visualization toolkit dedicated to visualization professionals. This new release brings an enhanced volume visualization engine implementing realtime Blinn-Phong lighting with the OpenGL Shading Language, isosurface extraction via marching cubes, DICOM file support to read and write medical images and volumes, plus many other enhancements. A set of volume visualization screenshots can be found at: - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagguideslicedvolume.html - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagguidemarchingcubes.html - http://www.visualizationlibrary.com/jetcms/node/4

For more information on Visualization Library features visit: - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagkeyfeatures.html - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagchangelog.html

From this BBC News article: "The 3D web moved closer to reality as Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox browser, joined forces with graphics consortium Khronos. Khronos has set up a working group to create a standard for what it calls accelerated 3D graphics on the web. It could lead to widespread browser-based gaming as well as creating 3D environments in social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The aim is to produce a first public version within a year.

From the OpenSceneGraph website: "PERTHSHIRE, Scotland - 12th February 2009 - OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of OpenSceneGraph 2.8, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.8 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets - a real-time visualization tool which eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.8 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS/X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems."