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Adding head tracking to Voxatron would be positive in many ways, and also in some negative ways too. I am here to discuss these. By adding head tracking, I mean having a webcam and Voxatron will track where your head is. This would give the ability to rotate the stage as the head moves and it would appear as though the game is three-dimensional and tangible.

Positive:

-complements voxels with the illusion of 3d

-platform levels are easier due to the ability to view the player and other objects from different angles.

Negative:

-would require players to buy a specific web camera or Lexaloffle would need to find a way to make every web camera to work with Voxatron.

-If a level designer used a small wall to hide a power up, etc., then simply moving your head could reveal the hidden suprise.

If you think of anything else positive, negative about this idea, post it here.

P#2454 2011-11-02 22:02 ( Edited 2011-11-03 04:18)

Love my TrackIr !

But I think the viewpoint is locked. Cool idea though. TrackIr is a bit spendy for casual gaming though at around $150. Great for flight sims and some driving sims. Even Arma II supports it.

I would love being able to rotate levels, but it may mess technically with the engine, but it may open up some new gameplay ideas.

P#2465 2011-11-02 23:31 ( Edited 2011-11-03 03:31)

Well, the voxlap engine started out in a first person perspective when Ken Silverman released it. Other games that use a modified version of his engine like Ace of Spades and Voxelstein 3D have first person perspectives, so I would think that the camera is not impossible. I think the real problem would be to have the engine work with a camera and interact with it. As for the TrackIr, it seems a little too expensive if it is the chosen head tracking hardware for Voxetron. I have seen cheap webcams to be used for head tracking so perhaps TrackIr, while great may not be practical if Voxatron will not universally support most webcams.

P#2471 2011-11-02 23:44 ( Edited 2011-11-03 03:44)

I don't know for sure - but I think this engine does not use any voxlap code. This guy behind Voxatron is genius (and Ken Silverman also). I think the viewpoint is a self imposed limit for gameplay and technical engine reasons with how many voxels are visible and complicating the gameplay with a rotating viewpoint.

I tried a Wii controller with Freetrack, but TrackIr does it out of the box so well that it just wasn't worth the hassle after messing with it for a week.

P#2473 2011-11-02 23:51 ( Edited 2011-11-03 03:51)

Well, I am just guessing this game uses either the original or a modified Voxlap engine due to the Editor console being called ''VOXED CONSOLE''. Voxlap engine games use Voxed to make custom models, so I am betting 50 voxels that it is the voxlap engine. The rotation would be controlled by the head of the player, so if it does complicate it, it would be the player's fault and they can turn the feature off, if it isever going to be added into the game.

P#2475 2011-11-02 23:59 ( Edited 2011-11-03 03:59)

I'll take that 50 voxel bet and raise 25 voxels.

I'm guessing 'voxed' is just that simple - voxel editor and coincidence? It would have been really simple to name it something else on purpose so people couldn't point to it and say it was from the voxlap engine. There are only so many possible ways to simply name "Voxel Editor."

I think at most he drew inspiration from the voxlap engine but came up with his own engine (see how levels are saved in a ping image - who in the world would have thought that up?). If you look back through the past months - people have been asking him technical questions about his engine as they work on their own and he has been explaining how his engine works.

You know what - I raise my bid to 50 more voxels.

P#2479 2011-11-03 00:18 ( Edited 2011-11-03 04:20)

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