Hi,

I would like to share with my fellow Skyrim fans a project I have been working on: Skyrim Kinect.

Using only the Kinect sensor and a bluetooth headset I have made it possible to control your Skyrim character without a controller, keyboard, or mouse. Instead, gestures and voice commands are your controllers, allowing you to control your character with your movements and voice. Swing your arm and your sword swings. Thrust your arm forward and block with your shield. Raise your arm and cast a spell. Or, crouch down to sneak up on an enemy. You might be skeptical, but you might be surprised at how intuitive it is, and how well it works.

As for voice, obviously there are dragon shouts. If you watch the video its pretty apparent how it works, but essentially you shout, your character shouts. Voice commands also help create an immerse, fluid experience, allowing you to access menu's, hotkeys, and control your characters point of view. The bluetooth headset I use isn't perfect, and there are a couple of moments when the voice isn't recognized accurately, but these moments are few and far between.

Check out the video and let me know what you guys think! Any feedback is appreciated.

Cheers,

KinectFAAST


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z83wzJwrBK0

If this is real, it is really amazing.

Thank you, yes it is real. I use a program called FAAST to control the Kinect on PC, and I use a program called VAC to allow me to control the voice commands. Glad you enjoyed!

Looks clever, but far too much of a effort to use.

Look at his other videos. This looks legit

Ineed, it's legit. Was hoping that someone might know how to Embed this video? I think im doing it wrong.

I really have no interest in getting up from my chair to play the game. It still is XBOX to me, even if you plan to make it for PC.

I don't think it's a matter of interest for you

I have no interest in getting up from my chair either, which means this is not aimed at people like you and me, but those who have an interest.

Wow. Amazing job! I never really would think of me liking a Kinect version of Skyrim but this OWNS!

Yeah, you know I have made a few videos like this and the most common response is that a lot of people do not want to get up to game. I think that's fine, and while I've played my fair share of this game standing up, I can agree that its a workout and not exactly practical long term. However, the voice commands are practical even without the gestures. I actually use them when im gaming with my keyboard and mouse, when the lights are down to get the theatrical effect, and I can't see the keys on my keyboard.

That would be annoying.

"down 4", "right", "select".

Can you not see how tedious this would get?

It would be more work then what it is worth.

True, and to be honest, there might be a better way to do it. I tried a few different methods, and for my purposes this worked the best. Really, you could just use your left arm to control the mouse and select the item you wanted, but the mouse tends to be a bit finicky at times. Once a few PC mods start rolling out, after the creation kit is released, hopefully we see an option for expanded hot keys. Then, you should be able to map as many items as you want to hotkeys and would really limit the amount of menu navigation needed.

why go through all that effort for a more obtuse control scheme?

the voice commands have real potential as a hotkey (hotvoice?) system, but everything else just seems... imprecise. and motion controls will always be imprecise. the whole idea is fundamentally backwards; you should be aiming to lessen the gap between thought and on-screen action, not widen it. games are about games, not controllers. the less you have to think about the controls, the better, and so far there is nothing less obtrusive than a few little button taps.

I think that's the whole idea, to try and create controls that you have to think less about. Yes, for you and i, as seasoned gamers the controller may seem intuitive. Its not. Believe me, ask any newcomer to gaming and they find using things like the Wii or Kinect a lot more straightforward and less obtrusive. That said, this isn't the perfect control scheme, and I am aware of that. Gesture precision will improve with time, as will voice control. Still, there needs to be some sort of standardization of Kinect based control schemes to allow for the same familiarity that a conventional controller brings us.

Looks pretty cool, but I'm still skeptical of motion and voice controls. Not doubting your work, I'm doubting the hardware.

Marry me.

I'm taken, I appreciate the gesture.

Wow,so this guy spends his time and effort creating something cool to show off something that you probably dont even have the mental capacity to do and the first thing you do is insult him? Please crawl back into your moms womb. Your a sad disgrace to the world.

Also,Kinect can also be used on the PC too. Theres plenty of PC hacks for Kinect,please do some research first,idiot.

To the OP,I applaud you for the effort you put into creating this,Im sure it took alot of work! Kudos! Im glad there's people like you that continue to do things regardless of the negative views people have.

Kinect is very promising, I personally think it just needs more work and a lot of it before I personally would consider it. Kinect is definitely not a "cancer". Same as the PS3 move. I do favor innovation greatly. Regardless if it is a bad idea. (not referring to this project) It always leads down to something amazing in the future. I just wish there could be a heads up display and then just use your fingers to select the menu items and options. Then continue gameplay with hand and body motion etc..just like normal. The menus though needs to be interactive with touch though. Voice would be very obnoxious. Perhaps say, "Menu", then a heads up display appears and you can move your fingers to the proper places then flick your fingers to select or say "select". lol. IDK.

This looks like it would be really fun if the mouse control was a bit smoother

Thank you for the support. I appreciate that. I hope to continue to do this in the future, and maybe even make some improvements to the current Skyrim setup. I definitely don't mind negative feedback, as long as its constructive, but its okay I try to avoid getting too discouraged from comments like that.

true enough, controllers do have years of familiarity behind them; people said the mouse addition to the keyboard would never catch on either . but i was talking more in the long LONG term. for the sake of argument, lets compare the conceptual "ultimate" gaming systems we as humans have dreamed up: they are of course, the holodeck and the matrix.

the holodeck, i think you will agree, is the ideal motion controller. you are the controller, and can do virtually anything, anywhere, as anyone... but the only thing you can ever change is the world around you. you are always you and you are always limited by your physical... limitations. anything outside the bounds of normal human movement, say magic, controlling anything that isnt human, or even precision of aiming, has to be abstracted into some motion you would never connect to any real action because it isnt a real action. even if it was perfect, talking into space to select a spell isnt exactly the most natural thing in the world. even if there was a system of standardization, your body is never going to be more accepting of supernatural ideas than your mind; thinking about magic is a lot more natural than any motioning, no matter how many episodes of avatar you watch .

then there is the matrix; the end result of "basic controllers" were the gap between thought and action is completely closed... your thoughts ARE the action. here the only real hang up is the obedience software EA downloads into your brain because you skimmed through the EULA. not only can you be a flying octopus with laser eyes, but developers are completely free to design a game around a control system for that; a billion neurons has far more potential than apposable thumbs. and thats all there is to it really; mentally abstracting something into a control scheme is plain and simply easier than physically abstracting it, not just for players, but for developers as well.

no amount of technology will ever make doing fantastical things feel more natural in person than in your mind. and keep in mind (is that a pun in this context? if so im sorry) that we arent all trained soldiers, so even CoD would have to be pretty fantastical in order for us fatasses to be able to play it in the holodeck. in the end it isnt a matter of technology or familiarity, but just how we humans work.

TL;DR: the mind is the "controller" of the human body. motion controls are approaching immersion from the wrong side of the road, trying to facilitate games to one thing we control rather than what we control our body and everything else with.

and i must say OP, your taking the hate very gracefully; people insta-flame you for daring to mention kinect, and you resist the urge to flame back. well played .

I appreciate the kudos on my wall mannered forum etiquette. I don't really believe in flaming, and I appreciate a good discussion. You bring up some interesting points. Virtual reality is really the end-point for this type of technology, unless we can do some form of video game simulation in the mind. I honestly think the most promising advance in virtual reality style gaming was shown in the Battlefield 3 video recently that showed a guy on a multi-directional treadmill, with a mock-gun, a shock suit to simulate getting shot, and 360 degree screens. As far as I know, the Kinect plays a fairly big role in the setup. If you haven't the video definitely check it out.

Another interesting point you made is that we are not soldiers. That's always going to have to be something that game develops must overcome. They must either help train us to the point of competence, or they need to guide our actions to make them look more profession (Like swing a sword in a game and smoothing out our motions to make it look good).

Either way, I think there is room for motion gaming in the near future, though some innovation will be needed.

Yeah, a HUD would be nice would it. I saw a video on youtube recently of a guy with a shoulder mounted Kinect that projected an image onto his hand that he could interact with. I actually initially navigated the menu's swiping either up or down, left or right, but because some programming limitations it caused complications and bugs with the rest of gameplay.