14 DAY TRIAL // Game developers that are using the Kinect to build new experiences are just now getting accustomed to the sensor and can reach extremely low latency rates that enables faster gameplay to be displayed, at least according to Microsoft's creative director, Kudo Tsunoda.
Last year, when the Kinect was officially launched, many people flocked to buy it, despite the fact that the experiences delivered with it weren't exactly perfect, with many people complaining of high lag between their actual movements and the impact in the game.
Now though, after the E3 2011 conference, where we saw plenty of new games being announced for the Kinect and many with partial support for it, things are looking much better.
"I think the great thing about Kinect, and you saw so many new types of experience at the E3 keynote, is it's all being down with the same hardware and development tools that have been available for a while - it's just us as developers getting better at using the technology," Tsunoda said to CVG.
Kinect Star Wars was highlighted by Tsunoda, who said that the improved response times can now allow the game to replicate successfully what it's like to be a Jedi and battle enemies with lightsabers as well as the mystical Force.
"You could see that in Kinect Star Wars: we've got the responsiveness down now where you could be blocking laser shots coming in with the lightsaber, which obviously needs to be very responsive to be able to do that. You can even knock the laser shots back at those firing at you by getting in ahead of where they're coming in," he said.
The improved latency is the key to making Kinect experiences that feel great and respond intuitively to the movements of the player, according to the Microsoft executive.
"The amount of precise control and responsiveness you need to do those detailed actions inside a game, and to make those feel right so you feel like a super-powerful Jedi... obviously not getting latency in the game is going to enable that kind of experience. It's super-responsive, and that's certainly unlocking a whole bunch of new stuff."
Many new experiences were announced for the Kinect at E3 2011, including a new Xbox dashboard that concentrates on input from the device, complete with interactive advertising.