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Games Entertainment

Location-Based 3D Audiogame Debuts 36

Posted by simoniker from the who-ya-gonna-call? dept.
Ant writes "Demor is a location-based 3D audio shooter - according to the official site: 'This highly innovative game was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of seven EMMA-students for the Bartimeus Institute for the Blind. Demor does not only focus on the entertainment aspect of computer gaming, but also attempts to contribute to the emancipation of the blind and visually impaired people in order to enhance their integration with the 'sighted' world. It is a proof of concept developed on the basis of theoretical and practical research' - there's a preview of the game over at AudioGames.net, who also cover Drive, a demo of an audio racing game created for the same institute."
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Location-Based 3D Audiogame Debuts More

Location-Based 3D Audiogame Debuts

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  • 'Dramatic Radio?'

  • Screenshots! We wants screenshots! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kickasso ( 210195 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @01:53PM (#8522730)
    No, wait...

    • Actually they have a sort of equivalent here [student-kmt.hku.nl].

      Also since the game is largely audio laser tag, where you wear a bunch of equipment and run around, you could take photos of the game in motion when players are doing all sorts of wacky stuff.

      What I wouldn't mind would be a consumer-level audio game. You would think with the current state in 3D audio technology you could make a version where you sit down and move a mouse.

  • Audiogame Violence (Score:3)

    by Iscariot_ ( 166362 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @01:53PM (#8522736)
    Do you think an audiogame like this will recieve the same attention as videogames for "forcing" youths etc. into being violent? I mean, surely we shouldn't be affraid of those that cannot aim?

    (fyi: This is humor.)

    • Perhaps not, but here's a relevant disclaimer from the "Shades of Doom" audio FPS website [gmagames.com]:

      "Due to the graphic nature of the sounds, GMA recommends that this game should not be played by people under the age of 13."

      To figure out what "graphic sounds" are I suppose we would have to map the sound to the visual image or situation it creates. If the situation is graphic then the sound should qualify. But an inherently violent situation, such as killing, can be audibly graphic or not graphic at all. Killing s

    • I know this is humor, but if the reaction to Eminem by angry mothers and religious people everywhere is anything to go by, you can sure as hell bet they'll be blaming it on the audio games.

  • It really need VR glasses to make it 'happen'... The technology is sweet...
    Now imagine if you could 'see' the battle field, and you and 63 of your friends could mass at a local soccer field and play things like this -in real life- -in VR- while actually having to scramble around, duck, weave, etc... There'd be no more whhite, pasty geeks!!!

    Seriously, I think the technology is cool, but I don't tihnk it will take off due to the LACK of graphics, completely... but the concept is _very_ cool...

  • Market (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Flozzin ( 626330 )
    Computer games require alot of time and money to make. I wouldn't think that there would be that big of market for a game that only the blind are going to play... Also with all the extra stuff you need, laptop, gps, and "the head tracker", this would be a very expensive game to get. Not to mention the cancer causing radio waves from this head tracker travelling right through your skull... But hey, if the blind love it...
    • >>Not to mention the cancer causing radio waves from this head tracker travelling right through your skull... But hey, if the blind love it...

      I'm with ya 'till that 'if the blind love it' part.

      Soooo, tumours and zombiefying brain cancer are ok...'if the blind love it.'

      Hehee, I can see the marketing now!

      'Toasted Krusty O's, with your OWN jagged metal 'O'! It's OK kids, the blind LOVE it!'

      'Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing substance which
      fell to Earth, presumably from outer

    • Re:Market (Score:4, Informative)

      by jilles ( 20976 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:32PM (#8523230) Homepage
      This wasn't a market study but a technology study. Actually the hardware requirements are pretty modest: some GPS hardware; a computer with 3d sound, some headphones and a joystick. In a couple of years all of these will probably be embedded in most mobile phones. Aside from that, a gps device might come in very handy if you are blind.

      I saw a demo of this on tv yesterday. Some blind kids were having quite a bit of fun. It looked really silly seeing them move around seemingly random in some field. But the whole point was that this kind of stuff is possible with off the shelf hardware and a couple of students doing some coding after classes.

  • i don't know... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @02:02PM (#8522851)
    walking around with a headset and holding a joystick connected to your plastic backpack is not really the best way to "enhance [one's] integration with the 'sighted' world." (more like the best way to integrate yourself with a "kick me" note taped on your plastic backpack.) that said, it is fairly cool technology.

    sorta offtopic, regarding 3-D audio technology (EAX, A3D), does anyone else find them to be highly lacking? For example, in America's Army, I've noticed in the training missions when you are required to listen to someone talking to you, the best sound comes when you've turned your head 90 degrees to the speaker, so one "ear" is directly facing him. The only time one needs to do this in real life is if one is hard of hearing, or in an environment full of background noise. Its like the designers have the right idea, they're just not implementing some facet of how we process sound properly. I can't see how the algorithms currently in use could be implemented in the game the article refers to. Hopefully software developed for people who use their hearing as the primary sense of input does a better job of capturing the real world phenomena (and that it eventually makes it's way into gaming audio technology)...
    • in America's Army, I've noticed in the training missions when you are required to listen to someone talking to you, the best sound comes when you've turned your head 90 degrees to the speaker, so one "ear" is directly facing him.

      You mean just like how your ear would be positioned if you were wearing headphones?
    • AA has the worst sound I have ever played with. In HL and the mods you could always tell where the shooting was comming from, but in AA...You can't tell if that nade exploded next to you or on the other side of the map. Footsteps are pretty useless also. Notice that just a normal set of headphones are needed for this game for the blind? You would think they would have suround sound headphones required....
    • sorta offtopic, regarding 3-D audio technology (EAX, A3D), does anyone else find them to be highly lacking? For example, in America's Army, I've noticed in the training missions when you are required to listen to someone talking to you, the best sound comes when you've turned your head 90 degrees to the speaker, so one "ear" is directly facing him

      It sounds like a problem with the implementation, rather than the technology. That being said, from the day I had to ditch my Aureal 2 based card, I've lamented
    • It sounds as though you might have your sound settings wrong.
      I've had similar problems with some games.
      What is happening is the game is trying to pipe sound to the centre speaker.
      However I do not have a centre speaker, and had to go manually diable it.

      Give it a look, might be your problem
    • You problem is that you don't have a soundcard with Sensaura 3D audio on it.
  • this is just what we need, a whole bunch of blind people going a little too far off the soccer field and into auto traffic because they are "chasing a demon"
  • IIRC, Duke Nukem 3D was the first FPS to utilize stereo sound hardware for positional audio. It was the first one I played, anyway.

    It was possible, though not easy, to make it past the first level with the monitor turned off. Since rockets had a finite travel speed and made noise on impact, they could be used like "sonar" to determine distance to walls.

    When a tree was hit, it would burn and make a crackling sound. When a fire hydrant was hit, it would burst open and make a water-spraying sound. All of the
  • This reminds me of this slashdot story [slashdot.org] about on-campus digital "ghost" assistants: which are auditory and invisible.

  • More games for the deaf (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chris Canfield ( 548473 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMchriscanfield.net> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @03:02PM (#8523548) Homepage
    All in play [allinplay.com] has a multitude of card games available for deaf players. They also debued an audio-queued version of Quake several years ago at the monthly Boston Post Mortem, but have yet to release it to the general public.
    • "They also debued an audio-queued version of Quake several years ago at the monthly Boston Post Mortem, but have yet to release it to the general public."

      What do you do? Move the mouse around until you hear a sound cue? Sniping has to be a BITCH with that.

      • Well, yes, in fact, you do have a "crosshairs" sound queue. It actually sounds like a sitting duck quacking. Your opponents have footsteps when they walk. There is also a sound queue for scraping along the wall (positioned to let you know the angle of the wall), and a queue to let you know that you are facing a narrow hallway. I forget what the queues for weapons and powerups sounded like. All of the queues that require aiming do a form of mutated 3D sound, so that it gets significantly louder when you
  • Make it work on my IPOD or PDA.. it would be great fun to play FPS while driving in your car or walking on the street. Even better make it work on my Cell Phone, and i could play online games while shopping with my girl friend. MAKE IT HAPPEN....
  • "This highly innovative game was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of seven EMMA-students for the Bartimeus Institute for the Blind."

    I'm sighted you insensitive clod!

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