SAN FRANCISCO—At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) here this week, the RealSense dynamic camera technology was one of the most common themes. Applications of it were myriad, whether genuinely useful or merely fun. But perhaps the most compelling was a game at the show's Technology Showcase that literally demonstrated how RealSense is, and will undoubtedly continue, to reshape the landscape.
Tanked is a pretty straightforward tank combat simulator. Two players on opposite sides of the "board" are each in charge of a tank, with the objective being to blow the opponent to smithereens. The action, however, takes place not on a flat surface, or even a solid surface at all, but in a sandbox—and how its dunes and valleys keep changing is an integral part of the experience.
At the beginning of the game, both players push around the sand, the RealSense camera tracking their movements and adjusting the projected "display" in real time to fill in the valleys with green and cover the higher peaks with snow. After the opponents spend a couple of minutes blasting away at each other using a single joystick and button, they receive word that they need to extract mines from the playing field. They then speedily plow through the land to locate the buried mines and defuse them before time runs out, lest they leave an explosive surprise for later. But moving around that sand transforms the game again, so the next time the tanks take to the battle arena, it's on new, potentially more hastily organized, terrain.
It was obvious from just the brief demo we saw that Tanked is not exactly ready for the big time; in terms of gameplay, it's pretty scant, with the players not doing that much when they're controlling the tanks directly. But as a proof of concept, it's spectacular: RealSense is no gimmick here, but absolutely integrated in a way that makes sense, and the communication between the various parts of the game (the players, the sand, the camera, the projector) is so well structured that the experience is cohesive and entertaining from start to finish.
For pictures and video visit: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2489844,00.asp
source:pcmag.com
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