A very cool integration of FaceAPI and the Source engine to create head tracking movement in games using just a standard webcam.  Probably less convenient and more strenuous than using a traditional controller, but still cool tech nonetheless with a lot of potential for other applications.

Info link: http://torbensko.com/software/head_tracking/

Spotify is a fantastic online music service.  In short, it provides a large music library for free legal streaming online.  Every few songs you will hear an advertisement, but its a small “price” to pay for such a great service provided at no charge (you can pay for a premium subscription to get ad-free higher quality streaming).

One of the great features of Spotify is being able to create a music playlist and share it with other Spotify users.  Whilst I still have some free time (still on my holidays from work) I figured I’d create a couple of playlists to share.  Sign up to Spotify, download and install the client, and check out these playlists (tracklists after the jump):

• Rock playlist: Listen with Spotify.
• Chilled playlist: Listen with Spotify.

Read the rest of this story…

Wolfenstein 3D was one of the first games I can remember playing on my PC, along with Lemmings, Ghostbusters II and some form of Pengo clone.  For a long time I even had to play it with the only sound coming from the internal PC speaker (which could produce blips and screeches) due to the lack of a Sound Blaster card.  I’ve always held a soft spot for the game, mostly due to fond memories and nostalgia more than anything else, so I was chuffed when I heard it was coming to Xbox Live Arcade, especially at the appropriate price of 400 Microsoft points for all 6 episodes (which still include the secret levels from the original).  Naturally, I snapped it up on release.

So far I’ve completed 4 out of the 6 episodes.  The port has its plus sides, mainly that its the easiest version of Wolfenstein 3D to control that I’ve ever played – in the original PC version you had to hold down Shift to strafe, making movement anything but intuitive by today’s FPS control standards.  Also, the addition of achievements adds extra incentive to complete goals such as finding all the secrets in a level, 100% kill count and 100% treasure looting.  Sadly, the port is not without its flaws, which is pretty disappointing given the age of the game (17 years old at time of writing).  One of the biggest flaws of the port is the dodgy collision detection between the player and pick-up items on the ground (e.g. treasure, health, ammo).  Its often the case that you need to be facing the item to pick it up and that walking over it backwards will only work half the time.  The fact that this issue was not present in the game 17 years ago makes this even more disappointing.  Also, the music plays at a much slower tempo than the original version, perhaps not an issue for players new to the game but apparent to those who played the original a lot – unnecessary (why the hell…?) and degrading to the music.  Other minor glitches include a small pause before toggling a secret wall, the boss kill cam playing too fast (with the sound not in sync) and a few graphical glitches such as edges of walls flickering and slight gaps appearing, as well as being unable to stretch the game to 16:9 aspect ratio.

Its still good old Wolfenstein 3D, a game that perhaps doesn’t hold up these days to those who don’t have the nostalgia of having played the original, but enjoyable to replay for those of us who did.  Its disappointing that a port of such an old game can still have issues, but thankfully the issues are minor enough to still allow for the nostalgia to shine through.  For 400 points its nice and cheap with a good few hours of gameplay throughout its 6 episodes.

Last night I got back from Majorca.  We stayed in Palma Nova, which was a great place with nice people and plenty of sunshine!  We also checked out Magaluf – a bit more lively but a bit less respectable, though great if you’re in the party mood.  I’ve uploaded plenty of photos and some videos to my Flickr account.  You can check out the full set here.  Here are some highlights:

And finally, how brilliant is this sand castle fortress we seen on the Palma Nova beach?  Breathtaking skills and attention to detail:

Majorca 2009 on Flickr.

I’m off to Majorca for a week later this evening.  Everything is packed and the PSP is loaded with films and TV episodes for the trip (hoping the battery holds up so I can watch at least one item on the plane).  I’ve a few plans for blog posts I want to write once I get back to hopefully get back into the swing of blogging.

Adios!

I’ll be co-presenting a lecture for the Belfast Institute of Engineering and Technology at the Malone Lodge hotel in Belfast tomorrow evening (Tuesday 18 May) at 6.30pm. The event is open to the public, so if you’re in the area and have any interest in technology and its application to stroke rehabilitation therapy, or alternatively have nothing better planned, come along (and say hi!). :)

Edit: I’ve uploaded last night’s presentation to SlideShare:

The talk mainly focused on our current work with webcam games (background had been covered by a colleague in a previous presentation), as well as the Wii remote, which members of the IET had shown interest in.

I was a huge fan of id Software’s games when I was younger.  Games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are probably half the reason why I wasn’t all that bothered about console gaming until about 5 years ago.  I realise now that was naivety; naivety coupled with the lack of being able to afford a console when I was kid and no one wanting to buy me one, since a PC was “more than enough”.  Anyway, these days I love reading about what went on behind the scenes back then, when 4 geeks could get together, drink copious amounts of diet coke, eat pizza, listen to Metallica at ridiculous levels and make damn fine games, without the need for huge studios or budgets.  Masters of Doom by David Kushner is a fantastic book, entertaining and insightful, about how id Software came to be and how their games were made, focusing mainly on John Carmack and John Romero.  A few days back, John Romero, currently working at Gazillion Entertainment, blogged about a video he’d come in to possession of, edited, and put up on Vimeo for all to enjoy.  Its some footage from 1993, while Doom was in development, which visits the id Software workplace and shows some of what went on there – most notably the music of Bobby Prince and John Romero showing off some Doom work-in-progress. Check it out…

John also recently blogged about an article from 1994, shortly after Doom was released, which Gamasutra recently republished and is well worth a read for further insight to the design and development of Doom.

On Tuesday I presented our group’s work on stroke rehabilitation games at VS Games ‘09 (First International IEEE Conference in Serious Games and Virtual Worlds).  I was pretty nervous considering it was my first public conference presentation but it went alright in the end.  More surprisingly, however, is that we won best paper at the conference!  Hurrah!

I’ve included the presentation below for anyone that may be interested in viewing it.  It can also be downloaded from the SlideShare page.  Hopefully in the next few days I will also be able to add the audio of the presentation to this.

Next week I’ll be presenting at the IEEE VS Games 2009 (March 23-24) conference in Coventry University.  I’ll be discussing our paper, “Serious Games for Upper Limb Rehabilitation Following Stroke” (Burke et al.).  This will entail a bit of background on stroke, a look at the existing ways technology has been applied to stroke rehabilitation, a discussion of game design in rehabilitation and finally a look at the games our group has developed for upper-limb post-stroke rehabilitation.  Apparently it will also be broadcast into Second Life (see VS Games site for details), as if I wasn’t nervous enough already.

Following on from last week’s review of And So I Watch You From Afar’s upcoming album, the video for Set Guitars to Kill has just been uploaded to Vimeo.  Check it out!

(I can see myself in the crowd!)