Touch, sight and sound

[Byron]

I recently met up with the Phillips amBX people to discuss integrating the amBX system into Multiwinia. amBX is an interesting concept and has to be experienced to fully appreciate what it can do to enhance your gaming experience and the early kits show promise. What you get is two speakers with lights on them, a ‘wall-washer’ which projects lights onto a wall, 2 small fans and a rumble wrist support. Each of these items of themselves is not that impressive but when they work in unison the amBX experience comes to life.

Before we go further I have to let you in on a little secret – when it comes to home maintenance I am useless and around about the time the amBX kit arrived at my house the light bulb in my work room had gone ‘plink’ and died. So, in the dark I set up the amBX kit, plugged it into the PC and switched it on. Now, amBX comes with a ‘scene manager’ that essentially runs a script on the amBX system and some of them have names like ‘fantasy’ and ‘clouds passing’ and I must admit the effect in a darkened room was amazing. The actual system can cope with lots of lights and fans and having experienced the starter kit I want more and my aim is to kit out my whole room with the lot and just lie back and chill out. A think a call to Phillips is called for to order more free kits in the name of research ☺

Being chilled out is fine but what can I do to get this system to add value to the Multiwinia experience? Well, amBX is intended for ambient effects – that is stuff that goes on around you rather than in-your-face so the first thing is to make the system react to the overall lighting of Multiwinia. If you fly across the landscape the lights change colour to match the colour of it or if you fly high into the clouds the lights change to a blue colour and the fans kick in to reflect that you are in a sort of jet-stream. All these ambient changes happen gradually rather than flash because ultimately we need you staring at the screen not the pretty lights.

The story doesn’t stop there though. While the ambient effects are good there is so much more that can be done with the system such as responding to events. Event in the game are things like crate drops, explosions and multiwinians firing or running around on fire. For these we can supply scripts to the amBX driver to go off and do something with the lights, fans and rumble strip based on these events and the plan is to have a set of scripts for each event.

The moral of this story is that Introversion make kick-ass games are totally immersive outside the confines of the screen and the speakers for that total sensory experience. What’s more, if you strategically place the rumble strip we can literally kick your ass!

[Rkiver]

I remember talking to someone from Phillips regading amBX at the Defcon release party, and commenting that it would be great for Defcon, but potentially better for Darwinia, or a multiplayer version of Darwinia.

Can we get some photos at all of the setup you had and so on? Get an idea of how it looks in action?

[d37312m1n3d]

Tasks to do:
-Buy a G15
-Buy an amBX
-Buy Multiwinia
-Buy food, if i still have money
-Buy a new machine cause MW will not run smoothly on it

WHYYYYYY???



Anyway, it seems gr8, when i fly in the sky, and the fans start work ... I'd buy one..

[zach]

You really make me want to hate you, you know that? First you make me want to buy the G15, and now amBX!

Byron is actually not part of the Introversion Staff, but rather a PR-manager for Philips ... and Logitech.

My material minimalism, and Byron's additions to Multiwinia do not go hand in hand, it seems.

[brog]

So like, is any work being done on the actual game, or is it all just about adding integration for obscure technologies that nobody is going to have?

[Montyphy]

So like, is any work being done on the actual game, or is it all just about adding integration for obscure technologies that nobody is going to have?

No, no work is being done. The beta testing is charade, there are no beta testers. Even the claims about amBX and G15 support are a front. They're all just sitting around a cash bonfire while discussing new ways of fooling us that they are a games company who enjoy making innovative games, all just for the lolz of it.

[NeoThermic]

I got a chance to try out the amBX kits with Defcon myself at the Defcon LAN tournament. I second the notation that in the right conditions they provide the most amazing immersion to the world of the game. I'm glad that amBX is being considered for future IV games, it compliments them rather well and it's something that I plan to obtain in the future; the same future that the games are going to be in.

NeoThermic

[Byron]

So like, is any work being done on the actual game, or is it all just about adding integration for obscure technologies that nobody is going to have?

oh, believe me work is being done on the game - these integrations are to ease me gently into the code base so that I can do my real job which is the networking side of Multiwinia.

[desktopsimmer]

When surround speakers were introduced to PC, I thought that was a fad and it would only last a few years. Then I played Alien Vs. Predator, in a dark room. Hearing the sounds coming from all directions really made you soil your boxers (briefs) at anything. Now that the amBX is appearing on the scene, I'm willing to have a look at it with a more open mind,

Maybe one day will be gaming in a holo-suite

[Byron]

AvP was the only game to make me jump and had my heart pounding as I was being chased by a few aliens down a air-con pipe.

Lets be honest for a moment though - why are Introversion integrating these peripherals into their games? Honestly, we don't want to go through a publisher and the price of independence is that you don't get funded for developing your games. I've worked for many games companies before and all of them, apart from EA which was a publisher, had to jump through hoops that the publisher demands otherwise they cut off the money supply. When that happens you can't pay your developers and one by one they leave to go to another developer who's publisher is paying. Eventually your company dies. Of course a consequence of taking a publishers money is that they own the game so they get to call the shots on what you develop. I worked on a game once that started out fantastic but was slowly ground into the grave through the publisher wanting to tun it into a cutesy 'casual' game - the last nail in the coffin was when they asked us to put cakes into the levels for the player to collect. As a result, I can't sell my soul to the devil for anything nice and material in this life cause the publishers already have it.

Companies like Logitech and amBX sponsor Introversion by supplying prizes in the tournaments and marketing which Introversion normally couldn't do because of the cost. So we give them something else in return and that is to make our games work with their products. We won't do just anything though - they really have to add value to the game. Because it is sponsorship they do not own the IP to the game so therefore cannot demand that we do something that we do not want to do.

Independence is what drew me to come and work for Introversion - there were a lot of other companies offering more money to me (almost double) but as I already mentioned I don't have any more soul to give. And if there is anything I have learned from Introversion through speaking with people like Chris is that they would rather die than give up that independence.

[Rkiver]

Well I have a G-15, the old one, not the orange one. I rather love it, and having a multiwinia spinning logo on it sounds rather nice.

amBX. I'm seriously considering it at this point, along with a good speaker setup, and a good chair, to finish off my computer setup.

[(MOR)]

Dont think you can have a good surround sound with your standard sound card (like Philips said in the PDF), you must to have an sound card with good converters and high signal, like that you can help amBX to give his best..

Anyway amBX is based on the previous technologies, what is new here "the Lights, Fans, and Rumble Pad" coming in one kits + some games optimized for amBX kit as DefCon..


Edit:

amBX. I'm seriously considering it at this point, along with a good speaker setup, and a good chair, to finish off my computer setup.

Not really the good speaker setup, but you can say a good setup for a gamer..

The kit based in a modeling sound no more, like when you use simulations speakers to have the sound of some Amp Legend or tube sound.. But you cant have the same sound

[desktopsimmer]

If heating elements was added to the fans, you could 'feel' the squadies blast from the grenade landing near your position. Oh well have to ask the wife if I could strip her hair-dryer for parts

[d37312m1n3d]

And you will have to wait while it cools down, if IV implements an Ice Bomb Or you should plug the fridge to the amBX and play it in the kitchen

[Panzerfausten]

Actually it sounds pretty amazing but if this thing needs drivers, do it gonna work on linux as well as windows?.

c'yaa.

And good look Introversion Software. i hope meet you guys some day!.