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Sword Art Online

marvigo
Honored Guest
Hi everyone, I am wondering if the idea of developing the anime based game Sword Art Online but differently (sense South Korea has a game based on the anime already in beta testing) by using gloves as motion tracking, and stepping up the technology to the level the anime had (nano brain waves controlling the character). What if we could develop the game where we could spend hours on one game focusing on having fun and our motions are controlled on our will. The anime Sword Art Online is an anime based on technology helmet that received information from the brain and transmitted into the game itself. Motion of your character controlled by you not your keyboard but your mind! I want to start from the basic, the technology we have in our reach, and then step up the level inch by inch ensuring safety and enjoyment as our top priority.

Thanks for reading this.
165 REPLIES 165

FlameHaze
Honored Guest
I mean no offence, but is this a legitimate post?

Things you will need for this project:

1: The right technology
2: Many willing developers
3: Organisation and Money

1: The correct technology for virtual reality such as the features of the Nerve Gear in SAO which accurately reads and transmits 'brain waves' does not exist. The closest you will get is an EEG headset which doesn't provide anywhere near a decent quality for money or a brain implant sensor that would have to be inserted through surgery and would provide unimpressive results.

2: There are many SAO fans and VR enthusiasts out there so finding developers wouldn't be as hard as it's always been. Still, you would need a big workforce.

3: There is not currently a VR MMO in existence that produces content neurally. Hell, I doubt there's a major VR MMO in existence anyway. Considering no company with millions of dollars/euros/GB Pounds/ whatever has invested any time or money in creating one doesn't mean it can't be done. It would be an insult to the Oculus Rift to think that way. But it should be a reality check for you. These guys haven't even come close to an SAO like experience even in R+D Labs. (As far as we know O.o)

To sum up:

You're asking for the realistically impossible. The hardware is not around for SAO like games. It doesn't take a genius to work that out. It's been said many times before: This is Day 0 for Virtual Reality. The stage before the very beginning. We will reach Neural VR one day. But for the next few decades, get comfortable with whatever the industry throws at you.

FlameHaze
Honored Guest
To follow up, I'm sorry if that seemed a bit harsh 😄

I realise you wish to start with tech that's available and work up. I just think the experience you could provide would be disappointing to those expecting an SAO like experience.

cygnil
Honored Guest
...Not that some of us aren't looking at trying to do something with EEG headsets (like NeuroSky's offerings) and the Oculus Rift. But my interest is more in data visualization and mere tinkering, and less in developing anything like a workable game, much less on the scale of what has been mentioned here (which is, at the very least, decades away). It's Day 0 for a lot of these technologies, and to me that's the most exciting place.

marvigo
Honored Guest
Thanks for the reality check. Sorry about that little fanasty XD I guess I needed that. I guess what I wanted to say is by taking steps to that. As in gloves with motion tracking could be the first on day 1, or something simpler not right away nano technology. And thanks for being harsh, that is the type of advice I needed to get my mind out of another world.

cybereality
Grand Champion
I think a SAO style game would be awesome but, like others have said, we have a long road ahead of us. Obviously the goal is to have more immersive experiences and a VR headset is just one aspect of that dream. At least for the near future, we will need to be using motion-controls and other devices that use our body as the input. Direct neural connection will probably come in the future, but I don't think we should have to wait for this to come. There is still a lot we can develop and learn using currently available hardware.
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DeeKej
Explorer
Let's break it down:

As we all know, fully functional neurotransmitters and the like depicted in the anime are a looong time ahead of us. No reason for most of us to really dig into that (unless you're in a research facility that deals with science along these lines, then good luck!).

The world itself? In terms of game assets, you can probably already get started in creating them, however I'd imagine that computational power (and thus the modeling capabilities) will improve quite a lot until we have the above mentioned research even remotely done, making any assets from today be outdated as hell. :lol:

What you could do is create the different in-game mechanics that exist, or just get familiar with how they can be made. Try making sword skills (an animated sequence) activate seamlessly from a starting gesture. Take a shot at making the GUI in a three-dimensional world (will be trying to do that myself this summer). Get down and try to recreate the game logic used, but in one of the currently available game engines (UDK, Unity etc).

TL DR;
If you want to create SAO - get started in trying to create parts of the experience, so that when the technology has caught up all you have to do is connect the pieces! 😉

Colossus
Honored Guest
So Im new to this whole Rift Head set and I love what I see, this is the start of a new World of gaming.
I do want to say that SAO is possible if you look when it was taken place about 20 years from now, By that time who
really knows what we could have on the market. Rather then a glove system to start we have I know this my be bad to say but we have the "Wii" With a simple calibration to the Headset and Already hand held Pieces we can have a "Sword" Part done. Now movement for the start have in a "Off hand" a Joy stick motion, Side-side back-forward. Turning will be as simple as being on your feet and turn to look, Bending at knee/hip to dodge/Roll. This is not crazy nor out of the near future. Being able to see and think about simple motion in a game to Successfully Develope the rest of what you need, Some times you need to jump in the middle and work your way out. Having a four point Pick up Motion Sensor will give you any moving your body will do, like the example before bending at knee/hips. This is not for your grand mother Im giving an Idea about gaming where you are active move your body. The thing that will make this system great that we can TRULY feel in the game. I know about 5 years ago their was a story I read in Gaming Monthly about Body Sensors saying "Picking up a 10 pound sword and 6 pound sheild should feel like this..." Now I have NO clue how do to this and will not make a fool trying to state any thing more, Only this is where every MMO/Board game does fail. If you are 120 pound 5'3 Man MOST likely <--- MOST likely can not Run or walk long distance with 200 pounds on your back simple as that. Me Im 5'10 280 pounds I did football growing up and lift on weekends I could Do such a thing, for an hour straigh No, longer then Man before yes. If this World of game some how can take off and mold its self into something more then what we are thinking now take the Penny for thought. (Sorry about long post and no body mid end Early morning)

-Colossus

CareLevelZero
Honored Guest
I knew somebody would bring up SAO. I'll admit that, when I first saw it, I immediately thought of the Oculus Rift. Perhaps, one day, the technology will be far enough along to create something of that depth and magnitude. For the moment, well...it's up to us to start laying that groundwork; something I am deeply looking forward to. We have a long way to go but it starts right here, right now.
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ExLurker
Honored Guest
Yeah, I've dreamt it. But we're not far. This rant will sit opposite the others, I suppose. I may be new to game development, but I've been around the block when it comes to dream catching.

I would give it 10 years, but perhaps more. That is, for more detailed neural connections. As far as I know the field of neuroscience technology isn't exactly over-saturated, and it's probably filled with the same kind of people that brought us quantum physics. That being said...

At the moment, we nearly have the technology to do this, but it requires an operation. Our current abilities are being spent a bit more responsibly than bringing us into virtual worlds. You see, instead what we have is two notable developments.

One is the military use of technological telepathy. This is so that you can carry out large scale silent operations through thought. Let me clarify, you have on a big helmet. If you think words, other people with gigantic helmets hear them through headphones. This is developing slowly but surely. As I understand it the telepathy machine is currently room sized and understands the gist of some elongated vowels.

http://singularityhub.com/2011/10/05/technological-telepathy-scientists-scan-your-brain-to-watch-the...
http://www.gizmag.com/brain-brain-communication-rats-duke/26454/

More advanced, and rightfully so, is the field of prosthetic appendages. They can connect to your current limbs. These machines transfer neurological signals from themselves to the user. A man has already had an operation to control and feel what a robot feels. He clenches his hand, the robot clenches it's, he touches something with the robot hand, he feels it in his own. He later used the same operation to connect to his wife. They felt each others arms, if I understand correctly.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57570080-76/man-to-get-first-bionic-hand-that-can-feel/

The implications are obvious, these experiments have happened and are successful. We have a depth of understanding of neurons and nerves but it still requires an operation, that something man made be touching some deep nerves. I don't think we'll be able to get gamers to cut themselves for-- actually, virtual worlds? I might prick myself with a needle for that... Rephrase, I'm sure there are laws forbidding that we suggest kids age 10-16 cut themselves to enter a new reality.

MOVING ON.

The technology for sword art online, then, is practically here. I haven't watched the anime myself but understand it to be essentially dot hack. The ability to control machines with the mind is now in the real world equivalant of closed beta. In time all these puzzle pieces may fit together, but for now we can only create, begin building ourselves into groups of dreamers, and watch closely as many cultures and facets of the world as possible. As Art, science, and technology unknowingly craft the building blocks of the reality that inspires us. And when those building blocks are complete we snatch them up from dry ground and dead ends. If they're sucessful, we herald them and say "this is the result of a dream chaser! This is the end game! This is me!".

We can herald or help along prostetic limbs or telepathy, but most people here are more likely to let them go on their way as they work the dream building block of the gamer culture, Virtual Reality, and the Oculus Rift.