Kinect Lag Can Be Eliminated, Says Developer
Blitz Games CTO suggests that lag is something that will go away with new development techniques.
By Chris Pereira, 08/04/2010
One of the major concerns regarding Kinect ahead of its release this November is lag. Besides the lack of any physical feedback, the lag that some demonstrations have had between when a player moves and that action is registered on-screen has some people worried. But according to Blitz Games chief technical officer Andrew Oliver, the lag we've seen doesn't need to be there and could be eliminated by developers. Blitz Games is currently working on, among other things, The Biggest Loser for Kinect. Oliver was asked about the issue of Kinect lag in an interview with Gamasutra, and he explained that Blitz is not using a skeletal system like other fitness games which "takes a little bit of time to calculate." He said, "But this is all software-based, so where some people might see some little cracks, they're easily fixable by software."
Asked if there is any actual delay between the camera and what you see on the screen, Oliver explained, "It depends on what technology you're using. I have seen a few games with a bit of lag, but that is the software choice of the creators; they've programmed it a certain way, and they'll come up with new techniques. We will tighten and tighten it. There doesn't need to be a lag. We can get it down to maybe two frames behind, which is pretty insignificant; you won't notice. We're just learning new tricks. Ours is pretty tight."
Oliver likens the current learning process to developing for a new game console: "... game designers are running forward in a completely new area and learning this stuff. It's like any console. The first few games will look like nothing compared to second and third generation."
This isn't the first time a developer has suggested that lag won't be an issue; back in June, Rare's executive producer of technology and communications, Nick Burton, claimed, "Lag is not an issue." That was, however, what you would perhaps expect to hear from a Microsoft-owned developer. Blitz is arguably less likely to be biased, but whether or not that is indeed the case, hopefully lag really is an issue that we won't have to deal with in Kinect games for long.
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