Razer demoed its new motion controller, the Hydra, with Portal 2 out at CES 2011.
CES 2011: Away from the news of
ARM powered windows and
“superphones”, peripheral manufacturer Razer has been one of the companies to catch our eye out here at CES 2011, with a motion controller for PC named Hydra, that looks similar to the Playstation Move.
Comprised of two wired handheld, nunchuck style controllers, motions are sensed not by a camera but by a small electromagnetic field generator positioned on the desktop.
Moving the controllers disrupts the field, allowing for a very precise in-game movements, and without the need to stand 10 feet away from your monitor. The technology is being developed by SixSense, and was demoed extensively using a build of Valve's up-coming first person puzzler, Portal 2.
We were shown the Hydra performing feats of surprising accuracy, such as threading a companion cube through a small space and resizing in-game objects to solve puzzles - a new feature for Portal 2.
Razer also stated that Valve planned to release special, motion control only levels in Portal 2, which would come bundled with the controller. Support in other games is patchy right now though, with only Left 4 Dead mentioned as another compatible title.
Still, the Hydra looked to offer a unique, smooth and very accurate experience, and we're really looking forward to putting it through its paces when it's released later this year. Let us know your thoughts in
the forums.
New Portal 2 gameplay mechanics were on show, including resizing and altering the mass of objects to solve puzzles
10 Comments
Discuss in the forums Reply"...a small electromagnetic field generator positioned on the desktop."
...what could possibly go wrong with that? :|
However, if they find a way to translate all the Wii/Play/Kinect inputs into Hydra inputs ... Mmmm!
Another win from Razer!
PMSL
http://kotaku.com/5727146/this-is-portal-2-played-with-a-magnetic-motion-controller
Here is a video of the controller in action.
You're welcome.
I'm not convinced it would be better than using a mouse and keyboard (at least for Portal 2) but looks promising and nice to see this sort of tech head the PC's way.
This is the devkit of the same tech, ignore pricepoint as it has not been mentioned officially yet.