Onteca – Tag

02 Nov 2009 Event Preview: Develop Liverpool

Hello everyone, i thought i would insert some information about the Devlop event this Thursday which i will be attending along with some other members of the Onteca family. See blog for full event programme.

This Thursday sees the popular Develop conference make its debut appearance in Liverpool.

Set to bring together the best and brightest game developers from across the UK for a day of learning, sharing ideas and networking, Develop in Liverpool boasts an impressive range of sessions and panels. Below are details of the currently confirmed panels.

Highlights include the keynote by Michael Denny, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Europe, and speakers from Bizarre Creations, Natural Motion, Team 17 and Jolt.

Those interested can still register here; tickets currently cost £265 plus VAT. The event takes place at Liverpool’s Arena and Convention Centre, and offers a unique opportunity in a city many consider the cultural capital of the north.

The sessions:

OPENING KEYNOTE: Quality, Relevance, Innovation
The talk will provide a visionary insight into what Sony Computer Entertainment First Party studios are looking for now and in the future when commissioning Original IPs from Independent developers.
Speaker: Michael Denny, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Europe

EVOLVE: Turning Browsers into Gamers for Fun and Profit
The biggest platform with the most potential isn’t owned by a manufacturer or run out of Redmond. Web browsers and social networks host tens of millions of games a day, bring gameplay to new audiences, allow innovative new gameplay ideas, come with a diversity of business models, and are wide open to new entrants. But what can traditional games companies bring to the party, and where should you focus your efforts for maximum impact and reward?
Speaker: Dylan Collins, Jolt Online Gaming

CODING & PRODUCTION: PlayStation: Cutting Edge Techniques
The talk will provide an overview of the current state of the PlayStation platforms and games from a technical perspective. There will be a coverage of several real-world examples of cutting techniques as used in recent and soon to be released PlayStation3 and PSP titles developed by Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios.
Speaker: Neil Brown, senior engineer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

ART & DESIGN: Blocking to Rocking! The art of LEGO Rock Band
Travellers’ Tales has won endless plaudits for the distinctive and humorous characters in its LEGO games. But having mastered a plastic fantastic take on much-loved cinematic heroes, how would its artists tackle real life musical legends for LEGO Rock Band? Matt Palmer, Head of Animation at TT Fusion, gives us a unique insight into capturing the essence of Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and the game’s other rock gods in LEGO guise while operating within the constraints of the Rock Band format.
Speaker: Matt Palmer, head of animation, TT Fusion

EVOLVE: Five App Stores Under the Microscope:
iPhone, Blackberry, Android, DSiWare, PSP Minis
There’s plenty of excitement around digital distribution of mobile and handheld games, but it’s early days – the various stores are finding their feet, while developers figure out how best to approach them. This session will look at five key digital stores: iPhone’s App Store, BlackBerry App World and Android Market, as well as DSiWare and PSP Minis. What are the trends in terms of pricing and categorisation? Which games are doing well and why? And how are developers increasingly looking to release games across several or all of these stores?
Speaker: Stuart Dredge, online editor, Mobile Entertainment

CODING & PRODUCTION: Role of the Production House in Game Development and Marketing
Created during the early development stages of a video game, concept movies can often lay the foundation in the creation of new games. They can be used as an influential selling tool by developers to gain universal buy in from international publishers whilst also giving the development team a vision of what they’re working towards, helping lock down important factors such as the overall look, style and feel of the game. Some of these movies never see the light of day once the game is complete but others serve a multifaceted purpose and are used as a powerful internal and external marketing tool. Tony Prosser, Managing Director of Lancashire based CG Production House RealtimeUK, will be speaking about the role of concept movies in games development. He will also discuss how they created some of their most well known concept movies and marketing trailers including Motorstorm for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Split/Second for Disney Interactive Studios and Napoleon: Total War for Sega.
Speaker: Tony Prosser, managing director, RealtimeUK

EVOLVE: What the Music Industry Can Tell Us about Digital Distribution
The last few years have been turbulent for the music industry as it grapples with the transition from physical goods to digital distribution. What can the games industry learn from the music industry as the sales and delivery of interactive entertainment increasingly move online? Simon Watt of Universal Music reprises his very popular Brighton talk with an updated explanation of what the music industry has got right – and wrong – and what it means for games.
Speaker: Simon Watt, vice president technology, Universal Music Group

CODING & PRODUCTION: How to Get More From your Music and Audio Team (panel)
Harry Potter, Project Gotham Racing, Heavenly Sword, The Getaway, and Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix series are just a few of the titles covered by the careers of an illustrious panel of leaders in their field. Whilst managing hundreds of thousands of game audio production dollars, procuring music, dialogue and sound design services from both in-house and external game and movie sound resources, these senior players fully recognise the commercial imperative and inextricable link of what they do in audio provision with corporate goals, gameplay objectives and console technology. Drawing on their years of experience seeing the good, bad and downright ugly of audio in games, they will distil critical insights for producers, programmers, artists and designers about how to get the most from their audio team and thereby realise the maximum potential for sound, music and dialogue to rock their game production.
Chair: John Broomhall, independent audio director
Panelists: Dan Bardino, SCEE; Adele Cutting, EA; Nick Wiswell, Bizarre Creations

ART & DESIGN: Resurrecting the Alien Breed franchise
If you’re lucky enough to have a much-loved retro game to work with, how do you bring it up-to-date without damaging its DNA? Team 17’s design manager John Dennis outlines some of the challenges and opportunities the studio has faced in bringing its classic Amiga game Alien Breed back to life in the form of Alien Breed Evolution, which it is set to self-publish for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Speaker: John Dennis, Team 17

EVOLVE: Keeping Northern games development on the map (panel)
Game making has a long history in the North of England and much to be proud of, but there’s no denying recent years have been tough, with key studios closing and others fading from prominence. What can be done to ensure the region remains a hub of game development excellence, and what help is already available? Could local studios do more to support each other, or is it better every studio fights for itself? A panel of leading insiders debates the issues.
Chair: Toby Barnes, MD, Pixel Lab

CODING & PRODUCTION: A Bizarre Way to do Real-Time Lighting
The talk focuses on the techniques used in the real-time lighting implementation for Blur, but with a particular bias for how things were done for the Playstation3. Beginning with a high-level discussion of the problems at hand the swiftly talk moves into how these were initially solved in a cross-platform way, but then later optimised for Playstation3. Along the way the speakers share their thoughts on light pre-pass rendering and SPU programming techniques, and offer a helpful ten-step guide to migrating your lighting to the SPUs.
Speakers: Stephen McAuley and Steven Tovey, Bizarre Creations

ART & DESIGN: Why is Playing Games Fun?
Recent research in neurobiology reveals multiple ways in which the “pleasure centre” of the brain can be tripped, and thus multiple ways that players enjoy games. This research also dovetails with the latest player satisfaction models, which show that different players enjoy very different aspects of play. This session explores seven different ways in which the brain responds to play, each corresponding to a different play style, and thus different kinds of videogame. By understanding the variety of ways that a game can provide enjoyment, developers can learn why their games are fun – and how to make them more fun for a greater number of players.
Speaker: Chris Bateman, MD, Hobo International

EVOLVE: Digital Distribution: From Blue Sky to the Bottom Line (panel)
Signing a deal with Steam is no longer enough. From branding to social media marketing; from price discounts to community management, this panel will address what developers need to do to maximise revenue from their digital distribution strategy.
Chair: Nicholas Lovell, GAMESbrief
Panelists: Mark Morris, MD, Introversion Software; Tero Virtala, CEO, RedLynx; Oliver Birch, account director, PlayReplay

CODING & PRODUCTION: 6 Ways to Get More Bang for Your Buck
The bad news: budgets are tight and time is short, yet everyone still wants quality. The good news: there is no shortage of talent! Outsourcing, offshoring, contractors and freelancers – thousands of externals are ready to help you stay under budget and make better games, or, if handled badly, to wreck your project. From formal outsourcing to co-development and remote teams, Beriah’s Kevin Hassall reveals six tricks to get the very best from this wide world of talent.
Speaker: Kevin Hassall, Beriah

ART & DESIGN: Open Mic – Voice Control in SingStar the Method and the Madness
Applying cutting edge technology to casual games in a way that enriches the end user experience in a non disruptive way. Voice recognition technology is notoriously unreliable and most user experiences with existing technology have been poor. The voice recognition technology in SingStar was designed to allow users to select songs and navigate menu options. This presented its own set of unique challenges from both technological and usability standpoints. This presentation will cover the challenges and pitfalls of using voice recognition technology in SingStar.
Speaker: Charlie Hasdell, designer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

EVOLVE: We’re All Indies in This Together
Digital distribution, downloadable content, and casual and social games are fast re-writing our ideas about what a game can be. Leading this charge are a new wave of small, innovative and entrepreneurial developers with very different business models – and often different aspirations – to the conventional games industry. Enter indievision, a new trade body for a new breed of studio. For the first time in public, founder Robert Swan outlines why the new indie sector needs to work together, and what joining indievision can do for you.
Speaker: Robert Swan, co-founder, indievision

CLOSING ADDRESS: The Ups and Downs of Backing 60 Start-Ups
Richard Farleigh, High Tech Entrepreneur and Dragon (from Dragon’s Den)

Networking Party!
After the conference, you will have the opportunity to network with delegates from an event running alongside Develop – Software City – designed to showcase the region’s dynamic technology sector. Now running in its third year Software City attracts an international audience and is an opportunity for businesses and investors to make valuable connections, share ideas and hear from world-class entrepreneurs.

Develop in Liverpool and Software City have teamed up to host a joint post-conference networking party for all their delegates. The party will be held in PanAm on the Albert Dock.

Your Develop pass will allow you free access to the party where you will have the chance to meet attendees and speakers from both events, including Software City’s star speakers Richard Farleigh of Dragon’s Den fame and Julie Meyer co-founder of First Tuesday, CEO of Ariadne Capital and one of the recently announced ‘online dragons’.

Information supplied by Develop.com event article

02 Nov 2009 Indie Game Developers shouldn’t forget the benefits of PR

sophie
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Sophie here once again, today i thought i would look at how the internet can be utilized as a PR tool to help Indie Game Developers promote their games.

Public Relations in a nutshell: PR is defined as the art of controlling information flow between a company and the outside world. When you are an independent games developer producing a game using your own IP, it is easy for your indie roars to be rendered to a pitiful whisper in the noisy and crowded sea of the internet.

This means the Indies have to swallow their pride and remember they are not an EA or Activision and cannot use the same sort of PR methods they use, therefore they need to maximise their flow of information and utilize the web as much as possible.

Making noise

The big guys tend to guard their updates carefully, rarely leaking new information about their game. When they do, it’s very controlled and polished. This strategy may make sense when you are so big that even a small leak of information means multiple Digg front-page stories and coverage by news sites everywhere. For Indies though, your carefully packaged press release would likely fall into obscurity.

This means that you need to get creative, experiment, and make noise often. Since it’s hard to predict what will blow up and what won’t, the more insights you share the better your chances are of getting people’s attention.

Remember that the upside is huge and the downside is small. The only thing you stand to lose is your time if you sink hours into a post that doesn’t earn you any recognition.

The good news is that if a PR attempt fails, no one will see it so you don’t have to feel embarrassed (EA doesn’t have this luxury). Since almost everything applies to games, there are lots of different things you can share.

Making friends

An important part of open development is reaching out to other people in the industry. Contact other Indies, they are your allies not your rivals. You also want to reach out to press contacts and distributors.

Cold emails are always tough, so don’t get discouraged. Meeting people in person is extremely valuable. No matter where you are, you should try to get involved in your local game developer scene. Raiding conferences is also a great way to meet people. I recommend having a box of business cards, an iPod touch with some videos of your game on it.

To a certain extent indie games represent a chance to find out about the next big thing before it hits mainstream so don’t be bashful, say hello. You never know who you’ll meet and meeting people in person turns cold emails into warmer ones.

Building a community

The best way to build a community is to facilitate communication. Create ways for you to talk to fans, for fans to talk to fans and also for fans to talk to you.

It’s easy to think that you might be overwhelmed by visitors to your site if you allow everyone to contact you directly, however this is a great problem to have and most Indies that are just starting out are not lucky enough to have this problem.

Start early. Starting from zero is tough, so get it out of the way now. The earlier you start the more seeds you can plant by launch.

Onsite PR implementation

Blog

The blog is your rock and your most effective tool for sharing your development process with the world. It is extremely versatile and all the original content you produce for your blog can be echoed out to your other pages.

Tips: Use pictures/videos, keep it short, encourage discussion, make blog posts often

Forums

The forums offer a place for visitors to share their thoughts. Unlike the blog which you have to power yourself, the forums are largely fan-run. They provide a great medium to share information and solutions to problems that may arise. They also allow for the sharing of creative ideas and mods.

Tips: Seed the forums with appropriate topics. Try not to crack down to hard on anyone or you may find yourself in the middle of a flame war.

Offsite PR Implementation

ModDB

ModDB is a very indie friendly collection of all video games and their mods. It’s a great place to add your game and keep people updated on its status. If the ModDB staff like your news update, they will promote it to the front page. Many people use it as a news site and keep track of gaming news. It is a surprisingly large site and the community is awesome. Some ModDB visitors have already started modding Overgrowth before it is even released.

Tips: Decorate your page to draw attention to it, update often with high quality content to attract people

YouTube

YouTube is the best place to host your videos. YouTube has HD now and an absurd number of useful features these days. The most valuable thing about YouTube is that people can easily subscribe to your channel and YouTube will funnel more viewers onto your pages by cross-pollinating your video with other related videos.

Tips: Add a link to your YouTube channel in your videos so people can subscribe to you

Facebook

A Facebook page gives you a secondary location to host your blog posts, pictures and HD videos. Facebook is the biggest social network and is designed to be as viral as possible. Whenever someone interacts with your page, the activity is splashed around to his or her friends. This helps people spread the word organically and can cause pretty substantial chain reactions.

However, a Facebook page needs nurturing.

Tips: Feed your blog onto your page’s notes, upload videos and photos individually to the wall so that they are more conspicuous

Twitter

Twitter seemed pretty dubious at first. However Twitter is unique from other pages because it offers a good medium for you to meet your peers in the industry in addition to accumulating fans. Twitter is at worst an alternative to your blog’s RSS feed, but at best, it’s a great way to keep people up to date more rapidly and lets you communicate with tons of other game developers.

Tips: Don’t just link to yourself like an RSS bot, use Twitter to communicate with people

Steam Group

Your Steam group offers a great way to introduce your game to the Steam community. Groups have amenities like screenshots and avatars that you can upload to add some flair to your page.

However, the main asset of Steam groups is the chat room that acts like a public IRC channel tied directly to your game. Because most people on Steam are active gamers looking to purchase games, this PR is extremely well targeted.

Tips: Idle in your Steam group’s chat room so you can meet visitors and answer their questions, offer visitors avatars, you can post important blog posts as announcements

Games Press

Games Press helps us auto feed our content onto certain sites. It has been great for getting our videos onto IGN, Gamespot, Game Trailers and G4. Even if you upload pictures of a pumpkin with the company logo carved in it getting set on fire with a propane torch, Games Press will get it streamed to a few sites.

Tips: just post it; you never know whose attention you’ll get

Game Trailers

Game Trailers is the biggest game video site out there. It’s a constant stream of videos that people watch like TV, so when they post your video, it will immediately get thousands of views.

Tips: Upload videos often, don’t get discouraged if people mistake your early work for the final product, they’ll catch on eventually as they see more videos.

Conclusion

What’s more interesting: a finished asset or an entire time-lapse showing you everything from the initial strokes to the final product? If you can see the appeal of a time-lapse, you should also be able to see the appeal of open development.

There is often a PR quiet period for a game between when it is announced and when it is ready for preview. It makes sense that news sites probably can’t entertain their readers with your latest updates. However, such updates are interesting news to your community, so don’t sit on your hands, and keep showing what you’ve got.

Finally remember to stay agile. The gaming industry is already moving quiet steadily and web based PR tools seem to be moving faster than that. As a small agile company you’ll have the chance to be a first adopter on the next big thing

30 Oct 2009 Development Blog – Normal day at Onteca

sophie
0

Every office has its own personalised methodology when approaching their day to day work load. Many arrive at the office armed with their double espresso venti cappuccino, set in the zone of hammering out a perfected PowerPoint presentation to the corporate big wigs. Some people even knowingly glue themselves to their poorly manufactured and terribly uncomfortable office chairs from the hours of 9-5, unbeknown to them that they are haven’t seen daylight for over a year. This I am happy to report is NOT the working structure of the Onteca office.

With any job that involves an individual to exert their creativity within their work, environment and habitual comforts are essential. At Onteca it is apparent that the company nurtures a freeform style and its colleague’s creative composition through its relaxed approach to business. The Onteca cluster consists of individuals who specialise in various areas, ranging from graphic designers, computer programmers, visual artists and music composer. All of which make Onteca what it is today, a compressed source of enthusiasm and creativity for the world of innovative technology.

Onteca is defiantly independent and want to make their games with as little external interference as possible. They have grown to their size through doing a variety of different projects but our core passion is the production of Computer games. Emerging more as a games developer, Onteca are happy to stay in the shadows of such a commercially run industry and let their work speak for itself. Their work with new emerging technology screams exuberance, modernisation and eccentricity. Components needed in such a conditioned culture where individuals are becoming harder to entertain, and as a result succumbing to the customs of replication.

Onteca to this day

Multitasking is what Onteca does best; here is a little glimpse into what the company is up to.

Bluecoat project – Bluecoat’s is an award-winning art gallery best known for their continuous programme of innovative exhibitions. Dan, Onteca’s own software and computer programming connoisseur is currently working on the Bluecoat project. Bluecoat are looking to improve visitor engagement on their website, this will be done by developing a 3d map. This may sound simple to us techno proletarians; however this requires precise architecture programming in action script 3.

14-19 Diploma – I am sure you have noticed my last blog covering Onteca’s educatory work with students in Wirral. Max is Onteca’s very own film director and interactive media tutor, is currently working with the on the training programme of the 14-19 diploma. The Diploma is an alternative curriculum that combines theoretical and practical study, providing a different style of learning that will offer young people an alternative route into higher education, apprenticeships or employment with training. Onteca provide training in such up-to-date industry standard software packages such as MAYA 3d modelling, Flash, Photoshop, Web Design and Video After Effects.

Onteca Training Programmes – Onteca believes in educating individuals in the different emerging technologies, consequently the company has proposed a new line of Training Programmes. Whether you’re just starting out along the path to be a games developer, or you want to learn how create a custom Smartphone application for your business Onteca will provide a training course tailored to your development needs. Course materials consists of Programming courses e.g. Introduction to C++, iphone 2d and 3d development and intro to CSS. Digital arts courses e.g. Intro to Photoshop, Flash, Autodesk Maya, 3d modelling and intro to web design. And Leadership courses e.g. Thinking the future.

Monsteca Corral– This is a project that is growing ever so close to my heart. Everyone at Onteca has a role to play with the development of the Monsteca Corral game, whether it is creating sounds for the Sdompe’ (Jo), perfecting the artwork of new characters (Rich), working on the architecture of the game (Simon), developing the game as a whole (the maker Ben) or my role of marketing the game to the public.

(Ben: The maker) (Rich: Creator)

Day by day the tick boxes are being crossed off and we are getting closer and closer to the finish line. At the moment Jo is currently making sounds for the game and the characters, this is a very peculiar process to watch first hand when it involves banging chairs against the floor to see the types of sound effects they can make. It is however very interesting to see how different sounds can be manipulated and constructed with such programs as Sound Forge SoundLab. I can’t wait to finally hear how the Sdompe is going to sound.

We now have two months to finish the game so to keep you guys updated I am going to try and keep an up-to-date development diary. Watch firsthand the Monsteca Corral game come together.

See you soon

27 Oct 2009 14-19 Information Technology Diploma

sophie
0

Hello all, Sophie here.

In my introductory blog last week I told you guys that my ground is in Public Relations and how I will be working on Onteca’s new game Monsteca Corral, furthermore Monsteca is not the only thing that should raise some eyebrows. Unbeknown to many, Onteca plays an exceptional role within the Wirral 14-19 Diploma .

The Diploma is an alternative curriculum that combines theoretical and practical study, providing a different style of learning that will offer young people an alternative route into higher education, apprenticeships or employment with training.

The Diploma combines a wide range of elements that aim to develop confident and independent learners with the skills to succeed in the workplace. In addition to a broad range of knowledge therefore, young people will also gain competency in skills such as independent thinking, English, Maths and IT. Although diplomas will give an insight into particular industries and sectors, the skills gained through such work can be applied to all professions.

Originally the diploma consisted of vocational courses such as Hair and Beauty Studies, Construction and the Built Environment and Retail Business. Subsequently the Diplomas are now advancing along with the progression of modern day technology, and no one knows more about advancements in technology than Onteca.

The guys at Onteca are keen to introduce the Information Technology Diploma to their students, covering areas such as:

1.Business: How organisations work and the role technology can play
2.People: How to work well with other people
3.Technology: How to create technology solutions

Plus exploring a cross theme of multimedia, looking at how to design and develop a multimedia products for a particular audience. Onteca and software companies in Atlanta provide training in such up-to-date industry standard software packages as MAYA 3d modelling, Flash, Photoshop, Web Design and Video After Effects.

The Diploma represents a huge opportunity for Wirral students of all abilities to develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes to succeed in work and life in the twentieth first century. I personally believe Diplomas like these will help restore the loss of hope many students have lost, by introducing them to totally different form learning.

For more information about the types of Diplomas available go to the Direct Gov website, or feel free to contact me to learn more about Onteca and their contribution to the 14-19 Diplomas in the Wirral area at sophie@onteca.com

See you soon diploma

21 Oct 2009 New Entry – Monsteca Corral

sophie
0

Onteca have once again expanded their digital clan and taken on-board 23 year old Public relations (PR) graduate Sophie (yes you read it right, PR not a games programmer). You may ask why does Onteca, an interactive media company need the likes of a publicity thirsty PR hound? Because somebody needs to spread the word and show off all the boys hard work.

That is where I come in, my name is Sophie, I have moved ever so graciously from my home in Newcastle to the lovely city of Liverpool to do a 6 month internship with Onteca and North West Vision and Media. My role within the company over the next 6 months will to organise the press / social media and the marketing campaign of their new Nintendo WiiWare game Monsteca Corral.

I come from a background where video games were only played when I was procrastinating from university work, forced upon me at family gatherings and the odd time when my curiosity for my mental age was tested on the DS Brain Train. So basically long story short, I am not a gamer, I don’t know any of the techy lingo I hear spouted around the office and when someone asks me what is my favourite video game I just go blank.

However there is this myth that to market a game the marketeer must know the ins and outs of the gaming industry, this I am proud to say is not true. To market a video game the most important thing to know is who your audience is, how to communicate with them and ability to promote your material in a way that they can relate to.

Leading up to the games release in January 2010 Monsteca Corral will gradually build upon its presence within the on-line stratosphere, giving gamers a sneak peek into what the game has in-store for them.

Over the next 6 months you can follow Monsteca Corral’s journey through the Onteca blog, Twitter feeds and Facebook updates. Watch first hand the release of a new video game and see its progress.

Feel free to drop me a line at sophie@onteca.com if you have any questions about the game.

02 Oct 2009 MonsTECA character: "Monster-Hunter"

rich
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[swfobj src=”http://onteca.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/monster_hunter_walk_persp_ghost1.swf” width=”400″ height=”600″ align=”right”]

28 Apr 2009 This is surgery – Promo Video

dan
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This is Surgery

A promotional video for an as yet unmade first person surgery game for the Playstation 3 – this is surgery

30 Jan 2009 MoCap FTW!

dan
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PsyBot Mocap Test render

This is a quick sample animation render of a little robot guy messing around, The animation data came from our first quick test with our new Motion Capture system, when simon was messing around in a skin tight suit, covered in shiny nipples. Not bad for a first attempt, methinks. We learnt about a lot of stuff that we’ll need to work on next time we get a chance to use the system, mainly regarding the calibration of the cameras, in this we had issues with feet going through the floor, because we hadn’t calibrated it to recognise the space within about 4-8 inches of the ground, we also had some weirdness when simon walked around in certain areas of the space, because we had gaps in the recognised space due to incorrect waving of a stick (with a little shiny ball on the end) in the space, that left the cameras unable to recognise a big donut shaped area going round the middle of the capture volume

29 Jan 2009 Progressive / Interlaced video