Hi,
Yeah, I had the same "wait... what! uhm
" when it started to click in my head, that's why I am investing a lot of effort in this, I think I am on to something here.
1: yes networked controlled, so lags will be present if connection is bad, but I guess I am the only one left on earth having a bad connection isn't it
the current tests shows a very good response anyway, even with a 3G connection. I don't see this as a problem for 90% of the games. It's like any multi user games, they assume and are best experienced with a good connection.
No data compensation is required really, R.mote simply replace your inputs, it's not going to animate your character for you, it will truly be as if the user pressed a key on the keyboard or used a true joystick so you will be able to use the action "get Axis" and reference the inputs you have defined in Unity Input prefs, as well as new one if you want. the lag should far less noticeable because I am only streaming 2 3 values, not all players positions, rotations, etc etc. So I think it's viable. I am tinkering with the idea of providing an editor script that will simply scan your project and replace "Input." with "RmoteInput." because this is essentially it!!! of course in the samples I am preparing, it will show that using R.mote obviously offers unique features so it's likely that games will benefit from taking in account that R.mote is plugged and provide more funky controls because it can.
2: Indeed, isn't that Cool!! I mean you are on your windows "crappy" desktop computer, yet you are controlling a game where you fly a plane with your phone gyroscope! how about that!! this means being able to run games on high end graphic cards that you can't have on your phone, yet benefit from your device goodies like acceleration, gyro, geolocation, orientation, touch screen, even volume ( I need to experiment with this, I would like to let the user control the game volume with the device volume). I also want to experiment with using the device as a pointer for big screen presentation to use it like a laser pen basically, it's feasible if you calibrate your phone orientation to the screen diagonal or even assuming a specific angle range of the phone orientation. LOTS of cool things to provide here.
3: it's not yet implemented, but totally yes, it's a true multi user environment, so it is possible to extend R.mote to allow two devices or more to connect, each controlling their own character, or controlling a complex system together ( like a tank, one drives, one fires) etc. You could have an iPad on the table and players connecting to it to play poker, or fun games around a table. It's also possible to implement AR so that each R.mote device could see something unique that others can't see. this goes beyond playing games, you could play Clue, or any board games like that.
Also, it's not been said, but I am working on localisation, so it will be available in most common language ( both the site and the app), and I will also study the possible to let publisher define their own skin within the app ( since I am publishing the phone app, it will be something like bundles or texture downloads or something), and I want to also allow for games feedback to the device, like on ipad, since I will have a lot more screen estate, I could create a map widget, some feedback like text, gauges etc etc and text input obviously.
Bye,
Jean
