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Author Topic: R.mote the new way to control your games!  (Read 15658 times)

jeanfabre

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R.mote the new way to control your games!
« on: June 18, 2013, 12:53:48 PM »
Hi Everyone,

 Very excited to present to you the first step towards the release of a personal project I have been working on lately: R.mote

http://rmote.fabrejean.net/

 R.mote will let your game players control your games with their device. It basically turn your smart phone into a joystick :)

Binding your game with the player device is simple: The user is presented with a QrCode, and the R.mote app can scan it to connect to that game instance. If the user scan it with a regular QrCode scanner, it will be directed to the website and presented with instructions and explanations.

[EDIT] Now working with Unity Stealth Game!


It's currently at a very early stage, and in closed beta, but I have finished the website, it's still very much a work in progress ( hence why I post it here :) so content will be updated as I  progress.

 I am working now on making Unity Stealth game working with R.mote, and I will be calling on you, game developers when I will feel ready for integration. There isn't any restriction for your game, since it only really requires an internet connection, so it should work on any portal or system ( even for facebook games, google play, and all those games portals).

Needless to say that it all runs with Playmaker/Photon :) Photon is used to bind your game with the mobile app, so that all user inputs can be forwarded in real time. PlayMaker handles all the logic, and currently, I am using nGUi for the interface. The SDK will give you freedom of design, so if you don't like the default interface, or don't use ngui, not a problem, the logic is completly separated from the interface ( I am using MVC pattern as far as I can take it).

The mobile app will be free, and likely available on iOS, android, Windows 8 and black berry. The SDK will have its basic licensing free for indie developers with restrictions on usage ( it will be fair, don't worry), and a pro license will be available to access more features and bigger usages.

Comments, ideas, questions are welcome!

Bye,

 Jean
« Last Edit: June 28, 2013, 04:12:44 AM by jeanfabre »

MajorIdea

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2013, 04:52:27 PM »
Love the idea. If it really works as simply as that... it would be reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally cool!

And the website looks top-notch as well.  :)

Flying Robot

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2013, 05:45:23 AM »
Wait... what!

This is revolutionary. I mean controlling a regular game with touch interface! I don't know what to say, tons of ideas are creeping in.

Let's begin with some questions :

1. This is essentially controlling your game over network, like multiplayer games, so there should be regular network lag. And does that mean the games will have to be made like mp games, compensating lags and everything.

2. Does it opens the opportunity to use the features of a mobile device, like accelaration, tilt, location info etc? I want to play drums with my device. :)

3. Can it include multiple devices input for a single game.

You've opened a pandora's box. Lots of question coming your way.

jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2013, 06:03:04 AM »
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




« Last Edit: June 19, 2013, 06:08:06 AM by jeanfabre »

MajorIdea

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2013, 06:10:50 AM »
Controling my game by tilting a mobile phone...




jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2013, 06:59:54 AM »
Hi,

 Indeed, I will have to seek serious funding at a later point when I will have a proper working set of games and demos and the app on the app store, if you count just the unity licences for the mobile publishing ( ios, android, windows, BB) plus the test devices... it's already above $10,000...

bye,

 Jean

jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2013, 07:06:11 AM »
Hi,

 Added a quick video on the initial post showing the connection process just so you get an idea of what's going on: the game offers an interface to connect to R.mote and the user simply has to open the app and scan it.

 If the user scans this Qr with a regular QR code scanner app, he/she will be redirected to the website with instructions on installing the app ( if device supported)

 This test webplayer is hosted online, not locally, so this is a real case scenario here, especially with the very mediocre internet connection that we have here.

bye,

 Jean

Lane

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2013, 08:21:36 AM »
Looks really cool!

Hows the lag time between the connection? I setup my computer in my living room at one point and used wireless mouse/keyboard and that was the worst thing I could have possibly done because the wireless lag made response time delayed and kind of ruined the experience.
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jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2013, 08:28:38 AM »
Hi,

 We'll see about these cases. The experience will be totally dependant on the internet connection quality, that's true. But I have a very bad internet connection with a regular entry price wifi router and it works well, so I am quite confident that it will be ok. I have for example a 40ms ping to our nearest server... that's very bad... yet it performs decently. Fast pace action games like a fighting game or something for sure will very much be affected if you have a bad connection.

bye,

 Jean

Groo Gadgets

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2013, 05:25:28 PM »
Wow that sound like a great idea Jean!

I would be most interested in that same functionality but with a standard wifi connection, would that be possible?

jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2013, 01:14:39 AM »
Hi,

 You mean peer to peer? never really tested this, but I assume it is possible. This would require a proper budget as the whole networking protocole would need to be design from scratch, whereas here, photon does all the work really.

bye,

 Jean

Hushonik

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2013, 01:23:37 AM »
where to get it from?

jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #12 on: June 26, 2013, 03:46:22 AM »
Hi,

 It's still in closed beta. Currently porting Unity Stealth tutorial demo with this, then I'll be able to move into submitting to the app store once it's been tested.

I'll will call for Games developer once I reach satisfactory state for developers to test the SDK. If you want, I'll notify you.

Bye,

 Jean

jeanfabre

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #13 on: June 28, 2013, 04:20:28 AM »
Hi,

 Ok! Unity Stealth game is now fully functional!! check out the first post, I have embedded the video showing how it works.

Few things:

-- notice the very minimal interface required for this to work. One button, and a qr code. You will be free to implement the connection interface the way you want, the only requirement is to show the qrcode that R.mote actually provides when you want to mount a connection.

-- notice that when I lost, the game restarted ( the level was reloaded), but the connection survived, this is critical and it works very well actually.

-- also, when disconnecting ( if you close the app, or loose internet connection or else), you can reconnect instantly by requesting a new connection, you will be served a new qr code, scan it and back to in control. The game itself remains totally unaffected.

Bye,

 Jean

sebaslive

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Re: R.mote the new way to control your games!
« Reply #14 on: July 11, 2013, 08:11:50 PM »
This is amazing, sign me up for beta please (or link to where I can sign up) So many activities can be done with this!!  ;D
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