Love Nex even with some of the bugs that come along with new games. I think you've hit on something even better with online competition. Integrating more of this and AI would be a grand step forward. The home run game showcases the smooth online competition and makes the game even more exciting. I use a plastic wiffle ball bat just for a more realistic feel, kinda. My daughter has grown with it from 2-3 yrs old now and she loves playing NEX if it's 99 outside.
I had the the Xbox Kinect as soon as it was released and we would have people over just to compete, like boardgame night but with more sweat. Could Nex bring back any arcade or og motion games for nostalgia?
Any open source sandboxes we might be able to vibe code with to test gaming ideas for Nex?
Sorry bugs isn't the right term. Maybe more like a glitch with swinging or jumping or a movement that is randomly missed by the motion tracking. The home run game won't swing randomly even though I did. Ninja Turtles timing on jumps feels out of sync sometimes. Just little hiccups like that. I always have as much sunlight and room light as possible and I try adjusting my position in the room as well.
HomeRun Heroes give you a small time window to act - read your timing and height of your swing. It is not designed to mirror any actions.
TMNT’s control takes practice, in short, the camera needs to read enough of your action to trigger the turtle to start the respective action. For some people, it felt like a delay at first.
Any detection inaccuracies can cause problem as well, we are working hard to eliminate those as much as we can.
I grew up with the Wii, and while it’s very fun, it’s nothing like Nex.
Post partum with my second, I knew I needed to take care of my body and health so I could be around a long time for my kiddos. But I have never been an athletic person, I was always the music kid growing up haha so I’ve always hated needing to work out, especially when I work full time and have 2 kids that need my attention. Taking 30 mins after work every day to play active games with my daughter, has not only been so fun and bonding special time with her, but I’ve lost 30lbs! Candy Land gets me to do more squats than a personal trainer! 😂
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making such a fun gaming system that’s amazing for the whole family!!
Active Play in the forms of Nex, HomeCourt, Rouvy, Zwift, YogiFi and others who are merging video games, AI, education, exercise and sporting equipment together, redefines traditional video gaming and exercise. I grew up with a Wii, enjoying hours of bowling, golf and tennis with my mom and siblings and I’m glad Nex has picked up the torch for younger generations to continue associating video games with movement and play. It was sad watching two of the largest gaming companies abandon revolutionary products, technology and fans, to cater to gamers having more precise control or presuming VR/AR would eventually fill that void or bridge the gap. Perhaps someday they will, but that has not yet happened, despite billions being poured into the industry and a decade of development. Truly immersive, captivating and enjoyable virtual reality experiences like Ready Player One, has yet to appear, but it’s been great seeing how companies are combining AI, exercise equipment, video games and movement to help people stay active, learn/improve in certain sports and promoting healthy living through interactive play. Let me know if you ever need a guinea pig while developing new wheels, because what you’re doing is great!
I truly, truly love Nex, and advertise it to all my friends.
But while the technology is great, it also has a few repeating pain points: good but not great FOV, inability to define the max distance (so someone walking behind players doesn't mess things up), occassional "losing" of player focus, and latency that surely could be improved..
It's been some time since Nex was released, I wonder if you're planning Nex V2, that could address many of these issues?
1. Good but not great FOV - The camera itself is ultra-wide-angle. The software adjusts and finds the player in view. Can you elaborate on what you mean?
2. Inability to define max distance - We use camera+AI, not depth sensors. We are still working on ignoring the background players. Improvements will be rolled out as software updates.
3. Occasional "losing" player focus - The software is trying to be as smart as possible to track players. In rapid movements, this becomes harder due to motion blur. Can you elaborate on this more? Which games?
4. Latency - First, turning on TV's game mode would improve it. Games that interpret motions (e.g. TMNT) instead of directly translating your body position to the screen (e.g. Starri) will give you a stronger feeling of latency. Can you elaborate on which games give you latency issues?
We are constantly improving the software. The hardware is constantly evolving; every year, we want to make our hardware more robust and more performant, just like how Apple keeps improving its iPads.
1. FOV - for us, with 4 kids standing perhaps ~5-6 feet in front of the screen, it's sometimes tricky to make them fit in the view without bumping into each other. So perhaps it's wide, but could be even wider? :)
2. depth - looking forward to software improvements, although these often suffer from a "long tail" problem - great when it works, but then it doesn't... I assume dual-camera or depth sensors are not cost effective?
3. "losing" a player - that happens when someone walks/moves behind a player, or even sometimes when players overlap with each other.
4. Latency - it's not bad for most games, but I see/feel it :) Even in something as mellow as Luminous, it reduces the feeling of immersion.
To be fair - none of these (except maybe for 3 sometimes) is too painful, but I just would hope that Nex will be even better in all these aspects in the future.
About the hardware - are you saying Nex hardware changes transparently? Does it mean a new Nex might act better than a 2-year-old nex?
Love Nex even with some of the bugs that come along with new games. I think you've hit on something even better with online competition. Integrating more of this and AI would be a grand step forward. The home run game showcases the smooth online competition and makes the game even more exciting. I use a plastic wiffle ball bat just for a more realistic feel, kinda. My daughter has grown with it from 2-3 yrs old now and she loves playing NEX if it's 99 outside.
I had the the Xbox Kinect as soon as it was released and we would have people over just to compete, like boardgame night but with more sweat. Could Nex bring back any arcade or og motion games for nostalgia?
Any open source sandboxes we might be able to vibe code with to test gaming ideas for Nex?
Thanks for the comment! Can you point us towards the bugs you are experiencing? We would love to fix them!
We are making more games for sure! I am incredibly proud of our upcoming line up!
For sandbox, we will think about it. To set expectation, it is unlikely we have the bandwidth to get to it quickly.
Sorry bugs isn't the right term. Maybe more like a glitch with swinging or jumping or a movement that is randomly missed by the motion tracking. The home run game won't swing randomly even though I did. Ninja Turtles timing on jumps feels out of sync sometimes. Just little hiccups like that. I always have as much sunlight and room light as possible and I try adjusting my position in the room as well.
I see.
HomeRun Heroes give you a small time window to act - read your timing and height of your swing. It is not designed to mirror any actions.
TMNT’s control takes practice, in short, the camera needs to read enough of your action to trigger the turtle to start the respective action. For some people, it felt like a delay at first.
Any detection inaccuracies can cause problem as well, we are working hard to eliminate those as much as we can.
I grew up with the Wii, and while it’s very fun, it’s nothing like Nex.
Post partum with my second, I knew I needed to take care of my body and health so I could be around a long time for my kiddos. But I have never been an athletic person, I was always the music kid growing up haha so I’ve always hated needing to work out, especially when I work full time and have 2 kids that need my attention. Taking 30 mins after work every day to play active games with my daughter, has not only been so fun and bonding special time with her, but I’ve lost 30lbs! Candy Land gets me to do more squats than a personal trainer! 😂
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making such a fun gaming system that’s amazing for the whole family!!
Thank you for sharing your story with us! We build Nex for families like yours!
Active Play in the forms of Nex, HomeCourt, Rouvy, Zwift, YogiFi and others who are merging video games, AI, education, exercise and sporting equipment together, redefines traditional video gaming and exercise. I grew up with a Wii, enjoying hours of bowling, golf and tennis with my mom and siblings and I’m glad Nex has picked up the torch for younger generations to continue associating video games with movement and play. It was sad watching two of the largest gaming companies abandon revolutionary products, technology and fans, to cater to gamers having more precise control or presuming VR/AR would eventually fill that void or bridge the gap. Perhaps someday they will, but that has not yet happened, despite billions being poured into the industry and a decade of development. Truly immersive, captivating and enjoyable virtual reality experiences like Ready Player One, has yet to appear, but it’s been great seeing how companies are combining AI, exercise equipment, video games and movement to help people stay active, learn/improve in certain sports and promoting healthy living through interactive play. Let me know if you ever need a guinea pig while developing new wheels, because what you’re doing is great!
It’s fucking amazing!
I truly, truly love Nex, and advertise it to all my friends.
But while the technology is great, it also has a few repeating pain points: good but not great FOV, inability to define the max distance (so someone walking behind players doesn't mess things up), occassional "losing" of player focus, and latency that surely could be improved..
It's been some time since Nex was released, I wonder if you're planning Nex V2, that could address many of these issues?
Let's break it down:
1. Good but not great FOV - The camera itself is ultra-wide-angle. The software adjusts and finds the player in view. Can you elaborate on what you mean?
2. Inability to define max distance - We use camera+AI, not depth sensors. We are still working on ignoring the background players. Improvements will be rolled out as software updates.
3. Occasional "losing" player focus - The software is trying to be as smart as possible to track players. In rapid movements, this becomes harder due to motion blur. Can you elaborate on this more? Which games?
4. Latency - First, turning on TV's game mode would improve it. Games that interpret motions (e.g. TMNT) instead of directly translating your body position to the screen (e.g. Starri) will give you a stronger feeling of latency. Can you elaborate on which games give you latency issues?
We are constantly improving the software. The hardware is constantly evolving; every year, we want to make our hardware more robust and more performant, just like how Apple keeps improving its iPads.
Hi David,
Thank you for your reply, really appreciate it.
Some replies.
1. FOV - for us, with 4 kids standing perhaps ~5-6 feet in front of the screen, it's sometimes tricky to make them fit in the view without bumping into each other. So perhaps it's wide, but could be even wider? :)
2. depth - looking forward to software improvements, although these often suffer from a "long tail" problem - great when it works, but then it doesn't... I assume dual-camera or depth sensors are not cost effective?
3. "losing" a player - that happens when someone walks/moves behind a player, or even sometimes when players overlap with each other.
4. Latency - it's not bad for most games, but I see/feel it :) Even in something as mellow as Luminous, it reduces the feeling of immersion.
To be fair - none of these (except maybe for 3 sometimes) is too painful, but I just would hope that Nex will be even better in all these aspects in the future.
About the hardware - are you saying Nex hardware changes transparently? Does it mean a new Nex might act better than a 2-year-old nex?