Ouya - Android based open gaming console

[erico]

lets make a riot! go in street and scream THE REAL OPEN CONSOLES ARE HERE YET! WIZ CAANOO PANDORA THOSE ARE OPEN not a stupid mokup of ouya

I see no bashing, just points raised, sometimes on a little fun way.

...

That is just a joke for me, do you actually believe he is going to really raise a riot?

 

[elwing]

you are maybe right but there are dozen of other exemples...

 

[Null]

edit: haha Strigoi, that is going to cost 40$ donation, now don´t complain if you get cats...

I most certainly will do, because i've got too many of them as it is.

 

[erico]

oh heck...I might as well toss in some bucks too!

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

I suspect that Craig will not be able to resist the temptation of attacking OUYA for some time thereby putting any of his future projects on Kickstarter at risk.

I don't think that Craig has attacked Ouya in any way, merely voiced some seemingly entirely legitimate concerns based on knowledge & experience. Guess time will tell if those concerns were justified.


Like many here I really wish Ouya well & would love to see them succeed but I just can't see how their business model will work at approx $120 per order delivered, without selling millions of units.

I also think Craig didn't attack them. He was being really harsh, but there were a lot more people from the industry being way more harsh.


In Germany, Golem.de asked me for my opinion (you can find it here).

A few thing to consider. Words are subjective. Criticism, even valid points, can be considered destructive when they are constantly belted over and over. Hasn't your own business suffered from all the years of relentless criticism? The OUYA team singled out Craig's criticism specifically which leads out that he may have crossed the line. Those "other" industry critics Craig speaks of haven't announced putting a product on Kickstarter in the near future like he has. The final decision rests with Kickstarter. It would best for Craig to just bite his tongue if he plans on using Kickstarter but will he?

I'm actually starting to think something Mr.Loon said could be true, we might not need Kickstarter. Also the prediction of the 'kickstarter bubble bursting' may well come true before we're ready to go with the P2 anyway.


I'm starting to think that after the success of the 1Ghz Pandora we could take in about 1000 orders for the P2 via normal means anyway and not have to pay KS $70 per unit. Remember we plan to only take orders when we're near ready for production as we did with the iCP and 1Ghz Pandora.


As of tomorrow the 1Ghz units will be shipping and the iCP was a success before that. We do know how to deliver a product now and know when to say we're ready to take orders.


I guess we will talk about it closer to the time in more detail. I am ambivalent about it.

I wondered if this was a possibility also.It may be possible to bypass kickstarter for the p2 but as you say there's plenty of time to think about it.

 

[vcoleiro1]

@Exophase


In regards to the Ouya being used as a dev pc or htpc or a project board, there are no comparable options for the price point with its specs. Sure the Mk802 is in the same price bracket but its missing a lot of things the ouya has namely the Tegra 3 processor not to mention the controller and 8gb. As far as a project board there isn't anything close to those specs for that price point.


As for a standard on game controls , I doubt Ouya specific games will be the majority to be honest , if you look at the games in development for it now on kickstarter they are cross platform and include plain old android. The hope is that games that support the ouya's controller become popular enough for the industry to wake up and realise that people want to play games using real controls. IF this happens there is a hope developers will build real control support in there games, this would probably mean there's a chance the ouya's controller might become the standard. All this is a hope of course and hinges on the ouya's success, without it's success there is nothing really pushing android gaming using real controls and the need for a standard controller to support. In all honesty it would be ideal if Google came out with a controller and said this is the standard to support - That would be ideal , but it hasn't happened as yet


As for Onlive, I'm hoping you will be able to use the Ouya's controller. If thats the case and you plan to use Ouya then thats a $50 saving over getting another android device which would have cost more to start with and then having to buy the $50 onlive controller on top. So sure you can use other Android device's with Onlive, but for no where near the price point


As for sixaxis , I said controller generally, not that I don't have faith in the Ouya controller, but because I'm not sure if sixaxis will support it out of the box so to speak. I'm not all that familiar with the controllers sixaxis supports. Hopefully it does support it, otherwise you will need to use a PS3 etc controller that sixaxis does support.


Personally, I'll probably consider buying Ouya for a project board. But that said thing's are dropping in price so quickly and specs are increasing so fast it's crazy. But then again if you adopt this thinking you would be waiting for ever.

 

[Exophase]

8gb?? You mean 1GB of RAM right? Is someone using gigabits here? It's true nothing is on par with it right now, I just wonder how much that'll start changing after it's released (and frankly I'd be a little surprised if they kept their spring 2013 goal, that's really ambitious). Especially if they keep it at Tegra 3 for its entire run, which so far they've been implying..

 

[DisgruntleElf]

I'm actually starting to think something Mr.Loon said could be true, we might not need Kickstarter. Also the prediction of the 'kickstarter bubble bursting' may well come true before we're ready to go with the P2 anyway.


I'm starting to think that after the success of the 1Ghz Pandora we could take in about 1000 orders for the P2 via normal means anyway and not have to pay KS $70 per unit. Remember we plan to only take orders when we're near ready for production as we did with the iCP and 1Ghz Pandora.


As of tomorrow the 1Ghz units will be shipping and the iCP was a success before that. We do know how to deliver a product now and know when to say we're ready to take orders.


I guess we will talk about it closer to the time in more detail. I am ambivalent about it.

Then be all means ignore me. Fire away. Better for you to be in control of the money then those guys. Kickstarter could change the rules at anytime. More power to you.

 

[SNESFAN]

@Exophase
In regards to the Ouya being used as a dev pc or htpc or a project board, there are no comparable options for the price point with its specs. Sure the Mk802 is in the same price bracket but its missing a lot of things the ouya has namely the Tegra 3 processor not to mention the controller and 8gb. As far as a project board there isn't anything close to those specs for that price point.<br />

Check out the odroid-x from hardkernel, it may not be a tegra3 but its another quad core cortex a9 / mali400 samsung chipset. Costs 130$ but you dont have to wait till march of next year, should be everything the ouya is minus the case and controller. And looking at it and from my experience with the original odroid you should be better off tinkering with that as hardkernel is known for documenting everything and giving pretty good guides if your an os developer.

 

[erico]

oh, where did my post go?


Heck, sorry I never pressed the SEND button... :wacko:


Here is what I meant by copy and paste:


I agree with Vcoleiro.


The android joystick support is a great idea, but I don´t think google is in for it now, maybe they buy it out later?


Even though I stated a lot of stuff people may consider ´bad´, I like the idea, and agree with vcoleiro.


It is just that won´t kickstart it, but will wait to see what happens when it launches and what happens right after before I through chips on it.


I have been considering an android handheld like the JXD or yipiling stuff for quite a while, but am not sure since I have a caanoo and my next phone will sure be android probably on the lines of galaxy stuff.


Google putting up standard controls would be nice, but I don´t feel like they care for it right now.

 

[SNESFAN]

android does have a standard for game controls, where are you guys thinking there isn't one?


http://source.androi...yout-files.html


Look under joystick, it's been there for a while. Android 3.x+ key and axis codes, they are system wide functions.


What screwed things up honestly was the xperia play, they brewed their own hardware control set and button layout, and don't even start with the way they do their analog controls, but google's answer was a standard layout. They don't "enforce it" and never will, it's on the app developers to adopt a hardware control layout for use in their apps. (hopefully common sense would say to use the built "android standard" but in the end it's their choice... The xperia play (although now dead in most eyes) did fix their layout for the most part in ice cream sandwich, but not all of the app developers went back and corrected the layout for the android standard. What you need is just one moderately successful console to have game functions to attract developers, or have a flood of customers hitting up those app developers and asking for android standard key mappings for hardware controls, that's all.


I understand it would be nice if all games supported hardware control, but being a an open platform, you have to let developers chose to not support it.


now one way the ouya could screw the pooch would be to not follow this control guideline and do their own thing.


as far as the sixaxis, that shit is hacky to all hell, it overwrites your bluetooth drivers to make it compatible, then it goes and turns the analog sticks into digital button mappings, then shoves it into your system with a IME that overwrites any other keyboard (physical or onscreen) yuck! please don't use that as a reference for a good design for a control setup.


I love the bluezime app, but it's the same thing as the sixaxis app, it turns stuff like the iCP, wiimote etc into a keyboard IME as well. It's absolutely needed for 2.x phones (unfortunately most android devices are 2.x) and would not be able to support it otherwise untill they upgraded to 3.x+

 

[2bit]

That was not a complain, but his opinion plus another state of option, thanks TrashyMG.


I have stated 4 points a couple posts ago, does anyone have any ideas to discuss those? What do you guys think about it?

Well um if you say so but - when it comes to someone stating something random such as that it seems not to have to do with the subject and thus be totally irrelevant - sorry tottal nerd here

 

[erico]

Those were not random but my opinion on what kickstarter provides when a grand scale team comes up. Can you discuss those points further?


It seems as stated by mates, on point 1, even by donating you get "consumers rights" on your end as far as you are american?


What about the others?


@ANDROID


You are right, I never knew or researched a controller standard as that, thanks for the info!

 

[2bit]

Well. I’m personally not that interested, if I want a Tegra 3 device I'll pick up the Asus Transformer Prime.. It's a 10" tablet device, if I slap on the keyboard it's a netbook.. want it to be a console hitch it up with the HDMI cable and use my either the ICP, 6-axis or Wii controller for games... Sure it cost more but I would get more function out of this compared to the Ouya.

Don't complain then just ignore the Ouya and do what you want to and go where you want to go .

Was there any complaining in my statement? That's exactly what I plan on doing. I was just pointing out my reasons to ignore the project.

I apologize I mistook your statement to mean that you were discouraging a niche market item on the forum of a niche market item my bad

 

[2bit]

@ erico I didn't mean that your previous posts were random I meant that when I misunderstood TrashyMG .In my confused state I believed that he was was trashing the Ouya but thanks to yours and his previous post and many many rereadings I have came upon what you truly meant - sorry I did not mean to upset anyone more than my average , I'm just desperately trying to smooth things over !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[vcoleiro1]

The Ouya has 1GB memory and 8gb internal storage (thus the 8gb I was refering to).


As for the Odroid, yeah that is the closest contender for a cheap quad core board but it is uncased, no controller as has been said, everything comes as an add on at an extra cost (which pushes the price up further). Not to mention its more expensive to start with as already said. However, yep its available now if you don't like waiting .


In regards to sixaxis , I thought it does support the analogue nubs say for a PS3, ive seen demos of it being used for modern combat and the analogue input of the PS3 controller being used seemed to be being mapped properly. I thought it was Blutrol(for ios) that converts things to digital 4-8 way directions?. Must admit I haven't heard of the Bluezime app, I'll have to give it a looksy, sounds good.


Yeah it's a pity basically no games for android have support for an external controller, actually I'd be hard pressed to name any. Android really does need a console or something to come out which has games developed for it that have controller support. Otherwise there's not much motivation it would seem. The industry needs to see an Android console with controller based games really succeed before the point is pushed across ie re: gamers wanting controller based games. Otherwise it's just going to be normal proceedings with touch control only games continued to be shoveled out.

 

[2bit]

The Ouya has 1GB memory and 8gb internal storage (thus the 8gb I was refering to).


As for the Odroid, yeah that is the closest contender for a cheap quad core board but it is uncased, no controller as has been said everything comes as an add on at extra cost. Not to mention its more expensive as said . However, yep its available now if you don't like waiting .


In regards to sixaxis , I thought it does support the analogue nubs say for a PS3, ive seen demos of it being used for modern combat and the analogue input of the PS3 controller being used seemed to be being mapped properly. I thought it was Blutrol(for ios) that converts things to digital 4-8 way directions?

I'm having a serious sense of dejuvu could've sworn u posted that same thing word for word yesterday

 

[vcoleiro1]

No, it's a response to Android and others ie I made a comment re: 8gb which was questioned thus I was clarifying above that it's referring to internal storage. The rest is responding to Android's comments above.

 

[Zip]

2)buy a real open console like pandora or an half-open console like chinese android


buy a hdmi cable or a tvout


u made an ouya NOW (for less than 99$)

In what strange world do you live? where is 500$+ less than 99$?

i talk about chinese android less than 99 $ whit hdmi cable


ah! you have a ouya and a Wii U using chinese console like pad

 

[SNESFAN]

In regards to sixaxis , I thought it does support the analogue nubs say for a PS3, ive seen demos of it being used for modern combat and the analogue input of the PS3 controller being used seemed to be being mapped properly. I thought it was Blutrol(for ios) that converts things to digital 4-8 way directions?. Must admit I haven't heard of the Bluezime app, I'll have to give it a looksy, sounds good.


Yeah it's a pity basically no games for android have support for an external controller, actually I'd be hard pressed to name any. Android really does need a console or something to come out which has games developed for it that have controller support. Otherwise there's not much motivation it would seem. The industry needs to see an Android console with controller based games really succeed before the point is pushed across ie re: gamers wanting controller based games. Otherwise it's just going to be normal proceedings with touch control only games continued to be shoveled out.

There is an option to have true analog in the sixaxis... well.. kinda... what it does it translates analog control to a touchscreen event... you have to set and create the touchscreen templates manually... agian, not the "best" option, but it works.


What I was talking about is actual analog input from the controller being seen system wide, I know it's trivial, but it's different than what they are doing, you have to go through an app currently for the sixaxis. I really haven't looked at it thouroughly, the sixaxis app is a robust app, so there may be an option in the settings that allow for android 3.x+ standard joypad axis events, but by default it's either digital, or touchscreen mapping.


There are quite a few apps that support gamepad buttons believe it or not, it doesn't have to support external controllers specifically for it to work either. For example if I say I want my game to do something when the button_a is used from anywhere. Be it xperia play, or a usb or bluetooth joypad (not sixaxis or wiimote, but not exactly excluding them) but something like a logitech, xbox 360 etc, those are already built into android and there should be profiles already that map those buttons to those standard controls. When button_a is used it will do whatever I tell it to do in my game, I don't have to specify it has to come from a certian conroller, or a conroller at all, when that button is used, something happens in game.


totally agree with you on the last part, we're stuck in a situation of "what came first, chicken or the egg?" why support joypad buttons as there really isn't a need for it, why put a joypad in a system there really isn't many games that support it...


I know not a lot round here are fans of them, but those cheap chineese android handhelds are helping the situation, they all use those standard button mappings. Now if they start using real analog controls and map them correctly we would be in buisness... I also hope the pandora 2, if it supports android, that is does the same route and by default uses the button and axis events correctly out of the box.