Filed under: Hacks, Found Footage, iPhone, iPod touch
Found Footage: First game demo for iPhone video-out
Around here, we used to call her "the unstoppable Erica Sadun" -- well, not to her face, but sometimes when she wasn't paying attention. The Queen of the iPhone Hackers has leveraged the undocumented video-out features in the iPhone 2.2 SDK, in cooperation with the clever folk at Freeverse Software, to produce the first playable demonstration of an iPhone game that displays on an external monitor. The one-off build of Moto Chaser plays best on a 2nd gen iPod touch (since it's got the fastest base hardware) and uses the device accelerometer for steering. On an HDTV, it outputs a respectable 20fps at 640x480.
Erica's post at Ars goes into the details of the work that Bruce Morrison and his team at Freeverse did to bring this custom build to rapid fruition, and it notes that this is in no way a product at this point; it's just a tech demo, although an impressive one. I had the opportunity to see this build in person earlier today at Freeverse's offices, and the surprising thing is how natural it seems to use the iPod touch as a game controller for big-screen play. With a less-intensive offering (a quiz or music guessing game would be ideal) and a design that takes advantage of the iPod's screen for simultaneous content display... well, I'd be game for that.
Video embedded in the 2nd half of the post. Check it out, and let us know what your dream game would be for a video-out setup from your iPhone or iPod touch.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
moo083 said 6:19PM on 12-05-2008
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that any other type of game is not possible at this point. As far as I know, when using video out on the iPhone our iPod Touch, you cannot access the touch screen, which means your only means of input is the accelerometer. Which is why the first game to use this is a racing game.
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Chris McQueen said 1:00PM on 12-06-2008
I connect my iPod Touch to my TV all the time, and use the controls to start and stop the video. The screen is fully accessible during external playback.
moo083 said 1:24PM on 12-06-2008
Using Apple made apps do not count. They have capabilities on the iPhone far beyond that of anyone else, which is why theirs can run in the background too, even though others can't. This newly accessible API only allows access as I said earlier as far as I know.
Tim Irwin said 6:27PM on 12-05-2008
Ive always thought it's be nice to be able to surf the web with the iphone while using an external monitor hopefully this is the path to that evolution.
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drunknbass said 6:54PM on 12-05-2008
i woulndt say first, since i did this weeks ago on my own 3d game before this motochaser demo even began. i also hit a fps deadlock and decided that it was unacceptable for a 3d game to run at 15-20 fps.. and im guessing the 20 fps number they threw out was padded a little.
15 fps leaves you with a jerky game, and something these youtube videos dont show is the quality of the game on the tv.. its pretty bad..
maybe an old tv will smooth out all the jaggies but any somewhat recent lcd or flatscreen tv will most likely display a crap picture since the outputted res is so low.
FV Bruce said 8:10PM on 12-05-2008
Touch controls are absolutely available. You can make a 2nd window and output to the Device with all sorts of touch options.
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drunknbass said 6:54PM on 12-05-2008
"Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that any other type of game is not possible at this point. As far as I know, when using video out on the iPhone our iPod Touch, you cannot access the touch screen"
not true at all.. you basically draw your game in a complelty different window. so you can take controls or touches from the other window that the device displays..
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mark said 7:28PM on 12-05-2008
TouchGrind!
lay your lcd tv on the ground, and skate on it just like a real board!
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Sam Major said 8:10PM on 12-05-2008
I have absolutely no idea about the technical feasibility or possibility of this.. but what could they do if you could plug your iPhone or iPod touch into the USB port of an Apple TV (assuming they ever open it up for such a use).. would it be possible to have the video upscaled via the TV? There's so much potential with this little platform that could - I can't wait.
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grull27 said 8:13PM on 12-05-2008
Where can I get that cable that allows me to do this?!
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Keil Miller said 10:11PM on 12-05-2008
I think it would be better to use an iPhone for wireless controls and have a macmini do the processing and out to a tv.
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lamar777 said 11:06PM on 12-05-2008
It would make more sense for Apple to configure the AppleTV to serve the game and for the iPhone/iPod Touch to act only as controllers. This would allow for much higher quality/performance of games as well as conserve iPhone/iPod Touch battery power. This could turn the AppleTV into a gaming console and provide incentive for people to purchase one, good for Apple also good for game developers. Developers could sell their games at 2 price points Handheld only and Handheld + Console for a higher price.
The console version could come with the game app to be uploaded to a games menu on the AppleTV, and a controller app for an iPhone/iPod Touch. The controller apps could be downloadable for free via the app store for friends that come over or even be sent wirelessly to any iPhone/iPod on the network from the AppleTV.
[IMG]http://web.me.com/lamar777/games.jpg{/IMG}
YK said 12:53AM on 12-06-2008
I would love to see scrabble working on this, one device displaying the play area on a TV, while 4 other devices hold the tiles for 4 individual players.. Fun!
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DJFriar said 1:08AM on 12-06-2008
The video is gone now. :(
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