Canopy Sensus SDK and FAQ

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by kitrik, Oct 11, 2012.

  1. kitrik

    kitrik New Member

    Oct 31, 2009
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    Software Engineer
    Minnesota
    Greetings!
    My name is Joel Stewart and I am the V.P. of Engineering at Canopy. I am anticipating a few questions around the use of Canopy Sensus as a game controller for iOS games.

    This thread will facilitate answering some of those questions and provide an early informational resource until the official support forums are opened up to the larger development community. I would really appreciate that all conversation that is not related to questions about the technology, SDK, implementation, availability, dev kits, etc. take place in a more appropriate thread. I would like this thread to be informational only.

    If you don't know what it is, take a peek at https://www.getsensus.com

    We are just getting back from GDC Online and are absolutely thrilled with the response from the developers and studios that were there. Given the excitement, we want to bring knowledge about Sensus to the community of devs that were unable to attend.

    I'll answer a few questions that keep coming up:

    iPhone 5?
    Yes. Due to a few unknowns with timing on certain components (you can guess which ones), we cannot commit to a date, but in all likelihood it will come out at the same time as the 4/4s version.

    iPod Touch?
    Yes! 5th gen only and same response as the iPhone 5.

    Android?
    Yes. Later. But only for the most dominant form factors.

    Windows Phone?
    Yes. Later. But only for the most dominant form factors.

    Other?
    Something mini that may be announced in the coming month...
    The technology we are bringing to the peripheral market is device agnostic at its core and we are constantly coming up with more places to put it, but we are starting with the 4/4s.

    Free Dev Kits?
    We will have a limited number of dev kits in the coming months. The first batch of kits will be free. Apply on the website! Future dev kits will likely be free as well. Dev kits will not include the packaging.

    Open SDK?
    Eventually yes. Right now we are still building the core SDK and plugins so we need to keep things a little more controlled until it is stable and ready for a larger group.

    Free SDK?
    Yes.

    Batteries?
    Nope. Power comes from the iPhone and has minimal impact. I will give out more concrete numbers on battery impact later, but you don't need to be worried about it.

    Retail?
    Yes. Still unknown as to which retail outlets, but it will be the major one(s).

    Quantity?
    Hundreds of thousands+

    When?
    Q1 2013.

    Early access?
    Dev kits will be going out over the next 3 months as they become available.

    Touch where?
    Right edge has 12 triggers (on / off).
    The back is completely touch capacitive.

    Does it control the core OS?
    No. It was deemed that that approach would only cause confusion for the user. Apps need to explicitly enable Sensus input and then handle the new Touch objects - either route them through the same touch pipeline to replicate behavior or handle them in completely new ways.

    How long to implement the SDK?
    10 minutes to X days. It depends on the level of integration.

    Unity?
    Yup.

    Unreal?
    Yup.

    Cocos2D?
    Yup.

    Other?
    Maybe. Plugins will be based on demand but nothing will be keeping the dev community from developing them themselves. The core ObjectiveC objects are easy to work with and bridges should be relatively straight forward to write.

    Apps and Games?
    Canopy is launching a small number of games and apps with Sensus. However, we are engaging the development community in a unique way to help bring awesome stuff to your users.

    Unique?
    Basically it's this: in addition to being in retail, we will be giving a commission to you, the developer, whenever you sell a Sensus. Not only can you create more interesting games, you can make money by simply pointing out to your players that the game plays better with Sensus and giving them a link (or a form directly in your game). I'm sure there will be confusion over this, so please ask away!

    You show game X being played with Sensus in your videos. Is that real or fake?
    Both. Most of those videos were filmed a few months ago before our functional prototypes. Certain recent videos show actual live gameplay and are not staged. I cannot comment on specific titles at this time. Sorry.


    I will update this post with questions and answers as we go. Soon all of this info will be moved to the official forum for Sensus.
     

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