Ouya Open Source Game Console, Android OS is used for this hardware. Options

[Tursi]

I had a quick playthrough with my Ouya... it's "ok". I downloaded and played a handful of demos/games (as none at all were pre-installed). My first observation was that the ethernet port is crappy, as the cable would not lock in place and the Ouya kept losing the network, but not telling me. My second observation was that there was no convenient way to check the progress of the titles you were downloading -- maybe I just missed this, but I had to go find each title in the store to see they were not downloading.

Power seems decent enough, although many titles reminded you they were Android games and some even thought they were running on a pad. I was not impressed by the controller, I thought it was comfy enough but some of the buttons felt cheap. One button got caught under the plastic shell a couple of times during play of a brawler and the analog joystick itself stuck once. Not enough time spend on making sure the controller clearances were good.

It's a cute unit, overall, we'll see, I suppose. I'm not in love with it but I'm tempted to do something for it.

[TheLoon]

My development platform of choice has received a test unit and claims to be working on Ouya export. Of course, never giving any real timelines. I'd switch to Unity if the interface wasn't so absurdly convoluted.

[grimm]

Yeah i agree with Tursi on the download issue. It needs a more convenient way of checking other than the small bar under the Download/ing icon on each game's page.

I havent had any physical issues with buttons, or sticks, but the triggers are subpar, they arnt very smooth towards the end of their travel, they have an odd shape and no curve for your finger. Greasy and sweaty fingers may slip since your finger rest flat on it, rather than hooking it. However, i did have a controller issue last night, first i thought it was lag as i browsed the game menues. It would jump three or four spaces when i used either the stick or dpad to move around, then i got in a game, and it did the same thing, so it wasnt a lag issue as such. I turned it off and went to bed, maybe it will work good again being turned off over night. I hope this is a soft/firmware thing so they can fix it. I know it wasnt my buttons being physically stuck.

Another annoying thing is overscan issues. I had pretty severe overscan when i first started it, at the first menu, half the O in Ouya is gone, whilst when i do what they recommend and use my tv's "just scan" setting, i get a little bit of the O chopped off. None of their other recommendations using advanced settings for PC or HDMI settings work and are useless for me, as my tv doesnt seem to have such settings. Its a fairly modern LG LCD screen, but one of their cheaper models at the time, so doesnt have all the fancy stuff. The ouya's own overscan compensation thing does nothing at all. Its annoying as hell, and though i havent seen huge issues inside a game yet with the overscan issue, i have ran into menues i can see are slightly cut off. Also, the controller doesnt work well with some games, but maybe thats a software issue rather than the controller itself.

I still have hope for this system, as they do seem to take feedback to heart and work to change and make things better. They also seem to burn for this to work, and as its still not even officially released yet, im hoping some fixes are already on the way. I dont regret backing this project, but im also not super thrilled right now. I did have fun with a few games yesterday though, before my controller threw a fit. And as i know what typ of games, graphics and such i should expect from this system, i was not disapointed at all. Vector was a really fun game, and perfect for this platform.

This post has been edited by grimm: Jun 5 2013, 07:10 AM

[grimm]

Quick little update. The controller is a mess.. Only in a few games does it give somewhat satisfactory feedback. In any 3d or 360 degree movement game it sucks. Someone has measured the input, and its very poor, and the "diagram" of the stick's movement response is extremely blocky between where it registers and where it doesnt. Compared to a ps3 controller which had registered all over the spectrum.

From what ive gathered, ouya claims to know this issue, and seems to have fixed it, but either i got an old controller with mine or they havent fixed it, or not well. I also read that people with bad controllers would be "worked with via customer service", but i have yet to hear back from ouya about mine.

Many games are unplayable with the controller, whilst others seem to work ok. Bards Tale is unplayable, FF3 worked ok, a kind of leaping frog game simulator was horrible. Beast boxing was unresponsive and started to lag to the point where button input showed up seconds after pressing them etc.. I REALLY hope they fix this soon, or it will be a disaster at launch... The first week of owning an ouya has not been good, mainly due to the controller issues..

[VladR]

Out of curiosity, does it use a regular Java Android SDK for development ? What is the CPU/RAM/GFX/HDD again ?