TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Your next PC gaming adventure could be just an eye roll away. Here at Computex, MSI announced a version of its highly-rated GT72 Dominator 17-inch laptop with Tobii Eyex eye-tracking technology built-in. The company also joined Asus and Gigabyte by embracing Nvidia's new G-Sync technology for laptops.
We had a chance to go eyes on with the Tobii-enabled GT72 at MSI's press conference and were impressed with its ability to add an exciting new layer to the gaming experience. To set up eye tracking, we first had to run a calibration program that asked us to visually follow a dot around the screen.
After the brief calibration process was complete, we fired up a game of Assassin's Creed and used our eyes to control the in-game camera. When we rolled our eyes up, down, left or right, the third-person perspective of the game followed along. A Tobii rep explained that, if we used the mouse to change perspective instead, it would override our eye-selected angle.
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We were able to use the eyes to turn our character when he was running. However, we still needed to use a key combination to initiate the forward movement. We also found ourselves running into trees and mountains because it was difficult to make accurate turns with just a gaze. Players who use this feature all the time will undoubtedly get used to it.
Unfortunately, not many games support Tobii Eyex as a form of input. A company representative told us that, at present the company has just more than a dozen apps that support it. Perhaps with MSI's backing, more developers will come on board.
The Tobii-equipped model of the GT72 that we tried didn't have G-Sync installed, but MSI also showed off a configuration of the G72 Dominator with Nvidia G-Sync technology inside. As we watched on screen, a demo showed the same game being played with and without Nvidia's screen-enhancement technology. With G-Sync on the animations were smooth and solid while we could notice some taring and visual artifacts in non-G-Sync window.
When we reviewed the original GT72 back in November, we gave it high marks for its strong performance, rich audio and customizable keyboard. These new GT72 configurations promise the same kind of eye-popping performance in addition to their new features.
MSI hasn't announced exact pricing for the new GT72 configurations, nor has it set an exact shipping date. However, a company rep told us they should be coming to America within the next month or two.
