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Hellraisr
05-20-2002, 07:58 PM
I am actually suprised that they haven't released a light gun for the xbox yet...

well maybe not.. those things never sell worth a crap. But it would be cool to be able to play a modified Halo type game with a nicely designed gun that you have to shoulder because of the size of it.

X-Ray
05-20-2002, 09:12 PM
What games can even accomadate a light gun? House of the dead (three I think) comes out this fall, so maybe I'll get a lightgun then.

Frostberg
05-20-2002, 11:17 PM
yeah, lol we need games that you would use with a light gun, there are only like a few games that you would even use a light gun...im sure there will be a new time crisis soon, I dont think there will be an area 51 game, but there will prolly be a house of the dead game...

Xtopia
05-20-2002, 11:19 PM
Ya, House of the dead comes out for XBox in the "fall" according to Game Informer. I just got the new issue today!:cool:

X-Ray
05-20-2002, 11:36 PM
Originally posted by Frostberg
yeah, lol we need games that you would use with a light gun, there are only like a few games that you would even use a light gun...im sure there will be a new time crisis soon, I dont think there will be an area 51 game, but there will prolly be a house of the dead game...


They're great, but I get sick of them quickly. I can only stand up and engage in rigorous physical activity so long! :D But they sure are fun!

dougi3000
05-21-2002, 12:59 AM
as long as they make a light gun that doesnt have FLASHING (like SuperScope6) then it is all fine by me. Flashing when you press the trigger sucks, 1 player, you will get dizzy quickly, 2 players; you will get sore eyes, 3 or 4 players; you will go crazy. 2+players with rapid fire = insta-seisure.

LynxFX
05-21-2002, 01:56 AM
I wonder how well a light gun would work on a projection screen. Any projector owners out there try a lightgun with it? Hugh_Jass? Talk about cool though, full size creatures and you are shooting with a gun. As close to virtual reality as you will get right now....if it works.

SkoalMint
05-21-2002, 05:19 AM
The recent issue of OXM had a blurb about the new Starsky & Hutch game. If I remember right, it is going to be a two player game with one person driving the car while the other player uses a light gun to take out all of the bad guys.

X-Ray
05-21-2002, 10:10 AM
Originally posted by Lynxfx
I wonder how well a light gun would work on a projection screen. Any projector owners out there try a lightgun with it? Hugh_Jass? Talk about cool though, full size creatures and you are shooting with a gun. As close to virtual reality as you will get right now....if it works. ]

How does the light gun work anyway?

anthrax0r
05-21-2002, 10:13 AM
As far as i know light guns dont work very well, or not at all, with flat screen televisions. It has something to do with the reflections, im not totally certain.

WynnFire
05-21-2002, 10:24 AM
Question

How do light-guns work on a video game? How do they know where on the screen the gun is aiming to produce the correct explosion position in the game?

Answer



Most home video games and many arcade games use some sort of gun as an input device. You point the gun at the screen and pull the trigger, and if you hit the target on the screen, the target explodes.
To create this effect, the gun contains a photodiode (or a phototransistor) in the barrel. The photodiode is able to sense light coming from the screen. The gun also contains a trigger switch. The output of the photodiode and the switch are fed to the computer controlling the game.

At the same time the computer is getting signals from the screen driver electronics. If you have read How Television Works, you know about the horizontal retrace and vertical retrace signals used to align the picture on the screen. The screen driver electronics send pulses to the computer at the start of the horizontal and vertical retrace signals so that the computer knows where the electron beam is on the screen during each frame.

The computer normally uses one of two different techniques to figure out whether or not the gun is pointed at the target when the user pulls the trigger:

The computer blanks the screen and then paints just the target object on the screen (as a white object). If the photodiode senses darkness after one vertical retrace signal and then light after the next, the computer assumes that the gun is pointed at the target of the screen and scores a hit.
The computer can blank the screen and then paint the entire screen white. It will take time for the electron beam to trace the entire screen while painting it white. By comparing the signal coming from the photodiode with the horizontal and vertical retrace signals, the computer can detect where the electron beam is on the screen when the photodiode first senses its light. The computer counts the number of microseconds that pass between the time the horizontal and vertical retrace signals start and the photodiode first senses light. The number of microseconds tells the computer exactly where the gun points on the screen. If the calculated position and the position of the target match, the computer scores a hit.

LynxFX
05-21-2002, 11:38 AM
Wynnfire,

Very cool post. I wonder if there is any difference with a progressive scan television since the fields are drawn differently than an interlaced television which all lightgun games in the arcade use.

I would be curious in my situation because I would be standing 11 feet from the screen.

dougi3000
05-21-2002, 12:25 PM
geebus crispe!

if you didnt know, there is another much better way for light guns to function without blanking or flashing.

It is called positional sensors. These are used with Super Scope 6 and Sega arcade shooters. These do not depend on your refresh rate, progressive/interlacing, size of your TV, or resolution.

The gun can be tracked in REAL-TIME, as seen in House of the Dead 2 Arcade,Jurrasic Park, and Firefighters, and a slew of other arcade games. Super Scope 6 brought this type of technology to the home on the SNES, I have no idea why they would revert to the "crappy" style light guns.

It might cost a few bucks more, and you may have to calibrate it, but it will be much less hassle for all those TV/resolutions that Xbox supports.

X-Ray
05-21-2002, 12:44 PM
I know you addressed this in your post but I don't get it: how does the console know where the bullet shot if you do NOT hit the target?:eek: :o

Hugh_Jass
05-21-2002, 11:11 PM
Originally posted by Lynxfx
I wonder how well a light gun would work on a projection screen. Any projector owners out there try a lightgun with it? Hugh_Jass? Talk about cool though, full size creatures and you are shooting with a gun. As close to virtual reality as you will get right now....if it works.

I don't know, but I sure hope they work. I've been drooling over HOD3 since it was announced. If they could make all FPSs work with a good quality light gun it would bring immersion to a whole new level.