Guns ... Today's Views?

[SithMaster]

Wouldn't four leds in each corner of the tv provide the best method of tracking?  I don't remember if it was mentioned in the aim track announcement topic and well thats like 15 pages so yeah.

[ahofle]

At the old distance, I found no change in performance.  I could reduce the distance by about half and it played the same.  The gun takes all of 5 seconds to calibrate so I can't imagine larger distances being a problem.  All you're doing is making easier for the gun to see all the LEDs at shorter distances.

Wow, that's good to know.  I would have expected the wide angle to result in some other trade-off performance problems. 

[pinballjim]

Well, let's all do a little more testing before we get too excited about it.  But, in my limited experience, there was no difference in performance except I could be closer to the screen.  Anyway, the lenses are less than a buck shipped on ebay so it's worth a shot if you already have a Top Gun.

[yotsuya]

I'm going to try it in my AimTrak just to see what happens. If it doesn't work, I'll give it some anyone here with a Top Gun.

[BadMouth]

Has anyone done testing as to how the size of the screen affects performance of IR guns?

For example, if the guns work well at 6ft on a 21" screen, would they work just as well on a 46" screen standing 6 ft away?
(using the same IR bar which doesn't change size)

[marioxb]

What's the best gun to use on a CRT TV and if I get an AimTrak, do I need the sensors using a CRT? I wanna have something universal that will work for everyone without too many in-between adjustments.

Maybe a modded Xbox would work better on a TV? Are there any gun games on MAME or NES/ Genesis etc that don't work on Xbox?

Lastly, has anyone ever modded an Xbox gun into some other shell? There only is the one type of Xbox gun, right, that green silent scope thing?

[AndyWarne]

Until there is "the next great solution" I'll be playing around with positional guns. 

Whatever became of those 'sonic' guns that used sound instead of IR for tracking?  I believe it was David Foley who first advertised those being under development a few years ago.  Seemed like a much better solution than IR and being forced to stand 6 feet away from the screen.  I know he's been 'busy' but I'm surprised no one else has come up with a similar solution.

I experimented with this method a long time ago but very quickly dumped it as it became obvious it would never work unless you always played in an anechoic chamber or outdoors, as room reflections of the sound made it unworkable.

Regarding CRT light guns, the drawback with those is they need to have something to see. So they wont register on dark screen areas. Some arcade games would flash the screen white when the trigger is pulled to overcome this. I cant remember if the Act-Labs gun did this but its rather annoying.

[SithMaster]

What's the best gun to use on a CRT TV and if I get an AimTrak, do I need the sensors using a CRT? I wanna have something universal that will work for everyone without too many in-between adjustments.

Maybe a modded Xbox would work better on a TV? Are there any gun games on MAME or NES/ Genesis etc that don't work on Xbox?

Lastly, has anyone ever modded an Xbox gun into some other shell? There only is the one type of Xbox gun, right, that green silent scope thing?

Madcatz made a green gun that had a fake curved magazine for a sort of front grip and a couple no name guns I think.  Best one of course is the madcatz from what I hear and probably cheapest.  Jim mentioned that coinops on xbox doesnt support lightguns so I'm going to assume that extends to all other emulators with possible exceptions.

[pinballjim]

The problem with CoinOPs/MAMEoX is that it maps the light gun as an analog joystick.  It does the same thing with a trackball.

Okay, now think about a game like Centipede.  Your little dude is at the bottom and you push the trackball left and CoinOps tells the game "push the stick left."  You don't need an exact position, you just need a direction to go.  The play, in my opinion, is fine.

That does not work in a light gun situation where you're pointing away from the screen or moving rapidly.  There's a youtube video with an Xbox playing CoinOps with a Top Gun and notice that the guy barely moves and always returns to center.  I'm skeptical that regular light CRT lightguns work at all with CoinOps.  Extremely skeptical.

As for console emulators on the Xbox, I can't really comment.  If you can point towards one specifically I'm willing to test it out.

[marioxb]

I heard FCEUX was pretty good with light guns, haven't tried it yet as my Xbox gun is broken.