A BYOAC Lightgun, are we up to it?

[rchadd]

how does the xbox lightguns work?

it does not flash the screen when you shoot a zombie in House of the Dead 3.

maybe xbox lightgun is good way to go as it is essentially USB - you just need to figure out a driver

[rchadd]

Here is another head tracking application. http://freelook.org

They specifically state that you can use an LED as a marker.

just seen this movie from their website

http://freelook.org/showcase/ssasu_freelook.wmv

looks good it is using a superbright led as tracking target

however not very useful for playing the helicopter sim. for example he has to look away from the screen to scroll the display up/across.

[psik0tik]

I think the freelook thing is a very good idea...but I also think the ps2 lightguns with a ps2 to pc adapter is a good idea too. It would involve just making a driver for it and I have all the hardware sitting right in front of me. I downloaded freelook and I have a webcam set up. Imma try to attach a led to the gun and see if I can get it to work.

[MajorLag]

its even easier then that. PS2 lightguns are HID complient USB devices. All that needs to be done is to ahve a driver written for them.

[psik0tik]

Ok,  the ps2 lightgun works...just not accurate at all. Need a ps2 to pc driver. Thats the cheapiest, Do it yourself freindly thing i can think of.  Plus you can go buy the 10 dollar ps2 lightgun and put its guts in whatever lightgun you want......Even that uzi I saw on another site...heheheh...an uzi that would be so sweet 2 uzis strapped to the sides of my mame cab.  ;

[brandon]

I wonder why nobody has done this yet?  If its already USB then it seems like that would be ideal.  Maybe somebody could build a little dongle device that get the sync from the VGA and connects to the RCA plug on the guncon.. then they'd work for VGA and TV-out.  hmm.. I wish I knew jack about programming.. well, I DO know jack.. and that's about it 

[MajorLag]

A Linux driver has already been written, though I seem to have lost the link. Also someone here was working on a Windows driver at one point, lost that link too.

[Lilwolf]

Your really getting the ps2 lightguns working?

Anyone out there with a ps2 lightgun and a TV out?  This REALLY should be tested and SHOULD work.

I don't believe you will get it working with VGA because of the different optics and timings... but if the ps2 has the ability to work on a VGA that would be the test.

You MIGHT get lucky hitting wierd refresh rates though

[psik0tik]

Thats what im using is tv out. I couldnt get the vga to work at all. But there is lightguns that work with vga already besides the ones that actlabs has.  Here you can read on the differences of them. http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/lightgun1.html

Theyre pretty cheap and good.
The problem is...Is getting a lightgun to work with a tv from a pc. And since ps2 lightguns were made to work on a tv and are HID compliant usb devices then they should work with the right driver in windows.
 And theyre hella cheap. I still want that uzi real bad.

[psik0tik]

Sorry for the double post but I found some linux ps2 lightgun drivers....Does anyone know how to covert this to windows?
http://psynergy.pakl.net/snippets/?id=21
http://psynergy.pakl.net/snippets/?id=22

[MajorLag]

Thats what im using is tv out. I couldnt get the vga to work at all. But there is lightguns that work with vga already besides the ones that actlabs has.  Here you can read on the differences of them. http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/lightgun1.html

Theyre pretty cheap and good.

They're pretty cheap anyway. Actually, only the BioGun is still available, it only seems to work in win98 (for whatever reason, it doesn't make much sense), and it has the worst accuracy of the lot.

[Kremmen]

Sorry for the double post but I found some linux ps2 lightgun drivers....Does anyone know how to covert this to windows?
http://psynergy.pakl.net/snippets/?id=21
http://psynergy.pakl.net/snippets/?id=22

These are not lightgun drivers.  They are routines for reading a lightgun in linux running on the PS2, not linux on a PC.

[Kremmit]

Kremmen? 

That's it, I'm changing my name to Peel.

[MajorLag]

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bgoines78/

There, that should be a real linux driver. It was originally linked by SpamYouToDeath on January 3rd 2005.

I still can't find the post on the board someone made who was working on it.

[psik0tik]

well if the one I posted isnt a driver is it at least a start? And mabye it can help the one that majorlag posted work?

[Kremmen]

Kremmen?

That's it, I'm changing my name to Peel.

Not trying to steal your nick.  I've actually been registered for a long time, just never posted before.

[coasternuts]

Man, now I'm confused. 

What we need is :
1)  a lightgun that will work on both TV and VGA.
2)  won't flash the screen.
3)  is accurate enough.

I read those reviews and all fail on 2 correct?
Some are harder to find in 1, correct?
And 3 seems to be a problem with everyone except Act Labs, correct?

(LOL! You can have  'coasterballs'. )

[Lilwolf]

Yes.. but even then... Act labs isn't all there.

The aim ever so often shoots in just a weird spot off screen.  And for some games (Police Trainer) thats it.

The 'ultimate' would also work in full tracking or machine gun mode.. IE mouse tracks even when the button isn't pressed.

I'm starting to think that the cameras might be the way to go.  I like the idea of adding one to the front of a gun.  Removing the UV filter and then add the color filter (few places on the net show you how to do it... some cameras its a .50c fix.  Then add a few very easy to find UV lights around the screen.  Now the get the free camera->hud drivers to work with mame...

[psik0tik]

I tried the freelook thing and that is cool. I stuck a white led to my  head and it worked. But youd need to be some distance from the screen to use that and youd have to stand in one spot.

[psik0tik]

Did we give up on this?

[Trimoor]

I am convinced the solution lies in the webcam/infrared LEDs idea.  The hardware is trivial, but we need software.  Any coders available?

[psik0tik]

Theres already software  Freelook. And it works but buggy as hell.

[gl.tter]

I am convinced the solution lies in the webcam/infrared LEDs idea.

[Billkwando]

In fact, that's not a bad idea.

[Billkwando]

Ok, Smog released a test driver. Please read this thread at MAME.net for more info and details, but I did mirror the file on my own webspace.

The thread is:
http://www.mame.net/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/showpost.pl?Board=mamegeneral&Number=172052&page=0&view=expanded&mode=flat&sb=7#Post172052

The file is mirrored here:

http://www.geocities.com/billkwando/guncon2v02.01.zip

The bottom line is that the current version will only work for 30 days because the program he made it with is shareware.

[rchadd]

would the Gcon2 driver work with arcadevga card to an arcade monitor?

would this driver make PS1 shooting games playable in PS1 emulators such as espxe?

i dont have a gcon2 to test with.

[Billkwando]

I think it does specifically work with arcade VGA but I haven't tried it yet because I just found out today (I'm at work) that the test driver is out.

The italian MAME forum has more info if you use the Google translator. I know with his card he had to wire up an adaptor.
I'm hoping it will "just work" with my TV out card. *crosses fingers*

[brandon]

hey anybody know if there is a way to extract the the composite sync from S-video?  I want to connect my TV to my PC with S-video but run the composite sync to the Guncon2.  and btw, does this driver even work with TV out or do you have to connect it to an arcade monitor the way he did?   http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/svideo2cvideo.html

[Billkwando]

I believe someone here said there's a certain pin you can use from S-Video to extract the necessary data.... If you're using TV out, perhaps you can hook the TV to the S-video and the gun to the composite video? I'm HOPING it will work like this. I would think it would considering composite video is the gun's native signal....

BTW about the "30-day Trial" status of the driver.......

Perhaps it WON'T expire. Can someone who understands english read this?

http://www.jungo.com/support/faq.html#lfc3000

[brandon]

I believe someone here said there's a certain pin you can use from S-Video to extract the necessary data.... If you're using TV out, perhaps you can hook the TV to the S-video and the gun to the composite video? I'm HOPING it will work like this. I would think it would considering composite video is the gun's native signal....

my PC video card only has a s-video out.. but as far as the other point.. I have an s-video cable on my PS2 that also has component.. so I connect the s-video to my TV and the guncon2 to the unused composite connector and it works perfect..that's basically what I want to do with the PC

[Billkwando]

It sounds like you'll be needing that mod

[brandon]

according to the link I posted above.. pin 3 carries the luminance and the sync.. so in theory you could connect the s-video from PC to TV as normal and tap off of that pin and connect it to the Guncon2.  of course the guncon would also have to be grounded so I'm guessing that would be pin 1 according to the pinout..  I really hate to cut up an S-video cable just to try this...   

1   Y ground
2   C ground
3   Y (luminance+sync)
4   C (crominance)

[Billkwando]

Perhaps just buy some s-video jacks from radio shack and make a quick passthrough box out of an old box of BBs?

[IntruderAlert]

I'd like to know if you will be able to use 2 guns at the same time
and also for sure if it will work with ArcadeVGA

[disneysw]

You are correct, you can tap the sync off the S-Video straight in the G-Con connector and pin 1 is ground.

The driver does NOT have a thirty day limit, that's just for the dev kit.


As for me, I downloaded the driver earlier tonight and have the gun registered with windows (note you have to use the batch file installer and I for some reason I had to modify it under WinXP to get it to install correctly). I had hoped it was possible to use the composite video out on the ArcadeVGA to drive the GCON but the drivers don't seem to allow it to be enabled. I should have know this as the modes are not standard TV resolutions. This means I'll need to create a special cable to extract the SYNC's. Thankfully the ArcadeVGA always uses negative going SYNC pulses so it would be easy if I had two small caps and a spare VGA cable. None of the buttons work yet but that could be because the gun is not detecting a sync input - let you know how I get on.

PS, I am using a D9200 monitor - have to see what happens with that!

[Billkwando]

Hee hee, SMOG has a BLOG!:

http://lightgun.splinder.com/

This will show all the details of his progress. And stuff. I tried to install the driver last night and it didn't do anything.

I had the gun plugged in when I installed it. Any hints?

[Flinkly]

I'm leaning toward the Plager Katsumate Series-D blaster.

ah, another lover of Blade Runner.