Idea for a lightun alternative?

[hotboy_92]

Might be a crazy idea, but download the demo from www.mousevision.com and try it out with any old webcam. It basically tracks a point and uses it to move the cursor. Now, before you scream, give it a try because:

* It seems to be stunningly accurate at just tracking your head, especially when you tweak the settings. I was able to write my name in MSPaint just using my head!!!!
* It is apparently even more accurate when it has a fixed white block to track
* It has a mode for tracking a bright object, e.g. an LED
* It works even if the camera is not straight-on
* At approximately $20 it ain't expensive, and there is a free 30 day demo

So, in theory, you could use a gun with a white solid tip, or even a reflecting tip, and a fire button wired up. The control would just replace the mouse, so no flashing screens. I'm going to give it a whirl myself.

Presumably you could use it in conjunction with a traditional light-gun using AnalogMame+ for two simultaneous players?

Has anyone tried using this program as a gun?

r

[Lilwolf]

hehe, It might be fun!  But I can see in starwars to make a quick jump back to shoot one tfighter then jumping back might give you whiplash  

Another one similar to this that would be fun is there was a simple joystick a few years ago that worked on brain waves.  You had to go through a training session.  But afterwards you would think up up down fire and it worked.  They could only get up to 6 or 7 different signals, but the more you played the better and faster it got.  Might be fun..... trouble is the original arcades didn't have suction cups...  And I don't think these ever got past the testing into production.

[Howard_Casto]

This won't work, I'm 90% sure.  At least not for mame.  You see if I remember right these toys don't use directinput to wrangle the raw mouse data.... they instead use the old gdi favorites, setmousexpos and setmouseypos.  Unfortunately from my experiences mame overrides anything that uses this method.  

Nice try but you STILL only have two choices guys.... buy an act-labs lightgun or make an analog positional gun.  

[hotboy_92]

It works!!! I just tried it in Op Wolf. I had to enable light gun support (that brought up the cursor) but the danged thing works perfectly!!!!!

Off to try some other games now :-)

[rampy]

It works!!! I just tried it in Op Wolf. I had to enable light gun support (that brought up the cursor) but the danged thing works perfectly!!!!!

Off to try some other games now :-)

Cool... it's always the kinda out there hacks that are the neatest most fun...

good luck and report back =P

rampy

[hotboy_92]

Seems to work with everything, even T2, although I couldn't calibrate the second gun obviously. Keeping it running at the same rate as your "gun" (in this case, a piece of white plastic stuck to my finger!!) requires a bit of settings tweaking.

Gotta laugh really! I tried it with Star Wars, but hadn't flipped the controls so I got seriously disoriented looking down for up and up for down, but it was awesome "looking" at a tie fighter and having the cross-hair go there - all a bit sci-fi really.

Could be great fun for gun games the let you duck behind things (not sur eif there are any emulated just yet though), and how truly magnificent would it be to have a version of DDR or Samba De Amigo where you also had to move your head?

If you sniff around the site there is a version that is a free beta of the more sophisticated one that tantalisingly offers split controls... I'm off for a play. Here's the link to that version - http://www.mousevision.com/assistivetech.html

Enjoy guys!

[wee beastie]

I suggested this a few months ago.  It involved a little reflective piece of tape you were supposed to put on your forehead, and the cam would move the mouse according to where you pointed your head.  I thought it would be great for a gun game.  Just hunt down some decent look-alike guns, put the reflective tape on the tip and shoot away.

Everyone said it wouldn't work.... So now I have the last laugh!!!  HAHAHHA
Thank you for vindicating me

[Howard_Casto]

It wouldn't have worked a few months ago... read above regarding the reason. When mame added lightgun support it must have used some rather slapstick (no encryption pun intended)  methods to alter the cursor.  

The good news is if that screwy thing will work than anythign that has mouse coordinates will work.  the bad news is this method of polling the mouse is slow and slight inaccurate, so that probably explains why people have noticed performance problems in teh last few versions of mame (besides the added artwork code.)

Nice to see it working though, but please don't send us pics of you playing with your tin-foil hat.