Main > Lightguns
LCD Lightgun
RandyT:
--- Quote from: AndyWarne on June 08, 2007, 09:17:24 am ---The camera chip has the image processing built-in and sends an X-Y position back to the CPU for each LED detected on the bar. Only one LED is really needed for a gun since rotational motion is not required.
--- End quote ---
I would think more than one LED would be required. Otherwise, the accuracy would be affected by not holding the gun (camera) perfectly vertical.
And like Julian stated, the Top-Gun LED bars are constant-on and all must be "seen" by the camera in the gun. One bar has 2 IR LED groups and the other side has 3. This asymmetrical 5 group pattern allows their software to easily recognize the orientation of the camera to the screen. I would surmise that the Sega system works on a very similar principle, but has more computing power in order to recognize and process more than one dot pattern.
RandyT
TheAdMan:
--- Quote from: Lilwolf on June 08, 2007, 11:21:21 am ---A little late to the discussion
--- End quote ---
The idea of this poll was to get as many people and as many opinions as possible on what people want from a lightgun. - comments like yours are exactly what I'm looking for. :applaud:
RandyT:
I just did a bit of research on the Wii remote system and while I am impressed at what it can do, it's doesn't appear to be a huge leap in technology over what the Top-Gun is doing. In fact, it looks like the Top-Gun is better in one sense in that the bars may be on the top and bottom or the sides, whereas apparently the Wii Remote "sensor bar" needs to be horizontal.
However, after playing with the Top-Gun for a couple of hours, I have come to a conclusion: The Top-Gun must use a low resolution CCD, probably 640x480 or smaller. This is based on the fact that it cannot provide single (or even double it seems) pixel precision. The Wii remote, according to reports, has a CCD that is 1152x864, or roughly 1 mega-pixel, which would be 3x finer.
Another difference is most likely going to be the scanning speed. The Wii remote (again, according to reports) scans at 200 frames per second. This will give opportunity for oversampling and averaging of the cursor position, making it more stable. The Top-Gun isn't bad for stability (worse for me when the bars were horizontal, BTW) but it certainly jitters more than the cursor I have seen on the videos of the Wii Remote in action.
The Wii still needs a bar that appears to be about 12" long either above, or below your screen. The system is no different than the Top-Gun in that if the bar is on top of a large screen, and you are pointing the camera at the bottom, the bar may be out of the view and the system will not work. So there are still the same type of restrictions with the Wii Remote as with the Top Gun. They may not be as severe due to to the fact that the Wii uses a slightly smaller bar and most likely a better optical arrangement, but it's still there. I have read that owners of projection screens needed to put the "sensor bar" in the center of the screen, or on a table in front of the screen in order for it to work.
There also seems to be no calibration for the Wii Remote, and have seen some complaints about it being "off" a bit in the menu systems. This isn't important in the Wii menu application because you are moving a cursor, much like a dot with a laser pointer. Light gun games require more accurate calibration, but this can be handled within individual titles, or in an eventual driver if used with a PC.
FWIW.
RandyT
RayB:
Also note there are issues [Wii controller] with sunlight interfering with "reading" the IR LEDs.
TheAdMan:
Well the entire industry seems to be moving in the direction of interacive/motion-sensing gaming, it's hard to imagine lightgun/shooting games won't soon see some kind of resurgence (even if modest). Eventually someone will figure out a system that works - whether it utilizes LED's or not.
some other thoughts:
the only thing that prevents a classic CRT lightgun from working is the fact that new displays do not draw the picture vertically and horizontally (I'm sure you guys know that), but what if someone created software that mimics the behavior of a CRT monitor - like when you pull the trigger this software would flash the screen the black then "re-draw" the screen white, thus enabling standard lightguns to operate. The software would just have to override the current display for that brief moment then place a mouse click/button press or whatever at that point on the screen - assuming the camera in a standard light can sense (or be modified to sense) the light output of an LCD monitor.
sometimes you find solutions by using old technology in new ways rather that relying on new technology to save you.
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