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A Closer Look At The AimTrak (with video goodness)
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brandon:
Point Blank is one of THE lightgun games that all other games should be judged by!  Much more challenging and fun that most rail shooters.  My brother in law and I practically destroyed a brand new guncon1 playing Point Blank 3.  I had to replace the trigger switch because we wore it out. :)
bigster:
Thanks for the videos.  The third one is really helpful.  I currently have two LCD Topguns but I cannot ever get them to stay calibrate for more than 1 game, and doing so takes forever.  I am considering switching to aimtrack. 
My concern looking at the video is the height differences.  I am 6'5 and most of the people who play the arcade with me are shorter 5'10 and under.  Will each person have to recalibrate every use?  Like if we are playing buck hunter (PC edition of course) 4 players with one gun, that would require recalibration after each turn....
Neverending Project:

--- Quote from: bigster on October 20, 2009, 09:21:42 pm ---Thanks for the videos.  The third one is really helpful.  I currently have two LCD Topguns but I cannot ever get them to stay calibrate for more than 1 game, and doing so takes forever.  I am considering switching to aimtrack. 
My concern looking at the video is the height differences.  I am 6'5 and most of the people who play the arcade with me are shorter 5'10 and under.  Will each person have to recalibrate every use?  Like if we are playing buck hunter (PC edition of course) 4 players with one gun, that would require recalibration after each turn....

--- End quote ---

From my initial assessment it does appear that you will want to recalibrate every time the gun moves more than a foot or so from the point it was initially calibrated. That of course depends on the size of monitor, the player, and style of play, but for the most part it looks like the "aim" will be off when the height changes significantly.

I believe Andy is working on a new firmware revision which will have updated calibration techniques. And I think this update will find a compromise between changing gun height and distance after calibration. I hope to get some new videos done when/if he updates the firmware.
smalltownguy:

--- Quote from: bigster on October 20, 2009, 09:21:42 pm ---I believe Andy is working on a new firmware revision which will have updated calibration techniques. And I think this update will find a compromise between changing gun height and distance after calibration. I hope to get some new videos done when/if he updates the firmware.

--- End quote ---

Here is what I propose:

* Offscreen calibration, for sure (looks like Andy's already implementing this)
* A 'stacked' calibration delay. Meaning:
* Hold down the trigger for a longer period of time to initiate the 'full calibration'
* Hold down the trigger for a lesser period of time to do a 'mini' calibration, which will tweak the main calibration settings.
The idea here is that the main calibration will put in place all of the adjustments to dial in the gun for edges, tracking compensation, etc for the screen in use. But the 'mini' calibration would allow for a quick tweak when a new user grabs the gun. Maybe the mini would entail shooting at a few strategically placed cursors to help the gun adjust for height, etc.

Example: I calibrate my AimTrak on my own using the 'main' calibration, before I have any friends over. Then I mark the distance the calibration was completed at (tape on the floor, visual reference, whatever). Later, when all my friends are playing, each one of them does the 'mini' calibration in between turns.

This might not work on some games, depending on the length of time between player turns. Any thoughts?
drventure:
I'm probably WAY oversimplifying here so if I am, flame away  :angel:

But, once you've calibrated the gun at a specific distance, could it not, more or less recalibrate automatically just by comparing the old distance between the farthest left and right LED's that it sees and adjusting the scale accordingly?

Maybe that's what it already does internally, but I'm just guessing.

Ages ago, I worked on a GIS app that allowed users to pick points on a scanned map with no geolocation, and the same point on a digital map and create a mathematical "profile" of the scanned map that would allow the system to accurately determine the LAT LON of any point on it via just a few known points.

Seems like this problem is very similar.

I'm watching the product progression closely!
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