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LCD Topgun II on sale now.
ZeroPoint:
wbasset, I will try to answer some of your questions...
• Is Vista the only real update?
HKEMS had to make a new firmware for the gun to make it work on Vista. Hopefully they polished the other "faults" in the firmware on the new gun.
• What is different about the sensor bars and calibration procedure?
The difference in the led stands is that they use four spots instead of five. This is the reason you cannot use TopGun I and TopGun II in the same system. The calibration procedure is almost the same, except that you do not shoot the center of the screen.
• Has the distance required been improved?
For what I have read I do not think so. The solution for this is to "rebuild" the led stand to better match your monitor size. I will try to make a guide for this if needed ? I have reduced the distance to about 28 inches by this method.
• Has accuracy and tracking been improved?
Do not know. I have had no issue with the accuracy and tracking on the first TopGun and hopefully it will be equal or better.
Note: Remember that infrared light reflects just as much as visible light. If the infrared leds in the led stands reflects in a table or control panel, the gun may see double spots causing the pointer to jump up and down.
• Is the documentation any better?
N/A for now.
• How well do two guns work and has the 'sweet spot' issue been resolved? (The problem where the guns calibrate and work best in one position, but when playing with two players neither are able to stand in that spot at the same time)
The reason for this "sweet spot" issue is most likely that you do not have the leds in line with the monitor (if you see the monitor from the side). For example a cabinet with a glass mounted with a distance in front of the monitor and the leds mounted in or on this glass will cause this problem. Try to mount the leds or led stands as close as possible to the actual monitor surface (seen from the side).
• Most important, is it any easier to setup and install the drivers? i.e. It doesn't take a couple weeks to a month to get them working right...
N/A for now.
I will try to answer other questions when I get the new TopGun II next week.
TheShanMan:
ZeroPoint, really looking forward to your review. I am somewhat hopeful that these could be the guns I go with. I'm wondering about the "rebuilding the LED stand" thing. Is it just a matter of the factory optimizing the product for use with console games where you're sitting on a couch, a good distance from the TV? And by rebuilding it you're merely altering the optimal distance, as opposed to trying to get it to work at short range while in reality that is a sub-optimal design and therefore won't work as well?
If rebuilding it is fairly easy and doesn't result in a non-robust system, I could go for that. That also assumes I can get this to work by mounting on the monitor behind the bezel in such a way that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb (wires hidden, etc.). I think the answer to this question is that I can do that, but I'm not 100% positive so ultimately I'll need to be convinced of that before I jump in head first.
And I'm one of those who prefers wired guns because I don't want my kids walking off with them to play with as regular guns. So for me that's a plus, provided it's not too hard to cut the cable and rewire it to have a connector in the middle since I have swappable panels.
Sounds promising though!
ZeroPoint:
Got my TopGun II today (actually a few of them). It is a little early for a review, but so far:
1. New Led stands: Four led spots instead of five. The one that earlier had three spots have two with one spot in the end removed.
2. Installation with the new drivers was very easy and worked right away. (Well, almost: Had some minor issues. The driver did not release the mouse cursor and the pointer was a little jaggy. These issues disappeared by reconnecting the gun and have not been an issue since.)
3. Calibration was a piece of cake. There is now five points to shoot instead of six. I did not even have to adjust the edges in the driver. Perfect !
4. Distance from screen: Using the original led stands on a 20" widescreen the distance required was about 40 inches. That was a little shorter than expected and worked the same with both horizontal and vertical mounted led stands. Note that on larger screen it is recommended to mount the led stands horizontally and larger screens will require more distance. It is also possible to modify the distance between the leds to optimize the distance required. To explain how I would need to make a drawing. I will try to do that sometime soon. It is really only to optimize the distance between the leds so they are in the field of view of the camera in relationship with the monitor size and corners.
5. The gun also works better now with regular gamepad drivers. There may be some uses for this. I do not know. Games like T2 used analog "gamepad" axis and with "AD stick sensitivity" set to 1% in Mame the cursor is very smooth. Anyone see the use for the TopGun as an analog gamepad, maybe in other games ???
Testing done on XP this time. I will try Vista later.
Really recommend this new version. ;D It may not be a giant step from the first version. More like a big step with Vista compability.
TheShanMan: You should go with these guns. It is a little early for a complete review, but it seems like many of the issues with the first version of this gun is gone. I will hopefully write a proper review and guide later if I find the time.
TheShanMan:
Sounds great so far! Does calibration only need to happen when you first install the guns? What if you disconnect and reconnect the guns - do you need to re-calibrate then? With my swappable panels the guns won't be "permanently" connected (though obviously the LED bars would), so I can imagine it getting really annoying having to calibrate every time I drop in my lightgun panel.
ZeroPoint:
Yes, the calibration is stored in the gun...
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