Light gun on lcd TV solved!

[nevermind]

I'm not sure how many of you guys have seen this, but this is very interesting

youtu.be/DzIPGpKo3Ag

Anyone want to build this?

[Anthaemia.]

I sold my Virtua Guns last year after giving up hope of anyone ever creating a solution to this problem - shows what I know!

[bultje112]

Mar 22, 2017 22:47:43 GMT Anthaemia. said:

I sold my Virtua Guns last year after giving up hope of anyone ever creating a solution to this problem - shows what I know!

why not get a crt tv then?

[buckoa51]

People are trying to build it, but it's proving more difficult than anticipated. HDTV input lag is screwing with it in a lot of games.

[The Elite MYT]

Seems interesting. I´d rather have it working on an LCD screen since I only use my CRT for Virtua Cop and it´s a pain switching. Hopefully someone will get a Virtua Gun built that will work on LCD soon.

[barryburton]

Surely if Sony or someone throws some money at the problem it can be solved.

Imagine a HD Sega light gun multi pack for PS4 and other current consoles. All the Virtua Cops, House of the Deads, Jurassic Park, all the arcade classics. Maybe some Time Crisis action from Namco too.

Finally, with current big HD TVs in most gaming homes, we could have a true big screen arcade shooting experience.

[davyk]

This kit will always be a compromise against a CRT.

The Wii and PS3 showed the way light gun games should be done. The Wii was criticised for accuracy but I had no issues with it - there's a challenge mode in Ghost Squad that has no aiming reticule and I had no problems with it.

Sadly it is always going to be a niche product - but remakes for modern consoles using pointing tech as a replacement for light guns will be the best solution. Trouble is how viable will that be with projected low sales?

Incidentally , did anyone ever try Link's Crossbow Training for the Wii? Lovely little game that. I was expecting a lot less for the price but Nintendo made a bit of an effort with it.

[The Elite MYT]

As much as I disliked the Wii in general, it did work well with Lightgun games. The 2 Resi Chronicles games were especially good.

Although I don´t think that justifies the console, in the same way that dance games don´t justify the kinect.

[HennessySlick]

Mar 24, 2017 13:31:18 GMT The Elite MYT said:

As much as I disliked the Wii in general, it did work well with Lightgun games. The 2 Resi Chronicles games were especially good.

Although I don´t think that justifies the console, in the same way that dance games don´t justify the kinect.

I love light gun games on the Wii! Have yet to get stuck into The Darkside Chronicles but it covers my favourite plot points in the storyline.

Last year I bought a CRT 27" Trinitron for £2 - got it up two flights of stairs as well (with help and a suffering back the next day).

Already enjoying both Time Crisis games on PSX, HoTD 2 on DC, as well as 3 on the Xbox. There is a device that works for PS2/OGXbox light gun games on LCD already, but that does still mean you're lacking support for DC, Saturn, and (((Nintendon't))) titles.

I would love an LCD/LED solution, since it helps with the preservation of videogame history! Who knows how long it'll be before my Trinitron gives out

Saturn light guns are harder to come by for a fair price, so I'm waiting for now, but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the first HoTD and of course Virtua Cop 1 & 2!

[tempest]

Glad to see someone working on this. But it looks too fidley for the moment. Maybe I'll have another look when it's been further developed. Until then I'll play my lightgun games on a CRT. They look much better that way anyway.

[lanhilb89]

Hmm not sure how lightguns work. What is the main reason they don't work on lcd?

[bultje112]

Mar 24, 2017 9:56:02 GMT The Elite MYT said:

Seems interesting. I´d rather have it working on an LCD screen since I only use my CRT for Virtua Cop and it´s a pain switching. Hopefully someone will get a Virtua Gun built that will work on LCD soon.

you have framemeister?

[nevermind]

Its the way the screen is drawn. The crt fires electrons across the screen at a rate that you can't see, but its refresh rate goes from left to right constantly. When you press the trigger on the gun, it flashes the screen white for a moment (you can sometimes see this flash in games) and the lightgun registers if it saw the white dot. The game knows the refresh rate of the TV and works out what time it saw the white dot, then it knows where on the screen it was. Its a quirk of crt images used intelligently. Modern flat screens have static pixels, so the game has no idea where it is pointing at. Its why the Wii used a sensor bar to detect where it was pointing.

[Sonnington]

Pretty cool stuff! I love me some lightgun games.

It got me thinking. What if they built a lightgun with a camera in it and primitive kinect-esque software so the lightgun knew where it was pointing while pointing at a TV screen? That would sell -so- well... in fact... why hasn't it been done yet? It seems so obvious.

[davyk]

Probably price - you'd need a camera in the gun and maybe some processing power too. As far as I know light guns have a photo-electric cell that can tell the difference between light and dark (probably a bit more sophisticated than that) which is why the targets are coloured white. That isn't an expensive thing to put together. With old NES gun games like Duck Hunt you could actually see the white squares drawn where the ducks where when you pulled the trigger. I don't recall consciously seeing that with Saturn games though.

I was never able to figure out how Saturn gun games tracked the gun though. For example on the Virtua Cop high score entry screen there is a marker that moves as you move the gun. Clever stuff without any extra hardware like the Wii's remote sensor.