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Playing a First-Person Shooter Using Real Guns

Blake writes "A group called Waterloo Labs rigged up a few accelerometers to a large wall and projected a first-person shooter onto it. Using some math, they can triangulate the position of impacts on the wall, so naturally they found someone with a gun and bought a large case of ammunition. Even cooler, this group usually posts a 'how we did it' video a few weeks after a project's debut, including source code."

29 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Does the wall... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Funny

    shoot back?

    1. Re:Does the wall... by galaad2 · · Score: 5, Funny

      more importantly, is there a respawn location available?

      --
      root@127.0.0.1
  2. Guns? by acehole · · Score: 4, Funny

    Real guns or not, iddqd and idkfa is all i need baby.

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    1. Re:Guns? by pinkushun · · Score: 3, Funny

      idclip would just cause headaches, unfortunately

  3. Source code by xerent_sweden · · Score: 3, Funny

    I sure hope it's bullet proof!

    1. Re:Source code by Alarindris · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You could also use a broom, but the whole point of this was using a projectile.

  4. Sadly... by Pvt_Ryan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This will only encourage those idiots that say games are simulators for killing people.

    On a brighter note it was still a pretty cool idea.

    1. Re:Sadly... by Annwvyn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Eh... no one pays attention to those people anyway. They have a right to an opinion just as much as I have the right to own my gaming systems as well as a real firearm. If they REALLY don't like it they can always start one of those online petitions (because from what I hear they are SO influential... *sarcasm*).

    2. Re:Sadly... by Yvanhoe · · Score: 5, Funny

      And they demonstrated it works fine while hitting the damn wall WITH A SHOVEL ! That was the greatest part. Forget the Wii, I want the next zombie game to be played with a wall of concrete and a shovel.

      --
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    3. Re:Sadly... by Desler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, because we all know that Jack Thompson was a noted liberal! Oh and that channel 'Fox News' that would continually have him on as a 'video game violence' expert is also well-known as being the most liberal channel on all of US cable!

    4. Re:Sadly... by amateur6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, this will make the games more like simulators for killing people. Hell, I played a (crappy) sniper game for an hour and then walked out of the arcade onto a catwalk above a food court... and couldn't help picking out targets. Mentally, of course.

      In this case anyone playing will learn that you can't reload just by firing off-screen, and that real guns are loud, kick, eject shells... and they'll get used to it. I'm not saying that it will turn an ordinary person into a killer, but there is an argument to be made, and it does get stronger in this case.

    5. Re:Sadly... by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, but the difference between you and a crazed shooter is that they aren't just mentally picking out targets. Charles Whitman didn't need video games.

    6. Re:Sadly... by bgillespie · · Score: 5, Funny

      "I'm not a crazed gunman, Dad, I'm an assassin! The difference being, one is a job and the other's mental sickness!"

  5. Doesn't sound the same by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shooting at a close wall representing a target far away, and shooting at a target far away are not the same thing, ballistically speaking. Depending on the angle, a shot taken might have traveled past the intended target and missed if it were for real. Also, a closer shot means you don't have to adjust for windage or elevation, or at least as much. In Marine Corps boot camp, we fired at man-sized targets at 500 yards outdoors, which is not easy. I knew someone in the air force who said they did the same thing - little targets much closer indoors. Not surprisingly, he thought it was easy.

    All that being said, this sounds pretty cool. It might liven up range time if nothing else.

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    1. Re:Doesn't sound the same by Yvanhoe · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ssshhhh, any FPS player knows that bullets travel in infinite straight line at the speed of light.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    2. Re:Doesn't sound the same by KDR_11k · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did you know the army gets tested by shooting at sheet metal signs 300 yards away? If the sign goes "Ding" they get marked down as a hit.

      That's nothing, the Bundeswehr practices by shouting "bang" and politely asking the target to fall over.

      --
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    3. Re:Doesn't sound the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      :D

      A few years ago I was at Markham Park in S. Florida introducing a friend to shooting. Though I have the technique and terminology down pat, I'm not really a good shot (lack of practice mainly). I can hit an 8" target pretty consistently at 125 yds though (yes, is pretty pathetic but I'm damned proud of it).

      So I was standing there explaining how to load, how to unload, what to do when the "all clear" blows, etc.. My friend was picking it up. In the next lane was a guy dressed in full camo. He had some elaborate looking weapon that was about as tall as I was. He has a stand, sighting scope, some sort of navigation looking equipment. I figure the guy really knows what he's doing. When he prepares to fire, I tell my friend to look.

      So the guy sees us and starts firing. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Loud ass weapon. I take my own scope and look at his target. He misses every single shot. He curses. Adjusts. Switches magazines. Squeezes off another bunch of shots. Misses everything. Curses again.

      There used to be another guy there that I saw quite often. He was missing his pointer finger and pulled the trigger with his index finger. If there was a stereotypical ornery, ex-military guy, he was it. He didn't talk much. In fact was pretty rude to me a few times, but he could hit just about anything. He fired pistols, rifles, pretty much anything that had a trigger. He's the kind of guy I'd want on my side in a war.

      Anyway, point of this is that every ex-military guy at that range shot at a completely different level than those who didn't have that training. I didn't see a lot of police officers, but I'd expect they would be similarly proficient.

      Oh last story:
      Another friend was with me one time at the range. Before the all clear was called, he started walking out to collect his target. Next thing we hear on the loudspeaker, "Hey, dumbass in 15. What the hell are you doing? Hey everybody, check out the moron in 15. Yes, I'm talking to you.." and kept on going for another minute or so...

    4. Re:Doesn't sound the same by Irish_Samurai · · Score: 4, Informative

      The guy in camo is what competition shooters call a mall ninja. He can't shoot, was never in the military, but wants to be a bad ass. That's why he had a big elaborate gun, he bought his way in. You see them at competitions wearing shirts that say "Blackwater" and hats that say "C.I.A".

      Bunch of damn tools.

  6. System by TerraGreyling · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was in the ARMY we trained on a video game system that had normal ar15's connected to gas lines that would simulate a round being fired. The whole wall in the trailer would be the target zone, close and far distances. This would also have wind, barometric pressure, and temperature so you know how to adjust your fire. And this was back in 2003, so how exactly is this new? This system would also use live ammo, but the ballistics gel isn't a fine surface to project onto.

  7. Konami did it already by davidbrit2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Granted, their version used something like Airsoft pellets rather than live rounds, but the idea was the same. Kind of a fun game, if you ignore the pellets that keep bouncing off the target and hitting you in the face...

    Some info on the game.

  8. MUhahaha.. M4 Carbine vs Controller by C_Jax · · Score: 4, Funny

    Finally, a chance to level playing field against all the smack-talking 13 yr olds playing COD on Xbox live, Say hello to my M203

  9. Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 4, Informative

    bullshit.
    all soldiers (and yes, airforce pilots are also soldiers) undergo the same basic training so if the pilot cannot fly he still can shoot at the enemy or defend himself after ejecting.

    this is not a fucking team fortress, real humans are universal.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  10. Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns? by Broken+scope · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

    -Robert Heinlein

    --
    You mad
  11. FPS and space shooters by GNUThomson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ssshhhh, any FPS player knows that bullets travel in infinite straight line at the speed of light.

    Unless you use lasers in space shooters. Contrary to a popular disinformation spread frivolously by those lousy physicists, lasers are actually very slow. With a proper engine upgrades, you can outmanuver them easily.

  12. Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're either a troll or completely retarded. Allow me to enlighten you: most personnel in the Air Force don't serve in planes.

    ... they are shot out of catapults

  13. Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And yet Heinlein's specialty was writing.

  14. Hardly improves on an old method by El+Cabri · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reminds me of basic training in the army in the 70s. A projection screen is rolled around two rotating vertical cylinders, one on the left and one on the right, therefore forming a "double layer screen". A movie is projected on the front of the screen and light also shines from the back. The trainee shoots at the screen, where the movie representing the advancing enemy is running. At the "bang", the movie projector freezes the frame and we can see light shining from the back through the two aligned holes in the front and back screens. The instructor can determine whether it's a hit and then the cylinders are rotated so that the front and back holes are not aligned anymore and the impact disappears, and the exercise continues.

  15. Re:Been done... by lewko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, but it hasn't been done for about five bucks worth of parts.

    Those simulation systems are aimed at government or military budgets, and are well outside the reach of hobbyists, or small security and law-enforcement agencies.

    Admittedly Quake and Doom aren't useful training tools for real world combatives, but it's a start...

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  16. Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And yet Heinlein's specialty was writing.

    From various biographical material, it seems that Heinlein demonstrated all those abilities except "plan an invasion" (he was in the Navy between wars) and "die gallantly" (he died of old age).

    Edward.E. Smith probably could have pulled all those things off as well (in his case, probably including "plan an invasion")...