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."

Sadly...

[Pvt_Ryan]

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.

Re:Sadly...

[Annwvyn]

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*).

Doesn't sound the same

[oodaloop]

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.

Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns?

[El Torico]

Not everyone in the Air Force is a pilot or weapons officer. I know Air Force security personnel who had to "knock doors" in Iraq.

Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns?

[langelgjm]

I guess you've never heard of pilots landing in enemy territory?

Re:Source code

[Alarindris]

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

Re:Sadly...

[Desler]

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!

Re:Air Force people learn to shoot guns?

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet Heinlein's specialty was writing.

Re:Been done...

[lewko]

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...