Gamers gun down Half-Life
Literally...
If you hold the view that violent videogames encourage real-life violence, then stop reading now. Because Register Hardware’s discovered news of some US gaming geeks playing Half-Life with real guns.
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Waterloo Labs - a group of engineers and “other nerds” from Texas – recently projected a Flash version of Half-Life onto some drywall and, well, destroyed the game’s aliens using a Ruger Mark III silenced pistol.
The assorted nerds stuck accelerometers onto the drywall’s rear side, connected them into a PC and then used LabView software to triangulate the location of each shot fired at the drywall.
LabView turned the location of each shot into a mouse click, the team explained, which the connected PC then translated into a mouse click in Half-Life - making the game think that the main character had just fired off a round at the assorted aliens ahead of him.
From the looks of the video, each real-life shot fired from the pistol generates a pretty realistic in-game response.
And because accelerometers are based on vibrations, the nerds were also able to hit the wall with everything from rubber bands to axes and generate the same effect- dead Half-Life aliens.
Worryingly, Waterloo labs has posted the code required to mock up your own deadly version of Half-Life online. Guns not included… ®
COMMENTS
Is it just because I'm a geek...
that I got excited when the young lady said "piezoelectric sensor" and actually knew what she was talking about?
Aliens <!> Humans in Rubber Suits
Not sure of the advisabilty of using real firearms with live ammo but this is actually a rather good idea - why not use Airsoft guns instead? Much safer for multiplayer games and you'd be able to play using'weapons' that look like and feel like the real thing but with less risk.
Except here in the UK of course, where possessing an imitation weapon that fires little plastic balls at a rate (that's muzzle velocity, not rounds-per-minute) that might cause a bruise if it hits bare skin is considered to be worse than really shooting someone in a nightclub or run-down council estate...
@Anonymous Coward
You have got to be kidding. Funny, I carry a gun and I don't even have a penis. Don't want one either.
Who is sicker? Me for defending myself, or you for equating genitalia with weapons?
Old stuff
A similar system (but based on microphones, and not compatible with HL2) is available already via www.aircine.de - basically you shoot at a video with anything from an Airsoft gun to a heavy machinegun, and the microphones in the corners detect which point you've hit.
Requires the blackbox from Aircine, a laptop, a beamer, and a large framed screen.
