MiSTer FPGA GUN4IR Setup Guide and Review! Lightgun Gaming on MiSTer FPGA the Best Way

[@snethss]

im super excited we have options for lightguns; however, I'm also waiting for a few more iterations of improvements.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That’s fair. But I’m not sure what they’d improve at this point

[@METR0lD]

Love lightgun games! Wish that I could afford a GUN4IR, so I settled on Guncon 3s. Thankfully those also seem to work really well. Enough that I can play Point Blank without the crosshair on.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

If you build your own it can be done much cheaper for sure

[@CRTglow]

Hey, could you explain what you use and how you did it? You mentioned Guncon 3's, are they finally playable on pc? Thank you!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

He’s talking GunCon3 on MiSTer

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

Could you do a follow up with arcade light gun games instead of ports? I'm curious which arcade games can be played with a light gun and how well they play and if everything works or if there are concessions. Thanks I just bought a 29" Sony tv more or less for light gun games

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Really isn’t much of anything on MiSTer on the arcade side for light gun games

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

@@VideoGameEsoterica OK, thank you. That's a bummer. Perhaps in the future it would be awesome if there are and you make a video about them showcasing them! Thanks, brother!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Oh trust me as soon as we start getting light gun arcade cores I’ll def cover them

[@mrchipmrchip]

Interesting, where can I get my hands on that purple USB box thingy your using?..

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The MiSTer? MiSTer Addons if you are in the US misteraddons.com

[@JayTheBarber603]

Thanks so much for making this, very excited to have this option and abandon the idea of eventually getting a big CRT. That is assuming someday down the line I can nab a Retrotink 4k😬

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy to do it. Good luck on getting a Tink

[@meltmidori]

Great video! I'm planning to build one in the future. Does your gun have rumble motor and solenoid? And if yes, do you think the vibration/recoil enhance the experience?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes it had rumble and solenoid. I enjoy the solenoid personally

[@meltmidori]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Thanks, good to know

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

👍

[@davitron86]

This is awesome! What light gun would you recommend for a CRT?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

OG GunCon

[@retropug]

Hey Man, thanks for your GUN4ir content. Much appreciated. I just subscribed. I just bought a couple GUN4ir guns from a guy on ebay and they both have rumble but no recoil. I know they go in an out of stock on the Rpeg site so hopefully I can figure out the setup. I have a Win10 PC 16gb ram with an i5 10th gen cpu with a 1660ti GPU. Hopefully that will be strong enough and after watching your reviews it sounds like I need to pick up the $15.00 license but that is not bad. I got two of the Namco Style black guncon 1 for $420.00 total with the black led sensors kit. Hopefully I will not regret that deal. I think they cost more on the site but not sure. I think they are the guns that come from the retrolizard pre configured PCs. Looking forward to figuring it out. Is there anything you can recommend I should start doing to get them setup? Thanks in advance and I will keep watching.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s worth it if you really love light gun stuff

[@geekhype]

Are you kidding me!? Gun4IR on MiSTer on a modern display! BRB, gotta go make some purchases! I hope there is more streamlining for MiSTer setup, but I greatly appreciate the step by step!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s pretty streamlined. It’s just not with pretty graphics to guide you. But once you get it set up once it’s basically done

[@RetroRockGamer]

For retro games shouldn't the sensor be closer, to make the corners of a 4:3 screen? Also. Do these work with a crt? Or lcd only?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

They would work on a CRT but that would be an odd implementation. It’s not dependent on the screen. You are just setting boundaries in essence

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

And no you don’t want to set the sensors 4x3. It does the math to determine what area is 4x3 in software

[@kas2k4]

Can you do one for the Sinden?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Maybe one day

[@jon4715]

I’ll second that

[@Ohverture]

I get that the accuracy is good but I'm more wondering about the response time. If I whip my aim from one side of the screen to the other, does it feel like there's a lag before I can fire, or can I basically shoot all around the screen without having to worry about it?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You can move however you’d like. In my experience the cursor is faster than your brain

[@Ohverture]

@@VideoGameEsoterica That's reassuring. It's harder to tell from the footage in the vids you've done, you tend to move a little slower between the targets during recording than I assume you do during a focused session. It's extra reassuring because I'm about 2/3 through building my first into a guncon 1. :p

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes I move so that it reads in camera better vs if I’m just playing for fun

[@retropulse03]

I had not heard of this. I want 2 for my PC Emulation setup in my living room.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Def worth it

[@hackula8210]

I seem to be having issues setting up the button mapping on my 3 button gun4ir namco build. Any way you can go into detail? Ever single time I attempt to remap, it will ask for a right arrow to be pressed and since there isn't one on the gun nor can you bypass it I get stuck.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Hit a key on the keyboard. Whatever you want. Then skip from there. It’s an odd fix but it works

[@hackula8210]

@@VideoGameEsoterica yeah if i do that it will then only take keyboard input and won't take any input for button mapping on the gun4ir. I hit you up via email. A good test would be to backup your configs in /media/fat/config/inputs/ to another folder (/meda/fat/old_configs/. Then delete all of them and retry to map now since we have had some updates. You can move them back and still have the same permissions as before. I have done this a few times already to test out multiple controllers since this issue occurred. If that still works for you..... then I'll wipe my Mister and reinstall the OS.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@hackula8210 I saw your email. I’ll reply today

[@matthewsingh2333]

I am having the same issue as well. Curious if you got it to work and what steps you took.

[@hackula8210]

@@matthewsingh2333 It's actually really easy once I figured it out. Have light gun connected and a keyboard. Once you start mapping the buttons for your light gun, hit any of the buttons. Then on your keyboard press what ever FKey it is to clear the current mappings you just did, then you can skip certain button assignments. Sorry I don't have my Mister on so I can't tell you what FKey it is, maybe F11 or what ever, it tells you in the menu.

[@MadsterV]

I have Sindens and they're tough to set up and sadly if your lighting conditions or refresh rate change, you have to do it again. The software doesn't always work, some games won't accept the input and some (MiSTer) do not have an implementation at all. I'm looking forward for gun4IR but...... license file? what?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You can build your own GUN4IR for cheap, so if you do you buy a one time license from the maker to use the software. $15 lifetime. If you buy pre-built the license is free

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

I think Siden has potential but it needs a second generation with a 4K 120Hz camera. The current model only scans at 1080p 60Hz and while you think that is enough for a 60fps game in reality there are lost frames due to error correction so it isn't quite perfect and less resolution means a bigger border around the screen for detection.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes it would be nice for it to be monitoring its position twice for every frame vs once

[@markcollins2704]

Ironic how my CRT search is ended not by a new display but a light gun haha

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I mean it’s a good lightgun

[@joshbessler6991]

How’s Area 51? On real hardware, both Saturn and PSX the calibration is off and there’s no calibration screen like in Virtua Cop or Time Crisis. Seems like this solution might be better than the real deal.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’d have to test. You could certainly “Mis-calibrate” in the core OSD to accommodate though

[@jworkman753]

Did you buy the dyi kits pcbs,or the premodded gun?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The premodded version was sent to me by JayBee, the maker of the project

[@jworkman753]

@VideoGameEsoterica very cool. Did they come in a pair?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Just one. I literally have no friends in real life that play video games.

[@cruzin1383]

I have both sinden light guns and the gun4ir guns and I definitely can say the gun4ir is a better setup. There is no need to have software running in the background and no need for boarders the guns are customizable into almost any gun shell as long as you can do the manual building of the system. The gun4ir works better under light compared to sinden. I love both guns but the truth is the truth gun4ir is just better.

[@dorfus]

Good job with that keyboard, cat pen!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

He’s an expert typist. Works a side job as a court stenographer

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Although he does generally use a smaller keyboard due to distance of travel

[@brandogg]

How would you go about using real light guns w/ MisterCade?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You could just use GunCon or GunCon2 if you wanted to use a raster lightgun on a CRT arcade monitor

[@SNKev411]

Hey vge for the taito type x2 and x4 which power supply do you recommend. I hope you can help me out

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

DM me on Twitter or Discord. Can help you there

[@SNKev411]

@@VideoGameEsoterica What is your Discord is it possible you can Send me a link

[@SNKev411]

I found it never mind But I'll definitely message you

[@SNKev411]

For some reason discord doesn't allow me to join i don't know why

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Weird. What’s the error?

[@twonunpackmule]

I just want to find a lightgun that has active recoil with the hammering feedback like those Time Crisis arcade guns. 😭

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

If you power the solenoid here and hook the MAME feedback via MAME hooker you get it

[@twonunpackmule]

@@VideoGameEsoterica the hammer actually slides back and forth?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Ooh you mean the physical slider. No you’d want the arcade gun for that. No home device replicates the slide that I know of

[@twonunpackmule]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I’ve seen them pop up from time to time. It might be easier for me to just grab the OG guns myself and DIY them.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes that would be easier if you can do it

[@T200026]

GUN4IR® GC45 Pre-Modded lightgun set Regular price €250,00 sold out.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

They do go out of stock regularly but they always come back

[@jaybee1584]

Yeah I often put them back in stock. I'm using the official high quality japanese black guncon shells (I don't like the EU/US colors very much), which are harder and harder to source so it takes time to get stock. I'm working on offering my own shell at some point this year.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

New custom shells would be great. Cut out the sourcing problems. That being said the GunCon shell is a perfect weight and balance in hand when playing. Best lightgun made aesthetically and functionally IMO

[@Idelacio]

CLEAN YOUR KEYBOARD! EW! >.< Anyway useful stuff. Definately leans me towards this being by far the best solutioon to date.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s just dust from never being used

[@Idelacio]

@@VideoGameEsoterica That means it's covered in your SKIIIIIN! O.o

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

And the rest of life

[@JJiG]

i dont think ive been excited to see a video finally be released.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad you are excited :)

[@JJiG]

@@VideoGameEsoterica so I just finished watching, and I noticed you used all console variants of the game. Do you think the Update All could add a Mame Lightgun category and get the MAME roms like it does now for the other MAME games? I've never scanned the current game listing to see if light gun games were also downloaded but I'm gathering not since you used the PS port of Time Crisis.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

MAME doesn’t run on MiSTer so not much you could do in that regard. I don’t believe a single arcade core is been made in the light gun genre yet

[@JJiG]

@@VideoGameEsoterica didn't you just do a video on installing MAME on mister recently? but I said the wrong thing when I mentioned MAME earlier, I meant the arcade roms like time crisis cant those be made to run on mister like other arcade games? they each have their own test menu so theoretically it would work but its out of my skillset.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s sending a video signal TO MISTer from your pc. MAME is not running natively on MiSTer

[@yakmage8085]

First

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You win 10 VGE points. Collect 100K for free arcade candy

[@natswii]

This gun is just a glorified mouse pointing device. It's not a light gun experience at all. Shame the Sinden light gun hasn't been implemented in MiSTer.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That’s what every modern light gun in. That’s what every arcade cabinet past Model 1 was for the most part. IR sensor based tracking. That’s what Sinden is doing…real time tracking. If you want a “real light gun” you need a CRT tv and a raster sensor. But calling this “just a glorified pointing device” is like calling The House of the Dead 2 arcade cabinet “a mouse game”

[@jon4715]

Isn’t the Sinden a similar technology? Camera mouse pointer gun. A white border instead of IR blasters? I agree though…I have Sindens and want to use them.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s all functioning in a similar manner. So I dunno why someone thinks otherwise. Sinden is more more a “lightgun” than Gun4IR is if the disqualifying factor is “acts differently than traditional CRT light gun tech”

[@elphive42]

I’ve generally found the Sinden tech is more accurate than previous IR solutions I had in testing - the ArcadeGuns lightguns I had previously always had position tracking issues, and I couldn’t aim properly when using them without a cursor. Granted, this has more reference points to work from - the ArcadeGuns lightguns used a Wii-style bottom sensor bar, whereas this has a lot more visual reference points to work with.

[@Zelstrom]

I enjoy my Sindens, but they are just glorified mouse pointing devices too.