Ideas about Halo

[flash_bang]

I was playing Halo, and it occured to me, that the flashlight in the game (Halo 1) could only work for 1 min until it needed to be recharged. It recharges automatically with the power from the shields, I suppose. it's mounted next to Chief's helmet and is horridly dim, no more than a 2 D mag, not as bright as my G2. Any idea how to make/acquire a light that automatically recharges like this? With more lumens, o/c.

 

[yellow]

Dont You play other games, too

Its common knowledge: You need to find that "ancient alien battery": size of a pack of smokes, powers up the entire emergency interstellar transporter, recharges from sunlight exposion or just from being not used, still works while was buried for some thousand years, ...

Think I m very close to its actual position, but ...

 

[flash_bang]

haha, very funny :lol: I was looking for something that can run on primaries, recharge via sunlight or charges just by walking around with it, like some watches. Within the package of an ARC or something
have a good one, Flash

 

[Noxonomus]

This thread reminded me of this page form Concerned.
http://www.hlcomic.com/view.php?date=2005-06-22

 

[tebore]

There's something really strange about Halo's Flashlight. When you're in Co-op or when you start off with no gun you'll see the light is on the helmet. But when you have gun and are in first person you'll notice the light is gun mounted. The best way to see this effect is to do a melee attack you'll see with the pistol the beam get flipped a 360 when he's done the melee.

 

[2xTrinity]

One thing that I've thought would be cool would be a large light run with some sort of boost circuit off of ultracapacitors. I know there exist ultracaThanks to their low internal resistance compared to batteries, they could be "recharged" with a special docking station in a matter of seconds. Of course, their capacity won't be a whole lot. However, there are ultracaps rated for hundreds of thousands of cycles, so for something mounted on a car charger most of the time that could be interesting.

Something like this Ultracapacitor which is a D-Cell sized 350 farad, 2.5V capacitor could make for a powerful flashlight, maybe a bunch of these in a big 6D maglite (these are a lot lighter weight than alkaline batteries), with a hefty buck circuit could simultaneously power an insanely bright hotwire, and have the ability to be recharged extremely quickly due to the high power density (16kW per kilogram charge/discharge rate).

 

[matrixshaman]

2xTrinity - sounds like a cool idea but I think Ultracaps in this range tend to be very expensive IIRC - but might be a good deal if they could be used on multiple lights.

 

[flash_bang]

hmmmm this is very interesting. I noticed the beam flipping thing as well, seems kinda silly, but bungie wanted the light to be shotgun only for a while, maybe it was the AR, but it was def. gun mounted. then they decided on the helmet mounted idea. actually it's more mounted on the trap muscle more than the helmet. o well. I look forward to reading this thread more soon (flashback to askaninja.com)

 

[Sable]

Solar charging would not be hugely effective, and the the watches you speak of I believe are self-winding mechanical watches? Considering the Master Chief's suit is apparently powered by a small fusion reactor [I seem to recall this from the books], I doubt he has any reason to be worried about available energy...

 

[Gunner12]

I think I know why the light is so dim, they probably set laws about the maximum light output of flashlights in the future. Maybe Halo is trying to tell us something?

Fusion reactor flashlights? that would be amazing (if you can prevent the batteries from killing you).

 

[tebore]

Gotta give the UNSC some credit in the new armour the flashlight has no limit on runtime it just turns off when it's bright enough.

 

[2xTrinity]

2xTrinity - sounds like a cool idea but I think Ultracaps in this range tend to be very expensive IIRC - but might be a good deal if they could be used on multiple lights.

I see this as being in the same category as the "fuel cell powered" LED flashlight posted on here -- no real practical reason for it, just something to do because it's possible

An even better option would probably be the NiMH or LiIon batteries recently designed for use in Hybrid cars that can fully charge in about a minute, and fully discharge faster than that, as they would have similar energy density to the batteries we're already used to, instead of a lot lower like ultracaps (and it's not like we really need kilowatt surges in a flashlight). The ability to "flash charge" a high intensity light in literally a minute and have 20 minutes of extremely intense regulated output (read: tens of thousands of lumens) would definitely be cool.

 

[Illum]

are we talking about actual lights or lights in the software?

somehow I think the thread should be moved to the cafe

 

[Alteran]

(if you can prevent the batteries from killing you).

I look forward to the day when this is the flashlight manufacturer's greatest concern. :laughing:

"Allright. It's 10,000 lumens, 5 cm long, and costs $30. But how do we stop it from exploding?"
"What about the radiation poisoning issues?"
"That too."

The future looks bright... (Pardon the pun.)

 

[bridgman]

>>are we talking about actual lights or lights in the software?

The thread is about whether some of the features seen in the software could be adapted to real world lights. Before I read the thread, I was thinking "what a cool idea -- modding the light in the Halo game -- that way if you muck up the mod you can just restart the game and try again.

I can just see fivemega selling turbo heads (downloadable or on CD) for the Halo light.

 

[flash_bang]

@ Sable I'm not sure about the reactor, I personally haven't read the books, but I don't doubt that they got that in depth.
@ gunner12 I don't like the sound of that post :lolsign: I think they will limit lights to 10 lumens but require runtime to be several hundred years. That would be like cavemen making a flashlight and having columbus find it and still have it work, or something to that effect.
@tebore I heard ppls don't really like the auto-shut off of the light in Halo 2, they should have a manual override imho
@2xtrinity droooooooool that would be sooooooo cool
@illum we are indeed talking about how lights and how they work in games can be applied in real life. hopefully we won't last till Doom 3's time and still be using maglites :groan:
@ alteran I think if exploding were a problem, they could just press a button, turn on the flashlight, throw it at the enemy and have it detonate, now THAT would be a multifunction device :lolsign:
@bridgman that would be insane, 3d modelers would get so much money, model a U2 and make a couple hundred. I see a very, very bright future for WETA

 

[Alteran]

@ alteran I think if exploding were a problem, they could just press a button, turn on the flashlight, throw it at the enemy and have it detonate, now THAT would be a multifunction device :lolsign:

"Get down, get down!!"
"But it's just a-KABOOM"

That's taking the "flashlights for self-defence" thing to a whole new level. :lolsign:

 

[flash_bang]

I can just see a feature list:
comes with reactor complete with auto detonation and radioactive shrapnel is included :lolsign: