The chaingun spins:

[nxGangrel]

22 minutes ago, Voros said:

Technically, it's more like a microgun rather than a minigun. Miniguns have long barrels and are relatively big. Microguns are basically the opposite.

 

Fear the Microgunner.

Yeah, that's about right

[ShoDemo]

2 minutes ago, Voros said:

Fear the Microgunner.

That made me laugh, because it sounds even less threatening. 

What else is next? A nanogunner, or maybe a picogunner?

Also, this came to mind:

[Chow Yun Thin]

4 hours ago, antares031 said:

A quick question: Is this clockwise or counter-clockwise?

 

It's a steering wheel for that hover scooter thing that Maes made up some years back. Now I'm imagining someone putting that on the HUD whenever you playback a demo a la the Naked Gun intro.

[Maes]

The correct answer to the OP is Mu.

[Battle_Korbi]

So thats it. It is called a chaingun cuz microguns do not sound threatening (n)or cool enough. I mean, half the things in Doom have super cool names but no real meaning behind it (looking at you Mancubus!), so the Super Shotgun isn't a Super Shotgun but a double barrel coach gun. Also maybe the BFG 9000 isn't BFG 9000 but 2N9N9LN6WEDN72N451wC&LS?

 

And it spins depending on the will of Doomguy. Maybe he spins the gun around his thumbs while shooting so that it looks cool? Or maybe it wouldn't even spin if Doomguy didn't consider it cool in the first place?

[ShoDemo]

5 minutes ago, Battle_Kirby said:

So thats it. It is called a chaingun cuz microguns do not sound threatening (n)or cool enough.

It must have a cool and threatening name, if it is in a game with a cool and threatening name, right?  :D

6 minutes ago, Battle_Kirby said:

Or maybe it wouldn't even spin if Doomguy didn't consider it cool in the first place?

Good answer! Doomguy can just fight with the pistol, as Tyson runs have proven. So, why should there be a weapon that uses bullets, if it isn't cooler than the pistol in some way. Thus the chaingun was born, to please Doomguy in his adventures, with its spinning <<Barrels o' Fun>>.

[Tracer]

In smoothdoom, it spins clockwise for whatever it's worth.  5:00 mark.

 

 

[Maes]

1 hour ago, Battle_Kirby said:

I mean, half the things in Doom have super cool names but no real meaning behind it (looking at you Mancubus!),

Good point, but poor example: 

 

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Mancubus#Notes

 

A fitting explanation for the name of the monster seems to be a bastardized combination of the termination of the medieval demon names succubus and incubus preceded by the syllable man-, possibly refering to the Latin verb manducāre, which means "to chew" or "to devour". Manducus is also the Latin word for glutton. It could also be based on the Latin word mancus, which means "maimed" or "with a crippled or missing hand", referring to the flamethrowers grafted onto its amputated forearms.

 

A more straightforward explanation on the "Latin" path is that in some medieval demonographies, Mancubi (plural) were the offspring of Succubi and Incubi. So no matter how you look at it, at least the Mancubus has a name actually based on medieval demonography, fitting in with the game's "metal" and Satanic vibe. There are far lamer, cornier or random names for that matter.

 

 

[Maes]

That made me laugh, because it sounds even less threatening. 

What else is next? A nanogunner, or maybe a picogunner?

Well, imagine 1-px tall chaingunners, able to creep through 1-px tall channels and deal just 1 HP of damage with each shot...but REALLY swarming around Doomguy and following him everywhere like invisible mosquitos, with no real way of dispatching of them all other than blindly starting shooting rockets at every wall, nook and cranny. The only way to go would be to keep moving and never stopping for too long in any one place.

[Phade102]

It doesnt spin at all, its actually a set of static pictures that are brought up in a rotating pattern. Its a trick question.

[ShoDemo]

1 minute ago, Maes said:

Well, imagine 1-px tall chaingunners, able to creep through 1-px tall channels and deal just 1 HP of damage with each shot...but REALLY swarming around Doomguy and following him everywhere like invisible mosquitos, with no real way of dispatching of them all other than blindly starting shooting rockets at every wall, nook and cranny. The only way to go would be to keep moving and never stopping for too long in any one place.

This would have been a nightmare! Also, it would be like Nightmare difficulty, in the sense that you have to keep moving, though the px chaingunners could be killed permanently (not so easily of course), compared to the Nightmare demons that would continue to respawn. But a more terrifying thought, now that I come to think about it, is playing in Nightmare difficulty with those tiny undying bastards roaming around in full speed. Yikes!

[Maes]

2 hours ago, Phade102 said:

It doesnt spin at all, its actually a set of static pictures that are brought up in a rotating pattern. Its a trick question.

That it's true, and what's more, it's just two pictures which are also perfectly (?) symmetrical, so if anything they should convey no sense of rotation, but rather one similar to a set of pincers opening and closing. And yet, despite that, there's an overwhelming "preference" for CW rotation (and I admit that's how I "see" it some of the time too) but most of the time I see it just for what it is: a two-state animation with no rotation.

 

There's a gotcha though: the deception is easier to see if the sprite itself isn't moving, which in practice never occurs, and also how much of the sprite you see at one time. With the HUD visible, I guess it's gonna give a different impression than seeing the full sprite.

 

 

Notice those two white reflections on the lower portion of the barrels, in the first frame of animation? Those do break the perfect symmetry that would otherwise exist, however they are only visible all the time with a full screen view and more rarely with the HUD on. They might be enough to cause a bias in perception.

 

In comparison, the minigun from Wolfenstein 3D is much cruder and symmetric, and easily causes a "bistable" effect of rotating either CW or CCW, depending on how you "catch a glimpse" at it.

 

 

 

[⇛Marnetmar⇛]

In order to make sense in game, the chaingun would have to spin clockwise.

 

Notice this little mark right here:

 

 

If the chaingun is spinning counterclockwise, then the barrel would have to make an entire half a rotation in a single frame for that mark to move offscreen:

 

 

As for the Tootise Toy chaingun it was based on, it spins counterclockwise. If you pay close attention to the video posted earlier you can spot a brief acceleration before the gun reaches full speed that makes it clear which direction the barrel is rotating.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Marnetstapler

[Ichor]

2 hours ago, Tracer said:

In smoothdoom, it spins clockwise for whatever it's worth.  5:00 mark.

 

Or is it counter clockwise? Since that's how it spins to people who are facing it (i.e. those getting shot by it).

[Phade102]

1 hour ago, Ichor said:

Or is it counter clockwise? Since that's how it spins to people who are facing it (i.e. those getting shot by it).

I doubt anyone being shot with it really cares which way its spinning =)

[HorrorMovieRei]

1 hour ago, Ichor said:

Or is it counter clockwise? Since that's how it spins to people who are facing it (i.e. those getting shot by it).

Let's not bring relativism into this debate.

[Voros]

7 hours ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

img

*gets flashbacks of Strife's Stalker enemies*

*cowers in fear and hysteria*

[silentzorah]

Seems to make sense that it spins clockwise from the player's perspective, since the ammo is being fed in through the left side of the weapon.  The pickup sprite of the weapon shows a single muzzle for the projectile, and the spin of the barrels ejects casings through the port on the right side of the weapon.

 

I mean, that's how the Commando uses it, anyway.  Unless the belt is feeding in through the left, and wrapping around the underside of the weapon before spiraling into the chamber, then ejecting in an opposite direction from the barrels' spin.  God, that makes my head hurt.

 

So... Super crazy nonsensical ammo feeding system confirmed?

[Phade102]

3 minutes ago, silentzorah said:

Seems to make sense that it spins clockwise from the player's perspective, since the ammo is being fed in through the left side of the weapon.  The pickup sprite of the weapon shows a single muzzle for the projectile, and the spin of the barrels ejects casings through the port on the right side of the weapon.

 

I mean, that's how the Commando uses it, anyway.  Unless the belt is feeding in through the left, and wrapping around the underside of the weapon before spiraling into the chamber, then ejecting in an opposite direction from the barrels' spin.  God, that makes my head hurt.

 

So... Super crazy nonsensical ammo feeding system confirmed?

Mystical powers of hell =) Explains a lot of things in doom!

[ShoDemo]

11 hours ago, Voros said:

*gets flashbacks of Strife's Stalker enemies*

Oh, I remember those guys, I think, from the little time I played Strife. I am going to start playing again, later this year.

[Da Werecat]

The most horrible creature in Strife is a rat. Completely invincible, they will follow you in packs and screech, screech, SCREECH your ears off.

[Voros]

You must really like rats if you know that. None of the rats I met followed me or screeched my ears off :(

[Da Werecat]

I played it vanilla, maybe it was changed in source ports.