The DOOM Plasma Rifle - A Technical Analysis
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- čas přidán 26. 05. 2024
- Is the Doom Plasma Rifle technically feasible, or is it just Sci-fi nonsense? In this analysis we will try to figure out the technology behind the Plasma Rifle, and how it could be implemented in the real world.
Disclaimer:
This video tries to explain the operation of a fictional weapon with real world physics. Some concepts are vastly simplified and some bold assumptions are made.
Referenced scientific articles/Further reading:
- Injection of a High-Density Plasma into the Globus-M Spherical Tokamak (inis.iaea.org/search/search.a...)
- A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First Fifty Years (1906-1956) (mae.princeton.edu/sites/defau...)
- A TOROIDAL PLASMA GUN (escholarship.org/uc/item/7fq7...)
- COAXIAL PLASMA GUN IN THE HIGH DENSITY REGIME AND INJECTION INTO A HELICAL FIELD 2 (www.researchgate.net/publicat...)
- Compact toroid formation, compression, and acceleration (aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063...)
- EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL PERFORMANCE OF COAXIAL PLASMA GUNS (ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/1...)
- Performance of Hydromagnetic Plasma Gun (aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063...)
- Shiva Star - Marauder Compact Torus System (www.researchgate.net/publicat...)
00:00 Introduction
00:29 What is Plasma?
01:19 What Ammunition is Used?
01:40 Energy Consumption
03:17 Launching the Plasma Bolt
04:48 Intermission
05:12 The Donuts
06:16 Creating Donuts
07:24 Real World Use
08:34 Intermission 2
09:32 Real World Use Part II
09:48 Real World Plasma Weapons
10:39 Doom Plasma Rifle vs. Real World Plasma Weapon
11:09 Outro
Resources:
Title: WEST fish-eye lens.jpg
Description: WEST (Tungsten (chemical symbol "W") Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) plasma chamber, fisheye view.
Date: 24 April 2018, 08:36:21
Source: www.euro-fusion.org/index.php...
Link: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Author: Christopher Roux, EUROfusion
License: CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Title: Man sitting under beach umbrella.JPG
Description: Man sitting under beach umbrella.
Date: 18 February 2006
Source: Photo by Johntex, 2006.
Author: Johntex
License: CC BY 2.5 (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Title: Schematic of railgun
Date: 15 November 2015
Source: www.extrica.com/article/16061
Authors: Lizhong Xu , Lingchao Peng
License: CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Title: Slag om Grolle 2008-1 - Smoke ring van een kanonsschot.jpg
Description: Smoke ring coming out of the canon of Groenlo during the Siege of Groenlo reenactment (Slag om Grolle) of 2008
Date: 17 October 2008
Link: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Author: Kweniston (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Us...)
License: CC BY 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/...) - Hry
I simultaneously love and hate this video for effectively showing me that DOOM's plasma rifle somewhat feasibly could exist and for making me realize I'll probably still never see it.
Same
Make it yourself man. Become the battery master and make the best battery ever
Now let's see if the BFG 9000 is as realistic
Real life hitscan technology would be some kind of breakthrough, surely
@@BlondPanda lasers (unless you're trying to hit something over a couple light-milliseconds away)
Fucking no XD
@@BlondPanda that’s called a gun
The BFG as it works in the Doom Engine is not realistic, however I feel like the later versions of the BFG which have lasers emitting from the projectile itself _would_ be plausible. Albeit... impractical.
3:09 I love how the actual batteries are seemingly the same size as the in-game pickups.
Well, ingame pickups are quite literally battery packs and car batteries, that are somehow highly advanced plasma cells and not pretend paint job
4:44 - "Well, you might find the answer to that among your childhood memories. Remember these?"
No, I don't remember those. In fact, I've never seen one of those in my life. What the hell is that thing, and how do you build one?
Marauder project? That can't be a coincidence.
Considering the Marauder project started in the late 80s, and is an acronym rather than the word, and the DOOM Eternal being called a marauder is because they literally maraud.... it's a coincidence.
@@darkstar.357 Thanks for being a buzzkill
Well, scientists ARE nerds
Why can't I see that 3rd reply?
@@mrscruffles801 Probably CZcams's filter at work
Never before have I heard such a detailed and coherent explanation of a plasma gun than in this video about a DOOM gun.
Nerd.
So there is a way after all, nice research. And much respect for sci-fi games and movies in which plasma bolts were show being projected in the shape of a toroidal vortex. Star Fox (SNES) was the first that came to mind.
For a phased plasma rifle to work, it has to be set to the 40watt range
M41A is also plasma phase
I have a new favourite video on CZcams! This is just brilliant! I love all the small references, the attention to detail, and the deep analysis. Definitely a top tier Doom analysis that very few people could match, if at all.
One question: So in Doom 1993 a lot of the combat takes place on Mars with a different atmosphere, mainly carbon dioxide, so could we assume the plasma rifle in Doom and in Doom II is not actually the same weapon, or at least calibrated to different settings to yield the same damage?
Thanks a lot, Drakir91! I would guess that the Plasma Rifle is the same weapon in DOOM and DOOM II. It uses the same amount of Cells, so as long as it is possible to completely ionize the gas, it should be possible to transferred roughly the same amount of energy to the plasma bolt using this design, regardless of atmosphere.
It most certainly needs to be calibrated to suit the atmosphere, though. For example, carbon dioxide has a much higher dielectric constant than air, so it would require a higher ionization voltage to operate.
Doom doesn't take place on Mars.
@@AmazingKazooGuy My mistake, but Phobos makes the question even more interesting!
given how we see mountains with lush greenery on them in the episode 1 skybox I think it's safe to assume phobos and deimos have been terraformed, at least to an extent, so they probably have earth-like atmosphere
@@fluffydestroyer8336 I like this theory
I am just stunned that you calculated how much energy would go into a plasma bolt and then from _that_ you figured out how much energy would be contained in a cell ammo container, only to find out that we could theoretically easily generate the energy needed to make plasma bolts.
Thanks sixstringpsycho! If you were to account for the energy losses in the system, the energy needed would most certainly be much higher, though.
@@SunandWeather Sure, but not so much higher that it would be impossible to account for. If the high end of the DOOM idea of a cell pack would roughly be in line with a large car battery, then there are definitely portable alternatives with even higher capacities that could be used, to say nothing of how technology is always advancing, and as it does, miniaturization naturally comes with advancement. Miniaturization is especially prevalent with _data and power storage_ devices and guns.
Brilliant, man. Absolutely amazing video! I love a solid, informative, funny analysis vid. Hope you do more; the feasibility of life in Rapture (Bioshock) would be fascinating. :)
Thanks, EduardoAndFriends! The Game Theorists did a feasibility study briefly covering several of the aspects of building an underwater city, which I think is worth a watch, but it would definitely be interesting to dive deeper into some of the concepts. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!
@@SunandWeather no worries! I’ll check out the Game Theorists and give ‘‘em a watch :)
@@SunandWeather "but it would definitely be interesting to dive deeper into some of the concepts." - I see what you did there ;-)
“I wasn’t expecting to find all these old research papers explaining that this could theoretically exist”
THATS JOHN CARMACK BAYBEEEE
If we're willing to allow a little bit of deviation from the concept of the plasma rifle as a pure directed energy weapon, while keeping with the idea of it being a modified railgun, I'd like to propose the following alternative solution to how it could work.
Plasma is also a VERY magnetic substance that, in real life, generates a substantial amount of light, potentially enough to completely obscure the center of a ball made of the stuff. We see this is the case in the game, by observing that its core is completely opaque. This can thus give us a little wiggle room with the possibility that the plasma balls actually have something solid in their center.
At the same time, we never see the inside of a plasma rifle "cell", so it is conceivable that the thing is not purely a power source, but a combo power source/ammo magazine package, that also stores some physical projectiles.
Science can currently create a device called a "plasma window" that uses low temperature plasma, suspended in between two or more magnetic fields, to create what could technically be considered a real life version of a sci fi containment field.
Also, real life railguns can only fire physical projectiles.
Thus my take on how it works is as follows.
The rifle is a railgun and its cells also store projectiles made of some futuristic metal-ceramic alloy, that is normally non magnetic and (at least temporarily) very resistant to high temperatures, but potentially very brittle along a certain axis of travel (hence why no subsequent bullet holes on impact).
When you pull the trigger, the railgun loads a projectile onto the rails and uses high power electromagnets (or the railgun rails themselves) to give it a very powerful magnetic field. At the same time, the rifle creates a plasma window at the tip of the rifle's barrel, where atmospheric air is superheated into plasma. Once that is done, the projectile is fired at its target by the railgun and the plasma window is partially collapsed, injecting the plasma into the projectile's magnetic field, as it travels down the rails. Once the projectile leaves the rifle, it continues towards its target, where it subsequently shatters on impact, collapsing the magnetic field in a way that channels the plasma into the target.
This also explains why plasma balls travel slower than bullets, despite the rifle being an energy weapon. You can only move so fast, before you risk collapsing the magnetic field due to atmospheric drag acting on the plasma.
And finally, the reason you never see any "bullet drop" is because you only ever fire the weapon on Phobos, Deimos, Mars (very low gravity), in space (no gravity) or hell/hell corrupted earth (no or dodgy physics)
Interestingly, this would also explain the frequent releases of heat you can see when you stop firing the doom eternal version of the plasma rifle. And hilariously, this might also explain that force field gun in the R Overkill mod, that causes all projectiles to bounce away, but doesn't do anything to hitscan weapons. The barrier is really just a very large and powerful magnetic field, that interferes with the magnetic fields on the plasma shots, knocking them off course. But since the hitscan rounds are really lead bullets, they're mostly unaffected and can just pass through.
You just gave me ideas
The idea of a plasma ball containing a solid object isn't foreign to the Doom franchise. In Doom 3, the BFG fires a powerful plasma ball with a computer chip core that's used to direct beams of said plasma towards nearby enemies.
At first I thought: ah, "decino lite".
Boy, was I wrong : )
Well, decino knows his stuff! :)
Thanks for the analysis. My engineering degree didn't discuss these funstuff much. You also gave me all the ideas I need for my space comics at the same time.
that avatar gave me a stroke
So nice.
@@fbiagentmiyakohoshino8223 I'm living just like any other person on Earth despite my avatar. Otherwise I have more on my gallery since I am an artist, too. uwu
Wow, how nice to hear. Good luck with the comic!
Whoah!!! I thought it was going to show us mechanics of a Plasma rifle, but I didn’t expect an actual explanation!
This video was recommended to me by my friend. M_06 ya lazy buffoon go make a comment in here, this video is amazing
I came for Doom. I stayed for chemistry.
And I’m flabbergasted that you only have 1K subs!
Thanks! That is nice to hear!
@@SunandWeather We all have our moment in the spotlight… this was yours 🫡
That was interesting. If you want another idea how about The Magnet Gun from Red Faction: Armageddon.
Thanks a lot for the suggestion, itzhexen!
Back in the past, long years ago, I would have expected such a video from MatPat (Game Theory).
Glad someone picks such stuff up and just amazes people with it :; )
Thanks a lot, Leinad Reign! I am glad to hear that.
Nice analysis! :)
(also, ending/intermission screen was a nice touch)
Thanks, DemoGorgonZola! Nice to hear someone appreciated that!
Excellent video, have forgotten physics but I will still able to follow most of the video.
Amazing job !
the plasma rifle in doom 1/2 is one of my favorite video game weapons. not a fan of the doom 3/2016 model but they really nailed it in doom eternal
Agreed, although I actually prefer 2016’s rocket launcher and armor; Eternal’s designs are just a little too over the top for my tastes sometimes.
@@Shaun_Jones i see what you mean, the stuff thats meant to be more faithful to doom 1 and 2 pretty much nails it but some of the still none of them were bad enough to ruin the game for me by any stretch, still one of the best games of the last few years in my opinion
doom 3's plasma gun reload sound though..
At least the appearance of the Eternal plasma rifle looked like the original. Doom 2016's looked like trash. I didn't like Eternal as a game though because it had... too many jump puzzles. Kinda didn't feel like Doom, to be honest.
@@MrTripleXXX i think doom eternal is really good, a lot of fun overall. i agree the platforming didn't really add much to the game but at least its all really easy so you can just breeze past it and onto the next combat arena. that being said i still think doom 1 and 3 are my favorites in the series. wasn't really a fan of the direction they took the plot/lore in 2016 or eternal.
this video was so amazing i tried to like it several times throughout.
Great video--you've earned yourself a new subscriber! I loved the subtle touches you placed in this video!
1. At 2:02, is that the sheet music for a rendition of Bach's "Air on a G String" (but in C major)?
2. At 2:40... that mountain looks a lot like the skybox in E1M1 ;)
Also, your choice of batteries at 3:08 was quite clever--that motorcyle battery looks roughly equivalent in size and shape to a single energy cell, and your car battery is very reminiscent of the energy cell pack! That makes me think that if we had more efficient energy sources, man-portable plasma guns like those in DOOM _are_ possible. And if man-portability were not an issue (e.g. this were a vehicle or aircraft-mounted weapon), then DOOM-style plasma guns are a feasibility with near-future technology, since a vehicular mounting would solve many of the power supply issues.
That said, I don't think we will see DOOM-esque plasma guns any time soon, even if we could overcome the energy storage and supply issues. This is because unless the weapon were designed (like in the MARAUDER project) to propel projectiles at extreme velocities, DOOM's plasma rifle simply doesn't offer any real advantages over existing ballistic weaponry whilst also being significantly more dangerous to its operator.
As the UAC in DOOM has likely *not* achieved 100% energy conversion rates, those energy cells are likely packing a tremendous amount of stored energy. If one is breached by damage (incoming bullets, fragments, imp fireballs, or pinky teeth), it will potentially explode with more force than an M67 hand grenade--bad news for the Marine carrying spare cells in his mag pouches _and_ for his buddies unlucky enough to be next to him. By contrast, a conventional assault rifle doesn't have any of those issues: it doesn't require electrical power; its ammunition is weather-proof, durable, and idiot-proof, and it puts down human-sized targets very well.
Wow, thanks for the extensive analysis, Schwartzfogel1! As you say, when fighting humans, a conventional ballistic weapons are probably more convenient. A plasma weapon on the other hand could be effective agains enemies that are more or less impervious to regular bullets. A kevlar vest would not do you much good against a plasma bolt, for example.
1. Yeah, August Wilhelmjs arrangement, it was the first high resolution public domain picture of the Air Sheet Music I could find.
2. Nice!
@@SunandWeather Indeed. Moreover, the UAC may have been developing man-portable plasma weapons concurrently with its teleportation experiments as more effective armaments against the "unique extradimensional fauna"* it encountered. But then again, since Doom takes place in the 22nd century, it's also possible that ballistic PPE may have advanced to the point where conventional bullets were rapidly losing their effectiveness on the battlefield, a bit like how advances in plate armour in the 15th and 16th centuries forced swords into secondary roles and ever more specialized designs.
Given that the plasma rifle is significantly more effective at putting down Doom's enemies than any of the game's ballistic weapons (with the exception of the super shotgun), it makes some sense in-universe that the UAC would be investing in plasma weapons for its more elite security forces. It's also possible that the plasma rifle may have been a spin-off from some other UAC technological innovations. Doom 3 implies this to some degree.
*I can definitely imagine internal UAC publications referring to the demons by such a euphemism🤣
Came for DOOM, stayed for the science lesson
Nice!
What an excellently scripted and delivered video you made here. Great work!
Thanks a lot, Tyler Ferarri!
Funny how I stumbled across this old hungarian photograph, (even if it's just for a moment only) in a random video. It's interesting to see how refueling your car looked like back in those days.
The par time is exactly the video leng, nice detail
Thanks for sticking it out 'till the end!
As far as I know there are much more than 4 states of matter. Sure, except the first 3 they're all are like different kinds of plasma but still
That timer hitting 11:30 at the end got my right in the OCD feels 😅
Wow... That's some effort... Respect!
Not sure how BFG will work IRL, since it's not just shooting a bigger plasma, it also emits tracers after the shot hit something
Maybe some radiation stuff I guess
The BFG can't work. It fires inverted teleportation sci-fi physics. It's a gun that uses a teleportation gimmick to wrench crowds of enemies apart. Doom 3 explained part of it in a tech demonstration video in-universe.
Well, in Doom reboots, BFG projectile zaps nearby enemies, so it might be simpler high voltage electric discharge.
@@_DeadEnd_ the BFG was supposed to be a super powered plasma gun but all the sprites tanked performance, so they came up with the final design afterwards.
The BFG is portrayed rather inconsistently in various DOOM media. In the classic games, the big plasma ball inflicts damage, but the invisible tracers released after the ball impacts a target are what inflict most of the damage--in essence, the BFG is a giant shotgun combined with a plasma cannon.
In Doom 3 and nu Doom (2016 and Doom Eternal), the BFG fires a plasma ball which emits powerful radiation which damages targets (but somehow not Doomguy himself?) and which releases a sizable blast that will badly wound or kill everything in the room presumably through thermal and blast effects--but again, not Doomguy. Firing the new BFG into a wall at contact-shot distances is harmless to the player.
In the Doom comic (the origin of "Rip and Tear"), the BFG seems to work like a sort of volley gun, firing hundreds of small projectiles or energy bolts simultaneously.
The biggest problem with rationally explaining the BFG using real-world science is that its destructive power somehow does *not* harm Doomguy (or cause serious environmental damage*) whilst managing to obliterate every other ugly-faced monster in the room within a 360-degree radius. That does _not_ parallel the effects of any weapon operating on real-world principles.
*If I recall correctly, this is averted in a cutscene in Doom 3, where Campbell's BFG shot wipes out a group of Trites and sets the room ablaze due to damaging some sensitive plasma tanks.
Very interesting concept! Awesome video.
Thanks a lot, Povilaz! Doom sure has a lot of interesting concepts.
It is brilliant, my man! Keep it up)
Is it possible that some time in the future we will see 100% pistol start run of BTSX on UV+? =D
Thanks a lot DiVoidation Studio! Ah, I think I'll stick to the tech stuff for now :)
Fun fact (in case anyone missed it): The level clear time is the same as the video run time.
Austin Cmon you should've made game theory about this man
I've always wondered if DOOM's weapons could be tangible in real life, and I'm happy it's possible! The gun I can never wrap my head around is the Chaingun. Magazine fed for the player, but belt fed for the chain gunner. Maybe it accepts both feed methods? What caliber is it? Is it a PDW since it shares the same bullets with a pistol and probably fire an intermediate cartridge like the FN 5.7x28? Who knows!
And then there is the chainguns name being extra confused
The us military has a belt fed machine gun that can also feed from an m16 magazine
The o.g chaingun would be a terrible weapon IRL, since it fires a low-powered bullet (most likely 9mm because of the Beretta) and it shoots at less than 600 rpm while also having a bunch of big metal barrels, probably making it weigh around 40-80 pounds.
@@Death_Chopper way easier to carry than a minigun though
@@christiangottsacker6932 true, but an assault rifle or SMG would be way easier to carry than the chaingun
I like how you unabashedly implied that supercritical fluids, degenerate matter, bose-einstein condensates, fermionic condensates, superconductivity, superfluid (yes different from the previous one), supersolids, quantum spin liquids, string-net liquids, time crystals, and rydberg polarons are not states of matter.
thank you diceno
Nice!
That is just awesome! Congrats, man
Thanks, André Luiz!
I wish I had that T-shirt. It would go great to compliment my array of Fallout shirts. Also owned by ID Software’s parent company: Bethesda.
8:34 "To get more content..."
Nice one
I am glad someone noticed! Thanks, ZethHolyBlade!
great video! :)
Thanks, Andrew Héjjas!
Considering Doom's universe has Space Marines, emphasis on the word space here, I think this analysis is slightly off because of one assumption, and that is using the native atmosphere as the plasma medium. For a weapon to operate in space or environments outside of Earth's atmosphere, the conductive medium should be provided as part of the ammunition. If you want to use the weapon anywhere you need it to work anywhere. We see a bit of this in Doom 3's plasma rifle using energy "bottles" to reload the gun. Classic Doom's cells could contain both electrical power and a compressed medium necessary to fuel the weapon. I think it's also possible that the plasma gun works less reliant on conventional gas plasmas and more on theoretical quantum effects. The projectiles remain coherent for a long distance, so it would imply an intense self-sustaining magnetic field, similar to what is hypothesized to create ball lightning. The energy states in atoms change their behavior when exposed to magnetic fields, and you can trap a lot of energy in a magnetic bubble. The sun does it all the time. If we throw quantum principles into the mix, without going into a lot of tedious detail it gets pretty exciting what might be possible. The actual "core" of the projectile might be much smaller than we see, with the resultant "ball" shape being a result of photon spilling due to ionization as energy leaks from the magnetic field. You would get a secondary coronal plasma forming in the air around the actual projectile itself. Packing a dense bundle of electrical force into something the size of a pencil tip, then releasing that inside of a solid object would be absolutely devastating to the material from the thermal shock alone, not to mention the electrical discharges and the effects that would have on organic tissue. The more resistance in the material, the hotter it would get, and heating water too rapidly causes a steam explosion. Seeing a zombieman occasionally gib from getting hit by plasma bolts is more scientifically accurate than you might think.
Very interesting! A self sustained magnetic field helping each bolt maintain its shape is a compelling theory.
As for using the atmosphere as ammunition: As fluffydestroyer8336 pointed out in this comment section it is quite likely that Phobos and Deimos have been terraformed to have an atmosphere similar to earth, given the lush greenery we see in some scenes. This would allow the atmosphere to be used as ammunition.
DOOM 3 takes place on Mars, and from the looks of it, the atmosphere differs from Phobos, Deimos and Earth. It could be that Mars atmosphere, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, does not work as well with the Plasma Rifle, which would require gas to be manually added as ammunition.
@@SunandWeather That's actually a good take on that regarding the atmosphere of Mars vs an artificial Earth-like atmosphere on Phobos. Deimos is actually floating over Hell, and Inferno takes place in Hell so we have to assume Hell's atmosphere is that of Earth's. We know the UAC brought artificial gravity to Mars, Phobos, and Deimos, as otherwise Doomguy would be falling with style a lot, so atmosphere makes sense as well.
Besides, even though I am the mighty immortal Phoenix I would never argue with someone named fluffydestroyer. The demons messed with the wrong bunny once and we know how that went! 🐇
Outstanding.
You nailed it!
Thanks, Nadine Raeker!
8:00 it's actually significantly hotter than the sun. The sun has a lot more space for fusion to randomly happen and then will keep the energy long enough for enough fusion to take place to replace the energy lost. The fusion reactor is small, so it loses energy faster and doesn't have the statistics on its side to generate the energy, so it has to be significantly hotter to sustain itself. It's like if you had to force a room of gamblers to have a jackpot happen, you could either increase the size of the room or increase the speed of the gambling.
4:22 I thought the whole point of a railgun is to launch things at high speed without burning propellant. It looks like a lot of smoke and fire is following the projectile. Wouldn’t that be picked up by radar if say a warhead were theoretically launched from a railgun?
That is a very good question. I guess it is waste products, like fragments from the projectile, catching fire. As I understand it, no explosive propellant was used. The footage is from the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) test at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va., on January 31, 2008; in case you want to do your own research.
Whether or not a radar will pick up a launched warhead probably depends more on the size and shape of it, rather than how it is launched, I would say. I don't think a radar would pickup the blast.
Thank you for the interesting questions, sixstringpsycho!
@@SunandWeather No prob. I only got the idea from Metal Gear, since the entire reason the titular weapon is such a scary threat in the games is because theoretically it would have been able to launch a nuclear strike from anywhere that missile detection systems could not intercept, because no propellant was used that would be picked up. In other words, a stealth nuclear weapon. Basically guaranteed doomsday if ever used. Thank god video games are not realistic.
a plasma bolt traveling in a vacuum would be lots different tho
What would it be like though?
Great video! I think that you may be slightly off in your calculations from the get go as plasma has the tendency to expand. A soccer ball sized projectile, especially in toroid form can be formed at 1 -> 2 kJ. I have been experimenting with such a plasma accelerator for a few years off and on now and I hope to have good success with my most recent design.
I think if people thought it’d be practical, we’d have definitely figured it out. We know it CAN be done. Is it worth the resources and work to figure out how make a proper gun out of it? Unfortunately, rule of cool doesn’t apply when actual scientists don’t embrace the irresponsibly awesome
I agree completely. If scientists could figure out how to place a man on the Moon in 1968, when they didn't even have pocket calculators and their telemetry computers had less RAM than your mobile phone, then if there was *really* a demand for man-portable plasma weapons, we'd have them.
However, like I stated in another comment, man-portable plasma guns just don't make sense in the current environment when regular bullets, buckshot, and high explosive munitions work just fine for incapacitating human targets whilst being nowhere as dangerous to their users as a plasma weapon and its "ammunition" would be.
@@Schwarzvogel1 Weaponry almost always develops in RESPONSE to a threat that is best dispatched in a specific way. We haven't encountered an enemy that would specifically call for plasma weaponry. I mean, even _nukes_ were only actually used once (twice, technically, but same operation) and since then humanity has had the good sense to see that actually using something so destructive isn't exactly practical. Not that a plasma gun would be nearly as destructive, obviously, but the principle of a weapon emerging in response to a very specific situation still stands.
Hey Man. That Was A cool video I wanted to ask if you could Make an analysis of the Feasibility of Metal Gears From The Metal gear franchise, And The Unorthodox Design Principles That Where Used For their Construction. Especially Metal Gear REX and its Railgun That Espacialy Made To Fire Nuclear Warheads
Hi Shockwave84! Thanks a lot for your suggestion!
Any man who own oscilloscopes and also knows how to use SLADE is someone who really has their life together IMO.
Can you do the Tau cannon?
Haha Well, I don´t know about that. They are both very good tools though!
Thank you for your suggestion, Kevin!
Good job!
Thanks, Daniel!
lol bad word finger. love it.
Dang dude I love those posters u got!
You mean the vinyl records at 04:46? Thanks!
@@SunandWeather yep. They’re like, all my favorite things
3:36 LORENTZ FORCE! GO!
AND IT WILL COME! LIKE A FLOOD OF PAIN! POURING DOWN ON ME!
I hate having an idea and putting lots of work into the math and designing of it only to realize that someone else already had the idea
If we manage to make a real life plasma riffle, will it have auto aim tho?
the only thing that confused me what the picture of a soccer ball when the audio said foot ball.
Haha, I guess you and I are on different sides of the Atlantic ocean!
this is a very cool video!
Thanks, Tom!
Just wanted to say I got the Bach reference and was very amused. 😁
Nice!
I think weapons like the plasma rifle is possible to create but it will be *very* expensive to make
I feel like you were thinking about doing something to a donut when you made this video
Doom was the first game i played on a PC. I had a 486 CPU, and soldered a 25 meter long zero modem cable for the RS232 port to connect two computers - no LAN available then, no one possessed an expansion card for that, and what is this strange L-A-N even good for anyways? - to play against each other. Thats unforgotten. The controls of this game, WASD + mouse are still in use today the same way as then. I cant play on the PS or the Xbox, since they do not offer this kind of controls. I am just too used to WASD.
Nice! DOOM II was my first PC game.
Wow a real departure from what u normally make and you knocked it out the park! Great video, hope you make more man.
Thanks a lot, FishRepair! I am really glad to hear that it was appreciated! It was really fun to make, but i took far more time than previous videos. I hope to do more similar to this.
@@SunandWeather hope to see it
Gagné!!
Bose-Einstein condensates are also a state of matter
Now make one.
would the gravity of phobos/mars affect how the plasma behaves?
Hi swordofcoffee! I do not think the difference in gravity will have a significant impact on the behaviour. The plasma bolt will likely have a density close to that of the atmosphere, so it will not fall towards the ground like a solid dense projectile would, regardless of gravity.
@@SunandWeather I was more thinking that different gravity would mean different air pressure because both have a thin atmosphere and less gravity meaning less force acting on the plasma bolt.
The Doom 3 Plasma Rifle seems to be much more feasible while still retaining some badaasery.
Nice
Thanks!
What effect are you using on your icon of sin voice?
Pitch shifter, Formant shifter, Distortion, Delay and Chorus.
Thanks for the question!
What’s the patent number for the Marauder toroid ??
Well, the US has the Invention Secrecy Act, which makes it possible to keep certain patents secret. I could not find any patents related to the MARAUDER project during my research, so any patents filed during the project might be classified according to this act.
Like taking a flamethrower and making a rifle out of it
Yeah I heard about this. It's not a real plasma rifle unless it has that awesome appearance and sound of the Doom one! And I don't mean the recent Doom games... classic plasma rifle all the way.
Why is the plasma from the gun blue and why is the Arachnatron's plasma green?
Hi PedroLambrini! The colour of the plasma depends on the fuel. As the fuel heats up, the electrons in the fuel atoms jump to higher energy levels. As the fuel cools down the electrons jump back to lower energy levels. When an electron jumps to a lower energy level, a photon is emitted. (This is probably why the colour is more pronounced along the edges of the plasma bolt, where the fuel has started to cool down). The wavelength (corresponding to the colour) of this photon depends on the energy difference between the two energy levels that the electron jumps between. Different atoms have different energy levels, thus emitting different colours.
Oxygen plasma is blue, which makes sense for the plasma rifle, as we assumed that it used the air around it. The Arachnotron on the other hand seems to use a different fuel. Perhaps a xenon-nitrogen mixture, which does produce green plasma.
@@SunandWeather what would you need to produce purple plasma? I know it's definitely possible, but what specific fuel would you need for a purple color? And I mean purple NOT pink lol
@@Bob98024 Well, Argon might be the closest you will get with a single noble gas. But you can make plasma out of almost anything, so I am sure you could get a nice purple colour from a lot of different materials.
THE PLASMA RIFLE
IS REAAAAAAAAL
My theory is that since fire is a plasma, flamethrowers are plasma guns.
I used to think that for a bit, until I learned how actual flamethrowers work. Military flamethrowers are firing burning liquid fuel, *not* burning gas/aerosol like holding up a Bic lighter to a can of hairspray. As such, they are still firing liquid "projectiles" and are more akin to SuperSoakers from hell than a plasma weapon.
1:04 you dont need a hv capacitor or any capacitor, you just need high voltage
I've always had the impression that the gun in game is supposed to be firing a stream of plasma like a flamethrower, not discrete fireballs like a machinegun.
That wouldn't work well at all for a weapon. Now, plasma projection devices like you mention _do_ exist... in the form of plasma cutters used in machining and foundry shops. However, these cannot be used as weapons (or weaponised) as the jet of plasma they produce is only a few centimetres long.
And before you say that it would make an awesome melee weapon, considering the power requirements to produce that plasma jet, even if you could make a man-portable plasma jet projector capable of cutting through steel (and certainly human flesh), you'd probably have more luck hitting someone over the head with the emitter than trying to use it to barbecue him. Unless you were using said man-portable plasma cutter as a torture device against a restrained target, and again, there are cheaper and more efficient ways to torture someone than needing to mess around with high voltages and plasma.
why?
@@Schwarzvogel1 It would be a cool as shit weapon for a _video game_ though!
That's not the intended effect
@@HQ_Default Definitely. Interestingly enough, the Last Man Standing mod for Doom 3 _does_ feature a plasma gun that works like cyber_dragon_123 describes... and it is a fun weapon to use in that game. It toasts hell knights and cacodemons like no one's business.
I can see a weaponized plasma cutter fitting in some game settings, though. If I'm not mistaken, the Dead Space series has a weapon like that.
What is the name of that air gun toy? We don't have it here. :o
Hi Ravick Bitencourt! I believe this model is called Airzooka; it was the name it was sold under here in Sweden, at least.
@@SunandWeather Thanks! :)
When I was in middle school, I fired a fart at my science teacher with that air gun.
I want a phase plasma rifle in the 40W range.
this is cool and all but can we see the pistol from doom in real life sometime
It's a Beretta 92
Loved the video essay!!
Could you for the next video see if there is a way that uses electricity as a way of propulsion, maybe something that doesn't use an ionic thruster.
If it's even possible of course.
Great to hear, Mar z.! Thanks for the suggestion!
@@SunandWeather oh dayum you actually replied, you vid was really cool, I loved how it all fit together and connected shame a prototype wasn't made since it's would have to be expensive.
In time, on the results screen, it counted the time used to tally the result in the time taken to complete the video. That's incorrect, it makes the preceding video retroactively unwatchable.
Also what items did we miss?
The plasma rifle! The plasma rifle is real!
Could you just launch a large magnet along with the payload to keep it from diffusing
Interesting idea! The question is if there are permanent magnets strong enough for this setup to be feasible.
super shotgun is objectively more iconic than BFG. BFG only appears in doom. Double barrel shotguns are practically in every FPS game ever.
5:53: Just say it's a Star Fox ring.
I want to talk personally men I have the materiels I just need step by step advice
That means, Railgun from Quake 1 is real
this feels like if game theory evolved
Nice! Thank you!
*pulls out some thing I've never seen in my entire life*
Remember this?
my question is what kind of recoil does the plasma gun have?
Hi Sheila olfieWay! We assumed that the Doom Plasma Rifle fires around 6 grams of air. Since the plasma bolt moves relatively slowly, launching it should not require much force. So, the recoil should be low.
I am guessing the reason it jumps around a bit when firing, is due to the large amount of energy being discharged in such a short time.
The MARAUDER on the other hand fires the plasma bolt at a very high speed. So, in that case the recoil would be significant.
@@SunandWeather I'm talking about in game how after firing the gun seems to recoil.
2:02 I see what you did there 😆
Nice to see that someone caught that! Thanks Emily Christ!
also let's think that if plasma is hot, then the gun gets hot and also the person weilding the gun cooks alive
Well, the acceleration of the bolt will begin immediately after it assumes the state of plasma, so there will not be much time for the thermal energy to transfer from the plasma bolt to the body of the rifle. It will most certainly still get somewhat hot, but it will probably be mostly contained to the barrel, which does seem to have a ribbed texture, to disperse the heat effectively.
Pssst...the right-hand rule is easier to remember :-)
Marauder coincidience i think not
Plasma. Cool State. Ironic