It seems to be run as somewhat of an "enthusiast" project as despite the Wiki, information is sort of scattered. Anyhow, there are some relevant notes in the driver package with special instructions for the steam deck.

Sounds like it runs as either a mouse or as a joystick:

Quote"MAKE SURE YOUR SINDEN LIGHTGUNS ARE ON V1.9 FIRMWARE BY USING THE WINDOWS BETA 2.05 OR HIGHER AND UPDATING FIRMWARE. WE NEED THE JOYSTICK FUNCTIONALITY. ALSO ON THE FIRMWARE UPDATE TAB ENABLE THE JOYSTICK FUNCTIONALITY FOR EACH LIGHTGUN.

I'm not sure how well Steamdeck Linux does with absolute mouse coordinates devices, so for this first release I'm recommending you use joystick mode. I think mouse should work but it hijacks the mouse cursor and seemed a bit messy, hopefully people can experiment and feed back."

The example used Mame on the Deck so I'm not sure how well it works with regular Steam games. Guess it doesn't hurt to ask?

I've got one I use on my MiSTer which is Linux / custom FPGA core's and it's been working great. They also look to have a RetroPI build for the Raspberry PI4 so, though I haven't tried playing anything on Linux proper yet, it seems to be on offer.

The only thing I haven't found yet is a way to update the gun's firmware... they only have a Windows app to do it now.

Looks like it registers a mouse, keyboard, and standard UVC camera when I plug it into my Debian box.

 
[1537832.271706] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 48 using xhci_hcd
[1537832.420244] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=2512, bcdDevice= b.b3
[1537832.420248] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[1537832.420250] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: KSB
[1537832.421417] hub 3-1:1.0: USB hub found
[1537832.421462] hub 3-1:1.0: 2 ports detected
[1537832.707697] usb 3-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 49 using xhci_hcd
[1537832.818960] usb 3-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=16d0, idProduct=1098, bcdDevice= 4.22
[1537832.818964] usb 3-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[1537832.818965] usb 3-1.1: Product: SindenCamD
[1537832.818966] usb 3-1.1: Manufacturer: WN-220422-A
[1537832.822216] usb 3-1.1: Found UVC 1.00 device SindenCamD (16d0:1098)
[1537832.843256] input: SindenCamD: SindenCamD as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.1/3-1.1:1.0/input/input68
[1537832.923581] usb 3-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 50 using xhci_hcd
[1537833.037268] usb 3-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=16c0, idProduct=0f39, bcdDevice= 1.00
[1537833.037272] usb 3-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[1537833.037273] usb 3-1.2: Product: SindenLightgun
[1537833.037274] usb 3-1.2: Manufacturer: Unknown
[1537833.037275] usb 3-1.2: SerialNumber: HIDDO
[1537833.048942] cdc_acm 3-1.2:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[1537833.050989] input: Unknown SindenLightgun Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.2/0003:16C0:0F39.001A/input/input69
[1537833.107963] input: Unknown SindenLightgun Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.2/0003:16C0:0F39.001A/input/input70
[1537833.108419] input: Unknown SindenLightgun as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.2/0003:16C0:0F39.001A/input/input71
[1537833.109096] hid-generic 0003:16C0:0F39.001A: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.01 Keyboard [Unknown SindenLightgun] on usb-0000:00:14.0-1.2/input2

That is very interesting.

If I understand it correctly (and take this as coming from a complete outsider who has never tinkered with the light gun), it relies on drawing a white border around the edges of the screen for aim tracking and positioning, is that correct? What I couldn't figure out was whether the border overlay would work with Steam, and how would one set that up in the first place?

Last edited by Linas on 14 August 2024 at 7:12 pm UTC

Not sure how they work on Linux in 2024, but otherwise as an alternative: ye olde Wiimote with one of those plastic gun shells?

Bit late to the thread, but I played with a Sinden on my desktop recently and wanted to chime in.

The gun's desktop software uses OpenCV to track the white square drawn on-screen and calculates either a mouse position or joystick offset, depending on how you run the Sinden. While I think some games and emulators have built-in support for the Sinden, I think you could set it up to work with any game that uses mouse input for aiming/firing by configuring some sort of border the gun can track. For example, setting up a blank white desktop and running the game in windowed mode in the center so the background shows up for the gun's camera would probably work. It'd be tough to calibrate this though. There's a whole lot of configuration options with the software you can tweak, but it's very tedious. On Linux this is done by manually adjusting values in the config file (json or yaml, can't remember), and you've got to close and relaunch the program every time you make a change.

While I thought the lightgun was neat, I never got it to work reliably. I had to make sure all the blinds in my office were closed and all lights were off for it to track consistently. Additionally, a lot of emulators claim they'll work with it, but I never got it to really work well with any of them. The best luck I had with it was actually building a little PoC lightgun project in Godot with a white border overlaid on the world view.

Quoting: helloCLDWhile I thought the lightgun was neat, I never got it to work reliably.

Thanks for chiming in.

I am still tempted to get one, but I am afraid I will not have much time to tinker with it. Eh, who knows, maybe I'll end up pulling the trigger.