Dreamcast-Talk.com

Exactly as has been said here. The light gun part of the gun does not work, but this does not preclude the controller part of the gun from working as a controller normally would.

Another (somewhat) technical reply (and I've written plenty of code for the Dreamcast ) follows...

Devices that plug into the Dreamcast's controller ports (and any slots on those controllers) can identify as one or more fixed device types. Each device type has various commands that the system can send it that it will respond to in a very specific manner. Just as an example, official VMUs (with screens) report to the system as supporting three types of devices: a memory card, a clock, and an LCD. The light gun also reports as multiple devices -- a standard controller and a light gun. As you have said, you can use the D-Pad and buttons on the gun as they were designed to work, and as they'd work in any other non-gun supporting game. However, pointing the gun at the screen doesn't serve to aim the gun as it should. That's where the earlier description of things comes in.

You don't need to point the gun at the screen to hit the start button or use the D-Pad. There's nothing for the TV to do with that -- it works just as any other controller, just with a more limited set of inputs. Aiming does not and will not work. The trigger on the gun is just another button. The console might react in a certain way (flashing the screen) when that trigger is pulled, but it doesn't mean it's getting any aiming information from the gun. It's getting it from where you aimed with the D-Pad, and acting as if the gun was pointing completely away from the screen. No light gun will ever work with an LCD/LED TV unless it is designed for that (i.e, actually uses image processing to figure out where on the screen it's pointed or uses an approach like the Wii remote). Standard light guns that rely on the electron beam sweep of the horizontal/vertical refresh of a CRT TV will never work, and buying more will not change that at all.

I'm kind of surprised that nobody has created an HDTV-compatible light gun for the Dreamcast yet, considering how many people have made homebrew adapters for the DC. If GDEMU is possible, one would think that somebody could come up with the hardware and firmware trickery necessary to fake the DC into thinking that you were using a normal light gun when in fact you were not. I guess the fact that the most popular DC shooters (Quake?) use standard FPS controls means that the demand isn't very high.

Exactly. Why isn't there an HDTV compatible light gun for the Dreamcast? It had a few really good light gun games. The PS2 had light gun setups that worked with HDTV's so I don't see why the Dreamcast couldn't get one. In fact you can still by guns like this.
Too bad it works for everything except the DC.

And now we have the LightCon.

I know this is a couple years late, but false tech facts bug me.

So Mostly i wanted to come here to correct BlueCrab, who had how a tv works, incorrect. The difference between how a CRT and LCD/LED display frames is NOT that modern HDTVs change the whole frame at once. Screens are still (even in 2020) 1080p 3840p (or 1080i) those i's and p's still indicate scanning. They even scan at the same rate as old tvs do. (50 or 60 hz)

The difference is that a CRT has a 'hot' spot. Only the pixel actively being changed is on, and every other pixel is off. But the pixels remain bright enough for the human eye to not see it fade away. If you slow it down enough though, you can see it.

On an HDTV, although only one pixel is being changed, just like a CRT, all the other remain on, in thier last known state, therefore always emitting light.

So it is because the CRTs pixels 'turn off' after being changed that the light gun works. Since HDTVs don't turn their pixels off, light guns don't work without extra hardware.

Here is a cool video showing the behavior on both new and old.

https://youtu.be/3BJU2drrtCM

KlaxMaster wrote:I know this is a couple years late, but false tech facts bug me

You pop in to correct a 5 year old thread because of incorrect info and then talk about CRT "pixels" hmm...