Any Updates on Wii Remote for point & shoot?

[LilWiiWii]

Hmm.. i kinda know what your talking about..like the remote supposed to be perfect with where you are aiming it at the tv..and I gotta tell you..unless your setup is wrong, its pretty damn close to it..just mess around with your sensorbar

 

[paintba||er]

Hmm.. i kinda know what your talking about..like the remote supposed to be perfect with where you are aiming it at the tv..and I gotta tell you..unless your setup is wrong, its pretty damn close to it..just mess around with your sensorbar

It won't be very close in most cases, since the spot where you would need to point for it to be accurate changes with your TV size, but the sensor bar is always the same. For example, if you got a 100" projection screen it would be very very inaccurate. You would still have to move your arm the same amount to get the pointer at the corner of the 100" screen as you would a 10" screen. So you would still be pointing relatively close to the center of a 100" screen to get the pointer at the far side of the screen.

 

[Wiinter]

I actually have my sensor bar above my TV with the settings believing it's below. This allows me aim the wiimote a little higher than a lightgun would require, and prop my arms comfortably. I'm not looking where I point my wiimote, I'm looking where the aiming reticule is, so any difference doesn't bother me.

It won't be very close in most cases, since the spot where you would need to point for it to be accurate changes with your TV size, but the sensor bar is always the same. For example, if you got a 100" projection screen it would be very very inaccurate. You would still have to move your arm the same amount to get the pointer at the corner of the 100" screen as you would a 10" screen. So you would still be pointing relatively close to the center of a 100" screen to get the pointer at the far side of the screen.

Only if you're standing the same distance away from the IR sources in both cases, which seems unlikely. Some combination of altering the distance between the two IR sources and/or the distance between you and the IR sources would yield the similar levels of accuracy in both cases.

Due to this Nintendo needs to have a calibration or something to help adjust for wherever someone puts the sensor bar AND the size of their TV. I just thought I would check this forum just in case someone with intelligence had any other ideas. Hmmmm...

Software calibration would be nice. I'd be happy if a lot more about the wii controls were customizable.

Probably your best bet would be to visit avs' Nintendo subforum. They did some sensor bar mods for people with front projection tvs. I wouldn't be surprised if this has come up there.

But the poor man's solution is above. Distance between your and the sensor bar, and between the sensor bar's two ir sources will change how the wii remote transmits its pointer position.

As a quick primer (perhaps you already know this), the sensor bar doesn't sense anything, it simply has infrared leds on both sides (5 leds on each side, to provide some side-view--if it were a single led, you'd have to be dead on in front of it) powered by the wii (it could just as easily be powered with a DC converter or a battery, both mods exist already). The Wii remote has an infrared camera that detects both sources, then the chip plots them, translates that into positional data and sends it to the Wii via bluetooth.

You could unplug the sensor bar, get two candles (also an IR source), and play around with different distances--both between the two ir sources and between the wiimote and the ir sources--to find something ideal. Once you had it, there are plenty of DIY sensor bar specs that you could alter to your own specs. Someone else (who actually recalls high school trig) may have already come up with a spreadsheet that has ideal settings, and that forum above may know more. Good luck. Let us know if you come up with anything interesting.

 

[paintba||er]

Ya, you could just lengthen the sensor bar or adjust your distance from it, but that still doesn't really change much. A game without a cursor would work very poorly on the Wii. It would be fun to play games similar to Duck Hunt where you have to try to point accurately without a cursor. But that would never work on the Wii.

 

[billcsho]

I have partly solved this problem by my homemade sensor cubes. Read the bottom part of my report here.
Theoretically, disregarding the position and the length of the sensor bar, the aiming position of the WiiMote and the onscreen cursor can be calibrated in the program. I guess there may be a game with that feature when the Zapper is released.

 

[Skippy]

This guy is on crack, my wiimote aims where i point it... the newb probably has the sensor at th ebottom of his screen or didnt bother checking the settings for sensor bar position in the options.

It depends on the size of your TV, the distance you are from the TV, and your sensor bar position.

 

[Skippy]

Think of the Wii remote as a computer mouse rather than an old style light gun. You move it to the right and the cursor on the screen moves to the right, etc. It's unlikely you'll ever get the cursor to be precisely where you are pointing the remote.

 

[Wiinter]

I have partly solved this problem by my homemade sensor cubes. Read the bottom part of my report here.
Theoretically, disregarding the position and the length of the sensor bar, the aiming position of the WiiMote and the onscreen cursor can be calibrated in the program.

Definitely visit that link kainan. That's exactly the kind of info you want.

I guess there may be a game with that feature when the Zapper is released.

Now that you mention it, the girl playing in the E3 demo was closing one eye and looking down the barrel of the Zapper. It looked retarded, and I couldn't figure out what she was doing. If "Zapper support" included in-game calibration, suddenly that would make more sense.

 

[Skippy]

I was very disappointed when I found out how the pointer worked with the wii remote. I assumed since the laser technology has been used so many times even in very VERY old systems that they would use something similar for pointing with the wii remote.

Lasers were not used in the old style light gun games. There was sensor in the end of the gun that received light from the TV.

And those light guns only work on CRT type TVs, which are quickly being replaced by LCD, Plasma, etc.

 

[paintba||er]

Calibration still wouldn't allow for games without a cursor. Because you would have to recalibrate it every time you moved closer or farther away.

 

[Kainan]

Ahhh.. Good points.
Skippy -
Yeah, CRTs have been on the way out for a while. I didn't realize it had to have CRT projection. I wonder if there are any companies looking into how to make aiming work with modern TVs. I've had an LCOS TV for a while.. would have been out of luck anyway it sounds...

Paintballer-
True about the calibration but certainly it would be a good tool to get your aim closer for normal use. You could always go back through the calibration mode and play from around the same distance. This would beat the problem I'm having where I'm having to point a foot lower than where the cursor shows up.

Thanks for the info wiinter. Not sure if I will want to rig up a long string of LEDs though. Not to sound picky but to have a long piece of constructed leds sitting on top of a TV that cost enough to put me in the dog house doesn't seem like a solution I'm hoping for. If this really works then surely a third party company will have a longer and stronger sensor bar soon. I don't know if any of you owned Xboxes but I can remember playing with the limitation of the freaking controller cable forever as I waited for a third party ro realize that some people had TVs bigger than 32" and didn't want to sit right up against it. What a pain that was. Oh well, I'm going to try the bar on top of the tv. I crammed it in betweenthe center channel and the tv this morning. Maybe it will help. If not then I guess I'll deal with it and enjoy the wii controller for all the great things it does have and not dwell on this one complaint. THANKS guys!

 

[Kainan]

Tested with the bar at the top of the TV and it is a better. It still isn't how I want it but I've adjusted. As some have said, it is still good for shooting games that show the target circle on the screen. If I had to play a gun game that didn't show where I was shooting then I'm afraid I would be toast for sure. Anyway, I'm betting that Nintendo will release an upgrade that allows you to calibrate for the TV size. I'm still unsure why it seems better at the top of the TV rather than the bottom when I set the sensor position properly on the Wii for both places. Oh well.. I'm still enjoying tennis and other sports games. It would be awesome to play tennis this way online. I would get a real workout!

 

[billcsho]

The infrared detection works best when the IR LEDs are pointing directly at the WiiMote. If the top of TV position is closer to your hand level, it would work better. Nevertheless, most people would have the WiiMote tilted slightly upward while holding it.

 

[Kainan]

Hmm.. actually for meand my kids I think putting the bar on top of the TV makes it further away but it does make sense about the wiimotes pointing up a little in our natural way we would hold them. My TV stand is about 20" or so high and then the TV is 55" with the addition of the speakers being at the bottom of the TV so that really puts the sensor further away at the top of the TV unless it is an adult. I'm in a wheelchair so even though I'm 5'8" I might as well be 4'8" :yikes:
One thing I did notice that I didn't like is the #1 remote is a lot more jumpy towards the top or bottom of the screen after I moved the bar. In general it is better, just not at the very top and very bottom.

 

[Fire Flower]

The Wii remote has to be the most accurate console out there. ( Well besides the DS )

Stop complaining. You messed something up.