How does the new Wiimote Addon Work?
As Tiny Dancer mentioned in his report on the Nintendo press conference yesterday, a new wiimote addon was announced that promises 1:1 motion sensing for the console. So lets talk about what that means.
Right now, the Wii has two items that track where your wiimote is at any given time. The sensors built into the wiimote (which track the Infrared LEDs in the sensor bar), and an accelerometer (which tracks movement and speed). Together, the Wii uses them to fairly accurately figure out where the Wiimote is pointing at any given time, even when it's not pointed directly at the screen. But there are limits. When the IR sensors aren't pointed at the sensor bar, you are usually doing some simple movement (like waggle) that the accelerometer can pick up.
Clever designers have worked around this, making the controls to their games less rigid. So, for example, you don't need to wave the remote at a certain angle to make your character perform an action, generally any side-to-side movement will trigger it. But if both of these inputs are active at once, the Wii can make a 'best guess' to where the remote should be pointed. It's actually a very smart piece of engineering.
Gyroscopes, on the other hand, are how the big boys do this sort of thing. Nintendo has contracted out to a company called InvenSense, who have shrunk a gyroscope down to a small enough size that it's a feasible plugin for the Wiimote. In combination with the existing sensors, this will allow the Wii to know exactly where you are pointing your remote at any time, regardless of whether the IR sensors are point in the right direction. In fact, with this thing plugged in, the IR sensors probably become more of an initial confirmation tool, used to determine the starting position of the controller.
Personally, I'm interested to see the kind of games and control schemes we'll get once this is released. The possibility for extremely accurate games like Trauma Center is exciting. Check out Kotaku for the full press release, which has a lot of techno-jargon.
How, Exactly, Does The Wii's MotionPlus Work? [Kotaku.com]
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Video Games on 16 July 2008
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: gyroscope, Wii, Wiimote
Name: Dave
Interesting... I can't tell from the pictures, can you plug the nunchuck or classic controller into the bottom?
I'm not really sure Keith, that's the only picture we have to go on right now. It looks like there might be a slot for it though, under that panel there.
Oh man I did not expect this! This is a great decision by Nintendo. I felt we were getting to a point where the lack of 1:1 motion parity was holding developers back from capitalising on the Wii's strengths. I thought we would have to wait a whole new console generation to see Nintendo really get it right.
The other neat thing gyroscopes can do is provide 3d force feedback. Imagine a sword fighting game where a virtual sword block from your opponent prevents you from progressing your Wii remote in 3D space.
I guess in time they will lose the attachment and just include the gyroscopes in the remote itself.
Of course the connector port covers a pass-through port for a nunchuk! This attachment is designed to enhance the basic wiimote. A pass through connector was the first thing I looked for when I read about it. Nintendo would not overlook this.
Nothing says awesome like having to buy a peripheral that should have been contained within the already overpriced original product.
Way to go Nintendo, you're proving you're as adept at f*cking people over as your enemies.
Obviously this will not be met with the same fan hatred as it would have if Sony or MS did it.