Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Unveils Wii MotionPlus
Tim MacDonald writes "In a pre-conference announcement at E3, Nintendo has unveiled the newest accessory for the Nintendo Wii — the Wii MotionPlus. The Wii MotionPlus combines with the Wiimote's accelerometers and the Sensor Bar to give true, almost 1:1 matching of motion. More to come during Tuesday's conference." If all these battery mods and add-ons to the Wiimote continue my controller is going to start looking less like a controller and more like a quarterstaff. Looks like the wrist strap is going to have to go through another round of beefing up.
So when's the WiiSuit going to be announced? Stick accelerometers and IR sensors all over a bodysuit and track entire body movement.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
Ive owned a Wii since launch and not because I enjoy it but because its been a thing of my life to own the major Nintendo consoles on release. The current motion sensing is pretty bad, it flinches alot, it jumps around, it felt added on. If they seriously have improved on this and its a true 1:1 then maybe ill dust off the Wii again otherwise ill go back to another button smashing controller.
I think we're moving towards a good, solid, German Equatorial Mount for each one of these things.
This reminds me of the extra 4Mb of RAM you had to purchase for the N64 to run the more advanced games. It should have come with it in the first place. I wonder if it will come bundled with the first games that require it, as they did with Starfox 64 and the rumble pack.
Either way, it'd be cool to use this so Red Steel works the way they advertised it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Aren't you glad you are competing directly with Nintendo?
Whats the point in releasing new accessories when there are not enough Wii's available even after the console is more than an year old?
I know I can get it from ebay and all, but I want it for $250 which is the advertised prize.
Then any reason homebrew drivers couldn't be written to use it for sculpting in a 3d modeling program?
Nintendo must have a game in mind with this peripheral, otherwise I don't see why they would bother (unless MS or Sony are planning on unveiling waggle controllers that outperform the Wii Remote... which so far doesn't appear to be the case). Interestingly, Miyamoto has said that Twilight Princess would be the final Zelda game to play like it's forebears, and it is true that Nintendo has been experimenting with a first person Zelda design for some time (part of which became Link's Crossbow Training). With this new 1:1 motion capability, perfect for sword fighting one would assume, I'm lead to believe we may be looking at a major announcement of an all new Zelda title. Then again, it might just be for Wii Sports 2.
Nintendo also announced it's latest game which will be packaged with the new add-on: "Leisure Suit Larry - Come with Mii"
The above comments are not guaranteed to make sense to anyone other than the author...
Actually it's a buck and a quarter quarterstaff, but I'm not telling him that.
I thought there couldn't be true 1:1 motion matching because you would have to have cameras everywhere or some kind of crazy set of stationary sensors to get position data.
The Wiimote already has an accelerometer that can sense acceleration as a 3D vector in space, so does this only add another vector at the other end of the Wiimote? What kind of additional data could you get out of 2 vectors that you couldn't out of one, especially since they are physically attached?
Nintendo used to have the Glove game controller on the original 8-bit NES system.
I wonder if the end-game is to embed sensors into something with the same textile properties of a baseball batting glove and add a small battery/transmitter to a bracelet/wristwatch. I would imagine that the ability to produce a game for a platform where the controller is that advanced would finally make it possible for realistic artificial reality games that we all imagined 10-15 years ago.
And the could still sell them for less than it costs Sony to manufacture a PS3. If they can pull this off... then they have already won the next generation of console video games (which will start appearing in 2013 based on the standard 7-year development cycle).
Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
Gyroscope? Second accelerometer at a different orientation than the one in the wiimote? The article doesn't say anything except that it apparently exists.
This thing is basically a hardware patch for flakey motion sensing. This should have been included from the get-go. I see this going one of two routes. Option one: it's going to work (improving motion control, but not really ADDING anything). Developers are going to start developing for it. You will NEED to buy it to keep your Wii usable. It will be much like the RAM add on for the N64. Option two: Nintendo releases some shoddy Wii Sports sequel that ships with the add on. It works, but its the only game ever released for it.
FOXTROT UNIFORM CHARLIE KILO
This needs to be made for the Wii!
From TFA: "unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen"
Sounds like time for some ungodly wii porn then.
stuff |
With more accurate motion sensing capabilities, my wiimote based shoulder fired missiles should be capable of hitting within 5 feet of the target! A major improvement of the 30 feet of the target I get now.
One of my complaints when I first tried the Wii is that it doesn't match motion well. I assumed that over time the technology would get better and they would start making better controllers? So I hope this will become a standard part of newly manufactured Wii consoles rather than a way of nickel and diming people by first making them pay for the console then pay again for controllers that work. ~~~~
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
"did Nintendo just splinter its user base" ? Seriously? The supposed hard core has been upset that they can't get 1:1 motion since launch. They are also the ones most likely to purchase (good) peripherals. And yet, the day of the announcement talk of splintering the user base is up already?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Having played with the Wii for a year and change now, I can say that with regard to motion, the Wiimote seems to be good at detecting motion in the middle of its range, but lacking at the ends of the range.
Case in point: putting in Wii Golf. The learning curve for putting is fairly steep, and sometimes the game got confused with such low velocities. The MotionPlus should help that.
What will be interesting is what happens with actual swordfighting. If you complete a sword swing, but your opponent blocks it, the game will have to resolve the situation by... what? It's not an impossible problem, but it'll still be something new to get used to.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
If there isn't another port on this device to daisy-chain another accessory, this can ONLY get used for wiimote-only games, most of which I'm not fond of.
Tiger Woods 2009
It comes down to the question of what they added to the device. If it's a second accelerometer or a gyroscope, you could see a drastically increased ability to act as a very dirt-cheap IMU, which would be incredible for precision control games. Meanwhile, the current device works just fine for everything else it was designed to do.
Nobody said it was bad to begin with. But even good can be improved on (the ontological proof being "better" and "best").
The Wii was nothing more than a clever marketing effort attached to some outdated hardware and some cheap and flakey motion sensing bolted on.
Sucker born every minute...
Disco
Pet Rocks
Wii
This effort to fix the crappy motion controls on the Wii does make the inane claims of the 'amazing accuracy' from fanboys all that more pathetic.
Another Nintendo accessory that will be completely unavailable to those unwilling to wait in long lines.
Seriously, when will Nintendo outsource some production?
Woo, better motion sensitivity. And just like everything else, it will cause issues with whatever you use to charge the batteries in your wiimote.
I repeat: where the hell is my battery charger? Some sort of magical way, built and supported by nintendo, to charge the batteries in my wiimote, that doesn't involve parts-fidgeting every time I want to use one of their other accessories.
Gary (-;
And it'll probably come with a force-feedback codpiece for an enhanced gaming experience.
finally! I got sick and tired of my mates being able to cheat in multiplayer games by flicking the remote instead of doing the proper motions. It just takes the whole point out of it. I hope it really is nearly 1:1, but I'm pretty sure I'll be disappointed again....
Yup.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
I have always loved Nintendo's work, but the whole peripherals thing is getting to be ridiculous. I remember when Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles was released on the Gamecube, and to take full advantage of the (actually quite fun) multiplayer required four Gameboy Advance systems and four GBA to GCN connector cables (hundreds of dollars altogether). The same thing happened with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
I remember a lot of people complaining about the GCN's dependency on other Nintendo products: I thought that the Wii would address these concerns. Instead, a fully-equipped Wii has four remotes (this is fine), four nunchuk attachments (the fact that they must be purchased separately is annoying), two classic controllers, Wii Wheels, Wii Zappers, the Wii Balance Board, and now four new motion-enhancing attachments.
The only way to justify owning this ridiculous amount of white plastic would be for each peripheral to be supported by a pretty solid library of games. Instead, we see a mere handful of low-quality games making halfhearted use of them. Or (and God forbid we see more of this), we see games eschewing everything that makes the Wii unique to make use of good old GCN controllers (more plastic to keep on hand). Honestly, the classic controller is the most useful peripheral right now because it works wonderfully with most of the Virtual Console titles.
All that said, however, I still feel the need for the motion controls to be improved. They have a tendency to be very twitchy and inaccurate, even in some of the bigger games (I noticed a fair amount of this in Super Mario Galaxy). It will be interesting to see how much these new add-ons will help the issue.
What I'd really like to see instead of more and more tangible objects that I can plug into my Wii remote are games that make interesting, fun, and intelligent use of the already existing systems. There's a ton of potential for the hardware, and I'd love to see it really take off.
Perhaps they'll start making Wii Socks next.
No more so than Microsoft admitting that the original X-Box controllers were oversized warts by releasing the normal-sized 360 controllers.
This is the first time anyone has made a serious attempt at a motion-sensitive controller (there are other examples, but nothing that was widely used). It should not be expected to be perfect.
That said, the current controller is useful for some games despite its limits. Sword fighting isn't going to work very well, but it's arguably even better than keyboard+mouse for fps games.
Not a typewriter
I don't want to know where THAT WIImote goes...
The problem with a glove is that... well... would you want to wear a glove that the sweaty guy next to you has just used?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Actually, Nintendo didn't make the Power Glove. Mattel did. Nintendo said it was licensed but never assisted in the design in anyway.
And once the novelty wore off, it was a pretty 'meh' device. Good idea, so-so implementation, wrong time.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Were you paying attention the day your teacher said that "can be improved" is not the same as "currently sucks"?
It works pretty damn well in my experience, but I guess since Metroid isn't a mini game it doesn't count.
I do however agree with you that primary colors are bad. More brown games, please, preferably dark brown!
The enemies of Democracy are
An Electro-quarterstaff!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Robin_Hood
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
Since the Wiimote uses Bluetooth to communicate with the Wii, it can be used with a PC. There is some software that takes advantage of it, though if you are interested there is http://www.wiili.org/ . The site documents the Wiimote communication protocol and lists some drivers available for the Linux, Windows, MacOS X and Java.
I wonder whether the intention of using Bluetooth was to use off the shelf equipment for the Wii, to facilitate development for it or even a bit of both?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
The Powerglove was a serious attempt!!! It had the TV sensors this to me jsut seems like nintendo's second attempt and they are already screwing up.
It's still the best option on the market for that type of gaming interface. It doesn't take a fanboy to recognize that. Nintendo took a big risk, it paid off for them in a big way. All the other consoles are just more of the same.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
How does that quote go, "When facts are few, speculations are most likely to represent individual psychology"?
When the original Wiimote was announced we all dreamed of the wonderful things it would do. We'd finally have lightsaber games and true-to-life shooters and all that, because it could somehow tell what you were doing!
But that wasn't the case. It don't actually do swordfighting in any real capacity. And I don't say that to diminish what Nintendo did, I love the system and in fact the Wiimote's simplicity was probably a good idea, I just want to point out what happens when we don't know how a device operates. I mean, these statements are from a press release, so, [citation needed] y'know.
If someone can explain to me what the heck this extra doohickey actually does though then I'll perfectly happily drink the kool-aid and party all night. But right now all they say is improved tracking? What does that mean? Are we getting absolute tracking on all axes? That's what'd make me excited...
I own a Wii, it's tremendous fun but the accuracy of the wiimote seems to be lacking. For example, when playing Wii Sports boxing, the motion understanding can be quite erratic. I've never been able to figure out which motion corresponds to which punch your avatar performs, and its actions don't seem to be very repeatable.
Does everyone else have this sort of experience?
Regardless, I think this add-on might be very good for all future wii games if they can have more accurate controllers.
--
#include <malloc.h>
free(your.mind);
I think in Japan you can buy Nintendo exercise clothing, but I'm not sure if they're planning to sell it in the US.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
THEY JUST ADMITTED THE WIIMOTE WAS A PIECE OF SHIT WIGGLE STICK THAT COULDN'T DETECT MOTION VERY WELL.
DID ANYONE SEE THAT?
I didn't see that, no. But that might be because I know that position and motion are two very different principles. The Wii controller can tell when you're doing a bowling type motion, but it cannot tell that your controller is 3.231 meters away from the sensorbar. You need the latter to get true 1:1.
Honestly dude, this is old news. Actually, this was understood about the controller before the system even came out. That's like saying that Sega's release of the 32X is an admission that the 64-color palette of the Genesis couldn't render graphics very well. It's a gestural control and it works fine for what it is.
you fucking morons, you bought a second gamecube with an astonishingly more awkward controller, that nintendo just admitted sucks
Ah, never played a Wii, have ya? That explains the silliness of your post.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
1:1 you say...hmmm...so the light saber game will be even better now!
From day one, people have assumed the Wii remote had 1:1 capabilities and that it only needed better software to realize it, but this has always been false. It only contains accelerometers, which, as far as absolute positioning is concerned, are limited to interactions with earth's gravity. I am assuming this new attachment contains a *gyroscope* or two to fill in the gaps.
I am both surprised and glad to see that Nintendo is willing to retrofit their controller. It's an important move, because until they establish 1:1 control they are daring their competitors to do it first.
I still can't even get the Wii Fit I promised my wife for Mother's Day.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Powerglove was developed elsewhere, and built by Mattel. Nintendo only put their official seal of approval on it.
It also uses a system that was simplistic even for the time (due to cost constraints), and internally doesn't resemble the Wiimote at all. As far as straight motion sensing goes, the Wiimote is a huge improvement over the Powerglove, which was universally hated.
Not a typewriter
Technically, it's a buck and a quarter quarterstaff, but I'm not telling -him- that.
you're a fucking dumbass
I've played all I need to see on the wii
no one understood that the system couldn't do lightsaber battles
THIS WAS THE MARKETING PLAN
all anyone thought when the controller was revealed was "sword fights"
they deliberately forgot to mention that it was impossible
and the gaming media was so wrapped up with hope for their favorite company that they forgot to analyze it
pretty pathetic really
the saddest part is that people still haven't figured it the fuck out
no one understood that the system couldn't do lightsaber battles
The limitations of the Wii remote have been known for ages. It was all part of that stupid fanboy brawl between the Nintendo and Sony fanboys. That's beside the point, though. The Wii can do sword fights, certainly better than the other systems can. What it can't do is motion capture. That's fine anyway. It's not like they can simulate a sword striking yours.
Mole hill.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I'm posting anonymously for obvious reasons. But I am LOVING this. The big problem with coding for the wiimote, is that all you have to recognize gestures is a 3-axis accelerometer. Of course, gravity will register as 1g on that. This makes it impossible to track movements, as there's no way of separating gravity from the acceleration of the wiimote.
Of course, the easy solution to this would be to add a gyroscope. That way, you would always know the orientation of the controller, and you could just remove gravity from the equation. However, gyroscopes are expensive, and a Wiimote is already pretty pricey.
However, this addon seems to do exactly what I wanted to do myself. I was actually thinking about going to find an electrical engineer, and building such a thing myself, as I saw no reason why a gyroscope couldn't be added as an attachment. And Nintendo seems to have done that today. I haven't seen the specs for it yet, but I would be willing to bet that it's simply a gyroscope, with a passthrough on it for connecting nunchucks or other peripherals.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Does this mean I need all new Wii-condoms for my Wii-motes?
Strangely... my captcha is 'adultery'.
...ordinary everyday objects that make a suitable reference point when describing your controller. Only D&D players would think to call a stick a quarterstaff. A stick by any other name...
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
The same place as Rez's vibrator.
Does this mean I can make short puts in Wii Golf now? One of the most annoying things of any of the motion controlled games was having to make small movements if a situation arose and the controller not quite responding to it. You could sit there moving the wiimote a good 6-7 inches and it would act like you hadn't even moved it. Move it more and it was like you were hammering it. I tried a 6 inch putt once and almost drove it back to the tee.
Just look at the picture.
There is clearly a nub where a nunchuck could plug in and the extended Wiimote jacket clearly has a hole in the right place to allow access.
Personally I think it should include wireless nunchuck capability. It seems rather suboptimal to have a Wiimote that will track free movement better still tied to a nunchuck.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Peter! You didn't tell him about... THE RUMBLE PACK?
WTF? This shows how far this post has gone into a pure fanboy war "Sonys the best, Nintendo sucks" "bullshit Nintendo rocks Microsoft sucks" etc etc.
Disagree != Offtopic, troll, redundant, flamebait people.
The Wii remote accuracy is not the best but not broken. There seems to be limitations on the motions of the wiimote, motion speed etc. The above mentioned titles, parent is correct they work really well however I sometimes have issue with the nunchuck motion sensor Metroid Prime 3.
However I have issues with the pointer functionality on how far it is from the screen. When I am about 2 meters away from the sensor bar it doesn't work (I have 4 Wii remotes and they all do this). Has anyone else had that issue?
Make SELinux enforcing again!
In my experience the limit for the "sensor" bar that comes with the Wii is about 3 meters (this is also in the manual, which I have read, believe it or not), after which it starts to be bouncy. If yours stops working around 2 meters, then there might be something wrong with the sensor bar (dust) or some other IR sources that become visible for the WiiMotes.
I have heard that the battery operated "wireless sensor bar" (Which is actually 2 IR LEDs with batteries and does not have the power cord coming from the console) has a longer range due to brighter LEDs.
It seems weird to me that this add-on wouldn't/couldn't be made retroactively compatible with all current Wii titles through a firmware update to the Wii itself. (Sort of an averaging of the combine info from both sensors, or something along those lines.) I'd imagine a game that is aware of the device could override the firmware-based driver for more specific control options.
On a side note, does this thing include a pass-through to allow use of the nunchuk controller? If not, perhaps we may soon see a new, wireless nunchuk that includes the added sensor set introduced with the MotionPlus.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Ahh, one more step closer to the Nintendo On!
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
And I was lead to think the remote was feature complete. Now this jerry rigging of an add-on? What's next? An add-on that simply adds a W button?
Actually you can estimate how far away from the screen you are. This is done by using the two IR dots on the sensor bar. The sensor bar is a fixed length, so at a certain position the camera can look at the two dots and see how far away they are, then compare it to how far away it should be at X meters. As the dots get closer together the wiimote is getting further away, and based on how close they are you can estimate how far away it is at that point.
This obviously would not work if you didn't have a sensor bar, and I do not believe it can work without it even if they do add a gyroscope. Really the only way to track 3d position (IMO, and I'm not an expert) is to have some external beacon that can be used as an origin. I believe the 1:1 motion they are referring to is absolute orientation which is impossible with just one accelerometer. The wiimote can currently estimate roll or pitch (and even yaw to within ~20-25 degrees using the IR dots), but once you begin to combine then (ie, roll + pitch) the angles become distorted because you do not know where gravity really is. So with a single 3-axis accelerometer gravity is both responsible for your calculations but is is messing them up when you try to get too in depth.
This is done by using the two IR dots on the sensor bar. The sensor bar is a fixed length, so at a certain position the camera can look at the two dots and see how far away they are, then compare it to how far away it should be at X meters. As the dots get closer together the wiimote is getting further away, and based on how close they are you can estimate how far away it is at that point.
You're right, but it only works when the remote is facing the sensor. Come to think of it, it would have been cool if the remote had several IR sensors around it. Heh.
The wiimote can currently estimate roll or pitch (and even yaw to within ~20-25 degrees using the IR dots), but once you begin to combine then (ie, roll + pitch) the angles become distorted because you do not know where gravity really is
Actually I think gravity is detected by the accellerometers. I am not an expert by any means, I just remember somebody saying that gravity is used to provide a neutral position to the sensors.. or something like that. In any event, you're right, the Wii remote doesn't have what's necessary. The remote needs a sensor it can always locate, via radio or something like that. (Erm.. exactly like you said, actually... )
I question how much 1:1 would really benefit a game. You could pose the controller perfectly, but you cannot get feedback that way. You can't 'clang' swords. I dunno.. I think if we had both available, the gesture approach the Wii has now would stand a good chance at being the 'winner'.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
http://gizmodo.com/5025583/how-the-wii-motionplus-makes-the-wiimote-more-accurate
Some of you already have those cute little shirts on that say disco sucks, right? That's not all that sucks.-Frank Zappa