Nintendo Wii Fanboy

I tried it last night and it worked, but was totally useless at actually being able to control anything. That's probably because my powerbook G4 does not have ir.

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Yeah It works pretty well-as a gimmick

i'ts very hard to control the mouse with the wii-mote

if you are actually going to try to use it as a new mouse....good luck to you

-Jason

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This thing wasn't really worth playing with at this point (although it may have some potential). Twisting the wiimote moves left and right, tilting up and down moves the mouse up and down. It is very difficult to move anywhere on these controls because it goes from not moving to moving quickly very fast. Also, I noticed that every time I switched what mode it was working in (motion, mouse, feedback) the program would crash on my Macbook. Anyway, it was nice to get an actual bluetooth connection with the wiimote, but it doesn't have any practical application yet.

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If you go to the WiiLi site, it has a link to an updated version of DarwiinRemote that works with IR, so you can either turn on your Wii and bring the sensor bar to your computer, or use two other IR sources, and it works like a champ.

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This software is a FIRST TRY at integrating the Wiimote with the Mac. It is just slapped together, proof of concept stuff. The Windows side of the house had a head start because someone had that GlovePIE software already written for another device and was able to use it with the Wiimote. DarwiinRemote is doing direct Bluetooth writes and reads, not using the normal Human Interface Device driver stuff that mice and keyboards use. Other people are working on the HID drivers. It is all very bleeding edge work. Wait a month or two and "useful" software should be available for general users.

- Jasen.

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It should be easy to get it to work as a pointer on ANY computer with bluetooth. You can just buy the controller off the shelf.

The sensor bar is just two infrared hot points for the wiimote to passively sense to "biangulate" it's position in space.

So if you just put two infrared lights (LEDs?) spaced the appropriate distance above your MAc screen, you should be able to get positional information from the remote via bluetooth.

REPEAT: the INFRARED part of the Wii remote system is just the wii remote sensing two infrared REFERENCE POINTS from the bar. So the Mac doesn't need any actual infrared capabilities at all. This makes this Wii remote wide open for FULLY FUNCTIONAL use on macs or PC's with bluetooth, with the simple addition of a software driver and two cheap IR emitters hooked up to a battery or a USB port for power (total cost < $5).

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As another poster said, this is now working with the IR control as well - see a video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZ9X3TWE5I

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Yeah, if only this worked on something just a smidge lower than OS 10.4—I haven't upgraded, and probably won't, anytime soon. I ain't made of money, man!

I doubt they'll look into that in a future version of the software, though. =( I really would like to be able to control my iTunes from my Wiimote.

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I tried it out and blogged it. It's pretty good but it's not as easy to use as the Wii and seeing how it's programmed for right-handers only and you're using a screen bigger then the Wii's output its still pretty fun.

I must say, I own a Wiimote just to play with it on computers but I don't own a Wii :(

EB Games demo baby!

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Maybe this is insane, but I'm imagining how much (useless) fun this could be once someone gets it hooked up to a softsynth like max/msp or perhaps somehow to control midi parameters in Logic for example...

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I could think of a few good uses for this, once you get pointer functionality, it could be a decent mouse. It would also be nice to use for emulators and maybe even figure out how to use the classic remote through the wii remote as a controller. The Wii-mote turned on it's side is kind of a joke for some games, just doesn't feel natural.

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This is a great way to play old games if you run an emulator on your Mac. I set up Nestopia to work with DR. Pretty good.

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Ahhh! Wiili.org is down, empty directory. Scary? Nintendo wouldn't shut them down, would they? I'm kind of considering getting a wiimote before I get my Wii myself, just for fooling around with mostly, since I'm going to want at least 2 remotes anyway.

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Ummmmm, why wouldn't you just stick with the remote that comes with your Mac anyways? It's quite a bit smaller and for sure more sleak

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Well said Jasen. These are people doing this stuff in their spare time - most people have gotta work. To have that much figured out after only a few weeks is pretty fantastic.

I just downloaded it and had a bit of a play around then - great to see it paired up and running. Can't wait until someone gets a good quality interface driver working (programmable would be nice :D). I'll have a top notch universal remote control and mouse / pointer to complement my mac. SWEET!

Makes me wish I knew anything useful about programming drivers / peripherals. :(

Also useful as a lecture device for giving professional presentations in Keynote / Powerpoint (looking good for thesis presentations)!

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