Why not use wii controllers?

[skyrimer]

It seems strange to me that everyone is using the hydra, yet there's apparently no interest in using wii controllers with the OR. I've already used them with the Dolphin emulator on my PC and they work just fine, and in comparison to Hydra or the incoming STEM, they are ridiculously cheap now, yet I see nothing of that sort. I know they are fairly limited in comparison yeah, but it's way better than a gamepad for a virtual simulation.

Am I missing something, why hasn't anyone added wii controller support for the OR?

[Lookforyourhands]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzTlYBq4 ... ZllSGNqRc9

You can use a wiimote to simulate the mouse tracking right now, or like you said in the Dolphin emu but for 1: 1 tracking like on the wii (if you can call it that)
the best we can do right now is the Hydra.

[museumsteve]

Maybe the fact the wii controllers need line of sight may be one factor, whereas Hydra doesn't

[WiredEarp]

The bluetooth pairing hassles are probably the main reason.

Also, are there any 9DOF type drivers out for them? I'm thinking of something that will recalibrate the gyro when the camera loses lock on the LED's.

I'm actually surprised someone hasn't strapped one to the OR actually.

@ museumsteve - the MotionPlus wiimote can work out of LOS due to having a gyro...

[Ziggurat]

Because in VR, you turn around and loose line of sight.

[museumsteve]

@ museumsteve - the MotionPlus wiimote can work out of LOS due to having a gyro...

Would that not only be for rotational movements?

Also at approx £30 each 2 of those cost more than I paid for a Hydra set

[WiredEarp]

True, but you gain wireless abilities.

For rotational movements the gyro should be fine... that said the lack of a compass (i think) makes them inferior to a PS Move controller anyway I believe. Speaking of which, having used one recently, I can't really understand how the move can track really well with only a single light on them. Just seems silly they didn't add other lights to track on the controller to give more accuracy?

I prefer Hydras for most things, but sometimes there are advantages to having devices that don't use absolute positioning tied to the world, makes gesture recognition etc simpler. Hydra drivers in my experience are bad at detecting gestures when rotated away from facing the origin. I haven't done much experimenting with mounting the base to myself yet though.

[hast]

Speaking of which, having used one recently, I can't really understand how the move can track really well with only a single light on them. Just seems silly they didn't add other lights to track on the controller to give more accuracy?

They only track position with the light, not orientation (there is an onboard IMU for that).

Since it's a sphere it's size as seen by the camera is constant regardless of orientation and since the size is known you can accurately estimate 3d position by looking at the number of "lit" pixels in the camera frame. And the position is in the center of that blob of pixels. Both of those operations are fairly easy to calculate which gives you low latency.

[WiredEarp]

Thanks - I understand why they went with the round etc, it just seems that a large responsibility then falls to the 9DOF sensor if you only have one light, and that the inclusion of another light wouldn't have taken that much and would increase accuracy in some circumstances... guess it would have introduce more complexity and hassle though.

Its not a bad bit of kit, I'd definitely use one over a Wiimote nowadays, assuming the driver support is comparable.

[Ashok]

For the Rift, you really need the Hydra for aiming. But for walking around (mainly in HL2) I use the PS3 Navigation Controller. It works great using a Rocketfish BT Adapter + XInput Wrapper. Bluetooth pairing couldn't be more hassle free. You don't even need MotionInJoy drivers (which suck). I followed these instructions EXACTLY to use the PS3 Nav Controller wirelessly with my PC:
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-XInput-W ... Controller

[moomin]

I have hydras as well as wii controllers and to be honest I found hydra very fun but I much prefer wiimotes for games like Quake II or HL2.
I don't use led bar at all but motion plus is a must. For wii I'm using GlovePie software and wrote script especially to meet my needs. Wii controller (with motion plus and nunchuk) is mounted on Brooklyn shotgun.
Additionally, I modified Quake II Rift version (https://github.com/dghost/Quake2-Rift in order to have full aiming/seeing decouple and to be able to rotate whole body (not only aiming) using nunchuck joystick.

Short Wii vs Hydra comparison.

Wii: Bluthooth pairig hassle
Hydra: Calibration&magnetic field issues - at my firends' home hydra becomes unusable for some weird reason it jumps and its' behaviour is unpredictable
+1 for Wii because this hassle is a matter of just adding wiimote to bluetooth devices each time you wan't to pair it with PC - not so hard in fact.

Wii: Lack of positional tracking
Hydra: Has positional tracking
In Quake II it doesn't matter as the result is the same for both - no positional tracking. In Adorals' HL2 mode, however, hydra shows its' potential.
+1 for hydra as it is nice to have positional tracking

Wii: wireless
Hydra: two cables and a base
+1 for wii of course

Drift issues:
Wii: drifts a liitle especially during fast moves but I mapped button which makes calibration super easy - hold the button, move your gun to match ingame position and release button - ready
Hydra: drifts sometimes and when it starts it's imposible to correct without full calibration (at least for me), in hl2 your gun can be very far from you, sometimes it becomes hard to find even
+1 for wii

Aiming precision:
For me no difference as far as you moved your hydra in some specific positions vs. base where it is not tracked correctly. With wii you can rotate with no issues at all.
+1 for wii

As you can see Wii earned three points more. Of course it is a matter of personal preference but for me dusty hydra most of the time lays unused and wii is in use very often.

4 persons Quake II Multiplayer and Rifts, hedphones with mics (mumble) and wii controllers mounted on guns - suuuuuper cool and exciting!
Waiting to be able to do the same with HL2 and Adorals' mod once it become multiplayer ready.

[przecinek]

Care to share your glovepie script Moomin? I tried to create one myself but it's not really working as I'd expect. In the end I just reverted back to headaim + wii for moving around.

[WiredEarp]

Good stuff Ashok, I might grab a PS3 controller soon, or do some experiments at least with my gf's ones.

Good review moomin as well, I agree with the negative points you have mentioned about the Hydra.

[CyberVillain]

We just released a new version of FreePIE, so far all the motes that's have been tested with it are supported. Old motes, new motes with integrated m+, china motes etc.

For games that only support mouse emulation a wiimote is pretty ok straight out of the box, I played Metro Last light with it for a few hours with 360 movement and it was really immersive.

But I cant wait for STEM!