Wii Motion Plus details

[wco81]

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/wii-motion-sensor.ars

So will it bring accuracy to Wii game control or just be another big peripheral seller for Nintendo?

Tiger Woods 09 was just released and there are already complaints about having to point down before swinging and difficulty with precision in the short game.

Of course EA has touted it as 1:1.

 

[Scott_Arm]

according to the hands on testimonials of Wii Sports Resort, the accuracy is much improved. Whether that will actually translate it to meaningful use in other games is unknown. I think being attached to the sale of a Wii Sports game should make it a big seller and entice devs to support it. The userbase will be there. The Wii gave me a solid year one, but it seems to have slowed down massively since the release of Smash Bros. I guess there's Boom Blox, which I haven't tried yet. Hopefully this will lead to the release of some more games that interest me.

 

[AzBat]

Nice read. Thanks.

Tommy McClain

 

[wco81]

There's a link to a Youtube video of some guy lying on the couch playing Wii Sports. In one scene, he's playing baseball while eating from a pizza box on his chest and he's controlling with the wand held by his toes.

Maybe it doesn't matter, a lot of people buying the Wii don't know the difference and aren't demanding anything like 1:1.

With video games in general, people want to be able to do things they can't in real life. They may not necessarily want their bad golf swings rendered in a game. Instead, they want to play as Tiger, with his textbook mechanics representing your play.

Maybe for a cartoonish golf game, you can incorporate wacky swings but people still will not want results like in real life. They want games to let them to things they can't in real life.

Because if a game accurately displays and gives results the same as real life, why bother playing the game instead of doing it in real life?

 

[Scott_Arm]

There's a link to a Youtube video of some guy lying on the couch playing Wii Sports. In one scene, he's playing baseball while eating from a pizza box on his chest and he's controlling with the wand held by his toes.

Maybe it doesn't matter, a lot of people buying the Wii don't know the difference and aren't demanding anything like 1:1.

With video games in general, people want to be able to do things they can't in real life. They may not necessarily want their bad golf swings rendered in a game. Instead, they want to play as Tiger, with his textbook mechanics representing your play.

Maybe for a cartoonish golf game, you can incorporate wacky swings but people still will not want results like in real life. They want games to let them to things they can't in real life.

Because if a game accurately displays and gives results the same as real life, why bother playing the game instead of doing it in real life?

Agreed, but I think there can be a far superior balance of the two. I think people wishing for 1:1 sword fighting might not like it when they realize they're uncoordinated and slow. But for a game like golf I think they'd be able to provide better motion controls and still have the golfer hit the ball 350 yards on a drive, without being an actual expert golfer.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I think the advantage of having 1:1 movement is that it gives you a much better data set to work with, which reduces lag and produces more consistent (i.e. error-free) results. For example, Wii Golf's constrained, quasi-1:1 movement could be a lot better with an actual 1:1 data set. It probably wouldn't lag so much or be so inconsistent in how it translates your swing onscreen.

 

[ban25]

I think the advantage of having 1:1 movement is that it gives you a much better data set to work with, which reduces lag and produces more consistent (i.e. error-free) results. For example, Wii Golf's constrained, quasi-1:1 movement could be a lot better with an actual 1:1 data set. It probably wouldn't lag so much or be so inconsistent in how it translates your swing onscreen.

It will definitely improve accuracy, agreed. However, as long as the game mechanics are gesture-driven, then you're going to have the built in latency of waiting for that gesture to finish before the in-game action can be executed.

Implementing a "1:1" golf swing in game without the real weight, size, and shape of the club is going to be a crude approximation at best -- no matter how accurate the Wiimote's sensors are.

 

[ban25]

I should add that one of the best things Nintendo and Sony can do is to provide an API to smooth the accelerometer output. In fact, it should probably happen at the system level, with a tunable slider in the menu. Currently, developers are rolling their own, but this provides an inconsistent experience from game to game and even from menu to game.

 

[ninzel]

So game devs could ship the game with customizable controls.
One seting for the current motion controls and an "expert" or WiiMotion Plus" control option?
That would appeal to gamers in two ways. You could satisfy those who want more precise controls and are willing to buy a new peripheral and at the same time not force or alienate those aren't willing.