Wiimote news!




Posted by Drewboy64

http://wii.ign.com/articles/718/718946p1.html
Uses AA batteries, lasting 30 hours if it uses the pointer system, more info in the link.
Controller has 6 KB of memory in it.
All the buttons are digital, even C and Z :-\
Synchro button behind flap used to determine who is 1, 2, 3, 4th player.
Lights on wiimote blink according to battery power; 4 for 75%-100%, 3 for 50-75, etc.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

**** AA batteries. But I'm glad all of the buttons are analogue. Got no problem with that. And the sync button was pretty obvious. Cool ****.




Posted by Klarth

"All of the buttons on the Wii controller are digital in nature. The C and Z buttons on the nunchuk unit are also digital."

Someone needs to read the article first.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Oh shi- that's lame. I'm not too impressed with that.




Posted by Klarth

Same. I'm positive someone who was at E3 told me that the nunchuk trigger felt like the GCN one though...




Posted by Speedfreak

It doesn't say that the final version uses AA batteries, just that it does right now and that's how long it lasts on them. I'm very very happy with that battery life.




Posted by TendoAddict

Im not totally flipping out that it uses AA. But I knew it was that or charging on a wall. So the down fall was some where, it was just AA this time.




Posted by Drewboy64


Quoting Klarth: "All of the buttons on the Wii controller are digital in nature. The C and Z buttons on the nunchuk unit are also digital."

Someone needs to read the article first.

oops, meant to type digital.

There are ups and downs with AA batteries. I was hoping for rechargeable ones, but it would suck to run out wihtout being able to quickly switch during a game.



Posted by s0ul


Quoting Speedfreak: It doesn't say that the final version uses AA batteries, just that it does right now and that's how long it lasts on them. I'm very very happy with that battery life.


I can't imagine they wouldn't use AA batteries, it's not like you can very easily wave the controller around while its plugged into a wall. And that battery life is awful, I've only replaced my Wavebird batteries 3 times ever, one of which was unnecessary, and I have several games with 100+ hours. Are batteries supposed to last 360 controllers 30 hours also? Because I have to replace those all the time.



Posted by Drewboy64


Quoting s0ul: I can't imagine they wouldn't use AA batteries, it's not like you can very easily wave the controller around while its plugged into a wall. And that battery life is awful, I've only replaced my Wavebird batteries 3 times ever, one of which was unnecessary, and I have several games with 100+ hours. Are batteries supposed to last 360 controllers 30 hours also? Because I have to replace those all the time.

That battery life is good, concidering you don't use the remote for 30/several hours straight, and concidering it's with the pointer technology.
Rechargable batteries would be fine, concidering you would plug it up whenver you aren't using it.



Posted by s0ul

I'm not saying it should/could be better, I'm just saying it sucks.

And yeah, that was... kind of obvious. It's rather lame to have to wait hours to play.




Posted by Last Fog

Digital butttons? WTF.

And why would a controller need memory?? Weird.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: And why would a controller need memory?? Weird.


Maybe something to do with the speaker or the inner workings. Or maybe something unannounced.



Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=s0ul]I can't imagine they wouldn't use AA batteries, it's not like you can very easily wave the controller around while its plugged into a wall. And that battery life is awful, I've only replaced my Wavebird batteries 3 times ever, one of which was unnecessary, and I have several games with 100+ hours. Are batteries supposed to last 360 controllers 30 hours also? Because I have to replace those all the time.

I've thrown controllers across the room without the cable hindering them. As long as the charge cable is as long as a regular cable it should be fine.

When I said the battery life was good I meant in terms of what it's running off and what it's doing with it. The 360 controller just runs a rumble motor and buttons, the Wiimote gets the same battery life with buttons, rumble motor, tilt sensor and direct pointing. That's extremely impreesive considering without the pointing it gets over half the wavebirds battery life despite doing about 6 times more work.




Posted by Drewboy64

How long is the 360 controller's life?

Yeah, a charger that uses a long cable would definately be good. That way, if you had to charge it in the middle of a game, you could still play. I also like how it tells you the battery life when you turn on the Wii.

I don't mind the fact that the buttons are digital too much, although it'd be nice to have analogue shoulder buttons. But with the freehand control, there's less need for them I guess.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

I liked that charging base idea IGN had. That would actually make a lot of sense, and there would be no excuse to run out of power. Assuming it didn't use AA batteries...




Posted by Burrito

I would much rather a charger. I would hate having to change batteries all the time.




Posted by Drewboy64


Quoting Vampiro: I liked that charging base idea IGN had. That would actually make a lot of sense, and there would be no excuse to run out of power. Assuming it didn't use AA batteries...

Yeah, that was a cool idea, but a cord would be better so you could charge while playing.
Couldn't they use both? As in, use AA batteries but you can recahrge them? Airsoft guns use things like that I think.



Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS

It could easily charge and communicate via USB if necessary, like the 360 controllers.

The memory is for sounds. During loading, all the sounds that are to be used on the controller such as gunshots, bowstring twangs, sword clashes etc. will be loaded into this memory. That way, when they need to be played back, communication with the console is needed only minimally, instead of downloading the same sound to the controller to be played over and over again.

This saves on battery life and controller slowdown/communication time.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: Yeah, that was a cool idea, but a cord would be better so you could charge while playing.
Couldn't they use both? As in, use AA batteries but you can recahrge them? Airsoft guns use things like that I think.


You wouldn't need to change while playing. Unless you plan to play for twenty hours at a time.



Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=Wings]It could easily charge and communicate via USB if necessary, like the 360 controllers.

The memory is for sounds. During loading, all the sounds that are to be used on the controller such as gunshots, bowstring twangs, sword clashes etc. will be loaded into this memory. That way, when they need to be played back, communication with the console is needed only minimally, instead of downloading the same sound to the controller to be played over and over again.

This saves on battery life and controller slowdown/communication time.

The memory is non-volatile. i.e. keeps it's information without any power. It's more likely that this will be used to store profiles than sounds, there's no reason to keep the sounds stored after shutdown.




Posted by gamerz


Quoting Drewboy64: http://wii.ign.com/articles/718/718946p1.html
1)Uses AA batteries, lasting 30 hours if it uses the pointer system, more info in the link.
2)Controller has 6 KB of memory in it.
3)All the buttons are digital, even C and Z :-\
4)Synchro button behind flap used to determine who is 1, 2, 3, 4th player.
5)Lights on wiimote blink according to battery power; 4 for 75%-100%, 3 for 50-75, etc.


1) Interesting, it looks like nintendo knows a bit more about battery life than sony, proving that with gameboy advance sp.
2) Memory? Not much..... For the motion bar most probably
3) Meh... figures.
4) Common knowledge since it was unvieled.
5) Interesting & innovative use of the lights. Nice.



Posted by maian

...Wai, digital means that...they don't move, right? =/ Like uh, you tap them?

If so, shi-




Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS


Quoting maian: ...Wai, digital means that...they don't move, right? =/ Like uh, you tap them?

If so, shi-

What? No.

Digital means that you press them, and they press. That's it. They can only sense whether they're pressed or not.

Analogue buttons can sense degrees of pressure, so the harder you press, the faster you go/further you jump, etc.

Think of a GameCube pad. The A button is digital. The R button is analogue.



Posted by Klarth

[quote=gamerz]1) Interesting, it looks like nintendo knows a bit more about battery life than sony, proving that with gameboy advance sp.
Well, considering the GBA SP was a relatively basic handheld with not that much processing power and the PSP is a battery-guzzling processor powerhouse, that point is null.
[quote]2) Memory? Not much..... For the motion bar most probably
Possibly, considering non-volatile memory could be used for calibration.
[quote]4) Common knowledge since it was unvieled.
...Uh, no. When it was "unveiled" (ie; someone caught sight of it), everyone was wondering what it did up until now.
[quote]5) Interesting & innovative use of the lights. Nice.
Alright, stop raping the word "innovative". It's been done enough with this console :)




Posted by Last Fog


Quoting Wings: Think of a GameCube pad. The A button is digital. The R button is analogue.
I thought all the buttons on the gamecube were analog?



Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: I thought all the buttons on the gamecube were analog?


Thinking of the PS2 controller, maybe?



Posted by Last Fog

I guess so, but I thought the gamecube was likewise. Suppose that goes to show you cant notice much of a difference with the face buttons since they're so shallow. However I think the triggers should definitely be analog, thats like a step backwards.




Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS

The reason they changed it is that sudies showed that people had trouble with movement and gradual pressure at the same time. Think of it as running around as Mario, changing direction constantly, but at the same time gradually increasing and decreasing pressure on L with the index finger of the same hand.

Now ramp that up to the full 3D control of the Wiimote, and you can see how complex it could get.

What games really used the analogue buttons to their full extent, anyway?




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: What games really used the analogue buttons to their full extent, anyway?


Not a whole lot. The pressure-sensitive buttons on the PS2 were used for even less. And when they were, it was just ****ing annoying (what's up MGS3?) So I guess it's not so bad.



Posted by Klarth

Pressure-sensitive buttons on the PS2? Since when? As far as I know the analogue sticks were the only analogue part of the controller; even L3 and R3 are digital...

Also:


New button?




Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS

Hah, the PS2 right-hand face buttons are all analogue. Look in your PS2 manual.

Also, I saw that button yesterday, and I've been trying to figure it out - best guess is that it's the synchronisation button, but I thought that was under the battery cover.




Posted by Klarth

Huh. The PS2 buttons always felt digital to me. O_o




Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS

According to Wikipedia, the shoulder and D-pad are also analogue.

I don't believe that one, though.




Posted by Klarth

Pretty lame considering how hard it is to NOT put maximum pressure on the buttons.




Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS

To be honest, I think the first degree of pressure is after the initial 'click', if you can call it that. Ever noticed how far in you can actually push them?




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: Pretty lame considering how hard it is to NOT put maximum pressure on the buttons.


Play MGS3. You'll realise how right you are. Lightly pressing on the button is to hold the guy, pressing down hard is to slit his throat. I don't know how many times I wanted to interrogate a guy only to immediately kill him.



Posted by muffla

i really dont care about the fact that they r AA bateries jsut buy a pai of rechargable ones and nintendo will probly come out with a batery charger pack like xbox did so no worry here




Posted by WILLETH FOR MONTHS


Quoting muffla: i really dont care about the fact that they r AA bateries jsut buy a pai of rechargable ones and nintendo will probly come out with a batery charger pack like xbox did so no worry here

What he said, just put more eloquently.