Nintendo Wiimote

Vizard 7 » Reference » Input Devices » Gaming devices » Nintendo Wiimote

7.6

Nintendo Wiimote

This plug-in* provides support for the Nintendo Wii" remote control, nicknamed the Wiimote. The Wiimote outputs acceleration, IR, joystick and button data over a wireless Bluetooth connection.

Initialization

Before using the plug-in*, you must establish a connection to the Wiimote using your Bluetooth driver software. Since the Wiimote communicates over wireless Bluetooth, you will need a USB Bluetooth dongle so your computer can send/receive data to/from the Wiimote. In order for your Bluetooth driver to detect the Wiimote, you must place the Wiimote in "Discovery" mode by holding down the 1 and 2 buttons simultaneously. When these button are held down, the LED lights on the Wiimote will blink. You must keep the buttons down until your Bluetooth driver finds and connects to the Wiimote. This process must be repeated for each Wiimote you plan on using with Vizard. Some USB Bluetooth dongles and drivers may not be compatible with the Wiimote. The following site has a list of devices and drivers that are compatible with the Wiimote:

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/List_of_Working_Bluetooth_Devices

The Wiimote plug-in* is implemented as a Vizard extension sensor. The Wiimote extension contains the following methods/constants:

Method	Description
<wii>.addWiimote(device=-1)	Connect to a Wiimote. If device is -1, the next available Wiimote will be returned, otherwsie the Wiimote at the specified device index will be returned.
<wii>.BUTTON_LEFT <wii>.BUTTON_RIGHT <wii>.BUTTON_DOWN <wii>.BUTTON_UP <wii>.BUTTON_A <wii>.BUTTON_B <wii>.BUTTON_PLUS <wii>.BUTTON_MINUS <wii>.BUTTON_HOME <wii>.BUTTON_1 <wii>.BUTTON_2	Button ID and mask values for the Wiimote.
<wii>.NUNCHUK_C <wii>.NUNCHUK_Z	Button ID and mask values for the Wiimote Nunchuk extension.
<wii>.CLASSIC_LEFT <wii>.CLASSIC_RIGHT <wii>.CLASSIC_DOWN <wii>.CLASSIC_UP <wii>.CLASSIC_R <wii>.CLASSIC_PLUS <wii>.CLASSIC_HOME <wii>.CLASSIC_MINUS <wii>.CLASSIC_L <wii>.CLASSIC_ZR <wii>.CLASSIC_X <wii>.CLASSIC_A <wii>.CLASSIC_Y <wii>.CLASSIC_B <wii>.CLASSIC_ZL	Button ID and mask values for the Wiimote Classic Controller extension.
<wii>.EXT_NONE <wii>.EXT_NUNCHUK <wii>.EXT_CLASSIC	Extension types supported by the Wiimote.
<wii>.EXT_CONNECT_EVENT <wii>.EXT_DISCONNECT_EVENT	Events IDs triggered when an extension is connected/disconnected from a Wiimote. The event passes a single event structure e with the following attributes: e.object The Wiimote sensor object. e.extension The extension type that was connected/disconnected.
<wii>.CLASSIC_JOYL <wii>.CLASSIC_JOYR	Source flags that can be used when creating a link with the Wiimote Classic Controller. The flags control whether the position comes from the left or right joystick.
<wii>.LED_1 <wii>.LED_2 <wii>.LED_3 <wii>.LED_4	Bit masks for each LED light on the Wiimote. Can be ORed together.

The Wiimote extension sensor contains the following methods/attributes, in addition to the standard extension sensor methods:

Method	Description
<wiimote>.getLED()	Returns the bit state of the Wiimote LED lights. If the light is on, the corresponding bit will be set.
<wiimote>.setLED(state,mode=viz.MASK_SET)	Set the state of the Wiimote LED lights. mode can be one of the following: viz.MASK_SET viz.MASK_ADD viz.MASK_REMOVE viz.MASK_TOGGLE
<wiimote>.getRumble()	Returns the state of the Wiimote rumble pad.
<wiimote>.setRumble(state,duration=-1)	Set the state of the Wiimote rumble pad. If state is True, then duration specifies how long to rumble for. If duration is -1, the Wiimote will rumble indefinitely.
<wiimote>.getAccel()	Returns the acceleration vector of the Wiimote. The vector is relative to the Wiimotes local coordinate system.
<wiimote>.getBattery()	Returns the battery power percentage of the Wiimote. The value is between 0 and 1, where 1 means the battery is at full power.
<wiimote>.getExtension()	Returns the type of extension that is currently connected to the Wiimote. The possible values for the extension type are listed above.
<wiimote>.getNumIR()	Returns the number of IR points last detected by the Wiimote.
<wiimote>.getAngleIR()	Returns the roll angle of the Wiimote computed from the IR points
<wiimote>.getPositionIR(num=-1)	Returns the position of the specified IR point. If num is -1, the computed screen pointing position of all the IR points is returned.
<wiimote>.getFoundIR()	Returns a list of all the currently found IR point positions.
<wiimote>.state	Read attribute that returns the current button state of the Wiimote
<wiimote>.led	Read/write attribute for the Wiimote LED lights.
<wiimote>.rumble	Read/write attribute for the Wiimote rumble pad.
<wiimote>.accel	Read attribute for the Wiimote acceleration vector.
<wiimote>.battery	Read attribute for the Wiimote battery level.
<wiimote>.extension	Read attribute for the current extension type of the Wiimote.
<wiimote>.numIR	Read attribute for the number of IR points last detected by the Wiimote
<wiimote>.angleIR	Read attribute for the roll angle of the Wiimote computed from the IR points.
<wiimote>.posIR	Read attribute for the average position of the IR points.
<wiimote>.foundIR	Read attribute for found IR point position list.
<wiimote>.nunchuk	Handle to Wiimote Nunchuk sensor. Nunchuk methods are documented below.
<wiimote>.classic	Handle to Wiimote Classic Controller sensor. Classic Controller methods are documented below.

The Wiimote can estimate its pitch/roll angle from the acceleration data. The orientation data from the Wiimote sensor will contain this estimation.

The Wiimote Nunchuk sensor contains the following methods/attributes:

Method	Description
<nunchuk>.getConnected()	Returns whether the Nunchuk is currently connected to the Wiimote.
<nunchuk>.getAccel()	Returns the acceleration vector of the Nuncuk. The vector is relative to the Nuncuks local coordinate system.
<nunchuk>.getDeadZone()	Returns the [x,y] dead zone of the Nunchuk joystick.
<nunchuk>.setDeadZone(zone)	Sets the [x,y] dead zone of the Nunchuk joystick.
<nunchuk>.position	Read attribute for the joystick position.
<nunchuk>.state	Read attribute for the Nunchuk button state.
<nunchuk>.connected	Read attribute for the Nunchuk connection state.
<nunchuk>.accel	Read attribute for the Nunchuk acceleration data.
<nunchuk>.deadZone	Read/write attribute for the Nunchuk joystick dead zone.

The Nunchuk orientation data will contain the pitch/roll estimation from its acceleration data. The Nunchuk position data will represent the joystick position.

The Wiimote Classic Controller sensor contains the following methods/attributes:

Method	Description
<classic>.getPositionLeft()	Returns the position of the controllers left joystick.
<classic>.getPositionRight()	Returns the position of the controllers right joystick.
<classic>.getConnected()	Returns whether the controller is currently connected to the Wiimote.
<classic>.getDeadZoneLeft()	Returns the [x,y] dead zone of the controllers left joystick.
<classic>.setDeadZoneLeft(zone)	Sets the [x,y] dead zone of the controllers left joystick.
<classic>.getDeadZoneRight()	Returns the [x,y] dead zone of the controllers right joystick.
<classic>.setDeadZoneRight(zone)	Sets the [x,y] dead zone of the controllers right joystick.
<classic>.setDeadZone(zone)	Sets the [x,y] dead zone of the controllers left/right joystick.
<classic>.getTriggerLeft()	Returns the analog value of the controllers left trigger.
<classic>.getTriggerRight()	Returns the analog value of the controllers right trigger.
<classic>.state	Read attribute for the controller button state.
<classic>.positionL	Read attribute for the controllers left joystick.
<classic>.positionR	Read attribute for the controllers right joystick.
<classic>.connected	Read attribute for the controller connection state.
<classic>.deadZoneL	Read/write attribute for the controller left joystick dead zone.
<classic>.deadZoneR	Read/write attribute for the controller right joystick dead zone.
<classic>.deadZone	Read/write attribute for the controller left/right joystick dead zone.
<classic>.triggerL	Read attribute for the controller left trigger.
<classic>.triggerR	Read attribute for the controller right trigger.

The Classic Controller position data will represent the joystick position.

The joystick data for the Nunchuk and Classic Controller is normalized between -1 and 1. The dead zone values of the joysticks controls the range of the reported joystick positions. All raw position values between 0 and the dead zone value will be reported as 0. The default value for the dead zones are [0,0], which means the full range of motion will be reported.

The Wiimote button state contains the state of all the Wiimote buttons, including the button state of any extensions. The button state of the extension objects only contains the state of the extension buttons. When a Wiimote generates a viz.SENSOR_DOWN_EVENT or viz.SENSOR_UP_EVENT, the object passed to the event will be the Wiimote sensor, even if the button belongs to an extension.

Example

The following code shows how to connect to the first available Wiimote:

#Add wiimote extension
wii = viz.add('wiimote.dle')

#Connect to first available wiimote
wiimote = wii.addWiimote()

This code snippet shows how to turn on LED 1 and 4 of the Wiimote:

#Turn on LED 1 and 4
wiimote.led = wii.LED_1 | wii.LED_4

The next piece of code will setup the Wiimote to rumble while the B button is down:

#Rumble the wiimote while the B button is down
vizact.onsensordown(wiimote,wii.BUTTON_B,wiimote.setRumble,True)
vizact.onsensorup(wiimote,wii.BUTTON_B,wiimote.setRumble,False)

The following code will use the computed IR position and angle to display a pointer on the screen:

#Add a pointer to the screen
pointer = viz.addTexQuad(viz.SCREEN,texture=viz.add('arrow.tif'))

def UpdatePointer():

#Translate pointer to averaged IR screen position
x,y = wiimote.posIR
pointer.setPosition(x,y,0)

#Rotate pointer using angle computed from IR positions
pointer.setEuler(0,0,wiimote.angleIR)

vizact.ontimer(0,UpdatePointer)

This code will rumble the Wiimote for 0.5 seconds whenever a Nunchuk is connected:

#Rumble wiimote for 0.5 seconds when nunchuk is connected
def onConnect(e):
if e.extension == wii.EXT_NUNCHUK:
e.object.setRumble(True,0.5)
viz.callback(wii.EXT_CONNECT_EVENT,onConnect)

*Wiimote plugin and Wiimote plugin description are copyrighted by WorldViz GBR, Germany.