Persistent obsessions.
Phew! I think I finally have persistence worked out in MV3D. I'm quite happy with it. I went back to my datastore method (yes, I saw that cringe), but I feel like I've made it quite a bit better. One of the reasons I couldn't say no to it is that it's lightning fast. All the other methods I've tried (all of which involved a database of some sort)
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That's some pretty interesting stuff... I was initially kind of disappointed by how simple the Wiimote actually was, after hearing about the stuff it could do, but it does make a great pointer device. (In terms of a mouselike device you can operate while sitting on a couch with no mousepad, it's pretty hard to beat, and way more accurate than the "light gun" peripherals. It's kinda telling that the Wii "Duckhunt" type game will put dozens of moving objects on the screen, and two average players can shoot most of them within a few seconds.)
The calibration kinda sucks... Basically you tell the Wii whether the IR bar is above or below your TV, and you can slightly tweak the assumed size of the TV. It's enough to get the pointer working quickly and easily (which I guess is the idea), but the cursor probably won't be lined up with the remote, and so holding it at arm's length and pointing it at stuff won't work. (Though holding stuff at arm's length is a user interface deathtrap anyway.)
The original Power Glove was slightly smarter about that, at least in that it had three beacon points, which were supposed to go at the top right, top left, and lower left corner of your TV. (Not that it worked, per se, but it would have allowed for better triangulation if the default Wii sensor bar/software worked that way.) But again, the single, tiny sensor bar is a lot less annoying to set up, and most people who have come over to See My Wii (eheheheheh) don't even notice the bar and think the remote must be using the TV screen itself for orientation data.
The Wiimote does have pretty good tilt and acceleration sensors... It can't really keep accurate track of position without data from the IR camera, but if it can assume you're holding the remote a certain way, it's pretty good at interpreting motions. There are a lot of mini-games in Wario Ware that tell you to hold the remote on the palm of your hand like a tray, or straight up and down like a mortar and pestle, and from there they can do some really interesting stuff. (You can cheat by not holding the remote the prescribed way, of course, but it's still a great demo of the sensors, and fun at parties.) Like a minigame where you basically use the wiimote as if it was an analog joystick plugged into an (imaginary) flightstick base to steer a giant robot around.
I've also been interested in the head tracking stuff... The first PC head tracker I saw was basically a combination IR emitter/camera that sat on top of your monitor, combined with little IR-reflective bits that you were supposed to wear on a hat. Which worked (sorta) but of course you'd turn your head, and the monitor would stay where it was, and that killed a lot of the immersive 3D effect, even if it freed up your hands from viewpoint control.
So the VR headset with built in headtracking sounds pretty neat in comparison... I'm guessing it's "looking" at the brightness of the monitor to determine head orientation? I'd be very curious to try one of those out sometime. Nice to see that after 10+ years, we can finally get all Lawnmower Man on our PCs! ;-)
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That's interesting about the calibration, though. They don't do the standard "click on the top right corner", "ok, now click on the bottom left"? Though I guess I didn't have to do that in GlovePIE to get the wiimote working as a mouse pointer (more in my next post).
There is actually an inexpensive Power Glove like thing which uses the same sort of IR LED tracking that the Wiimote does (except the camera is stationary and the LEDs are on the glove). You can buy one here.
I do have to agree, though, head tracking is a bit lame without the headset. Thanks to all the ipod people, those are getting cheaper. You can actually get one (not stereo) for your ipod for like $130. Granted, the resolution is probably less than your ipod screen. In any case, either of the ones I linked to seem cool and aren't very expensive. People seem to generally like them, though they are still fairly low res. The head tracking on the VR920 is (as near as I can tell) done with accelerometers since it only does tilt, roll, and yaw. Come on, guys, where are the HMDs that draw the image on your retina with a laser and know your position anywhere on the world down to a millimeter?!
I'll have to post more about various VR setups I've been thinking of (while living in a fantasy land where I had some extra money to buy them with).
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