Is it possible to use a Wiimote as a Aimtrak gun (eg. with Teknoparrot)?

[mickael28]

I saw that there are pretty good arcade lightgun games for Teknoparrot, but checking usb guns for PC I noticed there are not many options, mainly just one, with the Aimtrak gun being quite expensive.

I've got a Wii as well and I was wondering, is there any way for me to use my Wiimote as a light gun for PC with some kind of easy modification or software hack?

[KenToad]

I have a dolphinbar. It works great with the dolphin emulator. It has a mode to run the wiimote as a mouse pointer, but it's too jittery to be used effectively as a light gun, IMO. I've heard that some people have gotten it to work better by running the touchmote software, but I have yet to experiment with it myself.

[thet0ast3r]

With only one wiimote for sure, then the wiimote just resembles the system mouse and you can play games in single player. I`ve had this working fine with a chinese 1$ bluetooth-usb-dongle and my laptop`s built-in bluetooth adapter, no need for a dolphinbar, just a program like glovepie or sth..
I haven`t tried it with multiplayers, but if you get the wiimotes to register as positioning devices with absolute coordinates, DemulShooter should be able to handle it? (probably)

[mickael28]

I was thinking about the smoothness of this and the aimtrak device itself, but people using the aimtrak say it is really good, not sure if the technology used would be any different to a wiimote, as they use an IR bar as well it seems.

I didn't know one could connect a wiimote to a PC via bluetooth rather than an IR bar? I might look into that ... and see what demulshooter offers, I've heard about that programme but never installed it yet...

[dgrams2000]

I have my wiimote connected in via bluetooth so I can play Mario Kart and other wii games in Dolphin emu.
You still need a usb ir bar to do any of the screen pointing... and yes control and aiming is not super accurate.  It works yes, but there are things you have to put up with.
Tried to get it going in Mame as a mouse pointer.. wasn't a pretty thing.  Once again, lots of things you have to put up with. 
It just will not have the feel or response as a real light gun.
Calibration, crosshair drifting, shakiness...

[thet0ast3r]

I was thinking about the smoothness of this and the aimtrak device itself, but people using the aimtrak say it is really good, not sure if the technology used would be any different to a wiimote, as they use an IR bar as well it seems.

I didn't know one could connect a wiimote to a PC via bluetooth rather than an IR bar? I might look into that ... and see what demulshooter offers, I've heard about that programme but never installed it yet...

Smoothness shouldn`t be that much of a problem. the connection via bluetooth was the first way to connect a wiimote to pc, and it`s nice to experiment as the bluetooth dongles are cheap. Also, the sensor bar is just 2 ir leds, so something home-built with 2 ir light sources should be fine.
If you would have to buy a wiimote to try this, I would recommend just picking up aimtraks, as they are the most convenient, or, if you are not afraid of unsigned windows drivers and somewhat "unfinished" software, ems topguns.
As for the wiimotes, just beware of clones, they aren`t as good as original ones, I have both the clones and the original wiimotes.

[drventure]

The other snag with the Aimtracks is that they aren't cordless. Wimotes are nice because their wireless.

I've got an aimtrak myself, but I've never had the time to put it in a gun case with wiring etc. I really want a wireless option. The wiimotes just gave me tons of problems in pairing consistently to the PC.

Still keeping a close eye on this space though!

[drventure]

I didn't know one could connect a wiimote to a PC via bluetooth rather than an IR bar?

I picked up a dolphin bar and that seemed to work MUCH more reliably for pairing wiimotes. Just havent had time to get back to it (damn life getting in the way!)

Just FYI though, the wiimote doesn't "connect" via the IRBar. That bar is nothing more than about 5 IR LEDs. The wiimote camera is tuned to SEE those LEDs and can calculate positioning from them.

They look like this

++++           +

So, when the wiimote sees 4 bright dots and one lone dot, it can quickly know how it's oriented and, given the position of those dots in it's camera "screen" can figure out where it's aimed.


In reality, you can use a wiimote without the IRbar, it can sense orientation just fine and press buttons etc, just can't "aim it" without the IRbar.

[thet0ast3r]

Correct me if I`m wrong, but the Wiimote connects via the dolphinbar if you use it. of course you could just take 2 light sources.
The layout ++++              +   is not recognised as 5 different light sources. The wiimote`s camera can distinguish of up to 4 different ir sources, that it tracks.
The wiimote also sees different ir source strength levels, meaning the 5 led`s just show up as one big "blob". Seeing just 2 ir lights is actually one of the biggest
flaws of the wiimote, as it is impossible to reconstruct its position with just 2 points. For real accurate aim you`ll need atleast 4 ir sources visible at any given time. (perspective n point problem)
 

[drventure]

You're right. If you're using a Dolphin bar the wiimote pairs to +it+ and the Dolphinbar then connects to the PC as basically a normal joystick (or mouse, I forget which). I think it'll even present as 2 devices if you've got 2 wiimotes. Not sure if it supports 4.

I was talking about the normal IR Bar that comes with the Wii.

I noticed mention in this thread of the TouchMote software. There was a ton of info on his site about the OSS he used to build it. Looks like there's been some real progress in this space in the last several years. I'm going to have to get back into it.

[mickael28]

Smoothness shouldn`t be that much of a problem. the connection via bluetooth was the first way to connect a wiimote to pc, and it`s nice to experiment as the bluetooth dongles are cheap. Also, the sensor bar is just 2 ir leds, so something home-built with 2 ir light sources should be fine.
If you would have to buy a wiimote to try this, I would recommend just picking up aimtraks, as they are the most convenient, or, if you are not afraid of unsigned windows drivers and somewhat "unfinished" software, ems topguns.
As for the wiimotes, just beware of clones, they aren`t as good as original ones, I have both the clones and the original wiimotes.

I've still got the original wii, with its wiimotes and wireless IR sensor bar, hence than before buying an expensive gun for PC I want to give this a go and see how it behaves in rail shooters. Did you use it with this kind of games yourself, and if you did, how was it, to aim, move the pointer around, etc?

I noticed mention in this thread of the TouchMote software. There was a ton of info on his site about the OSS he used to build it. Looks like there's been some real progress in this space in the last several years. I'm going to have to get back into it.

I had a quick look to software related to wiimotes and I could see at least 3 mentioned quite a lot, do you guys know what is the purpose or what is the difference between:

• GlovePie
• WiinUPro
• TouchMote
• more?

And, a new generic question, has anyone tried configuring a wiimote to work with MAME games (kind of the rail shooters there)?