Using Your Wiimote on Your PC: A Brief How-to
What’s going on:
The Wii modding/hacking/homebrew scene is slowly maturing to the point to actually produce some useful and/or fun projects. One fun (and easy) “hack” is using your Wiimote to control your PC’s mouse, or act as a standard joystick for PC games and emulation. Connecting your Wiimote to your PC opens up a lot of interesting possibilities.
How it works:
The Wiimote communicates with the Wii with standard Bluetooth technology. Connecting your Wiimote to your PC through a Bluetooth adapter is simple, but it wasn’t until very recently that you were actually able to DO something with the Wiimote once connected. This is done through a program called GlovePIE, a program used to help Windows interpret input from VR Gloves and other similar devices. The program recently added Wiimote support.
Note that for most input, you do not require the sensor bar. The sensor bar does not actually send or receive any information; it is merely a bar full of LEDs that emit infrared light. The cable that plugs into your Wii only provides the bar’s power. As an alternative, lots of devices emit infrared, including candles. I was able to get my Wiimote to control my mouse using a single candle placed on top of my monitor, though the results weren’t very impressive. A sensor bar solution is outside the scope of this blog, but for most purposes, you don’t need one. All button input, as well as controller tilt, can be read by your Bluetooth adapter without the sensor bar.
How to do it:
Connecting your Wiimote
First off, your computer will need Bluetooth capability. For $30 today, I picked up this cute little D-Link adapter to give my computer Bluetooth connectivity. For a complete list of Wiimote-compatible Bluetooth adapters, check this list. I installed the driver and plugged the adapter in when asked. Windows opened and closed just under a zillion “New Hardware” wizards, beeped and chimed for a minute or two, then settled down and my adapter lit up. You can either use Windows’ “My Bluetooth Places” control panel, or the Bluetooth connectivity wizard that comes with your adapter. For me, D-Link’s program worked just fine. I opened the connection control panel, put my Wiimote in discover mode (Holding buttons 1 & 2 simultaneously), and my computer picked it up as Nintendo RVL-CNT-01.
I named the connection something meaningful and activated it. My Wiimote was connected.
GlovePIE
Grab the latest version of GlovePIE from the GlovePIE site. This program will allow Windows to interpret input from your Wiimote. It also comes bundled with a bunch of scripts that allow you to perform most basic operations you’ll want to do (mouse support, for example), game and application-specific scripts (like, for example, Call of Duty or Windows Media Player), as well as novelties like MIDI drum kits. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to use my Wiimote to control an NES emulator (FCEUltra), in the “classic” orientation (Wiimote held sideways), as well as use the classic controller attachment to do the same.
For NES control, the best script I found was “NESController2″. Open GlovePIE, select File, Open, and choose NESController2.pie from the list of available scripts. Then hit the “Run” button. The script is now ready to begin accepting input from the Wiimote and translating it to something Windows can interpret. I then went into FCEUltra, selected Config, Input, and mapped my buttons. I loaded my ROM and started playing. It worked flawlessly first try.
Secondly, I wanted to do the same with the classic controller attachment which, until today, has remained in the original packaging since I purchased my Wii on launch. Those Virtual Console titles are just too damn expensive! Anyway, classic controller support is brand new in the latest version, and as such, no scripts (that I could tell) support it yet. Browsing some forums, I found somebody that kinda got it working. He was trying to get it to work in an SNES emulator, but is having problems. I had no problem getting it to work in my NES emulator. Once I start trying to write my own GlovePIE scripts, I’ll mess around with getting the classic controller to map correctly for more advanced emulators. I’ve uploaded that kids’ script. It’s a little tacky, and GlovePIE will open a debugger window when you run it, but it gets the job done for now. I uploaded the script here. I again remapped my buttons in FCEUltra, and the classic controller attachment worked beautifully.
I haven’t messed with scripting yet, but I definitely want to get the nunchuk and motion sensing working for PC FPS’s. If I have any luck with that, I’ll be sure to post about the pros and cons of using your Wiimote for PC gaming.
Other Fun Stuff
Aside from using your Wiimote as a PC controller, you can also transfer data to and from the Wiimote. Since the Wiimote’s memory is primarily for Mii storage, this makes trading Mii’s online a snap by actually downloading .mii files from your Wiimote. If you’re a Mii addict, definitely check out the Mii Mega-Mall, a great little program that acts as a sort of RSS front-end for some of the largest Mii-trading sites online. This makes browsing, downloading and uploading Mii’s to and from your controller a very simple process.
Happy Wiimoting…
January 16th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Wasn’t much of a speed run on Super Mario’s punch off.
January 16th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Yeah, the Wii controller by itself isn’t so hot for classic gaming. Especially with that rubber sleeve I have on it. Makes the buttons hard to push.