GlovePIE v0.24 and sundry details about Wiimote for PC or Mac

Posted Dec 7, 2006 at 10:14AM by QJ Staff Listed in: Wii, PC Gaming Tags: Bluetooth, Carl Kenner, Wiimote
Ó


It's not often a blog entry gets cross-posted in the Wii and PC and Gadgets sub-blogs, but this one is news for all of them. As this video uploaded by marcan42 on YouTube shows, the Wii remote's future as a PC input device just got better. Earlier, we put on the Half-Life 2 on Mac with Wii remote video, and there were two other videos of it in action.



GlovePIE. Earlier, we talked about GlovePIE v0.22 from Carl Kenner. The "PIE" stands for "Programmable Input Emulator" and it lets you use the VR Glove and the Wii remote to work with your computer. Is it simple installing GlovePIE? Well, you'll need a Bluetooth / IR wireless link - how else is your Wii remote going to communicate with your computer?

Here's what else you need (depending on how far you want to take this).
  • DirectX 8 or higher is absolutely necessary for GlovePIE to work.
  • PPJoy for Windows older than 2000 or XP.
  • Optional bells and whistles include MIDI Yoke to emulate MIDI input devices, Microsoft Speech Recogniser 5.1+ for controlling games using speech, SAPI 5.1+ for speech synthesis...
Here's info on GlovePIE v0.24:
  • Wiimote bugs fixed!
  • Just extract it to a directory of your choosing. Then run it. There is nothing to install. If you want to associate .PIE files with GlovePIE, you will need to do so yourself.
  • NOTE! You may not use this software on military bases, or for military purposes, or in Israel (which amounts to the same thing). Violation of the license agreement will be prosecuted. See the readme for the license agreement.
Wii remote tech notes. But going back to how this is possible... Over at fashnek.com/Wiimote.htm (this link should open in a new window), we found a lot of notes on the Wii remote. Good ol' marcan also had some info there on the inner workings of the Wii remote. Here's the more basic stuff:
  • The Wii remote is a Bluetooth device with a Broadcom 2042 chip - in normal English, this means it follows the Human Interface Device (HID) standard, and this means that it can work with any device that uses the HID standard. So, like a keyboard or mouse, you can use a Wii remote as an input device.
  • The Wii remote works with Linux and Windows XP. According to the fashnek page, it doesn't really work with OS X because the Wiimote's HID descriptor isn't standard - but work is going on to get around this.
None of this should be too surprising. When you ask for a computer for a nuclear power plant, for example, the designers will probably make it so that you can use a keyboard as an input device and a monitor will be the output device. Well, the Wii remote is just a controller - it's used to control things. Although that would be cool - control a nuclear power plant using a Wii...

Download: [GlovePIE v0.24]

 
 
 

Comments

by - 2006-12-07 12:31:06
...

nice app will someone do it for linux (ps3 ;)
by - 2006-12-07 12:51:32
IR?

Now, why would you need IR on your computer again? From everything I've heard and seen so far, the remote detects IR, but does not send it. So having an IR receptor on your computer would not be necessary, just the bluetooth since thats how all the data is transferred anyways.
by - 2006-12-07 13:44:10
NAZI PIE

What? Can't use this in Israel? *****ing NAZI-*****ES!!! What's this supposed to mean? Them jews ain't worth this übercool *****-code? OH ***** you Carl Kenner and stick your wiimote up your ASS - stupid *****muppet.
by CSFFlame - 2006-12-07 15:49:32
hrm

maybe I should see if I can make a mini mod for HL2 to do a metroid prime 3 style control scheme...
by - 2006-12-07 15:51:49
wtf?

? aint workin for me... "Unexpected end of archive"? Wazzat?
by - 2006-12-07 17:56:47
Bad file

The file hosted here is corrupted. Click the link below it that says "Via Carl Kenner" and download it from his blog.
by - 2006-12-08 11:02:15
Bandwidth Exceeded

When I try to download it from his blog I get a message that says: The bandwidth limit for this site has been exceeded. Does anyone have a link for a mirror that is hosting an uncorrupted copy? Pixil
by - 2006-12-08 18:01:35
cv

If i did id tell you
by - 2006-12-08 20:01:13
vbg gdhrbgg

Its fixed now. They mirrored it. Pretty cool. Especially the emulator scripts. Goldeneye takes a little getting used to but is reeealy fun once you get the hang of it. Can we get some Wiimote plugins for emulators that monitor the RAM for control change uses or rumble? Would be swii-t (^_^)

Add New Comment




You must be logged in to post comments




Add QJ.NET
Add to My Yahoo!
Google Reader Subscribe with Bloglines
Add  to your Kinja digest Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Subscribe with Pluck RSS reader Add 'www.qj.net' to Newsburst from CNET News.com
Subscribe with SearchFox RSS del.icio.us www.qj.net
Add to Technorati Favorite! Add to My AOL
furl! it Stumble for Treehugger!