Topic: Halogen lights confuse Wiimote

[thejeek]

See here

Apparently halogen lights are not common in houses (although I have one in my office - it's an Ikea uplight) but shops use them a lot. Looks like the IR they give off can cause aiming problems with the wiimote. I don't know if this will be a real problem but it seems like both an unfortunate oversight by the designers at Nintendo and also confirmation that the Wiimote indeed sees IR given off by the sensor bar for positioning.

[EDIT:] Article also suggests an October launch - which would be great if it turned out to be true - I think we were all expecting November?

[wandering]

Not a huge fan of halogen personally, so this won't affect me. Though all of these wiimote problems are starting to bother me.

I hate to bring up the virtual boy example again, but, yeah. Look at the virtual boy. Nintendo thought people's excitememnt over the 3-d, virtual reality technology would overshadow the product's obvious limitations. That didn't happen. Now we're hearing about how the wiimote has a limited range... and can fail to work properly if someone walks in between the signal, or if you have incorrect lighting, or if you point the controller outside of it's limited range, etc.

Also, october launch? Excuse me while I go make another thread.

[thejeek]

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Not a huge fan of halogen personally, so this won't affect me. Though all of these wiimote problems are starting to bother me.

Exactly - it won't bother me and it won't bother a whole load of people but it contributes to a general impression that the performance of the wiimote is a bit fragile - not a good thing. The sooner we can all get a hands on the sooner these fears can be alleviated (assuming the thing really does work in practice). Roll on in-store demos!

[Avinash_Tyagi]

From what the article says it sounds like a rumor at this point.

Also a lot of those so called problems could be attributed to the fact that the systems we've seen up to this point are not final production level hardware and likely to be less stable than the final units.

[thejeek]

Hopefully that's all true. I'm more worried about the rumours damaging the Wii's reputation before it's even launched - it doesn't sound like this halogen light thing is really likely to affect many users even if the hardware isn't fixed - halogen lights just aren't that common in homes anyway.

[wandering]

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I'm more worried about the rumours damaging the Wii's reputation before it's even launched

mm- I think all people will care about is their own persoanl experience with the console. A huge amount of negative reports tend to surround most new apple products, for example.

[thejeek]

People's personal experiences with the Gamecube were all extrememly positive in my experience - my mates would come round my house and play Super Monkey Ball for hours. However they'd then go home and buy an Xbox - some people are so insecure that they can't trust their own judgement about what's good if they've been told by their peers and the media that it's 'g@y'

[EDIT: spellung]
 

[Avinash_Tyagi]

It might hurt it, until TGS, then when the positive impressions of the media at TGS will give it another boost.

[thejeek]

So far rumours about poor performance from the wiimote seem to be bouncing off without doing any harm - I haven't noticed 8 year old xbox fanboys shouting 'THE WEE-MOTE is SO LAMER' across the interweb yet so it might all blow over.

Still the quicker they get demo units accessible to the general public, the quicker people can make up there own minds - people need to try it first hand *before* they make their mind up - human nature guarantees that people won't change their minds if they form a bad impression of the thing before they get to try it :-(

[Avinash_Tyagi]

Probably first demo units will ship sometime after TGS

[thejeek]

If they're really aiming for an October launch they might get demo units out earlier than TGS - is there another major show before then?

[ruby_onix]

If the halogens are messing with the infared between the Wiimote and the sensor bar, then odds are that they similarly mess with the infared of your TV/VCR/DVD/Stereo remotes. So yeah. If you can't have a TV in your living room because your fancy lights mess with it, then you probably can't have a Wii.

[couchmonkey]

I've actually had a lot of problems with my WaveBirds since I installed a wireless network.  I don't like it, but I can live with little things like this, I think.  A bigger complaint for me is that it may only come in white.   I don't like white, and it doesn't match my old consoles...of course, neither does that yummy green, and I'd buy it in a second!  I just don't like white.  Wonder if I can spray-paint it?

[Avinash_Tyagi]

My guess is Black and White will be the launch colors

[thejeek]

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Wonder if I can spray-paint it?

I've spray painted a CD player before to no ill effect. I didn't even bother to mask off the buttons or tray or anything and it still worked fine. Don't sue me if it stuffs up your Wii though!

[Svevan]

I can't say anything about Halogens, but I can mention what the Nintendo rep manning the Project H.A.M.M.E.R. booth said to me: before I even started the game, he pointed at a light above the demo (probably 30 feet up) that, according to him, was causing the game to malfunction. The Wii Remote cursor was apparently not supposed to jump all over the screen like it did when I played it. From what I gather, its never supposed to leave the screen, like in Zelda or Mario. In H.A.M.M.E.R. however, if I were to move the cursor off the left side of the screen it would suddenly appear again on the right side. The rep said no one in their homes would have this problem, but he was scrambling to prove to me that it was no big deal.

[Avinash_Tyagi]

Hmmm...I wonder if some of the problems at E3 with the controls could have been a result of the lighting?

[Ian Sane]

It is troubling that there are any issues at all.  Every other Nintendo console merely required electricity and a TV.  If you had those you could play the console.  It's not encouraging when reps are making excuses about certain lights and the player's position relative to the sensor bar.  With previous Nintendo consoles there were no excuses about controls because there weren't any issues.  I worry that maybe modern technology isn't quite ready yet for this concept.  People don't like consoles that require extra effort just to be able to play.  That's was a big problem with the Virtual Boy.  That console required the player to accept certain limitations and follow certain "rules" in order to get the ideal amount of enjoyment out of it.  The Wii isn't going to sell like Nintendo wants it to if people have to meet certain geography and lighting requirements for the thing to work correctly.  We're talking building incompatibilities here.  Can you imagine not being able to play with a console because you don't have the right type of house?

[Avinash_Tyagi]

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Every other Nintendo console merely required electricity and a TV

Well yes because they used tech that had been done over and over in such situations, what they are doing is very new for gaming situations.

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It's not encouraging when reps are making excuses about certain lights and the player's position relative to the sensor bar.

No, actually its good that they are aware of these issues now, it means they are working on getting these issues fixed so final machines won't have these issues.

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That's was a big problem with the Virtual Boy. That console required the player to accept certain limitations and follow certain "rules" in order to get the ideal amount of enjoyment out of it.

The Virtual Boy was a Nintendo experiment, not a primary system, I've yet to buy a Nintendo system that was buggy and full of problems, Nintendo isn't the type of company to send out products that don't work.


At the moment I doubt this is a big deal, since our exposure has been to early machines running under non-ideal situations.

[Svevan]

I'll second Avinash_Tyagi's "non-ideal situations" statement. E3 is a non-ideal situation for playing any game, let alone one that requires precision equipment and personal focus. I saw other systems have tech problems on the show floor as well, mostly because they were locked up or overused.  

[Jensen]

Any game with pointing functionality will have a few physical constraints not put on gaming control before (except DDR).

You have to be at a certain range.  You won't be able to use the Wii in the back seat of a car.
Other IR sources may interfere.  (I'm assuming Halogen lights put out more IR than other lights)
You need line of sight.  

[Hostile Creation]

Who cares, who has halogen in their houses anyway.

In other news, fixing it would be best.  HOW BOUT THAT NINTENDO

[slacker]

In my experience with anything wireless, the technology is so vulnerable to various environmental factors that can't be completely predicted that I have learn to except it and move on. As long as the Wii can handle common interferences found in the home, I can live with it. Its when it can't even do that I would find it unacceptable. Halogen lamp interference doesn't concern be because I don't use them.  Interference is something you should expect when it comes to wireless technology.  Anyways, if the interference is too much, then Nintendo is already doomed. Surely they wouldn't be so stupid to release something that the company is heavily dependent and watch it fail because of common interference.

[Jensen]

It isn't really a wireless issue. All data transmission between the Wiimote and Wii will be through bluetooth, which has no significant interference problems that I am aware of.

Because the Wiimote uses an optical tracking system, it is limited in different ways than wireless data transmission is.  

[King of Twitch]

One man's fatal controller flaw is another man's non-game mechanic! Imagine player one holding a halogen bulb nunchuck attachment and chasing player 2 around the living room in order to disrupt their controls! Perhaps a cockroach sim! Or reverse the roles and make player 2 a moth that has to chase the light.