Wii

Bro, does your rig even lift?
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VJ Nexus
Is seriously in love with Resolume. Met the parents and everything
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 18:42
Location: Kansas City / Chicago

Wii

Post by VJ Nexus »

YOU DON'T NEED A Wii TO DO THIS. ONLY THE CONTROLLERS WHICH ARE SOLD SPERATELY.

So I got a Nintendo Wii last week, and have been playing around with it for a while. For those of you who didn't know, the "Wii-mote", a fully motion sensitive controller, is actually controlled by a combination of bluetooth and infrared. Anyway, with a bluetooth usb adapter and a lot of time, I was able to get my computer to detect the wiimote. Using a program called glovePIE in combination with Bomes midi translator, the motions of the wiimote can be translated into midi, and thus control resolume! I'm going to be trying this live tomorrow night... The idea is to "conduct" the video, waving my arms about like a conductor... It can't control every aspect of the mixing, but can do enough that i can leave my station (about 30 ft) and still have some control over effect params and clip switching... Pretty cool, eh?

Anyone who has a wii, i can help to explain how to set this up - or if anyones had any other experiences - please share!

So far I'm able to control each layers opacity individually, speed adjustment, scratching, and 4 effect params - all from just holding various combinations of buttons while tilting up and down. (haven't assigned twisting yet - it's still a little too sensitive, have to tweak my script) The nunchuck can select any of the clips depending on where the thumb joystick is held and with what button while striking like at a drum. (actually get 24 midi notes this way) Using other combinations and such I have at least 20 more midi notes to assign, more if i want to get creative. Can have the same button combinations do different things depending on the angle the wiimote is held ---- well you all get the idea, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!



[Edited on 2-19-2007 by NexusIntent]

VJ Nexus
Is seriously in love with Resolume. Met the parents and everything
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 18:42
Location: Kansas City / Chicago

Post by VJ Nexus »

It's actually quite complicated. To begin with, you need a wiimote and a bluetooth adapter on your computer. Open up the "My Bluetooth Places" folder. Click "view devices in range" - while it's looking, press the 1+2 buttons on the wiimote. When it is found, highlight it and click on "bluetooth setup wizard" on the left. Select "skip pairing" then "finish". Your devices will talk for a minute, and then the wiimote will get installed as a human interface device. ok - that's the first part.

Next download a free program called glovePIE. Start digging through some of the scripts that came with it (only a few are for the wii) and see if you can't learn the scripting language from looking - it took me a day, but i get it now -- to be fair i have programming experience.

example:
if (wiimote1.A AND wiimote1.B)
var.opacity1 = ((Wiimote1.SmoothPitch)/70)
endif
midi.Control14 = var.opacity1

the code above makes it so if i'm holding both the a and b button, the midi controller 14 will get its number derived from the angle the front of the remote is facing. The /70 was just to get a smoother flow. var.opacity1 is just a variable i have defined right there.

even simpler:
var.layer1 = wiimote1.Down //defined variables
var.layer2 = wiimote1.Left //var.layer2=true if the left button is pressed
var.layer3 = wiimote1.Up

midi.c2 = var.layer1
midi.dsharp2 = var.layer2 //if left button pressed, this midi note=true
midi.fsharp2 = var.layer3

when glove pie outputs midi notes, you'll have to set up in your sound card that the midi goes out of a real midi chanel, not the ms wavesynth. I have it coming out an m-audio 2x2 midisport. I then loop this sinnal back through my other midi gear, and TADA! You just have to leave glovepie and the script running in the background...

If anyone gets this far, I can share my full script, which utilizes the nunchuk as well, but until then - good luck everyone!

VJ Nexus
Is seriously in love with Resolume. Met the parents and everything
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 18:42
Location: Kansas City / Chicago

Post by VJ Nexus »

SUCCESS. last night went off without a hitch. People were going nuts over the fact that i was out on the dance floor controlling the video - they all at first thought i was crazy, waving around a nintendo controller, but they soon noticed that the video wa reacting to me. My range was much greater than i thought too - i was at least 40-50 ft away from my setup and still had perfect control!

get excited people, this is real.

VJ Nexus
Is seriously in love with Resolume. Met the parents and everything
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 18:42
Location: Kansas City / Chicago

Post by VJ Nexus »

Image

Image

Image

hope this helps everyone to understand its potential. TONs more possible combinations i haven't even touched yet...

I also know the program i'm writing these scripts in can detect multiple wiimotes and nunchuks - so that means teams of people can control everything in the same way. If there is any interest in this script, post a reply.

[Edited on 2-19-2007 by NexusIntent]

alchemist
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2006 00:33

Post by alchemist »

Its fascinating project. I was thinking about wireless controller a while ago. This seems to be a really good option.

The only thing we need now is eyemounted wireless micro monitor for a preview.

But are cyborgs cool enough to party?

VJ Nexus
Is seriously in love with Resolume. Met the parents and everything
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 18:42
Location: Kansas City / Chicago

Post by VJ Nexus »

I'm working on a way of feeding back information to the wiimote. It has a speaker on it, but so far nobody has figured out how to make it "say" specific things - only send tones and pitches to it. Right now there are 4 led's on the bottom of the wiimote. The first 3 will light up depending on what layer you have selected.

I'm still making more combinations, and hopefully i should be able to get near full control of every important aspect of resolume. It's very possible, and i'm pretty close. If anyone can suggest controls that are essential, please do so and i will try to integrate it into code. Once I feel the script is good enough, i'll post it along with a resolume preferences file and instructions for use... or am i wasting my time? do people want this stuff!?!?! You can get both the wiimote and nunchuck for about $65 usd - seems very affordable for a wireless full control device!


[Edited on 2-20-2007 by NexusIntent]

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