The DarWiinRemote: IR based mouse-movement for the MAC

Let’s say that you want to use your Wiimote on your PC, so you can play games on it or what-not. Well you can get the GlovePIE, but that sort of only lets you use the Wiimote’s tilt sensing to handle mouse movement. This makes playing FPS games a bit awkward.

Alternatively (although it’s Mac only), you can use Hiroaki‘s DarwiinRemote on your Mac. IR-based mouse movement might be a bit easier for you (if you’re the FPS kinda guy), as the DarwiinRemote involves a lot of pointing. And pointing would be a natural motion for all you twitch-action FPS shooting addicts out there. Now if only there were more games of that type on the Mac.

Although there are no reports yet of this being used in a game (unlike the GlovePIE), at the very least this is a good sign. We wonder how soon it will take for people to figure out how to get home computers to sense both tilt and pointing capabilities of the Wiimote?

Anyway, here’s what Ian Rickard, the guy who tweaked this app called the DarwiinRemote, had to say:

Still kinda buggy with the setup but once it’s working it works good. If you have problems getting mouse mode to work, try turning the IR sensor off and on a few times and make sure you’re pointing at a strong enough pair of IR sources AND you’re far enough away from them (but not too far – 5 to 10 times the distance between them should work good). I worked a little bit on the random crashes, but couldn’t come up with much. At least it shouldn’t crash when it quits now.

To get started:
1. turn your Wii on with the Wii Remote (to power up the sensor bar)
2. start DarwiinRemote
3. Open the Wii Remote’s battery compartment and hit the sync button, DarwiinRemote should report “Wii Remote Found”.
4. Turn on the IR sensor (click the button)
5. Turn on Mouse Mode
6. Point the Wii Remote at the TV, as if your were controlling the pointer on your Wii
7. If the mouse doesn’t start moving around, try turning the IR sensor off and back on (click the button twice).

Download [ DarwiinRemote 0.2a ]

Download [ DarwiinRemote 0.2a Source ]

General rule of thumb: if it doesn’t work, quit it and re-open it.

Let’s say that you want to use your Wiimote on your PC, so you can play games on it or what-not. Well you can get the GlovePIE, but that sort of only lets you use the Wiimote’s tilt sensing to handle mouse movement. This makes playing FPS games a bit awkward.

Alternatively (although it’s Mac only), you can use Hiroaki‘s DarwiinRemote on your Mac. IR-based mouse movement might be a bit easier for you (if you’re the FPS kinda guy), as the DarwiinRemote involves a lot of pointing. And pointing would be a natural motion for all you twitch-action FPS shooting addicts out there. Now if only there were more games of that type on the Mac.

Although there are no reports yet of this being used in a game (unlike the GlovePIE), at the very least this is a good sign. We wonder how soon it will take for people to figure out how to get home computers to sense both tilt and pointing capabilities of the Wiimote?

Anyway, here’s what Ian Rickard, the guy who tweaked this app called the DarwiinRemote, had to say:

Still kinda buggy with the setup but once it’s working it works good. If you have problems getting mouse mode to work, try turning the IR sensor off and on a few times and make sure you’re pointing at a strong enough pair of IR sources AND you’re far enough away from them (but not too far – 5 to 10 times the distance between them should work good). I worked a little bit on the random crashes, but couldn’t come up with much. At least it shouldn’t crash when it quits now.

To get started:
1. turn your Wii on with the Wii Remote (to power up the sensor bar)
2. start DarwiinRemote
3. Open the Wii Remote’s battery compartment and hit the sync button, DarwiinRemote should report “Wii Remote Found”.
4. Turn on the IR sensor (click the button)
5. Turn on Mouse Mode
6. Point the Wii Remote at the TV, as if your were controlling the pointer on your Wii
7. If the mouse doesn’t start moving around, try turning the IR sensor off and back on (click the button twice).

Download [ DarwiinRemote 0.2a ]

Download [ DarwiinRemote 0.2a Source ]

General rule of thumb: if it doesn’t work, quit it and re-open it.