# Dolphin adds support for Wii MotionPlus emulation



## SkittleDash (Apr 26, 2019)

Spelling error on title with "WIi."

There's a capital I when it should be lowercase.

Edit: Much better. :3


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## RattletraPM (Apr 26, 2019)

SkittleDash said:


> Spelling error on title with "WIi."
> 
> There's a capital I when it should be lowercase.


Bloody hell, sometimes I really am blind 
Fixed, thanks for letting me know!


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## leon315 (Apr 26, 2019)

BUT HOW you connect the wii's sensor bar to pc??


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## CallmeBerto (Apr 26, 2019)

leon315 said:


> BUT HOW you connect the wii's sensor bar to pc??



Dolphin bar is what I use. I got it from Amazon for about 20 USD.


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## Taleweaver (Apr 26, 2019)

I'm...not sure if it's a stupid question, but...how?
(note: I'm unable to watch the video right now...I'm at work)

No, really: if not a (real or cloned) wiimote (plus), then what else will you use that comes close? Can you mimmick the same motions with a smartphone now? Would somehow mapping everything to keyboard and mouse somehow feel smoothly?


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## crow132 (Apr 26, 2019)

skyward sword on the gpd win 2 coming through


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## Asia81 (Apr 26, 2019)

CallmeBerto said:


> Dolphin bar is what I use. I got it from Amazon for about 20 USD.


Same here


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 26, 2019)

MotionPlus has been supported unofficially for years. There are still parts of Skyward Sword that are unplayable without a real MotionPlus or some other motion controller mapped to simulate it though.


leon315 said:


> BUT HOW you connect the wii's sensor bar to pc??


Technically Skyward Sword doesn't really need the sensor bar. But I bought a USB one from eBay for about 2 bucks. Skyward Sword needs the sensor bar only when starting up the game to calibrate the Wiimote (you could just use a real Wii/Wii U for this step or a couple of candles or maybe even a couple of IR remote controls), but the Wiimote loses track of its position quickly without it meaning you have to tilt the Wiimote in weird ways to get certain things to work as expected, like steering the beetle up or down can be way oversensitive or respond at weird angles if the Wiimote doesn't have a Sensor Bar to help it track its position.


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## WiiHomebrew+Snes (Apr 26, 2019)

Wii sensor bar doesn't need to be connected to software. Basically just some IR lights. You could use one of those wireless battery powered ones or even the actual Wii one plugged into a Wii if you really wanted to.


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## leon315 (Apr 26, 2019)

The Real Jdbye said:


> Technically Skyward Sword doesn't really need the sensor bar. But I bought a USB one from eBay for about 2 bucks. Skyward Sword needs the sensor bar only when starting up the game to calibrate the Wiimote (you could just use a real Wii/Wii U for this step or a couple of candles or maybe even a couple of IR remote controls), but the Wiimote loses track of its position quickly without it meaning you have to tilt the Wiimote in weird ways to get certain things to work as expected, like steering the beetle up or down can be way oversensitive or respond at weird angles if the Wiimote doesn't have a Sensor Bar to help it track its position.


thanks for explanation mate  guess i still have both game and the console, i'll just finish it as it was originally intended.


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 26, 2019)

leon315 said:


> thanks for explanation mate  guess i still have both game and the console, i'll just finish it as it was originally intended.


I made do with a wireless sensor bar I happened to have since it came free with something I ordered once. But the damn thing drains the batteries in a few hours, and if I forget to turn it off 100% guaranteed the batteries will be drained the next time I play.
Since I didn't have more batteries, and it was in the middle of the holidays and stores were closed, I had to make do by just turning on the sensor bar when I start up the game (since there was just enough battery to power it on for a few seconds) and the game was playable but incredibly frustrating to play certain sections of once the Wiimote lost track of its position.

The game looks great in Dolphin though. Especially with the AR code that disables the DoF "painting" effect (because it makes stuff in the distance look blurry and low res which is espeially noticable in HD), so if you can play it in Dolphin I recommend doing so. $3 for a USB sensor bar is not much to spend for a better experience 
I bought this one, in black: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sensor-Bar...hash=item2f2ad54ae3:m:mx81Eso2PuxWv9hz4---5vw
There is also a partial HD texture pack for the game, which looks great as well, only a small part of the game is retextured but the textures fit in with the original style so well that it doesn't bother me that i can tell that some textures are HD and some are not. It's still an improvements for things like the GUI.


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## tatumanu (Apr 26, 2019)

I really thought this already was implemented like 8 years ago ...
As for the sensor bar i just turn on the Wii after pairing the controllers with the PC and you are good to go. 

Thank you team Dolphin!


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## Tumoche (Apr 26, 2019)

Finally! I've been waiting for this feature for years.


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## 0000ff (Apr 26, 2019)

WiiHomebrew+Snes said:


> Wii sensor bar doesn't need to be connected to software. Basically just some IR lights. *You could use *one of those wireless battery powered ones or even* the actual Wii one plugged into a Wii if you really wanted to.*



this is exactly what I did! works like a charm and free since I already had the parts.


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## Mama Looigi (Apr 26, 2019)

Does it support both the Wiimotion plus and the extension?


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## ganons (Apr 26, 2019)

Has been available for about a month now 

https://gbatemp.net/threads/motionplus-support-is-now-in-dolphin-emulator-for-android.534461/


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## raxadian (Apr 26, 2019)

While this is great, Skyward Sword is a quite annoying game. Anyway to make Fii shut up?


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## Obveron (Apr 26, 2019)

Cant wait to play wii sports resort swordplay on my keyboard!


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## Arecaidian Fox (Apr 26, 2019)

I need to update my Dolphin, it's a bit old now =/ . I'll have to remember how to use my DolphinBar with it


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## Sakitoshi (Apr 26, 2019)

raxadian said:


> While this is great, Skyward Sword is a quite annoying game. Anyway to make Fii shut up?


just stuck a bunch of...cheats in her mouth.
skyward sword get's the flack for being a weak entry because is too reliant on the all mighty sword (miyamoto has to show off his memetic gimmicks), but it's fun nonetheless.


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## RandomUser (Apr 26, 2019)

leon315 said:


> BUT HOW you connect the wii's sensor bar to pc??


You actually do not need the bar connected to a PC, all it is a few infrared LED. Nothing special about it. All you need to do is supply it with any power source just to power the LED.
Heck I bought an new PowerA branded UltraSensor Bar for the Wii U for $5. It features two option as a power source, Wired to the console or 4 AA batteries. Heck I think I may have a USB powered sensor bar somewhere, that looks like the official branded bar, the USB is just for power and nothing else, there is no data line on those USB cable.


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## Deleted-379826 (Apr 27, 2019)

Oh, really awesome! Was just looking into if this was possible a while ago. Could be really amazing for DolphinVR if it can be merged in with the existing builds of it. Since, sadly it isn't in development anymore.


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 27, 2019)

tatumanu said:


> I really thought this already was implemented like 8 years ago ...
> As for the sensor bar i just turn on the Wii after pairing the controllers with the PC and you are good to go.
> 
> Thank you team Dolphin!


It was, actually. The first mention I saw of it was like 4 years ago, unofficially. Here's a link:


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## t1op (Apr 27, 2019)

I am really glad that Dolphin has officially implemented Motion Plus. I think this is a great step toward making Motion Plus controls more accurate and more easily accessible.
The old unofficial build has some serious bugs in it, like motion controls getting haywire from repeated input, and axes returning to neutral or not returning to neutral when you don't want them to do so, and mouse controls acting erratic. This official build seems to be cleaning up the motion input, but hasn't completely resolved any of these issues. Hopefully, this feature will receive further development now that it's built into official releases.

For anyone familiar with older builds, Skyward Sword used Tilt controls only. No IR and no Swing. In the new official build, all three inputs are used. IR works well for aiming. Tilt left and right are necessary for flying. And Swing works best for Sword swinging.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the customization of these that is available falls short of the 12/2017 Jpeterson rebase build, that allows you to set gyro ranges so that you can decrease motion sensitivity adequately for precise aiming and flying. As such, I am still playing with that older build, until the similar modifications become available in the official build.

Personally, I don't like swinging my wiimote around to swing my sword... too slow, tiring. And it never felt like a 1:1 experience. 
Unfortunately, any other way of playing the game requires a complex set of instructions to perform every action required in the game. 80-90% of the game is pretty straight forward, but 10-20% requires actions made specifically for the Wiimote and Nunchuck setup. I hope no one thinks they can play the game with a gamepad without learning to translate the normal controls into what is available and having a reference for how to do special motion stuff. There's no getting around it.

The one thing that could make things much simpler is if we could use a motion controller like the PS4 dualshock 4, to replicate most of the motion controls. In theory, this can be done by mapping the PS4 gyro as mouse or analog controls, but having tested them extensively and painfully, they don't really work with the current official and unofficial motion plus builds. Anytime you try to use the mouse or PS4 gyro the controls become erratic.

In short, Skyward Sword is not currently easy to play 100% with a gamepad. If you want easy and simple, you still need your wiimote. But, the official adoption of motion plus is still exciting because it is a big step toward that smooth gamepad experience that we really want


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## Anfroid (Apr 27, 2019)

Thankfully I wont have to use an obscure release to play skyward sword like the first time I played through it


RattletraPM said:


> The pheripheral was


Go to sleep you're drunk.


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## Deleted User (Apr 27, 2019)

leon315 said:


> BUT HOW you connect the wii's sensor bar to pc??


Actually you don't have to. I actually just sync my wiimote to my pc, turn on my wii, which powers the sensor bar, and then things work. The wiiremote is the thing actually sending position data, not the sensor bar surprisingly enough.


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## RattletraPM (Apr 27, 2019)

The Real Jdbye said:


> It was, actually. The first mention I saw of it was like 4 years ago, unofficially. Here's a link:



Yup, the writeup on Dolphin's blog mentions it. It didn't get merged for... obvious reasons.



> In fact, there's an old fork that has let users _play_MotionPlus titles since the Dolphin 3.0 days! Unfortunately, anyone who wondered why it was never merged into master would very quickly see why after they actually tried to use it. It was a user interface nightmare that required _extremely_ careful configuration, constant profile swapping, and maticulous retooling of motions to even get past the menus in a game like Skyward Sword.





Anfroid said:


> Go to sleep you're drunk.





Spoiler



Nah.


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## ZipMartin (Apr 27, 2019)

That's very good news. I planned to buy a Wii Remote Plus some time ago just for this emulator, but I think there was some kind of compatibility issue and I'd have to be careful reading product IDs on the box before buying it. I wonder if the newer versions of Dolphin recognize just about any Wii Remote now...


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## t1op (Apr 27, 2019)

ZipMartin said:


> I planned to buy a Wii Remote Plus some time ago just for this emulator, but I think there was some kind of compatibility issue


I tried to use one earlier this year and it did not work with Dolphin.


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 28, 2019)

ZipMartin said:


> That's very good news. I planned to buy a Wii Remote Plus some time ago just for this emulator, but I think there was some kind of compatibility issue and I'd have to be careful reading product IDs on the box before buying it. I wonder if the newer versions of Dolphin recognize just about any Wii Remote now...


I believe the issue with "new" Wiimotes is that not all bluetooth stacks work with them for some reason. So depending on what bluetooth adapter you're using, it may or may not work out of the box, and you can install another BT stack (the Toshiba one is supposed to work) in order to connect "new" Wiimotes on adapters that don't work with them out of the box. This isn't ideal though because it won't be a seamless experience, Motion Plus especially struggles with a lot of drifting and frequent recalibration, and the connecting and syncing may not work perfectly (I've experienced having to delete the paired controller in order to connect the Wiimote again as the sync does not seem to work as expected)
But you can work around these issues by using bluetooth passthrough, which in general works far more reliably, especially for Motion Plus games, and allows the syncing and connecting to work just like a real Wii.

Bluetooth passthrough should work with most (all?) BT adapters, it certainly works fine with the one integrated into my laptop, but some work slightly better than others in terms of how reliable the connection is, how accurate the motion controls are (especially with MotionPlus)/how quickly it drifts.
Sadly, it doesn't work with the DolphinBar (which was previously the preferred method of connecting Wiimotes to a PC), as that doeesn't act like a normal BT adapter, but with it, a DolphinBar is not needed since this works even better.


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## sergiou87 (Apr 28, 2019)

This is awesome! They're doing an impressive work!!


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## gbadl (Apr 28, 2019)

Sad to hear that John Peterson didn't get any credit for his work into MPlus emulation back in 2011. Beat Skyward Sword using one of his builds in 2011 and Dolphin finally decides to implement this 8 years later.


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