Wiiiiiiiimote
My bluetooth adapter came in today, so I’ve got lots to say now that I’ve actually used the wiimote. My original plan to go from wiimote to Python was to use GlovePIE to redirect the controls to PPJoy (a joystick emulator), and then just read the virtual joystick using Ogre’s input system or pygame.
Getting the wiimote to talk to my computer was a piece of cake. Installed the bluetooth adapter, paired it with the wiimote, opened GlovePIE and made a simple script that turned on rumble whenever I hit the B button. No problems there. I also got it to work as a mouse pointer by turning on two of the 3 LEDs in my IR beacon. The next challenge was getting data into Python. There are a few libs that “support” the wiimote in Python, but as far as I can tell, none of them support nearly as many features as GlovePIE. So, I installed PPJoy but there was no joy to be had there. It doesn’t support XP x64. Suck.
Now what? Remember I mentioned the possibility of letting MV3D run some network protocol that would send user input data? Well, GlovePIE just happens to support the OSC (Open Sound Control) Protocol. There was a Python implementation, but it was not async. There seemed to be a Twisted implementation out there, but it looked to be part of a bigger app. So I wrote my own Twisted OSC client and server. Yay for Twisted making things easy for me. If anyone wants the code, just ask. It only supports the basics of what I needed to talk back and forth with GlovePIE. Anyway, it works, and I made a Python app that did the same as my initial GlovePIE script (turning on rumble when you hit a button). Now I have access to the complete wiimote functionality in Python. Yay!
So, next up is to get it working in a Python Ogre + ODE app so that I can play with some virtual cubes and spheres and stuff. I have some interesting ideas for combining the IR tracking and the accelerometers so that I can maybe have a few strategically placed IR LEDs that would allow me to point the wiimote in pretty much any direction and have it either know its position, or able to estimate it fairly well. However, I’ve bought all the IR LEDs at the local Radio Shacks, and I don’t think they plan on restocking them, so I may have to order some online (which would be cheaper anyway).