Haden Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 Insane! Wait before you lock this thread Mr Mod people. I want to discuss the wiimote speaker possibilties. My little intro was what I thought Eternal Darkness would be like with it. Imagne just walking along and suddenly your wiimote begins speaking! Or in Max Payne the phone rings you have to listen to it through your speaker! I thought of this after seein the ideas that Red Steel is putting forward. But it really could be endless. Heartbeats in a horror game, old spirits speaking when you move onto their land in a rpg. A narrator or something. This small idea could be uber I think. So what are your ideas?
blender Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 imagine a game where you switched the tv off. And just interacted with the wiimote. e.g a metal detecting game or something. I'm sure a someone will have a better idea. but hell yeah switch the tv off and do something thats boring instead. why dont you? (<2% of people will get the reference here. my efforts are wasted)
Nintendork Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It only has enough memory for sound files that are a fraction of a second. Sorry.. in theory it could stream, but I don't think there is the bandwidth and there are syncing problems. It's really just intended to be surround sound on a budget.. you can use it for creaking doors as they open.. or a heart beat, a tap of a conductors baton or the hissing of a diving tank valve. There's plenty of ideas, but really it's just to enhance the atmosphere, make it a bit more involving. I am sure some genius will come up with some gameplay elements that involves the controller. Think Boppit. But it's hardly going to have the potential of the Wiimote's motion sensor.
Haden Posted October 11, 2006 Author Posted October 11, 2006 Thats a shame I wish it had a bit more memory. Even so just with the odd sounds it could be good. I can imagne something like Killer 7 using it in a demented way.
Colin Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 They should have stuck a microphone on it aswell really, but again, like Nintendork said this option may of not been feasible because of memory limitations. The lightsaber sound with a Star Wars game is what I'm most looking forward to experiencing with it.
Nintendork Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 I'd rather see an ear clip bluetooth Microphone and head piece.. the quality would be better and it wouldn't get in your way. For karaoke games the quality would be appreciated and you could really dance out. Built in mics aren't great, my laptop one crackles when I type because it is built into the case. That might've been a problem for Nintendo in development.
blender Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 I'm not aware that sound files were stored onboard memory. Are we absolutely sure we know how this thing works?
Hellfire Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It certainly can't play music, but there's nothing to say that it only plays sounds that short.
blender Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It runs off bluetooth So surely its not going to be all that different to a bluetooth headset in terms of bandwidth (no lag here either). The only limitation we know for sure is that the speaker is so small --- (but so is the GBA speaker) The demos like mario and zelda have only used the wiimote for incidental sound as this is easy to 'tac-on' to partially developed games. Who knows whats technically or creatively possible? Hello, is it me you're looking for?
Nintendork Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It's a buffer for the sound files, geez. I am certain of it.. but can't find the developper quote. I can't think of anything really creative.. but I suppose you could kinda use it to explore when you're in the dark, using sound to sense what sort of ground you're footsteps are on.
blender Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It's a buffer for the sound files, geez. I am certain of it.. but can't find the developper quote. got to admit, that sounds familiar. but mind you so does 3d projection
Cube Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It only has enough memory for sound files that are a fraction of a second. Sorry.. in theory it could stream, but I don't think there is the bandwidth and there are syncing problems. at the beginning of each "Mission" match, the Wii-mote will ring like a telephone and be answered by the player, instructing he or she on the nature of the mission. Red Steel does it, giving instructions to the player. Saria's Song (or similar) in the Woods/Forest of Twilight Princess.
Nintendork Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 Yeah, the ringing of the telephone sound could be a simple loop of a short sound file. You push the button to answer (solving the sync problems) then you hear the voice acting on the TV. Giving a sense of depth and reality to the game. As for the song in Zelda.. sounds good, but can bluetooth really do this? I know I don't want to listen to an entire soundtrack on a little tinny speaker. Have you heard those mobile phone speakers? They're attrocious.
Cube Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 Yeah, the ringing of the telephone sound could be a simple loop of a short sound file. You push the button to answer (solving the sync problems) then you hear the voice acting on the TV. Giving a sense of depth and reality to the game. Then how does it give each player different missions, without letting the other players know (which I think is the whole point of the game) As for the song in Zelda.. sounds good, but can bluetooth really do this? I know I don't want to listen to an entire soundtrack on a little tinny speaker. If its a repettative song, like Saria's Song is, then it could split it up into small parts and tell it things like (Part a (x2), part b, part a, part c, repeat). If streaming or that doesnt work, I'm sure streaming midi would be very simple to do.
Kurtle Squad Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 They should have stuck a microphone on it aswell really, but again, like Nintendork said this option may of not been feasible because of memory limitations. And that it'd make it even more expensive.
BGS Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 It's a buffer for the sound files, geez. I am certain of it.. but can't find the developper quote. I definitely do remember this but I've got a sneaky feeling it might have just been Matt speculating again when it was found out the Wii remote had a small amount of onboard memory.
Nintendork Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 I don't think the Wiimote will be acting as a mobile phone. Are you talking about multiplayer or something? I don't understand the scenario where you'd need to have your mission a secret. From the video I saw the speaker was literally really responsive (getting coins in Mario) but the quality wasn't that great. I don't think it could handle voice that well.
AshMat Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 The Red Steel thing sounded to me like the person spoke to you through the wiimote, this on tv sounds more likely.
BGS Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 I don't understand the scenario where you'd need to have your mission a secret. In multiplayer I can see loads of different scenario's that would involve this. Think of the game The Ship. Everybody has one specific character to kill. To bring this game onto offline multiplayer on a console, at the start of the round you'd keep needing other players to look away whilest you find out who you need to kill. This would almost wreck the experience I think. With the Wii the remote could simply whisper "kill player 3" to you and because everyone else will be trying to hear who they are meant to kill, noone would hear your victim. Obviously with that specific game there'd still be the problem that you could see where all the other player characters were but it was just the first example I thought of. I'm sure there are a hell of a lot of undiscovered multiplayer games that could use the remote like this. EDIT I also don't think the controller would be able to handle speech too well but there's been perfectly understandable speech on the GBA before. okay, shitty quality, but definitely understandable.
Cold Fire Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 I dont post often but just wanted to clear this up as i understand it... In red steal multiplayer (specifially mission mode) each user receives a call on the Wiimote which then secretly explains (through the speaker) the objectives in the mission. Now i doubt these are long explanations but definately well more than 6kb on board storage. This problem is overcome because it would be a total waste of time and resources to buffer the sound into memory then send it to the speaker. l suspect, that instead a bluetooth receiver just streams the voice data straight to the speaker just like a standard mobile bluetooth headset. Besides, if the Mii's are transferable to remotes (which has been pretty much confirmed) then that would take the 6kb of space right down, you wouldnt be able to store any sound, let alone instructions for a mission. The limitations that i can see are a) it will be transmitted in mono which is pretty obvious since there is only one speaker. b) the speaker isnt great quality so the sound may be a little tiny. I really cant see how it could be made any simplier, the red steal article on the front page pretty much states that the telephone mission thingy is more than just a phone sound with the info coming out of the tv, it is explaining your mission to you through the remote in secret.
blender Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 What actually happens in red steel is that the wiimote makes a dong sound. then that player covers his ears with his fingers and looks away. The tv speaker whispers the mission details to the other players etc. This happens to each player in turn.
Cold Fire Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 ^ i hope that isnt fact else my post is a total waste of time, n my ideas of how cool the wiimote could be are unfounded
blender Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 ^^ there will be an optional accessory of wax ear buds
Guest Stefkov Posted October 11, 2006 Posted October 11, 2006 would be awesome i just thought, a hid and seek game, first nintendo will release a headphone thing. Then when playing Hide and seek online, you shout marco into your headset, then the other person shouts polo into his, but depending on where he is and how close you are of course in game, then it will come out of the tv, as you gradually get closer it will come out of both the tv and the wiimote, then when really close it will come out of the wiimote. I think that woud be a fun game to play online. Thsi has no relevance to anything above. I'm just trying to get a discussion started from a dying, if so, needlessly created thread. meh, what other game ideas do you have?
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