Guncon 3 Is “Much More Accurate” Than Wii-mote

“The PlayStation 3 will be able to recognize the tilt of the Guncon 3, its distance from the monitor, and these things cannot be done with the Wii system.” ROFL

I will admit that having 6 LEDs will make it more accutate

I don’t believe in people dissing products before they’re even released. Companies will do what they do no matter how you feel, whether you think it will suck no matter what, or alternatively excited and hoping for features that will more than likely be set aside to keep the final product cheap.

I got here from Google, browsing many websites where posters have made comments like that out the rear-end regarding Time Crisis 4’s GunCon3 setup Vs the Wii Remote w/ Sensor Bar.

I believe the two are on equal footing based on their pros and cons. To each it’s own. Both are excellent products in their own right, and I own both Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 with the Time Crisis 4 GunCon3 bundle.

When Minami-san stated that it could detect tilt and distance from the screen, he was purely refering to it’s capabilities with just the use of the infrared emitters and GunCon3 sensor. Though even with that in mind only half of him saying that is so untrue it should be disregarded. If you draw on a piece of paper two dots spaced like a Wii Sensor Bar, and below it draw 6 dots the way the GunCon3 Sensors are (3 dots forming a triangle for each sensor and each sensor spaced farther away from each other to support larger screens) and you move the paper about looking at it, you will see that it is easier to follow how the perspective changes with the 6 dots than the 2.

That’s the Tilt. As for the distance from the TV, Wii can in fact measure the distance the Wii Remote is from the TV, assuming the sensor bar is at the TV, just by measuring the distance of the two IR sources from each other, because with Wii the distance between emitters is fixed. And then of course there is still the motion sensing capability, obviously.

Now I did read a claim that the GunCon3 sports the same SIXAXIS technology as the PS3 controllers, and as far as I know that is untrue. With the superior accuracy of the GunCon3, it supports SIXAXIS-like motion sensing capability so long as the IR Emitters are in view.

Now that I’ve put that to eternal rest, here comes gameplay comparisons in my personal view between Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Time Crisis 4. But first I need to explain the various conditions I’ve played my Wii and PS3 in. I have played both on a regular 32″ Flat Screen CRT TV, using Component Cables in 480i resolution, utilizing only TV audio. That setup only on rare occasion. And on my actual set up, a 720p LCD projector running at 92″ and a nice Sony Surround system. So my experience is varied, therefore my opinion will hopefully carry the weight with you that it should.

First of all, Wii is truly much better on a smaller screen, in both Wii Sensor accuracy and image clarity because no matter if it’s 480i on CRT or 480p on my LCD, that low resolution means tighter graphics on a smaller TV, and blurry on a large screen. And because no matter if it’s 32″ or 92″, you have to aim in the same place and move your hands/wrist the same amount. PS3 on the other hand comes in crystal clear, yet that not being the topic at hand, I can’t complete this sentence without moving on.

So. Control on a 32″ CRT TV with Wii.
Not accurate. No matter where I move the couch, or where I put the sensor bar, I can’t aim directly at the screen and have the cursor point the same unless I awkwardly tilt the Wiimote uncomfortably. Also, in Red Steel on both screen sizes, the pointer was considerably “bouncy” and changing my distance did not correct this issue which was not a problem with MP3: Corruption

Control on a 92″ LCD Screen with Wii.
If I aim my Wiimote at anything other than the bottom edge of my screen, the Wii cursor goes out of range at the top of edge of the Wii Menu or game.

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In the case of a 32″ TV, if a calibration system was added in the firmware for the Wii, accuracy could be solved. But the Big Screen (let’s say anything 60″ and up depending on distance) is completely out of luck, whether a Calibration system is added or not.
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Control on a 32″ TV with GunCon3
Spot on. No problems, perfect accuracy

Control on a 92″ LCD Screen with GunCon3
Spot on. Only problem was the gun lost focus on the sensors with the bottom corners until I backed farther away from the screen, which solved the problem. After a recalibration, it had perfect accuracy over the entire screen.

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Nothing to say here except that it’s time for me to admit my personal gaming habits with the Wii. After the initial frustration and disappointment of lack of accuracy, you realize that you got the Gamer’s games on your Wii because you’re a gamer, and you’re used to a regular controller anyways. I LIKE that the Wii isn’t accurate to the screen at all, because it saves me from all this nonsense of having to be active with the Gamer’s games, and since the Wii doesn’t come with the Marksman Gun Accessory (I think by Nyko) anyways, it would feel tedious and awkward. Oh and don’t get me wrong, Active games are good games too, just not my favorite cup of tea. With a targeting reticule turned on in Wii game shooters, you learn where to point and how little movement is needed. It begins to feel natural. Back to sitting lazily on the couch.

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Another thing I found about user posts is the eventual claim that the Wiimote is not as accurate because it is multi-purpose and the GunCon3 is single purpose. Let me further refine that. Wiimote is great for anything including first person shooters EXCEPT when it’s an exciting rail-shooter, and GunCon3 is especially tailored PERFECTLY for rail-shooters, but could be adapted nicely for other pointer-based games or applications. Despite GunCon3’s added analog sticks and buttons, the lack of a nunchuk controller makes it uncomfortable for FPS play as proven by Time Crisis 4’s own FPS game mode. And before you say “But Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is awesome with the Wiimote!”, well, I’m very sure it is. But if I were playing a game like that, my adrenalin would be pumping (or at least it should be) and if I’m concentrating on getting a reticule in position to fire rather than instinctively pointing and shooting in desperation, then that game just isn’t gonna put any fright into me.

What would solve everyone’s problems? A Firmware update to Wii that will allow you to connect a restyled Wiimote with GC3 style sensors. One that adds on to itself the accuracy of the GunCon3 while retaining it’s other capabilities. So putting the Wiimote into the Marksman Gun Accessory would become worthwhile to use for the larger screen TVs. Add a menu into the Wii that’s specific for Wiimote2 (let’s call it) calibration. You can set it to act in default mode so it responds no different than a regular Wiimote, or you could actually set your screen size and do a TC4-style Calibration.

And when would be a good time to do this? Financial analysts suspect Nintendo could be completely ready for a new console release for Christmas of 2009. But with the continuing popularity of the Wii, why would Nintendo bother until closer to 2012? The answer is simple. A Wii with 3D hardware HD Upconversion and added 720p, 1080i/p support for new games. ATI has 3D hardware in development that could increase the polygons on low-poly models, and advanced texture filtering could improve the look of model textures enough to the point where all current Wii games could almost look like new in true 1080p HD. And new games can be developed to be Wii AND Wii-HD compatible, simply by taking extra advantage of the ATI super-polygon technology and by adding in an extra set of high resolution textures (or even models also) only to be used on the HD Wii. Nintendo’s backwards compatibility is the leader right now, and they already have the tools to express that and beyond.

I’ve submitted this idea to Nintendo, in fact I’ve submitted it a year ago. Whether it actually makes it to the right people is unlikely, but what else could I do? The point though is it is the obvious solution and I think it’s likely Nintendo planned on this anyways. I’ve also recentely seen posts by others surface in the past several months that seem to be on somewhat nearly the same page as myself in these hopes.

Mathematically it is impossible for the Wii to determine the distance that a WiiMote is from the sensor bar while only using two IR sources unless you are holding the WiiMote exactly perpendicular to the sensor bar. Using your draw on paper strategy, you should be able to see that perspective becomes an issue when you only have two IR sources. Anyways, I just wanted to add that the WiiMote is capable of detecting up to four IR sources simultaneously, a capability that Nintendo does not yet use, but easily could by releasing a new sensor bar. Also, if the sensor bar included arbitration technology, at a possible sacrifice of response time, you can technically have as many IR sources as you want. There are people doing research with the WiiMote that use more than two IR sources to achieve the detection of tilt and distance.