3Di Viewer “Rei” provides a great flexibility when it comes to adding custom functionality to the core viewer by making it possible to create binary plugins. Just drop these binaries into the Rei folder and let the viewer find and load it automatically the next time it starts. While these plugins are still in their early phase - we can do a lot more to ease the process of deploying plugins and resolving their dependencies - you can get a glimpse at their power already.
The WiiControllerPlugin is a fun project, a proof-of-concept, rather than a commercial solution, so before you dive in, be warned, that it is sometimes rough around the edges. With that out of the way, if you have Rei, head over to http://github.com/zaki/ReiWiiControllerPlugin and grab the binary from the Download section. Just copy the contents into the Rei installation folder (usually C:Program Files3DiRei). And… that’s basically it.
To use a Wiimote, you will need a Wiimote, a nunchuck and a bluetooth adapter. I’ve heard that Toshiba adapters works best, but I have used Broadcomm’s chips successfully as well. It is said that the Microsoft stack doesn’t work most of the time with the Wiimote.
Before you start the viewer, connect/pair the Wiimote via bluetooth. If you find it difficult to connect, I found that keeping (1) and (2) pressed simultaneously while connecting helps a lot.
Once the Wiimote is connected, start Rei and if everything goes well, the primary Wiimote will have its first LED turned on. You are now ready.
The WiiControllerPlugin allows you to use the Wiimote and the nunchuck to control your avatar and the camera. The nunchuck’s joystick, or the directional controller on the wiimote can be used to make you avatar walk. Up will always make your avatar walk forward, regardless of the position of the camera.
The camera is controlled with a combination of the wiimote and the nunchuck. Zoom in and out by holding down (Z) and tilting the nunchuck forward and backward. Hold the wiimote straight up; while you press (B), you can tilt the wiimote in four directions to rotate the camera around your avatar. Remember, you don’t have to look away from the screen to change the camera angle.
If you get lost with the camera, you can always press (C) to go back to behind your avatar. Pressing (C) also switches to “follow” mode, so your camera will “stick” to your avatar and will follow it from behind if you move. Pressing (C) another time will switch back to the free camera mode.
If you get tired of moving with the wiimote and want to switch back to using the keyboard or mouse, you can disable avatar movements by pressing (-). Your wiimote’s will light the third LED when it’s disabled. Press (-) again to enable moving by the wii controller.
The video above contains a very dull maze, in which there are colored balls that hurt or heal you when you touch them (I’ve never said I was a great contents designer, have I :)) The demo shows how easy it is to integrate custom features with an unmodified OpenSim grid. All that was used is simple LSL script that detects collisions and gives commands via llSay. These commands can be intercepted by javascript and further dispatched to all plugins, that can act accordingly. In this case a simple health bar is adjusted.
As my LSL was sending plaintext commands like “heal,20”, the necessary javascript looks really simple:
function DispatchCommand(message)
{
var strList = new Array();
strList = message.split(",");
if (strList.length == 2)
{
ctrl.Callback(strList[0], strList[1]);
}
}If you have a question, or have a good idea about plugins, or the WiiControllerPlugin, please share it in the comments.
Please note: WiiControllerPlugin is not endorsed by Nintendo. WiiControllerPlugin depends on WiiMoteLib, which is release under the license MS-PL. For more details, see http://wiimotelib.codeplex.com/