Wii devs get new tool

AiLive's LiveMove software allows programmers to teach the console to recognize gestures by example.

In designing games around the Nintendo Wii's novel motion-sensing controller, developers are facing their own set of equally novel challenges, not the least of which is getting the system to recognize what motions the player is making.

"Just to get that gesture recognition working is nontrivial because people throw different ways," EA Canada head John Schappert told GameSpot back in June when the company announced Madden for the Wii. "It's easy to say, 'you just gesture a throw,' but there are so many different [types of] throws."

Though Schappert said his team devised a solution, help is on the way for developers only now encountering that problem. Nintendo and artificial intelligence tech firm AiLive today began offering LiveMove, a Wii development tool that allows programmers to "teach" the system gestures. For example, to program a gesture for a throw in a football game, the developers would simply need to hold the Wii controller and perform the throw motion several times.

LiveMove is being made available to Wii developers for $2,500. For more information, including a video demo of the process, check out the AiLive Web site.

115 Comments

  • JIMMYLONGLEGS

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 8:46 am PT

    Sounds very good, cant wait to see it in action

  • Beymaster1

    Posted Oct 16, 2006 12:26 am PT

    great this will help the wii mote a lot

  • C0ldasICE

    Posted Oct 15, 2006 10:30 am PT

    SWEET !!!

  • eric2mrng

    Posted Oct 15, 2006 3:20 am PT

    nice one nintendo

  • BulletProof007

    Posted Oct 14, 2006 12:47 pm PT

    I think this will also help smaller dev teams to bring thier creations to life.
    More games, quicker development , better game play equals happy gamers. This is a win win for everyone.

  • Xelioth1

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 11:01 pm PT

    oh that's good. that was one of my biggest concerns about the wii. good to know that help is being provided.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 10:32 pm PT

    sounds cool

  • pathock3

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 5:27 pm PT

    finally! a good idea to make wii really work.

  • Kbs64

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 3:43 pm PT

    This could be a great thing if the kit actually works as good as they say. It makes sense to know that not everyone does the same hand motion as everyone else.

  • PiMacleod_basic

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 2:10 pm PT

    cool. sounds like a common-sense program, really. Hope they all buy it and use it for all games.

  • GrimBee

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 1:46 pm PT

    I hope the arctic monkeys dont go into game developing, stick with indie music guys lol.

    Anyways, wii, even though less powerful.. will be VERY powerful.. I would imagine 2 times that of resident evil 4.. great stuff!

  • metalclay128

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 1:21 pm PT

    ahhaa, cool. now i wonder how devlopers for the ps3 feel having to encode all those different cores

    now with the wii you only need basic computer skill to get a game going wow. this is awesome. maybe some indie groups will develop games for the virtual console, might be the tool for the next geometry wars.

  • slasher2119

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 12:24 pm PT

    ive seen a video of this program in action. its actually so easy anyone with basic computer knowledge could make motions, assign them to actions and make it all to one cohesive game. this will in turn encourage development for the wii and lead to a ton of games coming tto the wii. after all whose gonna pay 500 thousand to 3 million dollars making a ps3 game when they could spend a fraction of that making a game for a system theyre already familar with, and yes theyre already familar with it because in an interview with the developer of brothers in arms for the wii (not officially announced yet as far as i know) he was quoted as saying "it's alot like a supercharged gamecube!" . the wii is gonna be larger than anyone knows

  • sentay0

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 12:20 pm PT

    Neat.

  • GrimBee

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 12:15 pm PT

    Holy crap! already some great news from the wii. This news means less dev time, more intuitive and fun controls and a more NATURAL experience.

    I think this is great, because if A HUMAN does the motions, then it should be easy for us to naturally immitate that.

    PLUS, as a more authentic experience, say a certain sports star has a certain way of throwing, or something (like golf or whatever). They can map this motion, and we have to literally BE their motion.

    Well.. i dunno.. but its just good news really.

  • BassForever2

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 11:41 am PT

    Nice, another plus for Nintendo.

  • ChitoKiryoku

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 11:31 am PT

    it's the easiest and simplest way to solve a programming problem like that, wasn't really expecting anything else

  • Slash_out

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 11:28 am PT

    jwallace
    Sounds great. Hopefully the tools themselves won't be mired by flaws.

    This tool may or may not necessarily mean double the support, but it would be nice if it does. My main worry now is that I may not be able to get a console on launch day!

    -------------------

    Don't forget who is doing it. It's Nintendo, not Sony or MS. I am not a fan of just one of those three giant (since I own an X360, PS2 and GC+ DS). But still I can say that Nintendo = quality. That is for sure.

  • SqueekyC1ean

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 11:19 am PT

    good stuff

  • XGustaX

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 10:51 am PT

    Wow sounds great. This should make games even better.

  • LordAndrew

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 10:43 am PT

    Good idea.

  • jwallace

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 10:38 am PT

    Sounds great. Hopefully the tools themselves won't be mired by flaws.

    This tool may or may not necessarily mean double the support, but it would be nice if it does. My main worry now is that I may not be able to get a console on launch day!

  • RahKayne

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 9:13 am PT

    thought they had this already.

  • aashkii

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 8:52 am PT

    Videogames are getting more and more frustrating to program these days, at least that's what I think.

  • gagan21

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 8:47 am PT

    Thats gr8 news , hurray

  • larsen6870

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 8:36 am PT

    oh great i have a torn rotator cuff in my shoulder, playing the wii is not gonna be good for my rehab. sounds like someone should have had this new tool a long time ago, well atleast they have it now.

  • Exodist

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 8:24 am PT

    Nice, this should make games even more better!

  • jmac777

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 7:11 am PT

    Easier Developement means more support...Hurray Nintendo

  • Gamepro2421

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 7:01 am PT

    very cool. Hopfully something like this will entice the more sceptical developers who are afrade of the potential trouble of devloping for such an inovative control scheme. keep it up nintendo!

  • MrPuzzlez

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 6:59 am PT

    Sweet, so there should be no more hesitation to make games for the Nintendo.

  • joestierman

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 6:48 am PT

    that sounds handy

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 6:28 am PT

    hahaha, will they do a street fighter II remake for Wii ? I always wanted to do a yoga flame!

  • Phazevariance

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 6:23 am PT

    Well, that's a good fix for a real programming challenge. I couldn't camp out for a console system...

  • DoomsdayForte

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 6:17 am PT

    It's by far a move that has no negative consequences that I can see, at least. And, it makes perfect sense too. An adult's throw or swing would be far drastically different than a child's. And when you factor in left-/right-handedness...

  • LordBraz

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 5:47 am PT

    they didn't already have this?

    p.s. people were friggin camped out for wii preorders

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 5:41 am PT

    cool.

  • paullywog

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 5:39 am PT

    Sounds good

  • Nintendus

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 5:14 am PT

    As long as i have quality games, i don't care, plus for Nintendo.

  • trylks

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 3:34 am PT

    ANN FTW!!

  • bigcrusha

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 3:23 am PT

    Some say Nintendo has gotten old and is gonna fall because its not as good as ps3 or xbox 360 but i pity them for they will miss out big time. This live motion feature is going to be an amazing add on!! This means more companies will definitely sign on to this project in the near future. This will surely make games more enjoyable. Nintendo continues to look more and more like rock-stars every day before launch date. That was smart not releasing info a few months back on the wii, it was obviously to build hype and curiosity near it's release. If anybody still believes Nintendo is gonna fall, I say "yeah right!!". Way to go Nintendo, keep doing what you do Nintendo and I shall follow!!!

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 1:40 am PT

    This means more time for developers to make games! And more games means more fun! Cool!

  • ftjx

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 12:54 am PT

    hmmm........sounds like trouble to me

  • AL13NK1LL3R

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 11:52 pm PT

    kool.. that means it saves game devolper time.. sweet.. lol

  • MasterAsh42

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 11:16 pm PT

    And the hits just keep on coming. . .Good job, Nintendo! (I'll forgo the obvious question of why this kit just now became available to developers. . .)

  • GoldenTiger2

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 10:53 pm PT

    Yep, at $2500 it's practically "free" for developers in the time and cost savings of improvising their own, possibly not as good, way of recognizing the gestures. Happier developers means more titles for the Wii of good quality, which means happier gamers, which means happier Nintendo with more sales, and happier developers again with more sales of their games. Then, the cycle starts anew =)!

  • vaejas

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 10:22 pm PT

    They're just telling us this to make $40 for a regular 'mote seem cheaper. But yes, why wouldn't a dev choose to use a device that "does the math"? This is what technology is for.

  • MoodyFlame

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 10:16 pm PT

    nice thing to do, finally, a reason for game developers to get even lazier...

  • slothboyck

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 10:01 pm PT

    from what I understand, the Wii dev kit is $2,500 and so is this new tech, making a total of $5,000. Aren't PS3 SDKs like almost $20,000? I don't remember the link, but I remember one of the great things about the Wii was that its SDK was extremely cheap compared to the competitors. Even with this tacked on it'll be much cheaper.

  • oddworld7

    Posted Oct 12, 2006 9:29 pm PT

    I'm going to get one of those just for kicks

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