Sunlight: Wii's biggest foe [update 1]

Depending on how much sunlight is needed to cause a problem and the extent to the problem it causes this could be a huge problem. As someone said before, many young gamers use the "family" TV to play their gaming consoles which are usually in well-lit rooms. I don't think little Timmy's mom is going to buy blackout curtains so he can play his Wii.

OMG! THE SUN IS BIASED AGAINST NINTENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

The sun is hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on Earth there'd be no life
Without the light it gives

We need its light, we need its heat
We need its energy
Without the sun, without a doubt
There'd be no you and me

The sun is hot...

It is so hot that everything on it is a gas Iron, copper, aluminum, and many others.

The sun is large...

If the sun were hollow, a million Earths would fit inside And yet, the sun is only a middle size star.

The sun is far away...

About 93 million miles away, and that's why it looks so small.

And even when it's out of sight, the sun shines night and day

The sun gives heat, the sun gives light
The sunlight that we see
The sun light comes from our own sun's
Atomic energy

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom smashing machine. The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and helium.

Dang, guess I can't get one now, I live on the sun and it's kinda hard to hide from that blasted yellow light :(

"50. OMG! THE SUN IS BIASED AGAINST NINTENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11"

Chris...you deserve a third star for that. xD

That's weird. This didn't seem like it was a problem when hundreds were playing the Wii on the Nintendo World Store's 90% NATURAL LIGHT SECOND STORY.

Exactly, while it would be in a well-lit room, many conditions have to come together

1. you have to have the sensor bar facing a window through which the sun directly shines (thus it has to be a window facing due east or due west) and even then, it would be only during certain hours

2. And even more obscure than that, it would only be certain hours changing at different times of the year

3. And if this remains a problem, you can bet your ass it will be well publicized as in there will be warning labels from here to this side of hell, it will suck, but its not a deal breaker

I hope that sunlight doesn't cause problems for Wii owners as I think Wii deserves to be problem free.

Innovation always deserves happiness.

----- Mii need Wii -----

"Wow how pathetic that the Hardcore nintendo fanboys can sugar coat this..."

You do realize that you are one of the few people who have posted here that is a "hardcore fanboy", right?

Sony fanboys will start brining this up to anyone that is not deaf. I can play PS3 games in the sun and I have to admit it's freakin awesome to play with a couple glare spots here and there!

"FUNNY HOW EVERYONE LIKES TO JOKE WHEN NINTENO SCREWS SOMETHING UP, IF SONY DID THIS I WOULD NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT."

Funny how it seems to matter.

I'm hoping that this doesn't cause too much of an issue, seeing as unlike most members of my family, I actually enjoy a bit of light from time to time.

#48

YOU would never hear the end of it? You make it sound like you have something to do with the PS3. Like you have some vested interest...and no, being a 13 year old fanboy doesn't count.

#49

I agree...the gating factor to whether or not this is a real problem is dependant upon the amount of light needed to make the IR sensing fail. That being said....this is the first we are hearing of the issue and seeing as how the Nintendo Store has ginormous 2-story tall windows, this will probably be a non-issue for the vast majority of people.

Skylights, huge bay windows and whatnot aren't probably that much of a factor here when we're talking about someone's home because many people have already pointed out that....no one would place their TV in a location where a lot of light shined on it all day. If they had no choice but to place it in such a spot, they'd get curtains....if they didn't get curtains, then its because they only use their TV at night...and if they only use their TV at night, then.....


Its called logic folks.....give it a try. Don't be like.....every woman in the history of the world. ;)

blackmoon: "Shouldn't be to much of a problem for most people, still pretty limiting at gay though."

... Am I the only one wondering what drug(s) you are on?

#56: As you should know, this was in the CITY. And in cities, there are lots of BUILDINGS. From a specific hour to another hour the sun peeked out from behind the buildings and shone directly into the store. After said amount of time, the sun went out of view again.

The sunlight hindered only the Wii Sports Tennis and the Shooting Demo units. After an hour or two, it was up and running again.

Wow, with all this good news for PS3, and all this bad news for the Wii today, I think the tides are starting to turn. This reminds me of a similar launch, 5 or 6 years ago. hmmmm.

"46. Hmmm. How does that IR bar for the Wiimote compare to the rig for the old Power Glove, size and shape-wise? And is this an additional part that's put on top of the TV, or build into the main Wii unit?

Posted at 6:09PM on Oct 9th 2006 by Vulpis"

Based on the pics I've seen of the Power Glove's IR bar, I'd say the Wii Sensor bar is about 1/10 - 1/6 the overall size. The bar can be seen in numerous official photos... such as this one: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/aussie-nintendo/Wii_sensorbar3_0501.jpg

It is placed on top or below the TV. It has a 3 meter cable that plugs into the back of the Wii.

And GoNintendo is reporting that sunlight is only an issue for non-finalized hardware.

http://gonintendo.com/?p=6563

If the Wii-Mote senses IR light from the sensor bar (which is 12" long BTW) then it is possible that other light sources could affect it.

If setting up a Wii is akin to that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when he uses the crystal to find a map on th e floor than "casual gamers" are gonna skip this thing EN MASSE.

I'm sure no one will read this because there are like 50 comments saying the same dumb crap... the only people that might have an answer have moved on...

QUESTION!

Has anyone videotaped the sensor bar while it was active?
Infrared is visible to CCD based cameras.

It would be interesting to see a vidcap that shows the shape and angle of the various IR beams.

does the sun affect my tv remote... not really.

Once again, this is not an issue with the Wii but infrared in general. Hopefully Nintendo can take the necessary steps to reduce the problems. If you can't find a way to hide the sensor bar from the sun, that sucks. But I had to find a way to ventilate my 360 and it didn't ruin my fun.

For those that are interested:
"Also, infrared light is so ubiquitous that interference can be a problem with IR remotes. Just a few everyday infrared-light sources include sunlight, fluorescent bulbs and the human body. To avoid interference caused by other sources of infrared light, the infrared receiver on a TV only responds to a particular wavelength of infrared light, usually 980 nanometers. There are filters on the receiver that block out light at other wavelengths. Still, sunlight can confuse the receiver because it contains infrared light at the 980-nm wavelength. To address this issue, the light from an IR remote control is typically modulated to a frequency not present in sunlight, and the receiver only responds to 980-nm light modulated to that frequency. The system doesn't work perfectly, but it does cut down a great deal on interference."

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/remote-control2.htm

Will the Wii work with Plasma TV's ??

Because they often interfere with IR devices, Anyone see a Wii demoed on a plasma TV yet, What about projectors?

Wow, I needed a good laugh today. Between some very clever comments posted in this thread and the picture chosen for this post (dunno why, but the Mario Sun is what did it for me), I was laughing quite a bit. ^_^ Kudos to Joystiq and its readers.

"Shooting game"? You have to be fucking kidding me! Sounds like Nintendo pissed all their creativity designing the controller. :/

http://wii.nintendo.com/iwata_asks_vol2_p3.html

Ikeda: In the early stages of development we ran into a number of problems that we hadn't anticipated, like the fact that the controller would react to fluorescent light, for example. Creating a mechanism that prevents the controller from responding to fluorescent light and sunlight may sound like low-profile activities, but it still gave us a lot to work on.

keyword: early stages. omg, lets make a new console, i expect you to have it up and running compleately bug free within 2 days! at least they fixed stuff before release. unlike some other consoles on release day.

Nintendo wouldn't ship the damn thing if it was a crippling issue. Have faith. Fanboys, shut up, both sides.

It's a NINTENDO system. I look for it to work after having my house used for target practice by a MOAB. I doubt in the final builds we'll hear little if any of this 'issue."

i dont play with sunlight directly into my tv so that will be no prob anyway if its very btight outside i just place something afront of the winodw

#50 tom
er..the sun also apparently fucks with the Wii

The only people making hay about this are the few pathetic fanboys that Sony has left. What else do you expect when 99% of the PS3 news coming out has been negative?

I guess about all this means is that the Eye of Sauron will not be playing the Wii.

Any serious gamer, as long as it is feasible, makes every attempt to severly limit or eliminate all light sources whenever they are playing a game.

And, if you take the time to actually read the reports, you'll see that this is something that occurs only when the IR bar is washed out in direct, and very bright sunlight. Anyone who games in such conditions doesnt know what the hell they're doing anyway.

As long as you seriusly dont bring your tv outside qith ur wii right where the light is hitting it, I dont belive this will be a problem at all. And who will do that. Even with a portable system, like the psp and ds, would be a pain in the ass to play in direct sunlight, and those are portable systems made for gamers on the go. And still sunlight affects those as well. So this whole light thing, just think of it as common sense, can you see directly at the sun if you stare it at it, no. So same thing with the wii. Just place your wii on the side of the tv, or under you tv in a cabinet, it wont matter at all.

Honestly, now. How many of you actually play in direct sunlight? Or do anything in direct sunlight for the better part of your day? So, really, this really shouldn't be counted as a fault against the Wii.

Doesn't matter, I'm not going to be using that silly flail-my-arm-in-the-air controller anyways.

Good thing I'm nocturnal :P