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Wii U Update adds Off TV play for Wii mode (but you can't use gamepad to control)

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PusherT

Junior Member
Been playing Madworld the last few days on the gamepad, I can actually tolerate the visual now on the gamepad where as on the television it was streatcee and jaggy. The game is really good glad I decided to buy it.
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
PotionBleue said:
No, that's the problem. The Wii gave all control to the game as soon as it was launched, even the HOME menu is actually built into games. That's why no Wii game was ever patched - be sure if it was possible, Nintendo would've fixed the glitches in Mario Kart Wii like they did on the 3DS with Mario Kart 7.

Skyward Sword's “patch” is just a channel that you have to boot and that edited your game save, it wasn't a patch.
Click to expand...

wasn't one of the call of duty games patched? although if it was I assume they designed it specially to be patchable
 
Q

qko

Member
sfried said:
Nah, you can't emulate pointer commands, not even with the touchscreen (remember that different games have peculiar aspect ratios and resolutions, like the games just mentioned trying out). It would laso be very impractical to make the GamePad act like a gigantic Wii Remote...considering the screen that you'll be using is the GamePad's.
Click to expand...


Would be wonderful if the touchscreen acted as the pointer. But I'd be happy if they would only allow Wii games with CC support be the only games allowed to be played with the gamepad. WarioWare, Wii Sports and Skyward Sword would not be as fun without the motion controls.
 
L

Ludist210

Member
qko said:
Would be wonderful if the touchscreen acted as the pointer. But I'd be happy if they would only allow Wii games with CC support be the only games allowed to be played with the gamepad. WarioWare, Wii Sports and Skyward Sword would not be as fun without the motion controls.
Click to expand...
This completely. I was playing Rune Factory Frontier last night Off-TV. While it worked just fine with the CCPro, I was wishing I could play it using the Gamepad.

Regardless, I'm glad the feature was added. My wife and I only have one TV, and I don't like to hog it playing games when she's awake (or I can take the Gamepad into the bedroom and play). This opens up my whole Wii library for playing, which is something like...90ish games (including WiiWare and VC games not yet on Wii U's Virtual Console).
 
A

AndrewPL

Member
I tried it last night, I was playing twilight princess and found it a little to hard to see and that the pointer sensor got confused a number of times. (was at the water temple and swimming was a pain)

I was hoping for this mainly for playing in bed (which doesn't work as you can't get to the wii menu without the TV..wtf?)

I'm sure it would work better for a game that only required the classic controller.

I think a better solution to my problem may be to just use an HDMI cable to DVI convertor and use a 21inch monitor I have lying around. I can also use a wii AV cable to hook up the sound to some speakers!
 
E

ElectricKaibutsu

Member
I wonder how difficult it would be to release patches for specific Wii games to be played in Wii U mode. I'd even pay 2$ or so if they came with some added features. While I'm dreaming, how about they rerender them Dolphin style up to 720p or higher?
 
S

sfried

Member
The Real Abed said:
Yeah, but in certain games that only have Wiimote cursor features for no particular reason except as a gimmick (Or second player feature) like Galaxy which only uses it for collecting starbits out of reach, it wouldn't be a problem. They could even release patches for those games to either remove the need for that ability, couldn't they? Maybe not. Or maybe. I dunno. Wii games can be patched, right? Would be a nice dream. Even if they only patched a handful of games like Galaxy 1+2 and Twilight Princess (Skyward Sword would probably be a problem because of the Motion+ swordplay.) I'd be happy.

But whatever.
Click to expand...
Wii games aren't really patchable (there are work arounds, yes, but very few), and if they modify they Wii OS it could break compatibility.

A Wii Remote is required to operate the Wii OS/system by its very nature, hence the need to pair a Wii Remote to the system is needed before playing.
qko said:
Would be wonderful if the touchscreen acted as the pointer. But I'd be happy if they would only allow Wii games with CC support be the only games allowed to be played with the gamepad. WarioWare, Wii Sports and Skyward Sword would not be as fun without the motion controls.
Click to expand...
While theoretically they could make a touchscreen "translator" that would work, bear in mind not every game is displayed at 854 x 480 (some games like Rune Factory Frontier/Tides of Destiny have a different horizontal display, and lets not forget the 4:3 games), and thus would screw up the 1:1 touchscreen approximation.

You also have to keep in mind pointing vs. "clicking": A swipe on the touchscreen is generally considered already "dragging" (i.e. holding A on the Wii Remote wile moving the cursor), so it would still have to be reprogrammed in some way.
 
J

JavyOO7

Member
I think its a great feature to play Wii games on the gamepad, or at least have them viewable on the gamepad and television. I won't lie when I say that I'm but bummed out that I can't play Wii games with just the Gamepad. ):

That said, when I arrive home later tonight, I'm going to play myself some Ace Attorney 3 and see how it looks on the gamepad. =p
 
S

sfried

Member
lednerg said:
Did people really use the classic controller for Wii games all that often? So much so that this is a big deal?
Click to expand...
It's one of the most comfortable controllers ever, topped only by the Wii U Classic Controller. Its Control Pad is one of the best too.
 
S

sfried

Member
ElectricKaibutsu said:
I wonder how difficult it would be to release patches for specific Wii games to be played in Wii U mode. I'd even pay 2$ or so if they came with some added features. While I'm dreaming, how about they rerender them Dolphin style up to 720p or higher?
Click to expand...
That would mean having to release a new firmware for the Wii itself, as only then could they create a patching system, much less create separate firmware recognition that would allow higher order Wii U instructions to be passed down to the Wii OS.
 
S

Sharkz1

Neo Member
Stupid question time.
Do I need to go to settings to let me use my Gamepad as a TV or does it let you do it automatically? Because I cannot figure out how to do it for the life of me.

Edit: Figured it out. You just have to turn the Gamepad back on after you go to the Wii menu.
 
E

Eric C

Member
OK finally tried this out today.

It's not nearly as terrible to use in Wii mode as I thought it'd be.

Lying down, after a bit of trial and error, I've found a pillow that perfectly holds the GamePad in the correct position for me.

Sitting down, if I'm using the Classic Controller Pro, since I have to keep the Wiimote nearby anyway, I just place the WiiMote under the GamePad on my lap and it angles the GamePad perfectly for me.

So yeah I think I might actually use this feature sometimes now.
 
L

Lumpy Onion

Member
FF VI (III) is looking mighty nice on game pad screen with headphones on. I think I will end up using this feature after all. I imagine some Wii stuff will look nicer on the pad than my HDTV.
 
S

Sharkz1

Neo Member
DR2K said:
Not sure why Wiiu didn't allow you to customize controls like Vita does with Psp games.
Click to expand...

Well you can on VC games. I do this every time because I'm used to A being the bottom button thanks to the 360 controllers. Having the right button as A really throws me off sometimes.
 
M

Mondriaan

Member
Did anyone mention that they made miiverse slower? What's the deal with the globe and the clock?

I didn't open up miiverse to check what time it is.
 
S

sfried

Member
Mondriaan said:
Did anyone mention that they made miiverse slower? What's the deal with the globe and the clock?

I didn't open up miiverse to check what time it is.
Click to expand...
I don't think MiiVerse is slower. In fact, I only see the globe and clock for a few seconds before it disappears and is replaced with the MiiVerse posts, compared to how long I see the circle loading screen on the previous firmware update.
 
A

AzaK

Member
sfried said:
I don't think MiiVerse is slower. In fact, I only see the globe and clock for a few seconds before it disappears and is replaced with the MiiVerse posts, compared to how long I see the circle loading screen on the previous firmware update.
Click to expand...

Thing is, all the switching and navigating when in Mii Verse (and the eShop) is insanely slow. It really should be almost instantaneous but it's far from that.
 
K

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Miiverse and the eShop are basically websites I thought. Given how slow Nintendo's network is for data throughput, the problem killing their performance at times may be backbone related rather than the OS on the system.

There are times when Miiverse is really responsive and when it loads nearly instantly. A lot of other times it's very slow.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
UncleSporky said:
Actually there shouldn't be any AA. The pad is 480p, just like the Wii outputs. It's as jaggy as ever. :p Smaller screen makes it less noticeable, though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. In a technical sense no AA is applied. I don't notice the jaggies on the Gamepad screen though, which is awesome. Imo the games really do look better.
 
V

Vinnk

Member
Ok. Maybe a stupid question but I can't figure it out. I want to play Wii game in my bedroom which has no TV. I paired a wiimote to the WiiU but it doesn't work as a pointer in WiiU mode unless I have it hooked up to the TV. I click to switch to Wii mode and it tells me I have to point the Wiimote at the TV to do so.

Can I actually use this without a TV? The signal from my living room is not strong enought to get to the bedroom. So I just moved the console to my bedroom and have been playing WiiU games off TV.

Can I actually do off TV Wii games? I know the gamepad had a sensor bar but I can't even get to Wii mode without the TV. I feel I am missing some key detail. Again, sorry for the stupid question.
 
D

diaspora

Member
They updated the system to make the controller the display but people are shocked they didn't... reprogram the games themselves to use the pad? What?
 
E

ElectricKaibutsu

Member
sfried said:
That would mean having to release a new firmware for the Wii itself, as only then could they create a patching system, much less create separate firmware recognition that would allow higher order Wii U instructions to be passed down to the Wii OS.
Click to expand...
I mean, outside of Wii mode. Just in normal Wii U mode.
 
D

DoubleTap

Member
I think I'm more pleased with the correct and improved (?) video output in Wii mode more than the Off-TV addition. VC games especially have never looked better on my TV. Glad I made the transfer.
 
E

Eric C

Member
Vinnk said:
Ok. Maybe a stupid question but I can't figure it out. I want to play Wii game in my bedroom which has no TV. I paired a wiimote to the WiiU but it doesn't work as a pointer in WiiU mode unless I have it hooked up to the TV. I click to switch to Wii mode and it tells me I have to point the Wiimote at the TV to do so.

Can I actually use this without a TV? The signal from my living room is not strong enought to get to the bedroom. So I just moved the console to my bedroom and have been playing WiiU games off TV.

Can I actually do off TV Wii games? I know the gamepad had a sensor bar but I can't even get to Wii mode without the TV. I feel I am missing some key detail. Again, sorry for the stupid question.
Click to expand...

Just hold down the B button while powering on the Wii U and it'll boot directly into Wii mode.

I've only had to do that once with the WiiMote, pointing the WiiMote at my TV screen to enter Wii mode, before I did that once even holding the B button didn't work. Now I can just hold the B button down while powering on the Wii U and it boots straight into Wii mode without needing to point the WiiMote at the TV screen.
 
T

tchaten

Neo Member
I used this last night to use Wii Fit while watching TV - simply fantastic - Can't wait for a version of Wii Fit that is optimized for Off TV use.

Also am using it in bed quite a bit to play some of my favorite Wii games - it was awkward to do this until I found a fantastic solution for holding the GamePad see the Instagram post for what I came up with - http://instagram.com/p/e8r-UsEo0C/
 
V

Vinnk

Member
Eric C said:
Just hold down the B button while powering on the Wii U and it'll boot directly into Wii mode.

I've only had to do that once with the WiiMote, pointing the WiiMote at my TV screen to enter Wii mode, before I did that once even holding the B button didn't work. Now I can just hold the B button down while powering on the Wii U and it boots straight into Wii mode without needing to point the WiiMote at the TV screen.
Click to expand...

Tried it.

The message I get says:

The Wii Menu could not be opened.

Select Try Again on the TV
The WiiU screen will need to be displayed on the TV until the Wii Menu opens.

Quit. Try Again
 
B

Bony Manifesto

Member
diaspora said:
They updated the system to make the controller the display but people are shocked they didn't... reprogram the games themselves to use the pad? What?
Click to expand...

I'm shocked that Nintendo hard-coded controls into each individual game instead of having the Wii's OS handle it in a simplified, global manner. Well, I'm not that shocked - this is Nintendo we're talking about here!
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
Bony Manifesto said:
I'm shocked that Nintendo hard-coded controls into each individual game instead of having the Wii's OS handle it in a simplified, global manner. Well, I'm not that shocked - this is Nintendo we're talking about here!
Click to expand...

apart from a security system (with more holes than emental cheese) wii games didn't actually run on any kind of OS
 
B

Bony Manifesto

Member
frankie_baby said:
apart from a security system (with more holes than emental cheese) wii games didn't actually run on any kind of OS
Click to expand...

So every game is a self-contained executable that runs directly on the bare metal? No wonder they were so comprehensively hacked so soon! Jesus, and this was a console that launched in 2006?
 
G

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
Did anyone really ask for this feature?

It would have been better if Nintendo enabled backwards compatibility with Gamecube and allowed off screen play with that using the Wii U gamepad. That would make me seriously consider buying a Wii U.
 
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