RenEvo

DCOM Productions has released a new version of the Visual Studio Launcher.

Release 1.5 is finally here after many internal code changes, feature additions, testing and builds. The new version features include a fully automated update process that will keep your application up to date, as well as the ability to add process and file shortcuts to your developer menu. The settings screen has been redesigned to match the Visual Studio options screen format, and has had some new options added.
As always, you can grab the new version from our downloads page, or via direct link here.

This is a great program that I personally use quite often, not to mention I am one of the supporting developers on the project.

Well I got the picture, you guys don’t like advertisements, if you want to see the picture, below is a screenshot from analytics.

Pretty clear?

Well, the first Wiisis event finally finished.  Here is a quick run down of the small 6 person event.

The event was hosted on a Lenovo ThinkPad T60 laptop connected to a 52” Plasma w/o a IR Sensor, a mistake I wish I didn’t make. After a few game issues with Crysis running in mirrored mode for the presentation, I had to delete my profile (which was a clean install anyway, only tested it a few times) after that, it worked out great.

Papa John’s provided our pre-play testing, two large pizza’s and bread sticks.  I went over the Wii Remote technology, as well as using the WRLib Sandbox Tool to display the functionality of the remote with the nun-chuck.  I even had one person stand on the other side of the room holding up two lighters so they could understand how the IR sensors actually worked in the Wii Remote.

We hopped in game and started a new single player campaign, I didn’t show them anything and handed controls off to one of the attendees.  Right away, he picked up the movement and controls, the rolling left and right for turning was a bit awkward without the IR Sensor, but it was doable. After a bit of time everyone in the room played through parts of the first mission, ending around the first village, a few lessons were learned during the event, and will change some minor functionality for Wiisis to make it more enjoyable.

1. The pickup and throw are a pain in the ass, between three of us, we just couldn’t get the hang of this gesture.  I am going to add an option in Wiisis that will allow you to use the A button to pickup and throw objects, similar to Resident Evil 4’s “Use” button functionality.

2. Playing the game without a sensor bar really hurts your wrists, the constant turning back and forth during a fire fight kind of put an ache in my already carpel tunnel wrist, I think a disclaimer should be added to Wiisis that states the game play experience without an IR sensor is not recommended for those with wrist problems.

These changes will be rolled out in a Wiisis 1.2.1.1 version and will be released before the next major version of Wiisis, which is now planned to have basic head tracking support for single point reference, where as zoom in and out feature will probably come a bit later, if at all.

This was a great experience, and really was a lot of fun.  I may plan for a more public version of this Wiisis demonstration later, but I will definitely need some sponsors for that one.