A general question about bluetooth passthrough

Silent Hell · 08-28-2019, 12:48 PM #1

Is there any particular reason why, when using bluetooth passthrough, that it is required to reconnect the wiimote when returning to the Wii menu or launching titles from the menu? Why does this occur? I was just curious.

**mbc07** · 08-28-2019, 01:14 PM #2

Because that's how it works on a real console too...

Silent Hell · (This post was last modified: 08-28-2019, 01:57 PM by Silent Hell.)

The Wii shuts down the Wiimote when you return to the Wii menu or launching a game from the Wii menu? It never did that on my Wii. I'm sorry if my question was not clear.

Let's say for example, I launch the Wii Shop Channel from system menu on dolphin, the wiimote disconnects and I need to press buttons to get it to reconnect. On a Wii it stays on the whole time. This is what I was curious about as I haven't seen anything regarding it on the wiki or the BT passthrough article.

**JosJuice** · (This post was last modified: 08-28-2019, 10:06 PM by JosJuice.)

(08-28-2019, 01:56 PM)Silent Hell Wrote: The Wii shuts down the Wiimote when you return to the Wii menu or launching a game from the Wii menu? It never did that on my Wii. I'm sorry if my question was not clear.

It does disconnect on a real Wii, technically. But then it reconnects automatically, which doesn't seem to be happening in your case.

**mbc07** · 08-28-2019, 06:59 PM #5

(08-28-2019, 01:56 PM)Silent Hell Wrote: Let's say for example, I launch the Wii Shop Channel from system menu on dolphin, the wiimote disconnects and I need to press buttons to get it to reconnect. On a Wii it stays on the whole time.

That's weird. I clearly recall the console having the same behavior from Dolphin in BT Passthrough mode: wiimotes getting disconnected when launching something or returning to the Wii Menu but then quickly reconnecting once a button was pressed...

Silent Hell · 08-29-2019, 10:25 AM #6

No, I never had to do this on a console. Is this something that can even be fixed or just the facts of how emulation works?

**mbc07** · 08-29-2019, 10:59 AM #7

Given that in BT Passthrough mode Dolphin let the emulated game communicate directly with the BT Adapter, with no intervention, no. That's just how it works, hence why I find very strange you're seeing different behavior on your Wii...

Silent Hell · 08-29-2019, 11:22 AM #8

I've never played on a Wii where returning to the system menu disconnected the wiimote. I understand that it may possibly do that on a real wii, but JosJuice did say it reconnects automatically. So if Dolphin really has direct control over the adapter what is preventing the reconnect?

**mbc07** · (This post was last modified: 08-29-2019, 05:13 PM by mbc07.)

(08-29-2019, 11:22 AM)Silent Hell Wrote: So if Dolphin really has direct control over the adapter what is preventing the reconnect?

Like I said, it doesn't. On BT Passthrough mode it's the emulated game who is communicating directly with the physical BT Adapter on your PC, just like it would communicate directly with the physical BT Adapter of the Wii if the game were running on a real console. In other words, Dolphin is just the middle man forwarding data from/to the game to/from the BT Adapter when you enable BT Passthrough mode.

If you want Dolphin to handle the Wiimote communication by itself, at the cost of slightly worse latency and possibly broken features (e.g. Wiimote Audio if you have a non-TR model), then choose "Emulate a BT Adapter" instead of "BT Passthrough" on the Controller settings. On this mode the only scenarios where the Wiimotes would disconnect is if you did it manually or after 10 or 15 minutes of no activity (the exact time interval seems to vary depending of the game)...

Edit: which BT Adapter are you using with BT Passthrough, specifically? It just came to my mind that perhaps you're using an adapter which doesn't remember pairings and thus your Wiimotes doesn't automatically reconnect upon pressing a button after launching a game / returning to Wii Menu. That's the only thing I can think of, as this is the exact same behavior on a real Wii...

peachey777

(08-29-2019, 11:22 AM)Silent Hell Wrote: I've never played on a Wii where returning to the system menu disconnected the wiimote. I understand that it may possibly do that on a real wii, but JosJuice did say it reconnects automatically. So if Dolphin really has direct control over the adapter what is preventing the reconnect?

The Wii does indeed really do this, you probably just never noticed it because the reconnect happens before there's even anything ready on the screen.. or maybe this was changed in later Wii consoles. Either way, here's a video of it happening on my Wii: https://streamable.com/42vzt

As for it not reconnecting on it's own, as mbc07 said it could be the model you have, some of them forget their pairings. Do you have to re-pair them again or do you just have to hit a button again and it will reconnect on it's own?