Mayflash DolphinBar G-Sensor

[MediaMogul]

Hello Dolphin Community. First of all, I'd like to get my fanboy rantings out of the way. Dolphin truly is an amazing piece of work. In landscape crowded with emulators, there are only a handful of them that, in my opinion, manage to rise high above the rest. Alongside the likes of MAME, DOSBox, UAE and Daphne, Dolphin is nothing short of a masterwork of emulation right down to it's unique and varied peripheral integration. Well earned praise aside, it’s a certain Dolphin-centric peripheral that I am writing in question of today. That being the Mayflash DolphinBar. I have absolutely no problem connecting it to Dolphin, which I know is what these forums are specifically for. However, being that "Mode 4" of the device was specifically designed with Dolphin in mind and there are no official Mayflash support forums out there, this community really stands as the foremost authority of this device on the web. No other group of users has the experience that you guys do of real-world use of this device.

It's because of that fact that I bring you guys a question that I have seen go unanswered in a few other scattered places around the net. The question is; how would one go about enabling the G-Sensor function in "Mode 3" that would effectively translate it's output into standard USB-HID compliant gamepad input? This function is mentioned on every page that details the product at the Mayflash website and is fully referenced as an option for left Joystick input in the instructions. However, there is no mention on how to activate it. As a comparison, while in "Mode 3", we already know that the control scheme changes when a nunchuk is added. At that point the IR camera relays input that is perceived by the computer as the right joystick, the nunchuk thumbstick becomes the left joystick and the directional pad is then read as a hatswitch. The same can also be said when the classic controller is connected and the control scheme opens up to all of it’s varied controls. So the question is, what is the trigger that activates the G-Sensor? I’ve already tried adding the motion plus device, thinking that might enable it somehow, but it did not.

Once the G-Sensor can be read as a USB-HID control device, everything outside of Dolphin then becomes open to these controls. You could play “Rad Racer” with the Wii wheel through a NES emulator. You could play “Marble Madness” in MAME the same way you play “Super Monkey Ball” on the Wii. I know a lot of people gave up on anything other than “Mode 4” after reading some of the reviews that initially surfaced when the DolphinBar was first released, but what those reviews failed to mention was once those controls became USB-HID compliant, they became endlessly refine-able through simple and free computer software. For example, the spinning FPS problem can be solved perfectly by simply reducing the control sensitivity and standing at range, allowing any first-person shooter on a USB-enabled computer to be played with a gun controller as if on a Wii system. Yes, it will play Crysis, but will your computer?

The DolphinBar is amazing with the Dolphin emulator. It’s down-right perfect. Yet the full potential of the device is so much more. It’s so open to configuration, that it’s almost as if a fan designed it rather than a company. What I’m looking to do is to unlock that final piece that will allow for a Wii-like experience throughout every corner of my game library. I know I’ve written a lot here, but as you can tell, I’m very passionate about this kind of stuff. Once you play “Super Noah’s Ark” with gun controls and all the F-Zero games with the Wii wheel, some of you might be as well.

So I leave it to you guys. What might enable this feature on the DolphinBar. It’s simply referenced too many times by Mayflash not to exist, right?

[ExtremeDude2]

So is there no input at all when you attempt to move the wiimote around in mode 3?

[MediaMogul]

Standard controller input is read perfectly as a regular gamepad. It's even read perfectly in the same mode when a nunchuk is added and the IR camera becomes active as the right joystick. The G-Sensor probably works very well when it's activated, but there is no mention in the manual of how to activate it. Below is a shot of the manual entry that mentions the G-Sensor.

Also keep in mind that all the Mayflash marketing materials tell you that the "G-Sensor" mode is the best way to play racing games. I imagine that when active, the G-Sensor relays up, down, left and right motions similar to the control scheme found in Wii "Monkey Ball" titles as the left-hand joystick information to the computer. Mapping only the left and right G-Sensor output to F-Zero GX, for example, should also allow for a perfect Wii wheel control scheme.

[MediaMogul]

Judging by that image, whenever the G-Sensor is activated, it would appear as though the control pad ceases to be read as the Left joystick and becomes the hatswitch POV, while the G-Sensor is then read as the Left Joystick. The problem is that there is no mention of how to toggle between the two.