Sensor Bar Position seems to be ignored

03-01-2020, 01:31 AM #1

I'm trying to use my Wii motion-plus controller with Dolphin to play Metroid Prime Trilogy and the first thing that I noticed is that I have to point directly at the sensor bar to get the cursor to be in the center of the screen. My sensor bar is about 1 inch below the screen and the "Sensor Bar Position" setting is set to "Bottom". As a troubleshooting step, I tried switching the setting from "Bottom" to "Top" (while leaving my sensor bar in the same place) and what I noticed is that this setting has no discernible effect on the cursor position. Pointing directly at the sensor bar still results in the cursor being placed in the center of the screen. What I would expect is for the "Sensor Bar Position" setting to provide either a positive or negative vertical offset for the cursor depending on which setting is selected. As it is right now, that does not appear to be the case. While it is still possible to play the game like this, it is a bit of a disappointing experience for a game that requires a lot of aiming.

While searching around for information on this issue, I stumbled upon this old bug report from 9 years ago which has been marked as "Invalid": https://bugs.dolphin-emu.org/issues/2881. The person who opened that bug report claims they solved the issue by using a different sensor bar. However, money is a little tight for me right now and I cannot afford any extraneous purchases. I also do not see how the sensor bar itself could be the cause of the issue based on my understanding of how this technology works. The sensor bar itself does not do anything except emit IR light, right? The cursor offset based on the "Sensor Bar Position" setting is all handled by Dolphin and not the sensor bar as far as I know.

**Billiard26** · 03-01-2020, 02:09 AM #2

Changing the "Sensor Bar Position" sets a value in the Wii's system configuration.
Many games do apply a vertical offset to the pointer based on this setting.

"Metroid Prime: Trilogy" is unusual in that it does NOT seem to apply any vertical offset.
For this reason pointing directly at sensor bar is considered the center of the screen.
This is how the game is made and how it plays on the real Wii.

If you don't care for this you have the option of emulating a Wii remote. You can even do this with real Wii remote data and apply your own vertical offset to the sensor bar data to compensate.
I suggest enabling the "Connect Wii Remotes for Emulated Controllers" setting.
Have fun.