Wiimote Falling Asleep After Cutscenes.

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This issue has been around...probably forever. I just never noticed it until 
Sega CD support came along. 

After a minuet or two of not pressing any buttons, the Wiimote will shut off. 
This wasn't really an issue with Genesis games, because there mostly action 
based and require the controller to be constantly in use. However, Sega CD 
games are another story... 

For example. This is pretty annoying with games like Snatcher (especially if 
your using a classic controller) since often times there will be a long cut 
scene, in which the controller goes into sleep mode, then immediately 
afterwards there will be a shooting segment and the only way to wake up the 
controller is to quickly reach for the wiimote and press buttons(Classic 
Controller can't wake up the Wiimote). Of course, you can prevent the wiimote 
from falling asleep if you periodically press on the D-Pad as you watch the 
cut-scene, but that sort of detracts from the experience. 

What I'm wondering is, could you implement something into Genesis Plus GX to 
prevent this? I've never noticed any other emulator/Wii game have this issue, 
so it makes me think it should be possible.  

Original issue reported on code.google.com by TheRealB...@gmail.com on 15 Jan 2014 at 5:51

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It's actually not a bug but a feature of the Wiimote library every homebrew is 
using: there is a configurable timeout after which the wiimote is disconnected 
when not used.

In Genesis Plus GX, it is configured to 60s. By default, if you do not 
configure it, it will disconnect after 300s (5min), which is likely the case 
with other emu/homebrews. I agree that 60s can be a little bit too restrictive 
though for that kind of situation so this should be changed or left to the 
default.

What do you think a good timeput value should be ? Is 5min (the default value 
in libogc) fine ?

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 16 Jan 2014 at 7:33

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Priority-Medium, Type-Enhancement, Usability

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Thanks for the explanation! 
As for the time out, I believe the longest Sega CD cutscene is the ending to 
Snatcher, which is about 30mins (28mins to be exact). After this cutscene, the 
player still has to play the game for a bit longer, so waking the Wiimote up is 
mandatory after this. Setting the time out function to 30mins will definitely 
prevent the Wiimote from sleeping during an unwanted moment in any game you 
could possibly play in Genesis Plus GX. It could be an overkill for most of 
everything else, but that's what I would personally set it to.  

Original comment by TheRealB...@gmail.com on 16 Jan 2014 at 3:24

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...On second thought, maybe 30mins really is an over kill. 5-10mins would 
probably be good for most games. Though having this setting be controlled by 
the user would definitely be the most convenient. 

Original comment by TheRealB...@gmail.com on 19 Jan 2014 at 4:27

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Who cares if it is overkill ? It really does not any impact on anything beside 
the time after which wiimote is being shutdown when not used.

Also I don't like the idea of making this user configurable, it isn't like you 
are going to change this often and most people probably would not have any idea 
what value to choose.

It's better leave it to an overkill value by default  so it never shutdown or 
eventually adjust the timeout automatically depending if wii controllers are 
used or not by players (for those who only use gamecube controllers and want 
their wii controllers to stay off during that time). 

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 19 Jan 2014 at 3:03

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Yeah, your right. 30mins would be great. No need to over complicate things ;)

The reason for the second guessing is that I was under the impression that you 
were concerned about the Wiimote killing off the battery's when not in use; 
since you set it to such a low setting initially. However, you seem to have 
figured out a much more practical way of handling this. 

Original comment by TheRealB...@gmail.com on 19 Jan 2014 at 5:33

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Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 31 Jan 2014 at 9:41

• Changed state: Started

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I feel like setting the timeout to as long as 30 minutes will be using a lot of 
players' batteries for the benefit of perhaps one game which has a 30-minute 
sequence without input. I rely on the shutoff when I pause a game to watch TV 
or eat dinner or something while leaving genplus-gx running. 

I've experienced the same problem as detailed in the issue, of a cutscene 
ending and I push buttons confused for a few seconds before remembering to 
reconnect the Wii Remote. Still, I think a middle-ground value that solves most 
cases (e.g. 5-10 minutes, as suggested above) would be a better trade-off 
between battery usage and catering to games with long cutscenes.

Phrased differently: what fraction of users are actually going to play 
Snatcher? It's a great game and I enjoy it, but most people are probably just 
going to play the big name titles and never need to worry about controllers 
disconnecting. I agree that 60s is perhaps too short, but a wireless controller 
that practically never disconnects seems like a questionable idea.

For interest's sake, I just timed the Wiimote poweroff in Super Mario Galaxy to 
11 minutes (weird number, but there you go). I'm not sure if all commercial 
games use this value, but something in this area seems appropriate for 
genplus-gx. Video game cutscenes have only gotten longer since the Genesis's 
days, so if 11 minutes is acceptable on a modern console, it should be able to 
do the job for almost all Genesis games.

Original comment by vaguerant on 6 Feb 2014 at 7:43

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Then a simple option that let you enable or disable wiimote auto-shutown will 
be a better solution, with only two choices: either on (like it is actually) or 
off (with a very large timeout). It makes no sense changing to a trade-off 
value since this issue only arised for that game with a very long sequence.

Also, i don't really care how much people are going to play that game or how 
many would want that feature: if it wasn't obvious already, this is really not 
the reason why I add features, fix things, etc... I do not gain anything by 
having user happy, all i care is what I personally feel could be beneficial to 
the emulator ;-)

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 6 Feb 2014 at 12:43

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This makes sense to me, solves both problems. I think the current value could 
benefit from a small bump, as 60s is still a very short shutoff time, e.g. 
shorter than the intro for Mega Turrican.

Obviously, that could be fixed by turning off auto-shutoff, so it's no longer 
necessary to extend the timeout, but it would put genplus-gx in line with other 
homebrew and commercial software shutoff times; I did test a few other 
(commercial) Wii games after trying Mario Galaxy last time, and 5 minutes seems 
to be the shortest any games use.

Original comment by vaguerant on 12 Feb 2014 at 9:35

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added in r863

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 4 Apr 2014 at 11:11

• Changed state: Verified