"So does the remote read movements and execute a pre-recorded animation, or does it move objects inside the game precisely."
The remote has rotation sensors, acceleration senors, and an infrared sensor.
The rotation sensors sense the controller's rotation in realtime.
The acceleration sensors sense what direction you're moving the controller in.
And the infrared sensor, going by the configuration screen I found last night, appears to be like a like a little camera. It takes video of the infrared led's on the sensor bar, two of which are lit up at once, and using the position those two points of light appear in the infrared camera's view, it can calculate where you are aiming on the screen, and the roll of the controller relative to the screen. Ie, the average of the two points is the position you're aiming at, and the angle of the line between them tells you the roll angle. (I still have not figured out why photos taken of the sensor bar appear to show far more than two LED's though.)
So the controller has two elements to it. A rotation/acceleration sensing element, and a light-gun style element. These are what the controller can sense in realtime. It cannot tell what position it is at in space, but it can tell where you are aiming it on the screen, what rotation it is at, and in what directions you are jerking it about.
Now some things you do in some games read movements then execute a prerecorded action. Some things move in realtime.
For example, when swinging a sword in zelda, you shake the nunchuck side to side to execute a spin attack. Or you push the A button and swing the controller down to do a jumping slash.
However, you can also run about while slashing your sword side to side to cut grass and slash enemies that pop up in front of you suddenly, and this feels more like you're controlling the sword because it's closer to realtime. But it's still prerecorded motions. The same goes for Wii Tennis. Feels almost like you're really doing the motion, but you're not.
Other games though, like excite truck have you say, steer by tilting the remote. You can consider this to be realtime control. I don't know yet if there is a delay in it reponding to these inputs but the game seemed to work well enough.
Sonic:
You can sit down to play Excite Truck, or Zelda. You can probably sit down to play tennis too. It's just more fun to play tennis standing up. Also there will be plenty of games on the Wii which use the classic controller which is like a gamecube controller. Metal Slug for example.
The remote has rotation sensors, acceleration senors, and an infrared sensor.
The rotation sensors sense the controller's rotation in realtime.
The acceleration sensors sense what direction you're moving the controller in.
And the infrared sensor, going by the configuration screen I found last night, appears to be like a like a little camera. It takes video of the infrared led's on the sensor bar, two of which are lit up at once, and using the position those two points of light appear in the infrared camera's view, it can calculate where you are aiming on the screen, and the roll of the controller relative to the screen. Ie, the average of the two points is the position you're aiming at, and the angle of the line between them tells you the roll angle. (I still have not figured out why photos taken of the sensor bar appear to show far more than two LED's though.)
So the controller has two elements to it. A rotation/acceleration sensing element, and a light-gun style element. These are what the controller can sense in realtime. It cannot tell what position it is at in space, but it can tell where you are aiming it on the screen, what rotation it is at, and in what directions you are jerking it about.
Now some things you do in some games read movements then execute a prerecorded action. Some things move in realtime.
For example, when swinging a sword in zelda, you shake the nunchuck side to side to execute a spin attack. Or you push the A button and swing the controller down to do a jumping slash.
However, you can also run about while slashing your sword side to side to cut grass and slash enemies that pop up in front of you suddenly, and this feels more like you're controlling the sword because it's closer to realtime. But it's still prerecorded motions. The same goes for Wii Tennis. Feels almost like you're really doing the motion, but you're not.
Other games though, like excite truck have you say, steer by tilting the remote. You can consider this to be realtime control. I don't know yet if there is a delay in it reponding to these inputs but the game seemed to work well enough.
Sonic:
You can sit down to play Excite Truck, or Zelda. You can probably sit down to play tennis too. It's just more fun to play tennis standing up. Also there will be plenty of games on the Wii which use the classic controller which is like a gamecube controller. Metal Slug for example.