Oculus Rift and Touch

I’m super excited for the imminent onslaught of consumer grade VR equipment and game support. I think it will change how games are played from now on. Not all games, mind you, it takes a certain level of involvement to strap on a head-mounted display and get into the experience. The military already uses similar technology extensively for training. It’s just a matter of months before equipment hits shelves.

That said, there’s a serious problem with it already. When you strap on a VR headset, your mouse and keyboard disappear. They seem antiquated as you tilt and peak below the headset to find the right keys. HIDs are going to need a total revamp to work well with head mounted VR.

Enter the Oculus Touch. Basically two Wii motion controllers. It makes sense. I can’t say it’s the best solution, because no one really knows what is (well, aside from 100% perfect hand and finger motion tracking without any device attached). It’s a great start, and I can see it working well.

via Engadget

For example, one thing I’m really excited for is VR support in my favorite flight combat sim, Eagle Dynamic’s DCS. I’ve seen some footage of the Oculus in use with it, and I’ve used the Oculus DK2 for development and with other games. But DCS has some serious keyboard use involved when playing. Even if you have a nice HOTAS, you can’t map all functions down to the toggle switches and buttons. And even then, you have to know it by feel. What DCS does offer (somewhat uniquely, if I’m not mistaken), is the ability to use in cockpit (on-screen) controls-currently with the mouse.

The new Oculus Touch should be able to handle that. Reach out and you see a hand reach out on screen. Move your hand over to the landing gear switch and press a button. How’s that for integration? This isn’t anything new, the technology’s been around for years now but no one’s made a solid controller for the PC, nor has any game I’m aware of supported it.

I was already excited for Oculus (and other VR HMDs). First-person shooters are also about to see a big change. The current heavy reliance on mouse input for looking and keyboard input for moving makes a lot of FPSs all about mouse/keyboard coordination. HMDs will allow a more realistic experience-if that’s what’s desired. For me, I’m more about the simulation than kill counts (or “360 no scopes”) so I can’t wait.