Microsoft also partners up with Oculus to offer traditional controller support
Oculus VR unveiled Oculus Touch this morning at the company’s Step into the Rift event held in San Francisco. Oculus Touch is the company’s unique input method designed for VR. Teased for months, Oculus Touch features two wireless controllers that both feature a thumb stick, two face buttons, and a trigger button. While the headset is on schedule to release during Q1, Oculus VP of Product Nate Mitchell mentioned to us that Oculus Touch won’t be available until sometime within the first half of the year.
Palmer Luckey shows off the company's new Oculus Touch controllers.
We unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to try out the new controller system (which is something the company assures us that we will be able to do at E3 next week), but Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey mentioned that the codename for the current Oculus Touch controller is “Half Moon” and that its goals are to provide you with a sense of “hand presence,” or a sense of feeling for your hands within virtual realities.
Up close with Oculus Touch and the final version of the headset.
A couple key pillars that Palmer touched upon about the controllers is that the tracking is perfect and offers six degrees of freedom tracking (same as the Rift headset). The latency is also extremely minimal. He also mentioned that the controller will allow you to manipulate objects, and gave an example of how you could pick up a gun, fire it, and then throw the gun away. Palmer also said a key design philosophy was that he wanted the controller to offer a “low mental load,” meaning the company doesn’t want you to think too heavily on how to use the controller and that it should feel natural and intuitive. Communicative gestures were also a key selling point, and he mentioned that you would be able to point at in-game objects with your online buddies. In addition to the aforementioned traditional inputs (control sticks and face buttons), Palmer wanted to ensure that the controllers would be wireless and lightweight, so that you would feel comfortable using it for hours on end.
Palmer Luckey shows off Oculus Touch and the final headset
While Oculus didn’t demo the controller for us, the company said it created a controller demo called Toybox, which will showcase what the controller is capable of (we’ll get our sweaty palms on it next week at E3).
From left to right: the new external sensor, Oculus Rift, Xbox One controller
Oculus Touch isn’t the only official input method that the Rift will support, however. The other surprising announcement at the event was that every Rift headset will ship with an Xbox One controller. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, took to the stage to talk about Microsoft’s commitment to the PC and VR space and mentioned how the Rift will work natively with Windows 10 and will support DX12 to ensure state of the art VR experiences. Spencer also revealed that users will be able to stream their Xbox One games into the headset through Windows 10.
Oculus Touch will support index finger gesturing.
Beyond the newly announced input methods, Oculus also revealed that the consumer version of the head-mounted display will support a new Constellation tracking system that will offer a more precise, and low-latency head movement solution. In conjunction with that reveal, the company also unveiled a new, small external sensor that you simply drop on your desk. Gone is the camera that you have to place on top of your monitor.
At the event, Oculus also spent a lot of time talking about the ergonomics of the final version of the HMD and mentioned that it’s really lightweight and comfortable. The final version doesn’t pull against your face and is designed in a way that will allow you to play for hours on end. The company has also worked hard on getting the balance just right so it sits comfortably on top of your brow. One new feature that we learned about the final consumer version is that it will have an interpupillary distance (IPD) adjuster, since everyone has different distances between their pupils. The adjuster will be a simple scrolling knob on the bottom side of the HMD. Oculus also confirmed that the headset will have room for glasses, and revealed that the HMD will be wrapped in fabric, which is used to ward off dust.
The backside of the HMD.
Oculus also showcased a few games on the stage. First up was CCP with Eve Valkyrie, which is a futuristic space flight sim that we’ve seen before. Oculus then unveiled Chronos, which appears to be a third-person labyrinth-crawling adventure game in a similar style to Zelda or Ico. The final game Oculus showcased was called Edge of Nowehere, which is being developed by Insomniac Games. Designed from the ground up for VR, the game is a third-person adventure game that appears to take place in a frigid landscape, but also has some horror/Lovecraftian elements to the game. Oculus also briefly highlighted some other games such as 2D platformer Lucky’s Tale and VR Sports Challenge which will allow you to play football, baseball, and hockey mini-games (could this be Oculus’ WiiSports?).
Designing games for VR is tough and is unfamiliar ground for most game developers, so Oculus also announced that it will be investing 10 million dollars into accelerating independent game development in that space.
Oculus introduces the Oculus Home user interface.
The last interesting bit of news from the event pertained to the HMD’s user interface. The company revealed its Oculus Home UI, which the company says will be the portal to everything Oculus. When you put on the Rift, you will jump straight into Oculus Home. Here you will be able to preview and buy games, and you will also be able to check out your friends list as well. There’s also going to be a 2D interface on traditional desktops, so you can manage game downloads and more.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the consumer version of Oculus Rift. How much will it cost? Will it play well with Steam? Perhaps our questions will be answered next week during E3. We’ll be live at the show, so stay tuned to Maximum PC for more info on everything Oculus.
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