When the Oculus Rift VR headset came out in early 2016, it was promising but incomplete. He had nice, comfortable VR goggles... but that's about it.
Competitors such as Valve's backed HTC Vive and, to a lesser extent, Sony's PlayStation VR have already demonstrated why manual motion control is an important component of today's virtual reality. Motion controllers allow your hands to appear as independently controlled weapons, wands, or even just hands in virtual reality, allowing you to greatly expand the number of possible physical interactions. With a standard controller in most VR games, you either see a hovering camera looking down on a regular game, or sit in the cockpit of a vehicle. With motion controls, you can be more active.
Oculus has been prototyping and demonstrating Touch controllers for years, but I didn't actually try them until they sent me a pair in mid-November. I have now used them to play a bunch of VR games through both the Oculus Home software and Steam.
In general, the controllers impressed me. They pair with the Rift headset to make the Oculus VR system the most technically impressive and enjoyable to use of any VR hardware currently on the market. They also have the widest range of supported games and apps with the highest average quality level. If you already have a Rift, I would hardly recommend spending a couple hundred more dollars on a set.
BASICS
The Touch controllers come with a second touch camera to accompany the one that came with the Rift. Two sensors are required to use the controllers. The controllers and their sensor cost $199 on top of the Rift's $599 price tag, bringing the total cost up to about $800.
I've mostly used touch controllers with an experimental three-sensor setup that allows the cameras to see 360 degrees around me. With this setup, my body never gets in the way of the camera seeing the controller. It's an important component of creating "room-scale" VR, given that I experienced some stickiness due to controller lock-up when playing with two sensors.
I'll talk a little about the sensor setup, but in short, if you have the funds, I recommend using a three-sensor setup. The sensors alone cost $80, so a full three-sensor Oculus Touch setup will set you back $880, along with the cost of any USB extension cables you might need.
EXPERIENCE VR
The Big Picture: These are good motion controllers that match or outperform similar HTC Vive controllers in almost every way. (They also outperform the outdated Move PSVR controllers, though that almost seems like an unfair comparison.) The huge difference between headset-only VR and motion-controlled VR is immediately apparent. Touch controllers will finally allow Oculus users to experience the best of what modern virtual reality has to offer.
I've played a lot of room-scale games on the Vive, and playing them on the Rift (with a three-sensor setup) feels almost identical. The main difference is that the Vive allows for more playable space, but I did fine with the 6ft by 6ft space that the Oculus setup tool describes as "optimal".
Overall, I've found games to be best for short periods of time, although I can play much longer at room scale than when I can sit and use a controller. Overall, the touch interface is fluid, intuitive, and simple for the most part, although even the most fluid experience will occasionally be broken by odd hand tracking and stuttering.
The big new feature of touch controllers is that they have sensors on the thumb grip and buttons that detect when your fingers are touching them. If a game was made to support this feature, it means that you can raise your thumb and give a thumbs up in the game, or point with your index finger in real life and see the corresponding index point in the game. This adds a small but noticeable level of precise hand control and contributes to a fuzzy feel that Oculus describes as "the presence of a hand."
For example, inJob Simulator on Touch, you can control your thumb, forefinger, and grip independently, basically without even pressing a button:
The index finger gives you a natural way to interact with buttons and objects in the game world, resulting in all sorts of complex VR interactions:
At its best, the Touch sensors really make it feel like your hand movements are accurately reflected in the game. Unfortunately, there is no option for the middle finger yet.
The setup is simple, but can fail.
The touch screen setup is mostly simple and straightforward, but some little things along the way cause it to fail. The Oculus app will guide you through pairing your controllers with your computer, and soon you'll be standing in front of the sensors and tracking the boundaries of a protected play space.
Once you've defined your space, Oculus' "Guardian" system will project transparent walls into VR whenever you get close to the out of bounds. The system is virtually identical to Valve's SteamVR companion, which surprisingly you'll also have to set up if you plan to use the Rift to play on Steam.
Since the Rift's sensors are on my desk like webcams, I sometimes push them around to move things around. This isn't usually a problem, but at least once it caused my entire play space to reorient itself and sink 10 feet into the floor. This was annoying, although I can't think of a good way around it other than hanging the cameras on the wall.
Installation with two sensors is much easier; when setting up three sensors, the setup app usually tells me that something is wrong with my sensor placement, even though it worked fine in the past. It is possible to set up two sensors for 360-degree tracking, although I haven't experimented much with this option. Oculus is careful to point out that 360-degree tracking is "experimental" and given how important full tracking is to many VR games, I hope Oculus makes things a little smoother sooner rather than later. At the moment it is more than functional.
Controllers are easy to use.
The Touch controllers are smaller and sturdier than I expected. They fit in the palms of my hands and do not go far beyond them. It took me a few minutes to get used to raising and lowering them, but after that they became second nature to me. The buttons are springy and feel "right". Controllers enhance the appeal of VR experiences in a tactile way that is hard to describe.
Each controller is designed with an annular counterweight so it fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. The counterweight wraps around your fingers and tilts the controller's weight back slightly, allowing it to sit in the space between your thumb and forefinger. They don't have a stand and are quite difficult to store - I prefer to place them with triggers so that the balance ring holds them steady. I found myself using the included wrist straps so they could hang off my wrists when I needed to do something else with my hands.
Oculus has removed a lot of barriers between me and VR.
When I imagine taking the Touch controllers and putting on the Rift, I feel invited to do so. VR hasn't been around a lot this year - usually when I'm about to put on a VR headset, I'm mentally preparing myself for the setup process, plugging in devices, shaking cables, turning on controllers. , putting on headphones, etc.
My Rift is installed right next to my gaming PC, and my office already has enough free space for a functional gaming space. I move my desk aside and my physical area is ready to go. I put the Rift in and it automatically turns on. All built-in headphones are ready for game sound output. It's the same with controllers: I pick them up, press any button, and they instantly activate and work.
Each Touch controller uses one AA battery. Battery life was impressive - they managed to stay ready and responsive for weeks without needing to be replaced. I prefer using Oculus replaceable batteries over the built-in battery because it means I don't have to plug or unplug controllers between uses. I just take them and boom, ready to go.
Overall, Oculus has only removed two or three small things that I need to do when preparing other VR headsets, and the Oculus store and interface still needs to be fine-tuned, but it's remarkable how big the difference is. Of course, I have the advantage of having a room that fits perfectly into my play space, although Rift games can be played standing still.
On the scale of usability, from the iPad to the nuclear submarine, VR is still more of a submarine. Oculus' slow but steady progress in the tablet space demonstrates the company's commitment to ease of use.
There are more games coming to the Oculus store, and some of them are really fun.
On December 6th, over 50 new games will be available on the Oculus Store, all designed for use with Touch controllers. Some of them, such asFantastic Contraption , Job Simulator andSpace Pirate Trainer , are SteamVR stalwarts moving to the new platform. Others such asSuperhot VR, VR Sports Challenge andthe unspoken, are brand new Rift exclusives. (Some of these exclusives are temporary, others are permanent.) Still others, such asthe climb, can be played with a regular controller for a while, but are being patched to support Touch.
In addition to games on the Oculus Store, Rift is working with an increasing number of VR games that can be played directly through Steam. With access to both the Oculus Store and SteamVR, the Oculus Rift library is significantly larger than it would be if the Rift was limited to the Oculus Store. However, you can feel Oculus' aggressive use of financial deals to limit exclusivity over time (along with their own fully funded exclusive platforms), the results are undeniable: Oculus now has the most powerful game library of any VR headset.
I've been playing a lot of Touch Launch games over the past few weeks, and some of them are pretty darn good.superhot VR takes the slow-paced combat I loved in the base game and seamlessly adapts it into a brand new VR-only encounter series. It effectively recreates the fantasy of being in your own slow motion firefight with John Woo.The Unspoken is another high-end Oculus exclusive from Insomniac Games, in which you become a member of a modern underground magical community. You use touch controllers to shoot fireballs and cast intricate curses and spells while fighting other players. It's a shame the game didn't have a more detailed set of solo challenges, but it's still pretty cool to use magic in VR.
« I expect you to die" Schell Games is a charming James Bond riff that puts you in a lot of difficult situations and asks you to plan your escape. It's a fairly standard puzzle game that takes on a new dimension in virtual reality as you peer into your surroundings and try to get around a new set of deadly traps. Epic Arcade Shooting DemoRobo Recall - one of the most enjoyable and exciting games I've played in virtual reality; I just wish the full game wasn't out yet.
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Kingspray Graffitisimulator is exactly what it sounds like - you are given a series of walls and a huge amount of spray painting tools. Think of it as a noisier but no less fun version of Google's graphing tool.Tilt Brush , which happens to work fine with Touch via SteamVR.Oculus Medium – another great tool for sculpting rather than drawing; I haven't figured out how it works yet, but I've already seen some people having fun with it.
Nice tower defense gameCosmic Trip by Funktronic Labs is one of the few SteamVR games that completely falls apart for me when I load it with the Rift on Steam. Luckily, the Oculus Store version works fine, albeit with some annoying performance issues that I don't remember running into when playing with the Vive. It's still in Early Access, but it remains promising and interesting.
VR Sports Challenge by Sanzaru Games allows you to play several differentsports - football, basketball, hockey - in VR. I was surprised at how fun and exciting it is, especially a football match. You play as a quarterback, calling the play by looking at your wrist before flicking the ball and stepping back for a pass. Let the ball fly and you'll be in the line of sight of your available receiver while it's grabbing in slow motion. It definitely has some catch, but the core of the game works surprisingly well and makes me smile every time I play it. I really feel like I'm throwing and catching the ball.
Some launch games didn't impress me that much.Rec room is a nice collection of non-competitive mini-games like frisbee golf and paintball, but it's held back by poor friend list integration and some flexible physics.Serious Sam VR feels cheap and nowhere near as powerful and satisfying as other VR shooters likeraw data orSpace Pirate Trainer . Dexed off Ninja Theory was a strange shooter on rails that was a bit awkward to play while standing up and aiming withlocking smooth and inaccurate.
Some of the promising games that came out on the 6th weren't available to us ahead of time, including a beautiful zombie shooterArizona Sunshine and versionThe Climb with touchscreen . Important non-gaming applications such as Virtual Desktop will also receive Touch support in the near future. Next year we will get the full releaseRobo Recall along with a noir horror gameWilson's Heart by Twisted Pixel,Star Trek: Bridge Crew by Ubisoft and a host of other unannounced or less-hyped games.
FINALLY
When the Rift was released in March, it was a good headset with limited functionality and only a few good games. It's hard to make a definitive judgment given that Oculus is actively working on handheld controllers that will greatly expand the capabilities of their system. Now that Touch is finally here, the Oculus Rift is ready. The wait was worth it.
Refined and carefully crafted, the three-sensor Oculus Rift outperforms the competition in almost every way. The controllers are a pleasure to work with, and the headset is self-contained and comfortable. It has some really fun games in it, and between the newly expanded Oculus store and everything on Steam, I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what's out there to see and play. $880 is a lot of money and I would only recommend the full Oculus Rift to those who have a reasonably powerful gaming PC and really want to live on the cutting edge. However, if this is you, then this is the way to get there.
