VR has a long way to go, but it’s getting there real fast. And while wireless headsets are just on the horizon, so is a level of precision that could make VR games super interesting.
Cloudhead Games, a VR developer currently working on an episodic adventure fantasy called The Gallery, recently showed off the next evolution of Valve’s VR tech. It’s called the Knuckle controllers, and it’s basically a new set of controllers with capacitive sensors that lets the user control all five fingers.
There’s “No Post on Sundays” but there is on Mondays! #VR #ValveKnuckles pic.twitter.com/pCLMeiSV7b
— Cloudhead Games (@CloudheadGames) June 27, 2017
— Cloudhead Games (@CloudheadGames) June 29, 2017
In a blogpost for UploadVR, Cloudhead’s Denny Unger says the increased precision will help make VR a lot more organic, rather than relying solely on the gestural movements and mechanics that VR games rely on today.
“There’s a possibility for gestural movements to call functions and navigate dense data; there could be an entire language built out of using your hands to manipulate paint brushes and pencils and sizes and colours,” Unger argues. “Once you take the mental load of an interface off the player—once they stop thinking about the controller—you can leverage that partition into experiential design and organic controls.”
As he points out, life isn’t the same without your hands and fingers, and improving the performance of that will go a long way to making VR an infinitely more immersive experience. Select Vive developers have already begun receiving prototype kits of the Knuckles controllers, and we’ll no doubt hear a lot more about them at the next Steam Dev Days.
The capacitive features of the new SteamVR Knuckles prototype are going to be incredible for #VR presence. pic.twitter.com/XGV1RFWEkZ
— Cloudhead Games (@CloudheadGames) June 29, 2017