Oculus Touch Controllers

Finally Rift owners can truly be in the game

PRICE U S$ 99 www.oculus.com When

the Rift first launched, we praised it as having the superior headset when compared to HTC’s Vive, but it was missing one musthave feature to make it the VR kit of choice – motion control. Originally shipping with an Xbox controller, it only delivered half of the VR experience; while everything looked grand through the HMD, the inability to reach out and touch ( somebody - Noiseworks Ed.) objects in games really took away from the immersion. Well, that problem has now been solved with the release of the Oculus Touch, a pair of motion controllers that use a radically different design than the wands of the Vive.

Each one is held like a pistol, with a unique ring around the user’s hand that contains IR LEDs for tracking. An extra camera is included with the kit, which is phenomenal value at just $99 for the lot. Not only does this allow proper motion controls, it also enables room-space experiences… kind of. It’s still a beta function, and we’ve found it to be hit and miss to say the least. Often it would lose tracking entirely, but apparently buying a third camera helps resolve these issues entirely.

Now, onto the controllers themselves. There are two main triggers – one for your pointer finger, the second for your middle finger. We often found ourselves accidentally hitting the middle pointer though. There’s also two standard buttons on the top of each controller, as well as a small thumbstick. Finally there’s a single menu button on each controller. The ergonomics are far more natural than the wand-like nature of the Vive design, feeling more like you’re actually using your hands than a giant pointer. Being shaped like pistol-grips also makes them a much better fit for shooters.

However, there is one major issue we found with the Touch controllers – setting them up. It took us a solid six or seven tries to optimally position our cameras, and the default suggestion from Oculus is definitely not ideal. They suggest placing each camera on the side of your monitor; however, when you’re in game, leaning down to pick something up, the desk would block tracking of the controllers. We found the best placement was to put them right on the edge of our desk.

Even when they were set up correctly, we still felt that the Touch isn’t quite as accurate as the Vive, and this is more noticeable when

being shaped like pistol-grips also makes them a much better fit for shooters

looking down the sights of guns, or aiming a bow and arrow. It’s still very impressive, just not quite as sharp as the Vive. Still, for a mere US$99, a price well below what we expected, the Rift now has what it takes to stand on equal ground with the Vive. Throw in another camera, some software polish, and we think the Rift will arguably become the better overall VR solution. BENNETT RING