The new Oculus Rift was announced today along with new games and a release window. It looks fantastic to be sure, but the biggest announcement came in the form of their new controller: the Oculus Touch.
So, what is the Oculus touch?
While the Rift will come with an X-Box One controller, an effort is being made to provide an even more immersive and interactive experience with the virtual reality. That effort led the good people at Oculus to create the Touch: a pair of hand held controllers that track your movements in game. So, if you reach out for something, the controller will track that movement and your character will reach out in game.
Cool. What interface will the controllers have?
Aside from a standard analogue stick and two thumb buttons on each hand, each controller will have a finger trigger and a hand trigger on the grip.
What do the triggers do?
The finger trigger is pretty self explanatory, as it will probably mostly be used to shoot weapons. The hand trigger, however, is far more interesting. While we don’t have all the details on it, we know that it can be used as a command to pick up or inspect objects in game. Imagine it: a whole game where you don’t have to press “E” on a keyboard or “A” or “X” on a controller to use an item.
That would be nice.
Wouldn’t it?
What else is there?
Thankfully, the controllers are wireless to allow for maximum immersion in game. But the best part, however, is that the studded rings you see coming out from the controller can detect finger poses.
Finger poses? What do you mean?
Imagine you want to flip someone off in game. They can detect that. Finally, you will be able to taunt end level bosses the way you’ve always wanted to.
No way.
Yes way. If you want to point at something or rub something with your thumb, the controller will detect that and have your character do it in game.
What games will be using these?
At the moment, we don’t know. But we imagine many games will have certain options set up to use the Touch. There’s a lot of wonderful possibilities. Imagine being able to turn on a lightsaber with the trigger and waving it around like you always wanted to (but never got to) using a Wii controller.
Seriously. EA. Get on that. We’ve been waiting.
When will the Touch be out?
We don’t know yet, but stay tuned.
Where can I learn more about the new Oculus Rift and its games?
You can check out our live blog and our breakdown of the press conference. There’s a lot of cool announcements, including some new games that will be playable at E3. Enjoy!
