cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Did Oculus just standardize 5-finger tracking and make hand-controllers obsolete??

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
One of my favorite announcements from Facebook and Oculus today is the new controller-free hand tracking.



This is quite amazing since it gives us 5-finger tracking while removing any bulky controllers from our hands entirely, thus allowing us to use our mouse, keyboard, and interact with any other real world objects while keeping our hands and fingers tracked. An added bonus is the way this works seamlessly with Passthrough technology; and of course the future we will see with Facebook's vision for Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

The only downside (aside from perfecting tracking accuracy) is the lack of haptic feedback. However, I never cared for haptic feedback at all (it adds battery drain and doesn't accurately reflect what happens in the real world!) so it's a worthy sacrifice considering the huge benefits and possibilities.

And this technology is going to be open-sourced. So... is this the new universal path forward?
53 REPLIES 53

Anonymous
Not applicable

Morgrum said:

Whelp here comes hand tracked VR Porn mark my words!


At least now you can point and select in the stickiest of situations. 😛

MowTin
Expert Trustee

I would love this in a flight sim where I can use my hands to flip switches and turn dials while holding a joystick. 

i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

KenSniper
Adventurer
I hope it comes to the Rift S as well, they technically use the same tracking tech right? 

inovator
Consultant
Not announcing it for the rift as well is treating the quest like it's the main dog. Oh wait it is now. I'm ok with that.

Anonymous
Not applicable
There's still another day of OC6 to go, but it seems it's all about the Quest as well.

https://www.oculusconnect.com/#schedule

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Question for those who responded so far,

What if the Hand Controller in games is purely virtual?

Do we really need a physical controller if we can simply conjure up a virtual controller?

inovator
Consultant

Zenbane said:

Question for those who responded so far,

What if the Hand Controller in games is purely virtual?

Do we really need a physical controller if we can simply conjure up a virtual controller?


Maybe not. Maybe move a finger or hand forward or backward or sideways for locomotion.  I'm sure it could be done. Risking sounding like a broken record for shooting games I'd like haptics built in. Maybe they will be. I dont remember them saying they wont be.
 

nalex66
MVP
MVP
From what I've read of hands-on accounts (heh), it's not as fast and accurate as Touch controllers, so some games might work fine without controllers, while others will be better with.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

kojack
MVP
MVP
This is definitely very cool.

I've had a Leap Motion for years. I've got a Leap mount on both my DK2 and CV1. I've got a couple of Leaps at work too. The hand tracking is great (after the Orion update), all 5 fingers tracked really well with very wide FOV. There's even SteamVR support for using Leap Motion instead of controllers to control current games.
Some hand tracking experiences are awesome.
However it is absolutely not a complete replacement for good physical controllers. A great addition for certain experiences, but I'd hate to give up things like touch.

One area that interests me with hand tracking is calibration of physical game controls. For example playing a driving game with a real wheel. The problem is games may (well, will) place the player and the in game wheel at positions that don't match your real controller. By using the hand tracking, you can calibrate the actual wheel position and adjust the game to match, so there's a 1:1 match.
Here was a video I did as a test.
Imagine if the game asked you to grab the wheel at the 9 and 3 positions, then it moved the in game wheel to match. To avoid the occlusion glitches, you could detect proximity to the wheel and morph to a grip pose.

Remember that currently Quest is using high speed IMU data to compensate for the slower camera tracking and occlusion issues, plus direct input controls. With hand tracking there's no button presses or motion at all when not in view.



Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2

inovator
Consultant
For a moment when hand tracking was anounced I was thinking replacement. after some member posts it makes me think its just going to be additional for certain games.