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New Oculus controllers hurt thumbs

techy-cat
Honored Guest
I don't know the controller designers down at Oculus(or maybe Facebook) were thinking when they made the Oculus controllers, but they aren't that bad or at less that was what I thought when I first got them. I have only one problem, but it is soooo soooo bad that I wish I had the old Oculus controllers. The problem is that the proper resting place for the thumbs is on the other side of the controller, so whenever I don't need my thumbs. I have to extend my thumbs to the maximum reach that they can go. Of course this causes mega pain to my thumbs. Some people would just say leave your thumbs on the menu and home buttons then to which I reply: "the purpose of a rest place is so you don't have to have your thumbs on a button." I have lost so many Beat Saber games because of this; The stress that Beat Saber gives me cause me to grasp the controller tightly and as a result the game pauses and I lose focus which usually ends up with me losing the game. Some people may say to put it somewhere else to which I reply: "Good idea, but it is distracting which defeats the purpose." I apologies for my extremely long post. This is my only issue with the Oculus controllers and I would highly HIGHLY recommend that Oculus switch the home and menu buttons with the thumb pads; Please do it for my poor thumbs they hurt. 😞
5 REPLIES 5

Howie_Doodat
Rising Star
Well, regardless of what kind of pads they give you, you’re hurting your body and your performance (quality and longevity) by holding that much tension in your hands. 

Background: degree in classical guitar  performance and teaching various instruments for a living. You’ll be distracted by paying attention to playing without tension at first, but you’ll get past it and make it a habit if you stick with it. Your hands will thank you in the long run. 

Also I really can’t imagine they’re going to recall all their controllers based on a subjective design change, not to mention that more interface involved games (like RPG FPS’s) would suffer from having non functional pads in the middle of the controller. I get that this would work for games like Superhot or beat saber where you use only the triggers (or NO buttons/triggers in the case of beat saber), but it would break other games. 

kojack
MVP
MVP
Your post is tagged as Quest 2. You say "I have only one problem, but it is soooo soooo bad that I wish I had the
old Oculus controllers. The problem is that the proper resting place
for the thumbs is on the other side of the controller".
What do you mean by "old" controllers?
The CV1 Touch have the same layout as the Quest 2. The thumb rest is in the same spot. Are you talking just about the later Rift-S/Quest 1 controllers (that have no comfortable spot for the thumbs) as the ones you have now and don't like, or as the "old" ones that you prefer?

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

Howie_Doodat
Rising Star
I was just playing a game for several hours, and during I thought about your issue a few times. I realized that my thumbs rest across both of the lettered buttons at a time so they’re sitting pretty naturally, not on the home/menu buttons.  So in my right hand the tip of my thumb is on B and roughly the middle knuckle  on A. Left hand mirrors this with the top on Y and middde knuckle on X. 

This seems pretty comfortable, and I don’t think those buttons do anything in beat saber. Again though, I’m not accidentally clenching these buttons and I’d still try not to crush your hands and make them sore. Other than perhaps being a little worse for a short bit while changing the habit, clenching your hands isn’t making you any better at best saber. 


techy-cat
Honored Guest

kojack said:

Your post is tagged as Quest 2. You say "I have only one problem, but it is soooo soooo bad that I wish I had the
old Oculus controllers. The problem is that the proper resting place
for the thumbs is on the other side of the controller".
What do you mean by "old" controllers?
The CV1 Touch have the same layout as the Quest 2. The thumb rest is in the same spot. Are you talking just about the later Rift-S/Quest 1 controllers (that have no comfortable spot for the thumbs) as the ones you have now and don't like, or as the "old" ones that you prefer?



by old controller I mean the oculus quest 1 controllers

techy-cat
Honored Guest


Well, regardless of what kind of pads they give you, you’re hurting your body and your performance (quality and longevity) by holding that much tension in your hands. 

Background: degree in classical guitar  performance and teaching various instruments for a living. You’ll be distracted by paying attention to playing without tension at first, but you’ll get past it and make it a habit if you stick with it. Your hands will thank you in the long run. 

Also I really can’t imagine they’re going to recall all their controllers based on a subjective design change, not to mention that more interface involved games (like RPG FPS’s) would suffer from having non functional pads in the middle of the controller. I get that this would work for games like Superhot or beat saber where you use only the triggers (or NO buttons/triggers in the case of beat saber), but it would break other games. 


Thanks for your opinion. I would like to mention that I am not trying to clench my controllers tightly; That would be stupid of me. I would also like to mention that I did not say anything about having them recall their controllers.