As wonderful as the Oculus Rift is, it’s not without its challenges. One of the more noticeable, at least if you’re playing a shooter, is that even though your head is now free to roam, your gun is stuck to your viewpoint and/or reliant on traditional controls.
So Chris Gallizzi, a man who is no stranger to messing with the Oculus Rift, thinks he has the answer. Working with Hyperkin, he’s developing a gun that’s able to track and move independently of your head, providing a far more intuitive and realistic experience.
Having gotten some feedback from Oculus co-creator Palmer Lucky, he’s done some live testing, with pretty impressive results.
While still a work in progress, the prototype gun you’ll see in this video has multiple gyros, a vibrating motor for rumble and communicates via bluetooth so that it can be used wirelessly.
It’s not a perfect solution; we’re approaching the same levels of plastic ddependence that made music games such a hassle — but it’s as close as we’ve got so far.
Alpha Gun for Oculus Rift [YouTube]
Comments
16 responses to “One Way To Solve The Oculus Rift’s Gun Problem”
Added to the not quite perfect tally, how do you move?
Voice commands, obviously! 😛
For me, this kind of hyper-specialised thing isn’t as good a solution as something like STEM looks to be. At least with that, you have a general controller that can work with all sorts of motion applications that aren’t just limited to gun-based games. And if you really want, you can rig up a gun shaped shell to attach to it.
I was going to make a joke about using a dance dance revolution style floor mat controller but now I’m wondering if that might actually work. A series of long pressure sensitive panels in the 8 cardinal compass directions with a dead zone in the centre, pressure translating to input in an analogue axis, the further along the panel you step the faster you move in game. I could see that being at least passably functional.
Maybe, but then that also relies on you keeping yourself oriented in the same direction within your room which could be problematic. Also from my limited time with DDR, it’s kind of tricky to use floor-based buttons in conjunction with keeping your balance, especially once things start to get hectic.
I think something like the Omni is probably the best kind of walk-simulating control input, albeit an expensive and bulky one.
Ahh hadn’t considered room orientation.
Fuck it, lets just build a holodeck and be done with it.
Computer, create a 1960s free love hippy orgy
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The Virtuix Omni. They even use the Oculus rift in their preview videos.
I’d provide a link, but I think it made the comment moderation think I was a spambot.
Omnidirectional treadmill of course! Same way many movies deal with mechs.
This is great and all, but shouldn’t we be more worried about the fact that they can’t actually BUILD the Oculus Rift anymore? Until they find a new supplier for the part they need, the whole project is effectively dead in the water.
No, it’s just the initial dev kit which can’t be built any more. Which doesn’t matter at all, since the tech’s moved well beyond what we got in that. The Dev Kit v2 and/or the Consumer Rift are next up on the production line, and there’s been nothing to say that those cannot be built for any reason other than their not being finalised yet.
Ah right. Well that’s good to know then. The news reports made it sound like the project was on hold indefinitely.
Luke should do some more research on the various control schemes ppl have shown for the device. Gun stuck to head view is 1 out of 6 that was demoed originally. There is also gun stuck to mouse with head free to look around and a whole pile of hybrids with configurable dead zones for each.
Part of the beauty of the wiimote design is its flexibility. It can be held like a gun (with a shell), like a remote, like a mouse, like a sword, all possibilities.
While it needed the motionplus upgrade, the design itself is ideal for flexible applications and something similar, maybe with a transformable configuration, would be a good match for the rift.
this is nothing new. time crisis and other arcade shooters have gun movement separate from head movement for YONKS. its not 360 degree, so if he has somehow got 360 degrees to work. fucking sweet!
Why would you need 360 degree for gun aiming? It’s not as if you can aim it outside your vision. Difference here is that your vision is 360 degrees with the Rift, the gun just syncs with the Rift’s movements.
Imagine being able to run from enemies and shoot behind you for blind fire, or cover fire from behind a baracade. I think being able to aim outside your viewport makes a lot of sense.
Nothing new? Light gun games have you stuck pointing at a small target (ie the screen) and you can’t aim anywhere beyond that. This kind of thing, you can aim wherever you like regardless of where the screen is. Completely different.