Playing virtual reality games is one thing, but playing virtual reality games will full involvement of your body is another.
While experiencing a game like Doom 3: BFG Edition while wearing an Oculus Rift headset and a controller can be thrilling, some players prefer the “full” virtual reality experience, using body tracking to implement their entire selves into the game, so they actually feel more of said experience, instead of “just another game.”
A report from Re/code indicates this, as the site explains that making a mount for the player to wear just isn’t enough for a gaming experience, especially with developers trying to make more involved applications.
With that, Leap Motion has begun work on a new virtual reality-based experiment, one that hand-tracking sensors that implement their usage into certain games and applications. Many OEM’s are already on board with the project, including Razer, which introduced its Open Source Virtual Reality headset earlier this month at the Game Developers Conference.
The original headset, dubbed the “hacker dev kit,” is set to ship this June for $200, although those who want to use Magic Leap’s hand-tracking technology – probably a wise decision when it comes to app development – can opt to pay around $280 instead, even though the price isn’t finalized.
With the technology, Leap hopes to focus more on the virtual reality front. “Reaching into a computer, grabbing an object and having it move exactly as if you touched it – there’s something magical and powerful about that,” said Leap CEO Michael Buckwals about the technology. “VR is now a mature enough market that it probably is our top priority, and it’s because it’s the truest form of that original vision.”
Various types of controls may be used with VR, but CTO David Holz added that hand-tracking really is the best bet when it comes to the ultimate experience in VR. “If you want to play a racing game, having a wheel and pedals is probably going to be the best experience, or if I’m playing a shooter, having some kind of gun thing,” he explained. “But I’m not going to use the gun thing for the driving game. I’m not going to use the driving wheel for the gun game.”
The company has already put an “interaction engine” into play with the hand-tracking software, where users can “grip” onto items in an environment. No word yet on how this will be implicated into app usage, but developers are sure to find a way.
Other OEM’s could partner up with the technology down the road, but for now, Magic Leap simply wants to perfect hand-tracking. We’ll have to see where this goes – virtually – over the next few months.