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Photo courtesy of Shawn Whiting
Valve’s Steam Dev Days event kicked off yesterday, and they’ve already dropped a bombshell: there are new Vive controllers coming, and attendees at the Steam Dev Days can get their to grips with the prototype in a very literal way.
The new controllers have an emphasis on hand presence and in terms of shape, looks similar to Oculus’ forthcoming Touch controllers.
Thoughts, photos and impressions of the Vive controller started flooding out near immediately, as eager attendees took their chance to get there hands all over them in Seattle. It’s a big difference from the Vive’s current wand-shaped Pre controllers, they need to be gripped at all times, with a series of thumb and trigger presses triggering most actions.
It works just fine, but this new system seems like it might be able to offer even more immersion, as the new Vive prototype is shaped to the hand, allowing finer control, including a detailed simulation of most hand movements, including the ability to open and close your hand, which will hopefully allow owners to pick up objects in VR by gripping them.
There’s no word on when these controllers will come to the market, or even if this is the controller’s final form, but it should be enough to get developers thinking about what they can do with the new technology, and offer some parity with the Oculus’ Touch system.
