Opinion [Gamasutra] Valve Index makes VR prettier, but it's the controllers that steal the show

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

Pretty good writeup on how Valve's controllers are arguably a bit of a game changer when it comes to natural feeling interaction and gesturing.

Some highlights:

The older Oculus Touch controllers do offer some finger sensing, but it’s largely limited to pointing and thumbs-upping. Meanwhile, the Index controllers are actually worn by users, meaning you can open your entire hand, grab objects in VR, and throw them by letting them go. In Aperture Hand Lab, developed by Cloudgate Studio, I actually played rock, paper, scissors with a robot. Much like the way a VR HMD needs to be experienced to appreciate it fully, you don’t really realize how much individual finger use adds to the immersion of a VR experience until you’re allowed it.

What does this mean for game design? There’s a lot of opportunity for more nuanced and more intuitive interaction. Yes, obviously flipping the bird in VR now feels incredibly natural (try it in Aperture Hand Lab), but there’s more than that. Real people and AI beings can react to your hand signals, games can afford smaller, gesture-based interactions with environments, and everything in these worlds can feel more tangible in general. At first you have to remind yourself that you can just grab objects without relying on button inputs. The knuckles expand what designers can do in terms of affordance and expectations of interaction for users.

One game that was updated for Index controller support is the excellent SuperHot from SuperHot Team. The game is great without finger-support, but you don’t realize how much nicer it feels once you’ve got it. There’s a whole lot of grabbing and throwing in that game.

The Index isn’t going to expand the market. A lot of people buying the Index will be people who are looking to upgrade their current PC VR HMDs. Expanding the market is the biggest challenge that VR as a whole is facing, but that’s not the purpose of the Index. Valve’s latest HMD is meant to foreshadeow the smaller, more accessible, cheaper versions of VR hardware that are destined for the future. It represents an effort toward higher-fidelity everything – better spatial tracking, better visuals, better audio, better hand interactions.

Valve Index makes VR prettier, but it's the controllers that steal the show

Just my opinion, but remember how Valve were planning on featuring a deaf character in a future Half-Life game? I would not be at all surprised if that research somehow dovetailed into this controller. We have fairly good reason to believe Valve are making a new Half-Life game. In which case, imagine an NPC that you communicate with through sign language gestures. Imagine waving at an NPC and having them smile and wave back. Imagine being up to pick up literally anything and throw it. Forget the gravity gun. Forget current tech where you can press F to pick up a rock and throw it by holding the right mouse button and then clicking the left mouse button. With Index, you can pick up that rock to create a distraction and it would feel fluid and natural. Immersive. Imagine the Half-Life 2 teleporter scene, but you have the ability to give a salute, give a thumbs up, Clap your hands. EXPRESS in a tangible way. We have older VR solutions that do a servicable job for general interaction but Index is like VR without its fingers taped together. The simple act of picking up a crowbar becomes fluid and organic instead of rigid and "clicky".