Pros
More comfy to carry than Vive controllers
Comes with free video games
Works in smaller play house than Vive
Cons
Steam VR help is ropey
Doesn’t do room scaling in addition to the Vive
Can’t be charged over USB
Key Specifications
Review Price: £190.00
1x AA battery on every unit
Comes with second Oculus sensor
Wireless
Oculus and Steam VR help
4 buttons + analogue stick on every unit
What is the Oculus Touch?
The Oculus Rift has performed second fiddle to the HTC Vive for one essential cause: you needed to play video games with a keyboard and mouse or Xbox controller. The use of conventional controllers meant that, regardless of how good the VR expertise, you can by no means get immersed the identical approach you can with the Vive and its cool movement controls.
As a consequence, many PC players justifiably wrote off the Rift final yr. This all seems set to vary in 2017, nonetheless, because of the arrival of the stellar Oculus Touch – a set of dual movement controllers that in some ways match, if not beat, the Vive’s immersive VR expertise. If you’ve gotten a Rift already, the Touch actually is a no brainer of a purchase order.Video: Oculus Touch overview
Oculus Touch – Setup
Having endured the trial of organising a Vive, which requires real DIY, I used to be shocked how simple it was to get the Touch working. Out of the field you’ll discover left and proper Touch controllers, an adapter for Guitar Hero that I’m but to make use of, and a second Oculus sensor.
The sensor connects to your rig by way of a USB 3.0 port, like the principle headset’s sensor does. From there all it’s a must to do is energy up the Oculus app and put an AA battery within the left and proper Touch controllers. The app will launch an automatic step-by-step information, serving to you to map out a play space and appropriately place the 2 Oculus sensors.
I discovered it’s good to have the 2 sensors round a metre aside on a flat floor, pointing on the centre of your required play space. Once finished the sensors will scan the room and ask you to map your play space utilizing the Touch controllers. The course of is fairly easy and simply requires you to stroll across the boundary whereas urgent one of many buttons.
It all took about 10 minutes and the setup labored in a surprisingly restricted house. In my tiny London flat I acquired the Rift and Touch working in a 1.5-metre sq., which is significantly lower than the Vive, which received’t allow you to begin gaming with room monitoring until you map out a 1.5 x 2-metre rectangle.
Oculus Touch – Design and Games
I cherished how correct the Vive controllers have been, however I used to be by no means utterly bought on their ergonomics. The Vive’s wand-like design made them really feel a bit of massive and unnecessarily lengthy, sort of like the following evolution of Nintendo’s Wiimotes. That’s why I’m super-pleased to see Oculus take be aware and design the Touch-motes to be smaller, lighter and extra ergonomic than the HTC Vive’s wands.
Functionally these rivals look very related at first. Both the Touch and the Vive have grip and set off keys, which act as the first controls in most video games. But the Oculus’s controllers are extra intelligently positioned. The grip button falls precisely the place my ring and center finger naturally fall. Similarly the set off button sits proper the place my index finger instinctively would go if I used to be, say, holding a gun, which makes shooters nice enjoyable.
The small dimensions and intuitive button placement meant I genuinely forgot I used to be holding a controller throughout some play periods.
Playing a spherical of I Expect You To Die, a recreation that asks you to unravel puzzles utilizing your digital arms, was a specific deal with. Disarming a bomb, I reached out and gripped the controller a bit of tighter to select it up, earlier than grabbing a trusty razor with my different hand and slashing the large pink wire with one fluid movement. It turned out to be the improper wire and I died a horrible explosive demise, nevertheless it was nonetheless a blast (pun positively supposed). In related conditions utilizing the HTC Vive I’d sometimes must fumble to press the button.
Related: Best VR headsets
Outside of this the Vive and Oculus controller have very totally different button layouts. The Vive expects you to work together with menus within the Steam retailer utilizing a trackpad-style click on wheel. The Touch makes use of a extra conventional joystick-and-buttons structure. For pure gaming I discovered that the Touch’s interface made the controllers a bit of bit extra versatile, because it means you possibly can usually us the controllers to play non-Touch-ready titles. I managed to leap from the Robo Recall demo, which makes use of Touch, straight into house racer Firma with out having to swap to a conventional Xbox controller, for instance.
The one difficulty that’s but to rear its head is battery life. Each unit is powered by one AA battery and whereas I’ve clocked up 12 hours of use and never needed to change them, it’s barely annoying there’s no choice to cost over USB. If you need to juice them up, you’ll have to interchange the cells.
I’ve additionally acquired to tip my hat to Oculus for getting early help for the Touch controllers: It’s set to launch with 53 appropriate video games. Many titles together with VR painter Medium, and multiplayer shooter Dead and Buried additionally come freed from cost.
During my week with the controllers I acquired to pattern round 20 or so of the titles. Initially I used to be a bit of involved about selection. Currently it seems like quite a lot of builders haven’t found out use the Touch for something apart from first-person shooters, nearly all of that are on-rails or fixed-position, horde-mode affairs. Some, corresponding to first-person shooter The Unspoken, handle to combine issues up by including magic teleportation and a PvP focus to the combination, however there’s a particular weighting in the direction of shooters within the launch line-up.
After a software program replace I did see quite a lot of totally different, typically extra fascinating, titles pop up. Highlights embody real-time-strategy recreation Cosmic Ray, zombie-themed kitchen sim Dead Hungry, and super-fun spy-themed puzzler, I Expect You To Die. However, in some methods the titles are each a blessing and a curse, as they showcase two key gameplay areas by which I don’t suppose the Touch matches the Vive: collision detection and room scaling.
In every of those video games it’s a must to resolve a puzzle or full a posh sequence of high quality hand actions in the precise order to win. The Touch controls are greater than correct sufficient for the video games to work and be enjoyable – however the Vive’s controllers really feel a smidgen extra correct and higher at detecting collisions. This is probably going as a result of HTC’s Lighthouse monitoring system, which permits for sub-millimetre object detection. Oculus hasn’t launched the engineering particulars in regards to the Touch’s system, nevertheless it positively feels a hair’s breadth behind.
‘Room scale’ experiences are interactive video games that don’t tie you to 1 spot and allow you to transfer round a small roamable house. The approach has at all times been an enormous focus for HTC and is a key cause why the Vive has extra sensors than the Oculus and is considerably more difficult to arrange.
Oculus, by comparability, has made no secret of the truth that it’s centered on front-facing VR experiences that don’t have to room scale. As a consequence, quite a lot of the Touch-ready video games I examined have been locked-down experiences that tied you to 1 spot, corresponding to Serious Sam VR, which duties you to blast wave after wave of enemies from one fastened level. You can flip round, however the lack of a rear sensor for the Touch means monitoring can go improper and the expertise isn’t wherever close to as fluid as it’s on the Vive.
However, some video games, corresponding to Supershot VR, partially do room scaling to nice impact. The recreation could also be firmly front-facing, nevertheless it nonetheless encourages you to duck, dodge and dive between bullets in a preset area such as you’re Neo from The Matrix. On a number of events I practically garroted myself on the headset’s cable or ran right into a door making an attempt to keep away from enemy gunfire.
Oculus Touch – Steam Support
The solely wider difficulty I’ve with the Touch is the truth that you’re nonetheless tied to the Oculus retailer. As with many PC players, Steam stays my go-to market.
The Oculus Rift technically works with some SteamVR titles, however I’ve at all times discovered the performance a bit of hit-and-miss. In the previous I’ve skilled crashes, glitches, stalls and all method of different issues. This stays true with the Touch in the meanwhile. During all my checks SteamVR would recognise the Touch controllers, however the video games would reply to them as in the event that they have been Vive wands. All too usually I’d be lacking, or unable to search out, the precise management for a particular motion consequently. Hopefully these points will probably be sorted within the close to future by way of a software program replace, as working SteamVR help could be an enormous boon for the Oculus Touch.
I’d additionally like Oculus to do a bit of labor by itself retailer. The curation system continues to be undercooked and most titles will set you again as a lot as £40, regardless of solely providing as little as 4 hours of gameplay – which, let’s face it, is a rip-off.
Related: Best VR video games
Should I purchase an Oculus Touch?
If you already personal an Oculus Rift, then sure, you need to completely purchase the Touch. £189/$199 might sound costly, nevertheless it’s a drop within the ocean in comparison with what you’ve already paid to get a VR-ready PC and headset. Plus it comes bundled with two nice launch titles.
The Touch can be the one approach you’re going to get a really immersive VR expertise with out shelling out for an HTC Vive – which, whereas nice, requires much more setup time and house.
However, if you have already got a Vive working, the Touch doesn’t do sufficient totally different to justify leaping ship. And for those who don’t but have any VR-ready tools, the PlayStation VR stays the best-value approach to get into digital actuality – although it’s the least immersive.
Verdict
If you have already got an Oculus, it is a no-brainer buy.