a cheap foot controller for intuitive hands-free movement

"crespo80" wrote:
The WASD movements are the simpler of course, so the real challenge is a convincing turning.
If the goal is to replicate the right thumbstick of a gamepad, I think the simplest and most intuitive method for everyone is to combine WASD and turning in a single unit like the proof of concept I made in the video (and of course there is the need of a proper return spring for turning and for WASD).

I'm not sure.. i think for the average gamer used to gamepads it would be more intuitive to have the same control scheme but mapped to the feet instead of the thumbs. Also i think having the center of rotation in the middle of a big disc and having to actually translate your feet would be more cumbersome than simply rotating slightly your right foot with the center of rotation at the heel.

"crespo80" wrote:
Separating WASD and turning IMHO is really a necessity only if we want to replicate the accuracy of a mouse, it's not so intuitive for the casual gamer who may prefer the first approach, but it will feel so good for the PC/hardcore gamer who is used to the keyboard/mouse combo and hates the gamepad approach :mrgreen:
Obviously, one has to try all the possible approaches, in order to find the best

I don't think having mouse-like speed and accuracy is really necessary just for turning your avatar in VR when you can look anywhere you want and point anywhere you want independently. Actually the thumbstick way could be better because you would not have the almost infinite acceleration of a mouse, which would help to avoid motion sickness. As you said i guess i would have to try both to see which one works better.. at the same time i think i wouldn't be too hard to make a foot controller that supported both methods a leave the decision to the user!

"crespo80" wrote:
This is not a problem at all, because the allowed movements of this type of foot controller are exactly the same of a standard gamepad! The game will think the inputs come from a gamepad, it's part of the beauty of this approach, as opposite to those methods who rely on a tracking webcam/kinect system that needs specific optimizations.

Yeah probably you're right and i went a bit too far saying it would be a hard sell.. What i meant when i mentioned "the ideal case" is that if the 3 device thing was a whole package then you could take full advantage of it and for instance use the thumbsticks on the hydra for other purposes than moving the avatar. If it's just an optional "replacement" then you couldn't really do that. It would still be a great improvement in immersion though, i believe where are on the same page here. :-)

"rmcclelland" wrote:
One of the issues I have noticed with the dev kit demos is that W (walk forward) takes me in the direction I am looking. It feels wrong. Forward should take you in the direction your hips are facing, not your head. I can't look to the side while walking forward in these demos.

I realize that in order to achieve this, there needs to be an IMU on you hips or chair (for seated play). Hopefully Oculus will release the IMU stand alone with a USB interface for us to tinker with.

I think for standing play you are right, we would need a way to track the hips for it to work properly; That's one of the reasons i'm not convinced about standing play in general.. For seated play (on a non-swiveling chair) we don't need an extra tracker because we can control the direction of the hips with other methods (like a foot controller for instance!)