Forum Discussion
How about some more Leap support?
I know a few of you fortunate souls have a Hydra to play with, but those are long gone from all by the priciest Ebay sellers, and they don't really track you're full hand, with all of the fingers, just the position of your palm. Unless your plan is to develop for the EXTREMELY tiny future STEM market ($300 a set, not developer price, retail), why not shift your development to the Leap Motion?
It's cheap, at around $80 ($100 with the $20 Rift mount). It tracks the whole hand, including fingers. And most, if not all, game/hand interactions will require you to look at your hands regardless. So the Leap's tracking will always be where you need it, when you need it.
The tracking, in it's current incarnation that I've been playing with, is a little spotty at times, but good enough to push buttons, turn levers, knock things over, and most in-game actions. The tech should get better over time. Adventure gaming, location exploration, seems to be the most interesting thing the Rift does, so why not let people use their own hands to do that exploring?
It's cheap, at around $80 ($100 with the $20 Rift mount). It tracks the whole hand, including fingers. And most, if not all, game/hand interactions will require you to look at your hands regardless. So the Leap's tracking will always be where you need it, when you need it.
The tracking, in it's current incarnation that I've been playing with, is a little spotty at times, but good enough to push buttons, turn levers, knock things over, and most in-game actions. The tech should get better over time. Adventure gaming, location exploration, seems to be the most interesting thing the Rift does, so why not let people use their own hands to do that exploring?
6 Replies
- Let me take this a step further and be more specific on how the Leap could be well used...
For getting around, you really should stick to a gamepad. That is the best way to navigate large areas. But once they get close enough to an object to interact with it, give the player a sign (fade the edges of the screen blue or something) suggesting they take one hand off the controller and actually REACH OUT for that virtual object. You should let them know when, and when not to, bother reaching. And always a one handed operation. One hand on the controller, one hand for the Leap.
Let them push open a door, turn on a light switch, knock over a pillar supporting a wall, pet a dog, smash a box, knock over a desktop computer, granny throw a ball, pick up an item, flick a switch, turn knobs. Even if the interaction is little more than a dumb collision, it will still be SOMETHING. The Rift already puts you in the world, the Leap can let them reach out and touch that world.
I would suggest "Ghost Hand", or some kind of plot device to explain why your hands come into, and out of existence. Have sparkles fly in and light up the bones the Leap uses, to show a hand materializing. The hand tracking isn't always 100% reliable, so a plot device like a ghost hand would make the player more understanding of their limitations. Maybe you're a little alien probe and the hand you use with the Leap is your tractor beam.
Because one hand is always on the controller, you have precision for tasks like inventory selection. Use the buttons to pick an item, and the Leap tracking the other hand to use it. If you're holding a gun, the controller could do the reload. And because the controller is never put down, players can easily run off if they need to, reverting back to the controller for quick navigation.
By using those two together, you get the best of both worlds. And because the Leap is stuck on the front of the Rift, it's always on hand for interactions. One hand for the Controller, one hand for the Leap. - Leap Motion + Oculus Rift + USB Pedal (for forward motion).
Might be interesting.
More information on the new Leap Motion stuff: https://www.leapmotion.com/product/vr
Just ordered my Leap Motion and Oculus Rift mount myself, so, I'll definitely be trying it out :D - I had a thought. I completely agree we need more Leap support. Why not also incorporate the Emotiv Epoc+ for more in game control such as spell casting or using sword skills and also the Cyberith Virtualizer for walking around in the Virtual World. That coupled with the Leap Motion and of course the Oculus Rift and you have an almost seamless game experience where you don't need to touch any controls and can do anything you can think of or virtually touch.
- I have tried the new Leap V2 SDK with a Rift mounted Leap and must say it works decent as long as there is not much external light and no objects in front of you. Sure, the tracking glitches every now and then, especially when the hands occlude each other, but it got a lot better compared to V1 SDK. There are ready made Unity assets for the leap controller and the image passthrough. Image passthrough is quite powerful in giving you feedback on when your lost tracking and I found people learn quickly to move their hands so the tracking catches them again.
However what is still horrible is the tapping gestures, never got them to work in more than 50% of the times, my own implementation being slightly more robust but still not reliable enough - The latency is actually very good but the software isn't really up to par yet. I hope it grows into something better, but its simply not a good peripheral to rely on right now for anything other than simple inputs.
It's not good enough to rely on heavily and its not common enough to rely on sporadically. That puts it in a hard place.
