Hardlight VR, a haptic feedback suit designed to deliver more immersive experiences, is no more.
Lucian Copeland, Head of R&D at creator Nullspace VR, announced the closure via a Kickstarter blog post last week, stating that the company was “simply out of money” after failing to raise further funds. Hardlight had initially raised $147,574 in crowd-funding in early 2017.
As Copeland outlined in the blog, all of this money was spent during the prototype and assembly phases of the product. In fact, the company even had to spend a further $60,000 garnered from other funding and money from friends and family to help cover the costs. The company also cited a “crippling software issue” outside of its control for the wireless version of the device that has stopped it from producing any physical version of it.
“We’re disappointed that we can’t do more to make haptics in VR a reality, but we’re thankful for the support we’ve received from those who shared our dream,” Copeland said.
Hardlight included a vest with 16 ‘haptic pads’ that covered the user’s chest, arms, shoulders, upper back and abdomen. When in action-oriented VR games, the suit would replicate areas where the VR user gets hit by, say, bullets or arrows though it could also handle more subtle interactions like feeling rain hit your body. Not only that, but the embedded tracking systems allowed users to bring their entire body into VR as a virtual avatar. Earlier this year Nullspace even announced that the fan-made Half-Life 2 VR would support the suit.
The was was expensive, however, with Kickstarter backer tiers including one suit for $549. Units were being sent out in batches.
“While we still love the idea of haptics in VR, it’s clear that the VR industry is moving far slower than we expected, and we have been unable to make our product or our company sustainable,” Copeland concluded. “Thank you all for your help in making the Hardlight a reality, if a short-lived one – I’m sorry we could not bring a more successful close to this project.”
