A video from Derek Ham shows his latest iteration of a magnetized accessory for the Oculus Touch controllers which connect and align the controllers along a single axis.
After checking out the video (embedded below) showing a small accessory snapping onto the Oculus Touch controllers, I reached out to Ham with a few questions to get more details about the work he’s doing:
He wrote in an email it works exactly as shown — no physical modification to the Quest controllers or the game needed — and he “found the game play to be enhanced.” He wrote that he was at the F8 developer’s conference and ordered the Quest from his seat and that they’d already been working on the design for the older original Rift Touch controllers when the new standalone headset finally arrived. According to Ham, they went through 20 designs and 3D printed dozens of versions in the process. When used with the original Touch controllers “we have to use a small foam pad insert to compensate for the length (it’s slightly shorter than the new controllers) but overall our device works well with both.”
“Everyone wants to hold a lightsaber with two hands,” he wrote.
Ham wants to hold a Kickstarter campaign later this summer for the accessory which he’s calling the “AxeOne“. Ham has worked on a variety of other VR-related projects, including an early Cardboard app for The Bible.
“We have to balance the pull-strength of the magnets while not interfering with the magnetometer found inside the Oculus Controllers,” he wrote. “The AxeOne has so many VR applications beyond swords and lightsabers: shovels, axes, rowing a boat, and sweeping with a broom to name a few. And let’s not forget about the Darth Maul Saber hold.”
