It can still have trouble in the expansion Batman: Arkham Shadow or shooters like Arizona Sunshine II function without such input.
However, the patent indicates that “the hand import device may include a haptic output device to give the user’s hands of haptic output,” and haptics – vibration – can dramatically improve the game in VR.
Play the game
The game Synth Riders is a good example of this. It was developed by Kluge Interactive and available on both Apple Vision Pro and more conventional Gaming-focused VR platforms. Beat saber. Orbs that represent musical beats fly to the player, who must fit the position of the bulbs with their hands, hit individual notes or follow the paths of it.
On platforms such as Quest of PlayStation VR, the haptics of the controllers wrist subtly as you catch and vibrate each partner gently as you detect the rails, and the feeling of feedback you immediately tell when you beat or miss a partner. It helps you measure where you can place your hands, and how to move your arms through the space of the game.
On Apple Vision Pro, your hands slide untouched by the air, traced by the headset’s external sensors, no tangible response to lead your performance. As a result, the same game feels much less accurate and more difficult to play in the experience of this author on Apple’s hardware. Haptic controllers can help relieve it, even if they do not allow Batman to fidget with his utility belt.
However, some games are completely happy without controllers on Apple Vision Pro, including Andrew Eiche, CEO of developer Owlchemy Labs. The studio is one of the longest VR developers -the breakthrough title Work simulator was the first game announced to SteamVR a decade ago, and has since been transferred from the HTC Vive to PSVR 2 and, from May 2024, the Vision Pro.
In a future where robots have replaced all labor, the game players who recreate the everyday work of the present usually see to comic effect. Even on platforms with controllers, Workimulator’s Gameplay is centered on the player who deals with objects around offices or kitchens using virtualized hands, so it was a natural fit for the Vision Pro.
“Right now, it feels like the industry is ‘withheld’ by not including controllers, but I claim to be an essential growth hood,” Eiche tells Wired. “I would like to see that VR – or XR, MR, are spatial, colorful, whatever we call it – mostly mainstream.”
“Hand detection is accessible to almost everyone. It’s something natural that you don’t have to look out of a headset to remember what the ‘B’ button is,” Eiche adds. “That’s not to say that controllers should be eliminated. I think [they’ll be] similar to [how] Smartphone controllers are an addition to power users who want that particular exact control with discrete input. “