Most VR games It relies on a pair of game controllers that you hold in your hands, just as you would any other regular console. And while the age of controller-free VR and AR sometimes seems just around the corner, Rogue Ascent, a new game on the Meta Quest App Store, is ready for that moment now.
This first-person shooter relies entirely on hand tracking, a feature that has been supported in Quest and Quest 2 for years. Although a lot of games and apps already use hand tracking, few are as high-intensity action games as a shooter. However, it doesn’t work as well as you think. According to the developers, rapid firing finger motions can be very stressful, so you attack by making “finger guns”, which fire automatically.
I’ve played some of the game myself and have found that the movements tend to be more broad than nuanced. Holding the hand on certain points moves forward. Lift and point your fingers to shoot. Hands together form a shield.
Hand tracking in VR games often reminds me of a motion tracking camera at long range Xbox Kinect, but there is a possibility that technology can advance. meta Quest 3 It may improve hand-tracking accuracy, and Apple’s expected mixed reality headset may not have physical controllers at all. Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth suggested last year that the ultimate goal for Quest hardware is to evolve into an optional controller design, but the company “isn’t there yet.”
If you’re curious, the game is now available for purchase. I don’t think it’s as good as playing with controllers, but it’s a sign that fitness and other games that use hand tracking might get better. This can make VR games easier to play if you find button-laden controllers overwhelming in the first place.
This won’t be the last handheld-only game for VR. As headphones get smaller and turn into glasses, this could become a new norm.