Category: controllers

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GameSir G3s Controller Review: Comfortable and Versatile for VR Gaming

GameSir G3s Controller Review: Comfortable and Versatile for VR Gaming

Something like a gamepad is often overlooked when it comes to the most essential, necessary items for a gamer to have in their arsenal. If you play on PC, then your keyboard and mouse are likely your bread and butter. Console gamers have their dedicated PS4 and Xbox One controllers — both of which are excellent and extremely high-quality. But with the advent of VR headsets, the need for a capable and comfortable gamepad is more important than ever.

If you have a Gear VR then you’ll need a good bluetooth controller to play many of the best games. If that controller is functional enough, you may even be able to use it on the PC for Rift and Vive games as well, or even on your game consoles. In the case of the GameSir G3s, it aims to satisfy most all of your needs at a mid-range affordable price.

I’ve used a lot of gamepads over the years. Everything from the NES all the way to the modern consoles plugged into my 4K TV right now — I’ve tried it all. I’ve purchased and used a litany of third-party controllers as well, from the classicly janky Mad Catz brand to the functional but not remarkable Logitech series, there’s something out there for all platforms and pocket books.

In terms of VR functionality, all you really need is something that has one or two triggers/bumpers, two analog sticks, and face buttons. As long as it can mimic an Xbox controller, you should be fine. For the low budget end of the equation, I always recommend the POWER A Moga Hero. It’s under $20 and can fit into any pouch, pocket, or bag you’d want. For Gear VR users it’s the ultimate wireless, portable, bluetooth controller. But it’s only recommended if you’re willing to make compromises for quality. On the high-end of bluetooth controllers is the SteelSeries Stratus XL, which feels and plays just like any other quality gamepad, but it’ll cost you $50-$60 most of the time.

From my experience, the GameSir G3s is a great mid-range option that sits comfortably between the other two controllers mentioned above.

It’s lighter than both of the other controllers mentioned, even the smaller POWER A Moga Hero, and weighs less than the PS4’s DualShock 4 and Xbox One gamepad. That light weight isn’t always a positive though, as a bit of heftiness in your hand is sometimes preferable and can help it feel sturdier. As a result, it doesn’t have the most amazing build quality. Comfort is great, as the plastic handles are shaped almost identically to the Xbox One controller’s and the matte finish is very smooth, but it did end up feeling fragile if things got particularly heated.

The actual points of interaction, such as the analog sticks, buttons, and triggers, are a conglomeration of designs from other controllers. The face buttons are arranged in the same layout as the Xbox controller’s with Y, B, A, and X in clockwise formation, starting from the top. When powered on, they even light up with subtle backlights mimicking the Xbox’s control scheme. The D-pad is also reminiscent of Microsoft’s controller as a fully connected plus sign and glossy plastic finish.

The analog sticks have a texture that’s similar to the Xbox’s controller, but they’re both in the center of the gamepad like PlayStation’s, with concave thumb rests. The two triggers and bumper buttons also feel similar to the DualShock 4, with textured grips to assist your fingers. At the center is the GameSir menu button which lights up with a blue glow, Start, Select, Clear, and Turbo. You can charge it with the included USB cable and it reportedly should last approximately 18 hours on a full charge, but even half that is more than enough for a few game sessions.

When using it with your PC, you can connect it through the included cable, or over Bluetooth 4.0. When playing on Gear VR I utilized the Bluetooth connection. It was responsive and painless to use, although the pairing process was a bit finicky, but that’s the case with all Bluetooth devices in most cases. You can also use the controller with other Android devices, such as your mobile phone or tablet, as well as a PS3.

Final Recommendation: Definitely Worth It

The GameSir G3s isn’t the best Bluetooth controller I’ve ever used — the SteelSeries Stratus XL still probably wins out in that regard in terms of pure quality — but considering how close the GameSir G3s gets for a fraction of the price makes it an easy option to check out. It’s not quite as portable as the POWER A Moga Hero, but it’s immensely better from a quality perspective. All things considered, the GameSir G3s has earned its place as my go-to recommendation for a capable, comfortable, and versatile Bluetooth controller that feels great for mobile and PC-based VR experiences.

You can pick up the GameSir G3s from Amazon right now for $29.99. The standard price is listed as $79.99, which seems bizarre. We’d only recommend grabbing this one if it’s cheaper than the SteelSeries Stratus XL when you’re checking, as it is currently. Upload was provided with a free sample unit for review.

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Simple PlayStation Move Mod Brings Dual Analog Control To PSVR Games

Simple PlayStation Move Mod Brings Dual Analog Control To PSVR Games

PlayStation VR is a very capable headset, but it does have one glaring weakness: the PlayStation Move controllers.

Sony’s positiontally-tracked wands bring your hands into VR with relative accuracy, but they pale in comparison to the HTC Vive’s wands or Oculus Touch controllers. A lot of that has to do with occlusion, as turning away from the PlayStation Camera tracking your position will instantly lose tracking, but there’s also a noticeable lack of a dedicated navigation feature on the device such as a control stick or touch pad. That makes movement in the few first-person games that do use two controllers stiff and awkward, as seen in titles like Loading Human [Review: 4/10].

Winnipeg-based Playhouse Studio may have accidentally stumbled upon an ingenious solution to this problem five years ago, though.

Take a look at the video above for a system called DualPLAY, which was published in November 2012. It shows a peripheral that links the Move to its companion device, the Navigation Controller, that launched alongside the main unit in 2010. In theory it’s a pretty simple add-on for the kit, but here’s the important bit: each Navigation Controller has a DualShock-style analogue stick fitted to it.

What it doesn’t have is its own light for the camera to positionally track, but by tethering the two together you get a workaround that gives you the best of both worlds. As seen in the video, the player can move through the world with the intuitive controls they’ve come to master over the past two decades of gaming while still accessing the full range of tracking featured in Move.

It’s not an ideal locomotion solution; artificial movement with sticks has been known to cause simulation sickness for some VR users, but it certainly gives PS VR owners some much-requested new options.

The video was shot long before PlayStation VR would be revealed, though its creators have gone back to make mention of the headset in the title. It features gameplay elements that have become commonplace in today’s VR industry.

Of course as a third-party experiment and not an official Sony peripheral, it’s not likely that DualPLAY would gather a lot of software support on PSVR in this day and age. But it’s definitely something Sony itself could consider as an inexpensive way for players to further enhance their VR gaming experience without having to release an entirely new controller.

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Nyko Unveils PS VR and HTC Vive Charging Docks and Other Accessories at CES

Nyko Unveils PS VR and HTC Vive Charging Docks and Other Accessories at CES

As someone that has a PS VR, Gear VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift all in the same apartment, cables, controllers, and headsets are often scattered everywhere. Beside my couch in the living room I’ve luckily got the POWER A Charge and Display Station for my PS VR already, but my home office has the Gear VR, Rift, and Vive, scattered about, in addition to motion controllers and gamepads. There just frankly isn’t enough desk space or an organized way to store them all. Don’t even get me started with how often my Vive controllers are dead when I go to try and use them.

Nyko is on track to try and alleviate some of the issues, at least when it comes to charging/displaying. At CES 2017 this week in Las Vegas, NV, the tech company is debuting a variety of accessories for both the PS VR and HTC Vive. In total, there are two charging devices for PS VR, one for the HTC Vive, and another Vive accessory all on display.

First up is the Charge Block for PS VR. Oddly enough, it doesn’t technically have anything to do with the PS VR headset at all. The HMD itself (the thing that’s actually called the PS VR) is wired and doesn’t use a battery for anything. What this block actually does is give you a docking charge station for your PlayStation Move controllers while they’re not in use. The motion controllers were released far before the PS VR and aren’t necessary for many of the platform’s games. The Charge Block will be available this year for $19.99.

Also for Sony’s system is the Charge Link for PS VR which is, again, for the Move controllers and not actually for the PS VR itself. This is just a 10-feet long Y-shaped USB cord that lets you charge both of the motion controllers while continuing to use them. The Charge Link will be available this year for $14.99.

For the HTC Vive, Nyko unveiled the Charge Base. This is a charging dock for your Vive wand controllers with two slots — one for each controller. A small dongle adapter slides into the controller itself and it then stands straight up while the base is plugged in to charge. It’s a bit more elegant than plugging each controller into the wall directly. The Charge Base will be available this year for $29.99.

Finally, Nyko showed off the VR Halo for the HTC Vive. Despite the fact that it at first sounds like another new headband design, it’s actually a padded slip-on cover for your HTC Vive controller’s crown. We all know how violent some VR game scan get, so the VR Halo is designed to protect the devices from wear and tear — as well as hopefully a tad of blunt force wall damage. They’ve designed it so that it doesn’t interfere with any tracking. The VR Halo covers will be available this year for $9.99 each.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on all of the VR accessory news we hear from CES 2017 this week and you can visit Nyko’s official website for more information.

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‘The Assembly’ Developer nDreams Was ‘Blindsided’ By Motion Controls

‘The Assembly’ Developer nDreams Was ‘Blindsided’ By Motion Controls

nDreams’ The Assembly [Review: 7/10] was in development for a much longer time than many of the VR games you’ll have played in the last nine months.

I remember first hearing the name of the adventure game all the way back in May 2014, where studio CEO Patrick O’Luanaigh name dropped it ahead of an official reveal at that year’s E3. Back then we were waiting on the Oculus Rift DK2 to start shipping, and VR input was still largely based around the traditional controller. It would be nearly a full year before HTC would revolutionize VR control with its Vive wands, and over a year until Oculus would reveal Touch.

When a traditional game has been in development for a long time, it usually means the team behind it has more time to polish the visuals and presentation, and iron out bugs. For early VR games, though, a few extra months of development can be the difference between releasing a state of the art piece of software or yesterday’s news. The Assembly benefited from releasing on Rift early into its controller-only phase, but its Vive version was arguably dated.

Studio Marketing Manager Ben Finch says the team was “blindsided” by the demand for motion controls upon release.

“We looked at it and were like ‘Yeah, maybe we’ve not quite judged it as well as we should have done’,” he says. “We’ve achieved what we set out to do, but that wasn’t necessarily what everyone wanted us to do.”

But nDreams is making it right; The Assembly now supports Touch and the Vive wands, and will be getting PlayStation VR support within the next week. It doesn’t completely change the game, as they act more like pointers than a pair of hands within a virtual environment, but their inclusion will still come as a welcome change for many, and maybe a signal that the gamepad is no longer a suitable input solution for first-person VR games, at least on PC. Even Google’s Daydream has made steps toward hand controls on mobile VR with its Wii remote-like controller.

“It’s interesting,” Finch says, “because there’s certain games within VR that you can’t see ever working without motion control. I suppose if you’re a first-person game which is based around exploration like The Assembly, then maybe it’s less tolerant than a game where you’re locked to a cockpit or not in first-person or something like that.”

I suggest that the situation is a byproduct of the time that The Assembly started development, and Finch agrees. It’s a problem that only a few other titles have — Iris VR’s Technolust also springs to mind — and will surely be resolved for their second wave of games.

Perhaps it’s a sign that Oculus could have done a better job letting developers get involved with Touch earlier, or that it should have been announced earlier? The question is, what’s in the works for VR hardware right now that today’s developers should be working on for tomorrow?

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Facebook’s Prototype Touch Controllers Let You Feel The Heat Of Fire And Chill Of Ice

Facebook’s Prototype Touch Controllers Let You Feel The Heat Of Fire And Chill Of Ice

It might seem a little early to ask, but what do you want to see in the next Oculus Touch? Improved gesture control? Added resistance to haptics? How about the ability to feel the chill of ice and the scorching heat of flames on your hands?

The latter concept might not be too far off. In fact, members of Facebook have already created a first prototype for an internal hackathon, and they showed it off this week via a live stream. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social networking giant, was joined by several company figureheads like Head of Engineering Jay Parikh and CTO Mike Schroepfer, along with a member of what was nicknamed the Oculus ‘Fire and Ice’ team. The demonstration starts about a minute into the below video.

He presented two Touch controllers, each of them wired up to a concealed piece of hardware. Without entering VR, the Facebook team took turns in holding the controller around a campsite environment. With manual programming, they could hold their hands to a fire and feel the controller heat up, and then cool them by taking their hands away or holding other items around the camp. Blue and orange orbs would grow around the user’s virtual hands to visually communicate the intensity of the temperature.

According to the engineer, who wasn’t named, the prototype used two peltier coolers which “take advantage” of the “thermoelectric effect”, which turns a voltage difference into a temperature difference. The prototype obviously wasn’t perfect, and it was noted that after continued use the controller couldn’t get as cold as it would at the start of a play session.

As such, it’s not ready for integration with consumer tech right now. Apparently the concept would run down a smartphone battery in about 18 minutes, though the engineer did note that you could use “haptic illusions” to continue simulating the temperature without using the coolers at all times.

In other words, we could be getting a very early look at a feature for a future version of Touch. Of course, the first iteration only launched earlier this week, and we were very impressed with it, so we’re unlikely to see an updated release any time soon. Still, with how fast the VR industry moves it’s anyone’s guess as to when we’ll see Touch 2.

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SteamVR Beta Now Renders Oculus Touch Controllers In VR

SteamVR Beta Now Renders Oculus Touch Controllers In VR

SteamVR, Valve’s foundation for VR experiences running on its digital store, has supported Oculus’ Touch controllers since June. Today, though, that support has received a major beta update.

Though SteamVR previously let you use Touch in games that supported position-tracked controls, they would appear as the Vive wands in VR, unless the given experience used its own specific model for hands. Several people have now reported that SteamVR has integrated rendered models of Touch. That means when you’re using the controllers and you’re meant to see them in VR, you’ll see what you’re actually holding, and not the HTC equivalent.

While it won’t make a huge difference to the experiences themselves — controls and interactions will remain the same — it will certainly help players get a better sense of where their hands really are in the virtual world. You can see the controllers in action on SteamVR in the tweet below from Paintey and Climbey developer, Brian Lindenhof. Users are also reporting that you can see the Touch controllers in Audioshield [Review: 7/10], a game that isn’t currently available on Oculus Home.

Oculus Touch launched earlier this week with well over 50 launch titles, many of which were already available on Vive. If you opt-in to play games outside of Oculus Home, you’ll be able to use them in compatible Steam games that support this type of input.

As for using Vive controllers in Touch exclusive games via ReVive, don’t expect a reversal of the situation, though that’s somewhat understandable, as that’s a hack and not Oculus allowing Vive owners access to its content.

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Oculus Touch Review: The World’s Best VR Controller

Oculus Touch Review: The World’s Best VR Controller

Oculus Touch officially launches tomorrow and when it does it will make the Oculus Rift a more viable and powerful virtual reality platform than ever before.

There’s a lot of pressure on Touch to be a success. The Rift’s biggest competitor, the HTC Vive, was able to enjoy the better part of  a year as the only  PC-powered VR system to boast hand-tracked controllers. Now, Touch has the chance to level the playing field between rivals in an attempt to make Oculus the most compelling VR ecosystem on the planet.

We’ve spent the past few weeks putting Touch through its paces and we’re ready to make the call: is this add-on enough to give Oculus parity, and perhaps even an edge, in the market? Or is it just an expensive lesson for the company in the importance of being first to market? Let’s find out.

Table of Contents

Set-Up

Tutorial

Functionality

Ergonomics

Performance

Software

Final Verdict

Set-Up

Set up has always been an area in which Oculus shines. A few clicks in the settings menu gets you to the “add Touch” dropdown option. Once you launch that you’re walked through a very helpful, animated setup tutorial. Syncing the wireless Touch controllers with your PC is as simple as holding two buttons on each controller for less than 30 seconds. The trickier bit is getting the new dual-sensor setup appropriately placed.

Unlike the Oculus headset, Touch requires two sensors to function properly. This means that you’ll need to prepare a bit more space than you did before and be extra mindful of sensor placement. For example, putting the cameras too close together or too far apart will trigger an error during setup and getting the exact right configuration can take several attempts. However, the setup guide’s job is to get you as close to an optimal setup as possible. You can skip any steps at any time if you ever think the guide itself is being a bit too overprotective.

In most cases you can go from opening your controllers to using them in less than five minutes, assuming you already have your Rift ready to go. Even if you don’t, the entire system can be good-to go in under ten. Not bad at all. If you’re going to try experimental 360-degree or room-scale tracking, however, it is a bit more involved. Here’s our breakdown of that process.

 

Tutorial

After you’ve finished setup you’ll be taken through the tutorial for Oculus Touch itself. This is triggered automatically whenever you enact the “add touch” process in settings. The tutorial is made up of two brief experiences, each designed to get you used to the varied capabilities of your new controllers.

The first space you’ll find yourself in is an ethereal white-grey environment where a silky female voice walks you through the most basic features of Touch. This unseen narrator will guide you through the unique buttons, analog sticks, and gesture controls on each device. Once you’ve proven to your all-seeing guide that you can manipulate each controller, you’ll be teleported into the next experience in the tutorial and that is where things get truly interesting.

First Contact is, as the name suggests, the first real VR experience in which you’ll utilize your new Touch controllers. It’s the “World 1-1” of Oculus Touch and, just as the famous Super Mario Bros. level did decades ago, it teaches you what you’re capable of in this new digital world without ever stating too directly what it is you’re supposed to do.

First Contact only takes about five minutes to complete if your goal is just to blaze through it, but first timers will likely spend longer enjoying all that the brilliantly crafted demo has in store.

A helpful robot companion hands you a variety of cartridges inside of a tinkerer’s trailer. Each unlocks a new tool that can be manipulated using Touch and each drops a different use case for the controllers into your mind for later use. Physics based inputs, gunplay, picking things up, throwing, waving etc. It’s all covered in this brief walk through.

Overall, First Contact is a well-crafted tutorial that does a good job getting even the most inexperienced VR novice up to speed. And it does so with style and personality.

 

Functionality

Functionality and ergonomics are the two areas where Oculus Touch really puts its competition to shame. Touch can simply do everything that an HTC Vive or PlayStation Move controller can do with even more thrown in on top.

Just like a Vive wand, Touch lets you pick up virtual objects with a side grip button, fire virtual firearms with a trigger, and it eschews the click/touch pad of the Vive wand for a pair of classic, clickable analog sticks. This gives Touch all of the viability of the Vive wands, and quite a bit more than the PS Move controller, which lacks a dedicated analog stick facsimile, but it doesn’t stop there.

Touch is the first commercially available VR controller to enable gesture-based controls through the movement of your fingers. These are mostly limited to raising your thumb and forefinger, but the use cases for these natural gestures in different gaming and social experiences are surprisingly varied. For example, rather than simply mashing a full hand into an elevator button you can now extend your index finger to select a specific button just like in real life. Or, you can raise a quick thumbs up to a friend while you battle zombies together, or even once you’ve vanquished her in some multiplayer experience.

The ability to execute such nuanced inputs may sound simple, but they actually go quite a long way toward making Oculus’ VR experiences feel like the most interactive and immersive in the industry thus far.

 

Ergonomics

Oh boy you’re in for a treat here. The Touch controllers’ ergonomic design is nothing short of a masterpiece. These little beauties are so impossibly light and well designed that they simply melt away in your hands. This is exactly what you want for VR which is all about limiting any reminders of the outside world once you put on that headset.

Because of the intentionally crafted shape and design of Touch, squeezing the grip button or the triggers to pick up a gun and fire it feels realistic and natural. Other VR controllers feel like you’re holding sticks that become virtual objects, Touch feels like you’re picking up that virtual object itself.

The action on the triggers, buttons, and analog sticks are all just right. There’s just enough resistance to give you some nice tactile feedback, but not enough to fatigue your fingers when you’re gripping or shooting for extended periods.

The haptic feedback from inside Touch is impressive as well. The vibration motors in each controller feel mighty, capable of providing subtle jolts when you pick a machine gun up or letting loose a real kick when you fire it. The one drawback here is that they are also almost shockingly loud for controllers their size. This is never a problem once your ears are nestled between the built-in Oculus headphones, but it is something to be aware of when it comes to spouses, roommates, and coworkers.

 

Performance

This is the trickiest category to quantify when it comes to Touch. The performance of these controllers is directly related to the performance of the Oculus positional tracking system itself. The Oculus sensors detect and map infrared lights placed on the headset, and now on the Touch controllers as well. As long as the sensors can “see” the controller’s lights they work absolutely perfectly. The problem, however, is that the sensors sometimes forget their glasses. When we didn’t set up the sensors properly for full coverage, the virtual hands just sort of floated away and then disappeared when tracking is lost. This didn’t happen when we strictly followed the Oculus recommended setup, so your mileage may vary quite a bit if you don’t set up the sensors right.

The long and short of it is this: if you have the space and resources to run an ideal setup with the sensors positioned the way Oculus recommends then you’ll likely have no troubles with your hands or desk occluding the lights and causing your virtual hands to fail. If you can spring for a three camera, roomscale setup then even better. However, if you’re trying to make due with a smaller space or an irregular area, then it may take some trial and error to find the sweet spot without any dead zones.

When you don’t set up the sensors properly for full coverage, the virtual hands just sort of floated away and then disappear when tracking is lost. For us, this didn’t happen when we strictly followed the Oculus recommended setup, even when reaching all the way to the ground, so your mileage may vary quite a bit if you don’t set up the sensors the way they were intended.

Software

As always, Oculus and its Facebook dollars have done an incredible job fleshing out the launch library for Touch. Dead and Buried, Ripcoil and The Unspoken are some of the best multiplayer VR games we’ve seen thus far. Quill and Medium are set to give Tilt Brush a run for its money as king of immersive, 3D artwork. And the multi-platform titles like Arizona Sunshine, I Expect You to Die, and Job Simulator feel fantastic on Touch.

There are over 50 games to play with Touch right away from within the Oculus Home Store, which is a huge library by any standard, several of which are free. With millions of dollars to play with and visionaries like Jason Rubin driving content at every opportunity, this lengthy list of awesome experiences is just the beginning. Not to mention all of the Steam VR titles that should work with little issue.

 

Final Verdict

Oculus Touch is the best VR controller made to-date. Period.

Its design is as close to perfect as we’ve seen and Touch has enough software between Oculus Home and Steam to keep you captivated for months. It performs perfectly in recommended setup conditions, and its finger controls should be a standard-setting innovation for the rest of the industry.

Touch is a major step forward for VR hardware and we wouldn’t be surprised to see its basic construction and key features built upon by competitors and future Oculus iterations for years to come.

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New Pre-Orders For Oculus Touch Might Not Ship Until Christmas Week

New Pre-Orders For Oculus Touch Might Not Ship Until Christmas Week

The Oculus Touch is the long awaited peripheral that will take the virtual reality experience of the Oculus Rift to greater heights. The HTC Vive launched with two motion controllers and has supplied us with great examples of what the virtual reality game and application ecosystem could be in the future, but that’s not to take away from the Rift’s available programs. Touch is slated for launch on December 6th, but it looks like newer pre-orders will be experiencing a bit of a delay.

On the Oculus site, you’ll notice a little extra message right before you complete the pre-order process for the Touch controllers: The estimated date for Touch orders to be shipped is currently set between December 16th and 21st, a solid tick after the December 6th launch date. That’s nowhere near some of the delays the Rift itself suffered at launch, but we do still have a couple weeks before official release so we’ll keep our eyes on the estimated delivery to see if it gets further out as demand grows.

The Oculus Touch is also still available to pre-order at Amazon and Best Buy and, while there’s no indication that they won’t be fulfilling all orders on December 6th, that’s certainly not to say it isn’t a possibility. Despite any of this, the Touch controller’s addition to the market is important. Touch combined with the Vive controllers along with Daydream’s motion controller for the mobile solution raises a strong foundation for game developers to build upon.

The Vive ecosystem is flush with immersive experiences that Rift users are missing out on, but Touch is expected to bridge that gap. It already has games that are begging for Touch compatibility, games like The Climb, and thankfully developers of many Rift games are working on updates to patch in Touch support. Be sure to check out our list of 9 of the best Vive games available along with the best Oculus Rift games.

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