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META QUEST

Two VR projects built on shared-space tracking and hand tracking. Both are interface problems first: how a person reaches, moves and sees others in a space that is partly real.

OCULUS CONNECT 5 · SEPTEMBER 2018 · OCULUS QUEST

Oculus Quest Arena: Colocation

Six players walk into the same real room and play in the same virtual world. There are no cameras on the walls and no base stations. Each headset works out where it is, and every player sees everyone else exactly where they physically stand.

The arena was taped out like a game level. The crates players ducked behind in Dead and Buried were real crates they could touch. Mixed reality let players see their own bodies and each other, so they could move quickly without running into anyone.

EVENT
Oculus Connect 5
PLAYERS
6 at once
PLAY AREA
About 4,000 sq ft
TRACKING
Oculus Insight, inside-out
GAME
Dead and Buried Arena

WHAT HAD TO WORK

  • An interface that kept up. Menus, hit feedback and game information had to stay readable while players moved around a large room.
  • Headsets in sync. Every unit located itself on one shared map of the room, so each player’s frame of reference lined up with everyone else’s.
  • Real movement, virtual result. Where a player walked, ducked or reached in the room is where their character did in the game.
  • One map, shared over the network. The room was mapped once and shared with every device in it, with real obstacles matched to their in-game counterparts.
  • Beyond headsets. A tablet could join the same map, so someone without a headset could walk the room and watch the action from their own position.

WHY IT MATTERS

The co-location approach is covered by a patent and is used by multiple VR experiences today.

IMAGES

A player aims at an opponent from behind a crate.
Crates doubled as cover and carried game art.
The team at the Dead and Buried Arena booth.
In game: the western town.
In game: the saloon.
Diagram: hands tracked by another user’s system in a shared space.
Meta Quest headsets.
Oculus Connect 5.

VIDEOS

Oculus Quest Arena ‘Colocation’ With Dead And Buried

Oculus Quest WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! | Arena Size Gameplay

Event details from Oculus: Oculus: Playing with the Future (Meta developers) and Oculus Insight powers beyond room-scale VR gaming.

Tiny Castles logo

OCULUS QUEST · APP LAB · HAND TRACKING

Tiny Castles

Tiny Castles is a VR action puzzle game designed completely around a patented hand-tracking technology. Players use their own hands, and can articulate them in many real-world ways to interact with objects, characters and the world around them.

The design question was simple: if the hand is the controller, what should a hand be able to do without being taught? Every interaction starts from something a person already knows how to do.

PLATFORM
Oculus Quest (App Lab)
INPUT
Hand tracking
GENRE
Action puzzle
PRICE
Free on App Lab, per the trailer

DESIGNED AROUND THE HAND

  • Grab and pinch. Pick things up, pull and pinch levers.
  • Force grab and force push. Reach for objects at a distance and push them away.
  • Tether teleportation. Move through the level with a hand gesture.
  • Punch obelisks, press pressure plates. The whole hand, not just the fingertips, can solve a puzzle.
  • A Playground to learn in. A built-in Playground lets players try each interaction in four tiers: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Experimental.

IMAGES

A single hand reaching through a doorway.
Both hands casting fire.
The Playground menu, with its four tiers.
Oculus Quest, the headset it runs on.

VIDEOS

Tiny Castles - Trailer - An Oculus Quest ‘App Lab’ game

Tiny Castles Oculus Quest Hand Tracking action puzzle game!