The Vive accessory market is about to get a huge boost thanks to the newly announced HTC Vive Tracker. Gaming, training, and more benefit from the enhanced immersion that comes from wielding "real" tools, weapons, and instruments. Today I was a sniper, a firefighter, and a professional baseball player, all thanks to VR. I've actually done all of those things in VR before, but this time I actually held a real (mock) gun, a high-pressure hose-nozzle, and a regulation baseball bat, and the immersion was far greater than just pretending a controller was any of those things. While motion controllers are great for in-home use and cover a wide range of general VR uses cases, there's always going to be niche experiences that benefit from having the genuine article in your hands. For the most part, pistols are fine with a generic motion controller, but if you want to do virtual long range shooting, you're going to want a proper rifle-shaped device so that you can hold it in the right position, look down the scope, and keep the stock to your shoulder. [gallery type="rectangular" ids="57573,57571,57569,57570"] Thankfully, HTC's new Vive Tracker is about to make specialized VR accessories way easier to use for both consumers and out-of-home VR businesses. The self-contained device is tracked by the same system as the Vive headset and controllers, and can be easily attached to everyday objects or custom-built VR accessories. With an integrated battery and its own wireless connection to the host computer, the device not only tracks objects, but can also send information like button presses and trigger pulls to the computer. With all tracking and input unified into the same system that VR devs already know how to build for makes things easier all around. [gallery type="rectangular" ids="57580,57579,57574"] As a testament to the Vive Tracker's breadth of uses, HTC today showed off the device with integrations across a huge range of different use-cases thanks to accessories from a number of partners. Everything from gloves to guns to bats, and even a "real" virtual camera were demonstrated. Among a number of experiences which used the Vive Tracker with specialized accessories, here's what it was like to be a sniper, a baseball player, and a fireman in VR. VRsenal VR-15 and 'The Nest' – Sniper VRsenal had their VR-15 gun controller and haptic backpack running with The Nest, a sniping game for the Vive. The VR-15 had formerly housed an entire HTC Vive controller, but has newly integrated the Vive Tracker into the gun. The rifle, which is built for out-of-home VR systems, is appropriately heavy and robust, and includes a trigger along with two joysticks on either side of the foregrip for interacting with the game (in The Nest, this was used to toggle zoom power). [gallery type="rectangular" ids="57585,57582"] This version of The Nest had an integrated 3D model of the VR-15 that was identical to the controller in my hands. Sniping enemies at a distance from the vantage point of a small, high window was a blast thanks to the realistic weapon, which allowed me to tilt my head down to get an angle on the gun's virtual scope. Unlike trying to use a two-handed weapon like a rifle with two disconnected VR controllers, it was easy to use my forehand for subtle adjustments before firing, and the weight of the gun meant I didn't get that annoying shaking that can easily be seen in VR when a large virtual object is connected to a much smaller real object (like the Vive controller). When I finally squeezed the trigger, the haptic backpack I was wearing gave me a very satisfying rumble that added to the immersion. Continue Reading on Page 2 >> 'DiamondFX' – Baseball TrinityVR's DiamondFX is a virtual reality platform for baseball batting training and data analysis that's aimed squarely at the major league. The company has created a mount that attaches the Vive tracker to the bottom of a regulation baseball bat. While we've seen and enjoyed virtual reality baseball games in the past, there's nothing like gripping a real bat and swinging its full weight through the air. Not only is it more immersive, but for professional data capture and analysis, players can't be swinging with anything but the real deal. Aside from being a little worried that I was going to seriously harm someone in the busy conference area where I was testing the system, using the bat added significantly to the experience. Because I was holding an actual bat, my swing was... well, exactly like my swing would be in real life. The proper weight (and weight distribution) ensured that my form was accurate to my actual form, rather than a parody of it (had I been mocking a swing while holding a Vive controller). In the experience the pitcher threw balls to me (no doubt significantly slowed down for us amateurs), and after a few misses practice swings I managed a couple of shots up the first base line (a sign that—as a right-handed batter—I'm swinging too late). DiamondFX's slow-motion replay—which showed me the exact trajectory of the prior pitch and how I swung at it—allowed me to make some adjustments and get my hits a little closer to center field. The cool part is that this practice can directly translate to hitting a real baseball because the essential elements are replicated 1:1 between virtual reality and actual reality, thanks to DiamondFX and the Vive Tracker. Flaim – Fireman Flaim is a virtual reality system designed to train firefighters. The system uses the HTC Vive Tracker as an attachment to the end of a real fire hose nozzle (where it blends in quite well), allowing the nozzle to be tracked inside the simulation. The hose is attached to a motorized reel which simulates the reverse forces that come with shooting water forward at a high pressure. With the tracked nozzle you can put out fires by aiming and varying the water pressure. The force-feedback reel is strong enough to knock you down if you don't brace yourself when you go full blast. Flaim also has a real firefighter's jacket that's equipped with heating elements that get hotter as the flames grow around you. Training like this could work with just a normal VR controller, but the Vive Tracker opens the door to using a real hose nozzle so that you aren't just learning the strategy of putting out a fire, but also how to operate the nozzle at the same time—once again allowing for a direct translation of the most important elements of training into the real world. From entertainment to sports data analysis to learning how to fight fires, these uses are just a glimpse of what people will be able to do with VR when it's easy to track any object.