Oculus’ latest Software Developer Kit (SDK) has just been released, and adds support and documentation for a brand new ‘Enter’ button on the left controller not yet seen in the wild.

The Oculus Touch motion controller is on its way, and we now know it’ll arrive some time in Q4 this year along with a healthy selection of compatible games. But what we don’t know is precisely what that final consumer version will look like.

See Also: Hands-on: Oculus Touch 2016 Prototype Brings Refinements to an Already Elegant Design
See Also: Hands-on: Oculus Touch 2016 Prototype Brings Refinements to an Already Elegant Design

The latest Oculus PC SDK has just been released and the two highlighted features are to do with the new motion controllers from Oculus. The first indicates the addition of support and documentation for a new ‘Enter’ button, to be found only on the left hand controller. This differs from any version yet seen in the wild and seems to indicate the finalisation for the design of Oculus’ optically tracked devices will be right down to the wire.

According to the accompanying documentation, the new ‘Enter’ button is equivalent in function to the XBox One Wireless Controller’s ‘Start’ button, keeping consistency with Oculus’ other standard input device for the Rift.

ovrButton_Enter Enter button on the left Touch controller. This is equivalent to the Start button on the Xbox controller.

oculus-touch-2016-prototype-half-moon-prototype-comparison
A Comparison of the Oculus Touch Half Moon E3 Prototype (left) and 2016 Prototype (right) button layout. | Left photo courtesy Android Authority. Note, no ‘Enter’ button

The second highlighted feature is an additional haptic feedback method called “Buffered haptics”. According to the documentation the new method has been included to support a certain style of haptic feedback:

The SDK supports two types of haptics: buffered and non-buffered. Buffered haptics are designed to change rapidly (every 3.125ms) and work well for subtle effects. Non-buffered haptics are designed for simple effects that don’t change often (every 33ms).

According to a recent tweet from Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, the number of Oculus Touch developer kits that’ll be in developer’s hands will exceed 5000 by the time Touch launches before the end of the year.

You can find Oculus’ latest 1.6 PC SDK right here.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Foreign Devil

    I read on another website that someone discovered the new SDK supports up to 4 cameras now. Hinting that multiple camera setups for largers rooms may be an option.

    • Tad Springer

      The ‘Reality Check VR’ YouTube channel shows the 4 sensors (in Steam as well as Oculus Home), although he also shows Touch working perfectly in room scale with just 2 sensors on loads of room-scale Vive games! I hope the option to have 4 sensors means Oculus is going to officially support room scale with Touch! I can’t see why you’d ever need 4 sensors with just 180/270. Looks like you don’t really need them for 360 anyway but it would mean you’d basically have 0% chance of getting any occlusion, unless you lay on your Touch controller! :)

      • nathan

        DAMN and i was designing a cool new vr game with touch support called egg hatcher where you sit on your controllers and wait for them to hatch. well back to the drawing board.

        • Tad Springer

          Lol! :)

  • leadingones

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