Both Oculus and Valve have gone on the record to say that they'd be opening up their respective tracking systems for third-parties to make use of, but after a year, neither company is ready to talk specifics. So called '6DOF' (degrees of freedom) tracking is critical to virtual reality. VR systems need to know where your head is and precisely how it's moving through space in order to render a virtual world which moves around you as you would expect to see in real life. 6DOF tracking is also important for adding motion input to allow users to effortlessly interact with the virtual world. [caption id="attachment_45858" align="alignright" width="325"] See Also: Oculus Rift Teardown Offers Glimpse of Unique Lenses, LEDs, and More[/caption] Between the top desktop platforms, two leading systems have emerged. Oculus' 'Constellation' tracking uses an array of IR-LEDs tracked by an external camera while Valve/HTC's 'Lighthouse' system uses an array of photodiodes to track lasers emitted from two base stations. But extending those tracking systems beyond the head and hands has a wide range of uses; tracked third-party peripherals could open up a world of new opportunities for VR interactivity. One major use-case is simply mirroring the virtual item—be it a bat, golf club, sword, etc.—to the real object that the player is holding. This enhances immersion because not only is the object shaped and held just as it would be in real life, but the user benefits from all the expected forces like weight, leverage, and momentum from the object's mass. StrikerVR, for instance, is creating a VR gun peripheral which includes a powerful force feedback module so that it doesn't just feel like the player is holding a gun, but it feels like the gun is actually firing when the trigger is pulled. Third-party controllers with features that go beyond the first-party offering would also be viable with access to an established tracking system. Tactical Haptics, for instance, is creating a VR controller with 'Reactive Grip', a unique haptic solution which can create feedback not possible with rumble alone. Not to mention other VR headsets; FOVE, a Japanese firm making a headset with integrated eye tracking, had to renege on a Kickstarter promise to use Lighthouse tracking, instead opting to build their own tracking system for the time being. But companies like these—which would prefer to tie their devices into the existing tracking systems rather than create a redundant tracking system of their own—have been stymied by a lack of communication by Oculus and Valve regarding their plans for third-party access of Constellation and Lighthouse. Both companies have gone on record to say that they plan to open up their tracking systems, but have been extremely tight-lipped about timelines or specifics. I checked in with both companies recently and was told that there were 'no details to share at this time'. Continue Reading on Page 2 [caption id="attachment_44925" align="alignright" width="325"] See Also: Hands-on - Oculus Touch 2016 Prototype Brings Refinements to an Already Elegant Design[/caption] It was nearly a year ago, back at E3 2015, that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey told us that the company had plans to open up an API for third parties to tap into the Constellation tracking system. He was clearly enthusiastic about the ecosystem of peripherals that would be enabled by such a move. "[Oculus Touch is] never going to be better than truly optimized VR input for every game. For example, racing games: it’s always going to be a steering wheel. For a sword fighting game, you’re going to have some type of sword controller," Luckey said. "...I think you’re going to see people making peripherals that are specifically made for particular types of games, like whether they’re steering wheels, flight sticks, or swords, or gun controllers in VR." Valve too was bullish about their Lighthouse tracking system; more than a year ago, when the company had just revealed the HTC Vive, Valve head Gabe Newell said that at they wanted to give the tracking tech away for all to use. "So we're gonna just give [Lighthouse tech] away. What we want is for that to be like USB. It's not some special secret sauce," Newell told Engadget. "It's like everybody in the PC community will benefit if there's this useful technology out there. So if you want to build it into your mice, or build it into your monitors, or your TVs, anybody can do it." [caption id="attachment_41265" align="alignright" width="325"] See Also: Valve Shows off Miniscule Lighthouse Sensors[/caption] At one point, Valve engineers told us they envisioned one day releasing a 'puck'—a small standalone tracker possibly about the size of a casino chip—which could be affixed to track any arbitrary object with Lighthouse. In the meantime, eager folks are not content to wait and have instead been taping the HTC Vive controllers to all manner of objects to emulate direct integration of the tracking technology. [gfycat data_id="RedUnfitCorydorascatfish" data_autoplay=true data_controls=false] Developer Stress Level Zero attached one to a dog (who was virtually represented as an alien) with quite hilarious results. The same studio attached the controller to a huge sword prop for a more realistic way to play Ninja Trainer (now called Zen Blade). Yet another developer taped a controller to a pair of sandals to see what it would be like to have feet tracked in VR for a soccer game. Valve's Chet Faliszek, who has been closely involved with the company's VR projects, recently tweeted a photo of a Vive controller which had been haphazardly hacked into a gun-shaped peripheral and teased about "lighthouse dev kits." While we need to get the lighthouse dev kits out, it is fun to see the craziness/resourcefulness in the meantime. pic.twitter.com/Mv4qhKLH9G — Chet Faliszek (@chetfaliszek) April 30, 2016 It's not entirely clear what Faliszek may mean by the tweet, but given the context it seems he could be talking about a development kit of a standalone tracking module for Lighthouse. Given that it could mean increased developer interest, I'm quite surprised neither company has been vying to be first and best when it comes to opening up their tracking systems to third-parties. Surely both Oculus and Valve/HTC have been busy dealing with some not-so-smooth initial launches, but it's clear that there's demand from developers and companies to track more than just head and heads in VR.