Peripheral manufacturer Razer has launched a sale offering 50% off its motion controller the Hydra through April 25th. Oculus included the promo in its latest email update and indicates the promotion was organised in association with them, presumably to coincide with GDC 2013. The Razer Hydra offers 1:1 positional tracking of hands and is quickly becoming the go-to peripheral for virtual reality gaming.
The Razer Hydra has been used to great effect with in-development virtual reality games like Project Holodeck and Armored Ops. With the controller, developers can easily integrate 1:1 hand tracking. Each controller has a thumbstick and buttons on it as well, meaning you get the benefits of hand tracking without taking away the fidelity of traditional inputs. This makes the Razer Hydra a highly flexible peripheral for virtual reality interaction.
Starting today, you can grab a coupon code for 50% off the Razer Hydra by heading over to the promotion page through April 25th. Drop in your email and Razer will send you the code via email. With it, you can pick up the Razer Hydra or Razer Hydra Portal 2 bundle for $50 and $70 respectively.
Project Holodeck with the Razer Hydra
A little while back I had a chance to test out Project Holodeck, an immersive multiplayer virtual reality game that a team at USC is working on. the Razer. In the game you can grab a virtual joystick to fly an airship, swing swords, wield guns, and shoot cannons — all thanks to the Razer Hydra. The experience of naturally interacting with a VR game world with my hands, instead of just tapping buttons or moving thumb sticks, was a significant factor in immersing me in the game. You can see our time in Project Holodeck here: