 I've been waiting months to wave, point, and give you a thumbs up in the Oculus Rift. And now, I can finally do it. Motion controls are one of the big things that makes virtual reality a totally new format and not just a fancy screen. But when Oculus shipped its Rift headset this spring, its motion controllers weren't ready. It came with an Xbox One controller, which wasn't outright bad, but felt limiting. Like the Rift was incomplete. But just before the holidays, Oculus has fixed that. Let's go back to reality and take a look. Unlike PlayStation Move or the Vive's controllers, the Oculus Touch controllers are molded for each hand, powered by disposable batteries. On each one, you'll find a trigger for your forefinger and a grip button that you'll squeeze by making a fist. Like the Xbox One controller, it has a total of four face buttons and two analog sticks, plus little buttons for menu options. Oculus Touch reflects your hand motion in a way that's surprisingly close to just, you know, using your hands. For one thing, there are sensors all over each controller, so it can tell where your hands are resting, whether or not you're pushing a button. It can't articulate every finger, but it can guess that you're giving somebody a thumbs up or pointing your finger to poke something in VR. Even though it's not serving a gameplay purpose, this is one of the little things that makes Touch intuitive. VR experiences still have to vastly simplify your hand gestures, but it turns out that one of the constants is picking things up and holding them, and Touch does this really well. Closing your fingers around the grip button really feels like grabbing something, in a way that squeezing the Vive's slightly awkward grip doesn't. It's a consistent standard that works across almost every game, and it leaves one finger, the one on the upper trigger, free for other interactions. The analog sticks can be used for anything from choosing a teleportation spot to beaming objects around, and as with other motion controllers, you can wave touch to simulate throwing a fireball, waving to a robot, shooting a gun, or just about any other interaction. The touch controllers use a band of LEDs and the same external tracking camera that the Oculus Rift uses. The box includes a second camera in order to widen your range, and Oculus suggests you stagger them 3-7 feet apart in front of you. After you've set them up, you draw a line around your available space to create what Oculus calls the Guardian Boundary. It's similar to the Vive Chaperone, except that instead of snapping into a polygon, the Guardian system directly follows the shape of your line. So try to draw straight. The two cameras can track a wide range with excellent precision, but they can't track what they can't see, so touch becomes less reliable when you turn around. For true room-scale VR like you'd get on the Vive, Oculus tells you to buy a third camera, which it's selling for another $80. If you stick with games on the Oculus Store, this doesn't seem to be much of an issue. They're subtly designed so you're almost always facing forward, even if you're teleporting all around a map in a wizard duel or doing slow-motion firefights. And this gives you a pretty good catalog. The best games we've seen aren't really long, but they're very replayable, and they're polished in a way a lot of Vive games aren't, even if Oculus doesn't have some of the big names Sony will with PSVR. Oculus also has a great overall user interface, including things like its avatars, these slick, stylized personas that any Rift developer can let you take into their experience. But motion controls got a big head start on the Vive, so there are already a lot of games designed around 360-degree tracking. We've seen some that work great on touch, but they feel specifically Rift-friendly, so others might set your controller drifting in the default camera setup. And that's too bad, because SteamVR actually supports Oculus Touch, which makes the Rift into a pretty good substitute for many Vive games. Oculus Touch gives me confidence that we're not necessarily going to have a VR platform war, or at least that I can enjoy just about every PC virtual reality game without having to buy both a Rift and a Vive. So the biggest question isn't which one of these platforms is better, it's whether there will be enough development across all platforms to make motion-controlled virtual reality a thing. Oculus' enthusiasm for funding games is a good sign on this front, but especially while we're waiting to see how the whole Touch catalog shapes up, it's still an early niche product. But if you're interested in the Oculus Rift, Touch is an absolutely integral element, even if it's sold separately. I'm sure we'll still see games that use a standard Xbox controller or the simple Oculus remote, but Touch is where Oculus' most interesting experiences, and some of the best VR experiences period, are shaping up. It took years of development to get it, but this is the Oculus Rift as it was meant to be, at least this generation.
 I've been waiting months to wave, point, and give you a thumbs up in the Oculus Rift.
 And now, I can finally do it.
 Motion controls are one of the big things that makes virtual reality a totally new format
 and not just a fancy screen.
 But when Oculus shipped its Rift headset this spring, its motion controllers weren't ready.
 It came with an Xbox One controller, which wasn't outright bad, but felt limiting.
 Like the Rift was incomplete.
 But just before the holidays, Oculus has fixed that.
 Let's go back to reality and take a look.
 Unlike PlayStation Move or the Vive's controllers, the Oculus Touch controllers are molded for
 each hand, powered by disposable batteries.
 On each one, you'll find a trigger for your forefinger and a grip button that you'll
 squeeze by making a fist.
 Like the Xbox One controller, it has a total of four face buttons and two analog sticks,
 plus little buttons for menu options.
 Oculus Touch reflects your hand motion in a way that's surprisingly close to just,
 you know, using your hands.
 For one thing, there are sensors all over each controller, so it can tell where your
 hands are resting, whether or not you're pushing a button.
 It can't articulate every finger, but it can guess that you're giving somebody a
 thumbs up or pointing your finger to poke something in VR.
 Even though it's not serving a gameplay purpose, this is one of the little things
 that makes Touch intuitive.
 VR experiences still have to vastly simplify your hand gestures, but it turns out that
 one of the constants is picking things up and holding them, and Touch does this really
 well.
 Closing your fingers around the grip button really feels like grabbing something, in a
 way that squeezing the Vive's slightly awkward grip doesn't.
 It's a consistent standard that works across almost every game, and it leaves one finger,
 the one on the upper trigger, free for other interactions.
 The analog sticks can be used for anything from choosing a teleportation spot to beaming
 objects around, and as with other motion controllers, you can wave touch to simulate throwing a
 fireball, waving to a robot, shooting a gun, or just about any other interaction.
 The touch controllers use a band of LEDs and the same external tracking camera that the
 Oculus Rift uses.
 The box includes a second camera in order to widen your range, and Oculus suggests you
 stagger them 3-7 feet apart in front of you.
 After you've set them up, you draw a line around your available space to create what
 Oculus calls the Guardian Boundary.
 It's similar to the Vive Chaperone, except that instead of snapping into a polygon, the
 Guardian system directly follows the shape of your line.
 So try to draw straight.
 The two cameras can track a wide range with excellent precision, but they can't track
 what they can't see, so touch becomes less reliable when you turn around.
 For true room-scale VR like you'd get on the Vive, Oculus tells you to buy a third
 camera, which it's selling for another $80.
 If you stick with games on the Oculus Store, this doesn't seem to be much of an issue.
 They're subtly designed so you're almost always facing forward, even if you're teleporting
 all around a map in a wizard duel or doing slow-motion firefights.
 And this gives you a pretty good catalog.
 The best games we've seen aren't really long, but they're very replayable, and they're
 polished in a way a lot of Vive games aren't, even if Oculus doesn't have some of the
 big names Sony will with PSVR.
 Oculus also has a great overall user interface, including things like its avatars, these slick,
 stylized personas that any Rift developer can let you take into their experience.
 But motion controls got a big head start on the Vive, so there are already a lot of games
 designed around 360-degree tracking.
 We've seen some that work great on touch, but they feel specifically Rift-friendly,
 so others might set your controller drifting in the default camera setup.
 And that's too bad, because SteamVR actually supports Oculus Touch, which makes the Rift
 into a pretty good substitute for many Vive games.
 Oculus Touch gives me confidence that we're not necessarily going to have a VR platform
 war, or at least that I can enjoy just about every PC virtual reality game without having
 to buy both a Rift and a Vive.
 So the biggest question isn't which one of these platforms is better, it's whether
 there will be enough development across all platforms to make motion-controlled virtual
 reality a thing.
 Oculus' enthusiasm for funding games is a good sign on this front, but especially while
 we're waiting to see how the whole Touch catalog shapes up, it's still an early niche
 product.
 But if you're interested in the Oculus Rift, Touch is an absolutely integral element, even
 if it's sold separately.
 I'm sure we'll still see games that use a standard Xbox controller or the simple Oculus
 remote, but Touch is where Oculus' most interesting experiences, and some of the best
 VR experiences period, are shaping up.
 It took years of development to get it, but this is the Oculus Rift as it was meant to
 be, at least this generation.