Surreal Contact is a Kickstarter-backed third-party movement controller for Imaginative and prescient Professional. The primary batch of controllers will begin transport in December (on schedule) and early impressions are beginning to roll out.
XR trade veteran Nima Zeighami is the founding father of the Imaginative and prescient Professional House owners Membership on Twitter and the #130 backer of the Surreal Contact Kickstarter, which raised $127,000 to fund the controller. Zeighami was one of many first to obtain the retail model of the controller and was type sufficient to share his ideas with us.
The Surreal Contact Imaginative and prescient Professional controller, like Meta’s Contact Professional controller, makes use of an onboard digicam to trace your location and report it to your headset. The upcoming SDK guarantees to permit builders to construct VisionOS apps that immediately assist controllers. In the meantime, the controller additionally consists of software program for Home windows that lets you stream PC VR content material to the Imaginative and prescient Professional, permitting you to play SteamVR content material with correct controller assist.
Zeighami stated the controller’s spotlight is seamless PC VR streaming with Surreal’s proprietary streaming software program. This consists of the Surreal Hyperlink app on the Imaginative and prescient Professional itself and the Surreal Streamer app put in in your PC.
In line with Zeighami, the preliminary setup to play SteamVR video games on the Imaginative and prescient Professional utilizing a Surreal Contact controller took simply 10 minutes. “Surreal Hyperlink might be one of the best and lowest friction expertise I’ve ever had with wi-fi VR,” he stated. After the preliminary setup, it took a couple of minute complete to make use of the controller to return to SteamVR content material. Total, Zeighami was impressed with the software program expertise.
“I am unable to say this sufficient. The true attraction of Surreal Contact is the software program expertise, greater than the standard of the {hardware} or the standard of monitoring. Offering a high-tech movement controller is a monumental process, however Offering a easy wi-fi VR streaming app that “works” is far more spectacular. ” he stated.
Nonetheless, the precise high quality of controller monitoring appears to be one other problem. Zeigami stated he’s glad with the controller’s latency, however much less glad with its positional accuracy.
“[Surreal]has a positional monitoring accuracy of lower than 10mm and a rotational monitoring accuracy of lower than 10mm. It claims to be lower than 1°. I did not have any explicit issues with rotational accuracy, however I typically had issues with positional accuracy, which have been typically a lot farther aside than 10mm or 1cm. In some instances they have been as shut as 10cm aside, and in uncommon instances they have been additional away. This appears to happen in hostile situations when the controller is on a plain white ceiling or when there isn’t a energy supply. Giant reflective black flat display screen TV with out or if the controller is held in such a approach that the digicam on the controller is blocked by one thing or is pointed at your different hand or arm. ” he stated.
That is Surreal Contact taking part in in Imaginative and prescient Professional. dizziness 2 SteamVR:
He in contrast the monitoring high quality to the unique Magic Leap, which got here with a magnetic monitoring controller.
“(…) The surreal contact really feel jogs my memory of the Magic Leap 1’s controller. It really works positive in most situations, however there may be all the time some jitter and generally a number of centimeters of offset. That is positive for many apps and video games, however you will not be capable to play aggressive video games or use skilled artistic instruments.
For video games with gradual hand actions, Zeighami maintains that the controller works nicely. Nonetheless, the controller could be irritating for video games that contain quite a lot of fast hand actions. beat saber It grew to become virtually unplayable because the controller had a bent to lose its place and change into far-off from the participant.
Monitoring high quality apart, Zeighami praises the controller’s construct high quality and really feel.
“It would not really feel too heavy and the joystick, buttons and triggers have really feel,” he stated. Nonetheless, he additionally talked about a few of Poland’s issues.
“Regardless of the virtually premium really feel, the engineering tolerances aren’t good, and the plastic on my left controller wasn’t correctly aligned with the physique, with some elements of the plastic barely curled as a substitute of flush. It stands out. Additionally, it makes a creaking sound once you push the grip all the best way.
There are additionally some lacking particulars, reminiscent of the dearth of capacitive sensing that enables the controller to trace which buttons or sticks the consumer is touching. Admittedly, most VR content material would not even make the most of this characteristic on a controller. do I assist it.
As Zeighami explains, PC VR streaming works nicely, however utilizing a controller natively in VisionOS (which wasn’t designed with controllers in thoughts) is a special story.
In line with Zeighami, enabling “cursor mode” will let you level the cursor with the controller and management the Imaginative and prescient Professional’s interface. Nonetheless, reasonably than appearing like a laser pointer (like most controller-based VR interfaces), the controller seems to emulate an hooked up mouse, with controller rotation figuring out the path of cursor motion. used to.
Moreover, there would not appear to be a solution to set off the “dwelling” motion utilizing a controller. Meaning it’s a must to attain down and press the button on the highest of the headset, or use your arms with the controller dangling from the wrist strap. Carry out the VisionOS “dwelling” gesture.
At this early stage, there is not a single native VisionOS app that really helps controllers. And Zeigami would not anticipate the sphere to achieve a lot traction.
“Only a few Imaginative and prescient Professional builders assist the Surreal SDK. Imaginative and prescient Professional house owners with Surreal Contact are a small area of interest inside a small area of interest. The true purpose this exists is as a result of SteamVR “Do not buy these controllers anticipating all one of the best Imaginative and prescient Professional video games to begin supporting Surreal Contact,” he advises.
Along with being a controller for the Imaginative and prescient Professional, Surreal Contact can change into the de facto “open” third-party movement controller for any variety of VR headsets. That is potential as a result of the controllers self-track utilizing their very own onboard cameras, reasonably than counting on the proprietary monitoring algorithms that tie most VR controllers to their respective headsets. However the firm hasn’t launched a public native SDK but, so it is nonetheless only a pipe dream for now.
One place the place managers get credit score (with out warning) is on-time supply. We have seen fairly a number of Kickstarter tasks which are delayed by months and even years. The market growth for this product, which is believed to be the corporate’s first product, was correct.

Zeighami additionally puzzled if he thought the Surreal Contact controller for the Imaginative and prescient Professional was price it, given its present $300 price ticket.
“On the finish of the day, it comes all the way down to a easy query: Is it price shopping for two units of controllers ($300) simply to play SteamVR video games on the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional?” Sure, completely. That is extra of a Imaginative and prescient Professional characteristic than Surreal Contact, however even 2016-era VR video games on SteamVR look higher when performed on the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional than all however the Quest 3’s top-tier video games. (…)” he stated. “
“This implies if you happen to’re somebody who purchased the Imaginative and prescient Professional as a substitute of the Quest, or you probably have each headsets and need to play dozens of hours of PC VR experiences like the upper model. It implies that. VRChat, Half-life: Alix, echoed, Bone Works, skyrim vr, Fallout 4 VRSurreal Contact is the apparent alternative,” stated Zeigami. “It is not good. The standard of monitoring is under most different leaders available in the market, and Surreal Interactive has quite a lot of room for enchancment within the general high quality of the product. Even with these points, it is nonetheless an excellent expertise. So, not solely do I feel it exceeds the minimal requirements for ease of use, however I feel it is a must-have for anybody seeking to expertise the SteamVR ecosystem with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.”