- bHaptics vest and sleeves let you feel virtual reality
- Compatible with Meta Quest 3, PC VR and PSVR 2
- I’ve tried them and I love them.
I love virtual reality and the incredibly immersive experiences it can facilitate through headsets like the Meta Quest 3. But regardless, VR headsets work well, limited to just sight and sound, with basic haptic noises in The drivers (and, in some cases, the earphones rumble) only do a little to immerse you through touch. These simple haptics don’t feel like they’re in a virtual reality world, but with bHaptics accessories, which I tested at CES, you can unlock a higher experience.
For my demo, I was equipped with three accessories: the TactSuit Pro haptic vest on my chest, a pair of TactSleeve haptic arm guards, and my Meta Quest 3 headset was equipped with the Tact Visor haptic to provide haptics on the head.
I was then dropped into a custom XR sandbox equipped with various weapons and items showing off the capabilities of the bHaptics technology.
Picking up a virtual shotgun, I could feel the recoil in my arm and shoulder, while the electric rifle sent a tingling wave down my arm and side. I could feel healing drinks in my stomach and gentle waves through my body to indicate that I had regained my maximum health.
To help show the differences, the demo also featured non-haptic versions of each object so you could compare them directly to the haptic ones, and the haptic versions are a huge step forward for immersion. I admit they weren’t always perfect in terms of feeling like real life, but I’d give them an 8 or 9 out of 10, while the non-haptic accessory controller noises are maybe a 2 or 3.
The experience was taken a step further by feeling the same weapons I shot before I was shot. Fortunately it wasn’t painful, but I was able to fire electric shocks and lasers at a model representing me and feel the attacks, and my actions sent realistic signals through the haptics of the vest, arm, and headset.
It was surprisingly precise: By tracing the laser along my back, I could feel haptic sensors placed in different places activate as I moved, and it gave VR attacks a more tactile oomph than usual.
What was perhaps best of all is that these haptic devices are not a high-end consumer accessory that can only be enjoyed by businesses or people with a lot of money to spend. The vest is priced at $499, the sleeve is $199, and the visor is $149, which are not cheap, but not prohibitively expensive either. Plus, they support Quest, PSVR 2, and PC experiences in games like Beat saber, Dungeons of Eternity and Arizona Sun 2 to name a few.
The team also explained that community members can create their own custom haptic mapping mods for titles currently not supported on PC, or to increase haptics in supported titles, so you won’t always have to wait for a developer to incorporate the haptics.
I would love to try them out more, but after my brief demo I was very impressed with what bHaptics has created. If you’re looking to upgrade your VR headset setup, I suggest you look at not only a headset strap or carrying case, but also one of these haptic vests.
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