Oculus is gearing up for the consumer release of its hotly anticipated "Touch" VR motion controllers. The company said that Touch will reach customers' hands this year, though we have to wait until Oculus Connect 3 in October to get the full details. There have been signs that point to a possible December launch, but the latest software update may suggest otherwise.
Oculus regularly pushes updates out to its Oculus App, and most of the time, the changes are minor. A recent update added support for up to four IR sensors, suggesting that some form of room-scale support is in the works–at least for developers. Unlike most of the Oculus app updates, version 1.7.0.262257 actually takes you through the setup and calibration process all over again, and during the install, you’ll encounter a Touch calibration section.
The Touch controller setup can be skipped, which is important because only developers have access to the hardware right now. If you decide to continue the setup instead of skipping, you’ll be asked to pair the left controller. Cancelling at this point will trip an error message about hardware not being present, but the installation will continue anyway.
Oculus Connect 3 is still two months away, though, and Touch won’t be available publicly before the event. Perhaps Oculus is gearing up to send out review samples? Or maybe the company just wants to make sure that Touch software is ready to go way ahead of time, so it’s giving developers access to the public installer. Either way, it seems curious to add Touch to the default installation process this early.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
