VR Motion Controls for Your Game!
Man we are stoked for this jam look at all those teams! Can we add too 
I just wanted to share some killer technology we developed recently at the VR Hackathon in Seattle at the University of WA. I may do a more detailed write up about how we got it all working one day but I wanted to share the basics with you all.
We implemented head and hand tracking with the HTC Vive and it’s motion controllers (dev versions) using only Blueprints. It is tech!
's a small demo of what that looked like as we were figuring it out. The ever popular Lightsaber physics game that wants to make when you first get these controllers tracking properly!
Right now I have this tech working with a archer character shooting arrows from where ever your left hand is in real life by pulling the Right hand trigger. But there are so many possibilities. And we’ll do something new for this jam using the hand tracking devices (and regular controller/keyboard support).
's the archer dude we made (for the VR Hackathon) using the motion sensor tech + regular controller support + keyboard support. I’m testing it with a keyboard because I don’t own the HTC… yet.
Setting this all up is fairly straight forward. First use VR Preview mode and use the FPS pawn for the head tracking and moving the player. We made separate BP’s for each hand that essentially just took the co-ordinate information from each motion controller and attached physics objects to the hands. There is a ton of motion controllers supported via input functions by default in the latest 4.9 builds. The hands are separate BP’s and simply placed in the level. So you have a player start and then each hand’s controller BP is also placed in the scene. When the level starts and the motion trackers are in the VR safety zone ( about a 5m x 5m box you make with the HTC sensors and tape on the floor) the meshes you have added to those BP’s will start moving with your hands. If you get to far to the edge of the VR Zone, a component is used to show a big green net around the player, like “don’t go past this” type thing. Your head is also tracked so the hands are always in the same spot in relation to real life in the game. You can attach whatever you want to those hand controller BP’s: boxes, swords and eventually we got the bow and arrow working. It was a blast discovering how to use those controllers and I’m happy to share that experience.
I find the best part about game jams and hackathons is the fact comes together when they are usually competing in this industry. Making games in secret and exploring new tech in secret but for game jams we come together and share what we have learned in a research and development kind of atmosphere. This benefits on so many levels so share your ideas and listen to others, you might just learn something.
Also if you’re in Seattle come and show off your game the night before they are due at our monthly Meetup On the 14th!
Let’s Jam!