Well, first off I’m assuming you’re going to want motion controllers. Maybe you don’t (e.g. Oculus doesn’t ship with them, only Vive). With motion controls, it’s bad to really model anything related to the player because none of the player’s body is tracked, except for the hands and head. Yes it would be possible to make arms and legs move, but at the moment most developers and players agree it just doesn’t feel right, and for some it is outright nausia-inducing. Look, you could guess how the player’s arm is moving, but it won’t be 100% accurate. For instance, I can keep my hands in the same location and with the same rotation, but move my elbows to different heights. That’s something the game wouldn’t be able to capture. So most people are just sticking with floating meshes for now. It’s the best we can do for the moment, unless something like the Kinect becomes mainstream with VR to capture full body movement.
Well firstly every game you see with hands is using motion controllers (Vive, since Oculus touch isn’t out for a long time). You can actually make games without motion controls, in which case development without a headset would be a lot easier. I’m of the opinion you cannot develop motion controls at all without the actual motion controllers (and also the headset). A thumb stick on e.g. Xbox controller goes simply forward, backward, left, and right (of course, any angle in between, but it’s 2d). So moving in 3d, you can also move up and down. Ok, now you might use your second thumbstick for that. But now, what about rotation? You can rotate the motion controller 360 degrees any way you like. You also have to keep in mind a thumbstick is going to hit its maximum range very quickly (like maybe 1 cm). Even if the player is stationary with motion controllers, the range it can move forward is something like a foot and a half. That’s an incredible increase in precision. And anyway, now you’ve used your two thumbsticks and haven’t even gotten an entire hand accurately “emulated”. So I’m of the firm opinion you can’t “emulate” a motion controller. You might be able to look into developing with motion controllers and without a headset by getting something like the Razer Hydra.
A lot of what goes into developing motion controls is just feel. And you can’t understand how satisfying or realistic something feels without actually using them. Not to mention how complex movements can be.