New VR Tech--Requires Plugin

[BananaKing932]

@SaviorNT;428699

I think the biggest problem that people attempting to use “alternative inputs” is that to my knowledge, UE4 does not support DirectInput, and while there is a request for it to be implemented, it is currently “out of scope with the direction of the engine”.

Direct input solution for direct input controllers - Feedback & Requests - Epic Developer Community Forums

edit:

Looking at their gloves, it looks like they had the same conclusions as I did, to use flex sensors in the fingers and an IMU near the backhand, but in their case, they used it near the wrist. Not sure why their module is so big (prototype I hope), the IMU/Wireless box should be as thin, if not thinner, than a smartphone (and much, much lighter ofc).

I’m not sure if direct input is required here. As I explained the gloves are to be used with the OSVR’s positional tracking system which I forgot to mention that is done by a IR Camera that comes with the OSVR. I’m not a hardware god or anything so I’m really not sure if what I’m saying is correct but to me it seems direct input would be for stuff like the flight stick that was mentioned in the thread you posted since its not being used in conjunction with anything like a VR headset’s positional tracking. That’s how I’m taking everything though. Please let me know if that’s not the case though since I’m trying to learn as this goes

To answer one of your questions though, Manus is still in development and that won’t be the final product. The versions being shipped out this month are developer kits and the consumer version will be released later in 2016. They are still trying to get it more refined as well as get more HMD’s such as the Oculus Rift to work with them.

@Nicolas3D;428711

A bit ago Heiko Fink ( aka Cyxx ) developed a fantastic plugin for UE4 for the Perception Neuron mocap suit, using the data from their software and translating them to UE4 using C++ and a custom blueprint, so I think a similar method can be done.
He did that for himself, but then he saw that the community was interested, and also because the developer themself were very late on their UE4 plugin, he released for free ( with optional donations ) and Epic gave him 12k of Unreal Grants for his contribution

What you need to do is to request/download/ask to use their software for the input capture and then, by asking directly on this forum, or to the Manus developers, the manus community or just people who knows how this thing works, ask for help on developing this system, then share the plugin…
I strongly suggest you to start a crowfunding initiative for someone who could develop that, and I think that many will be interested, since the technology is pretty cool

The Manus gloves are open source which their SDK can be found here as posted on the first topic post:

Manus SDK (and other Manus repos): MANUS · GitHub

I just found the plugin you were talking about made by Cyxx for the Perception Neuron Mocap Suit. He did a lot of work there and that’s inspiring to me, just another person to add to the list of great community members, haha. To be honest I don’t care about getting a grant or anything because my whole goal with game design is to do what everyone should be doing which is pushing the limits of all software and hardware that is available. The Manus gloves might be the next step in the process to getting a full interactive VR environment which is why I really think UE4 and the community can help make that a goal that can be achieved. I would love to see a bunch of tech combined to make the ultimate experience which is what I’m trying to do. Someone that could make a game or something that combines an HMD (Oculus, OSVR, whatever) with the Manus gloves and Virtuix Omni or whatever tech they wanted then we’ll have the start of some amazing VR games for E-Sports, etc.

Could you explain your crowdfunding idea though? I’m interested to know how that would help unless your saying raise money for the Manus UE4 development which would gain attention from other developers. Someone could get interested during the crowdfunding phase and whatever money is raised could go to that developer?