Valve Index Knuckles VR Controllers 2020 Model

I originally bought a 2018 HTC Vive system which goes through SteamVR and has the 1.0 lighthouses and standard Vive "wands." Upgrading to the Index controllers worked flawlessly, as advertised. Of course you can only use one or the other, but you can switch back and forth during initial pairing as your game choice requires. The Index controllers are a great, innovative way to get finger-by-finger "tracking" into virtual space. The controllers strap onto your palm, enabling you to open your hand fully with the controller still there, or else just use one or more fingers. There is a "pad" along the front of the controller that senses the proximity of each finger, and also it has a switch of sorts to indicate when and how hard you are gripping the controller. The good ... MoreI originally bought a 2018 HTC Vive system which goes through SteamVR and has the 1.0 lighthouses and standard Vive "wands." Upgrading to the Index controllers worked flawlessly, as advertised. Of course you can only use one or the other, but you can switch back and forth during initial pairing as your game choice requires. The Index controllers are a great, innovative way to get finger-by-finger "tracking" into virtual space. The controllers strap onto your palm, enabling you to open your hand fully with the controller still there, or else just use one or more fingers. There is a "pad" along the front of the controller that senses the proximity of each finger, and also it has a switch of sorts to indicate when and how hard you are gripping the controller. The good news is that this makes for a very immersive experience in cases where you are doing a lot of interaction with the environment, or in social applications like VRChat where you want maximum expressiveness with your hands - even unintentionally, as it often is the case that somebody will type or drink a glass of water with the controller on, and others can see their fingers move. These controllers will detect partial closure of fingers, but the movement is not proportional - if you can imagine it this way, 0-100% of hand-opening in-game is achieved by roughly 0-30% of hand-opening on the controller. This isn't necessarily bad, but just be aware that it will not match your movements exactly, like some of the pull-type sensors do. Finger tracking will sometimes flake out, with fingers getting stuck together, or sometimes a single finger remaining closed or open. This is probably due to subtle movement of your hand over time. To some extent this can be fixed by clenching and unclenching your hand or various fingers a few times rapidly, and the controller will usually "figure it out" and make corrections. It's nice that it's this smart, but frankly I would expect a bit more consistency at this price range. A number of people report controller drift or other technical problems after several months. Usually Valve is good about warranty support for such issues, but if you're purchasing the controllers used, or if the problem comes up after warranty, it could be a concern. For these reasons I have to say 4/5, but it is a "high 4" I would say. Dropping a few hundred dollars for a couple of glorified joysticks is never a "good value" but people looking for these are likely more concerned about top feature content than they are about value, and the Index controllers definitely deliver a compellingexperience, consistent with what they promise.

Best VR Controllers. Hand tracking makes the experience more immersive.

The controllers for the Index are fantastic, cutting-edge tech to bring finger tracking into virtual space. They strap to your palm, which lets you fully expand your hand inside the controller or utilize one or more of your fingers to interact with the game you're playing. There is a pad on the front of it that detects how close each finger is as well as a switch to indicate how firmly you are grasping the controller.One thing I dislike was that there were small issues when detecting my fingers contracting and the movement of fingers from the motion capture to the game programming is usually not 1:1.All-in-all, I prefer this design over the bulky HTC Vive controllers, and appreciate the ease of use and capabilities of the Index controllers.