Models of Valve Deckard’s ‘Roy’ controllers have been discovered in SteamVR driver files, revealing their design and inputs. Code references to Valve ‘Roy’ controllers were first discovered earlier this month by XR enthusiast Brad Lynch’s Discord group of SteamVR dataminers. This code revealed that the controllers would include bumpers and a D-pad to be able to act as a gamepad for flatscreen gaming.

Now, the same group have discovered 3D models of Roy, revealing its design and confirming the inclusion of bumpers and a D-pad, as well as thumbsticks, buttons, index triggers, grip triggers, and system buttons.

Roy is almost certainly a reference to the antagonist of the movie Blade Runner, matching the apparent codename of the headset, Deckard, the protagonist.

The latest version of the Roy controller models show a ringless design, but the dataminers also discovered earlier versions with rings that resemble the original Oculus Quest controllers. These earlier designs seemingly first appeared in a 2022 Valve patent.

The findings suggest Valve is finally getting close to launching its next headset, almost six years after the release of Index. But what kind of headset will Deckard be?

  • poVoq@slrpnk.netEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    Kinda disappointing that this seems to completely kill the idea of finger tracking.

    But it points to Deckard being a more basic, lower cost design, which is probably good in the current VR market.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
      5·
      2 days ago

      Aren’t there better devices for full hand tracking nowadays? The finger tracking seems more gimmicky from what I’ve ever seen, usually to flip someone or something off.

      • MyOpinion@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Everyone is moving to hand tracking. I am sure Valve is moving in the same direction.

      • poVoq@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Only those that do away with controllers completely.

        I agree that the Index controller never really took the feature anywhere, but it adds quite a bit to the immersion in HL Alyx.

    • moonlight@fedia.io
      2·
      2 days ago

      Yeah this controller looks very 2016. I’m still excited for the next thing Valve does with VR, but this looks pretty disappointing.

        • G0ldenSp00n@lemmy.jacaranda.clubEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          I mean I am sure will keep finger tracking as part of the Steam Input standard. And these days most SteamVR games just natively support that, so probably everything still? Less custom stuff for it though I would guess, though not like that was really happening now, we only really have Alyx.

        • Damn990099@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          For games that are abandoned, just like when index kuckles launched, they can pretend to be the old htc wands. its all apart of the steam vr and open xr systems. The inputs are all relatively the same (motion, position, button presses)

  • Grass@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    looks like quest 3 controllers with more face buttons. hopefully they don’t have the same problem as q3 where I just can’t seem to get a reliable grip on them and they can be yanked out from snagging on literally anything like my shirt or pants pocket if my hands are even slightly sweaty

  • MentalEdgeEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    Oh hell yeah.

    The ergonomics on these look to be miles ahed of the index controllers. Much closer to the original touch controllers, which I still consider the best I’ve ever tried.

  • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    I’m in the market for a new headset. I am wondering if I should hold off for a Deckard announcement or just go with something else. Maybe pimax.

    • MyOpinion@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      This is a tough question. It looks like Deckard is coming maybe in the next year but you never know with them. May was when the index was introduced. Unless something amazing comes out I would wait until then.