Oculus publishes Touch CAD files to help developers create custom peripherals

By Brad Jones March 14, 2017

Oculus Touch Hands On — Marco Verch/Flickr

Oculus has released the first version of its Touch Accessory Guidelines, a set of materials intended to make it easier for hardware designers and manufacturers to work in unison with the Oculus Touch peripheral. The guidelines include 3D CAD files for the controller itself, its battery compartment, and the Rock Band VR connector.

The Rock Band VR connector is slated to be included with the Oculus Touch, and allows players to use their existing Rock Band controllers with their Oculus Rift headset. Oculus has chosen to include documentation for the connector, because developers could potentially use it to connect other peripherals to the Touch controller, according to a report from Road to VR.

Rock Band VR has long been a prominent expected release for the Oculus Rift, and this might explain why. If Oculus can work with a company like Harmonix that knows plenty about peripherals, then the Touch controller can be the start of a larger ecosystem, rather than just a one-off accessory.

One virtual reality experience can differ greatly from the next, and it has proven difficult for manufacturers to find one input method that works across the breadth of VR software. Giving developers the means to design their own peripherals would seem to be a clever solution to the problem.

This isn’t the first step in Oculus’ initiative to make it easier for developers to create hardware to complement the Touch controller. The company has previously released several versions of its Rift Accessories Guidelines, which serve a similar purpose.

However, the company has been criticized for falling behind the Rift’s primary rival, the HTC Vive, in this respect. In January 2017, HTC launched a campaign to distribute 1,000 Vive Tracker units to developers in an attempt to foster experimentation with the new hardware.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Computing

Power up your tech game this summer with Dell’s top deals: Upgrade for a bargain

Dell Techfest and best tech on sale featured.

One of the best times to upgrade your tech stack, be it your desktop, a new laptop, or some high-resolution monitors, is when great deals are to be had. Well, I'm here to share that thanks to Dell's top deals, you can power up your tech game and have most of the summer to make it happen. Maybe you're happy with your current system or setup. That's excellent, but you're likely considering upgrading somewhere, and that's precisely what these deals are all about. Dell has a smorgasbord of deals on laptops, desktops, gaming desktops, monitors, accessories, and so much more. We'll call out a few of our favorite deals below, but for now, know that you should be shopping this sale if you're interested in anything tech-related.

What summer tech should you buy in Dell's top deals?

Computing

I love the MacBook Pro, but this Windows laptop came surprisingly close

Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

There are some great machines in the 15-inch laptop category, which has recently been stretched to include the more common 16-inch laptop. The best among them is the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which offers fast performance for tasks like video editing and the longest battery life.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is aimed not only at other 16-inch Windows laptops but also at the MacBook Pro 16. It offers many of the same benefits but at a lower price. Can it take a place at the top?
Specs and configurations

Computing

How to set an ‘Out of Office’ message in Microsoft Teams

Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

Many people use Microsoft Teams regularly to communicate with colleagues both inside of the office and remotely. It is considered one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can stay in contact with the people on your team, but what if you need to let people know you’re not readily available? Microsoft Teams has a method for you to set up an "Out of Office" status for your profile to let staff members know when you’ll be gone for the afternoon, for several days on vacation, or for an extended period.
Where do I go to set up my ‘Out of Office’ status for Teams?
It is important to note that your Microsoft Teams and Outlook calendars are synced. This includes your out-of-office status and automatic replies. So, whatever you set up in Microsoft Teams will reflect in Outlook. Similarly, you can set up your out-of-office status in Outlook, and it will be reflected in Teams; however, the former has a more straightforward instruction.

First, you can click on your profile icon in Teams and go directly to Schedule an out of office, as a shortcut. This will take you to the settings area where you can proceed. You can also click the three-dot icon next to your profile icon, then go to Settings > General, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you'll find out-of-office settings and click Schedule.