The official design of the Google 6DOF controllers have a new look design, and place a grip button right next to a trigger button. Let’s dive in.
These controllers are part of the developer kit add-on for the new Mirage Solo, Google’s stand alone headset. The design of these focus on both hands having freedom of movement but still give you the range of controls most developers are looking for.
Mirage Solos originally only comes with a single pointing controller, which makes anything on the headset not exactly easy. It has the same capabilities from the Daydream headsets, which were powered from phones. The tracking on these controllers was difficult because of the tracking, or lack of it.
The new dev kit for the Solo mix new and important controls with the optical system tracking for an experience that is nearly 1000% different from the original game plan. It is much closer to the technology from companies like Valve, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Google has now shown that they invested in making the standalone headsets affordable, available, and something that is easy to work with. They hope this can be in the same conversation as the Oculus Quest and the 2019 standalone headsets. We find it a little odd to be seeing a USB-C port, as well as a battery cover. Hopefully this an attempt at having a controller than can run on two different power sources. We are also skeptical about the placement of the grip button, but only time will tell us how easy it is to accidentally press that. Overall this will be a cheaper route and a more available rout to a developer standalone headset.
