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Oculus has provided the ‘Touch Accessory Guidelines 1.0’ for download, which contains 3D CAD files of the Touch VR controller. This data can be used to help designers and manufacturers create new accessories that integrate with the Touch hardware.

Available for download on the Oculus developer website, the Touch Accessory Guidelines 1.0 include technical drawings and STEP files of the controller’s exterior surfacing and battery compartment. In addition, it includes data for the Rock Band VR connector, an adapter included with every Oculus Touch package, enabling the design of devices which could use the adapter to attach a Touch controller.

You can take a look at the CAD files here for the Rock Band adapter, the exterior surface, and the battery compartment. The battery compartment model is the most complex, as it includes many of the internal components and surfaces, which can be highlighted using the Model Browser tool.

The new guidelines add to the existing Rift Accessories Guidelines documentation, which include sections for the headset, Audio Module and Facial Interface. While the Touch section doesn’t offer much in the way of controller-specific tips for accessory makers (perhaps ‘don’t obstruct the tracking ring’ was too obvious!), only detailing the electrical specifications, the general guidelines written for the Rift headset can still be interpreted and applied to Touch accessories. Avoid using LEDs in mounted accessories (to prevent tracking conflicts), keep in mind comfort is paramount, and keep in mind that the fit of accessories not only impacts physical comfort but can also impact how users experience content in VR.

Valve has been proactive in opening their tracking technology to third parties for accessory development, and HTC are offering a dedicated Vive Tracker’ for tracked accessories. Oculus is well behind on its promise to open up its tracking API to third-parties, but using the Touch controllers as a self-contained tracker at least gets the ball rolling.

Interestingly Touch is not much larger than the Vive Tracker, as Tactical Haptics has shown. Perhaps one of the biggest issues with using Touch as a device to track a dedicated VR peripheral is the lack of input/output options between the peripheral and the controller. Peripherals made for use with Touch would need to make use of the controller’s own buttons to input/output to the game at hand, or likely a separate wireless connection to the host PC.