One of the big dreams of VR was of full movement in a 3D space. While years of experience have taught developers and users how to make that work without launching the contents of their stomach across the room thanks to VR sickness, there’s still no escaping that the controls are head and hands, with legs getting completely forgotten. Room-scale VR is nice for those with the space, but for those of us unable to leave an entire section of house empty for gaming that isn’t an option.
A Long Walk On a Short Saucer
Virtuix has been working on this problem for years now, starting way back in 2013 with asuccessful Kickstarterfor its Omni treadmill. This was kind of like a wide, shallow bowl you could stand in, allowing you to move in any direction by walking in place, and reportedly it worked nicely for the games that supported it. While I’ve never had any hands-on (feet-on?) experience with the device the general consensus was that, like a lot of VR, it was a good first effort hampered by being a niche product for another niche, VR. Virtuix switched to commercial distribution for several years but is finally gearing up to release a new home version of its treadmill, an all-in-one solution called the Omni One.
Walk Across The Commonwealth with Virtuix Omni
There’s nothing like getting up-close and personal with a disgusting Rad Roach!
The Omni One consists of the Pico 4 Enterprise VR headset, a pair of controllers, overshoes so your feet get that nice sliding movement, a pair of foot sensors, and of course the treadmill itself. The original Omni had a stationary ring around the user to hold them in place, while the Omni One replaces it with a flexible arm attached to a vest. By all reports the Pico 4 is comparable to the Quest 3, not quite so strong in some places but making up the differences in others, such as eye-tracking, but the real advantage is it’s not so locked down as the Quest. Granted, the Quest has PC passthrough, sideloading, and the App Lab, but the Pico 4 lets the Omni One have its own storefront for compatible games.
While the Omni One isn’t officially out until an unnanounced date in September this year, it’s already working to correct the problem of the original Omni treadmill by having a decent-sized library of compatible titles ready to go. The store has been up for a bit already but today brings with it the announcement of another fifteen games being added, bringing the total to a hair over fifty. Highlights include the FPS/metroidvania fusion of Genotype, the VR version ofpersonal favoriteAmid Evil, the claustrophobic horror game Tunnels, and the long-distance Nazi-killing of Sniper Elite VR. You can view the full list of all games, both the new ones announced for the Omni store today and the ones that have already been known about,over hereat the web site. There’s also a new video available showing off the Omni One in action, which you cansee here. There are a lot of VR games that would benefit from actual walking controls, so it promises to be a lot of fun to see how the Omni One brings them to life.
