Remember this?
The DecaGear?
One of the VR headsets coming out this year that got everyone excited as they promise
an affordable headset built for social VR with impressive specs.
Emphasis on ‘promise’ as we still haven’t seen proof of work.
But if they deliver, it’ll be amazing as it will probably be the first competitor to
the Oculus Quest.
Today, we get a look at one of the first pieces of hardware that will be included with the
DecaGear headset.
This is the DecaMove.
A hip tracker for a new way of walking inside a VR game that has never been done before.
Not only is that already very interesting.
It’s also interesting to see if this works as intended because if it does, I’m hopeful
that the DecaGear will deliver too.
Hey everyone!
Cas here and this is my DecaMove review.
In this video, I’ll show you what’s in the box, the setup, and gameplay impressions.
Stick around until the end to find out exactly what I think about it.
Thanks to MegaDodo for sending over a free unit for me to review.
If you like to be kept informed about VR, subscribe if you haven’t yet.
And now, join me beyond reality.
Ok, let me quickly explain what this thing actually does and why it’s so special.
You place the DecaMove on your hip, on your jeans or belt with the clip at the back.
It will then start tracking your hip movement in-game, and when you walk forward, it will
go in the direction your hip is facing.
The DecaMove’s sensor relies heavily on a magnetometer.
Your hip data is sent to a provided USB dongle, which I’ll show later.
It promises to deliver low latency, precise and accurate hip tracking without the need
for any external trackers like the SteamVR base stations.
Yes, this means it works with almost any VR headset, including the Oculus Quest – very
nice.
Currently, it does only work with SteamVR games, so for Oculus Quest, you do need a
PC, and you need to use Link or Virtual Desktop.
But as said before, the DecaMove should come included with the DecaGear headset, but you
can also buy it separately for 69 US dollars.
Ok, we know what it is now, but what makes it so special.
Give me 60 seconds to clue you in and talk about locomotion.
If you want to skip to the review, that’s possible, check out the timestamps below,
but it helps a ton if you watch the entire video.
As you may know, there are currently two popular options for walking in VR.
You can teleport around – comfortable but not very immersive.
Or, you can use smooth locomotion, which usually uses the joystick to allow you to slide through
the game.
Now, if you use Smooth Locomotion, there are usually two more options for you.
You can set it to use the direction of your head or hands.
If you set it on your head’s direction, what happens is, if you point your joystick
forward, you’ll move forward in the direction of where you are looking.
If you set it to move with your hands, you need to point your hands in the direction
you want to move.
Both have one major disadvantage: your head or hands aren’t free.
The DecaMove solves that.
It still does not take over your trackpad or joystick, you still need to use that, but
now it uses your hip as the direction.
So your head and hands are freed up to do other things, plus, it should feel way more
natural because you always use your hip to move already.
I am actually one of those who cannot handle hand-oriented movement as it makes me motion
sick.
So, I’m probably one of the best people to test this out as I can test if this solves
motion sickness as well.
I hope so.
So, this was delivered to me.
A small pouch containing: - The DecaMove device
- You also get a USB-C cable - A USB dongle
- An antenna for the dongle - And manual with a link to the setup guide
The DecaMove is a little thing….
At the front, there’s a button.
At the side a USB-C slot for charging, some holes for ventilation, I’m guessing, and
at the back, there’s the clip to mount it on your hip.
It looks 3D printed and came a little bit damaged, but keep in mind that they sent me
an early version, and they mentioned this is not how the consumer product will look
like.
So if it wasn’t damaged, I think it looks pretty nice, and it feels pretty sturdy.
If you shake it, you can hear the sensors.
*Shake it* I’m not sure how sturdy it is exactly, I’m guessing you should probably
take good care of not dropping it.
Now, before we move on to the review, let me show you what the software setup is like.
- First, you need to screw in the antenna to the USB dongle and connect the dongle to
your PC.
Then download and start the DecaHub software from their site.
Here, over at the Devices tab, you can see the DecaMove change to streaming once you
turn it on.
- Now since the device’s sensor relies on a magnetometer, you need to calibrate it before
first use, which can be done easily via the software.
It will show you exactly what you have to do.
- Once done, you’re ready to place it on your hip and start playing!
They recommend putting it on your right side.
- Now, to make it work with most SteamVR games, you do need to launch the game via the DecaHub
software.
- Your SteamVR installed games should show up here, and the ones that have a green checkmark
have support.
Other games could also work but just aren’t verified yet by MegaDodo
- When you click on a game, it will launch SteamVR, and fun fact, the DecaMove will even
show up in the SteamVR window!
- Inside the game, there are two last small steps to do.
Every game session, you need to calibrate in-game.
This is done by holding your controllers close together in front of your hips, making sure
your controllers point in the same direction as your head, then look forward and don’t
move for 1 second.
You should see the message ‘Calibrating…’ show up.
And if you hold that position until it’s complete, and you should be done.
It’s really easy to do.
You can do this calibration step any time you feel like the DecaMove has drifted.
- Last thing to do is to make sure your game settings are correct.
The game should be set to smooth locomotion; sometimes this is called something else like
continuous.
Then also, make sure to select head-oriented locomotion and set the dominant hand to right-handed.
This may seem like a lot of things to do but you can actually get used to it pretty quickly.
Now, with a game launched.
You will see the DecaMove circle on your floor in-game.
It shows how much battery the DecaMove has left and an arrow indicates your hip’s direction.
If this circle shows up, you know it works.
You can also turn it on and off by clicking on the DecaMove button that is on your hip.
That’s the setup.
I’m actually pretty impressed about their user interface; it looks like they’ve given
some thought about making this as easy as possible, which is something not even all
big companies do right.
So, some points from me here already.
Now, I’ve spent several hours in a variety of games to test this out.
I’ve played POPULATION: ONE, a fast-paced competitive shooter, I’ve played Half-Life:
Alyx, a more normal paced shooter, and then I also dove into VRChat, an exploration social
game.
I’ve used the Oculus Quest 2 with the official Link cable for this and also wirelessly with
Virtual Desktop.
Happy to say both methods work perfectly.
It’s especially awesome with VD.
So in-game, this is how it works.
When I move my stick forward now, the direction it moves to in is my hips direction.
So let’s say I move my hip like this, to the right, while keeping my head and hands
to the front.
Now if I push my joystick forward, I will move to the right as that’s where my hip
is facing.
Other side… as well.
This is how it works, simply explained.
And this is what I think about the DecaMove.
… I like it.
It takes some time to get used to.
Like, I still catch myself still trying to do head oriented locomotion, so you kinda
need to relearn how to use it.
But it is not hard getting used to it.
I do think that is because I rarely use snap or smooth turning.
Instead, I use my real-life body to turn around as I think that’s the most immersive and
less motion-sick-inducing.
If you play like me, I guess you won’t have much trouble getting used to it either.
But if you use artificial turning a lot.
You will need to build up some muscle memory.
The first few times I’ve played with it, I did get motion sick.
It took some time to get used to that, but it seems much better than hand-oriented movement
for me.
In my later sessions, I was totally fine.
Also, motion sickness is a very personal thing.
So I’m mentioning it, but don’t give it too much weight.
The good things are that I did not notice any latency, and the tracking does feel precise.
There is some drifting after a while, but it isn’t very noticeable during gaming,
so it’s not bad at all.
Sometimes, when I look down, I can see the arrow has moved slightly, but the calibration
(that I showed you during this video’s setup section) is straightforward to use, and it’s
great because it works anywhere and anytime and it’s pretty reliable.
I do catch myself doing it pretty often, just in case, usually when I’m in a loading scene
or something.
Thankfully, it takes like 2 seconds.
I’ve also tried spinning around, jumping, moving, and dancing like a little monkey,
and it tracked fine.
Battery life seems fine as well.
I could play four hour+ sessions and still have more than enough battery.
I actually forgot to stop charging it overnight, so I can’t tell you the whole battery life
right now, but I’ll put it in the description later once I know.
The DecaMove does indeed feel very natural; being free from being head locked in direction
feels really good.
This is an advantage that I find improves my overall gaming experience, so I will keep
using it.
I do think 70 bucks is a lot of money for just a hip tracker.
It’s probably more worth it in combination with the DecaGear headset.
Plus, there are other things to take into account before you buy.
Like, with new VR hardware, one of the common problems is software support.
In this case, I do think MegaDodo did a good job.
Most SteamVR games are supported *without* the need of the game developer, as long as
you launch the game from the DecaHub.
However, it could still happen that one of your favorite games doesn’t work with it
immediately.
So then you’ll have to wait until it gets support.
By the way, you can check the to see which games are verified.
Then, a new product never released before usually has some kind of problem since it
hasn’t gone through as much R&D.
One thing to keep in mind, for example, is that you need to set the game to right-handed
for now, so what about left-handed people?
But I guess, this is part of the risk of being an early adopter.
However, now that I know that the DecaMove works as promised, and now I’ve seen their
user interface design that’s surprisingly easy to use.
It seems to me that MegaDodo knows what they are doing.
These people seem like VR players themselves, they know the challenges, and they just want
to solve them.
So I definitely have more faith in them now.
And this has gotten me more excited for the DecaGear.
.
I guess we should have known all along.
Hips really don’t lie.
*lol* So would you get the DecaMove?
Why yes or why not?
Let me know in the comments below.
As well if you have any other questions about it.
Drop it there, and I’ll try to answer as much as I can.
Thanks for watching; still stay tuned for the 100K giveaway and celebration.
The announcement is coming soon, but we are still figuring out some details.
A special thanks go to all our Champions, especially these Patrons down below.
As always, VR on!