Hello!
What’s up!
Oh my god!
I can feel her touch!
Up until now, we can travel virtual worlds with our eyes and ears.
We can simulate touching virtual objects by using our motion controllers.
But we were never able to actually feel what’s happening.
Today, I’m excited to say that we soon can...
This is the Tactsuit by bhaptics, which is a Korean startup who have been developing
this suit for 3 years now and are almost consumer ready.
It consists of a vest for the torso full of vibration motors that can be activated semi-individually
allowing the VR player to feel what’s happening.
Part of the suit is the Tactal which is a haptic face cushion that allows you to feel
a pat on the head or a headshot for example.
And lastly, this is the Tactosy which are haptic sleeves for the forearms that can allow
you to feel recoil when shooting with a gun for example.
All three of these combined forms a haptic feedback kit, allowing you to level up your
Virtual Reality experience.
For example...
This suit allows you to feel a long distance hug in a social VR game...
Stand a little bit closer...
Wow!!
Okay, when she’s hugging me.
I can feel her arms wrapping around me and I feel rumbling at my back.
That was pretty realistic.
Or... a scary zombie bite in a survival horror game...
Let them eat me, see what that feels like.
But not too many of them though.
I don’t think that would be comfortable.
Omg.
I’m scared.
I’m scared!
Guys, it's coming!!
Let’s kill one of them.
EEEE!!!
EEEEUUGGH
That was creepy!
AAAAAAA Omg omg omg
Omg reload
Holy crap
So that is what it feels like to be eaten by a zombie
You can also precisely feel what it is like to sword fight a ninja...
Oh no!
OR... feel the sensation of getting shot in the head.
Oh my gooosh.
Vibrations all over!
Haha I’m surrounded, guys.
I’m going to die!
Stay tuned if you want to know how this suit works, what it feels like and what my thoughts
about it are.
This is an episode in our DIVE INTO VR series where we share our excitement about interesting
VR technology and news.
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So how does this suit work?
This is the haptic vest for your torso.
As you can see there are vibration motors on the front and the back with a total of
40 vibration points.
20 on the front and 20 on the back.
The haptic face cushion has 6 vibration points and the haptic sleeves have 6 vibration points
per arm.
The vibration points can be activated semi-individually.
A signal from the computer is sent wirelessly with Bluetooth Low Energy Technology.
That signal can tell what motor should vibrate and at what strength.
bHaptics has been working on algorithms to make it precise and realistic.
Using all of this, it can simulate the sensation of for example a snake winding around your
body or taking a gunshot to the chest.
Here I am using bhaptics software that comes with this suit, allowing you to test the vibration
points by drawing where you want it to vibrate.
You can also do the same by downloading a mobile app for this.
Developers and VR players alike can use the bHaptics software to design their own patterns
for their game, which bhaptics says is easy to do because they provide presets.
I haven’t tried this out yet myself though.
You can also use their software to tune your suit to your liking, like choosing its vibration
strength.
Which I recommend doing, because the strength can be pretty powerful.
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this video entertaining.
But the most important question of all, what does it feel like?
First, to start playing, you have to plug in the provided Bluetooth dongle if you don’t
already have a Bluetooth connection that is.
Pair the devices with the bhaptics software by pressing the on/off button once.
It will light up immediately and if you right-click the device in the software and choose pair,
it will pair automatically.
You only have to pair it once as the software remembers the haptic kit.
To put on the suit, loosen the velcro straps first, put it on.
Same with the sleeves.
The face cushion is placed in the headset like you normally would with other face foams.
It is attached to this little box that you can attach to your headset with velcro too.
The velcro is included in the box.
Once everything is paired.
You’re ready to go.
The bhaptics player will automatically work with games that have native support.
If a game doesn’t have support, you can turn on bhaptics Audio-To-Haptic feature,
which listens to the audio you are playing and vibrates based on that.
This feature was released very recently.
Let’s start with the games that have native support...
Okay!
This one?
Hello!
What’s up!
Omg
I can feel her touch!
It is super weird!
*giggles*
This is like a very soft touch on the stomach.
Can I touch you too!
Hi girl!
Wanna be friends?
Let’s stand a little bit closer.
I have no idea what she’s saying.
What the friggin hell is this!
Omg, no way I didn’t know it was this kind of game.
Okay maybe lol
I can’t anymore...
:’)
Okay, before we move on, I just wanted to say that even though this game is a bit awkward
and probably makes all of us a bit uncomfortable, this is one of the games that shows off what
the suit is capable of.
It supports the bhaptics suit natively.
And I think it actually does a good demonstration.
When she pats me on the head, my haptic face cushion vibrates lightly.
When she pokes the left side of my stomach, I actually feel it there and the softer vibrations
make you realize that she’s touching you gently.
When she pokes me, the sensation is a bit harder but still precise.
I think it's awesome to be able to distinguish the soft and harder touches.
What surprised me here too was the hug she gave me, I could feel her arms around me because
the motors on my back started to vibrate softly at the right time.
It felt very realistic.
This could be cool for things like VR multiplayer games.
Like a snowball fighting game for example ;)
What was a bit more intense was feeling zombies trying to eat me.
Here, I am playing VRZ Torment, a zombie first-person shooter, which also has native support for
the suit.
And it was.. scary...
This is so creepy!
To be able to feel what they are doing to you.
When I shoot.
Both my arm sleeves give haptic feedback.
So they both feedback and it makes it feel more realistic to me.
I like it!
Like it!
Ohh!
This one has haptic feedback too on my arm sleeves.
So I feel the recoil of here as well.
And it's well designed.
So when I shoot my right arm it only vibrates my right arm.
And my left arm only vibrates the left arm.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
What!!
They can move!
Omg, they can move without a head.
What was cool in this game was the different recoil I could feel per weapon.
Shotguns felt different than handguns and the big machine gun, I was using, just rumbled
my whole body including the arm sleeves very intensity and it felt very intense, but also
realistic.
Next, I tried two more games that have native support for the bhaptics suit.
Sairento, for example, was done well too.
Sairento is a first-person shooter and free combat VR game.
In here, I could feel headshots that felt precise.
I could feel swords hitting me, some were punchier than others.
And when I shot the guns, I could feel its recoil because the forearm sleeves started
to rumble.
Every attack felt nicely timed, and that enhanced my experience in that game more.
What’s cool is that with this suit, you can feel where the enemies are shooting you
from.
Making it easier to detect where they are.
This was especially the case in BattleX, which is a military first-person shooter.
I was ambushed here by a lot of enemies and they were shooting from all sides and I could
feel where they were shooting from.
Sometimes they would shoot my arms, and sometimes my back and then I’ll know that I needed
to quickly duck and turn around to defend myself.
So, those were the games with native support for the suit.
If you look at the website of bhaptics, currently there are not many games that natively support
the suit right now.
So I wanted to know what it feels like when you play a game that does not have native
support.
Bhaptics has designed a smart algorithm that listens to your audio and translates that
to haptic feedback.
This is what they call the Audio-To-Haptic feature.
When you open the bhaptics software, you can choose from a couple of presets.
For example:
In Beat Saber, you can use the Concert Bass Audio-To-Haptic configuration.
This configuration emphasizes the bass notes of music and it captures whatever you have
turned on.
You can select what speaker you want the software to listen to.
And there’s also a configuration that emphasizes the vocals and details of music, and particularly
the higher notes.
I tested both out on Beat Saber and it feels like you are in a club and standing near the
bass.
And like you are attending a live concert.
However, while it feels really cool when you are playing the game, the Audio-To-Haptic
configuration also vibrates when you are not doing anything.
Since it listens to your audio, it also vibrates when you are navigating a menu for example.
I also tried playing GORN, which is a gladiator fighting simulator.
And my suit would start to rumble at every little sound effect.
Even when the NPC spoke, I would rumble along.
Sometimes that was pretty immersive, but sometimes not really.
However!
When fighting, it did work well, because it seems like the suit is also tuned for stereo
sound.
So when I was attacked on my left side, the sound effect would also be in my left ear
and then the suit would follow along and vibrate only around my left side.
Making it feel pretty precise!
So the suit worked surprisingly well for GORN during fights, even without native support.
Then I also tried out a competitive first-person shooter called Contractors.
This felt different, the suit would rumble at very random times.
Like when one of my teammates was shooting behind me towards an enemy in front of me,
I would feel the rumble on my back making it feel like I was being hit there.
But actually, it was just my teammate shooting at something else.
But when I was walking, the suit would also vibrate very softly, which actually did make
it more immersive.
So the Audio-To-Haptic feature sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.
The good news here is that bhaptics says that they are very focused on their software and
helping developers out.
They also provide an SDK that should make it easier for developers to integrate this
suit in their games.
So I hope that once the consumer version of this suit is released, we see some cool integrations
with this!
I am hoping so!
Here’s a call to all developers to add this to their game.
So let’s move on to my thoughts about all of this and some extra info about this haptic
feedback kit.
First of all, this kit we have here is the development kit, so be aware that things can
still change.
This is why this is more of a first impression than a review.
But let’s talk about its comfort.
I thought the torso vest was really comfortable to wear.
It fits both Chary and I and Chary is about 5 and a half inches taller than me.
I haven’t had any male friends try it yet.
I can tell you already that the velcro straps make the suits pretty flexible.
The only thing I am not sure about is its durability when moving it around since it
is full of wires and electronic devices.
It also comes with a piece of paper that asks you to handle the vest with care.
But I think with proper storage and a gentle touch, it will be just fine.
The forearm sleeves and face cushion are a bit less comfortable.
With my small arms, I had to strap the forearm sleeves pretty tight to make it stay in place,
which caused it to feel heavy after some time.
I also had to take some time to find just the right fit for my arm that was the most
comfortable.
However, after figuring out what's most comfortable, you will have no trouble with this later on.
This haptic face cushion feels harder on the face, because of the vibration motors.
So I can’t strap on my headset too tight or else it will be uncomfortable.
But I have to say, most of the time when I’m very into the VR game, I kinda forget about
this.
I was able to play with this haptic suit for 3 hours plus without much trouble.
After that time, my arms, in particular, did feel tired faster though because of the extra
weight.
I am also delighted at the fact that the whole suit is so easy to put on and off.
Ease of use is also one of the bHaptics goals and I think they accomplished this goal.
Of course, it becomes hot if you play an intense game like Beat Saber.
I would not recommend wearing long sleeves with this.
But if you sweat a lot, then you’ll be happy to know that the suit is also easy to wash.
You can take off the linings inside the vest and the arm sleeve to machine wash it.
As for battery life.
The site of bhaptics says that the battery life can go up to 10 hours of play time.
I could not test this out yet since I have been recharging the unit overnight every time
I test it to make sure I don’t run out of power for the video, but I have been able
to play with this kit for over 3 hours straight without any battery problems.
If you are looking to get a haptic suit, then I would recommend checking if there are games
that you like to play with native support for this suit first.
Because only that gives you the full realistic experience.
The Audio-to-Haptic feature is fun but doesn’t always make VR games feel more realistic.
You can, however, try adding your own patterns in games using the bhaptics software, but
I haven’t tried that yet, so I am not sure if it is easy.
This suit works with different headsets too, since it is connected to the game and not
the headset.
I was using this suit with the HTC VIVE, but I also used this suit with the Oculus Rift.
Right now, this suit is only available for developers.
The dev kit vest is available for 449 US dollars, the face cushion for 129 dollars, the arm
sleeves are 229 dollars and there are a couple of other items that you can see here that
we haven’t tried yet for a price as well.
Be aware that these are devkit prices...
It is also coming to the consumer market, which is good news, but what the price for
this will be is unknown at the moment.
I can imagine all the possibilities that this suit is going to open up for VR and I cannot
wait to see what developers will come up with.
This is also a call to all of you developers out there.
Please add these kinds of things to your VR games!
Like for example, make me able to feel what it's like to fly in a VR game for example.
Like, make me feel the impact.
Or for example, the wind flowing through my body.
I think you can simulate that with this suit.
What do you think of this haptic feedback kit by bhaptics?
And what creative usages do you have in mind for this?
Put them down below because maybe a developer might read it and implement it for us.
You never know!
I would love to hear from you.
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And a special shout out goes to his Patreon page.
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And as always VR on!