Anyone used the Razer Hydra?

FosoSam

I was doing some game development stuff today, trying to get a Razer Hydra to play nice to Unreal Engine. On the driver's default games I noticed The Sims 3 was one of the default supported games.

Sorta wondering how that works out, has anyone tried it before?

(For those unfamiliar with the Hydra, it's a motion control system which uses a central orb thing which generates a weak magnetic field and then uses other magnets within the controllers to track where they are in relation to it)

FosoSam

I ended up trying it out myself before work today.

Here's a video of me explaining how it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1y7G-bUEeo

Yes, it's about as frustrating to use as it looks like it is.

SimKeats

Even without the video, just looking at that.... "mouse" controller thingy, looks akward. I have to be honest, if I learn a game on mouse/keyboard, I dont even like switching that up, what made you buy such an oddity?

FosoSam

It's my boss' Hydra.
We're doing some VR/Motion Control game development at the moment. It's rather good for that.

Sims? Not so much, the game isn't made for motion controls.

SimKeats

I have to admit, you do have me wondering what it would be like to use like, the gloves from Johnny Mnemonic to play sims. But I guess I dont have to wonder too hard, would probably be alot like using a touch screen I imagine.

plopppo

Heh, the thing in the middle reminds me of a black Zippy: