Why the future of VR is all down to touch control

The new controllers from Oculus represent a glimpse of a virtual reality people can really lose themselves in

In 2016, 21st-century virtual reality really arrived. From cheap mobile experiences to exuberant desktop machines, if you wanted to dive into a virtual world, there was a way. But while the headsets opened up possibilities, the new breed of touch controllers are the virtual hands drawing you in.

When you first don a VR headset you're transported to another world, but suspending disbelief is required to keep you there. With the simple wand-like controllers or joypads, that's pretty hard - you know you're using a controller on the outside rather than your hands on the inside, which drags you out of the moment. Once that happens, you then start noticing the pixels of the display, the pressure of the headset on your face, the growing motion sickness and the chance to lose yourself in virtual reality disappears.