Tried a few games yesterday with the Edge Strap and I must say that even though it’s not mind blowing it does add to the immersion…
Allen Isolation just got a while lot scarier now that I can feel when she’s close…
In Project Cars and Overload it also adds quite a bit.
Overall, I’m happy with it and think it’ll see a lot more use than both my Kat Loco and my WalkOVR, since both require calibration and only work for room scale gaming (and sometimes all I’m up for after a long day is seated gaming).
Putting on the strap and plugging in a pair of earphones/IEMs or just the DAS takes seconds…
I wonder if I should have backed the vest instead, but I think I wouldn’t use it much during summer anyway due to the heat (I really want to install that aircon/ventilation system that I’ve been thinking about for years now… Any year now)…!
I would like to rectify my too quick judgment of the woojer vest. I have done the calibration video and maxed out the vest and i have to say that I can feel the vest effects much more compared to before.
Still wish the vest would cover mor nparts of my body, but definetly a cool add on for feedback.
Tested it with my P6 dof reality car racing sim using audio from the game and it feels cool.
Ordered the SRS shaker kit plus and looking forward to combine both, the woojer use, with the srs shaker use , on the rig
I will share it. However I first want to try more experiences. So far I have tried Half-Life-Alyx on PC, Sairento on Quest, Audio to haptics on the mobile app and audio to haptics on PC. I hope I can get Skyrim to work. As I’m also developing I want to include some feedback regarding the SDK and tools.
I can also compare it with the Subpac M2 which I have used before.
Some impressions regarding the bHaptics Tactot Vest
Hardware
The vest is of high quality with exchangeable washable lining.
It is comfortable to wear but of course you need to wear it tight for it to work properly.
It is not heavy as the weight is distributed over your hole upper torso.
Adjusting the straps is easy and doable without external help of another person.
First I thought the battery compartment is upside down letting the battery fall out but
that is the correct position shown on photos.
My only concern about the hardware is that the paint on the TACTSUIT logo already
starts to wear out on one end where my arms touch it frequently.
The haptic effect can be pretty strong if you crank things up to maximum.
The 40 build-in haptic motors can get quite loud with “clapping” sounds,
I recommend using closed ear headphones with the device.
Software
bhaptics App
Bluethooth coupling worked flawlessly.
The app is a good way to test and demo the device to people with the path and dots mode and a number of predefined effects to choose from a library.
For serious effect authoring you should use the beHaptics Designer wich runs in browser.
The audio to haptics part of the app is pretty simplistic offering no settings.
Be aware that the app is currently only able to do audio to haptics with
files that are stored locally on your device. So it is not possible to use
a streaming service or even another music player.
bHaptics Player
Easy user interface for the setup of the different components of the Tactsuit.
A click on one of the components makes it vibrate so you can see that the connection is working.
The bHaptics player features an important overall slider to adjust the global intensity to your personal preferences. It does not manage game profiles so before you start a game you need to adjust the slider manually if required. For audio to haptics it offers stereo and surround sound options. For surround you need to install a surround 3rd party sound driver from Razer first. I don’t like its terms of use as you basically need to agree that the driver can spy on how you use your computer.
bHaptics Designer
You can create any type of effect here with a lot of options including mixing effects on different layers. I think it will take a while to fullyl understand all possibilities. The user interface is simple though.
Your end result are .tact files which are essentially just JSON files.
There are plenty of configuration options for audio to haptics configuration for vest and arms based on stereo input or 7.1 surround sound. In a nutshell the configuration is done by defining a threshold and and intensity (gain) by frequency band and speaker position. The result is a .bhc JSON file.
Unity SDK
The SDK looks ok based on the first glance but seems to be limited to play the created .tact files. I did not discover a low level access to the hardware yet. However editing the JSON files will also enable direct access once you understand the used syntax.
Native Support
Native support for Sariento Untethered on the Quest worked fine.
However I don’t like the gameplay that much so I was not blown away by the experience.
Mods
The Half-Life Alyx mod is great with lots of different effects.
If you don’t like one, you can change the existing ones with bHaptics Designer.
The SkyrimVR mod is less sophisticated offering fewer effects.
I need to test this again being more advanced in the game using magic spells.
Overall
I could not recognize a disturbing latency between in game action or audio and the haptic effect on the vest. Thats good as the wirless connection is based on Bluetooth.
Comparision to SubPac M2
The SubPac is mainly using bone conduction to your spine. It just produces the bass without any clapping noises. I still prefer the SubPac when listing to audio as it is more comfy to wear and covers less of your body resulting in less sweating.
Hi, i received my woojer strap last week and i am fully satisfied. Worth the 99$ kickstarter price, but maybe not the current 250$. I have a subpack, but i was missing front vibes, especially during gun fights.
btw. if you want to „merge“ audio devices as windows can only output one device at a time (there are workarounds though like mirroring or using the input as output) try „voicemeter banana“ it allows to use all soundcards, usb devices, BT device at once and you can level them individually.
Some combinations have different latency though, like hdmi (much latency) + optical (very little latency) at the same time.
I bought mine during that 20% sale ;). But regarding your question´: I would say it’s not worth $500 for consumers as the game support is too limited now. For me its worth it as I’m an early adopter and tinkerer. It offers so much more programmability options than the SubPac which I bought for $400 when it was released.
I decided to give myself a Woojer vest for Christmas (although it wasn’t delivered by Dec 25th). It should (hopefully) arrive in a few days. I’ll post my impressions after I’ve had a chance to use it a bit.
FYI: It’s on sale for the next 6 days, 25% off. It’s pricy, so I wouldn’t have bought it, if it wasn’t on sale.
I have it and I love it. I prefer it to the bHaptics. Its not programmable per game or anything, but the effect it adds to the game overall is really nice.
Great! Mine should arrive tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it. In the past, I’d considered getting a ButtKicker, but it didn’t really fit my needs. The Woojer is both wireless and wearable, which greatly adds to its ease-of-use.
