Valve's Chaperone System Will Work With Oculus Rift

As the release of both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive draw ever closer, people will no doubt start to wonder about the features of each. More specifically, those that have already pre-ordered the Rift are wondering what they're going to miss out on, by not going with the Vive. As it turns out, one feature developed by Valve will be available on both devices.

If you've ever had the chance to use the Vive, you probably tested the limits of the area you could walk in. When you got close to one of those boundaries, you would see the outline of a grid. This reminded me a lot of the Holodeck on Star Trek. Well, this feature is part of a system that Valve calls Chaperone.

The Chaperone system has a number of features that are designed to keep the user safe. In addition to being able to define the area of the room that you'll use, the Vive can use the front-facing camera to detect individual objects that might be in your path. An example might be a drink that you want to grab without needing to take off the headset.

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Since the Rift doesn't have a front-mounted camera, there isn't any way for it to detect individual objects in front of you. However, Valve has announced that it will be making the Chaperone system features available on the device. This will mostly be limited to defining the area where the device can be used.

Once the first Rifts start shipping, you'll be able to define the size of the area in feet. However, once the Touch controllers are available, you'll be able to use them to map the exact area that you want to use your device in.

It's really great to see Valve offering up features for both devices. This just goes to show that Valve is more about creating an experience for gamers, rather than making things exclusive for one device.

VIA: Engadget