Meta has published the source code of a new hand tracking demo, in which Quest headsets track a user’s hands and detached fingers. The company encourages other developers to integrate the features into their own projects.
Created in Unreal Engine 4, the ‘gameplay showcase’ gives users various small hand commands, such as pressing buttons, throwing objects, and hitting objects. The demo is based on two previous, more comprehensive, hand tracking demos from Meta: First Steps with Hand Tracking and Tiny Castles.
The difference from the previous demos is that Meta has made the source code of this showcase publicly available on GitHub, with the explicit aim of getting other developers to use elements of it in their VR games. For example, Meta hopes that it will be easier for other developers to develop controllerless games. According to the company, hand-tracked games can be “more accessible, social and immersive” than games that use controllers.