Abiliy to recognize the use of a controller

[sanford877]

I'm an Unreal Engine 4 developer and I'd like to implement the leap motion technology in my next project but I have one major concern: can the leap motion recognize when a controller is being held versus when a gesture is given?

This is a pretty big issue for me since game mechanics purely controlled through leap motion seem very limited (at least not what I'm going for). The ideal situation would be if the player could use a controller but then also give gestures. This would allow for the recognizable gameplay mechanics but also a very cool flick of the wrist way to get additional input.

I've never used the leap motion but it looks very promisingly and I'm trying to get an idea if this type of gameplay is possible. If you could use a controller or keyboard as your main input and then possibly reach forward into the leap motions range of detection that would work as well.

I realize this might be a specific application but any advice or opinion on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Taylor

[AlexColgan]

The API doesn't directly recognize whether or not a controller is being held, but this would certainly cause a decline in tracking confidence. This is because the device isn't able to track your hands well when they overlap with other nearby infrared-reflective objects. For VR experiences, you could probably require a high Confidence value for a hand to be recognized as it moves away from the controller. For a desktop experience, your users would probably want to be able to reach into the interaction zone, as holding the physical controller above the device isn't the best, ergonomically speaking

[chemman]

I am not totally with ya on exactly what you are trying to do but it sounds like what I am working on, sort of. I have attached a snapshot I just took of what I have been playing around with today. I am in the Block Pit Dive VR and have a BT mouse and wired USB mouse controlling the cursor in the upper left FOV of the screen. I also have a BT Joystick controller that is not doing much in the Block Pit but is controlling the Android device out of Block Pit. I have the Leap and USB mouse and a 2gig SD card plugged into a powered USB3.0 hub in the upper part of the photograph. I am trying to do this and still have the Android plugged into and controlled by the Gear VR (waiting on some hardware to build an adapter). I would like to have control inside the Block Pit, and any other game, etc. with the controller and not have to be spinning around the room. When I was holding the controller with one hand it seemed like the Leap would mostly ignore that hand, it would see the other empty/gesturing hand easily right next to the controller hand.

In this picture there is a skeleton on the hand without the controller, think it is tracking that one.

[sanford877]

Thanks, This helps a lot. That's basically what I was looking for. I imaged you playing with a 360 controller and periodically reaching forward. When you reach forward your character(in-game) will extend his arm to see a wrist pad with your health on it.

[chemman]

I think the same thing and am working to integrate every imaginable controller all at the same time. There is a game out called Dreadhalls for the Gear VR and it uses the controller for most all gameplay. Many of the items you run across in the game need to be examined and picked up etc. it would be very good if you could play through the game moving around with the controller then use the Leap for interaction with objects and other things in game play.