Today we’re looking at the clever design of
Red Matter 2’s ‘grabber tools, and how they contribute to immersion. Today we’re looking at the clever design of Red Matter 2’s
‘grabber tools’ and the many ways that they contribute to immersion.Editor’s Note:
Now that we’ve rebooted our Inside XR Design series, we’re re-publishing them for those that missed our older entries.
You can find the complete video below, or continue reading for an adapted text version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aXBtNdoyuk
IntroToday we’re going to talk about Red Matter 2 (2022), an adventure puzzle game set in a retro-future sci-fi world. It’s a great VR game, but for those who pay attention to the details they will notice that many of the innovations in the Red matter
were first introduced back in 2018. But hey, that’s why we’re making this video series–there’s incredible VR design out there that everyone can learn from.We’re going to look at Red Matter 2’s
ingenious grabber tools, and the surprising number of ways they contribute to immersion.
What You See is What You GetAt first glance, the grabber tools in Red Matter 2
might just look like sci-fi set-dressing, but they are so much more than that.
At a basic level, the grabber tools take on the shape of the user’s controller. If you’re playing on Quest, Index, or PSVR 2, you’ll see a custom grabber tool that matches the shape of your specific controller.
First and foremost, this means that players’ in-game hand pose matches their actual hand pose and the feeling of holding something in their hands. You can even feel the same center of gravity in the game as what is shown in the VR. It’s on the right or left controller. Take your own guess in the comments and then let us know if you got it right! You can guess which one is the top or bottom button in the comments. Then let us know whether you were right. It’s because I didn’t have access to a special filming mode that enabled me to use debugging. In my opinion, the best UI is no UI at all. I think the best interface is none at all. The player will feel that this is a realistic way to engage with the world of the game. They also reproduce the limited interaction fidelity () that VR players have. When you view your hand in most VR games, you will see a… human hand. This hand is meant to be your
hand. Your real hands have five fingers and can manipulate objects in ways that even the most advanced robots today find difficult to replicate. Your real hands each have five fingers and can dexterously manipulate objects in ways that even today’s most advanced robots have trouble replicating.
So while your real hand has five fingers to grab and manipulate objects, your virtual hand essentially only has one point of input–a single point with which to grab objects.
If you think about it, the grabber tool in
Red Matter 2
exactly represents this single point of input to the player. Diegetically, it’s obvious upon looking at the tool that you can’t manipulate the fingers, so your only option is to ‘grab’ at a one point.That’s a long way of saying that the grabber tools in Red Matter 2
reflect the coarse hand input that’s actually available to us in VR, instead of showing us a virtual hand with lots of fingers that we can’t actually use.So, In Red Matter 2
, the grabber tools contextualize the inability to use our fingers. The result is that instead of feeling silly that we have to rotate and manipulate objects in somewhat strange ways, you actually feel like you’re learning how to deftly operate these futuristic tools.
Immersion Insulation GapAnd believe it or not, there’s still more to talk about why Red Matter 2’s
grabber tools are so freaking smart.Physics interactions are a huge part of the game, and the grabber tools again work to maintain immersion when handling objects. The Red matter 2
game uses an inertia system similar to many VR games. This allows you to feel the weight of objects in your hands. Small objects move quickly and easily, while large objects are sluggish and their inertia fights against your movement.
Rather than imagining the force our hands would feel when moving these virtual objects, the grabber tools create a sort of immersion insulation gap by providing a mechanical pivot point between the tool and the object.This visually ‘explains’ why we can’t feel the forces of the object against our fingers, especially when the object is very heavy. The disconnect between the object and our hand–with the grabber tool as the insulator in the middle–alleviates some of the expectation of the forces that we’d normally feel in real life, thereby preserving immersion just a little bit more.Unassuming Inventory
And if it wasn’t clear already, the grabber tools are actually…
your inventory. They can be used to store objects temporarily, as well as storing your various tools, such a flashlight, hacking device, or gun. Handling inventory this way means that players can never accidentally drop or lose their tools, which is an issue we see in lots of other VR games, even those which use ‘holsters’ to hold things.Inhuman Hands
And last but not least…the grabber tools can actually do some interesting things that our hands can’t. For example, the rotating grabber actually makes the motion of turning wheels like this one easier than doing it with two normal hands.It’s no coincidence that the design of the grabber tools in Red Matter 2
is so smartly thought through… after all, the game is all about interacting with the virtual world around you… so it makes sense that the main way in which players interact with the world would be carefully considered.To take full advantage of the grabbers, the developers built a wide variety of detailed objects for the game which are consistently interactive. You can pick up pretty much anything that looks like you should be able to.And here’s a great little detail that I love to see: in cases where things aren’t interactive, all you have to do is not imply that they are! Here in
Red Matter 2
the developers simply removed handles from this cabinet… a clear but non-intrusive way to tell players it can’t be opened.Somewhat uniquely to VR, just seeing cool stuff up close like it’s right in front of you can be a rewarding experience all on its own. The grabber tools in Red Matter are so useful to the overall experience of VR that I am surprised that we don’t see more of them. This breakdown was great! You can also check out our other
and articles.