So. This morning's massive Steam update brought with it some interesting bits and pieces. Sure, there was plenty of new stuff for Team Fortress 2, but what's really interesting is the subtle mention of the Novint Falcon.

According to what I'm reading, the Novint Falcon is "an entirely new type of interface for PC gaming" - that is, it's a tiny robot, which enables high-fidelity three-dimensional touch elements to be added into games, so you can actually feel the game. We've got a video to show off how it all works, if you're curious.

Read full article by Jessica Citizen

Why do i feel that this would be a disadvantage to have? With the gun shaking like that it could easily put you off aim and die as a result. :/

Do want.

it could be good for single player games, but in multiplayer it would be more of a disadvantage do to the constant viewpoint movement.

Something like that in ArmA mixed with the NaturalPoint TrackIR 5 Ultra Head Tracker set would be brilliant

Looks really intersting.
Like said above, would be really good with a visual interface to acompany it.

My only gripe is the sheer size of the thing!
Watching the video, relative to the size of the guys hand (and assuming that he isn't a 12 year old or a midget) this thing must be bloody huge!

This plus a HDVR headset with Stereoscopics and the NPTrackIR5 would actually do a pretty good job at fixing a lot of the problem associated with VR when combined with usual peripherals. You could also install a Pedal peripheral like the ones that come with steering wheels to operate as your legs.

so we've got:

Head == VRHeadset + IRTracker5 (used for looking) == Head Movement
Hands == Novint Falcon (used for shooting, totally independent from the head) == Right Hand
Feet == Logitec Steering Wheel (your Left hand operates the steering wheel to steer the feet) == Feet + Left Hand.

This could actually work pretty well, its just VR really needs to make a comeback else all this technology is utterly pointless from a modern gaming standpoint. From a VR standpoint its great.

wouldn't you arm get tired after a while but looks kinda cool i guess

Looks cool.

but then we come across the same problem every pointer system have, they float in the air.

positioning human hands in the air and maintaining it for extended period already require noticeable amount of effort, now put the force feedback to it and you get a case of rapid exhaustion on the arm muscle.

those who have used force feedback joystick have noticed how extended period of use tires your arm quicker than a non force feedback stick, then you put that together with the fact that you have to hold your arm position in the air to a degree.

sorry, but as an actual competitive FPS controller this aint gonna work... strain aside, it's accuracy is also questionable due to the simple fact that a human hand has much greater difficulty maintaining precision while floating in the air compared to rested on a horizontal surface.

Would be crazy in a game such as arma/opf/arma2.
tf2, crysis(multi), cs and all them fast paced fps shooters, it would be next to usless...

We don't want those gamers to have any physical exertion that may get them more immersed in the gaming experience! If we wanted physical exertion we would have gotten a Wii...or go to the gym

/sarcasm

That's why you have to train in the military I guess. I imagine it must be difficult to lug around a carbine, subsequently aim it, and compensate for the kickback when firing.

So we try and get more integrated into Virtual Reality in games, and yet we don't want the reality of actually using our muscles?

it certainly looks interesting. especially for single player fps with the directional feedback.

would be neat as a camera controller in other games too. possibly even work well for rts?

but yeah, my main concern would be how tiring it is to use. considering i play games mostly when i'm tired and don't want to watch tv...

might work well for flight sims too, and i reckon would be excellent for 3d modelling applications (they show a bit of this in a random vid i found on youtube, looked neat)

depending on price i'd consider it..

meh... gimick

To expand on all posts here, it is within reason that some peripherals (and eventually platforms) will be more physically based and provide a different experience, possibly an improvement in the difficulty factor of a game (making it harder, and thus more reasistic) and excercise.

I'm looking foreward to the next generation of realism peripherals.

Might be a gimmick, but it's a damn nice looking gimmick.