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We recently went into detail in an interview with Striker VR, a company working on a powerful gun recoil technology for virtual reality. Not shown in that interview was the company’s pistol prototype which felt to have even more satisfying recoil by my testing than their rifle (which was already impressive). Rather than design a weapon from scratch, Striker VR grabbed a freely available digital model of Halo’s famous M6 Magnum to build out the prototype.

To showcase their virtual reality weapon recoil system, Striker VR created both rifle and pistol prototypes. The pistol prototype, which I had the chance to try at Oculus Connect, actually borrows its design from the infamous M6 Magnum first introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved (2001).

While I lauded the quality of feedback from the rifle prototype, I think the pistol prototype—seen here with a rough integration of Trinity VR’s tracking tech—was even more satisfying (probably thanks to increased torque due to its smaller size). They even built in some rudimentary reload functionality where you have to give the gun a good smack on the bottom of the clip after 15 shots.

striker-vr-halo-pistrolSee Also: 10 Seconds of Testing Striker VR’s Gun Recoil System and I’m Sold – Hands-on and Interview

As a long time Halo player, I recognized the design instantly. The model used for their prototype appears to most closely resemble the M6C version of the Magnum as present in Halo 2 (2004). There’s 12 variants of the M6 Magnum used throughout the Halo games, for those keeping count. Hilariously, the enlarged trigger guard that’s a staple of the weapon’s design actually makes it awful for handling with two hands, leaving no room for proper stabilization from the off hand. The most comfortable place for your off hand ends up being on the bottom of the clip which does little to stabilize recoil, but then again, the weapon was designed to be wielded, in one hand if need be, by the Spartan super-soldiers of Halo lore.

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As a testament to developer Bungie’s attention to detail, character models in their game actually wield the weapon just as I ended up doing with the real model.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Hopsonator

    So awesome! I think peripherals like these will finally find their homes in consumer VR. I love the future! New to the site, loving the journey!

    • Ben Lang

      Welcome! Thanks for joining us on the road : ).

      What brings you to VR?

      • Hopsonator

        Just a hardcore VR enthusiast! Very excited to see it finally come to fruition! Always looking for news and information about the tech and I’m glad I came across your site! I know it’s not the best idea to do so if your not a developer but I pre ordered the DK2 lol. I’ve been following the Rift since the Kickstarter and I just can’t wait to get a taste of VR! Just hoping they don’t release CV1 in Q1 2015, but I doubt they will since DK2 is still new to devs. Thank you so much for having me on this site! The future is now! :D

        • brandon9271

          probably be a while before they release another dev kit or CV1. I have a feeling when they get close to releasing CV1 they will release another dev kit that has the exact same specs as CV1. who knows, they may just skip the next DK all together and give select devs early access to CV1.

          • Hopsonator

            That sounds right on the money! My best guess is holiday 2015. I think what is most exciting is that we have been able to travel this “road to VR” and watch it all unfold. In the past, inivative new tech was developed more so behind the scenes. It’s so awesome to see such a strong involvement with the community. I know this will change everything, and I’m glad we get to see it happen in our lifetime. :)

  • Jacob Pederson

    Now lets just hope no lawyers read your headline . . .

  • Druss

    Dutch law forbids anything looking like a fire weapon and we are not alone on this in Europe. I hope they have/will think of some kind of alternate design in mind for Europe. :P

  • These haptic guns seem very interesting, I would love to hook one up to a STEM -pack and use it in Half-Life VR, seems like a good fit. I wonder just how long it will take them to carry this over to consumer products. Did I read earlier that they aim for military simulations first? If so it feels a decade away :P Bleh.

    I mean, it should be fairly simple to ad-hoc it into games, just have it trigger the in-game action for firing. It would be even better if the came only recoiled if you actually did fire a shot, and was not out of ammo, and could vary the recoil between weapons.

    Personally I think there’s plenty of space for controllers in the VR space. Feels a little like the old Nintendo days with a light gun, arcade stick, track mat, power-glove etc. I mean, I already have a gamepad and a steering wheel with a HOTAS on back-order, all for my VR consumption, and so far the current VR push is still very early days! O.o

    • Ben Lang

      Article coming soon that you’ll enjoy based on this comment ; )