Meta Developers

While Haptics Studio and Haptics SDK are the recommended path for haptics on Quest, there are a number of other haptics APIs available in the runtime. These provide lower-level control to your application and may be useful in some specific contexts. You may consider these APIs when building custom middleware integrations, or when employing controller specific APIs, like adding localized haptics on Touch Pro controllers.

OVRInput haptics

Use SetControllerVibration() from OVRInput to start and stop haptics for a controller.

To start, update, or end vibration, call SetControllerVibration() in the frame you want to make the change.

static void OVRInput.SetControllerVibration(float frequency, float amplitude, Controller controllerMask)

Expected values for amplitude are any value between zero and one, inclusive. The greater the amplitude, the stronger the vibration in the controller. Frequency should be set to 1 to enable haptics. To end the vibration, set both amplitude and frequency to zero. Controller vibration automatically ends two seconds after the last input.

Note on Frequency: Frequency should be set to 1 to enable haptics. But, this value will have no further impact on the actual frequency at which the controller vibrates. The only way to dynamically change the frequency of the motor is by using Haptics SDK or PCM haptics as your haptics API.

Supported values for Controller are defined in the Developer Reference.

// starts vibration on the right Touch controller
OVRInput.SetControllerVibration(1, 1, OVRInput.Controller.RTouch)

Enum descriptions

public enum InteractionProfile
{
	None                      = OVRPlugin.InteractionProfile.None,
	Touch                     = OVRPlugin.InteractionProfile.Touch,
	TouchPro                  = OVRPlugin.InteractionProfile.TouchPro,
}

The different interaction profiles are:

OVRPlugin.InteractionProfile.Touch: Oculus Quest Touch Controller
OVRPlugin.InteractionProfile.TouchPro: Meta Quest Touch Pro Controller

New haptics locations

public enum HapticsLocation
{
	None                      = OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.None,
	Hand                      = OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.Hand,
	Thumb                     = OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.Thumb,
	Index                     = OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.Index,
}

On the Meta Quest Touch Pro controller, there are three elements which can play haptics: two LRA (Linear Resonant Actuator) for thumb and trigger and one VCM (Voice Coil Motor).

LRAs vibrate at a set frequency, which means the only thing you can modulate is amplitude. VCMs, on the other hand, can vibrate at a much wider range of frequencies, that is 50Hz to 500Hz. This allows for a more immersive experience as you will be able to distinguish between the low rumbling of thunder and the high pitched blaring of an alarm.

While triggering haptics, you can specify the location where the effect needs to be played. This location is specified using the HapticsLocation enum.

OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.Hand: main haptics location with VCM
OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.Thumb: haptics location on the thumb with LRA
OVRPlugin.HapticsLocation.Index: haptics location on the trigger with LRA

HapticsAmplitudeEnvelopeVibration

Consider the following complex analog signal.

The amplitude envelope of a signal is a smooth curve outlining its extremes. The amplitude envelope for the above signal would look like this:

public struct HapticsAmplitudeEnvelopeVibration
{
	public int SamplesCount;
	public float[] Samples;
	public float Duration;
}

This struct is used to specify an amplitude envelope haptic effect.

The fields are described as follows:

Field	Description
`Samples`	A float array representing the amplitude envelope values.
`SamplesCount`	The number of elements in the ‘Samples’ array.
`Duration`	A float value representing the duration of the haptic effect in seconds.

HapticsPcmVibration

public struct HapticsPcmVibration
{
	public int SamplesCount;
	public float[] Samples;
	public float SampleRateHz;
	public bool Append;
}

A PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) effect creates a high fidelity haptic effect. However, unlike AmpltideEnvelope, this effect is more complex to author.

The fields are described as follows:

Field	Description
`Samples`	A float array. Represents the haptic feedback samples. If you consider the haptic effect as a sampled analog audio, then this buffer will contain the samples representing that effect.
`SamplesCount`	The number of samples in ‘Samples’ array.
`SampleRateHz`	A float value representing the number of samples to be played from ‘Samples’ per second. This is used to determine the duration of the effect.
`Append`	To support long haptic effects, set this flag to `true`, which means that the effect will be played after the currently-playing effect is finished. If `append` is `false`, then the provided effect will begin playing immediately.

SetControllerLocalizedVibration

public static void SetControllerLocalizedVibration(
            HapticsLocation hapticsLocationMask,
            float frequency,
            float amplitude,
            Controller controllerMask = Controller.Active)

This function is used to trigger haptics on thumb and trigger locations.

The parameters are described as follows:

hapticsLocationMask: represents the location where the effect will be played. See ‘HapticsLocation’ enum for more details.
frequency: float value representing the frequency of the effect
amplitude: float value representing the amplitude of the effect

All localized haptic effects default to 2s duration.

SetControllerHapticsAmplitudeEnvelope

public static void SetControllerHapticsAmplitudeEnvelope(
                HapticsAmplitudeEnvelopeVibration hapticsVibration,
                Controller controllerMask = Controller.Active)

This function is used to trigger an amplitude envelope haptic effect. It takes the ‘HapticsAmplitudeEnvelopeVibration’ as a parameter. The struct contains the description of the effect.

If an effect is already playing when this function is called, the new effect will begin playing immediately.

SetControllerHapticsPcm

public static int SetControllerHapticsPcm(
                HapticsPcmVibration hapticsVibration,
                Controller controllerMask = Controller.Active)

This function is used to trigger a PCM haptic effect. It takes the ‘HapticsPcmVibration’ as a parameter. The struct describes the PCM effect.

If this effect is triggered on the Meta Quest Touch Controller, then resampling is performed and an equivalent haptic effect is played on the controller. If you do not want any resampling, then it is recommended that you use the sampleRate returned by GetControllerSampleRateHz function and generate the haptics data based on this sampleRate.

The return is the number of samples consumed.

GetControllerSampleRateHz

public static float GetControllerSampleRateHz(Controller controllerMask = Controller.Active)

This function returns the sample rate of the first connected device.

GetCurrentInteractionProfile

public static OVRInput.InteractionProfile GetCurrentInteractionProfile(OVRInput.Hand hand)

This returns the type of interaction profile based on the type of device connected.

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