I’ve placed an order for Tactsuit X16 but it’ll take until Feb 8th to ship.
Also my CyberCarpet never smelled when I received it. I have it on top of the much bigger carpet in my room.
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Look forward to your review.
So far i’m impressed…kind of. I have yet to try audio based mode but then it will be encroaching on Woojer’s Turf and may not compare.
Basically in sone games where getting hit is supposed to happen and often the native mode is awesome.
Think, Thrill of the Fight.
But in games like crisis VRgade where your NOT supposed to get hit its less impressive.
Basically if your good you may as well not be wearing it.
HL Alyx was cool. Especially when your gurt and that heart beat kicks in.
But again …if your good you would never feel it.
I am now having more respect for the audio based feedback of aomething like the woojer even more now.
Vertigo remastered is perfect for it. Even the inteo part where you are in the doctor who style vortex and that spooky sound swells up. The way it makes you feel is next level. Or the fire in the vents almist feels like you can feel the pressure or something.
I think the best would be some combination of both native feedback and audio based.
Anyway I like it for sure. It has lots of configureable options and quite a few supported titles. I was surprised by some of them.
Saints and Sinners among them.
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I just started playing Alien Isolation with my Woojer Vest, and feeling the LFE impacts through your body definitely adds a layer of immersion. I’m noticing how important it is to add ‘just enough’ so that it isn’t distracting/unrealistic.
It would be great if the location based haptics could use surround sound when a plugin is not available. Also, it would be interesting if the ‘rumble’ feedback sent to controllers could add to the haptics.
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they do have arm bands.
One thing that I notice is that some people say they want native support for the realism of it all.
But when playing Crisis VRigade i noticed that its not very realistic to get shot in the head and feel it in your chest. Or shot in the leg and feel it in your stomach.
Pistol whip works so well with the Woojer because ever time you shoot the gun its so damned satisfying. Even if its not “realistic”
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So one thing I noticed is that while the vest looks big in that picture when worn I feel more like this guy.
its so short and kind of tight. And i’m not out of shape. I’m 5’10 180lbs
It feels like this… If you usual buy shirts in Large size. This is like wearing a medium.
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Well technically it is filling out the low end of the explosion from firing a round which would be ‘felt’, but the extreme level that you can put it at is unrealistic. Of course this is all preference though.
Now I’m wondering how this would feel having transducers on your wrists while playing a game like Pistol Whip 
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I actually tried that. I also got the woojer strap (which im not as impressed with)
I strapped it to my gun hand and it didn’t really do much for me.
The feedback on the body is so much more impressive. (You feel it through you, even the subtle rumbles)
What’s also nice about audio based mode is that it works on all games even pancake ones.
So you had the same idea. I know technically the ideal feedback is from solenoids, but I was thinking it may add some immersion in vr.
Update: After using the bhaptics a bit more I’m still not sure if it falls into the “Gimmick” category.(The native support not the audio)
Audio Mode
So with woojer i get the most fulfilling audio based feedback. It feels solid and not buzzy.
The bhaptics feels okay at the low rumbles but its attempt to translate the higher frequency comes off less like a touch and more of a high pitched buzz that you can actually hear. (Bad if using non enclosed speakers…looking at you G2)
That aside it does the job.
Native support a little to hacky ?
Where I think it feels a bit gimmicky is actually the native support.
Most games get support via a “mod” .( Boneworks , Alyx superhot etc…)
For these games it feels like too much setup to even launch . Some of them like Alyx require a special parameter to add to the exe commandline
(Luckily PE lets us add parameters to the launch in addition to the no PP command line)
Overall it feels a little too much friction to get these mod supported games to run with the support.
Native Game Mode, is it a gimmick?
Anyway once you get it running. The problem is for example, In Alyx you dont get the haptics all the time, only in programmed conditions. And it can be a little hit or miss (pun intended).
Something touching you or getting shot feels okay but the caveat here… unless you get the head unit. getting headshot or punched in the face you feel it on your chest which kind of throws the “native mode is more realistic” argument out of the window.
The few cool effects are filling up on health or the heart beat when your health is low, but otherwise you may as well not be wearing it.
Its amazing in games were you are “supposed” to take hits like Thrill of the fight.
But for everything else I’m not so sure.
I’m still trying it out in some more games but…if i end up just using it for audio based haptics the Woojer may win.
Software
bHaptics has actual software that lets you control how the sound hits the jacket. For audio mode so thats nice. Woojer doesn’t have this but it does have hardware control of the feedback level which might be better.
Other Annoyances
So should you decide you want to use the vest for normal seated gameplay, the biggest design flaw ever
The button to turn the bhaptics on off is on your back!!!
Seriously what a stupid idea. You can’t lean back without turning it off. So much for playing Squadrons with this on.
What’s nice about the Woojer is that its more vest like design is more comfortable and the semi-hard back allows you to put it over your chair to give you feedback with out even wearing it. (For me it even acts as back support to prevent me from slouching)
Forget about doing that with the bHaptics.
Conclusion
Buy this if you want something to show off to friends in contrived situations, or if you dont mind just having it around when you’re feeling up for some gimmicks.
I’m still on the fence if I will keep it or sell it I think the Woojer Vest may be enough for me.
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Awesome review, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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all I’ve got to say about it is I tried to play Skyrim VR without it after I played with it on and it just doesn’t feel right
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I lean back while seated playing skyrim all the time and never once had it shut off. The button is slightly recessed.
weird maybe its my posture is different (or i have a hunch)
but i even look at it funny and it turns on. its takes like .0001 grams of force to trigger it.
im sure if i dropped an eyelash on the button it would activate.
I don’t know about yours but I have the original bhaptics suit And like I said I haven’t had a problem with it.
Oh, so you have the original bHaptics and not the x16?
I updated the title to be more specific.
Mine looks like this
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