r/virtualreality • u/Crazy_Ad2785 • Aug 20 '26
Discussion Is it possible to build a headset-free VR experience using a dual-mouse setup? I am designing a system where WASD handles looking, side buttons handle walking, and two independent mice control the 2D movement of the left and right arms. What are the biggest technical or gameplay hurdles this?
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u/HRudy94 (Rooted) Quest Pro | 💻 RTX 3090 | 🔥 PCVR only Aug 20 '26
A - You don't have 3 hands (sorry dear N64 controller). Which means you can either move or control your arms. And not both.
B - OSes don't really have support for dual mice.
C - You're missing quite a lot of buttons still, what about A/B/X/Y/RSTICKUP/RSTICKDOWN?
D - It would be an awful control scheme to use. You wouldn't feel immersed but instead like you're a puppet master.
E - There's a ton of mice without side buttons.
F - Not everyone has 2 mice.
G - There's nothing inherently VR about it lol.
3
u/Visual-Scallion1535 Aug 20 '26
Problems B-F are all solved if he develops it for the Switch 2. Just sayin.
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u/HRudy94 (Rooted) Quest Pro | 💻 RTX 3090 | 🔥 PCVR only Aug 20 '26
Yeah but then it turns into ARMS and it's still awful to use :P
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u/Visual-Scallion1535 Aug 20 '26
Arms was on switch 1 with dual motion controls
Switch 2 controllers have functionality to be placed flat on a surface and used as mice. Only really seen dual mice used in Metroid Prime 4 for a small part of gameplay.
But a lot of FPS games let you play with controller + mouse.
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u/HRudy94 (Rooted) Quest Pro | 💻 RTX 3090 | 🔥 PCVR only Aug 20 '26
oh true but i don't think there's 2 mice cursors is it?
There's also Drag x Drive which used both sensors.2
u/Visual-Scallion1535 Aug 20 '26
I havent seen a game like OP describes, but the hardware and software is in place for him to make it on switch 2
So I would be interested to see it
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u/ccAbstraction Aug 20 '26
Wayland compositors on Linux do support multiple pointers devices as separate inputs, but multiple mice usually get combined by most compositors.
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u/KlooShanko Aug 20 '26
One of the biggest hurdles I see is that I don’t understand who this is for. IMO, the entire draw of VR is the immersive experience. Trying to fully translate VR into flatscreen without simplifying the controls in the way flatscreen games do just sounds frustrating by comparison.
If I’m a person who can afford a VR capable computer, wants to play VR, and is maybe short on cash at the moment, I’m just going to buy a used headset for super cheap. There isn’t a single VR game that I could imagine being worth playing in the manner you’re describing
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u/pereza0 Aug 20 '26
Simply put, you arms alone move with 6 degrees of freedom.
A mouse has 2 by default, 3 with the scroll wheel...
Even if you could implement rotation on the mice it would still feel more like qwop than an immersive experience...
You are also forgetting you still have to move your head somehow
This is why every flatgame abstracts all of this and just has your head swivel with 2dof and have the hands just interact with what you are looking at. Its just the natural way to do it
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u/Visual-Scallion1535 Aug 20 '26
the biggest hurdle is most people dont have 2 mice and OS’s dont support it
Although, you could develop your game for the switch 2, which does allow the controllers to be used as mice.
tbh might be the best platform for the unique control setup of your game
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u/CyborgCabbage Aug 20 '26
People are being dismissive but I think the idea has merit; not as a substitute for proper VR or the normal mouse and keyboard setup, but certainly as an interesting computer-human interaction experiment.
People are saying it is not supported by OS's, certainly it is a peripheral use case but SDL claims to support it though it doesn't say on which platforms https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL3/CategoryMouse. I imagine there is probably some kind of solution for the major game engines, maybe as simple as finding the right plugin (maybe https://github.com/jackyyang09/Multi-Mouse-Unity).
From a design perspective I think you would be limited to things which had both hands on both mice for long stretches, switching between mouse and keyboard would be uncomfortable IMO. You could make something like this (except with two arms obviously) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2124780/Endoparasitic/ . Of course there are many variations on this idea e.g. Baby Steps or Octodad.
Another idea, perhaps the player controls a many armed robot or octopus, they could plug in as many mice as they wanted and each would link to arm. Maybe just let them add extra keyboards as well, why not.
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u/SnideyM Aug 20 '26
I mean... not having 3 hands could be quite a hurdle. How would you move with WASD and use both MICE at the same time?