Logitech in the present day introduced the launch of the MX Ink stylus. This formally supported Quest accent goals to provide customers a extra exact and pure enter technique for functions like design, drawing, and visualization.
On Quest, hand-tracking is nice as a low-barrier enter for primary cursor-like enter, whereas controllers are nice as a versatile and excessive efficiency enter for gaming and functions that want a lot of distinct inputs like buttons and sticks. However now Quest headsets may have a 3rd possibility: the MX Ink stylus from Logitech.
The MX Ink stylus is offered beginning in the present day, priced at $130 for the stylus alone, or $170 for the stylus and the MX Inkwell accent—a handy place to retailer and cost the stylus. There’s additionally the MX Max ($50) which affords a main drawing floor in the event you’re going to make use of it for 2D enter on a desk. The stylus helps Quest 2 and Quest 3-series headsets.
Whereas the stylus is for certain to be a extra area of interest enter machine for the headset, it caters to a subset of VR apps that are centered on creation. That may be apps for issues like 3D modeling, portray, sculpting, and drawing—the type of apps the place having the ability to level to a really particular level in house feels far more pure with a stylus than a controller.
After I acquired to strive an early model of the MX Ink stylus earlier this 12 months, I used to be impressed with the way in which it was built-in into the general Quest expertise. As an official ‘Made for Meta’ accent, the headset acknowledges that you simply’re pairing a stylus (relatively than controller) and walks you thru the process.
As soon as it’s paired, it really works identical to you’d hope: you see a 3D mannequin of the stylus in entrance of you, and you should use it as a primary pointer in the usual Horizon OS interface. The buttons on the stylus emulate the buttons on the controller, so you are able to do issues like drag-to-scroll and press buttons. You’ll additionally see a battery-life readout in the identical place you’d usually count on to see it for the controllers.
[ir]
Whereas the stylus does a fairly good job of emulating the controller, the true purpose for this factor to exist is for apps which were constructed particularly with it in thoughts. Not solely do these apps present a mannequin of the stylus (or their very own interpretation of it) additionally they help the pressure-sensitive tip and pressure-sensitive facet button, which permit for clean enter for parameters like brush stroke dimension.
We’ve reached out to Logitech hoping to get a whole checklist (inclusive of the “many extra” on the very backside), however for now Logitech at present lists the next functions as supporting the MX Ink stylus:
- Arkio
- Interact
- Gravity Sketch
- Gesture VR
- Portray VR
- Osso VR
- Vermillion
- Thrasher
- Figmin XR
- Basic VR
- Hololight
- Open Brush
- Elucis
- ShapesXR
- Visionwear
- Needle
- “Many extra”