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17
Programming
Input and
Force
Feedback
So far in Part II, everything that we have discussed has essentially been asso-
ciated with the sense of sight. But, whilst it is probably true that the visual
element is the most important component of any VR system, without the
ability to interact with the virtual elements, the experience and sense of re-
ality is diminished. We have seen in Section 4.2 that input to a VR system
can come from a whole range of devices, not just the keyboard or the mouse.
These nonstandard input devices are now indispensable components of any
VR system. However, even equipping our VR systems with devices such as
joysticks, two-handed game consoles or custom hardware such as automobile
steering consoles, we don’t come close ...