Rock-steady hands in VR with the 1€ filter

Steady hands are essential in VR for precise control and to avoid immersion-breaking issues, such as jittery or weightless movements of hands or objects. Without proper filtering, even slight hand tremors or tracking imperfections can result in unnatural motions, disrupting the sense of presence. Smoothing these inputs allows for a more responsive, realistic experience, enhancing user immersion and preserving the feeling of weight and physicality in the virtual environment.

Full video showcasing an implementation of the 1€ filter in Unreal Engine:

The implementation is simple. Instead of attaching hand meshes or held objects to the motion controller component, I've added an intermediate object which now serves that purpose. The key here is that the intermediate component intakes the motion controller's transform and outputs a new one with values that will result in smoother motion for anything attached to it (the hands and held objects).

This is useful across all industries using VR (gaming AND business cases like training, visualization, etc.) as it enhances user presence but also makes aiming steadier for interacting with anything in the scene, even laser-pointer menus.