They did the same for the Steam VR motion controllers. We call them the doughnut sticks for fun at the office, but they are really incredible to use. It was a huge blessing for us that Valve included the exact model for us to modify and reskin, because having 1-1 mapping of what you're seeing in the simulation and what you're actually feeling is huge. We did the same with the PlaystationVR Move controllers, which you can see in an image here: <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNDizq2W4eY/VvMWu0mcx_I/AAAAAAAALXs/trhSiLitB78s-bHKGkn85m-9KD29NPeIA/s1600/XING%2BMove%2BBeach%2B2.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNDizq2W4eY/VvMWu0mcx_I/AAAAAAAAL...</a> This is just a simple material change for now, but we plan on doing design modifications to the mesh data eventually. Likely we would only change the geometry of areas the hands don't touch, like the tracking sphere, so as to keep the player visual/haptic continuity.
This is actually, a pretty big step forward in my opinion. It makes it feel, for the first time (to me at least), that the company is replying to the feedback of the customers. They <i>know</i> that people want to mod it, and rather than force them to use arcane methods to hack the current controller into their desired one, they can simply alter it digitally.<p>As an aside, I'd love to see a full-metal case for it, only using plastic when needed (the buttons and touchpads?)
For those who haven't gotten their hands on a Steam controller yet, I was very impressed. The software is still quite immature (par for Valve), but the haptic feedback in the hardware is immensely cool and the potential configurability is insane. It really is a great middle-ground between mouse+keyboard and traditional gamepads.
This is actually really awesome- one of my biggest complaints with the steam controller was how the build quality of it felt a little "cheap" (i.e. light & plastic-y when compared to an xbox controller). The technology inside the controller is superb, and I think they had to sacrifice a little on build quality to bring it down to that ~50$ price range.<p>Very interested to see what kind of crazy improvements the community develops.
Is this a first when consumer product company releases CAD geometry for their parts?<p>Suppose I would like to produce a modified replacement plastic part for my phone; how much would that cost? For starters, a different color interchangeable panel for a phone with interchangeable panel, such as Lumia 435 or Xperia U <a href="http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_u-4437.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_u-4437.php</a> but, eventually, an extended size battery and a cover for it.