ColorCross VR with Samsung S4 Mini

[DoomWZ]

Hello!

So, when I found out that you could build your personal VR set with just your phone and a cheap headset I wanted to give it a try.

Now, I got a Samsung S4 Mini, so the display is not big, the resolution is 960x540. I didn't expect much, even before actually trying everything together.

I finally tried it today and the result was, more or less, what I expected, and not so good.

-Texts are unreadable, only system messages are kinda readable since they're bigger, but menu's texts are too small.

-The headtracker keeps losing its center, when I move around and then I go back to the center position, the screen always stays decentered and I gotta press the center button everytime (almost).

-The UI looks kinda too far away compared to where it should be, making it even smaller than it already is.

-ColorCross VR is really painful on my nose!

I use Trinus Gyre and OpenTrack to make everything work. Also I followed this guide: https://github.com/opentrack/opentr...tion---google-cardboard,-colorcross,-opendive

I tried these resolutions:

-960x540 (Fake 3D): probably the best, but the image is a bit stretched, proportions aren't right.
-960x1080 (Fake 3D): proportions are right, but texts are unreadble.
-960x1080 (Side by Side): not much different from Fake 3D.
-1920x2160 (Side by Side): same as 960x1080.
-alot of other resolutions, but texts are always unreadble.

I know that the main problem is my phone display, but perhaps I might be missing something, so that's why I'm asking here if you guys have some tips to give or can you confirm that I can't do anything better than this?
Also, is there a way to get a better responsive headtracker? Maybe I'm missing something in the options.

Thanks in advance!
DoomWZ

 

[tetra]

You're not really missing anything sadly. That resolution will just never allow you to be able to read the text properly. I ran my cheap VR setup on a Galaxy Nexus (original) and that was at 1280x720 and there was absolutely no way of getting the text to be even remotely legible. I now have an LG G3 which is 2560x1440 and even at that resolution text is just about passable. The main thing that helps text legibility is down-sampling, either from the options menu or by using a custom resolution, you could try that but I don't think with your phone you will get it to the state where you can read it comfortably I'm afraid. You can also try changing the HUD color as well as reported by DK2 users. Depends on the kind of screen on your phone but I believe Amoled style screens such as in the DK2 have more capability of displaying denser green pixels, so try mod your HUD color to green (check the bext experience DK sticky at the top of this thread).

If you're using Trinus VR then send the closest res you can to your phone but maintaining the 8:9 ration to compensate for the 50% squeeze on SBS stereo. So as you have tried 960x1080 is probably your best bet. Trinus seems to have a hard time sending larger resolutions without lagging (for me personally anyway). Seeing as that is the case then use in-game downsampling, try x2, anything larger will usually result in single digit FPS. The only other thing you might want to try is give TriDef 3D a go. For me personally their stereo SBS profile for ED is rubbish and lacks the depth found in ED's standard SBS mode, however, if you can live with less depth the text, for me anyway, is infinitely more readable when using Tridef as opposed to ED's native SBS.

Can't really help you with the drift in your head tracking, seems your phones gyro might be having some issues maybe. might be worth looking at IR based head tracking instead.

As for the UI being too far away it really depends which cockpit you are in, for example the ASP is a massive space and the panels pop up right near the windows. However, you should check two things. The first being your FOV settings, if you have set anything other than the standard in the XML before you started using VR then set it back to 60 for a start, will help make sure everything is as close as it was intended to be. The second thing is the stereo separation slider in the graphics menu. That should match your IPD as closely as possible, you can actually set that in the XML config by hand instead of trying to gestimate with the slider itself. You can either measure your pupil distance with a ruler with mm or you can use an online system if you have a webcam > http://www.trylive.com/demos/trylive-eyewear/pupil-distance . Take the result of that and set it in the XML (not infront of my PC right now so can't look up the name of the line but its something IPD). If you set that correctly you will ensure you have correct scale both in and out of the cockpit (ie you wont look down at your pilots body and he/she looks like a barbie doll).

Finally in regard to Colorcross being uncomfortable, totally agreed, was one of the most painful things I have ever had to wear. Luckily it can be modded quite easily. I did a number of mods to mine. Start by super gluing foam or some other kind of padding (large headphone pads from an old pair of over ear headphones work very nicely) to the rubber gasket that runs around the outside. If you get the padding thick enough there it will move it away from your face enough that your nose should then have room and not be smooshed into the tiny gap they leave for it as standard. Also tighten the top head band (is velcro) so the top of your head is taking a bit of the weight too. After doing both on mine its now quite acceptable and I can wear it for extended periods of time without wanting to kill myself lol.

One of the other things i modded was just adding some black taped up carboard cut out in the shape of the gaps between the eye pieces to prevent you from being able to "see through" to the gap missed by the divider inside via your peripheral vision. This means I can no longer set the eye distance on mine but once you get it correct for your eye spacing you dont need to touch it again anyway and the fact I could sometimes see the opposite side of the screen through the opposite eye drove me crazy.

Anyway give some of the a try, I really don't think you will get the text to be readable at that resolution but some of the above might help just enough to get you through.

 

[DoomWZ]

You're not really missing anything sadly. That resolution will just never allow you to be able to read the text properly. I ran my cheap VR setup on a Galaxy Nexus (original) and that was at 1280x720 and there was absolutely no way of getting the text to be even remotely legible. I now have an LG G3 which is 2560x1440 and even at that resolution text is just about passable. The main thing that helps text legibility is down-sampling, either from the options menu or by using a custom resolution, you could try that but I don't think with your phone you will get it to the state where you can read it comfortably I'm afraid. You can also try changing the HUD color as well as reported by DK2 users. Depends on the kind of screen on your phone but I believe Amoled style screens such as in the DK2 have more capability of displaying denser green pixels, so try mod your HUD color to green (check the bext experience DK sticky at the top of this thread).

If you're using Trinus VR then send the closest res you can to your phone but maintaining the 8:9 ration to compensate for the 50% squeeze on SBS stereo. So as you have tried 960x1080 is probably your best bet. Trinus seems to have a hard time sending larger resolutions without lagging (for me personally anyway). Seeing as that is the case then use in-game downsampling, try x2, anything larger will usually result in single digit FPS. The only other thing you might want to try is give TriDef 3D a go. For me personally their stereo SBS profile for ED is rubbish and lacks the depth found in ED's standard SBS mode, however, if you can live with less depth the text, for me anyway, is infinitely more readable when using Tridef as opposed to ED's native SBS.

Can't really help you with the drift in your head tracking, seems your phones gyro might be having some issues maybe. might be worth looking at IR based head tracking instead.

As for the UI being too far away it really depends which cockpit you are in, for example the ASP is a massive space and the panels pop up right near the windows. However, you should check two things. The first being your FOV settings, if you have set anything other than the standard in the XML before you started using VR then set it back to 60 for a start, will help make sure everything is as close as it was intended to be. The second thing is the stereo separation slider in the graphics menu. That should match your IPD as closely as possible, you can actually set that in the XML config by hand instead of trying to gestimate with the slider itself. You can either measure your pupil distance with a ruler with mm or you can use an online system if you have a webcam > http://www.trylive.com/demos/trylive-eyewear/pupil-distance . Take the result of that and set it in the XML (not infront of my PC right now so can't look up the name of the line but its something IPD). If you set that correctly you will ensure you have correct scale both in and out of the cockpit (ie you wont look down at your pilots body and he/she looks like a barbie doll).

Finally in regard to Colorcross being uncomfortable, totally agreed, was one of the most painful things I have ever had to wear. Luckily it can be modded quite easily. I did a number of mods to mine. Start by super gluing foam or some other kind of padding (large headphone pads from an old pair of over ear headphones work very nicely) to the rubber gasket that runs around the outside. If you get the padding thick enough there it will move it away from your face enough that your nose should then have room and not be smooshed into the tiny gap they leave for it as standard. Also tighten the top head band (is velcro) so the top of your head is taking a bit of the weight too. After doing both on mine its now quite acceptable and I can wear it for extended periods of time without wanting to kill myself lol.

One of the other things i modded was just adding some black taped up carboard cut out in the shape of the gaps between the eye pieces to prevent you from being able to "see through" to the gap missed by the divider inside via your peripheral vision. This means I can no longer set the eye distance on mine but once you get it correct for your eye spacing you dont need to touch it again anyway and the fact I could sometimes see the opposite side of the screen through the opposite eye drove me crazy.

Anyway give some of the a try, I really don't think you will get the text to be readable at that resolution but some of the above might help just enough to get you through.

Thank you for all the tips, I really appreciate all the info given.

As I thought, and as you said, there's probably nothing to do cause the display resolution won't allow me to read the texts better than that.

If I can borrow some phone with a bigger display, I'll definitely try more options and settings, but I think I won't do more tries with my phone for now.

Thank you again!