ED through Smartphone VR: an initial experience report

[CMDR Grexius Molder]

I always wanted to experience ED in VR. Before I spend some money on an actual headset, I wanted to see what it is like and what options I have prior to me spending said amount of money. Luckily I have a relatively recent smartphone, so I wanted to compile some things in an easy to digest list so that others, who may want to try out VR on a smartphone to get their feet wet.

First off, any smartphone VR headset would do, in theory even including a Google Cardboard VR thingy - but trust me, if you want to get a decent enough experience, spend a little more than that. You want to see your cockpit reasonably okay, yes? I got myself a Destek V5 to start with - it's about 40 Euro on Amazon. It is one of the better ones you can get in that area - so be prepared to spend at least that.

Next item on the list: the smartphone itself. Make sure that your smartphone has AT LEAST 1080p resolution on the shorter side, so when rotated it equals a 1080p screen. Always remember you will be looking at your phone, sitting about 4-5 cm from your eyes, through magnification glasses. I found that 1080p is the absolute minimum to have a reasonable experience. There will still be a fly-grid or Screen Door effect visible - but it is on 1080p okay enough for it not to be too disturbing.

Software - Android: I highly recommend iVRy. Premium version is 8.99 EUR I believe so it doesn't break the bank either. Why iVRy and not VRidge? VRidge is working fine too - however when moving your head - or to be more precise - the smartphone, the simulated lens-distorted-side-by-side-screens move up, down... in short, they wiggle around too which needlessly costs more performance in the software, plus, even if you have USB tethering enabled, it still streams via network which also costs time and performance.

So I use iVRy as it has stationary screens and the PC client streams the image directly to the phone. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND USB tethering for this. Do not use Wifi or other network cable shenanigans - tethering is the fastest way to go.

Obviously install the iVRy client on your PC. It emulates a compatible SteamVR device so Steam believes you have connected a VR headset. You can configure it - it will detect the Base Stations automatically. Just align your center point, choose sitting position, and enter your height in cm.

Next, configure the iVRy client. Choose OpenGL as a renderer. 30Mbps bandwidth - you won't see a difference beyond that. Tracking rate should be 120 Hz. Scaling - adjust as needed. IPD - Adjust to your IPD accordingly. Measure that yourself with a ruler in front of a mirror or have an optician measure this. Lens distortion enabled. Frame encoder should be H265, and output resolution normally adjusts automatically.

Now start Elite Dangerous in VR Mode through Steam, and it should also appear on the smartphone screen too. You should already see the title sequence and the menu in VR - and control that through your normal means, in my case in control the game as normal through my HOTAS.

What can I say after about a week playing in this kind of mode?

Let's say that it's pretty obviously by far not the best way to experience ED in VR - BUT! It is a very good option to try it out without shelling out too much money, and, in my opinion, is pretty well playable to get a glimpse of how it is to play in true VR. For me, already I can hardly go back to flatscreen playing with ED - because once you actually sat in your cockpit, flew around and saw a planet on which you wanna land come toward you and give you a glimpse of the size of a planet, it is hard to go back. I will definitely continue playing in this mode - but also, will save up to get a good real one hopefully early next year. Because this experiment opened up the whole VR world for me, which is super exciting and uncharted territory for me.

I hope this report helps someone out there to start out in ED with VR.

Cheers and fly safe.

 

[CMDR Grexius Molder]

Small update: if you turn off Lens Distortion in iVRy, the image seems more realistic - plus, you get better performance with almost real-time head-tracking movement. Normal VR headsets also do not have lens distortion correction - not that I am aware of anyways.

 

[jojon]

Normal VR headsets also do not have lens distortion correction - not that I am aware of anyways.

They do, and it is vital for the view to come out right; It is also done slightly differently for red, green, and blue channels, to compensate for chromatic abberrations.

I am not familiar with iVRy, but if this is distortion corrections done on the phone, I could imagine in this case maybe you were getting double compensation; First once through the VR runtime on the host computer, and then a second time by the app, which in that case would presumably be intended for use with non-VR-native content...

 

[CMDR Grexius Molder]

Like I said, if I turn off Lens Distortion in iVRy, the image looks better than with it on. Lines are not straight, but straighter than before. I then tested VRidge again, and there everything is correctly aligned. Lines are straight, everything looks pitch-perfect correct.

So it seems that while iVRy has a better video streaming tech, VRidge respects the QR code of the smartphone VR case, which generates a profile in the Cardboard app. iVRy does not seem to use this correctly or not at all.

 

[Benjumanji [VR]]

I used to use ALVR and my S10+ with a GearVR before I upgraded to a Pimax headset. I found it to be far superior to VRidge, but I never had much luck with iVRy. Connected via 5GHz AC Wifi, it gave much better performance than via a USB cable. I even ended up mounting a lit up ping pong ball on the headset and placing PS3 cameras around my room to get 6DOF, using Driver4VR and psmoveservice. Worked amazingly well. It was a lot of stuffing around, but let me get in to VR long before headsets became a bit more mainstream.

 

[NoVR - What_The_X_F_Dev]

Welcome to the VR galaxy @CMDR Grexius Molder - half a decade ago some folk I flew with were playing with the early and less refined versions of this smartphone VR setups, which they described as ghetto VR, of which I was skeptical, then one guy bought a DK2 not long after the CV1 launched, and I thought "damn, that's a smart purchase" and bought one, and was instantly hooked. A DK2 would be less good than a contemporary phone screen, but probably had better optics so less aberrations for the software to compensate for.

I'm glad you like the VR experience, but I'd like to point out to you and anyone else reading this thread that a lot of the early headsets can be had for ~£150 nowadays, the Oculus Rift CV1 holds a bit more money, but you often see the later, and slightly higher resolution WMR headsets such as the Acer and Samsung Odyssey offerings for less than the CV1, and those have higher res than the CV1 which is why they are my current recommendation for low priced access to VR. Maybe you should have a look into those as your next steps?

WMR first gen headsets were all / nearly all 2880 x 1440 resolution or 1440 x 1440 per eye) and the Samsung Odyssey was 1440x1600 per eye which compares favourably to the CV1's 1080 x1200 per eye, so the WMR headsets are a bit cheaper and a bit higher res. I'd also recommend buying these things in the summer, they were around fifty bucks cheaper in the summer than they are now as basically in the summer noone wants to play video games they want to go outside, in the winter the opposite is true. Think of it like the seasonality of convertible cars, a convertible will sell for more money in the spring and summer than in the winter, something similar, albeit in the opposite seasons, applies to VR kit....