Having been massively inspired by what's capable with VR and the integration with Elite Dangerous, I thought I would have a go at seeing what this experience was like. Problem is, with the barrier to entry being a fairly hefty investment for decent gear I began to wonder if there was a way to take a 'hacky' approach to VR, while attempting to not sacrifice quality as much as possible. Now, I work for a product design studio so I'm not unfamiliar with hacking stuff together to test and then taking it to the next iteration, so comfort with tinkering is [up].
The screen
The basics for the kit needed to be things I had lying around, so I started to investigate how I could link my iPhone 7 to my PC (It's actually a 2017 MacBook Pro running Windows 10 under Bootcamp, so not a blistering gaming machine, but runs ED amicably). There's a bunch of different ways to connect smartphones to your desktop for both IOS and Android, such as RiftCat for Android and Trinus for both platforms. I started looking at Trinus, but found it fairly buggy to get up and running consistently, plus it didn't offer a tethered option (unless you've got blisteringly fast, undisturbed WiFi you'll get lag, lots and lots of lag). I settled for using iVRY, which installs a passive plugin on the PC for picking up SteamVR connections and spoofing it as a native VR rig, with a bunch of customisable options in the IOS app for selecting your preferences, lensing etc. Running tethered I've found this to be surprisingly responsive with no discernible lag.
The Rig
So the obvious next step is how to strap your phone to your face. The solution so far goes a fair way to getting a fairly good resolution into a simulated VR setup (it's no Vive, but an iPhone 7 running real-time using the in-built gyro is pretty damn impressive for a home-brew). Now, I have a bunch of Google Cardboard knocking around the office, so the first stop was to use one of these to test the enclosure would actually work. Standard cardboard uses fairly inexpensive lenses, is a universal fit and generally doesn't come with any customisable facial/eyeballing capabilities, so it's fairly hard to get perfect IPD (distance between your eyes) and focal distance right, plus no-one wants to hold sharp cardboard up to their face for any length of time unless you're into paper cuts and spending the rest of the day with a big red rectangle on your face!
The initial tests with the cardboard proved it was serviceable as an idea, but other than the discomfort the major downsides were the lenses. With cheap, plastic lenses there's a lot of chromatic aberration (rainbow, split colours at the edge of the visible display), plus imperfect focus and a really narrow FOV. So, what's the next best thing because hiding £800 on the grocery bill for a VR rig just isn't going to get past management?
There's obviously a wealth of knock-off, asian imported smartphone enclosures for homebrew VR experiences that you can get on Amazon. But rather than spending loads on one that still disappoints, or not enough on one that doesn't go far enough to being usable I thought it was time for a spot of research into the options. When it comes down to it there was a fairly defined list of requirements to make sure this thing wasn't just a short term flight of fancy (pun intended):
The FOV was the leading requirement, with the configurable ocular settings second. These eventually led me to the headsets from BoboVR, namely the z4 and z5. There's various different branded versions of these knocking around, but they're essentially the same thing. There's even a 3rd party UK distributor called Intersensory who make a version of the z4 without the headphones (I didn't buy from these guys, so cannot vouch for the company). In the end I settled for the z5, as the front-less clasp was a logical cooling benefit, plus it didn't look quite so daft as the z4 and all reviews pointed to improved optics. I think I paid around £25 for the headset from Prime and it came the next day. Quality wise my skepticism has been disproven. It's fairly decent, as advertised and works. In combination with the iPhone running iVRY I have a few initial observations:
So, onto how this works with Elite Dangerous and my overall experience of actually trying to 'play' the game. My initial tests with cardboard left me thinking this would never be serviceable as an actual gaming rig. Within minutes of testing the z5 in game I looked like a dork, simply because of the grin in my face. Yes, the FOV is narrow, but I should buy a bigger phone; the res is probably not as high as some of the 4k units hitting the market but it's still usable. Biggest deal-maker here is that it responds, fast. Thanks to the accelerometer in the iPhone I get instant movement that responds in-game. Heat dissipation is minimal. You're not going to be wearing this for long periods of time, but I think this is true of a lot of consumer and prosumer products too, but let's be clear: if you've got a decent sized, highish res smart phone knocking around and want to give VR more than a light-touch go, this cost me next to nothing and I can actually see me putting it on for the odd jaunt around a HazRez (for a few minutes until I get my proverbial handed to me, need to git gud quite frankly) and for a spot of ground-skimming. It really put a smile on my face.
Maybe one day I'll invest in a full rig, but not until they really amp up that resolution and I have a PC good enough to do it justice, until then I'm happy with my hacky Ocuclus Thrift!
o7 cmmdrs!
The screen
The basics for the kit needed to be things I had lying around, so I started to investigate how I could link my iPhone 7 to my PC (It's actually a 2017 MacBook Pro running Windows 10 under Bootcamp, so not a blistering gaming machine, but runs ED amicably). There's a bunch of different ways to connect smartphones to your desktop for both IOS and Android, such as RiftCat for Android and Trinus for both platforms. I started looking at Trinus, but found it fairly buggy to get up and running consistently, plus it didn't offer a tethered option (unless you've got blisteringly fast, undisturbed WiFi you'll get lag, lots and lots of lag). I settled for using iVRY, which installs a passive plugin on the PC for picking up SteamVR connections and spoofing it as a native VR rig, with a bunch of customisable options in the IOS app for selecting your preferences, lensing etc. Running tethered I've found this to be surprisingly responsive with no discernible lag.
The Rig
So the obvious next step is how to strap your phone to your face. The solution so far goes a fair way to getting a fairly good resolution into a simulated VR setup (it's no Vive, but an iPhone 7 running real-time using the in-built gyro is pretty damn impressive for a home-brew). Now, I have a bunch of Google Cardboard knocking around the office, so the first stop was to use one of these to test the enclosure would actually work. Standard cardboard uses fairly inexpensive lenses, is a universal fit and generally doesn't come with any customisable facial/eyeballing capabilities, so it's fairly hard to get perfect IPD (distance between your eyes) and focal distance right, plus no-one wants to hold sharp cardboard up to their face for any length of time unless you're into paper cuts and spending the rest of the day with a big red rectangle on your face!
The initial tests with the cardboard proved it was serviceable as an idea, but other than the discomfort the major downsides were the lenses. With cheap, plastic lenses there's a lot of chromatic aberration (rainbow, split colours at the edge of the visible display), plus imperfect focus and a really narrow FOV. So, what's the next best thing because hiding £800 on the grocery bill for a VR rig just isn't going to get past management?
There's obviously a wealth of knock-off, asian imported smartphone enclosures for homebrew VR experiences that you can get on Amazon. But rather than spending loads on one that still disappoints, or not enough on one that doesn't go far enough to being usable I thought it was time for a spot of research into the options. When it comes down to it there was a fairly defined list of requirements to make sure this thing wasn't just a short term flight of fancy (pun intended):
- Wide enough FOV to ensure you can see as much as you can while playing on a monitor within the cockpit
- Popular and established enough so that it has a recognisable QR code for universal lensing in various apps
- Configurable IPD and focal length
- Lightweight
- Comfortable
- Doesn't make me look too much like a with it on (optional)
The FOV was the leading requirement, with the configurable ocular settings second. These eventually led me to the headsets from BoboVR, namely the z4 and z5. There's various different branded versions of these knocking around, but they're essentially the same thing. There's even a 3rd party UK distributor called Intersensory who make a version of the z4 without the headphones (I didn't buy from these guys, so cannot vouch for the company). In the end I settled for the z5, as the front-less clasp was a logical cooling benefit, plus it didn't look quite so daft as the z4 and all reviews pointed to improved optics. I think I paid around £25 for the headset from Prime and it came the next day. Quality wise my skepticism has been disproven. It's fairly decent, as advertised and works. In combination with the iPhone running iVRY I have a few initial observations:
- It's fairly heavy if worn for a while (I might remove the headphones to lighten it)
- It's fairly comfortable and secure, the material isn't hot and doesn't get sweaty (there's no fogging)
- The IPD and focal length adjustments work well (I wear glasses and didn't need them with the rig on)
- To get the full 120 degree FOV you need to be using a phone in the 6.2in range (my iPhone 7 is 4.7in, so the FOV is narrowed)
- It works. The iPhone 7 isn't a bad resolution, so screen-dooring isn't that bad and you can get a good amount of usefulness out of the rig (I say dog, you say fight)
So, onto how this works with Elite Dangerous and my overall experience of actually trying to 'play' the game. My initial tests with cardboard left me thinking this would never be serviceable as an actual gaming rig. Within minutes of testing the z5 in game I looked like a dork, simply because of the grin in my face. Yes, the FOV is narrow, but I should buy a bigger phone; the res is probably not as high as some of the 4k units hitting the market but it's still usable. Biggest deal-maker here is that it responds, fast. Thanks to the accelerometer in the iPhone I get instant movement that responds in-game. Heat dissipation is minimal. You're not going to be wearing this for long periods of time, but I think this is true of a lot of consumer and prosumer products too, but let's be clear: if you've got a decent sized, highish res smart phone knocking around and want to give VR more than a light-touch go, this cost me next to nothing and I can actually see me putting it on for the odd jaunt around a HazRez (for a few minutes until I get my proverbial handed to me, need to git gud quite frankly) and for a spot of ground-skimming. It really put a smile on my face.
Maybe one day I'll invest in a full rig, but not until they really amp up that resolution and I have a PC good enough to do it justice, until then I'm happy with my hacky Ocuclus Thrift!
o7 cmmdrs!
