Hi
Please could you do a step by step guide for this. Im interested in using my galaxy S6.
Playing Elite with Google Cardboard
- Thread starter Retrograde
- Start date
Hi
Please could you do a step by step guide for this. Im interested in using my galaxy S6.
I'll see what I can come up with. Creating the ghost display and importing the EDID profile is pretty particular to the AMD FirePro GPU. I'm not sure if it's possible on non-FirePro AMD GPUs and I'm sure NVIDIA has a different way of doing, although I got the idea from someone who did something similar with an NVIDIA card. There is a way of creating a ghost display using just windows 7 or 10 and not using the GPU, but getting the correct resolution is more challenging since there is no way to import EDID profile's built into windows.
I have an AMD Fury so may work.
Getting Google Carboard to Look good
How you do this will be different depending on you graphics card. I used an AMD FirePro graphics card. To do this you need unused ports on your graphics card. You need an EDID editor. I use Phoenix, but there are others. I think NVIDIA may have it's own built in one. An important note the EDID files exported from your graphics adapter need to be hand converted to be opened in phoenix, but it's simple enough in a text editor. Also if you mess up you could cause your existing display to stop working. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK
There are other ways to create ghost displays. I know you can do it using just windows (7 and 10). But then you need to alter the EDID in the registry to get the correct resolutions. The whole point of this is that the side by side view in ED squishes the FOV. By making the vertical resolution twice as high as your phone's resolution. You force to streaming app to squish it (if it scales rather than crops) to fit to your phone there by correcting the aspect ratio. A note here is you need a beefy graphics board to handle this. Since it double the work it has to do on top of streaming it to your phone! I found if you make it so your ghost monitor can also display you phone's native resolution you can usually get it to render the game at the phone's native resolution (rather than twice that) by playing around with going back and forth between the different resolutions (try switching resolutions in both the game then followed by switching it using windows) while in Borderless mode. I haven't found an exact sequence for this, but if you change the resolution using windows ED doesn't change the aspect ratio, but it still only has to do half the work. So if you do this: In ED set res to the max res of your ghost monitor, then go into windows settings and set the resolution to your phones native display. ED doesn't know the resolution changed so it doesn't change the aspect ratio. However it still has to render half the pixels and only do half the work. It doesn't always work right though, but I've found if I play with it I can usually get ED to run at the phone's native resolution with the correct aspect ratio.
EDIT
I figured out the exact sequence to get the aspect ratio correct at the native resolution of your phone. This procedure will need to be done every time you play the game. I did this procedure several times now and it seems to work consistently.
1: Log into the game, all the way to your ship. (Not just to the menu, you may not see the correction in the menu screen)
2: Set the in-game resolution to twice the phone's vertical with borderless mode.
3: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to twice the phone's vertical.
4: Set the in-game resolution to the phone's native resolution. (aspect will now fix, but game will still be slow)
5: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to the phone's native resolution. (You should now have the right resolution and aspect)
Enjoy!
How you do this will be different depending on you graphics card. I used an AMD FirePro graphics card. To do this you need unused ports on your graphics card. You need an EDID editor. I use Phoenix, but there are others. I think NVIDIA may have it's own built in one. An important note the EDID files exported from your graphics adapter need to be hand converted to be opened in phoenix, but it's simple enough in a text editor. Also if you mess up you could cause your existing display to stop working. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK
1: Create a system restore point if applicable. Just in case you mess things up so much you can't fix it (I did lol).
2: Export the EDID from an existing monitor. How to for NVIDIA: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3569/~/managing-a-display-edid-on-windows
3: Open the EDID using Pheonix EDID editor: http://www.tucows.com/preview/329441...-EDID-Designer.
4: In the Detailed Timings menu change the horizontal resolution to be the same as your phone's screen and the vertical to twice your phone's vertical.
5: Change the pixel clock to 216 (pretty much as fast as my graphics can handle). This controls the refresh rate. New graphics board may be able to go higher.
6: Change the name of the monitor (Block 3 of the Detailed Timings menu) so you can tell it from your existing one.
7: If the open port on your graphics board is different (Analog: DVI, VGA vs Digital: HDMI, DP) than you're existing display change it in the Basic Display Parameters menu.
8: Save the file in an importable format.
9: Import the altered EDID into the emulated monitor. You may have to restart your computer for ED to recognize it.
10: Open ED and go into graphics options.
11: Set the display to your new "ghost" display, set the resolution to the maximum and 3D to side by side.
12: Use your favorite screen streaming app to stream the screen to your phone. Make sure it scales and doesn't crop. High speed connection recommended.
13: Enjoy VR play at your phone full resolution and proper aspect ratio.
2: Export the EDID from an existing monitor. How to for NVIDIA: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3569/~/managing-a-display-edid-on-windows
a) Open Catalyst Control Center and goto AMD FirePro>EDID Emulation>{your graphics adapter}
b) Hover over your current display's connection and click on the page with an arrow pointing down to save the EDID profile
b) Hover over your current display's connection and click on the page with an arrow pointing down to save the EDID profile
3: Open the EDID using Pheonix EDID editor: http://www.tucows.com/preview/329441...-EDID-Designer.
a) In Phoenix create a new blank EDID and save it without making alterations.
b) Open both the blank EDID you created in Phoenix and the exported display side by side in a text editor. I recommend Notepad++: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.9.html
c) Copy the byte code from your display EDID to the blank EDID created with Phoenix. In Notepad++ you can hold the ALT key to use block selection to make this easier.
d) Now save the now altered EDID and open it with Phoenix. You should now see the settings for your existing display.
b) Open both the blank EDID you created in Phoenix and the exported display side by side in a text editor. I recommend Notepad++: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.9.html
c) Copy the byte code from your display EDID to the blank EDID created with Phoenix. In Notepad++ you can hold the ALT key to use block selection to make this easier.
d) Now save the now altered EDID and open it with Phoenix. You should now see the settings for your existing display.
4: In the Detailed Timings menu change the horizontal resolution to be the same as your phone's screen and the vertical to twice your phone's vertical.
5: Change the pixel clock to 216 (pretty much as fast as my graphics can handle). This controls the refresh rate. New graphics board may be able to go higher.
6: Change the name of the monitor (Block 3 of the Detailed Timings menu) so you can tell it from your existing one.
7: If the open port on your graphics board is different (Analog: DVI, VGA vs Digital: HDMI, DP) than you're existing display change it in the Basic Display Parameters menu.
8: Save the file in an importable format.
a) See step 3 above. We need to reverse the process. Save the EDID in Phoenix.
b) Now we need to open it in a text editor and copy the byte code to a NEW BLANK text file.
c) Save the text file as something like {your phone's name}-ED-Mon.txt or some other self explanatory name.
b) Now we need to open it in a text editor and copy the byte code to a NEW BLANK text file.
c) Save the text file as something like {your phone's name}-ED-Mon.txt or some other self explanatory name.
9: Import the altered EDID into the emulated monitor. You may have to restart your computer for ED to recognize it.
a) Open Catalyst Control Center and goto AMD FirePro>EDID Emulation>{your graphics adapter}
b) Click on the "+" sign next to an empty unused connection. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Importing over an existing display connection could destroy your display. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DO THIS.
c) A menu will appear asking you if you want to import from an existing display or a file. Choose the file option and select the text file you created in step 8. If it says the file is invalid you either made a mistake copying byte code or set it to the wrong display type.
d) Press Apply and your screen will flash a few times while the new monitor is being installed.
c) Move the new display to some where out of the way in the catalyst control center Desktop Management>Creating And Arranging Desktops. Make sure it's NOT the primary display or new windows will open there and you won't be able to see them without your streamer.
b) Click on the "+" sign next to an empty unused connection. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Importing over an existing display connection could destroy your display. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DO THIS.
c) A menu will appear asking you if you want to import from an existing display or a file. Choose the file option and select the text file you created in step 8. If it says the file is invalid you either made a mistake copying byte code or set it to the wrong display type.
d) Press Apply and your screen will flash a few times while the new monitor is being installed.
c) Move the new display to some where out of the way in the catalyst control center Desktop Management>Creating And Arranging Desktops. Make sure it's NOT the primary display or new windows will open there and you won't be able to see them without your streamer.
10: Open ED and go into graphics options.
11: Set the display to your new "ghost" display, set the resolution to the maximum and 3D to side by side.
12: Use your favorite screen streaming app to stream the screen to your phone. Make sure it scales and doesn't crop. High speed connection recommended.
13: Enjoy VR play at your phone full resolution and proper aspect ratio.
There are other ways to create ghost displays. I know you can do it using just windows (7 and 10). But then you need to alter the EDID in the registry to get the correct resolutions. The whole point of this is that the side by side view in ED squishes the FOV. By making the vertical resolution twice as high as your phone's resolution. You force to streaming app to squish it (if it scales rather than crops) to fit to your phone there by correcting the aspect ratio. A note here is you need a beefy graphics board to handle this. Since it double the work it has to do on top of streaming it to your phone! I found if you make it so your ghost monitor can also display you phone's native resolution you can usually get it to render the game at the phone's native resolution (rather than twice that) by playing around with going back and forth between the different resolutions (try switching resolutions in both the game then followed by switching it using windows) while in Borderless mode. I haven't found an exact sequence for this, but if you change the resolution using windows ED doesn't change the aspect ratio, but it still only has to do half the work. So if you do this: In ED set res to the max res of your ghost monitor, then go into windows settings and set the resolution to your phones native display. ED doesn't know the resolution changed so it doesn't change the aspect ratio. However it still has to render half the pixels and only do half the work. It doesn't always work right though, but I've found if I play with it I can usually get ED to run at the phone's native resolution with the correct aspect ratio.
EDIT
I figured out the exact sequence to get the aspect ratio correct at the native resolution of your phone. This procedure will need to be done every time you play the game. I did this procedure several times now and it seems to work consistently.
1: Log into the game, all the way to your ship. (Not just to the menu, you may not see the correction in the menu screen)
2: Set the in-game resolution to twice the phone's vertical with borderless mode.
3: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to twice the phone's vertical.
4: Set the in-game resolution to the phone's native resolution. (aspect will now fix, but game will still be slow)
5: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to the phone's native resolution. (You should now have the right resolution and aspect)
Enjoy!
Last edited:
I encourage to ask FD for SBS with correct aspect ratio for cellphone VR.
VR share is growing up so this is the right moment.
Topic was started a some time ago:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=56165
VR share is growing up so this is the right moment.
Topic was started a some time ago:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=56165
Yep, that would be the ideal way.
Yes you'd think they'd just make a button to do it, but no dice. My suspicion is they've cut some sort of deal with Oculus to not be so friendly to "Oculus Thrift" solutions. I mean using Google Cardboard+Trinus you can get high quality VR for less than $20. Assuming you already have a smart phone anyway.
FYI, I figured out the exact sequence to get the aspect ratio correct at the native resolution of your phone. This procedure will need to be done every time you play the game. I did this procedure several times now and it seems to work consistently.
1: Log into the game, all the way to your ship. (Not just to the menu, you may not see the correction in the menu screen)
2: Set the in-game resolution to twice the phone's vertical with borderless mode.
3: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to twice the phone's vertical.
4: Set the in-game resolution to the phone's native resolution. (aspect will now fix, but game will still be slow)
5: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to the phone's native resolution. (You should now have the right resolution and aspect)
1: Log into the game, all the way to your ship. (Not just to the menu, you may not see the correction in the menu screen)
2: Set the in-game resolution to twice the phone's vertical with borderless mode.
3: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to twice the phone's vertical.
4: Set the in-game resolution to the phone's native resolution. (aspect will now fix, but game will still be slow)
5: Set the desktop resolution for your "ghost monitor" to the phone's native resolution. (You should now have the right resolution and aspect)
I'd rep you again if I could already.
Hey guys, I tried to get Elite going with my Colorcross and my Jiayu S3 Adv. phone but I'm kind of frustrated now. I hope you guys can give me some advice.
The good news: There is a demo-game by Trinus which you can download from their webpage. I downloaded it, opened it, connected the phone and it worked absolutely flawlessly. I mean, no latency, nice picture, just perfect and I had absolutely nothing to do to get it running like that
.
But I can't get it to run ED like that not even to save my life.
Even "VR" Games from the playstore run pretty good.
Bear in mind, I have tried to get this running about 4 times now within the last 12 months, I always gave up frustrated.
When I play ED, the picture makes me cross-eye and this is extremely uncomfortable, I can tell that the picture is missing a part in the middle and therefore is kind of distorted. Is this about the resolution? I tried different ones but always similar results.
I also fiddled around with the lens correction settings of Trinus, got it better but it's still painful to look at.
Headtracking needs a lot of fiddeling and if I get it going its always recentering the view as if the camera was bound to a rubber band.
I hope you guys could might give me some advice on what I could try to fix it. Unfortunately I'm one of the guys who won't be able to afford an Oculus within the next 5-10 years or so =( ...help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you are my last hope!
The good news: There is a demo-game by Trinus which you can download from their webpage. I downloaded it, opened it, connected the phone and it worked absolutely flawlessly. I mean, no latency, nice picture, just perfect and I had absolutely nothing to do to get it running like that
.
But I can't get it to run ED like that not even to save my life.
Even "VR" Games from the playstore run pretty good.
Bear in mind, I have tried to get this running about 4 times now within the last 12 months, I always gave up frustrated.
When I play ED, the picture makes me cross-eye and this is extremely uncomfortable, I can tell that the picture is missing a part in the middle and therefore is kind of distorted. Is this about the resolution? I tried different ones but always similar results.
I also fiddled around with the lens correction settings of Trinus, got it better but it's still painful to look at.
Headtracking needs a lot of fiddeling and if I get it going its always recentering the view as if the camera was bound to a rubber band.
I hope you guys could might give me some advice on what I could try to fix it. Unfortunately I'm one of the guys who won't be able to afford an Oculus within the next 5-10 years or so =( ...help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you are my last hope!
Last edited:
Al33,
I've found that Trinus doesn't work when ED is in full screen, you need either borderless or windowed. Also don't let Trinus decide the quality. I just set it all to max on the phone and the computer. Then you need a network that can handle it. If you aren't mainlining it through USB you want to be fairly close to your wireless router to get a good speed. One more thing could be the computer, Trinus adds some extra load to the computer above and beyond ED. So it may speed things up if you turn your graphics down and make sure other non-needed processes aren't running in the background like a browser.
Also if your eyes or head hurts from using the device then it needs to be adjusted. I was able to watch Avatar 3D (almost 3 hours long) with my google carboard without eye strain. They sell adjustable google carboards on Amazon and ebay for around $20.
I'm in a similar boat, I can't get an oculus or anything like that any time soon (one reason I wanted to get google carboard working well). I could probably afford it but my wife would slit my throat while I slept for "wasting" that much money on something like a VR headset
. Anyhow, my phone seems to have better pixel density than most purpose built VR devices anyway. I see people complaining about having a hard time reading with their things and my text is crisp. Constantly having to reset the head tracking is a nuisance though.
I've found that Trinus doesn't work when ED is in full screen, you need either borderless or windowed. Also don't let Trinus decide the quality. I just set it all to max on the phone and the computer. Then you need a network that can handle it. If you aren't mainlining it through USB you want to be fairly close to your wireless router to get a good speed. One more thing could be the computer, Trinus adds some extra load to the computer above and beyond ED. So it may speed things up if you turn your graphics down and make sure other non-needed processes aren't running in the background like a browser.
Also if your eyes or head hurts from using the device then it needs to be adjusted. I was able to watch Avatar 3D (almost 3 hours long) with my google carboard without eye strain. They sell adjustable google carboards on Amazon and ebay for around $20.
I'm in a similar boat, I can't get an oculus or anything like that any time soon (one reason I wanted to get google carboard working well). I could probably afford it but my wife would slit my throat while I slept for "wasting" that much money on something like a VR headset
. Anyhow, my phone seems to have better pixel density than most purpose built VR devices anyway. I see people complaining about having a hard time reading with their things and my text is crisp. Constantly having to reset the head tracking is a nuisance though.Thank you for your reply Ittiz.
I already had the game running in windowed mode (that was recommended and necessary for the image to appear on the phone).
About adjusting, I'm just not quite sure what to do. I was playing with the lenses and the Trinus menu which lets you adjust the image for hours and I couldn't get it to a comfortable level.
It's always a small strip of the picture which is overlapping/missing in the middle and therefore lets my eyes automatically crossing. The frustrating thing about it is, that I don't have that problem with any other VR application.
I tried Youtube in Cardboard mode and it works, watching videos with VRCinema, playing various VR titles from the playstore and even that demo-game from Trinus. And I never really had to adjust/setup/do anything for that to work. But with TrinusVR I could fill weeks and not beeing where it is with other software.
Edit: also what is disturbing me is that I can actually see that seperation between the the two eye-departments of the Colorcross. So I always have a black line in the center, I don't have that with other VR apps. I just tried the Trinus shooter demo again, it appears as one solid picture. Not with TrinusVR.
Also, which head mounted model should I select in TrinusVR? There is no Colorcross to select and I'm not sure which one would be the right one, maybe that could help.
UPDATE: I got it to work, I got one single picture now and it looks good. I hadn't switched to SBS view in Elite, now after doing that and tweaking a bit with the lense adjustment again, it finally works. Image is a bit small though, maybe I can get it to use the full screen size but thats fine for now. Next thing is getting tracking to work. Wish me luck!
I already had the game running in windowed mode (that was recommended and necessary for the image to appear on the phone).
About adjusting, I'm just not quite sure what to do. I was playing with the lenses and the Trinus menu which lets you adjust the image for hours and I couldn't get it to a comfortable level.
It's always a small strip of the picture which is overlapping/missing in the middle and therefore lets my eyes automatically crossing. The frustrating thing about it is, that I don't have that problem with any other VR application.
I tried Youtube in Cardboard mode and it works, watching videos with VRCinema, playing various VR titles from the playstore and even that demo-game from Trinus. And I never really had to adjust/setup/do anything for that to work. But with TrinusVR I could fill weeks and not beeing where it is with other software.
Edit: also what is disturbing me is that I can actually see that seperation between the the two eye-departments of the Colorcross. So I always have a black line in the center, I don't have that with other VR apps. I just tried the Trinus shooter demo again, it appears as one solid picture. Not with TrinusVR.
Also, which head mounted model should I select in TrinusVR? There is no Colorcross to select and I'm not sure which one would be the right one, maybe that could help.
UPDATE: I got it to work, I got one single picture now and it looks good. I hadn't switched to SBS view in Elite, now after doing that and tweaking a bit with the lense adjustment again, it finally works. Image is a bit small though, maybe I can get it to use the full screen size but thats fine for now. Next thing is getting tracking to work. Wish me luck!
Last edited:
Another update:
So I've been testing and tweaking with it for some time today and after all I think it is safe to agree with what is written in the initial post. It is fun to try it and to get an idea of VR but the bad image quality and the small screen ain't optimal. I had problems with a drifting camera while headtracking too which didn't help either, but it worked.
Lastly I can only advice against a Colorcross headset, my whole face hurts from this and this is not just me. That thing is apparently designed for small nosed-asian-faces. Get something else.
But the overall experience is quite fascinating. Try it if you can, but don't expect it to replace your normal way of playing the Game.
So I've been testing and tweaking with it for some time today and after all I think it is safe to agree with what is written in the initial post. It is fun to try it and to get an idea of VR but the bad image quality and the small screen ain't optimal. I had problems with a drifting camera while headtracking too which didn't help either, but it worked.
Lastly I can only advice against a Colorcross headset, my whole face hurts from this and this is not just me. That thing is apparently designed for small nosed-asian-faces. Get something else.
But the overall experience is quite fascinating. Try it if you can, but don't expect it to replace your normal way of playing the Game.
If you'd ever consider a EDTracker, they solve tracking drift magnificently.
well you could just buy a used DK2 for around $200 instead of buying a new phone to stick in a cardboard box..
Sure, but I need a new phone soon, so why not kill 2 flies with one swat. Not to mention that a used dk2 is around 400 € here...
I've been using a nexus 5 in all my tests (see the OP for the link of how I do it) so I would recommend that phone but I recently updated to the nexus 6P and after a lot of juggery pokery, it looks so mu better.
Get Galaxy S6 or at least LG G3. Something with 2,5K resolution. Or Xperia Z premium with 4K screen.