VR with Carboard?

When you think about what VR and what it can accomplish, you would think that it would cost quite a bit to buy into. In most cases you would be right, but along came Google and revealed what they dubbed, Google Cardboard.

You may be wondering how a simple piece of cardboard can be made into a virtual reality device and, I must admit, so did I when I initially heard about the device. Google has released a simple cardboard template that you can either download and cutout yourself or order ready made cutouts of online. You then simply assemble the device, add some lenses and you have a VR headset! What? Where's the screen and the headtracking module you say? Well this is the brilliant part. It uses your smart phone as the screen and as the head tracking device, using the phones built in sensors. Awesome!

                                (Pictured: Google Cardboard)

Now I decided to order one of the ready made kits online and within a week it arrived and I got to try it out. For the cost of the unit (provided you have a compatible phone) the experience is very good. Obviously this isn't going to compare to the big boys like the Oculus Rift, but it does provide an enjoyable and for some a totally new experience.

There are a multitude of apps that have sprung up on the Google Play Store that make full use of Cardboard. Most of these are more tech demos and showcases currently but some, like VR Cinema, offer some great functionality. VR Cinema let's you take any video file on your phone and play it back in side by side mode so that when viewed through the two lenses of Google Cardboard it creates a 3D effect. While the effect is quite good, without proper glass lenses the image is a bit on the blurry side (plastic lenses are included in the pre-made kit). The head tracking works very well but unlike the Oculus Rift, doesn't have six-degrees of movement (being able to translate forward, backward, up and down movement in the virtual world) but this is only because of hardware limitations of the sensors in phones. 

It is an interesting and fun project to play with and until the Oculus Rift consumer version is released, I'm going to continue fiddling with it.

In my next post I will be detailing some awesome tricks for Google Cardboard, including a way to stream games to your phone... In 3D!

Introduction to Virtual Reality

VR is awesome. It's the first new and innovative idea for interacting with virtual worlds that we have had in ages. More and more we are finding that what we really need other than more powerful computers to render more realistic worlds, is new ways to become a part of those worlds. One day we are going to reach a plateau in terms of graphical fidelity. Then what?...

I have been watching the progress of the Oculus Rift (and similar devices) with great interest over the past few years. Unfortunately my wallet does not allow me to invest in such a device at this point in time (Especially since where I live, the shipping costs are insane). Also said devices are still in dev kit form, so I am forced to wait for the consumer version of the OR to finally be released so I can start interacting with the games I love in entirely new ways.

If you have never heard of the term "VR" before, it is the process (at present) of strapping a device to your face and looking like a crazy person while you crane your neck back and forth while a whole world is rendered right before your eyes. Devices like the Oculus Rift consist of a module that is connected to your PC, a screen inside the device that will receive visual data from the PC, and then two eye holes with special lenses in them so that you can focus on the image displayed. If you remember them..think of a viewfinder device. Obviously it's a little more complex than that. The image has to be split between your two eyes, in other words each eye has its own image to look at. Your eyes try to combine the image and then trick your brain into thinking that the image is 3D. It is the same principle when you watch a 3D movie. The polarizing glasses you wear filter separate images of the same thing to each eye but with a slightly different perspective and your brain does the rest to make you think you are viewing a 3D image.
Since the screens are so close to your eyes, they give the effect of being totally surround by it. You would have to sit really close to an 80 inch screen to get a similar effect.

    (Pictured Above: Oculus Rift Headset.)

All of these aspects of a VR system add to the level of immersion you feel when playing a game or watching a movie. There is one thing though that will seal the deal so to speak.. Head-tracking.

What is head-tracking? well.. simply put it is the ability of the VR device to track the movement of your head and convey it as motion on the screen. When you look at your feet in the game world, so does your character. Remember the first time you played a really immersive game and you tried to look around with your actual head? I remember sitting in a room with a bunch of friends playing Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X and thinking it very amusing that everyone was desperately craning their necks involuntarily as the jets banked and turned through the air. But now with VR, those movements are not in vain. It is a whole new level of immersion and personally, I am super amped.