I am wondering about the software side. Is it just a glorified monitor for your face, or does it have some kind of internal control/OS like a Quest or other commercial headset?
It seems to only have an Arduino as processor, so presumably the former i.e. you need a PC to plug this into. It seems to have highly simplified tracking compared to something like a Quest - a single Inertial Measurement Unit. All enough for sim racing which is this guy’s jam, but I wonder how well the tracking stays calibrated.
The critical thing with these is response time. If it’s even slightly too high (I think 20-30ms is easily too high), some/many people get very motion sick. Getting that time down as low as needed is also not trivial.
With it only being 60 Hz on the controller itself, that’s basically impossible to hit. That’s 16.6 ms already. Then the processing, sending to the PC, and the PC reacting has a budget of just a few ms? Yea, not happening.
I’m assuming he’s really not sensitive to this. As it’s open source now the people who are sensitive can improve it. That’s the beauty of open source after all.
Normal video games can make me motion sick so I can only imagine how bad this might be! Maybe in the future it’ll get better!
Looks like it has an inertial sensor to control the view, here’s there relevant bit from the article:
The parts he purchased online include two displays that max out at 2880×1440p and 90 Hz refresh rate, two lenses, an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensor, and an Arduino microcontroller board. The other parts of the headset were 3D-printed.
…
The headset features individually adjustable IPD, interchangeable faceplates, and head tracking. But it does have downsides — at full resolution, it only runs at 60 Hz. Also, it only has three degrees of freedom (3DoF), which means it tracks looking up and down, left and right, and tilting the head left and right. He explained he didn’t bother equipping it with 6DoF as 3DoF was enough for his sim racing.
While this is awesome and the tinkerer in me appreciates and respects the effort, a Quest Go/1/2/3 is significantly better than this with far more functionality and would be able to be purchased for the same price, or less, and with zero work or skill required to put together.
Because you pay with data. Quest is the first device, where meta has full control over the Operation System, and even beyond.
You are forced to have a meta account to use it, IRCC
You did but not anymore :
- Go can be rooted officially
- Quest 1/2/3/3s can be used without account thanks to PrivateQuest
- Quest 3 v78 (not newer OS version) can be rooted via a hack
So yes, by default you are paying with data. In fact IMHO if possible one should not rely on Meta hardware. That being said if you get e.g. a 2nd hand Quest 2 or 3 and use it without an account then you might be providing little to no money to Meta and no data. It’s not trivial but it’s feasible. Arguably it’s even easy for somebody who seriously consider such an endeavor of assembling their own HMD.
PS: Meta has access to the whole device but… they are not owning the OS itself, it’s still an Android device. The OS is very much driven by Google. In fact it’s quite interesting to consider that Meta failed to develop their own OS and that Google is shipping soon AndroidXR.
Overall is that even a deal over a used headset? Even a fully featured non-stripped down one? Like given what features his headset does have, it’s comparable to some pretty old headsets… and it likely does even those bare minimum features more poorly than an older used headset would. Not to mention comfort.
Like a 10 year old Rift CV1 has almost as much resolution at 90hz/fps instead of 60. And while it’s lenses would be relatively terrible now, they were pretty much the best option of their day, and likely still better than whatever this dude sourced. Not to mention their motion to photon was around 12 ms. The absolute best result this guy can hope for is 16.6ms, and that’s only if everything else in the pipeline is faster than the screens refresh rate… maybe it is… but I wouldn’t bet on it personally.
I’m sure it was a fun project though.
It’s always cool to see such projects, and I was discussing about the topic just yesterday.
… but please, don’t spend $150 on that. This is limited has it has :
- no controllers (and gamepads aren’t spatial),
- no hand tracking (which would be spatial),
- no 6DoF, so you can’t move your head or body around, just turn your head around
- a very limited software stack, e.g. no OpenXR (AFAICT),
- a cable to be plugged to a computer, i.e. it’s not standalone
so it’s basically a more open but not standalone version of the Oculus Go. For context the Go is from 2018 and back then was $200 while being standalone. Note also that the Go is rootable, cf https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/unlocking-oculus-go/
There are also other DIY VR HMDs, e.g. https://github.com/relativty/Relativty from 2020 which similar limitations. In fact this made so much buzz back then the founder managed to ride the hype and make (sadly) a VC funded startup. I say sadly because the initial project was all open VR and openness but once the money was locked-in… well I let you check.
So… again this is VERY cool to build but please do not consider this anything but a way to learn. If you do want to play with VR with a limited budget consider instead an accountless (meaning no Meta involved) second hand Meta 2 then Alvr or WiVRn (cf https://lvra.gitlab.io/ for more).
PS: for those who remember back then Relativty it became Unai then https://unison.co/ which according to LinkedIn (so take it via a grain of salt) went from 30 employees a year ago to half of that now
and maybe more importantly hasn’t delivered anything I’m aware of. In itself that’s no big deal, startups do that, but it’s definitely quite far from the initial openness debut.But can I watch porn
If you go down that path check https://buttplug.io/ because the fun does not have to stop with just vision!
This is so damn cool I want to throw one together just to tinker with it.
This has been the best year for VR as a whole.
This has been the best year for VR as a whole.
am a fan and vr dev… but this hasn’t been the greatest year personally. what’s made it a highlight for you? perhaps another perspective will help me!
Well, for one, some YouTubers made a cheap, open source VR headset. That was pretty neat.
Linux support has made some decent strides, particularly with the open source monado / wivrn + xrizer stack (steamvr / alvr still have their issues but are getting better).
I’m quite curious to see how quest 3 works with godot & openxr, apparently they have a build you can run on android inside the quest 3 and do vr-dev in vr.
Indeed, I made a video about that but unfortunately in French https://video.benetou.fr/w/g111LSRGfj6HmNxa91au3q
but unfortunately in French
nay, merci boucoup, my 9th grade french will make due! or the auto translate which is always fun!
Feel free to ask questions but you can also seek to https://video.benetou.fr/w/g111LSRGfj6HmNxa91au3q?start=35m50s directly which is the part with the live, in HMD, edition.
tyvm!
