DIY YouTuber CNCDan has uploaded a video of his latest project — a VR headset, which, besides the 3D-printed parts, cost him about $150. He also made all the resources needed for the project open source.
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.
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.
I’m wondering if I wanted to fly a jet, would I need another sensor for 3 dimensional tracking
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.
I bet I could use it. I can play the VirtualBoy in a moving car. If there’s any kind of way to tie it into MechWarrior, I want to build one.