[DIY] Awesome HMD - post Rift DIY parts

[bobjwatts]

Hi All!

Firstly, I got my Rift about a month ago, and I totally love it, it's awesome.

Over the last couple of months while waiting for my rift I have been thinking about what I was going to do with my left over DIY Rift parts. When I made my first DIY rift http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=15607 I was amazed by the 3D, especially the 3D pop, I had used 3D TVs and 3D cinemas but always found them to be a bit crappy with the ghosting etc, but this was different, totally solid stereoscopic 3D. From there I went on to make my second DIY Rift http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 494#p91494 with a real LCD from china, the first thing I realised is that the 3D pop was gone, only to read on the forums that without the frame border you don't get dat 3D pop.

So I decided to make a 3D HMD with my old parts, only instead of using 5x loupes I would try 1-2 times. And it's worked really well, I now have an amazing head mounted 3d screen that I can watch movies and play games on!

Before all the haters start up, this is NOT comparable to the RIFT, this is a 3D viewer - not a VR device, there is no head tracking.

Hardware:
1 x 1200x800 lcd screen
1 x Welding Helmet adjustable headstrap
2 x Loupe 2x Lens
1 x Foamcore Board

Software:
TriDef 3d - side by side Direct X injector


Pros:
Stereoscopic View
Can play any games that TriDef or Perception SBS support
Greatly improved screen door, barely there, the screen looks awesome
Can see the total border so you get a great 3D pop

Cons:
Still a bit heavy because I have the control board on the HMD

Pics:







Hope you guys like it!

[Seawolf]

can you watch with this setup normal sbs movies, or play on consoles with game that have sbs mode?

[XCHDave]

how do you find it on your eyes? I would of thought your eyes would struggle as the image isn't center for each eye?

[cybereality]

Cool.

[bobjwatts]

Yes you can play any SBS content. I would say you could play console SBS, I don't have one to test but it's the same as receiving an SBS signal from the PC.

It's really easy on the eyes, the lenses are 2x and the same size as the old 5x loupe so they have quite a bit of give in them. You can easily set the desktop resolution lower and set you gfx card to no-scale so that the image is in the center.

As I said the worst thing is the weight.

Thanks Cyber!

[XCHDave]

thanks for your reply. I'm new to all this. its just I'm trying to work out how this actually works. my guess is the optics play a large part. for example if you take a side by side movie. and divide it in the middle so only one eye can see one image and the other eye only sees the other image I still see two images not one... must get some optics on the way.

[geekmaster]

You can view ordinary SBS content on a 7-inch screen, by shifting the horizontal position of the lenses. Such an offset position shifts the images horizontally. This offset lens method is commonly used in video projectors to project an image from a shifted position (such as from the ceiling or from a side wall) without needing keystone correction. However, it may require some tangential correction to prevent one side from being a bit wider than the other (normally not noticed, especially when not viewed from a center seat). In an HMD, tangential correction would be more important, because of potential stereoscopic misalignment, and shifting widths while turning your head.

I tested this on my Nexus 7 with 2-inch 5x aspheric acrylic lenses. It works fine, especially when looking at the center of stereoscopic images. The corners are a little off, but not really worse than wearing ordinary high diopter (coke bottle) eyeglasses.



You get used to it after awhile, and stop seeing the distortion. The same is true for NO warp Rift programs, like Deskope and GMsphere. But if you really do want accurate rendering with such offset lenses, you also need to add tangential correction to the Rift pre-warp function (as discussed elsewhere).

[XCHDave]

Interesting I may take this approach would love a 3d display for my xbox gaming even though I have a 3d tv. Immersion would be much better with a HMD