[DIY] Hackulus Rift

[bobjwatts]

I have a real Rift Dev Kit coming in December but couldn't help myself so went ahead and made one after being inspired by all the amazing work of everyone on MTBS!

Maybe some people will get something from my cheap dodgy DIY 'Hackulus' Rift.

Hardware:
1 x iPhone 3gs - Display
1 x iphone 4 - Tracker
1 x Welding Helmet adjustable headstrap
2 x Loupe 5x Lens
1 x Logitech Wireless Gamepad
1 x Foamcore Board
1 x Earbuds

Software:
Splashtop Streamer
TriDef 3d - side by side Direct X injector
Motiontools Air Mouse - Tracker


Pros:
Enables you to get a small sense of what the rift might be like
Stereoscopic View
Can explore most Direct X games
Doesn't require spending $170 on screen+controller (If you have iphone/androids laying around)
Completely wireless - no cables, display, sound and tracking

Cons:
Very Laggy, can only move slowly
Small screen, can see sides clearly
Is not the Oculus Rift

It's been fun but my wife now thinks I'm crazy.







And here's the first draft


Loving the forum by the way, very inspiring!

[brantlew]

I like this. Very nice. Question: Why didn't you just use a single iPhone 4 as both the display and head tracker?

We really gotta get more people interested in doing FOV2GO compatible software titles. The Rift is great but so much infrastructure is required to get it working. Doing everything on the phone simplifies the configuration a lot. I wonder between all the Android phones and now the iPhone 5 which device is best suited for conversion into an integrated HMD?

The iPhones 4+ work beautifully as head trackers and their display quality is good, but they are a bit on the small size. Also, programming in iOS is akin to medieval torture. I assume one of the larger Android devices would have a better screen size and probably a more powerful processor.

[bobjwatts]

Thanks brantlew!

There is no configuration in the gyro software to set the starting point, e.g. when I'm looking at the screen and turn left and right the mouse goes up and down. Maybe I could find some software that allows it, it would certainly cut out some weight.

I have one of the FOV2GO apps, it works really well but is pretty limited, one room, no interactivity. I think it would be awesome if some iPhones games supported FOC2GO, the main problem though is when using the screen for display you can't use it as a control. If Carmac wanted to add support for 2nd iPhone control and stereo vision to RageHD I would buy... again!

I thought the head tracking on the iPhone was pretty good too.

[brantlew]

What software are using to transfer motion to mouse control?

There is a application called FreePIE that can interface with (among many other things) the iPhone for mouse emulation in any direction you want.

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=139&t=15484

[Yoder808]

I've been doing the same with my Android/iPhone combo, until I get a replacement screen. It's really not that laggy for me. I make sure games resolution is 800x600 (my GSII is 800x480).

I'm also using Splashtop, Tridef, and FreePIE. I was having crashing problems with FreePIE, but I was told to make sure FreePIE is minimized before I play, so I'll try that.

Here's a pic of my latest prototype. It's got a hatch on the side to put the phone in, and a slot in the bottom where you can slide the "divider piece", which also holds the phone in place.



The cord is for looks/mockup

[bobjwatts]

brantlew - Cool I'll check it out! I am using Motiontools Air Mouse

Yoder808 - Nice! that looks hot! I've been trying Splashtop with mostly 1024x768 - do you do the auto network performance?

[brantlew]

I'm also using Splashtop, Tridef, and FreePIE. I was having crashing problems with FreePIE, but I was told to make sure FreePIE is minimized before I play, so I'll try that.

Here's a pic of my latest prototype. It's got a hatch on the side to put the phone in, and a slot in the bottom where you can slide the "divider piece", which also holds the phone in place.

That rig look really nice Yoder.

FreePIE was pissing me off last night again with all the crashing - so I dusted off my FreePIE console code and got it compiling again. I'm going to test tonight and see if that will stabilize FreePIE. If so, I'll release it this week.

[bobjwatts]

Well I just got Sensor Data working with freePIE, I had to add iphone.roll to the script and it all works nicely.

Unfortunatly FreePIE stops sending data when I multitask into Splashtop. Hmm, huge bummer.

[cybereality]

This is great.

[brantlew]

Well I just got Sensor Data working with freePIE, I had to add iphone.roll to the script and it all works nicely.

Unfortunatly FreePIE stops sending data when I multitask into Splashtop. Hmm, huge bummer.

I'm going to put up a non-gui console version of FreePIE later this week. I think that might help with this particular problem.

[Parity]

Ah, nice to see. So I am obviously not the only one with this kind of setup. Not intendet to play VR games with it, but it gives a very good idea of how immense FOV and stereoscopic 3D with headtracking will look like.

Configration of my setup:

# google nexus 7 tablet(Android 4.1, 7 inch 1280x800 panel with gyroscope sensor and powerful quad-core)
# Large lenses with focal length of 50 mm
# Splashtop 2 HD for video transmission
# FreePIE and its Android App for orientation tracking
# Stereoscopic Rendering Demo or Lens Distortion Injector for almost any game.

I built a nice "slot-in" system for the tablet. So I can very easy mount und remove of the device.


My impression:
First of all MASSIVE FOV. No edges of the screen visible at all.
Transmission of screen with spashtop works way better than I expected it. It is very well posible to play games over Wifi transmission.
Stereoscopic 3D was not as "suprising" as I expected it to be... Don't get me wrong, it is great. But it doesnt feel to special, it just feels "real".

Images: (please dont make fun of the box. I know it looks like rubbish, but it surely isnt. I didnt want to color it black just to have a nicer look.)

[brantlew]

@Parity: Looks great!

I think this is a really interesting direction of research - creating an all-in-one wireless device. I do a lot of untethered VR gaming and I can tell you that dealing with a backtop and all the wiring is a real pain in the ass. There is a lot to be said about just being able to stick something on your head, pick up some wireless controllers, and go - even if you have to give up some quality. I'm curious to see somebody try this with a small tablet. You wouldn't even have to use the whole screen - just the 6 or 7 inches that fits within the lens FOV. You could fill the lenses and get a massive FOV. And the low res would be advantageous for wireless transmission.

Edit: My bad...I guess the Nexus 7 IS a tablet. So thanks for the proof of concept. Theoretically - you should be getting higher FOV than the Rift with that monster (depending on the lenses I guess). I'd love to see some more pics.

[brantlew]

Also it might be interesting to attempt something like with the upcoming Windows phones/tablet. Windows sensor fusion may be equally as good and simple to work with as Apple. And they may have optimized methods for desktop/video streaming between Windows computers.

[bobjwatts]

That looks great Parity, love the OralB box! I was close to buying a cheap 7" android for this.

@brantlew I meant to say that Sensor Data stops sending data when I multitask out.

I managed to get a huge performance boost by using my laptop as an ad-hoc access point, I guess the trip to the router was adding some time. Anyways it's pretty good.

[cybereality]

Wow! Very nice Parity.

[Parity]

Thank you. After that sick 3D-printed DIY Rift of WickedAndy I did't even dare to post my setup until now...
Unfortunaly one cannot show the immersive impression of this device here in the forums, only the outside looks, that do not matter. As written above, the big 7 inch screen is working very impressive with those lenses.
Best results of course with that fisheye rendering demo (these colored boxes) were I can manually adjust the image position and parameters of the "prestortion". For all other games, with the injector I will have to adjust window position and size to get the perfect fit. But then it is quite cool too.
Especially with the head tracking.

Maybe I should add: Latency is relatively low, and display is smooth, but it is practically not good enough for effective gaming. But to walk around and look at things using your head it is fine.

[TheLookingGlass]

This is so great to see everyone building their own prototypes with what they have on hand. I put together a cardboard FOV2GO type viewer using an iPhone about a month ago but was hesitant to post pictures; It's all cardboard, duct tape, and hope! But I think i'll post some pics of it when I get home.

I have also been testing two iphone's in a side-by-side (vertical) configuration with fish eye lenses over the rear cameras to provide a wider FOV. My plan is to get it head mounted (when I find the time) and use it to record some walk around 3D videos possibly with 3D stereo sound recording using 2 microphones in each ear facing out(of course ). There are also a couple VR apps for the iphone that I have tested with this configuration. One called Spyglass made me feel like the terminator! [stimg]http://i.imgur.com/0PLPJ.png[/stimg]

[brantlew]

Well the iPad Mini is out and from the specs it looks like it could also make a very nice Hackulus. I can't find horizontal dimensions for the screen but the diagonal is 7.9" which probably puts the screen just under 7" which is a very sweet spot for these Rift-inspired HMDs. Resolution is a bit low at 1024×768 but workable. Of course iOS is a double edged sword here. Great for the wonderful and easy-to-use inertial tracking API, but painful nonetheless because we are still talking about iOS development here. So all-in-all, probably not as interesting as the Nexus 7 (which seems rather perfect), but an interesting alternative.

http://technabob.com/blog/2012/10/23/ip ... ate-specs/

[Fredz]

Yep, quite disappointed by this iPad Mini, I was expected it would use that 2560x1600 7" screen from JDI. 7.9" seems a bit to big also for an HMD. The Nexus 7 is clearly a better option as you said.

[cybereality]

I agree. At nearly 8" you are really pushing the size of something you want strapped to your face.

Unless you want to be this dude:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OHlaVNOKGM[/youtube]

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/01/im-one-s ... o-azeroth/

[bobjwatts]

Wow. That's impressive.

[Parity]

Some may be interessted: My hackulus in action (without case and without optics)

I presented my build earllier in this thread.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol1HqlJkNnA[/youtube]

[Flassan]

I love all this. Giving a lot more people a taste of VR with hardware they already own is bound to get them interested. That's the genius of FOV2GO.

Have any of you seen this? http://www.behance.net/gallery/iPhone-Theater/5388119
I know it's not stereoscopic but imagine using it with a first person game like Minecraft or SL with head-tracking and Red Rovr, so people could walk around their living room or garden and feel that they're in their favourite virtual world. They'd soon be looking for better products like the commercial Oculus Rift.
Despite all the press it shocked me this week to hear that 1/4 of all Londoners own iPhones.

[bobjwatts]

I have been focusing on tweaking the Sterescopic 3D effect over the last week, not really bothering with the quest to actually play streamed games with this setup.

I am totally blown away with the Sterescopic 3D effect in games, it looks totally amazing, I have never been a huge fan of 3d screens, the inconsistancy of the 3D always makes it feel fake and it seems to go in and out with ghosting - but my experience with this Stereoscopic is that the 3D is pretty much rock solid.

I have been exploring Skyrim (Arch mage quarters looks amazing), Half Life 2 ep2 (Superportal in the background through the trees), Batman Arkham City, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Stalker and Theif 2. And whilst I can't actually 'play' the game because of the lag just walking around and looking at things with the 3D effect is very, very cool.

With an old game like Thief 2 the effect adds so much depth and gives the simple 3D a breath of new life.

I cannot wait for the Rift.

[PalmerTech]

The real Rift is going to be leaps and bounds better than the DIY ones we all have.

[bobjwatts]

The real Rift is going to be leaps and bounds better than the DIY ones we all have.

Oh man, awesome!

[topas]

The real Rift is going to be leaps and bounds better than the DIY ones we all have.

The "real" Rift? Does this mean the dev Rift or the ~2013 Consumer Rift?
Guessing the dev Rift will already be a huge leap

[brantlew]

The "real" Rift? Does this mean the dev Rift or the ~2013 Consumer Rift?
Guessing the dev Rift will already be a huge leap

Yeah, we need a new nomenclature to differentiate between the dev-kit Rift and the consumer Rift which may have vastly different capabilities.

[Parity]

The real Rift is going to be leaps and bounds better than the DIY ones we all have.

I did in no way expect to reach either the performance, nor the visual quality of a rift with that build. Especially when image and tracker data have to go over a WiFi connection.
But I wanted to know so badly, how stereoscpoic 3D with high FOV would be like, that I started putting together some spare parts. I really enjoyed getting this thing to work like that.

Now I think I got an idea, what to expect from the real deal.

[brantlew]

@Parity: Hey, just curious about your HMD. You say you are using SplashTop. Your screen is showing the game running in Window mode. Is this the only way you can transmit, or does SplashTop support transmission of full screen as well? Also was the choice of that app out of convenience or do you know it to be better than similar apps?

Finally, does anybody know of an app that can video stream to Android across USB? I'm curious what kind of performance that might give?

[Nick3DvB]

@Parity: Hey, just curious about your HMD. You say you are using SplashTop. Your screen is showing the game running in Window mode. Is this the only way you can transmit, or does SplashTop support transmission of full screen as well? Also was the choice of that app out of convenience or do you know it to be better than similar apps?

Finally, does anybody know of an app that can video stream to Android across USB? I'm curious what kind of performance that might give?

There are ways to create a virtual USB network adapter that might be more robust than wireless video streaming,

I was also wondering about HDMI (or component) USB2 capture devices with nix drivers that could be recompiled for Android.

I'm sure we can do better than Splashtop, a directshow screen capture driver and GPU assisted H264 / VC1 encoder should do 60fps

http://dxtory.com/v2-home-en.html (designed for game capture)

http://www.splitmedialabs.com/media-too ... en-capture

Not sure how low we could get the encoder latency though?

[bobjwatts]

@brantlew You can stream fullscreen if you have an Nvidia card.

http://support-splashtop2.splashtop.com ... pp-support

I still find it sometimes gives the error but then if I tab back to the game it works.

Some games still don't work so I use http://grismar.net/shiftwindow/ which is also buggy

[brantlew]

I'm sure we can do better than Splashtop, a directshow screen capture driver and GPU assisted H264 / VC1 encoder should do 60fps

That's very ambitious, especially since the game will be sharing the resources - but still an intriguing possibility and a noble goal. The recent CPU's have a lot of video encoding hardware in them so that might could be tapped. Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere it is likely that the stereoscopic images could be advantageous for compressing the feed even more to overcome bandwidth limitations. I just don't know whether stereoscopic compression would add more latency than it saved with bandwidth? But if 60 FPS could actually be achieved, then WOW! - this would almost be better than the Rift. Tetherless, computer-free VR would be liberating and incredible !!

[Nick3DvB]

Stereo compression makes a lot of sense but I've not seen any real-time / GPU assisted MVC encoders yet, (or even android MVC decoders for that matter), and I think the frame comparison is always going to add more latency than we'd like. Even low bit rate H264 should give acceptable results at ~720p, it obviously won't be comparable with a direct display input but it might be acceptable. We could even do the warp correction during the video encode, I'll have a play with dxtory + http streaming when I get time.

[Parity]

Sorry, I just saw your replies. Kinda lost track of this thread after bookmarking the direct link to the rift subforum.

Answers to your questions:
Splashtop does only work for windowed mode for me. But actually that is quite an advantage to run the games windowed, because I can adjust position and size of the window to fit perfectly.

Most games support windowmode or even something nice like fullscreen-windowed mode, were you see absolutely no difference to fullscreen.

The advantage I see in spashtop is, that the stream is really smooth. It is not picture by picture based like e.g. TeamViewer. If you run out of bandwith, you will rather loose image-quality than fps, what is really important imho.

[shent1080]

Hi all

I'm in the process of cobbling together a wireless hmd using:

Transformer TF101 (for testing purposes, will get a nexus 7 if successful)
5x 2" aspheric lenses (waiting for them to arrive)
Ski goggles
FreePie
Splashtop 2
Tridef 3d

So far i have tested that splashtop and tridef work from my pc, they are ok but do need to use a wire to my router instead of wifi, they stream to my tablet and now i'm at the point where i have been messing around with FreePie.

I have been getting help from Cyber Villain and Mahler to get it working between my PC and tablet, but now i'm stuck.

My problem is that i cannot get freepie to work with my tablet when i have the screen facing me, if i point the edge to my monitor and use it like this, it works but Cyber Villain said that advanced filtering is needed to compensate for the yaw not being aligned with the magnetic north.

So my question is, does anyone have any idea about this or has anyone successfully got a tablet based hmd working with the tablet acting as both video reciever and sensor transmitter.

Any help would be appreciated.

[shent1080]

Sorry, here's the script i am using with freepie

[Unclebob]

Ah, nice to see. So I am obviously not the only one with this kind of setup. Not intendet to play VR games with it, but it gives a very good idea of how immense FOV and stereoscopic 3D with headtracking will look like.

Configration of my setup:

# google nexus 7 tablet(Android 4.1, 7 inch 1280x800 panel with gyroscope sensor and powerful quad-core)
# Large lenses with focal length of 50 mm
# Splashtop 2 HD for video transmission
# FreePIE and its Android App for orientation tracking
# Stereoscopic Rendering Demo or Lens Distortion Injector for almost any game.

I built a nice "slot-in" system for the tablet. So I can very easy mount und remove of the device.


My impression:
First of all MASSIVE FOV. No edges of the screen visible at all.
Transmission of screen with spashtop works way better than I expected it. It is very well posible to play games over Wifi transmission.
Stereoscopic 3D was not as "suprising" as I expected it to be... Don't get me wrong, it is great. But it doesnt feel to special, it just feels "real".

Images: (please dont make fun of the box. I know it looks like rubbish, but it surely isnt. I didnt want to color it black just to have a nicer look.)

Hi Parity

I like your set up and am half way through a similar build.

My problem is with Freepie as I get mixed up readings when using the android mouse script

Could I ask you to share your Freepie apk settings and the script you are using within the Freepie PC application as I am at a brick wall.

Thanks mate

UB

[vrvision]

.

[Parity]

Reporting back after a long time.
I used the 2012 model Nexus 7 to get the Rift-impression as seen above.
In the meantime I too have bought a 2013 FullHD Nexus 7 and of course things are looking muck better now.
Transmitting the 1920x1200 video signal over wifi works better than I expected. I think I can now guess what image quality to expect from a FullHD Rift. Way better than 720p, but still plenty of room to improve resolution...