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You Can Now Clone Samsung's Gear VR and Test Your Virtual Reality Apps

Posted by samzenpus on from the more-real-than-real dept.

An anonymous reader writes While Samsung's Gear VR headset launched in early December in the U.S., folks abroad didn't have any official means of buying the headset to test their in-development applications. Only recently has Gear VR begun making its way to countries around the world, and it's doing so slowly. For developers who don't want to wait (or DIYers who don't want to buy), some smart folks have figured out how to emulate the headset using a development board with an IMU that's been flashed with the same firmware found on the Oculus Rift DK1 headset. Plugging the board into the Note 4 (the smartphone that powers Gear VR), results in the phone recognizing the IMU as the Gear VR headset, allowing developers to test their applications and even launch the "Oculus Home" environment, allowing access to official applications and content.

32 comments

  1. This just in, joysticks and monitors exist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and you can emulate them with... similar hardware.

  2. Oculus Rift Availability? by Hrrrg · · Score: 1

    So when are they going to start selling this thing?

    1. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck Oculus Rift and their Facebook overlords. You can buy a plastic version of Google's Cardboard on Amazon for $20 and use whatever phone you want in it.

    2. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently they were giving these away at Sundance (the cardboard versions). I watched a demo a friend had gotten for her iphone. Not exactly wraparound immersion, but the effect was pretty neat, I have to say.

    3. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing I love about Cardboard (and work-alikes) is that there is already a bunch of support for it in apps on the Play store. Even Google Earth and FPSE (PlayStation emulator) support it.

      Oculus Rift just seems like over hyped vaporware. They haven't released a commercial product and after three years with the devkit available, support is still pretty much non-existent.

    4. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah cause the resolution & processing power of a phone is gonna create kick ass VR.

      Not.

      What you want is a pair of high res Texas Instruments DLPs in a Rift or similar, connected to a high end GPU in a high end workstation.

      Or at least that's what I want.

    5. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A modern day phone is more than powerful enough and high resolution enough to handle video being piped to it from a PC.

      My phone is an LG G3, which has a quad core Krait 400 @ 2.5GHz and a 2560x1440 resolution display. That's more than enough.

    6. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and it has a high dynamic range so the sun (for example) can appear really bright ?

      no.

      you can keep your excessively expensive low end VR display tech.

      lets do this right.

    7. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      also, 1k per eye isn't anywhere near high enough. try reading text on a page in 3D using that.

      will be a blurred mess and will give you a headache.

      if all you want to do is shoot teh aliens, sure, will probably suffice.

    8. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.ti.com/tool/dlplcr9000evm

      Downside is cost.

      $5750 x 2 for 2560x1600 per eye.

      probably a little cheaper to buy in volume & parts rather than devkit :)

    9. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No consumer display has high dynamic range.

      And excessively expensive? Yeah, I'm sure a display with true high dynamic range will be a lot cheaper than the $300 I paid for my phone...

    10. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody is looking at stereoscopic displays thinking "gee, this will add so much to reading text".

      You are a fucking moron and you should be ashamed for thinking such a stupid thing.

    11. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      looking at the ideal solution, rather than a hack. from there product are developed and price drops due to volume purchase.

      of course high dynamic range is going to cost more than a current gen phone but that's how we make progress.

      your phone doesn't have high enough resolution to do this right or I would just buy one.

    12. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try looking at 320x240 on a 17" display at 2'. That's about the same angular resolution as 1280x1440 with a 60deg FoV.

    13. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you mean you're not considering high end VR applications.

      got a screen on your desk, ain't ya ? can read it from a couple of feet away, can't ya.

      I want that experience in VR environments too.

      here, have your moron hat back. this is slashdot, not fucking fox news.

      we make cool new shit, not just chat about what's already out there.

      get out of my face d1ckhead.

    14. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      High end VR applications aren't going to be using $300 HMDs, dumbass.

      Now go die in a fire. You're too stupid to live.

    15. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's higher resolution than Oculus Rift, which everybody seems to be gushing about. So, yeah, it does.

    16. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no, for the time being they will not. thanks captain obvious.

      looks like you won't get much change from $10k for a high end solution right now.

      I never said high end could be done for $300 right now but things change.

      today's expensive is tomorrow's mass market.

      you just lost that flame war. thanks for playing.

    17. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thanks, captain obvious.

      take your shitty phone and shove it where the sun don't shine mate.

      today's high end is tomorrow's mass market. not everything can be done for peanuts ... at least not today.

      you are too stupid to talk to as you have nothing to add but insults so I'm outta this thread.

      throwing up a straw man argument, then pointing at someone else and calling them stupid cause you're stupid is stupid.

      post something interesting or get the fuck off slashdot, child.

    18. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its a step in the right direction, but we need to go further.

      if you could get beyond your "I bought this so it must be awesome and every other idea is crap" mindset, you might become a better engineer.

    19. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you could get your head out of your ass and experience a little thing called "reality" then you would know that it is the best solution at current time.

      Go ahead, put out a headset that costs tens of thousands of dollars and see how many people adopt it.

    20. Re:Oculus Rift Availability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL, you really are as dumb as a box of hair. I bet you have to concentrate just to breathe.

  3. It is all fun and games... by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2

    It is all fun and games until the lawyers come knocking at your door.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:It is all fun and games... by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's difficult to get lawyers interested after you've released your code as open source...

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    2. Re:It is all fun and games... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and when you're using a Note 4 anyway.

    3. Re:It is all fun and games... by mungewell · · Score: 1
      The Oculus SDK implicitly states that you can use it with non-commercial 3rd party devices (it actually says it the other way around, but it's pretty cool of them either way):

      https://developer.oculus.com/d...
      The Oculus VR Rift SDK may not be used to interface with unapproved commercial virtual reality mobile or non-mobile products or hardware.

      https://developer.oculus.com/d...
      The Oculus Mobile SDK may not be used to interface with unapproved commercial virtual reality mobile or non-mobile products or hardware.

      The other consideration is that the USB ID's used by Oculus' tracker are 'owned' by Oculus, any other company could not legally sell a product using them. However this is not a product, it is a suggestion based around a firmware file ('.hex') for the STM32F3 discovery board (http://www.st.com/web/catalog/tools/FM116/SC959/SS1532/PF254044), which is around $10 from multiple vendors..... now go hack!!

      Obviously with a name like 'mungewell' I am not a lawyer, these are just the opinions of a hacker...

    4. Re:It is all fun and games... by voights · · Score: 1

      There is no legal backing for "owning" USB VIDs/PIDs. You're not allowed to use the USB-compatible logo unless you abide by the USB-IF's rules, but that's it.

  4. Probably won't be shut down (?) by drewm19801927 · · Score: 1

    If I were Samsung, I would be thrilled if this resulted in a bunch of geeks buying Note 4's. Is that not more or less the business case for the Gear VR anyway?

    1. Re:Probably won't be shut down (?) by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      gear vr is a pr product now.

      oculus might be pissed off if their (possible) cut is cut off, but I doubt that as well.

      what I don't get is why not just let people run the sw on cardboard. if they miss some functionality then it's not a big deal..

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.