Turn an Old Phone
into a VR Headset
1
Make the link
First things first: Let’s
sort out a link between
your PC and your phone
handset. For this we’ll
use Trinus Cardboard VR
and Trinus Server, the
latter of which sits on your
machine, while the former
is an app downloadable
on both Android and iOS
phones. Note that there
are a few different versions
of Trinus; if you have a
Daydream headset, you
can take advantage of its
extended capabilities by
grabbing Trinus Daydream
VR instead, and there’s also
a server version for PSVR
headsets—we’ll stick with
the Cardboard version, as it’s the most universally usable.
>> Head to the Play Store [image a] or App Store and download
Trinus Cardboard VR (Lite), the free time-limited version of the
app. This will kick you out after 15 minutes, at which point you
can reconnect again; as much as we’d encourage you to spend a
little to get the full version, an enforced break after 15 minutes
of low-resolution immersion probably isn’t the worst thing
in the world. On your PC, download the companion app from
http://www.trinusvirtualreality.com and install it.2
Make a connection
You have two options for connection: either Wi-Fi, which
we’ll use here, or USB, which can offer lower latency,
but comes with the obvious disadvantage that you’re tethered
to your PC by a wire. When you’re using Wi-Fi, you definitely want
your PC connected to a wired network connection to ensure the
only potential source of network disruption is on your phone’s
end. Fire up the Trinus app on the handset end, and you’re
told your phone’s IP address; run the app on your PC, hit theVirtual-reality headsets are all the rage these days. Oculus can’t help but release
a new one every five minutes, Sony has its own for the PS4, HTC has a bunch, and even
Valve is getting involved. But if you’re willing to sacrifice graphical fidelity, responsiveness,
convenience, and possibly your lunch, you don’t actually need any of them. All you need is an
old-ish phone, a very cheap set of VR goggles to slot it into, a whole lot of patience, and some
massively lowered expectations.
But, although this is a very much botched version of VR, it is, nonetheless, definitely VR. And
not just the big-screen gaming kind, either—we’ll turn any old game with an accessible depth
buffer into one with a proper stereoscopic 3D display; switch on the mouse sensor, and you can
translate the phone’s accelerometer into mouse movement, giving us some degree of head
tracking to boot. Our target while running through this will be GTA V, because strapping on a
headset only enhances its ludicrousness, though you could conceivably try it with any game.
While there’s no room-scale shenanigans, and you still need a controller to play, it’s far cheaper
than a full headset, and really just a bit of fun. –alex CoxYou’ll need this
trinus cardboard Vr
Download the app from
http://www.trinusvirtualreality.com.a cheap headset
A plastic version should
cost around $10.an old phone
Any handset that can fit inside
your headset will do.triangular button on the phone to begin the connection,
and you should find the PC app has detected the same IP.
Set the capture mode to “General,” and the sensor mode
to “None,” then hit the “Start” button on the PC end—you
should see a portion of the Trinus server app streamed
to your phone’s screen.3
Questionable Quality
You’ll likely notice that things don’t look so great
[image b]. That’s basically by design—in order
to get the best performance, Trinus lowers the default
resolution to a painful 752x406, and defaults to a high
performance mode, which adds extra compression. You
can alter this on both ends: On the PC, change the image
scale to ultra, and drag the compression slider all the
way to the right, then open the “Settings” menu on the
phone, and change the performance mode to “Quality.”
Restart the server, and you’ll see the resolution get
much more crisp—though when you move the phone,
you may notice blurring. This can be disabled by heading
to the “Video” tab on the PC and switching off “Motion
Boost.” Bear in mind that everything we’ve just done
you’ll probably want to switch off very soon, but it’s good
to prove that it’s possible.BA60 MAXIMUMPC Aug 2019 maximumpc.com
R&D
©^
Trinus Cardboard Vr