What are /r/GoogleCardboard's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

XR Gaming is a personal project with 0 funding, and it would be great if you could try it (the trial is free for 1 hour) and support the project. There are always improvements to be made, especially depending on everyone's feedback, and with the community's support I believe we can change the future of VR Gaming.

play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.realified.xr

more info at: www.xralpha.co

You can check out my game, Gravity Pull VR, which I would consider a full (and fun) game. It does use a novel movement technique (walking in place) to move around, but it's a fully-featured puzzle game along the lines of Portal or The Talos Principle.

I'm planning on a small update to it sometime in the coming weeks. There is 1 bug where if you try to pull the first box you see into the very first room, you won't be able to walk into the 2nd room, so don't do that =).

I've posted about this before, but since you ask... Here's a shameless plug for VR FPS: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.baroquedub.gvrFpsGoogleVr (completely free, not in app purchases) I'm the dev so feel free to ask any questions :)

I started off on Cardboard and now own GearVR and a Rift, and I made it to give a little love to those just starting off on cheaper-end VR. I think devs who get the VR bug often forget how important it is to give people just starting out the very best possible experience. Once you're hooked there's no turning back. I'm really proud of the reviews it's getting "one of the best VR experiences for Android"

People commenting obviously didn't read OP's post. He is looking for a specific app that was demonstrated to him by a dude working at Google's. The app consists of photospheres available through a virtual museum.

EDIT : Orbulus might be what you're looking for.

You can try out my game, Gravity Pull VR. It's a portal-like puzzle game. (edit: links: Google Play, iOS)

It's older, but try out my game, Gravity Pull VR. It's a bit short, but it's free, no ads, and has a unique movement mechanic (with other options as well). I'm hoping to put out some more stuff soon, but real life keeps getting in the way.

Hey buddy, I'm on it. Keep your money

EDIT: Okay two links https://mega.nz/#!ssoU1LaA!tm_dhWgz0g_N_PeR8BWD74zWm--5p777JY-kegzoF7E You have to unzip this to storage/Android/Obb

https://mega.nz/#!05YzRITA!uyIzFKhIsMCjm8G_5Xf5pwECcAFvSbwuiY267EPjAdo These are the Titanium Backup files.

Also this is from a Nexus 5.

Shameless plug for my own (free) game: Gravity pull

I also like Proton Pulse, the Cardboard Design Lab, and Chair in a room.

Save-ing this for future use. Would also like to add a few of my own nice gems from my experience:

• Lamper VR is a really solid free runner-like game, except you're a bee and are flying through a tunnel.
• HeadBatt is a VR retro-themed version of Pong. It's ultra simple, but gets points for being one of the few multiplayer games for cardboard.

It’s been almost a year since the release of the first version of Cmoar VR Cinema. Fully satisfied, we’d like to proudly put the newest update in your hands - an update that changes the application beyond recognition.

Cmoar VR Cinema gives you a whole range of possibilities. Apart from displaying the movies from your memory card, you can also display a video from your PC in any format you wish thanks to LAN streaming.

That’s not the end of good news. To make things even more exciting, we’ve added an option of automatic subtitles and posters downloading. The most distinctive feature is, however, the possibility to watch 2D and 3D movies directly from YouTube.

Demo Version

Full Version

Cmoar Cinema key features:

• Dynamic Lighting
• LAN movie streaming
• All video formats support ( .mp4/.mkv/.avi/.mov/.ogg/ etc.)
• Watching Youtube videos (1080p 2D)
• Watching Youtube videos (1080p 3D)
• 3D interface
• Chromatic aberration correction
• Auditorium variations
• Automatic downloading of subtitles and posters
• Possibility to add every movie to Favorites
• Multitude of various settings (eg. FOV)
• New 3D camera
• Voice search
• „Last-viewed” option

Soon:

• Seat selection
• Gamepad support

Thanks for your support.

Enjoy the app and don’t forget to leave a comment, sharing with us your first impressions! :) :-)

Ahoy,

I've just pushed an update to Points of Sail ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marineverse.pointofsail ) with bunch of improvements.

The idea for the app is to let people learn qucker "Points of Sail" - concept important to graps when getting into sailing.

I hope that sailors here will find the app useful, and would love to hear feedback how to make it better.

Best regards, Greg

Well I'll plug my own game, Gravity Pull VR. It's a puzzle game similar to Portal. It will hopefully get some more levels when I get time.

Hm, that looks oddly familiar. So by "I wrote my first Cardboard app" you mean "I downloaded the free Make Your Fantasy Game asset and dropped the Cardboard SDK camera into the demo scene"?

Sorry to be such a party popper, but I am slightly annoyed, as I actually installed it against my better judgment based on the "Weird things start happening after a while. Don't stay in too long." description. While Graveyard VR is implemented as a fly-through, in yours all I can do is look around. After some time footsteps seem to come closer and then walk away, but as nothing is visible, I wouldn't count that as "weird things happening". It is basically the demo scene, trees surrounding the graveyard, probably from another asset, plus some added noises.

Dropping cameras into pre-made scenes from the asset store was sort of fun six months ago, when there were almost no VR apps available, but by now these have sort of become the Flappy Bird clones of VR. Minimal effort for the author who usually forgets to mention the asset artists that did 99% of the work. But not really a compelling VR experience, as in most cases you cannot even walk around, just stand and look. So my feedback is "Please a little bit more effort and a more accurate play store description". (And yes, I realize it is free, but my time is not.)

As nice as it is to take off the headset, remove your phone, swipe around for a new app, re-insert the phone, fix the inevitable alignment issues, and put the headset back on each time, Daydream does it best - closing a VR app simply returns you to Daydream's immersive launcher without breaking VR. This should be the norm, not an exception. In fact, Google's Android Auto app (and the numerous "Car Mode" launchers it spawned) do the same thing. Why not Cardboard? If I'm understanding OP's question right, this is the kind of in-headset thing he's looking for.

Closest I've found is VR Launcher which takes you "home" when shaking your head. Works alright, but has trouble finding all of my VR apps.

You can use third party programs to map a button to mouse click, which will work as the Cardboard button.

I have done this with Tincore Keymapper.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tincore.and.keymapper&hl=en

yeah, sorry for the lack of specificity, I was going to bed when I answered.

VR Craft. it's only "creative mode" and it's mostly just the novelty of wandering around in an interactive world - obviously, it's nowhere near as full-featured as actual minecraft.

the racing game was VR Rally, which along with making me super sick almost immediately also didn't really work with my cheapo controller setup (USB OTG cable plus playstation 2 to USB adapter plus playstation 2 controller - LEGITIMACY). I had to borrow someone's real USB controller.

Didn't work. Says it's not a VR Photo. It almost certainly requires more information than just the jpg to create the stereoscopic effect, so you can't upload the jpg through an image host. Try uploading the original file somewhere. Also give it a .vr.jpg extension.

Can someone check this one to see if it works? http://www.filedropper.com/img20151203153042vr

I have VR Craft on my phone. It's not Minecraft, but it helps scratch that itch. It works great with my generic vr headset, but you'll need a Bluetooth controller.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Durk.Vrcraft

Daydream is Google's "step up" from Cardboard. It's a a headset + controller, and it's also a spec ("Daydream ready") that sets a standard for virtual reality on phones. The controller is pretty basic and is used for mostly pointing/selecting things, but it works well.

I don't think it's fair to say that Cardboard is dead - there is still some good stuff out there.

I'll plug my game, Gravity Pull VR, if you want to check it out.

Yes there is! I saw it linked here, tried it out, but I forget what it's called. I'll try using google or the search feature of Reddit.

Edit: yeah, here. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fofism.bodyswap

It swaps your bodies, pretty interesting experience.

The Cardboard demo app is a great place to start. It has a cool but limited version of Google Earth, and also a list of recommended apps

After that, I'd recommend Tuscany, checking out a stereoscopic YouTube video, and Cardboard Camera. Have fun!

If you're on Android, Google just released an app called Carboard Camera that lets you take 3D photo spheres with audio. It has given me more of a feeling of presence than any other app I have tried.

That's neat. But if you are looking for a more "full" controller experience, I really like this one from gearbest. Controller and clip for phone can be had for about $10.50.

EDIT: Just noticed I was on GoogleCardboard subreddit. If you are just using it with Google Cardboard, you don't need a "full" controller experience.

I don't think you mean a QR code. A QR Code is just a specific type of barcode, and functions like any other barcode. The image carries encoded information, such as a website url or meta-data about the product it's printed on, which is read when the image is scanned. QR codes are just printed images, and can't be "linked" to hardware.

I think what you meant is whether or not there is a program that would let you use the crosshair to activate buttons. To answer that question, no, not universally. Some VR programs, for example Google's Cardboard App allow you to hold the crosshairs to select menu options. However, it varies from program to program.

That being said, there are a lot of cheap headsets that have buttons if you're using your smartphone as your headset. For example, Google's cheapest cardboard viewer

Edit: Rewording a couple sentences.

There are several, but none I find quite satisfactory. However, FullDive is a comprehensive application that includes a launcher (although for some reason it does not detect all my VR-enabled apps).

Oh wow, hi guys!

I'm the developer for BAMF VR and I figured I'd step in for a sec to clear some things up, if you don't mind.

It's a first person Teleportation Platformer where you gather crystals in a variety of levels. This trailer will give you a rough idea of what to expect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWv-tEutPtk

The game is free on Android for Google Cardboard type headsets. I've found it works very well with many standard viewers as it only requires a single button input by either an external bluetooth controller, screen tapping mechanism or a magnet switch.

As I'm just a one man team I don't have access to a lot of hardware to test the game on so I ended up restricting the app to certain phones that I felt confident it would work for, sorry about that Konstantin. I just don't want people to have a bad experience on a range of phones I haven't been able to test it on. A bad VR experience is no good for anyone. I hope you understand.

Sadly it's not available for ios because I don't have the Apple hardware to develop/test it and I'm not entirely sure what would be involved in getting it on their store. It is unlikely that it will end up there anytime soon. I am looking at making an official GearVR port (Not sure if that's a bad word to use on this subreddit), but I can't offer a timeline for that at the moment.

The game can be found either on Google Play at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.MWB.BAMF Or in the official Google Cardboard app under the "Fun For All Ages" category.

Thank you Nick for being excited about the game and creating this thread. Sorry I haven't dropped by here before as I'm not normally a Reddit user. Though I did have "Shamelessly self-promote on Reddit" on my to-do list...

Hope that little info-dump was useful to someone out there.

There's a demo version of CMoar cinema if you want to try it out. It is probably the best "virtual movie theater" on Cardboard, but your phone will run like a toaster because of all the extra processing required. Honestly, I'd stick with AAA VR Cinema if you just want to watch 180/360 downloaded videos.

Fibrum did spacial audio from the beginning.

VR Swing (formerly Crazy Swing VR) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrum.crazyswingvr&hl

The year of Cardboard is upon us. Now, if someone could make full, HD games with the Qualcomm 820 phones.

I think it requires iOS. On iOS, Explorer is the compass icon second from the left (after Tutorial). On Android it looks like Google replaced Explorer with the Tour Guide demo that takes you around Versailles like you mentioned. (Google kept the former Explorer compass icon for Tour Guide.)

On iOS in the Explorer demo the first photosphere is a dinosaur skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History. Tapping the button brings you to a Frontiers of Flight museum exhibit, followed by an Endeavour space shuttle exhibit, Gueva del Indio in Puerto Rico, Gunnuhver Hot Springs in Iceland, and the Mars Spirit Rover.

• Apple App Store
• Google Play store

Holy fuck i did. That rules. Everyone share stuff in here right now. Heres my living room as promised. No sound here though because well, nothing to hear http://www.filedropper.com/img20151203233542vr

I'm not sure if promotions are the best way go collect a larger number of Cardboards. Today I picked up another package with 16 Cardboard clones for which I payed EUR 21 (~ USD 23) with shipping. By now you can get them even cheaper for USD 1.39 each. Buying 20 clones takes as much time as buying one, while participating in 20 give-aways will consume a lot of time. Cardboard clones have become so cheap that is hard to justify investing a lot of time for hunting down free ones.

iOS is pretty limiting when it comes to Cardboard.

Controllers generally don't work, specifically there's nothing that would emulate the screen tap you'd need for YouTube, Street View, etc. The items that work for that on Android are mice, which Android supports natively and iOS does not. If you have an iPhone app that supports a controller, check with that app developer to see which controllers are tested and known to work.

The viewers I know of with buttons that work out of the box on iPhones are the ViewMaster (small lenses, not really recommended), I am Cardbord DSCVR (good for travel, no head straps), and the official design Cardboard v2.

I've seen one instance of a guy who got a BoboVR Z4's button to work with an iPhone by taping an additional area of foil to it.

The BoboVR Z4 is the more or less default recommendation — large lenses, wide FOV, built-in button, head straps, adjustable IPD, adjustable focus. There are versions with and without headphones, without being cheaper. It's somewhat heavy (most plastic viewers are) and the comfort isn't amazing (depends on face shape).

VR Viewers seem to always have a lot of rebrands, I've seen the BoboVR Z4 sold as the Virtoba X5, AFUNTA, and Uniify UV003. Even the non-shill Amazon reviews are generally worthless as most reviewers haven't tried more than one viewer.

Edited to add: link to a Virtoba Z4-clone for $20. If you're willing to mess around trying to get the button to work, that's probably your best option.

Available on Cardboard via the Spotlight Stories app on Android and iOS.

Worth checking out the other bits in there, ‘Rain or Shine’ and ‘On Ice’ we’re both pretty good IMO. They use cube maps and some billboarding to provide very high quality, plus some minimal interaction via look cues (in Rain or Shine, the couple with a beer will have a new pint each time you look, up to three).

VRTV does this and it's a pretty good app too

Netflix doesn't work though because of their over-protective DRM. That also means you can't play Netflix shows on any other third-party player so don't bother looking. You'll have to download your content elsewhere and play the mp4 files.

I'd add Atmosphaeres, the relaxation videos there are just much, much higher quality than anything else I've seen.

I am a bit confused. You say the game is free, but it's paid on Play.

You say

>FREE DOWNLOAD ON MY PATREON pledge is an option ^^' >Considering the huge copyright of CAPCOM sell is prohibited! >https://www.patreon.com/dragon972

So if I understand this correctly, I could somehow download it for free if I joined Patreon (I am unfamiliar with it), but... why do you think that somehow helps keeping you clear of CAPCOM copyrights? If you are infringing on copyright, the game being free won't change that, and if the game is paid on Play, that's what would be considered in a lawsuit.

If you own HL1 you can skip Trinus and just play it on your phone.

Install Xash3D VR and follow the instructions here to put the files on your phone.

DVR and QVR are ports of the Doom and Quake engines to Cardboard for just over a dollar each. They automatically download the shareware versions of Doom/Quake, or if you own/steal the games you can play the whole thing. They're two of my favorite experiences for Cardboard.

Using video and 360, the image quality in the z5p is the best i have tested ever in VR. That includes, the Z3, the Oculus DK2 and the S6 Edge.

Really, I think that this is one of its strong. Because the video do not require a high processor power.

Is true that some apps (like youTube), are not ready for 4K, overall because the internet speed. I recomend you download all videos and then use AAA VR Cinema

This. The problem is that the whole 360° video is squeezed into the regular square video format (the equirectangular mapping, i.e. a sphere is projected into a rectangle), and you are only [looking at about 1/15th of the video at any time](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/3bczgy/360_4k_video_flying_a_drone_around_to_properly/cslvals). The remaining 93.3% are outside your field of view, which is obviously wasteful. If you'd like to get an impression how full resolution 360° video would look, you can [try hires dome videos. The European Space Organisation hosts a couple of spectacular space videos](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/3bj2tt/one_of_the_best_planetarium_ive_ever_been_to/) from their observatories with up to 8192 * 8192 resolution. They also use a lower compression rate than YouTube, so you will not see the typical compression artifact.

The files are free, but the file sizes are huge, e.g. 298GB for the 32min long planetarium show "From Earth to the Universe". Your regular video players will not be able to handle it, you need something like the (very good) VR Player Pro, not sure if there are any free players available that can handle 360° video intended for dome projection.

And that's basically the dilemma. With the current technology, you get either giant file sizes that todays phones and internet connections don't handle well, or you get shitty resolutions. The best solution would be to only stream the part you are looking at (the asymmetrical mapping), but this comes with a number of problems too, so don't expect it anytime soon.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.standard3d.holodeck.v1

Just need to make sure you have *_pano in the file name for the app to recognize it.

Edit: Who down votes this? This answered OPs question exactly. It can view stereo cube maps stored on your phone, without the need for any manipulation other than adding "_pano" to the file name.... Good community, guys. Great job.

Based on resolution and quality, I wouldn't show a client anything on a phone screen if possible, and Cardboard, being stereoscopic, halves your resolution.

That said, VR Photo Viewer for Cardboard looks like it would display a 2D image for you, but I haven't heard of anything with scrolling or zooming. Since the touchscreen is inaccessible, how would that even work? Awkward at best.

No reason to downvote this, it's true. There is currently no way to run Gear VR software on any phone besides the Note 4 and Galaxy S6(edge). And even on these it only works with Gear VR, which provides external, USB connected sensors for which the Oculus SDK checks when launching an app. The Open Gear project tries to create an alternative by building a compatible sensor set and later finding a way to run the software on other phones than the Note 4/S6, but so far they haven't come very far, and it may never work. "No" may be a somewhat short answer, but it is still the correct answer. Only apps ported by the developers from Gear VR to Cardboard SDK like Titans of Space will work on other phones.

I'm pretty sure that was meant to be [Cardboard VNC](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/303e7p/i_made_a_cardboard_vnc_app_to_learn_android/), as VNC is a method to share a frame buffer over a network, while VLC is a movie player with no relation to Cardboard. Trinus VR also has the (recently added and still rough) option to show the Windows desktop in Cardboard. For both cases don't expect too much, the resolution is too low to use it for real desktop applications, and [this will take some time and hardware generations to change](/r/virtualreality/comments/39p90o/am_i_alone_in_wanting_vr_just_to_have_more_work/).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dejobaangames.caaaaardboard

This is my favourite. It's not free, but it's a great game. It's the one most of the people I show end up loving, and the most fun to watch people using.

> We are working with a number of smartphone manufacturers to create a specification for Daydream-ready phones.

The way this is worded suggests they may not have finalized the smartphone requirements for "Daydream ready" which might explain why they have been so vague about it.

Also, the Yi Technologies mentioned in the JUMP section is part of Xiaomi I think. They're the ones who released this action camera as a much cheaper 1080p GoPro alternative. Hopefully the new camera they use for their JUMP setup becomes affordable as well, although it's currently $250 on GearBest.

http://www.gearbest.com/home-gadgets/pp_169233.html

Create the straps, sell the straps. Optional attachment, another revenue stream. I know you'll see good sales at $30, but as for me personally, I'd not purchase anything over $15 when this option with decent quality exists for $10.28.

This requires a little bit of context. The developers of the Firefox (Mozilla) and Chrome browsers have cooperated for some time to create the WebVR specification, which allows access to head tracking data etc. from VR devices like the Oculus Rift from within a browser. By using this and other web technologies like WebGL (hardware accelerated OpenGL accessible from a browser), it is possible to create "web sites/apps" that are VR environments. This is a very interesting option, even though currently performance is much lower than native VR apps.

I've posted a longer [introduction to WebVR](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/3300ho/webvr_support_in_nightly_firefox_for_android/) in April, when WebVR support was introduced into the nightly versions of Firefox for Android. You'll still need to manually install the APK for the nightly Firefox to try at least some of the projects listed on the mozvr.com site with Cardboard. Most won't run, as compatibility between the different implementations is still a big problem. Check /r/webvr for more on what is happening with web based VR.

Uhm, ~~haven't gotten around to trying it yet~~ it does seem to be gone, but in the screenshot on the Play Store page for the Cardboard app, the Earth icon is still shown, and it's also listed as an included demo in the description...

It's still present in version 1.8, and I guess one place that should be legitimate to get it from is its ApkMirror page.

Equi-Angular Cubemap.

VRTV supports it for sure, not sure about what other players work. There’s a free version with ads as well.

>I mean I suppose I could drop the phone in while running those apps and it'd work

No, that wouldn't work. In order to see things in VR you need the picture to be split into separate views for each eye.

I think right now the only way to watch Netflix or HBO Go would be to connect to a computer using something like VRidge or Trinus VR to generate the split VR image. This can work well but it requires either a USB connection or a very good Wifi connection between phone and PC.

The Fulldive VR app is apparently planning to add Netflix support so that could be a good option in the future.

Playing Half-Life 1 in VR has been my go-to since it was released. Started to play a little less frequently because I'm going to be sad when it's over. I've had good results using the keyboard setup on my cheap Bluetooth controller. The Android app is free, but you need a copy of the files from HL1 (not the newer HL1:Source version). If you don't have a copy, waiting for a Steam sale might be a bit of a bummer, but it tends to drop the price from $10 to $2.50.

Edited to add: Link to Xash3D VR on the play store

Honestly beyond YouTube and Streetview, almost every app I've tried has been pretty disappointing. Try Caaaaardboard! it's the only game I played more than once.

Cardboard is made for short experiences by design. You cannot hold your hand to your face for long periods of time.

Have you tried GalaxyVR? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.silicondroid.galaxyvr&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dgoogle+play+galaxy+vr&pcampaignid=APPU_1_wYyAV67SHcmVgAbZ_7K4Dw

The Quake II for VR from Durovis's website is also a nice one.

Try also Wrong Level VR and Wrong Journey VR.

You simply cannot run eve HL2 graphics in VR even on the fastest current phone, let alone on a Galaxy S4, which according to Google is the most prevalent phone still on the market.

BTW, have you got an idea how much it costs to get a polished game out?

Click the video, it goes to youtube, which has all details.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.VisualCombat.VRPartyGame2&hl=en

Spoiler alert: it costs $2 and has in app purchases

OK, so I came across this app that looks like it does exactly what I was looking for: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ekm.youtubevr3dvideos

It did require a $0.99 purchase to unlock search functionality, but I'm fine with that. I'll report back if it sucks or ends up not being what I was hoping.

EDIT: So this seems to work fine but the way it works is that it opens two instances of the YouTube video and attempts to sync them up. Sometimes each side can get a few frames out of sync (which, to its credit, it resolves pretty quickly), but it also doubles the audio, so there's a very noticeable echo.

I think what I'm gonna do is use a third-party app to download longer YouTube videos that I wanna watch, and then use this to watch them. An inelegant solution for now. Maybe I'll end up writing my own app :P

Have you tried VRTV? It has a configurable time-skip, and works with gaze-based, magnet, or game pad. There's a free demo that disables switching movies within the viewer and has ads.

Just made one, works alright even without the silicone. Don't forget to grab the RevolVR Control app as well.

Also incase you don't have blue bottle caps red works fine too.

My "lightsaber"

I know I probably shouldn't post my own stuff, but unless you're keen on finding that exact museum-based app that the Google guys used, one of my experiments is essentially Orbulus minus effects and has the quick sphere-to-sphere transitions using a button: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cmdr2.places . A few people I know use it to demo VR to others. YMMV.

I walked around NYC today taking some photos with the new Cardboard Camera app! Unzip and download them to your phone and they should appear in the Cardboard Camera app automatically.

Share any VR Photos you have taken with Cardboard Camera!

Download link for the VR Photos: http://www.filedropper.com/cardboardcameravrphotos

Locations: Columbus Circle, Time Warner Center, Times Square, New York Public Library, Grand Central

As the gyroscope provides the primary method of input for Cardboard, there isn't much. This post has a few things to do with a phone without gyro and a Cardboard. The only game mentioned is 4 Rooms, which allows you to turn with a controller. You can also look into Trinus VR as mentioned in that thread.

Here are a few I have taken. One is is The Univiersity of Washington in their Hogwarts Style Library. The others are from Heritage Square Museum, which is a Victorian museum I volunteer at in LA. I took pictures in front of all of our major buildings.

I tested downloading one to my phone and it did work in Cardboard, let me know if you have any issues with it.

Edit: Fixed link to Heritage Square Website. Edit 2 - Electric Boogaloo!: Switched link from Imgur album to Google Drive share of the photos. Anyone wanted to try in cardboard can download and then transfer to your phone.

Probably mobilevrnews, that way you can write about Samsung Gear Vr, Google Cardboard and Apples device they may come out sometime in the future. http://mashable.com/2014/11/25/apple-virtual-reality-job/

The headset you linked has a low FOV, which will result in a subpar experience. This headset is a similar price and is liked by many users on this subreddit. If you want to buy on Amazon only it should be available there too but for a higher price.

Gearbest has free shipping to Australia and has the BOBOVR Z4 without headphones for $27AUD and with headhones for $39AUD.

Lol... That's just a rebranded VR BOX 2. You really got scammed bro. It's just $25 or even less everywhere else (Gearbest for example). VR is about immersion and the HooToo VR has an awful FOV which totally kills immersion. I find it funny all these people who rate useless VR headsets with 4 or 5 starts without knowing shit about FOV.

for playing actual VR games, Vridge is the one to go with

for just streaming the PC video output to cardboard, I use TrinusVR

works flawlessly for me on Android, not sure about any limitations for iOS

Aliexpress often hosts knockoffs of well-known brands like Xiaomi, although I would expect most of their cheap VR headsets to be real since they could not be produced for much less than the real ones are currently sold for. If you're looking for a cheap Chinese retailer with less risk of a knockoff, Gearbest is one option. Their shipping times can be even slower then other shipping from China, but they sell everything themselves so it's almost always legit.

A word of warning though, any of these cheap plastic headsets will have a FOV that is lower than a regular cardboard. I was very disappointed with my ColorCross.

currently setting the price point around $30. Would say the best size phones with the optimal view are phones under 5'' and i think the note 4 is bigger than that.

Here is something your friend can consider. http://www.gearbest.com/home-gadgets/pp_169233.html from Farren246

I believe our design and quality will be better though.

What do you want to use it for?

• VR without modification: just don't, you've probably read enough about the miserable 55° FoV. Stick with Cardboard with ~ 80° or the expensive ones listed in the [basic questions and answers](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/39t5tl/7000_subscribers_extra_basic_cardboard_questions/) with FoV > 90°, at least with a large phone.
• Watching movies: my current favorite would be the Ritech II, usable with glasses, available on GearBest for USD USD 10.56.
• VR with [altering the lenses and changing the lens-screen distance](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/3bfdow/colorcross_lense_upgrade_any_drop_in_replacements/cslqp7k): the lens mounts in the Xiaozhai work pretty well for this with small phones, I haven't seen the newer version that also supports larger phones. I started hacking the Ritech II with some very cheap Fresnel lenses, which works acceptable and is probably the simplest modification, I intend to post some instructions about this.

Regarding the VR BOX: I'm still waiting for mine, so I cannot comment on it, but the first [believable review](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/3b05zk/review_vr_box_virtual_reality_glasses/) wasn't exactly encouraging.

I can't, simply because I followed my own advice: after finding out how much hassle it would be, I decided to not venture down the Tasker path, ignore the bluetooth shutter remote and instead use the USD 6.58 remote/gamepad/mouse controller that I had ordered at the same time as the shutter instead. The controller works out of the box on Android, is way more useful for VR as it worked with (almost) all VR apps that have gamepad support, and with a simple flip of a switch it can be used as a mouse to "tap" the screen, which Cardboard apps treat just like pulling the magnet. For more see my comments in the thread I linked to above.

The SVR Glass was the viewer that I was actually searching for when I found the VR BOX. I had found a lot of very good reviews for it (in Chinese), so it is definitely the safer bet. Unfortunately the SVR Glass didn't show up on the usual sites for months. On suggestion Gearbest added it to their line of products for USD 58.74, which is a lot more than you'd pay within China on e.g. taobao, but so far they are the only ones selling it internationally.

One remaining problem is that there are two versions, one including a bluetooth remote on the headset itself, the other not. The reviews I found were for the first (because it shipped first), Gearbest sells the second. I assume that the FoV is be the same in both, and because all the other bluetooth remotes that came with Chinese 3D viewers where not compatible to gamepads anyway and required special software, it probably isn't a loss.

The SVR Glass allows only adjusting lens-screen distance while the VR BOX also features adjustable IPD, but this is less of a problem now due to configurable IPD in Cardboard SDK and the larger lenses used. The "sliders" used for adjustment in VR BOX will be harder to adjust precisely than the screw based solution in the SVR Glass. Phones are mounted similar to the way the Homido does it in SVR Glass and in a tray similar to the VR ONE in VR BOX. A tray can be better if it fits your phone exactly, because it allows putting it into the right position very fast, but it makes it very hard to move the phone once it is placed in the viewer, which is easy to do with a clamping mount.

So assuming they both feature a similar FoV, they are both valid options with different strengths. Based on my experience with Aliexpress I hope that I will receive my VR BOX in June, but there is no guarantee and it could arrive in July, so at least waiting for my review will require some patience.

Movies is 90% of what I want it for anyway. Streaming PC to phone technology just isn't up to snuff yet and VR games are still necessarily lightweight, but playing a video, even just a 2D movie played with VLC, is pretty cool to have the isolation of a headset. Can't wait until the next night when I can't sleep and want to catch a show without waking up the wife!

At $11.28 USD I can't go wrong... Can always get something beefier when the technology catches up.

The ColorCross uses lenses with low magnification, which makes it bad for VR, but good for watching (3D) video. It is rather uncomfortable and requires extra padding to be usable. The Xiaozhai that uses the exact same lenses/lens holders and has the same adjustable IPD and lens-screen distance options is a better choice. It is also cheaper, you'll find it under different names and on Amazon too, but both have a miserable FoV of 55° or less, depending on the screen size.

The Homido has much better lenses, up to 100° FoV, costs about five times as much and doesn't really work with prescription glasses, as there isn't enough space inside it. They provide three sets of lenses for normal vision, near and far sighted instead plus the option to change lens-screen distance. Whether this is sufficient of not depends on your eyes.

The 2D option for the Cmoar HMD you probably meant before auto correct struck is interesting, as anything with lenses usable for VR has to actually split the image into two parts, effectively reducing the resolution by 75%. To watch a video in 2D one would need a much lower magnification and much wider lenses, so the easiest way is probably to place one large ~ 2x Fresnel lens in front of the eyes.

Currently there is no "one size fits all" solution. The Cmoar approach with swapping the whole lens section is the best for using both VR and 2D movies. The VR experience in the Homido and Cmoar is probably similar, but the Cmoar won't ship for several months, costs a lot more and for me the missing IPD adjustment is a deal breaker, as I cannot use many VR apps without first adjusting the lenses.

Depends on your budget and what you want to do with it. I'd always start with a Cardboard clone, as they are so cheap you can't really do anything wrong. Get it even if you buy e.g. the currently extremely cheap Ritech for USD 9.90 with "3DBOX" coupon, because the immersion is a lot better with the Cardboard lenses and you don't get the right impression of VR with a low FoV.

Afterwards you can still decide whether you want to invest more money. For a lot of people it turns out to be just a gimmick, for some the gyro drift is so bad that they simply cannot use it, while others start using it a lot to play games streamed from a PC. Once you've determined that you actually like it and want a more comfortable version, you can either modify your Cardboard yourself with padding, head straps, new lenses and other things, buy one of the more advanced versions, buy a more expensive plastic version with proper lenses or get a cheap one and alter the lenses. New HMDs now seem to be released almost on a weekly basis, so waiting a little bit will most likely improve your options.

For the phone:

• Go for 1920 * 1080, as 1280 * 720 is rather blocky and the cheaper 2560 * 1440 phones use underpowered GPUs and CPUs.
• Make sure it has a working gyro, which is not the same as an "orientation sensor". Also make sure that the gyro doesn't have a lot of a lot of drift, otherwise VR will be hardly usable. This means you cannot buy based on specs or brand only, you need to see a review of the phone used for VR.

I ordered a pair of Xiaozhai Magic 3D Glasses from them four days ago, payed via PayPal, my first order there. It is still in "processing", they promised shipping within 3-5 business days, but only two (Chinese) business days has passed so far. I got a request to clarify my address four hours after I ordered and a fast response from customer services in almost correct English.

Looks very similar to Tinydeal with a slightly better organized web site and more plastic Cardboard versions, but less cheap cardboard Cardboard clones. Last year I ordered items from a couple of dozens Chinese vendors, the only problem being that it usually took 3-7 weeks for the stuff to arrive, even though the sellers shipped very fast.

Edit: Package shipped within the promised time frame, the confirmation mail contained a picture of the actual package with the label showing my address on it, a (useless) tracking number and an estimate of 10-25 business days delivery time.

That's interesting. I actually picked another plastic Cardboard version, partly because I wasn't sure the IPD could be adjusted with the Ritech, which seems to be the most affordable of the plastic clones (USD 12.58 incl. shipping here).

A lot of these have come to market in the last few weeks, unfortunately it is very hard to find any reviews for them. Can you confirm that the FoV is larger than with Cardboard?

update: like what this app does but something I can run through what's already on screen so I can view it in snapchat

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.fulldive.cameralauncher&hl=en&showAllReviews=true

Ok, so here's a shameless plug from someone who owns a Rift, two GearVR and more Cardboard headsets than I care to admit (not to my wife at least... "why do you need all those things?!") I still use my BoboZ4 on a game I made specifically for Cardboard users: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.baroquedub.gvrFpsGoogleVr

It's free, it's for fun and it's pushing the limits of what mobileVR can do. 15,000 downloads, currently just over 4,000 active users and I'm delighted at the wonderful reviews I've had.

I made it to give back some love to those low-end VR users who are just getting interested in VR or who can't afford a shiny new HMD. Those of us who are sold on the medium (and I'd say developers are more guilty than most) too quickly forget that Cardboard is the stepping stone into Virtual Reality for many, many people.

Have a great first experience on a crappy headset and you're sold, you take the red pill and never look back. But it's got to be good. Have a poor nausea inducing experience and you'll just think VR is a gimmick.

So while most devs aim for higher end platforms, and even Google is happy to discard Cardboard in favour of Daydream, spare a thought for those new to VR, who have yet to take the plunge. Cardboard is still the easiest way to have that first experience.

I don't think there aren't good apps, it's just that there's not a good list of the best cardboard apps, and still that would be subjective. That the app store is full of bad apps doesn't help. I'll tell you about 2 I used a lot until they replaced my malfunctioning phone with one that doesn't have gyroscope - thanks for that, PhoneHouse

I would recommend you to watch videos from the Within app. It has more resolution than YouTube videos, there's spatial audio and only extremely curated content. Everything is 3D 360 with spatial audio.

Another app like this one is Jaunt VR, really good content, but AFAIK not everything is 3D nor has spatial audio.

Within: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shakingearthdigital.vrsecardboard

Jaunt VR: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jauntvr.android.player.cardboard

I remember some good space games well optimized, if you have a gamepad I would start by trying Galaxy VR (needs a bit of tweaking - no more than 2 minutes - to make it work perfectly, then it's really enjoyable), and then searching for other ones.

There was a full steampunk story out there, but I can't remember its name..

I hope that helps you :)

VRTV says it has subtitle support. I haven’t used that feature, but it’s my preferred video app due to having a nice interface and network share support. There’s also a free version.

A big thank you to all our beta testers for Merry Snowballs on Google Cardboard and Android!

All of us at Hatrabbit Entertainment wishes you a Merry weekend! (and plenty of snowballs in the face)

Google Play Store Link

Hey everyone!

I've just released my first ever mobile game as an independent game developer and I thought you all might be interested in it. It's a Virtual Reality game called Pizza vs. Veggies.

At its core, Pizza vs. Veggies is a VR pattern-recognition game. Both you and your AI opponent have a 3x2 grid of 6 food launchers, and you must match the moves of your opponent in order to score points. If your opponent's food hits your launcher, or if your food hits your opponent's launcher, then you will lose health. Matching the pattern and negating the opponent's food is the only way to keep scoring points!

You can play with any smartphone VR headset (Google Cardboard, Daydream, Samsung Gear VR, etc.)

The game is out now on Android and iOS! iOS App Store | Google Play Store

All feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Unfortunately, there isn’t. There is at least one movie viewing app that can use just an accelerometer for head tracking, but the tracking with that method tends to be very poor. There may also be some apps using third-party VR SDKs like Vibrum and Dive that work without gyros. But the GoogleVR SDK which most apps use requires a built-in gyro.

GSMArena says yep. Like the other commenter says, try to download the official Cardboard demo app. Its a good first thing to try anyway, and it won’t be available if your phone specs aren’t supported.

Isn't that right? It's so obvious, but somehow it gets neglected. Anyway, we've it in our app, NOMone VR Browser. Seriously, it's my preferred way of using the app. Check it out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nomone.vrbrowser

Disclaimer: it blocks porn websites.

Have you scanned the QR code in the profile generator? You should get a VR environment on your phone where changes are seen in real time. This can help some too.

The settings should be done in order:

Focal length: Adjust your lenses until the individual pixels are visible.

Screen to lens distance: Adjust down until you're seeing the red background enter your field of view. Go back a step or two until it's gone.

Inter-lens distance: You should measure your IPD by standing in front of a mirror with a ruler. Close one eye and look directly ahead with the other. Take the reading and then repeat the process with the other eye. In the profile generator, enter that value and adjust it if need be until the red dot becomes one dot. The lenses themselves should be set so your eye is centered as much as possible when looking through one eye.

Tray to lens-center distance: Adjust it up or down until the red dot is in the middle of your view.

Distortion coefficients: Adjust until the lines become straight.

"Convert" them? Why would you have to convert them? Just use a VR video player, like VRTV or whatever your favorite one is, and play normal video.

So maybe just make your own code by visually checking the parameters that seem right for you - which is how and why there are dozens of codes floating around in the first place. Get Sites in VR which comes with a nice interactive parameter editor.

If you download a file explorer, like FX File Explorer, and go to directory:

/data/app

you can find all of the user-installed apps on your Android device. If you find the folder for the app, go into the folder and you will find a "base.apk." This is the app and you can long-press on it to share it to Google Drive, email, or what have you. I can further assist if my instructions need more clarification. Just comment below.

really ? I'm using this right now on my N5 and it works fine, its not perfect but It works, I don't use netflix so can't say if that works but dolphin browser works and I'm using a BT mouse with it.

VRTV supports images as well as videos. The full version has a file browser in VR, and buttons to go to the next/previous image or video in the same directory.

Disclaimer: I'm the developer of the app, so I hope you don't mind me promoting it.

I was about to come and post the same thing!

Also, I'm a fan of InMind VR: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nivalvr.inmind&hl=en

The successor, InCell VR, made me a little too nauseated.

Deep Space Battle VR is pretty cool too: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamearx.spacerumble&hl=en

These all have some variant of "look to fire/do action" mechanism.

TrinusVR (/r/trinusvr) will let you play normal FPS games with head motion mapped to the mouse. There's a free, time-limited demo, so definitely check it out. It's not a virtual cinema though. Not aware of anything like that. VR VNC is closer, but the latency is basically not good enough for much due to the VNC protocol.

All the VR theater apps I've seen offer virtual screen size adjustments, but if you want ridiculously large, the free VR Theater for Cardboard is for you. Scroll to near the bottom of the options and you can change the screen distance slider to pretty absurd values. 20% should cover your entire field of view with a 16:9 movie, if that's what you want.

The only thing I've found to be not utterly disappointing, and in fact quite impressive is the JAUNT VR app. They have incredible videos in higher quality than YouTube can stream reliably, and they're actually filmed properly for VR

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jauntvr.android.player.cardboard&hl=en

I'd recommend my game, Gravity Pull. It's a puzzle game along the lines of Portal, but uses walking-in-place to move around. Some people really enjoy the walking, some people do not.

It works best with a Cardboard that has the capacitive touch button, NOT the magnet. The magnet is technically supported (and I have played through the entire game with it) but it really doesn't work well. I also added support for a bluetooth controller button for interaction in the options, but just keep in mind that it doesn't work for movement.

To send a touch signal, you need something that emulates a mouse, not a gamepad (technically, it still won't be sending a touchscreen tap, just a mouse click, which are different, but that'll work with most or even virtually all apps).

There's an app for that®, for example I found this one (needs root); I haven't tested if it does the job, but in any case, you could always just connect a USB mouse to your phone using a very cheap USB-OTG cable or adaptor.

PS: Why can't you buy a Bluetooth controller? The price for a basic one is very, very marginal, it's overall the best solution, and I figure if you could shell out the money for a headset, then you can certainly shell it out for a controller.

Native SBS for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frma.sbs&hl=en

No distortion correction yet, and it only supports a handful of ROM's on a handful of phones, but it does work (on my 1+1 running CM13)

I don't know why multiple people keep talking about "Galaxy VR". It's confusing. Galaxy VR is a (pretty cool) VR game for Android. What you seem to be referring to is Samsung's Gear VR.