32 votes

Relativty — an open-source VR headset

10 comments

  1. creesch
    Link
    I have seen some other people build their own headsets as well here and there. I can't really find examples of people having build this one together with their experience, though. The website sure...

    I have seen some other people build their own headsets as well here and there. I can't really find examples of people having build this one together with their experience, though. The website sure does look slick, but is very sparse in photos and the overall build process.

    The github seems to paint a picture of a project that is mostly dormant. Although I do see some more recent commits on the software side, which is means it isn't a completely dead project.

    By their own admission in the readme their headset has some limitations. They link to HadesVR for a more fully featured DIY project.

    Overall, I think it is really cool that people are creating these projects.

    13 votes
  2. [3]
    saturnV
    Link
    I'm surprised you can just buy lenses off of aliexpress that are good enough, my understanding was that making good enough optics was a massive problem for the big VR companies, surely you're...

    I'm surprised you can just buy lenses off of aliexpress that are good enough, my understanding was that making good enough optics was a massive problem for the big VR companies, surely you're going to have all sorts of problems going with off-the-shelf ones?

    4 votes
    1. kacey
      Link Parent
      I would imagine it’s a quality-price trade off? I bought a dozen sets of lenses for knockoff google cardboard headsets a decade ago for about $20. By comparison, the optics in the Vision Pro...

      I would imagine it’s a quality-price trade off? I bought a dozen sets of lenses for knockoff google cardboard headsets a decade ago for about $20. By comparison, the optics in the Vision Pro (which has much higher FOV, magnification, and visual quality retirements) are probably many hundreds of dollars. And also probably glass, not plastic…

      4 votes
    2. kingofsnake
      Link Parent
      It's weird because when I put on my OG Vive, the 'God Rays' from the frenel lenses were atrocious, yet when I 3d printed inserts that could hold Samsung GearVR pancake lenses (a fraction of the...

      It's weird because when I put on my OG Vive, the 'God Rays' from the frenel lenses were atrocious, yet when I 3d printed inserts that could hold Samsung GearVR pancake lenses (a fraction of the price) the whole field of view was visible.

      It's bizarre - everyone was doing the fresnel thing for a while and it never looked good.

      2 votes
  3. [6]
    X08
    Link
    Being completely oblivious to the hardware requirements to run these things, is it as easy as just imagining two screens running at those resolutions? Would a Steamdeck be able to churn out a...

    Being completely oblivious to the hardware requirements to run these things, is it as easy as just imagining two screens running at those resolutions? Would a Steamdeck be able to churn out a decent enough experience for example?

    3 votes
    1. Bwerf
      Link Parent
      Completely depends on what you're drawing. It's much more expensive than the same scene on a regular screen of the same resolution. You need to render at a higher resolution than your target...

      Completely depends on what you're drawing. It's much more expensive than the same scene on a regular screen of the same resolution. You need to render at a higher resolution than your target because of reprojection, you also have a wider fov which means more things to draw and then there's doing it twice because your rendering from two slightly locations and you need to do it consistently at at the very least 90 fps.

      That said, it's not crazy, but doing a vr version and a regular version of the same game and the vr version will need to have less detail to cover for the things above. But if you put doom on there it would render at an adequate speed and quality from your smart watch. And the steam deck would be more than adequate for a lot of content.

      8 votes
    2. [4]
      creesch
      Link Parent
      Maybe, I wouldn't expect wonders from a Steamdeck given the limited hardware. I also don't know how wel SteamVR is supported on Linux. Hardware wise, I feel like it should be capable of running VR...

      Would a Steamdeck be able to churn out a decent enough experience for example?

      Maybe, I wouldn't expect wonders from a Steamdeck given the limited hardware. I also don't know how wel SteamVR is supported on Linux.

      Hardware wise, I feel like it should be capable of running VR games. As the quest models effectively don't require a PC and are able to run all sorts of games. On, what effectively is mobile phone hardware.

      Looking at the requirments for the Valve Index also seems to hint that, in theory, the Steamdeck should be able to power it.

      So, yeah it might be able to run some simpler titles if you can get the hardware to work with SteamOS.

      4 votes
      1. [3]
        kingofsnake
        Link Parent
        The big speculation around Valve's new headset (well, the one that's waiting in the wings should VR ever choose to become something) is that a Steam Deck would power it in much the same way that...

        The big speculation around Valve's new headset (well, the one that's waiting in the wings should VR ever choose to become something) is that a Steam Deck would power it in much the same way that Meta's hardware powers the quest.

        That all said, the market is all but dried up right now and I don't blame Valve for not announcing the 'Deckard' when there's basically no demand.

        4 votes