Oculus Thrift

[Avago-Earo]

A mate kindly gave me a Nexus 7 (2013), so I built a hmd using a phone sized plastic google cardboard thing and extended the focal point with some cardboard etc and lashed it on to a hard hat (construction safety helmet) with cable ties (zip ties in american) and it fits well and doesn't weigh down on the nose so.. good so far. You get the picture.

Well, watching side by side is really clear, total clarity. I've worked out the correct aspect ratio for Elite Sied bt side 3D (1920 x 2160, there is another one written down that I can't find) so circles are circles and not eggs. Thing is the only software I can get to work on my PC is 'Kainy'. This streams your PC through your router as a wireless connection. I wasn't surprised that I had a 'blocky' picture as although I'm not particularly computer literate I guessed connecting to a device this way would be limited.

My question is this. How do I 'Root' my Nexus 7 to allow reverse tethering? So far I understand that connecting directly via USB can eliminate the extras that come with streaming although I will probably be corrected on this. And by the way I won't feel patronised if someone breaks it down into simple bite sized pieces -we have to start somewhere. I know what I know and I don't know much about this.

Thanks in advance.

[Avago-Earo]

Just bumping this up. Still don't know what I'm doing.

[stummies]

My question is this. How do I 'Root' my Nexus 7 to allow reverse tethering?

Can you provide more detail on what you're looking to do? I don't quite understand what you're looking to do with "reverse tethering". I checked out what you're trying to do and it seems pretty neat to try, not sure if this is part of the process to set this up or something you're trying to work around.

[Avago-Earo]

OK sorry stummies. There's a few people who've managed to make a home made oculus rift. As far as I know reverse tethering means attaching a mobile device to a PC the other way round. Normally tethering would mean that your mobile/tablet could act as a remote controller for your PC/Mac. Reverse tethering means that whatever happens to your PC/Mac gets repeated onto your device. That's how I see it. That's my problem. I don't know. I've got software that puts the PC screen onto the Nexus but it's blocky because it's streamed through a server. There is a way to do it via a USB (tethering) but I don't understand how to do it properly.

Thanks for responding though.

[Avago-Earo]

OK, I've got a bit further with this 'project'. I recently installed Win 8.1 as my 7 copy was cracked and I was fed up with update issues so I swallowed and paid up "(

I managed to get Trinus Gyre working with a USB connection and using the Nexus' gyroscope as a mouse control for Head Look.

Wow! It works. It's not reverse tethered ASFAIK as I think the tablet (Nexus 7 2013 model) needs to be rooted to the PC to enable that feature, something that I know nothing about (any advice and layman explanations appreciated).

The head look with various tweaks works well. I've nearly got it 1 to 1 with my movement. With quality adjustments on the Trinus server I get good detail even with Nvidia resolution set at 960 X 1080 to compensate for squashing and getting circles to appear symmetrical.

I'm getting blocky pixels ( whatever that's called) in dark patches when there's movement but it is a mobile tablet an not a DK2 after all (suggestions?).

Just did the tutorials last night as I didn't want to mess up online until I worked out how to improve HUD colours for clearer text, but enjoyed flying round Space Ports and Outposts, manoeuvring through the infrastructures and taking in the scale.

I only have an EVGA 740 GT and I'm wondering if a better GPU would improve the blockiness in dark parts of the screen. Does anyone know if the GPU affects the streaming to tablet? I guess so as the Nvidia Shield requires a higher card than mine to work but I'm guessing.

Anyway, I hope my enthusiasm hasn't been too long winded and any remarks or suggestions regarding improvements would be appreciated.

Thank you for reading and fly safe Commanders.

PS so far I've been using Fake 3D on Trinus and not in game Side by Side but I'll try that later.

[Avago-Earo]

Well, here's an update. I have it working. This is the stage I'm at now.

I got the Durovis Dive 7. https://www.durovis.com/product.html?id=5

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It's pricey but my mate gave me the tablet so I thought I'd treat myself to something sturdy that will fit well and not pull down on my face. I had to mess about with the lenses for the correct IPD (distance your eyes are from each other) and have ordered some reading glasses with a magnetic nose piece that pulls apart that will fit in as I am still a bit too long sighted for prolonged use. I can bend the arms out and poke them through the holes in the sides from the inner side and snap them together at the nose

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So I've been using Trinus Gyre (http://trinusvr.com/) with the Nexus 7 (2013) USB Tethered and in Aeroplane Mode. Games have to be played in 'Windowed' mode for this to work. Bear in mind I have a low end GPU (EVGA GT740 SC (2GB)) and all my results would be improved significantly with a better card.

There is a setting on the Trinus Gyre (TG from now) called 'Fake 3D' and it simply splits the screen with duplicates of the desktop picture so you have the impression of a single image streamed to the HMD (Head Mounted Display), when looking through both lenses. To get Head Tracking TG has a settting that uses the tablet's accelerometer and gyroscopes and converts it to mouse control so in ED you can set up Head Look with mouse (TG also has several other HT options including one that uses Free Track and a setting called 'Track IR Fix'. I've yet to try these). This worked really well and there was virtually no lag at all. I was looking round the cockpit and about the canopy, following my adversary's every move and pitching and rolling to meet him with my lasers. There was no real sense of depth compared to 'real' 3D but the effect is pretty astonishing all the same.

To solve the matter of 'squashed' images I made some custom resolutions in the Nvidia control panel. Doubled the second figure to elongate the apparent lines and stretch to compensate. They are 1280 x 1440 and 1920 x 2160. They both work a treat but the latter is too hard on my GPU.

Now on to 'real' 3D:

This, I knew, would get laggy on my GT 740 but I had to try all the same. So I switched of Fake 3D on the TG Server and fired up ED and selected Side by Side in the game's Graphic Settings. After fiddling with the 3D Seperation and Focal Distance (for me the best was both all the way to the right) all I can say isWOW!. In the training missions 'Target Practice' I rolled up to an asteroid and just sat there looking up through my canopy, probably dribbling, thinking 'THAT IS HUGE!'. So of course I had to do the 'Travel' one too. I just spent ages inside the station then going to the Outpost and 'Buzzing The Tower' and it was all so big.

My GPU would only really work albeit a bit jerkily on the 1280 x 1440 res and the text is totally illegible so serious online gaming is out of the question. On 1920 x 2160 the graphics looked great and the text was really clear so, with a better card, this is a serious proposition for 'proper' gaming.

So there you have it. Home made VR is possible. I know nothing about coding etc (unless you count BBC Basic 30 years ago) and am quite new to PC gamng (built my first PC last October to play ED) so pretty much anyone should be able to do it.

Oh, and for anyone interested The Durovis Dive 7 (Tablet) and 5 (Phone) can be downloaded for 3D Printing so you just have to get the lenses if you don't want to buy the HMD.

Fly Safe Commanders!