05-31-2021, 09:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-31-2021, 09:37 AM by MirceaKitsune.)
I was actually thinking of starting a thread about something like this, glad someone showed me this topic! The thought occurred to me yesterday that one of the best new things Pine could start producing is a VR headset. Particularly because most existing ones are proprietary and based on frameworks designed by Facebook / Steam / etc, and worst of all they're as expensive as a cheap car in my country. Just like smartphones and laptops, this is another category of devices that begs to have an open-source alternative and producer!
A reason why they're expensive is because, at least in my opinion, most manufacturers make the mistake of thinking every VR headset must come with everything included: Positional tracking, hand controllers, an own API unique to that headset, etc. For those of us who are only interested in playing or watching things while seated, positional tracking is less relevant and we can do with just rotational... some users complain that makes them dizzy but I for one can handle it so I'd buy one. Also I don't need to pay for hand controllers if I'm still going to use a keyboard and mouse or my own gamepad! As for API, just make the screen detectable as a normal screen, while implementing the tracking similar to a mouse or drawing tablet so it just moves the pointer at a different position. The only effort I would ask for is 4k resolution across the eyes, since I can confirm 1080p is too little for VR as much as this surprised even me.
But yeah: Whatever the case I fully support this idea. I can say now that if it manages to stay within the the 200$ price range, I'm interested in buying one myself following the Pinephone, once I can afford it of course. I truly hope the Pine team can consider this possibility!
