PineVR as a new product?

[poVoq]

Just a suggestion or rather asking if this has been already considered: a simple 3dof VR headset made by Pine64 that can work as a passthrough SteamVR device with outside in head tracking similar to the PSVR?

This open source project could be a starting point:
https://www.relativty.com/

Although I suspect it being easier to source the mechanical parts from one of the many Chinese cheap phone VR case vendors.

http://www.openhmd.net/ and Monado could be used software side.

And since Google made Cardboard VR fully open source it might be a good way to get some simple VR video watching or FPS drone flying working in stand alone mode via a RockPro SBC as a belt attached compute box?

Add some stereo cameras and it might even be possible to do some basic hand tracking or inside out head tracking in the future

Would be a cool addition to the growing Pine64 device ecosystem.

[poVoq]

This:
https://github.com/exokitxr/exokit
Could be used to build an fully open-source VR interface using aframe WebXR technology.

A pity that there seems to be little interest in this. Really all that is needed is a 5.5" Full HD display, a hdmi adapter to connect to a RockPro64 (on your belt, or even better a new HardRock SBC) and a stand-alone 3DoF motion sensor (there are some cheap ones supported by OpenHMD). Pack all that in a existing Mobile VR plastic case and source some 3rd party GearVR controllers ( https://github.com/rdady/gear-vr-controller-linux ) and you got a pretty neat fully open-source VR headset similar to the Occulus GO.

It's more or less possible to do it DIY with OpenHMD and a old GearVR case and a glued in small HDMI display, but I think this would be a neat project for Pine64, especially now that the Panfrost GPU drivers for the RockPro64 are starting to get quite nice. It would also really help the OpenHMD community to have a nice tinker device similar to how the PinePhone is really helping projects like PostmarketOS.

Last but not least, with Facebook discontinuing the GO and starting to lock down the Quest more and more, as well as Google and Samsung having existed the market, there is actually a (small) market niche for cheap stand-alone VR headsets that are not tied to Facebook.

[tllim]

This:
https://github.com/exokitxr/exokit
Could be used to build an fully open-source VR interface using aframe WebXR technology.

A pity that there seems to be little interest in this. Really all that is needed is a 5.5" Full HD display, a hdmi adapter to connect to a RockPro64 (on your belt, or even better a new HardRock SBC) and a stand-alone 3DoF motion sensor (there are some cheap ones supported by OpenHMD). Pack all that in a existing Mobile VR plastic case and source some 3rd party GearVR controllers ( https://github.com/rdady/gear-vr-controller-linux ) and you got a pretty neat fully open-source VR headset similar to the Occulus GO.

It's more or less possible to do it DIY with OpenHMD and a old GearVR case  and a glued in small HDMI display, but I think this would be a neat project for Pine64, especially now that the Panfrost GPU drivers for the RockPro64 are starting to get quite nice. It would also really help the OpenHMD community to have a nice tinker device similar to how the PinePhone is really helping projects like PostmarketOS.

Last but not least, with Facebook discontinuing the GO and starting to lock down the Quest more and more, as well as Google and Samsung having existed the market, there is actually a (small) market niche for cheap stand-alone VR headsets that are not tied to Facebook.

Good to starts as DIY project. Until there is a good momentum, then will consider.

[pjsf]

Just a suggestion or rather asking if this has been already considered: a simple 3dof VR headset made by Pine64 that can work as a passthrough SteamVR device with outside in head tracking similar to the PSVR?

This open source project could be a starting point:
https://www.relativty.com/

Although I suspect it being easier to source the mechanical parts from one of the many Chinese cheap phone VR case vendors.

http://www.openhmd.net/ and Monado could be used software side.

And since Google made Cardboard VR fully open source it might be a good way to get some simple VR video watching or FPS drone flying working in stand alone mode via a RockPro SBC as a belt attached compute box?

Add some stereo cameras and it might even be possible to do some basic hand tracking or inside out head tracking in the future

Would be a cool addition to the growing Pine64 device ecosystem.

 As far as HMDs go it would be really difficult to produce a unit that retails for as little as a second hand PSVR (about $100) headset, which is quite well suported by steamvr and movado/openxr. What's really lacking is an open source lighthouse/tracking solution. Something like NOLO but fully open would be really useful.

[poVoq]

Thanks for the replies

Yes a PSVR is an interesting option for tinkering with, but actual OpenHMD support has been stagnant for a while now and isn't really at a level you could call "quite well supported" yet. It also isn't stand-alone and it is somewhat difficult to make it so.

PSVR like IR-LED tracking is actually well developed and supported for seated games, as this type of head tracking has been common for non-VR flight sims for years already. It would only need to add controller tracking, but that seems less important for many games.

But ultimately a PC based system isn't going to start a community driven ecosystem like the PinePhone around OpenHMD, but rather keep to closed source SteamVR applications I think. But only such a healthy community ecosystem around a stand-alone headset is likely to result in innovative new designs and (long-term) augmented realty support.

[poVoq]

Another cool option would be this: https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula
But I guess it would need to be ported to openHMD first.


Edit: actually, no. Godot already has a OpenHMD plugin: https://github.com/GodotVR/godot_openhmd

[poVoq]

Interesting presentation recording on the current state of Monado:
https://gemmei.ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/debian...ality.webm
So a fully FOSS VR headset is quite possible.

[bigbohemia]

Just a suggestion or rather asking if this has been already considered: a simple 3dof VR headset made by Pine64 that can work as a passthrough SteamVR device with outside in head tracking similar to the PSVR?

This open source project could be a starting point:
https://www.relativty.com/

Although I suspect it being easier to source the mechanical parts from one of the many Chinese cheap phone VR case vendors.

http://www.openhmd.net/ and Monado could be used software side.

And since Google made Cardboard VR fully open source it might be a good way to get some simple VR video watching or FPS drone flying working in stand alone mode via a RockPro SBC as a belt attached compute box?

Add some stereo cameras and it might even be possible to do some basic hand tracking or inside out head tracking in the future

Would be a cool addition to the growing Pine64 device ecosystem.


----

I just recently got into Google Cardboard, and wanted to see if something like this existed for PinePhone.  I am currently working on Cardboard for Unity, so I don't know how that will translate to PinePhone development.  I was thinking that it would be possible to compile as a Linux project, but I don't know how Google Cardboard would access the sensors to get head position.  But I wanted to get people's thoughts on Google Cardboard on PinePhone.

[poVoq]

The FOSS VR stack is really making progress: now Collabora is working on an AI accelerated (targeting embedded devices) hand tracking:
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/...do-openxr/

This could probably be ported to a Rockchip NPU that is included in the newer chips Pine64 are now starting to work with.

So a device that could track hands in a virtual desktop kind of setting, using OpenXR to connect to a desktop seems pretty feasible to do cheaply.

The open-source wireless VR streaming solution ALVR is also working on a Linux port now: https://github.com/alvr-org/ALVR (they are looking for contributors to help with the Linux port).

[poVoq]

Looks like the SimularVR ( https://simulavr.com/ ) guys are getting serious about something like this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality_..._engineer/

Maybe worth for Pine64 to talk to them for becoming a hardware partner? @tllim

Edit: Ah, looks like they want to use a Intel based platform for now: https://simulavr.com/shop/
But the software should also run on a ARM platform. Maybe similar to the Librem5 / PinePhone situation this could spawn a lower spec and cheaper tinkerer device by Pine64?
Edit: I asked on their Discord and they said the would love for someone else making a compatible device. The code is all open-source licensed, so no problem legally.
Main problem would be Vulkan support for the GPU, but PanVK is slowly making progress.