so after work I picked up the new google cardboard based viewmaster viewer. I wanted to play with all the cool google vr apps but wanted something a bit more solid then all the card board options out there.
With It I was using my original LG flex. Thankfully out of the box it just barely fits. I have no extra room and it needs some force to close. thankfully because it is a flex, I don't need to worry about breaking it. Now I knew going into this, 720p screens are not so hot for VR goggles, however I didn't mind starting out just experiencing the 3d effects now and worry about clarity later when I get my next phone. So after playing with many of the apps and viewing a number of 3d and 360 youtube videos, I came away with one thought.
Cardboard is still a much work in progress and despite standards being in place, apps do not follow them. I couldn't get %50 of the programs to work right. Despite the fact that the google cardboard app does have the view master settings in its internal library (there is a bar code to scan) thus serving up all the settings for the viewer on a silver platter, I found a number of apps simply wouldn't or couldn't set the images apart the correct distance causing double vision. Also a number of the "top" apps like village and tuscany dive did not even support fisheye. What the hell kind of vr app does not properly distort the video for every vr goggle out there? And how is it they got high ratings when you consider it does not work in OR and GC because it lacks fisheye?
Still there were a few really good gems out there. VR Cosmic roller coaster was great, and the youtube 360 movies were awesome except for the problem of 720p devices like mine being limited to the 720p video stream. This would be fine if I was viewing a full screen video, but when the video is wrapped 360 degrees the 720p stream looks like crap. This is google just being retarded. I would try and request an explanation and maybe a fix but they don't believe in proper forums.
Finally and probably the most confusing, viewing 3d youtube movies. Despite IMO being one of the best devices to finally be able to view 3d movies in the way they were intended (no polarizing tricks or flickering 3d glasses) there is NO WAY TO VIEW 3D YOUTUBE MOVIES ON GOOGLE CARDBOARD. I kid you not, googles app does not support it in any way. And I haven't found any working apps on the google store that do it either.
I was able to download some of the 3d streams, and then used the theater app to play it back and THAT worked pretty well, but that is the worst way to do it. So with my experience today, google cardboard, only try it if you are really board, and I would pass on any device 720p or less. If only because google simply won't give you access to the higher resolution streams that are a must.
As for the view master viewer, I give it a thumbs up. The spring loaded claw it uses to hold the phone in is decently constructed, and it works for the most part. There are some issues, the optics are not adjustable in any way, and there is no holes for power or headphone cables. The flex has a monster battery and I had bluetooth headphones so this wasn't much of an issue, but that is just me.
On the other hand I can't tell you about the viewmaster software, for some reason it would not recognize the demo disk. I didn't buy it for the viewmaster software but I'm a little sad it didn't work out of the box.
With It I was using my original LG flex. Thankfully out of the box it just barely fits. I have no extra room and it needs some force to close. thankfully because it is a flex, I don't need to worry about breaking it. Now I knew going into this, 720p screens are not so hot for VR goggles, however I didn't mind starting out just experiencing the 3d effects now and worry about clarity later when I get my next phone. So after playing with many of the apps and viewing a number of 3d and 360 youtube videos, I came away with one thought.
Cardboard is still a much work in progress and despite standards being in place, apps do not follow them. I couldn't get %50 of the programs to work right. Despite the fact that the google cardboard app does have the view master settings in its internal library (there is a bar code to scan) thus serving up all the settings for the viewer on a silver platter, I found a number of apps simply wouldn't or couldn't set the images apart the correct distance causing double vision. Also a number of the "top" apps like village and tuscany dive did not even support fisheye. What the hell kind of vr app does not properly distort the video for every vr goggle out there? And how is it they got high ratings when you consider it does not work in OR and GC because it lacks fisheye?
Still there were a few really good gems out there. VR Cosmic roller coaster was great, and the youtube 360 movies were awesome except for the problem of 720p devices like mine being limited to the 720p video stream. This would be fine if I was viewing a full screen video, but when the video is wrapped 360 degrees the 720p stream looks like crap. This is google just being retarded. I would try and request an explanation and maybe a fix but they don't believe in proper forums.
Finally and probably the most confusing, viewing 3d youtube movies. Despite IMO being one of the best devices to finally be able to view 3d movies in the way they were intended (no polarizing tricks or flickering 3d glasses) there is NO WAY TO VIEW 3D YOUTUBE MOVIES ON GOOGLE CARDBOARD. I kid you not, googles app does not support it in any way. And I haven't found any working apps on the google store that do it either.
I was able to download some of the 3d streams, and then used the theater app to play it back and THAT worked pretty well, but that is the worst way to do it. So with my experience today, google cardboard, only try it if you are really board, and I would pass on any device 720p or less. If only because google simply won't give you access to the higher resolution streams that are a must.
As for the view master viewer, I give it a thumbs up. The spring loaded claw it uses to hold the phone in is decently constructed, and it works for the most part. There are some issues, the optics are not adjustable in any way, and there is no holes for power or headphone cables. The flex has a monster battery and I had bluetooth headphones so this wasn't much of an issue, but that is just me.
On the other hand I can't tell you about the viewmaster software, for some reason it would not recognize the demo disk. I didn't buy it for the viewmaster software but I'm a little sad it didn't work out of the box.