So, while doing research into the very quickly expanding VR market, one thing I keep running into is the comparison and relationship VR has to smartphone technology. Remember that Palmer Luckey, in some of his first discussions and explanations of how Oculus came to be said that the rise of the smartphone was the necessary element to bring VR tech to the point where it was affordable. The ideas and knowledge of how to create VR has been around for 25 years, with early prototypes at the consumer level popping up in the early nineties. The problem though was that they were absurdly expensive, largely because the components needed to build them were being hand made. Mass produced accelerometers and high resolution screens small enough to fit in an HMD were a pipe dream, that is until the rise of the smartphone. By 2012 the cost of these ancillary components had dropped dramatically. High resolution LCD panels were being printed in ridiculously high numbers and so the price fell through the roof.

Flash forward to 2014, and we’re looking at the Oculus CV1 being released sometime this year, maybe next. However, it has been a long time since the Oculus Rift Kickstarter and the DK1. Over a year and a half, and still no consumer version. You could buy a devkit, and get it up and running yes, and you would actually have a pretty decent amount of original content that will work with it, not even including the hacks and mods for existing non-oculus supported games. A year is a very long time in the tech world, and Oculus weren’t the only people hearing VR knocking on our door. So what do you do in the meantime? Well, to be honest, I’m pretty poor. I’m a bartender and I survive, for the most part, but all the tech to be able to have a decent experience with VR is a little pricey for me. A CV1 will be a significant investment for me at sub $300, let alone a high end PC rig capable of playing the games at the level of detail to warrant the price. I have a PS4, but who knows when the Morpheus is going to be released, I’m guessing its a 2016 product, or at least Q4 2015. So, while lamenting my financial future and knowing that I need to get into this whole VR thing soon if I’m going to be writing stories that are reliant on the concept of presence, I stumbled on a few low cost alternatives: Smartphone powered HMD’s!

Of course! All the tech is already in the phone! High resolution phone, gyrometer, accelerometer, even a camera if they want to do optical point tracking! And all you do is slide or clip it in, adjust the lenses inside of the HMD, strap it on, and voila! The first I took notice of was the Durovis Dive, a very simple but practical take on the idea, and it’s already been released at the impulse price of $80. The hardware looks a little bit sketchy, with some very obvious design flaws, like the open bottom, as complete darkness, I’ve read, is necessary for presence. What it does have, and which is most impressive to me is software support including an SDK for building apps that take advantage of the smartphones capabilities. It looks like this a software company that wanted to leverage the concepts while beating its primary competitor, vRase, to market, which I can’t say is a bad position, because as of right now it looks like the android community is using that SDK exclusively. So, sketchy hardware, great software. Now vRase on the other hand, is in a completely opposite position. They definitely have a far superior looking hardware product from the quality of the build, the closed enclosure, the foam molds, and the security of the lenses. Their prototype looks far beyond what Durovis Dive has shipped. On the other hand their software solutions seem to show a lack of content, and no official Dev platform. So, what does that mean? I’m going to buy the Durovis Dive for the support key, and use that headset until the vRase comes out, supposedly, later this year for $100. The vRase has yet to announce a release date, but there have been multiple hints that it will be sometime this summer, and at first only for Kickstarter backers. I’m a bit skeptical of these loose release dates, especially when that date is coming up very soon, but their hardware looks worth the wait. That really is the benefit of the smartphone VR solution; choice and price. Being that Smartphones are always expanding their capabilities and speed, and seem to be getting cheaper while doing it, the next level of VR is right around the corner, waiting with your next smartphone upgrade, and with multiple HMD’s fighting for the market, including Samsung, and Google, there will be a fair amount of choice. In fact, I predict smartphone companies are going to HIJACK this concept because it gives them a brand new world of marketing and features to exploit in a place where people were already asking, “but WHY do I need a UHD screen on my smartphone?” For VR silly!