My DIY VR Story

2theMAX · August 27, 2020

TL;DR: DM me so i can show you the world of DIY VR

I started out small, playing in VRChat with my LG K20 in a Google Cardboard Headset, a USB Gamepad and an app called iVRy. People couldn't really tell i was in VR unless i told them i was and i tilted my head side to side. Down side of the App was that after 5 mins the screen went B/W and you had to pay 8$ to get rid of that, worth.

Next i heard some players talk about using a 360 Kinect for body tracking, turns out you can use it for more than just tracking your feet if you don't want to spend 400$ on tracker pucks and a extra light house. I had already gotten a 360 and Kinect for 200$ at a pawn shop about 5-7 years ago when i was still in middle school. I ordered a link cable off amazon, got the dev kits and stuff set up and realized i don't have Bluetooth on my 10 yr old Lenovo Thinkstation S20. I ordered a Bluetooth dongle and messed around with the dev kit a bit, made a quick vid on it.

Next i messed around with the gateway, Driver4VR, a program by Greg Driver that can take use of many different tracking and controller input methods for use in VR. I spent a couple of weeks trying to get wiimotes working from my old wii, i used a wii emulator as a pass-through and they worked but eventually they didn't need it. The method i was using for tracking was skeleton tracking, only good for VRChat, Beat Saber a bit, and other non precise applications. Skeleton tracking was basically looking for a human and putting a stick figure on them, really janky and useless. Whenever i brought my hands close together they would go berserk and clip like crazy, the only way i could rack a pistol in H3VR was to drag it across a wall.

My solution to this was to use color tracking, My dad had some extra stuff i could use. He Jerry rigged 2 blue LED lights that were powered by a car charger and hooked them up to a 6Ah 12V battery, problem with that is if i break the wires i could for sure electrocute my self but it hasn't happened yet so we'll see. Next i took a orange and a white ping pong ball and soldered holes in them to fit the lights. Finally i slapped them to the sides of the wiimotes and configured the driver, i had access to many more possibilities... except for one major one, rotation.

The wiimotes only sense rotation in 180 degrees on the roll and pitch axis, if i go over the limit they reverse rotation. i was stuck with this limitation for many months until recently when Wiimotion+ support finally released in alpha, i could finally have full 6 Degrees of Freedom! ... or so i thought. Wiimotion+ is still crap, i have to constantly reset the wiimotes orientation cause they drift like no other which makes playing Beat Saber impossible for now, only time will tell.

To this day i am still using skeleton tracking on my head, as its not too bad, and on my feet, which isn't really important. I am considering using cardboard shoes or boxes on my feet with QR codes so that i can have full 6Dof but i haven't had any good materials or designs. I still might try it.

NOW I BET YOU ARE ALL WONDERING!!!!!! "eh uh oh whAAAAAYYYYYYYY do you go through SUUUCH a hassle of doing such a thing when you can just get one of those Windows MR HMDS or get a Vive on E BAE for 200$ OMG you poor thing."

Check your watch, its 2020.
i didn't have the money, nor a job at the time.
I already had most of the items needed so it wasn't too hard.
Cause I can.

Now that I have a job i can afford to SPLOOOOOGE and VEEEE AREEEEE crap, i will soon be trying out the Rift S and i will compare it to my old setup. One thing you might be wondering is, Should I try this out? Most likely not. the only reasons you should do this are

If you already have most of the stuff you want to use like, a good smartphone, motion controllers and motion capturing devices such as a Kinect, PS eye or webcam.
you SPLOOGED too hard on your PC and/or you don't have the money for a real VR solution.
you are really curious.

If you want to learn more about DIY VR setups then watch Greg Driver's YouTube tutorials or watch some of my vids. (They are really terrible tho)

PICTURES:

My Gear