VRidge Streams VR from PC to Google Cardboard, Gear VR
For those looking for an affordable VR alternative, RiftCat has been busy developing an app called VRidge that streams virtual reality games from a PC to a smartphone over Wi-Fi. The beta is currently available for Android, but the company is also working on an iOS version. The most recent update added support for SteamVR and Razer’s open source OSVR project. The implications could be significant, especially when considering the cost of investing in a high-end VR headset, such as the $600 Oculus Rift or $800 HTC Vive, both of which still require a powerful PC starting in the $1,500 range.
The VRidge app works with more affordable VR headsets such as the $20 Google Cardboard and Samsung’s $99 Gear VR. However, one downside is that the platform does not yet support all games. Another involves problems with latency, since it is streamed wirelessly. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive do not support wireless.
“And there’s a good reason for that, since there’s a considerable delay to factor in,” reports Digital Trends, noting that this has not yet “become a viable solution for commercial products.”
According to The Verge: “There’s already one company doing this, Trinus VR, but VRidge claims to have a ‘complete runtime replacement’ for VR titles, ‘with low level hooks that emulate Oculus.’ Right now VRidge can only do rotational tracking, not positional (basically, the same limitations as Google Cardboard and Gear VR), but these ‘low level hooks’ should give VRidge a theoretical way to do positional tracking with a phone.”
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/vridge-streams-vr-from-pc-to-google-cardboard-gear-vr/