Questions about VR headsets

[Aflaaaak]

For Christmas, my 11 year old son requested a Viewmaster VR headset to use on my G4.. I looked into them a little but haven't decided it's the best choice for the price (below $100 USD). Has anyone tried them, or any other reasonably priced goggles that are better?

Has anyone tried these?

Any thoughts on the Zeiss VR One? I know those are right at the edge of our budget. One review I read said lack of any controls was a disadvantage, and price of course. Hard to tell if they currently have a tray for the G4.

Do any VR apps from GooglePlay work with any set of goggles, i.e. buy the best goggles we can afford and don't worry about what apps they come with?

Thanks!

 

[jeffmd]

It works fine with the viewmaster, the need to hold it to your face constantly does make it hard to do something for longe periods of time like say, watch a 3d movie.

That said, i think your 11 year old son is expecting a whole new world where there isn't one atm. Viewmaster and Zeiss VR are google cardboard compliant VR. Google cardboard consist only of the android apps on the store and some youtube 360 support (Oh, and youtube 3d is NOT Supported yet! You have to use a youtube video ripper and playback the video in Theater to see it in 3d). All of these apps are simplistic and in some state of incomplete or non-functionality.

I found about %50 of the apps were broken in that they did not distort the images, at all. Another %25 that did distort the images did not support google cardboard apps viewer settings (google cardboard products have a barcode to scan that inserts focal point settings for apps to use) so the distance between the eyes was wrong and 3d effect broken.

So the %25 that did work as they should were interesting demos, but otherwise forgettable. Of the app I went back to the most, I though youtube 360 was great. However #1 content is very lacking, it mostly consist of vloggers experimenting with a camera and clips shorter then 4 minutes, and #2 it is NOT 3d so while it feels like you have control of the camera, you are still looking through a camera.

What google carboard is NOT is an alternative to oculus rift. They do not interact with pc in any way.

 

[Aflaaaak]

It works fine with the viewmaster, the need to hold it to your face constantly does make it hard to do something for longe periods of time like say, watch a 3d movie.

That said, i think your 11 year old son is expecting a whole new world where there isn't one atm. Viewmaster and Zeiss VR are google cardboard compliant VR. Google cardboard consist only of the android apps on the store and some youtube 360 support (Oh, and youtube 3d is NOT Supported yet! You have to use a youtube video ripper and playback the video in Theater to see it in 3d). All of these apps are simplistic and in some state of incomplete or non-functionality.

I found about %50 of the apps were broken in that they did not distort the images, at all. Another %25 that did distort the images did not support google cardboard apps viewer settings (google cardboard products have a barcode to scan that inserts focal point settings for apps to use) so the distance between the eyes was wrong and 3d effect broken.

So the %25 that did work as they should were interesting demos, but otherwise forgettable. Of the app I went back to the most, I though youtube 360 was great. However #1 content is very lacking, it mostly consist of vloggers experimenting with a camera and clips shorter then 4 minutes, and #2 it is NOT 3d so while it feels like you have control of the camera, you are still looking through a camera.

What google carboard is NOT is an alternative to oculus rift. They do not interact with pc in any way.

He is mainly interested Astronomy, and seem to remember running across a couple apps that sounded decent. Good to know all apps are not compatible with all viewers.

 

[jeffmd]

If you have an app you want me to try with the viewmaster/g4 let me know. I think an app like this would work fine.

 

[Aflaaaak]

If you have an app you want me to try with the viewmaster/g4 let me know. I think an app like this would work fine.

Thanks Jeff. Of course now that I want to find the app, I can't seem to track it down . What's your impression of the Viewmaster?