Category: Virtual Reality (VR)

VR Box Review – one of best budget VR headset in India
After the article of How To Experience VR (Virtual Reality) on Smartphone many of you have this question which head set to get? Should I get VR Box in India? Is it worth buying VR Box? How is the review?
While searching for any VR headset for your phone, you always have lots of questions, Will this headset support my phone? How will be the experience? Good, Bad? Will it cause troubles in my vision? Are the lens good enough? Can I wear them with specks? Will it affect my vision? How is the built? Are they comfortable? Will VR Box give satisfying VR experience? And the list goes on…
Well considering all this I rounded up on one that was the VR Box. By the pics it looks convincing and VR Box Price In India is Rs. 650 it seemed like a good deal! Turns out, the deal was pretty darn good. Enough warm-up let get into one my favorite VR headset of all time!!
The headset arrived in a brown box with an image of VR box Virtual Reality Headset on the front and pricing sticker and VR Box written on top on the top.
Inside a box was the VR Headset and some document and the QR code for Cardboard App along with some safety guide and a manual.
The box also had some Styrofoam sticker which you can stick to the phone casket to prevent scratching the phone and a nice soft cleaning cloth for the lens. That all for the VR Box content. Now let’s concentrate on the actual headset.
VR headset is made out of two part abs plastic, one part the headset that is all black and has matte finish that reminds of the interior of older Maruti Suzuki Alto’s interior and other is the white face that is bit glossy. Overall the built is above average with no creak or cracks if you compare it to something like Gear VR.
Now to the holder or the casket, casket sits behind the white face and is big enough to house my Samsung galaxy note 4 perfectly but that’s it no more as I don’t think anything bigger than the note 4 is compatible with VR Box.

The phone is held in place by a nice spring loaded mechanism with in my opinion quite good and the phone feel locked into place but don’t test it, it won’t take much shake before the phone pops out. This problem is decease as the phone size decreases, but nothing serious.
After placing your phone in the casket all you have to do is slide the casket in place and you are all set. The VR box also has the option to remove a part of front face to expose the camera for augmented reality. You can also add some headphones (which is highly recommended) and a charger or USB OTG controller to your phone through the openings on the side

Now let’s talk about lens and comfort. Firstly the lens, lens are made of non-replaceable plastic and are very prone to fingerprints, but they are very easy to clean, they offer clear image without any issues. The lens can be easily adjusted (right-left and front-back) for better viewing with the help to two sliders on the top of the headset and the cavity is big enough to fit your spectacles (subject to condition you don’t those huge hipster frames).
Now the comfort, VR Box come with 3 point (one on each side and one on top) adjustable head strap which can fits perfectly over my big head, but it needs some adjustment. As for the portion the touches your face his wrapped in soft foam filled mesh material that helps to keep the sweat at bay and helps in those awkward moments when you have to share the headset. As for the heat generated, there are vents in the front face and on the side so the headset allow the phone to breathe.
Overall this is a very good deal considering the price and if you ask me Rs. 650 for such headset is a good investment. Only drawback with this headset is that it don’t have magnetic trigger so keep that in mind or connect a controller to tackle this issue or just by a third party magnetic trigger and stick it to the headset.
On the rate of 1-10, this headset deserve a 7 due to affordable price point and great build quality
Click Here to Buy VR box on Amazon
November 30, 2016

PC VR using Smartphone

Play PC Games on VR Headset

In the last article, We saw how we can enjoy virtual reality at home on your smartphone? But, What if I told you that you can turn your smartphone into a full fletch VR headset that you can use with your PC.
Yeah like the Oculus!!
Won’t you love to take PC VR using Smartphone and get that awesome feel of being in the shoes of your favorite character?Well let’s find out how we can achieve that!!
Now, let list of the things that you are going to need.

A smartphone with ac
A VR kit
A PC
Some Softwares
A PC Game (Of course you need one, what else can give you a better VR experience?)
A 5 GHz router
Headphone (optional but recommended )
Controller or game-pad (like always recommended but still optional)

*Note: for optimum performance these are some recommended hardware specification. This hardware is not compulsory but to avoid lag and latency and get best experience, this hardware is highly recommended

For PC

For Smartphone

Intel I5 4^th gen or Higher
NVidia GTX 9xx series graphics card
8 GB DDR3 Ram
Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit or Higher

5.5 inches FHD display
Snapdragon 801 processor or Higher
3 GB RAM
Android 5.0 or Higher
5 GHz Router Support

PC VR using smartphone from elitcan

Use the following steps to enjoy PC VR using smartphone:Let’s start by downloading some required apps to set up the Gamestream.

Firstly, lets start by prepping up the PC,

Get the newest possible update (beta software won’t work) for NVidia Graphics drivers and Ge-force experience.
Download and install “Tridef3d”. (you can find it easily on the Internet.)
Install a PC game of your choice (FPS is Preferable and please avoid city building or strategy games).

Now for the smartphone,

Download “Moonlight” from the Playstore.

Now here is the hard part-setting up the PC,

Launch the GeForce experience on your PC.

In GeForce Experience, switch to preferences tab and add TridefIgnition (It is availabe in the parent folder of Tridef3d) .

Now make sure your PC and Smartphone are connected to same LAN network.

Now open the ‘Moonlight’ app on your smartphone and you would be greeted by a page that shows the rigs that support Gamestream.

Select the Rig that you are gaming on, soon a window will pop-up that will have a 4 digit pin. Meanwhile on your PC a pop-up will appears in lower right corner of your PC Screen that looks like one in the image below. Here you have to enter the four digit pin from the moonlight app and hit connect

Now heres a bit tricky part, open Moonlight and select Tridef3d.

Soon your PC screen will go black and NVidia Game Stream will start along with a Tridef3D window.

Click add button. Now Tridef will scan your PC for The games that Tridef supports via the built-in profiles.

Note:but, if your game of choice is not detected then you can add it manually by providing Tridef the path to the executive file(.exe) of the game in parent folder of the game.

Now, the hard part is over. Just launch the game from Tridef to get a split view. Once the game starts, slide your phone in the VR headset and play your game is VR!

(Note: some games like Sniper: Ghost Warrior have native support for 3D split view all you have to do is, head over to game setting and enable it)

Now enjoy which ever PC game you want with a immersive game-play. That’s all about PC VR using Smartphone. In the next article we will see how to use head-tracking using the smartphone’s built-in Gyro sensor.

July 6, 2016

Mobile VR Technology Introduction How to Experience it on Mobile?
What is Mobile VR (Virtual Reality) Technology? How to experience it?
Last year, Google released the cardboard for smartphones and Mobile VR industry took a huge leap forward. We’ve already written Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Introduction post previously. Cardboard is a platform that is being developed by google which uses your smartphone for processing the data and a DIY (Do It Yourself) kit to make a mount your phone to your head. This Kit is basically a folded cardboard box which has a magnetic trigger on the side, this design was easy to make with only problem being that you had to hold it constantly which was bit pain in the hand!
Google Cardboard V 1.0
It was such a success that several companies have released accessories that you can slide your phone into, and in doing so gain a fairly inexpensive Mobile VR Experience that can be appreciated anywhere. To accomplish this level of functionality, a lot of things have to be happening in your phone all at once. Now let’s see what we need to experience the virtual reality at home.
How Mobile VR works?
Google cardboard is basic concept that drives a lot of the Mobile VR content, and as a result a same technology can be used for most of the VR supported applications. The accelerometer and gyroscope in your smartphone give your VR application a sense of motion and position. When you tilt your head and even spin around you can completely see more of the virtual world being generated around you. In this experience, You can’t just get up and walk around to see more of the virtual world around you or use you hand to interact in virtual world. This is where a controller come in. It helps to move around using the D-Pads and buttons to interact with the virtual environment. But, not all Mobile VR experiences are created equally when it comes to the use of this technology.

Mobile vr technology from elitcan
Samsung Gear VR vs Others?
For example, the Samsung’s Gear VR have its own set of an extra accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer to offer a smoother VR experience. More data points in this experience means head tracking can be more precise, which leads to a more polished experience. This is Why the desktop VR experiences rely on things like fixed-point sensors for your desk and a huge array of external sensors to track movement and position. It’s a bit too much to expect that kind of experience on mobile, but it’s nice to know the experience you have with your smartphone improves dramatically with increase in public interest.
What are Mobile VR Requirements
- Mobile with Gyroscope (Most essential component)
- A VR kit or VR headset
- Pair of headphones (optional but highly recommended)
- A controller(optional)
Lets start with the basic requirement for Mobile VR. Its a VR kit (or Headset). A VR kit is an accessory for phone where you slide your phone to experience virtual reality. There are ton of VR headset available out there. Let’s check out some of them ‘Google Cardboard’, Goggle cardboard is by far the simplest way to experience Virtual reality on almost every smartphone (subject to condition that smart phone has a gyro). All you have to do is Open the VR app and slide your phone in the cardboard box and put it against your head.
google cardboard mobile vr complete kit
Cardboard consist of three basic components the cardboard structure, lenses and magnetic trigger. You can find all the components easily online at fairly cheap price. If you want to make one for yourself then there are also options of pre-assembled cardboard box which you can purchase at Rs. 250 (or more). Or you can opt for a plastic version of cardboard like the VR box or Zeiss. Those versions starts from Rs. 750. The plastic version have few advantages over the cardboard like adjustable lenses, sturdier build, cushioning for comfortable fit, adjustable straps and so on.
If you have a Samsung flagship from S6 or S7 line up or Note 5 then you have an extra option of gear VR. It is much expensive than the cardboard with Samsung’s proprietary software. All you have to do is plug your phone in and jump in the Virtual reality. With the Gear VR, You won’t have to constantly fiddle with a controller as it has one built right in on the side. With the phones QHD displays, the mobile VR experience can’t get any better (for now of course). Try to go for better quality display mobile.
samsung gear vr headset for mobile

Gear VR or any other VR Content on YouTube
Now that we have the headset let’s talk about the content that can experience. There are ton of apps that can give you a good VR experience, but let’s start with basic content, the 360 videos. On YouTube if you search for ‘360 videos’ you can find some great videos that would give you the feel of being in a roller-coaster or being in the cockpit of a plane or even deep sea diving as you can look all around you in these videos. These videos are filmed by a 360 camera rig which uses feeds from 6 or more cameras which is stitched together to give us a seamless 360 video. All you have to do is click the little cardboard icon before sliding your phone in the headset. You can see the VR Youtube Video Below.
Sometimes (not always) you will see a line between the images (either white or black in color). This line is to helps us to center the phone for best possible experience. The images will make more sense once you place the device in the headset, and you will find this style of setup in most apps as this setup is by far the most common form of VR right now. There are apps and games on the store that can give a very good VR experience Some of these apps let you tilt the phone to turn a vehicle, while others rely on standing up and physically panning the phone in one direction or the other to reveal more of an image or the magnetic trigger on the Side of the cardboard (like zombie shooter VR, VR silent home). But there are some that requires a controller for best VR experience (like Deep space battle VR or Galaxy VR) for those you can use any controller via OTG or Bluetooth which ever suits you.

Note: Try to load the video at maximum possible resolution for best possible experience. When you launch a VR app or Video before placing it in the headset you see that there are pair of images that are exactly identical and looks a bit weird something that looks bit like the old CRT monitors which are little bent in convex shape but don’t fill the screen and leave out some part blacked out.
The most interesting thing about mobile VR right now is how relatively young the experience is but So many companies in every part of the ecosystem are working to make this experience special, and the core of this amazing platform lives right in your pocket at all times. With every new improvement in hardware including screen resolution, motion sensing, and video rendering the mobile VR tech will continue to improve. Soon this would become a trend in personal entertainment!
June 22, 2016
VR Introduction What is Fully Immersive Virtual Reality?
Virtual Reality (VR) Introduction, Definition, What does Virtual Reality mean?
Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. So Technically “VR” is a computer generated world which can be a game or a walkthrough of a place or a video that plays around you which trick you brain to replaces your reality with VR
Immersive VR (Virtual Reality)
When did virtual reality begin? Brief History of VR
It all started in 1950 by a guy named Morton Heilig who later invented the first Actual VR machine dubbed as Sensorama, we won’t go too deep in that as it was too early for VR to make sense!!
virtual reality first history brief
Fast forward to 2000’s, military of multiple countries thought that instead of putting a rookie pilot in an
actual plane, it would be easy to put him in a dummy cockpit rig that moves and gives near real feel of
actual cockpit of a plane and surround him with screens that emulate the surrounding of an actual
fighter plane to give the pilot training in a simulator to handle a fighter jet without the worries of
damaging the plane! This was Soon adopted by commercial airlines and fight schools to give pilot a basic
idea of the aircraft. There itself, evolution of virtual reality started!

Virtual Reality from elitcan
Soon many companies started developing this technology and the age of virtual reality started. In 2012, an independent company called oculus started a kick starter for the “rift”, the first VR HMD (Virtual Reality head mounted display). They released a DK1(Development Kit 1) for the developer in 2012. The DK1 had a low
resolution 7 inches display and featured head tracking. Due to heavy response in July 2014, Oculus began
shipping Development Kit 2 (DK2).
Virtual Reality google cardboard
This was a small refinement of the “Crystal Cove” prototype, featuring several key improvements over the first development kit, such as having a higher-resolution (960×1080 per eye) low-persistence OLED display, higher refresh rate, positional tracking, a detachable cable, and the omission of the need for the external control box.
Till this time VR was just something you would experience in events. VR got it Worldwide recognition
when in 2015, google launched the ‘Google Cardboard’. It was a mobile platform which only required a
cardboard box and a app to experience VR on almost every smartphone that had gyro. This where VR
technology sky rocketed and big names like HTC and Sony Even Acer leaped into picture with their own
VR Headset.
June 20, 2016