Choosing Your VR Hardware Setup
My name is Ingmar Vroege, I’m one of the founders of the company Bricks & Goggles, a subsidiary of Digitalisma. At Bricks & Goggles we convert CAD files to Virtual Reality (VR). In this blog series I write about the challenges, opportunities and possibilities that VR brings for the yachting market.
You probably have a general idea about the possibilities of VR for your business and maybe you're already thinking about doing something with VR. Before you decide what kind of project you're going to do you need to know what kind of hardware is available, what the possibilities are and how much it costs.
Panoramic VR.
If you want to reach a large audience with a marketing action or if you want to sent some quick renders to a lead or client then Panoramic VR is one of the best options. The only requirement is a capable smartphone, preferably an iPhone 5S (or equivalent Android device) or better in combination with a Cardboard or a more advanced headset such as the Homido and your good to go. You still need a way to distribute the content which can be done via web, Youtube or a dedicated app.
Samsung also developed a headset in collaboration with Oculus. This headset is the Gear VR, which contains a touchpad, this lets users make gestures which help navigation in VR. Gear VR’s are exclusive to Samsung S6, S7 or Edge. Google Cardboard, Homido headsets or something similar are not exclusive to certain phones..
Costs of Panoramic VR.
A big advantage is that a lot people own a decent smartphone, so you can use their devices to show your content. Besides that its possible to buy customized Cardboards from $5 up to $15 depending on the quality of the cardboard and lenses.
A Samsung Gear VR costs $99 but in many cases a Gear VR is included when buying a new Samsung smartphone. The Samsung S6, S7 and Edge are available from around $500
Immersive VR
If you want to review designs or show a client all the possibilities you'd be better off with an immersive VR setup. The quality is higher and interacting and navigating can be done very naturally.
For an immersive experience you need an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and a VR-Ready PC or Laptop. Knowing how you want to use it is very important, you have to consider what is important to you: flexibility or room scale, having both is hardly possible.
If you're traveling a lot to convince clients or to do design reviews you'd be better off with a VR Ready Laptop in combination with an Oculus Rift and Touch Controllers. You need a backpack or case to carry around the laptop, the headset and the controllers. Setting up will cost you a few minutes (attaching the headset and sensors to the USB ports). A great thing about Oculus Touch controllers is that they can be used to move, steer and you are able to see your own hands in the VR world which is very immersive.
When using VR to collaborate between designer and engineer or want to give visitors the experiences in which they can literally walk through their yacht, setting up a dedicated VR room is the best thing to do. You can use either the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and place the sensors in a large room (4 x 4 for the HTV Vive or 3 x 3 for the Oculus Rift) so that a user can literally walk around (the sensors track these movements and traveling larger distances can be done with teleportation.). To achieve this you need a VR ready Desktop which is better then a laptop since more room is available for graphic cards, a headset, 2 or 3 sensors and the touch controllers.
Costs of immersive VR
Both Oculus and HTC Vive are priced around $800 only Oculus sells its touch controllers separately for an additional $200. A VR-Ready Laptop from Alienware costs $1500 or more if you want more graphic power. You can build a VR ready desktop yourself, make sure a 1060 GTX GPU (or better) is used. A VR ready desktop can be built from around $1000 or more.
Important note: both Oculus and HTC don't support Apple devices.
In my next blog I’ll dive a bit deeper in the software solutions that are available :) Thanks for reading!
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If you have any questions and/or remarks don’t hesitate to contact me on: Ingmar@shipsandgoggles.com
