Virtual Reality Project -

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
Okay... I have two questions. I need to wire up a very small display to an HDMI port. Why, you may ask? I was planning on making a small drive-in movie theatre for Hamsters.



I was gonna get some hamsters, set up the movie screen... get them some popcorn, and let them go to town!


















Okay, okay, fine... I'm just kidding :p . Actually I was building a Head-Mounted Display for gaming and watching movies. I've been Googling all morning, but it's kinda hard to Google things when you don't know their exact names. So maybe some of you guys can help. I've read this forum quite a bit and since you guys seem ridiculously intelligent/knowledgable when it comes to this stuff, I figured this would be the perfect place to ask.

The Head Mounted Display (HMD) will be something like this Something like this:



You can use a cellphone, but the issue is when you stream like that you lose a lot of quality and it lags quite a bit.

So my plan was to get a display like this and wire it up to a board:



Link: LG G3 D855 LCD Screen and Digitizer Assembly - White

(these displays are GREAT. their resolution is 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution, but I would also be willing to use displays from LG G3, Nokia Lumia Icon, HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z2)

See, they sell these, but the resolutions on these things are pretty pathetic (800×480) - definitely not good enough for gaming. Check it:



If you guys know anywhere I can get 5, 6, or 7 inch displays (that are at least 1080p or more,) that would be phenomenal.

Iff not: I'm thinking if I can find the right board, it shouldn't be too hard. Does anyone know where I could get a board like this? Or even what they're called. Any info at this point in time would be so helpful. Thank you so much, Chris.
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
Your idea about using the smartphone display is a good one as long as you know what you're doing.


Warm regards.
I'm gonna have to play it by ear. I have a couple wiring guides from different places

These are the connectors from the LG G3 I want to use.

Maybe I can find an adapter, or I wonder if I cut the ZIF connector on the end off it will be compatible?







And this is the board from an LCD Panel that I need to hook the cell display into:



This is a connector I found that maybe I'll be able to use as an adapter:



Again, any tips/advice is more than welcome.
 

Lyncheese

Joined Jun 28, 2014
22
If I'm in your position, I won't cut the ZIF connector...
It's better using the adapter. Except, you had a lot of experiences and proper tools. But, still personally I don't like that method.
Moreover, It's ZIF con.

By the way, did you already decides what gyro, accel, magneto, MCU or other chips to use ?
I don't think driving the display will be that easy. You need the other hardwares to be suitable.

Anyway, I'm kinda interested too in these stuffs. I will make it too, but the cheaper one. ~~
Good Luck !
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
If I'm in your position, I won't cut the ZIF connector...
It's better using the adapter. Except, you had a lot of experiences and proper tools. But, still personally I don't like that method.
Moreover, It's ZIF con.

By the way, did you already decides what gyro, accel, magneto, MCU or other chips to use ?
I don't think driving the display will be that easy. You need the other hardwares to be suitable.

Anyway, I'm kinda interested too in these stuffs. I will make it too, but the cheaper one. ~~
Good Luck !
Yea I agree about the adapter. Way better. I'm just not 100% sure it will work
For the gyro, honestly I found a gyroscopic mouse for $30 bucks on Amazon that looks pretty awesome.

http://www.avsupply.co.za/product_info.php/neo-24ghz-gyroscopic-mouse-and-keyboard-p-644

I can set that up for "looking around" type features in games. I'm gonna be using this headset in conjunction with a Razer Hydra I have:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-controllers/razer-hydra-portal-2-bundle

if you're not familiar, they're really cool. They're like wiimotes for your PC, but a bit more advanced.

Video:


Another option might be head tracking. That's how the Oculus does it.

If you're interested in making your own, this guy has a guide on how to do it for ~$20, or even less if you use Google Cardboard.

 

Lyncheese

Joined Jun 28, 2014
22
Thank you for the link !

Unfortunately, I can't open the first link.
But, the second one inspired me a lot.

I never thought it would be that simple.. What I mean by 'simple' is the minimum hardware its needed.

By the way... Why using the gyroscopic mouse ?
I appreciated the idea, but wouldn't it will be more 'real' if you're using the head tracking ?

Oculus using the three sensor I mentioned before to achieved this.... And of course in addition with their software and algorithm.

I'll try to research it more....
Thank you for the link, once again.
 

Lyncheese

Joined Jun 28, 2014
22
One more thing.......

I just read some links which is nice for a quick start and demos.
Here is the links:

https://developers.google.com/cardboard/
http://www.durovis.com/getstarted.html

I hope this will bring you some new idea.

Anyway, what is your phone ? You bought the LG G3 screen, but If you already had a smartphone with a good screen why you don't just use that ?
Furthermore, some phone already has accel, magnetometer and gyro built in for the head tracking.
The controller like ipega (bluetooth controller) would be enough for the controlling.

Just some opinion, who knows you'll find it suitable with you projects.

Keep your progress.
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
I have an iPhone 5S, but here's the thing... I can just use a remote desktop app and do it that way. What that would do would be beam my PC display right to my iPhone via wifi. The problem with that is there's about a quarter second delay between the computer and the phone. Which is fine for browsing the web and watching movies.... but for playing games, especially games like Call Of Duty, it wouldn't be ideal. Also the iPhone 5S has a retina display, which is amazing when you're using your phone the way it's meant to be used, but it's designed for viewing at about 12 inches away from your face. Once you bring it to 2 inches from your face, it's gonna start getting pixelates. Now the LG G3's 1440p display is very excessive for a smartphone, but for my purposes, it's perfect.
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
I have an iPhone 5S, but here's the thing..

Actually wait.... the new iPhone that's coming out in a week is supposed to have 3x Retina, which is a pretty damn high resolution. I was debating grabbing one of those anyway, so another option is just to use that, jailbreak it, and then run a HDMI wire as an input to it. It will certainly save me a lot of headaches that way. Let's see.
 

Lyncheese

Joined Jun 28, 2014
22
Wow, looks like you have a lot of budget for this experiment.... haha....

Nice, with that I think you could use the head tracking method....
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
Wow, looks like you have a lot of budget for this experiment.... haha....

Nice, with that I think you could use the head tracking method....
Lol nah not really... that's what I mean. I have an upgrade coming, so I think that if the display on the new iPhone is sufficient enough for this project maybe I could save money by not having to buy a separate display and just using that. So if I sell my current iPhone, get one of those I might be able to even make a couple bucks and save myself a few wiring headaches.

But let's see. The specs will be released on Sept 9th, and I'll make a decision then.


But yea ... I'll also be able to use the gyroscope on that too. Let's see, I got two days before. I know.
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
Well, new iPhones were announced with a 1080p display, and while that's beautiful, it's not going to be sufficient for viewing at 3 inches away from my eyes. Back to Plan A.
 

Thread Starter

Showdownx8fo5

Joined Aug 27, 2014
9
Well, new iPhones were announced with a 1080p display, and while that's beautiful, it's not going to be sufficient for viewing at 3 inches away from my eyes. Back to Plan A.

Edit: Actually nevermind. I just found a pretty awesome deal on an Oculus Rift DK2, that I HAD to just jump on.
 
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