How To Use Samsung Gear Vr On A Phone With Wifi And No Service

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While the Oculus Mobile SDK might eventually spread to other smartphones and accompanying virtual reality hardware, for now it remains relegated to Samsung'due south Gear VR. In plow, the Gear VR is designed (both in terms of physical structure and software) to work with merely one smartphone from Samsung's stable of many: the Galaxy Note 4. Obviously, that leaves a big majority of the Android-toting population squarely stuck in their non-virtual realities. What if at that place was a way to go the Samsung Gear VR to work with other devices?

Inspired by a post by Pure Engineering on Android Forums, nosotros decided to investigate. It turns out using an unsupported phone is not completely out of the realm of possibilities, but it comes with a few major caveats. The Oculus Mobile SDK is currently only optimized for the Milky way Notation 4, its processing suite, and embedded sensors. Using another device will not provide the true Gear VR experience, providing express control and non taking advantage of the headsets more than unique features and software-specific enhancements.

Fitting the telephone

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First and foremost, the Gear VR is built to connect via Micro USB to the Notation 4 and hold it snugly in place with a clamping machinery. In social club to fit another device into the Gear VR, the phone must be generally the same size as Samsung'due south phablet, which features a 5.7-inch display.

Any telephone should besides have a Micro USB connector centered on the bottom of the device. The USB port will strictly exist a matter of fit, as the connection will serve no function due to the lack of software link between a device other than the Annotation 4 and the Gear VR. One benefit of connecting to the USB port is it volition assistance hold a smaller smartphone in identify. Information technology is possible to finagle a device without the proper USB port placement into position (especially if it is smaller), simply there may be the potential for damage to both your device and the Gear VR headset.

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Some devices that we tested and more-or-less fit include:

Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung Galaxy S4
Nexus 5
Motorola DROID Turbo

In full general, if the phone is smaller than the Notation 4 it should fit, so you might add together devices like the HTC One M8 , LG G3 , and Moto X to the to a higher place listing. Well-nigh of these devices existence too small for the clasping mechanism to role properly, y'all might apply a case or get some felt or other soft material for added padding. The Nexus 6 is a scrap likewise large to fit properly, but the OnePlus 1 slots in without any boosted padding.

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Once you fit your device, the Gear VR will be used more than or less in the same fashion as Google Cardboard or a similar low-cost virtual reality substitute, utilizing the Gear VR'south stereoscopic lenses only.

Installing the right software

Since your unsupported phone will not take advantage of the Gear VR's special Oculus software, you will demand to install the proper applications to create 3D and VR content.

Google Cardboard eye holes

Google Cardboard is perhaps the near full featured of these options, providing stereoscopic viewing experiences to create three-dimensional environments that can be explored with the movement of your caput. Google Paper-thin includes a number of neat demos as well equally the power to view YouTube in a virtual theater and also import your own content.

Some other choice would be to use a stereoscopic video viewer like VR Player. VR Histrion does not include all the bells and whistles that we notice in Google Cardboard, but it does offer 2D and 3D video playback tailored to viewing with a gear up of VR goggles like the Gear VR.

What works, what doesn't

In the case of using a device other than the Galaxy Annotation 4, the Gear VR is being utilized for its mounting hardware and lenses alone. As long as your device has a screen similar in size to the Note 4's 5.seven-inch display, y'all volition get pretty authentic 2D and 3D viewing of video, games, and photos. Since the lenses are designed to work most accurately with the Note iv'southward display, smaller (and larger, if they will fit) devices may provide a less than perfect experience. The Gear VR's manual focus bicycle tin as well exist used to physically move the brandish nearer or farther from the eyes to adjust clarity.

The head tracking and VR experience will largely be dependent on the software used. The Oculus applied science and software utilized by the Note 4 and Gear VR will non be available, so touchscreen controls (or a Bluetooth controller) are required to navigate menus and perform other actions. The Gear VR's touchpad, volume controls, and other buttons will not office.Y'all will not take access to the Oculus Store and VR content bachelor exclusively to the Galaxy Note four when paired with the Gear VR.

A dandy trick, merely should you purchase the Gear VR for your unsupported smartphone?

It has been demonstrated that the Gear VR can indeed "piece of work" with an Android smartphone other than the Galaxy Note four, but later evaluating the effect we tin't whole heartedly say it's a very worthwhile experience. Unless you plan on upgrading to the Note 4 in the near future, at $200 the Gear VR is simply too expensive when compared to cheaper Google Cardboard holders that will produce an identical experience.

The existent value is in the Oculus software included with the Note 4. Information technology is one of the more refreshing, exciting, and immersive experiences to grace the Android ecosystem in quite some time. Again, that won't be available on unsupported smartphones, just if yous own a Note iv, by all means retrieve about picking up the Gear VR (we'll take a full review soon).

If you want to run into what other early adopters are upwards to as they explore the ins and outs of the Gear VR Innovator Edition, be sure to head over to our Gear VR forum for all the latest, tips, tricks, hints, and revelations.

UPDATE:Hither is Samsung'southward official comment on using the Gear VR with other smartphones, from Nick DiCarlo, VP GM of Immersive Products and Virtual Reality:

"The Gear VR Innovator's Edition was designed to provide very shine movement tracking and a high quality 'presence' experience for VR enthusiasts. This can typically be measured past 'motion to photograph' time and the threshold Gear VR has met is 20milliseconds. This quality threshold has the potential to brand VR more comfortable for a wider population of users and help grow the use of VR. Creative approaches to creating a VR headset, such equally fixing a phone into the Gear VR to benefit from the comfortable straps and lenses can improve the experience, only that approach doesn't accept advantage of the tracking hardware and other hardware and software optimizations that have been done on the Galaxy Note with the software that was developed with Oculus. As VR enthusiasts, we all know that, simply we wanted to clear things upwardly for the speedily growing group of friends who are more new to VR. We are honored to be part of the VR community and look frontwards to advancing the potential of VR together."