One sixteen year-old, a couple of his friends, and their math teacher have taken on Oculus with an open SDK – and you can build the VR headset for $100.
France’s Maxime Coutté writes up the project, which features his coding alongside optics and code from his best friends and algorithmic assistance from their math teacher (really). And there are a few advantages of their open approach, even if the hardware doesn’t look quite as svelte as commercial options.
1. There’s an open SDK, which for now gets you up and running quickly in Unity Game Engine.
https://github.com/relativty/fastVR-sdk
2. There’s an open API for communications between Unity and the VR headset – which also allows low-latency communication between the game engine and Arduino.
https://github.com/relativty/wrmhl
3. There’s a headset that’ll run you somewhere around $100, instead of several times that for similar options. And of course you’ll get the fun of building it. And it’s open.
That WRHML creation could be a great option for anyone adding real-time interfaces for Unity, including musical and audiovisual applications. And wow, does this ever beat fighting over the cool table at the cafeteria – Maxime writes:
I started programming when I was 13, thanks to my math teacher. Every Monday and Tuesday, my friends and I used to go to his classroom to learn and practice instead of having a meal at the cafeteria.
WRHML already looks useful, but if you want to build the headset, here you go:
How you can build your own VR headset for $100
You might even get parts for less. The basic ingredients: Arduino DUE, a display, an acceleromter/gyro, and a housing. Part of the cheapness is thanks to sourcing inexpensive displays from China directly (instead of buying a built product with its associated profit margin).
GitHub is your best source:
https://github.com/relativty/Relativ
Via T3n [German only]; h/t Martin Backes.