Recommend VR box for eyeglass wearer?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I wear eyeglasses (-2.75 and -3.50) and I understand that a lot of the VR boxes that take phones don't:

1. Have diopter adjustments.
2. Not wide enough for eyeglasses.

Anyone can recommend a specific VR box that I could use with eyeglasses or offers diopter adjustments?

I'm thinking that the Homido is a strong contender because it includes three sets of lenses for different visions. I'd personally prefer NOT to wear my eyeglasses because I think it would ruin the immersion effect (glasses would move my face further from the screen and decrease FOV).

http://www.homido.com/en

I know that the Homido gives no way to control the screen while the phone is in the holder, but I've got a PS4 DualShock controller that I might be able to use to control a mouse pointer or something on my Android S5?

 

[JeffMD]

Fuzzy, there is nothing that will allow you to not need your glasses. These things contain lenses to warp the visible area of the screen to a wider angle, they don't contain any other magnifiers to correct bad vision.

It looks great though. The lack of an internal screen tap button might make older and prototype apps not work on it, but I imagine most developed games and apps offer bluetooth controls of some sort.

I have the master system headset but it hates my rectangle glasses, I am considering cutting out the rubber shroud. -_- Only reason I havnt is I have yet to find something worth playing with more then once.

 

[TheStu]

I wear eyeglasses (-2.75 and -3.50) and I understand that a lot of the VR boxes that take phones don't:

1. Have diopter adjustments.
2. Not wide enough for eyeglasses.

Anyone can recommend a specific VR box that I could use with eyeglasses or offers diopter adjustments?

I'm thinking that the Homido is a strong contender because it includes three sets of lenses for different visions. I'd personally prefer NOT to wear my eyeglasses because I think it would ruin the immersion effect (glasses would move my face further from the screen and decrease FOV).

http://www.homido.com/en

I know that the Homido gives no way to control the screen while the phone is in the holder, but I've got a PS4 DualShock controller that I might be able to use to control a mouse pointer or something on my Android S5?

First company to let you send in your prescription and get custom lens inserts back wins the prize. That's (one of the 3 things) I'm waiting for before I jump into VR.

 

[Oyeve]

First company to let you send in your prescription and get custom lens inserts back wins the prize. That's (one of the 3 things) I'm waiting for before I jump into VR.

I would love this as I have an astigmatism in my upper right eye but for the most part my gear vr works well for correcting my vision without glasses.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

So no one thinks the three separate lenses for near, far, and normal vision provided by the Homido system will work?

Also, how crappy is the distortion on these things? Even $50 IMO is too much to spend for something if it makes the image all distorted and curved.

 

[Midwayman]

Bobo VR z4. I can get it in focus with -5.25. Claims up to -8, but Its about on the limit at my prescription.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHbOp7l11So

There are a couple variations of it, but its the hottest viewer on /r/googlecardboard right now.

 

[JeffMD]

A viewer that cannot support glasses at all is not what I would consider "hot"

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Bobo VR z4. I can get it in focus with -5.25. Claims up to -8, but Its about on the limit at my prescription.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHbOp7l11So

There are a couple variations of it, but its the hottest viewer on /r/googlecardboard right now.

When it focuses, it focuses each eye at the same time, right? Meaning there is no independent focus if one eye is stronger than the other?

Also, can you use it with your own earbuds? Mine are going to be much better than whatever headphones they have.

 

[Midwayman]

A viewer that cannot support glasses at all is not what I would consider "hot"

Meh. Its has enough range to cover most people. Good lenses and features for like $32 shipped.

When it focuses, it focuses each eye at the same time, right? Meaning there is no independent focus if one eye is stronger than the other?

Also, can you use it with your own earbuds? Mine are going to be much better than whatever headphones they have.

Yes. You'll have to make a compromise there. I haven't seen many that offer independent focus as they just move the screen rather than focus at the lens. There is a version of it without the headphones- Virtoba X5 Elite. Or you can just sneak them under the built in phones and not plug them in. FWIW its nice to be able to put everything on as a unit when you're taking it on and off to fiddle with software.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleCardboard/ if you want to get a lot more detailed opinions than you'll get here.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I had the chance to check out a Samsung Gear VR with an S6. Damn, I wasn't impressed at all. I mean, it was *neat*, but that's as much as I'll go.

- Turning my eyes to look at images at the edge of the lenses, I found that they were blurry. I had to turn my entire head to look directly at them for them to be sharpish, which removes a lot of the immersion effect for me - you can't just keep your head in one place and look around by rolling your eyes.

- The black circular edges of the lenses were SO painfully obvious to me and ruined the immersion.

- So the black edges narrow the FOV, but the blurriness of images around the edges further decrease the *effective FOV*, meaning the FOV where you can actually see good detail. I'm a photographer and if I had a camera lens that stated it had a FOV of 95 degrees, but the actual FOV where there was good detail is 50 degrees, it's effectively a 50 degree FOV lens. The other 45 degrees isn't usable.

- Despite having a 2K screen, seeing the pixels was also extremely easy. I reckon that a 4K screen on a phablet-sized device with glass, optically-correct lenses, and independent diopter + PD adjustment is probably going to be a minimum if you want decent video resolution and an immersive feel, am I right?

- I always complain that the image quality of a movie in a movie theatre is actually quite blurry. It's certainly not at the level of crispness that you're used to on a good LCD TV or large screen monitor. The Gear VR and S6 was actually worse than the video quality in a theatre.

In summary, I think we still have a way's to go before VR gets really satisfying. However, I think that it should be a relatively short time for 4K LCDs to come out with proper headsets, so spending money now on VR gear might be an impatient impulse?

 

[Midwayman]

FWIW even the real VR HMD have resolution issues. We're just not there for 'sharp' looking VR displays yet. The deal is the immersion, not the resolution.