this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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DIY YouTuber builds cheap VR headset and makes it open-source (www.notebookcheck.net)
submitted 4 days ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 101 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (10 children)

It's always cool to see such projects, and I was discussing about the topic just yesterday.

... but please, don't spend $150 on that. This is limited has it has :

  • no controllers (and gamepads aren't spatial),
  • no hand tracking (which would be spatial),
  • no 6DoF, so you can't move your head or body around, just turn your head around
  • a very limited software stack, e.g. no OpenXR (AFAICT),
  • a cable to be plugged to a computer, i.e. it's not standalone

so it's basically a more open but not standalone version of the Oculus Go. For context the Go is from 2018 and back then was $200 while being standalone. Note also that the Go is rootable, cf https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/unlocking-oculus-go/

There are also other DIY VR HMDs, e.g. https://github.com/relativty/Relativty from 2020 which similar limitations. In fact this made so much buzz back then the founder managed to ride the hype and make (sadly) a VC funded startup. I say sadly because the initial project was all open VR and openness but once the money was locked-in... well I let you check.

So... again this is VERY cool to build but please do not consider this anything but a way to learn. If you do want to play with VR with a limited budget consider instead an accountless (meaning no Meta involved) second hand Meta 2 then Alvr or WiVRn (cf https://lvra.gitlab.io/ for more).

[–] Sektor@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Still good enough for driving and flying sims.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think it's good enough for learning and doing something weird but Meta Quest 1 or 2 cost less (just checked 2nd hand local website and saw a few for 100€) and require 0 hardware work while providing 6DoF (leaning just a tad in your cockpit? Huge difference) and higher refresh rate.

Again, it's amazing to tinker but unless it's part of a both technical and ethical adventure then I believe there are better options out there already.

[–] Sektor@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those who want to use vr will buy, sometimes it's not about destination but about the journey. And this can inspire someone to further improve on design and maybe makes it even more user friendly, cheap and with no strings to shitty corpos.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Sure, that's literally how I started both comments but I can try to clarify a bit more my point : if you want to "just" use, this isn't great, but if you enjoy building itself, it might be even better.

FWIW I do both, including professionally, so I definitely get the point of making a headset, or anything really (I even do a bit of woodworking and welding) yourself or building thanks to the previous projects of others. I'm definitely NOT suggesting it shouldn't be attempted. I'm solely warning people who are solely, or even mostly, interested in a usable object while investing minimum effort in.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago (2 children)

But can I watch porn

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 30 points 4 days ago (3 children)

If you go down that path check https://buttplug.io/ because the fun does not have to stop with just vision!

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

you know when you don't click the link but its so well named that you probably already know exactly what it is and what features it has?

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Believe me it's even more than you imagine!

[–] Damage@feddit.it 6 points 3 days ago

This is hilarious

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 6 points 3 days ago

You can do that with a phone in a cardboard box

[–] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The lack of controllers is the biggest impediment to these "Homemade VR" projects.
You might as well slap your phone in a Cardboard VR and use ALVR, and you'll be surprised at how convincing it is, but you'll quickly find there aren't many VR games worth playing with the standard gamepad.

[–] tomkatt@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Basic headset would be good for sim racing.

[–] MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Might as well just chuck a phone in a cardboard box

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Have tried, works better than expected IMO.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

PS: for those who remember back then Relativty it became Unai then https://unison.co/ which according to LinkedIn (so take it via a grain of salt) went from 30 employees a year ago to half of that now and maybe more importantly hasn't delivered anything I'm aware of. In itself that's no big deal, startups do that, but it's definitely quite far from the initial openness debut.

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

The reason this reminds you of Relativity is because that's what it is with modifications.

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[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 58 points 3 days ago

Credit where credit is due: https://github.com/relativty/Relativty

He basically built (and advanced) Relativity's open source headset.

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

While this is awesome and the tinkerer in me appreciates and respects the effort, a Quest Go/1/2/3 is significantly better than this with far more functionality and would be able to be purchased for the same price, or less, and with zero work or skill required to put together.

[–] Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because you pay with data. Quest is the first device, where meta has full control over the Operation System, and even beyond.

You are forced to have a meta account to use it, IRCC

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You did but not anymore :

  • Go can be rooted officially
  • Quest 1/2/3/3s can be used without account thanks to PrivateQuest
  • Quest 3 v78 (not newer OS version) can be rooted via a hack

So yes, by default you are paying with data. In fact IMHO if possible one should not rely on Meta hardware. That being said if you get e.g. a 2nd hand Quest 2 or 3 and use it without an account then you might be providing little to no money to Meta and no data. It's not trivial but it's feasible. Arguably it's even easy for somebody who seriously consider such an endeavor of assembling their own HMD.

PS: Meta has access to the whole device but... they are not owning the OS itself, it's still an Android device. The OS is very much driven by Google. In fact it's quite interesting to consider that Meta failed to develop their own OS and that Google is shipping soon AndroidXR.

[–] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

Ah, so you make up the difference with your labor

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[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 5 points 3 days ago

But mom, Meta

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 53 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

I am wondering about the software side. Is it just a glorified monitor for your face, or does it have some kind of internal control/OS like a Quest or other commercial headset?

[–] rollin@piefed.social 51 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It seems to only have an Arduino as processor, so presumably the former i.e. you need a PC to plug this into. It seems to have highly simplified tracking compared to something like a Quest - a single Inertial Measurement Unit. All enough for sim racing which is this guy's jam, but I wonder how well the tracking stays calibrated.

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 42 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

The critical thing with these is response time. If it's even slightly too high (I think 20-30ms is easily too high), some/many people get very motion sick. Getting that time down as low as needed is also not trivial.

With it only being 60 Hz on the controller itself, that's basically impossible to hit. That's 16.6 ms already. Then the processing, sending to the PC, and the PC reacting has a budget of just a few ms? Yea, not happening.

I'm assuming he's really not sensitive to this. As it's open source now the people who are sensitive can improve it. That's the beauty of open source after all.

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I bet I could use it. I can play the VirtualBoy in a moving car. If there's any kind of way to tie it into MechWarrior, I want to build one.

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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 19 points 4 days ago

Looks like it has an inertial sensor to control the view, here's there relevant bit from the article:

The parts he purchased online include two displays that max out at 2880×1440p and 90 Hz refresh rate, two lenses, an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensor, and an Arduino microcontroller board. The other parts of the headset were 3D-printed.
...
The headset features individually adjustable IPD, interchangeable faceplates, and head tracking. But it does have downsides — at full resolution, it only runs at 60 Hz. Also, it only has three degrees of freedom (3DoF), which means it tracks looking up and down, left and right, and tilting the head left and right. He explained he didn't bother equipping it with 6DoF as 3DoF was enough for his sim racing.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

It relies on the Relativity VR driver so theoretically similar software support, namely https://github.com/relativty/Relativty#14-software-setup but mind you beside being 5 years old this is 3DoF, no controller or hand tracking, whereas the Quest is 6DoF, namely you can move around, not just turn your head.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh FFS stop designing things I can and want to build

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago

If only I had a room to dedicate to it :(

[–] BD89@lemmy.sdf.org 36 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This is so damn cool I want to throw one together just to tinker with it.

This has been the best year for VR as a whole.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

This has been the best year for VR as a whole.

am a fan and vr dev... but this hasn't been the greatest year personally. what's made it a highlight for you? perhaps another perspective will help me!

[–] vividspecter@aussie.zone 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Linux support has made some decent strides, particularly with the open source monado / wivrn + xrizer stack (steamvr / alvr still have their issues but are getting better).

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm quite curious to see how quest 3 works with godot & openxr, apparently they have a build you can run on android inside the quest 3 and do vr-dev in vr.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Indeed, I made a video about that but unfortunately in French https://video.benetou.fr/w/g111LSRGfj6HmNxa91au3q

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[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Well, for one, some YouTubers made a cheap, open source VR headset. That was pretty neat.

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[–] BD89@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

As another user said Linux compatibility has been huge the past couple of years.

And PSVR2 has had some amazing games out that have completely changed the way I experience VR. And they also opened up their headset to PC via steam with an external dongle.

Mainly the accessibility has been at an all time high. But the games that have come out lately too are amazing. I can even do cross play multiplayer with many different headsets now which is also super cool.

[–] verdi@feddit.org 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

TFW you've been playing IL Sturmowik II for past 20y with track IR and subsequently opentrack , and not even Oculus has achieved a similar low latency functional solution yet...

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

SteamVR/Lighthouse tracking is pretty fast and accurate.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Absolutely, best tracking system out there... but also you need to bolt stuff on the wall. Inside-out tracking meanwhile... well you just open up your backpack, put the HMD on and voila. Different trade offs for different usages.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I just set them on shelves, but yeah, it requires a bit of setup and a delimited play area.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I'd expect this to be similar latency and accuracy. Lighthouse can do full 6dof tracking at a room scale too, not just sitting head tracking for a seated position like it seems opentrack does

[–] Sektor@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

That's Ill 2 Sturmovik.

[–] Yttra@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I wonder how this compares to Mañolo's HadesVR/PersephoneVR setup... I think they have 6DoF and use lights embedded in golf balls to act as PS Move sensors

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's more or less two little screens behind fresnel lenses attached to an IMU. It's really cool, but no golf balls or anything like that. He seems to only use it for a racing rig.

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Overall is that even a deal over a used headset? Even a fully featured non-stripped down one? Like given what features his headset does have, it's comparable to some pretty old headsets... and it likely does even those bare minimum features more poorly than an older used headset would. Not to mention comfort.

Like a 10 year old Rift CV1 has almost as much resolution at 90hz/fps instead of 60. And while it's lenses would be relatively terrible now, they were pretty much the best option of their day, and likely still better than whatever this dude sourced. Not to mention their motion to photon was around 12 ms. The absolute best result this guy can hope for is 16.6ms, and that's only if everything else in the pipeline is faster than the screens refresh rate... maybe it is... but I wouldn't bet on it personally.

I'm sure it was a fun project though.

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