Looking to dive into the exciting world of virtual reality gaming without breaking the bank on a dedicated VR headset?
Look no further! We’ve got you covered on how to use your phone as a VR headset for PC. With this method, you can transform your smartphone into a portal to immersive virtual experiences.
We have tested and explored the possibilities of using your phone in conjunction with your PC to unlock the world of VR gaming. Get ready to step into a whole new dimension of gaming right from the comfort of your home.
Let’s get started!
Our Choice for the Best Virtual Reality Solution in June 2023
Our expert team tested a variety of VR solutions to find the one that provides the best value. After detailed comparisons and a month of testing, we picked this product as your best choice.
Important: You might want to check to see if the product’s available since it’s extremely popular and often gets sold out. If you check at the right time, you might even find a limited-time discount.
How to Use Your Phone as a VR Headset for PC?
With Google Cardboard you can use your phone as a VR headset for PC.
How To Get PC VR Streaming To A Phone?
Google Cardboard is inexpensive, but it has limitations due to the capabilities of the smartphone used.
Fortunately, there’s an app for that! You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on expensive equipment to stream your computer screen to a smartphone.
Requirements
Computer
If you want to play VR games, you’ll still need a powerful PC with an NVIDIA graphics card, but since this is just a cheap guide, it shouldn’t be too hard to test it out with your current setup.
There are several small benefits to using an Android phone instead of a Windows PC for VR gaming. For example, Android phones typically run at 60 FPS, whereas PCs often render at 90 FPS. If you can avoid rendering the extra frames, then do so.
Phone
If you’re going to use Google Cast, you’ll need a modern Android smartphone with an HD display, gyroscope, Android 5.0 or later, and USB tether capability. To get the most out of Google Cast, you’ll want to stream from a device that supports a USB tether.
Since Apple doesn’t support Google Cardboard, you’ll need to use an Android phone instead.
Visor
To enjoy a good PC VR experience, you’ll need to avoid using official Google Cardboard visor headsets.
Remember that smaller smartphones will fit inside the visors’ 102-degree field of view (FOV), but larger ones will be able to show more details.
If you want to buy the Fiit VR headset for around $25, you can find them on Amazon. However, if you look around, you may be able to get one for less than $25.
Set-up
USB Tethering
To turn on a USB tether for an Android device, go to its Settings menu and select “USB debugging.” Then plug the phone into your computer and turn on the switch.
You don’t have to turn on your cellular network for streaming apps to be able to access your phone.
If you don’t have unlimited cellular service, you may run into issues using Netflix on mobile devices. However, there are ways to get around these limitations.
VRidge
If you’re looking for an easy way to get into VR gaming, then check out VRidge. It’s a free app that lets you play SteamVR apps on your phone while tracking your head movements.
- It’s built into RiftCat, the developer’s platform for VR experiences.
- To start using VRidge, sign up for an Oculus Rift Cat account and install the client application.
- After downloading the VRidge app on Android, go to Google Play.
- If you boot up the VRidge app on your phone, it should look for the desktop version.
- Then, launch RiftCat on your computer and log into VRidge.
- Next, VRidge will ask you if you want to connect to your phone via Wi‑Fi or Ethernet. If you’re connected via Wi‑Fi, this option should appear as an ethernet cable over USB.
- To connect to your computer from your mobile device, select “Wi-Fi” at the Windows 10 client prompt. Your phone should then connect automatically if they’re both connected to the same wireless network.
After connecting to the stream, click the button at the top right corner of the VRidge window to adjust your streaming settings. You can change the bitrate, streaming resolution (width/height), and frame rate.
If your computer has a GeForce GPU, enable NVENC. While there’s an NVIDIA NVENC equivalent for Radeon graphics cards, the VRidge team isn’t currently developing one.
RiftCat Store
The RiftCat store within the Oculus Home Client allows developers to test their apps without having to publish them first. These are all self‑publishing apps built on old versions of Oculus SDK, specifically v0.8 and earlier.
If you can’t get into the game through the RiftCat store, you can use the Play VR Game from the HDD button to play any old Oculus application.
Oculus Exclusive
Unfortunately, VRidge does not support newer Oculus-exclusive apps because of Oculus’ legal restrictions against emulation, which were set up for newer versions of their software.
Steam VR
You’ll be able to play most new VR games using Steam VR. However, there may be some issues with VRidge at first.
- To begin, first, install the SteamVR software on Steam, then shut down Steam.
- Then, connect your phone to VRidge.
- Once you’ve got SteamVR running, click the button at the bottom right of the SteamVR application window to start using it.
- Clicking “Register VRidge Drivers” opens a new dialog box where you need to point the file locator at vrpathregexe.exe.
- If you start SteamVR now, it should detect the HTC Vive as a viable device. You’ll be prompted through a setup and offered a VR tutorial if needed.
- After that, you’ll have access to Steam’s entire VR library, but you’ll be restricted to games that don’t need motion controllers or positional tracking.
Trinus VR
If you’re using Oculus Rift, then you might want to check out Trinus VR instead of VRidge. It costs just $10 and works for most things.
- If you want to start using Trinus, download the free trial Trinus VR app on Google Play and the Trinus VR server from the Trinus site.
- When you’ve got both applications installed, open up the Android app and tap the triangle icon. Then open up the Windows version of the app and tap the triangle button.
If you’ve connected your phone to your computer, your phone should start displaying whatever applications you have open on your computer.
How to Use Your Phone as a VR Headset for PC?
Fake3D Function
It takes more time to get VRidge working properly than it does for Trinus.
If you enable this feature, when Trinus streams to your device, it will duplicate what you’re viewing so it can be seen inside your visor. Turning this off will prevent unnecessary duplication.
Lens Correction
After that, you’ll need to choose which lenses you’d like to correct. If you’re using the FiIt VR, select Cardboard; otherwise, select Google Cardboard.
If you want to resize the image so that it fits your phone screen, click the Adjust icon at the bottom right corner of the window.
Video Mode
Fast Mode
After checking the resolution, go back to the menu and select “Fast” for the best performance. You may need to adjust the compression and/or image size depending on your internet speed.
Moonlight
If the application needs to be in full-page mode, then the efficient Moonlight option will require you to install Moonlight on your Android device and connect to the PC’s IP manually.
When using the Moonlight plugin for Trinus, its lens correction feature won’t be active unless you’re running the application in a windowed (fullscreen) view.
Tracking Settings
Finally, check your tracking settings. The mouse is the default; when you turn your head, the computer’s mouse will correspondingly follow. This is useful for non-native VR apps, where mouse movements will usually cause the camera to pan.
Conclusion
VRidge is a great tool for getting started with VR gaming on your phone. It’s also a great way to try out other VR apps before buying them.
But, if you’re looking for something that’s ready to go, Trinus is probably the better choice. It’s much easier to set up and requires no additional hardware.
If you have any questions feel free to comment down below.
